Chasing Giraffes and what not.

Last weekend we went on a safari in Murchison Falls National park on the western boarder of Uganda.

The Safari started out by waking up at 5:30 AM to catch the ferry across the Nile just as the sun was rising over the bush.
Our team divided up into the separate van's and prepared to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.


Once we got into the park there were animals everywhere! Especially antelope and wildebeests. We snuck up on these elephants as we were winding our way through some pretty high bush.
My favorites were the Giraffes. At one point we ran into a huge herd of them. Actually we ran into lots of herds but this one was particularly special.
I asked our driver what giraffes would do if you got too close and he responded by asking me if I wanted to get out and feed them. Heck yes I did!! It sounded a little too cool to actually work but I was going to give it a shot. I wasn't worried until our guide grabbed his rifle as we jumped out of the car. I grabbed a bush and slowly started walking towards the herd. They didn't actually let us feed them but we did get within about 15 yards. It was pretty awesome!!
P.S. Here is a random fact for you. Did you know that Giraffe's markings get darker the older they get? There was one in this herd that was practically a charcoal color.
After wandering around in the bush all morning and seeing hundreds of animals we finally headed back to camp to get ready for our trip up the Nile. Even our camp was surrounded by wildlife though. There were these warthogs just lounging around all over the place. They seemed domestic enough but a few volunteers experienced just how wild they could be when they attempted to get too close. We were also warned to watch out for the hippos who liked to come up to our camp at night to graze. CRAZINESS!
Speaking of Hippos-- we saw lots of them as we rode a boat up the Nile. At one point we got too close to a male trying to protect his herd and he almost charged our boat. I wish I had pictures of it. It was so cool!
We saw lots of Nile crocodile too.
And even more elephants.
Then we came around a bend and there were the falls. Can I just say beautiful?
The ride back to the camp was nice and relaxing after a crazy day in the bush and the jungle.
The next day we went and visited a Rhino sanctuary. Rhinos went extinct in Uganda back in the 1980's because of poaching. The sanctuary we visited was the first one to reintroduce the rhino's to Uganda. Now there are 9 of them including a little baby named Obama because his dad is Kenyan and his mom is American. People here LOVE Obama!
We also saw lots of Baboons everywhere we went. They were so cute!!

So that was pretty much our Safari. Pretty much it was one of the coolest things I've ever done! (I know I say that a lot but that's because life just keeps on getting better :)

A Child's Prayer

We went to Rose and Paul's orphanage again yesterday. It was the first time we have been able to make it back since our first couple of weeks here in Uganda. The children were just as excited as ever to see us and were eager to show us all that they have done since we last saw them. Like last time they sang and danced for us even adding a few new songs to the mix.


The children singing and dancing for us.

Then it was our turn, since children here love gospel music and singing about Jesus we thought it would be appropriate to sing them some primary songs, namely I Am a Child of God, and A Child's Prayer. As we stood there singing to them I was very touched as I thought of the love that Heavenly Father has for his children and how he is just as aware of these children as he is of children anywhere else in the world. I am constantly touched by the faith of these children whose lives have been torn apart by poverty and AIDS. Each of them has their own story to tell and yet they are constantly smiling and ever so pleased just to be able to associate with a mzungo (white person). It makes me so uncomfortable the way they treat us as royalty when we have done nothing to deserve it. It is they who deserve the praise and special treatment. They are the ones who have overcome so much.


Children with the dental kits we handed out after showing them
how to properly care for their teeth.

Our team has been thinking for some time now what we could do to help the St Paul and Rose orphanage so that they might better be able to take care of the 27 orphans currently in their care and maybe even be able to take in more orphans. They have acres of crops that the children themselves are responsible for nurturing and harvesting. Unfortunately they are so far removed from any sort of economic center that there really is no market for their goods. What they are able to manage to sell doesn't even begin to cover the costs of the children's school fees which can cost as much as $50 USD per semester per child ($1350 per semester for all of them).

We have been so drawn to this particular orphanage because Paul has truly taken it upon himself to make these orphans into successful members of society. Beyond sending as many of the children as possible to school (7 have had to stay home this semester because as much as he tried Paul just couldn't pull the school fees together) Paul provides them with practical skills that will be abundantly useful in the future.

