Africa Trip (May 2018)
May 18, 2018, Arua, Uganda
Well it’s 6 am. Deborah is sleeping. I started on this note to you all but the power went off. So Wi-Fi is dead. Then a generator started outside our room. Still no Wi-Fi but the generator is louder than the rooster who started his routine around 5 am. But we are in Africa, more specifically remote Africa. Arua Uganda.
Cafecc currently provides small loans to about 500 local applicants in this area and it’s a blessing for us to visitthem. Creeksider’s and others raised $30k for this group to help them grow. End Poverty, (endPoverty.org ) is the US based group that supports and connected us with Cafecc and our friend Paul Vinogradov is currently the chairman for that group.
After our 1 hour flight from Entebbe to Arua we spent yesterday afternoon with Cafecc staff and visited several of Cafecc’s clients. These were all 1 or 2 people making something that could be sold locally, pottery, baked