One problem that many of the rising generation face in Uganda is a lack of practical skills. They all want to grow up and have white collar jobs working in an office in front of a computer. Unfortunately this isn't feasible, there just aren't enough jobs. The result is people like our taxi driver who has a doctorate but can't find a job. Turns out education doesn't solve everything unless you have a practical way to apply it.

Agriculture is something that they will never get enough of in Uganda though. Unfortunately most adolescents consider such skills below themselves. Not Paul's children though, they have been trained in the latest practices and have the opportunity to apply them on a daily basis. Team this with some basic business skills and discipline (all of which are also provided at the orphanage) and the odds are definitely in these children's favor.


Our team with the children. The foreground is filled with
the potato plants that they have planted.

Beyond the skills that these children learn from a young age they are also provided with an abundance of love and nurturing. It is for these reasons that our team has been trying to help this particular orphanage.

Paul has asked us to help him build a chicken coup so that he can sell the eggs to the endless market found in his area. "I don't want money for school fees" he explained to us, "I want a way so I can EARN the school fees." Paul understands the fact the sponsers dissapear and cannot be counted on in the long run. If he finds someone to pay his children's school fees this semester there is no guarantee that he will be able to find someone to pay them the next semester. He would much rather have an income generating project that would next to guarantee that all of his children would be able to attend school. Consequently his orphans would also be learning how to care for and rear the chickens which is another valuable practical skill.

Beyond his goal to be able to pay all his children's school fees Paul and Rose would also like to be able to expand their orphanage so that he can provide a home for more children. "We have children show up on our doorstep every week asking for a place to live and the best we can do is give them some food before turning them away." Paul and Rose want so badly to be able to help these children but there just aren't enough resources to go around.

Unfortunately as we ran through Paul's numbers for the chicken coup project we realized that such a project is financially out of the reach of our teams funds for this summer. It broke our hearts to have to tell him this as he looked to us with such hope for his children's future in his eyes. "What if we were to cut the project in half?" he asked. "We could start smaller and then with time we could reinvest the profits into the project and it would grow." Our hearts were torn, even still it would require a substantial amount of money. It's such a worthy project though we couldn't just not try. So we told Paul and Mary we would do everything in our power to help them out. I guess that's why I'm writing this blog; hoping that someone who reads this might be able to feel for these children what I feel every time I look into their hopeful faces and like me have the desire to make a difference in their lives.

I know I've been doing lots of fundraising projects these last few months and I am so grateful for the generosity that many of you have already shown. I promise that the funds donated thus far have made a difference in the lives of many people. It is with humility that I ask one more time for a helping hand. The total project cost is about $1500 not an impossible amount if we were all willing to work together. If you are at all interested in donating to this cause feel free to email me (sunny5049@gmail.com) and I will provide you with further information.

The good stuff

I realize I am ashamidly guilty of talking more about the adventures I have had here in Africa rather than talking about the real reason I am here...to help the people. And the truth is that helping the people has by far been the greatest adventure of all.

I love the people here in Uganda. I have never met a friendlier more humble bunch. I am always amazed at their gratitude for us being here. I try to think of how it would be to have some foreigners come to our home and tell us that they are going to try and help us fix our problems -- I don't think it would go over so well.

Helping them fix their problems isn't as easy as it sounds though. Volunteering at BYU's Center for Economic Self Reliance for the past year I thought I had gained a relatively good grasp on development work and what idea's seem to be working and which ones don't. Since I've been here in Africa I feel like I have unlearned all of it though. That's not true, I still think I have learned a lot it's just hard to apply what I have learned in a practical way within a three month time frame. There is just so much that goes into it and so much of it just depends on the people we are working with.

I think that is one of the hardest things; I want to leave here feeling like I have made a sustainable difference in these people's lives but if anything I work on becomes sustainable it is going to be because the people here choose to make it so. Some of the people here have a very good grasp on that; they know that if Africa is going to change it needs to be because of them. Others though, they want us to come in and save them without doing any of the work themselves.

Take this mushroom house I was visiting the other day for example -- This mushroom house was built last year by the HELP International team but unfortunately because of the rough weather the plastic on the top tore letting water into the growing area. Instead of fixing the mushroom house themselves they waited for us to come back and do it for them. I can't help but think what if we didn't come back? Why aren't they creating a fund from their profits that would go just towards repairs? It's hard because the group that the mushroom house was built for is and AIDS clinic that has been a huge benefit to the community so of course we want to help them but if they aren't building on top of what we have already given them then we aren't doing anyone any good.

That is one reason I am so excited to be working with my friend Paul and the Buikwe Village Care (www.buikwevillagecare.org). Paul started Buikwe village care a couple years ago with the intent to use local people and local resources to fix local problems. Perhaps his biggest undertaking has been the support of a school for orphans and children whose parent's can't afford to send them to school. Each of the teachers at the school are volunteers from the local community who only get paid on the rare occasion that the school comes across some money. On top of the school Paul also works with seven different villages who meet on a weekly basis to discuss problems in their communities and how they can can fix them.

We have spent the last week building a mushroom house for one the villages that Paul works with. We have spent almost the whole summer getting ready for this project, from training the village members how to take care of the mushroom house to teaching them general business skills including booking keeping and budgeting.

We chose to build them a mushroom house because mushroom's have become a very profitable business as of late here in eastern Africa, a market that has hardly been tapped here in Uganda. He have come in contact with several buyers in the capital of Kampala (about and hour and a half away depending on traffic) that have told us they simply can't get enough mushrooms.

Mushroom houses can provide the owner with an average of about 30 dollars a day of income, about 30 times the average income. Since our mushroom houses will be divided among groups of 15 the income will not be quite so high but collectively it will make a huge difference.

Lubanyi, the village we are working with, has agreed that 15% of their net income will be donated to building the next 6 mushroom houses in the other villages that Paul work's with. Each of the subsequent villages have agreed to these terms as well. Once each of the villages have received their own mushroom houses they will all be required to donate 10% of their income to BVC for the creation of additional sustainable income generating projects.

Working on the mushroom house with the villagers of Lubanyi was an awesome experience. Let's be honest, they did most the work which I think is how it should be. That way they own the project and really take care of it. The construction took a total of 3 days and now all we have to do is plant the mushrooms which is on the calendar for tomorrow.

Unloading the supplies to build our mushroom house

We had to chop wood with a machete

The first day we finished the frame.

The second day we had to take a break while we were waiting for one of our partners to get there. The women made us banana leaf skirts and taught us to dance.
You have to cover the inside with plastic so that it stays dark and humid
Then you cover the outside and roof with papyrus mats.
And there you have it. A mushroom house that has the potential to
start the path to overcoming poverty.

Near Death Experiences

Most of you know that I thrive on adventure. The scarier the better in my book. I'm always looking for new thrills and ways to push the limits. I know, that probably makes me sound pretty stupid but I have fun with it. I do have one fear though...Water! Crazy I know considering I can never get enough of the ocean and swimming is my favorite sport. Maybe it's because every time I've almost died doing something stupid it has always involved water. Like the time my dad though it would be a good idea to take us to the wedge off of balboa peninsula to go swimming. A huge wave crashed right on top of me and then I kept on getting sucked out to sea until another one would crash on me. I felt like I was stuck inside a washing machine. Finally my brother Larry dove in a dragged me out.

Then, when I was about 12 Larry thought it would be a good idea to take me with his friends to tube Big Cottonwood Creek at the peak of spring run off. There was this rope strung across the creek that we were supposed to grab onto to pull ourselves out. Well, I got the rope but then my tube slipped out from underneath me and the rope was caught across my neck. It took everything I had just to hang on and not strangle myself until once again Larry jumped in and pulled me out.

So water has always had my respect; I still push the limits but it just freaks me out more than anything. Last weekend I decided it was time for me to conquer my fears; everyone in our group decided to go raft the Nile and there was no way I was going to miss out on an opportunity like that. I played it cool and pretended like it didn't bother me but inside I was secretly sick.

The section of the Nile that we were rafting is supposed to be some of the best white water rafting in the world. Most of the rapids we went over were class five which is basically the highest you can do on a raft. There are technically class six rapids but those are more for kayaking.

As we got on the river our guides explained to us how to paddle through the rapids and how to stay in the raft. Just in case that was too much to ask they also showed us what to do if we were thrown out of the raft or if it tipped. I thought I had it down but then we hit our first rapid and I went flying. I managed to stay in the raft but some how me and the guy next to me got all tangled up in each other. I think I hurt his knee pretty bad while I ended up with a huge goose egg on my shin. It freakin hurt!! Still, it was like the coolest thing ever!!

After that I learned how to better handle the rapids and our raft made it through all of them without losing a single passenger (which is actually quite an accomplishment, one that no one else in our group accomplished).
Then we came to an end... a spot that the locals call "the bad place." We asked our guide how bad it really was and he said he had never actually made it through it without the whole raft tipping. "How many times have you been through it?" we asked. "Twice," was his response. Needless to say we weren't a whole lot comforted. He asked us if we would feel better if we changed it's name to fluffy bunny, the water was all white and fluffy after all. Once again, we weren't comforted.

Our team had been following behind the other rafts the whole day so we always had the chance to watch everyone else hit the rapids before us. When we saw all the other teams go through "the bad place" we decided it really didn't look that bad after all. "We so got this!" we told ourselves. Yeah, they all tipped, but they all came up eventually.


Finally it was our turn to go for it, I asked my team members one last time if any of them wanted to take front. I had been sitting in the front all day and quite honestly I was a little bit weary of it. No one stepped up though so I decided just to go for it. We paddled with everything we had until he heard our guide yell "Down, down, down" we all ducked just as a huge wave overcame us. There was no hope of hanging on, bodies and paddles were flying all over the place as the raft tipped and crashed upon us. I'm kinda scared of being under water with my eyes closed so I opened them. I was being sucked down and all I could see was the raft on top of me getting flipped over and over again. At first I saw other bodies but then it was just me, I couldn't breath and I couldn't make it to the surface. I could see it but I just couldn't kick myself free. "This isn't very fun" I remember thinking to myself. Finally the current spit me out and I was able to get one small gasp in before getting swept into another rapid. I got pushed down again and with every second I was getting more and more panicked. Finally I was able to swim underwater to the side where the current wasn't so strong. I came up gasping for air and freaking out because I couldn't see anyone from my team. Finally I saw Ally, she had gotten swept under like me. Everyone else was about 30 yards down stream, apparently instead of getting sucked under they all just got swept down. It took me a while but finally I was able to reach the safety raft and pull myself out of the water.

All in all it was hands down that was the freakiest thing I have ever done in my life. It didn't do a whole lot to help me conquer my fear either. At the same time though it was probably one of the coolest things I have ever done!! I would totally do it again in a heartbeat. What can I say? I'm a glutten for punishment!

So this weekend some of the girls and I went to this place called Sipi Falls. It was this cute little village in the mountains that is surrounded by various waterfalls. These are some pics from the weekend. I would have to say it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! It was pretty amazing!!

These are the grass huts we stayed in over the
weekend. They were pretty legit. They didn't have
electricity either which I'm not going to lie kinda
freaked me out at night. I had these images of
ravenous monkeys attacking us as we walked
to our rooms.


Alex and I were roommates for the weekend. This
was our hut :)

We rappelled down this 300 foot waterfall.
I haven't rappelled down anything near
that high before. One of the girls in our
group didn't want to rappel so she took
pictures of us across the way from the lookout
spot. I promise if you zoom in on this picture you
really can tell that that little speck is me :)

I took this picture while I was rappelling.
The girls in my group made me go first because
I was the only one not freaking out.
The scariest part though was when I got
over the ledge and looked down and
realized there was no one belaying me from
the bottom. Totally not what I expected to
see. The rope barely touched the ground too!
It was rather disconcerting!

We had to hike through all these small
villages to get to the waterfalls. The kids were so cute!!

Jumping behind the waterfall. This one is for
you Rick!!


This picture doesn't even do it justice!!

The second highest waterfall.


These are the monkeys I was afraid were
going to attack us while we were sleeping.
They were all over the place!

Martyrs Day

Yesterday was martyrs day, a national holiday here in Uganda. The holiday was made to commemorate 25 Christian pages who were martyred because they refused to renounce their faith. Christianity was a new faith in Uganda at the time and the King was threatened by it. He was worried that the Christians would revere their God more than they revered him and so he decided the religion needed to be eradicated all together. The young men who were martyred were forced to walk 18 miles with their ankles and necks in shackles until they arrived at the place where the king regularly performed executions. There they were beaten nearly to death over the course of a week. After all that they were rolled up and bound in dry leaves and papyrus and layed in a circle (kind of like the way you lay down logs when you are going to start a bon fire. They started them on fire from the feet up in hopes that the pain would cause them to renounce their faith before it killed them. Instead of rescinding their faith however; the young man laid there singing praises to their Lord until their last breath.



On Martyrs day (and in the weeks leading up to it) Christians walk from all over Uganda as well as Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda to Namugongo, the place where the martyrs where killed. Lucky for us the village is just a couple of hours drive from where we are staying. We all thought it would be really neat to travel with the pilgrims and see what the experience was all about. When we arrived at the site we were surrounded by millions and millions of people who had come to pay their respects. I'm not going to lie, it was kind of crazy but at the same time it was a very spiritual experience. They have two memorials set up for the dead. One is a huge church where the Catholics go and the other is where the men where actually burned and burried. That one is run by the protestant religions. Both groups believe that the men who were killed died for their specific religion.

It was very sobering to see what early Christians went through to establish their faith here in Uganda. Now it is the most popular religion in the country.

Amazing Stories

I've been sitting here for a while now thinking about what I should write about...I could write about the food: Mostly rice and beans, just like the mission. I could write about all the other things I have eaten by accident like cow intestines. I don't recommend that. I could write about the cultural differences like how Ugandan time is about 50 times worse than Mormon standard time. If a partner tells you they are almost there or they will meet you in 15 minutes you better plan on waiting around for another hour and a half ATLEAST!! I could even tell you how a couple of the girls and I crashed a wedding at the Catholic church on Sunday with 19 couples getting married...

I could write about all those things and it would give you a pretty good idea about what it's like here. None of that compares to the stories of the people here though. Specifically the women since those are the ones I work with most.

Last Thursday I went around to the houses of some of the women I am going to be working with in a women's group here (the one I mentioned earlier that makes jewelry to sell in the states). Most of their houses were small one room apartments smaller than my bedroom at college. They would have their whole families crammed into these tiny little spaces. All of the women have been abandoned by their husbands or simply don't live with them because they are polygamists and these woman have been rejected by the other wives.

Take Florence for example. Florence gave birth a week ago to her fourth child. She didn't want anymore children but for men having lots of children is a status symbol in the community so her boyfriend insisted. Florence's mother left her family when she was young and her father quickly remarried. Her step mom didn't like her much so she sent her to the city to live with her brother and to go to school. When she arrived in the city her sister in law wouldn't allow her to go to school though, instead she made her take care of the house and her nieces and nephews.

When she was 17 her step mom forced her to marry a man twice her age who already had 5 other wives. The other wives were much older than her and really didn't like her so Florence was often persecuted and rejected. When Florence was pregnant with her first child she ran away to live with her mother but because she was pregnant her mother made her return to her husband. 5 months after her first child was born she finally left her husband for good.

Florence eventually remarried, this time to a man she truly loved. She had two more children with him before he was tragically killed in a car accident. She spent years trying to support herself and her children, barely scraping by day by day. Eventually she had to send her children to live with their uncle because she simply couldn't take care of them. Her current boyfriend refuses to help support children that are not his. He is abusive and beats her on a regular basis.

Then there is Harriett. She's the first person I have actually met with full blown AIDS even though you can see the effects of it everywhere here. The day she found out she had AIDS was the day her husband died. That's who she got it from even though she never even knew he had it. Unfortunately she also passed it on to her two children. She always knew they had it but she couldn't bring herself to tell them until her daughter started dating some guy seriously. He left her when they found out she had it for sure.

Harriett has been rejected by everyone. Even her husbands family treats her as an outcast even though it was him that gave it to her. Because she has AIDS she is not able to work, no one will hire her. Without work she has not been able to take of herself in the ways that she should, especially considering her condition. Her only friends are those whom she works with at Musana. It's her first job she's been able to have since she found out about the terrible disease. Because of Musana she is finally able to rent her own place small as it may be.

We run into stories like this every day here. It seems like everyone has a tragic past that has had a profound impact on their lives. It truly makes your heart go out to the people and wish there were more that you could do to help. That is one of the frustrating things about being here, there is so much need and so little we can do. We are working hard though and have done some great things so far!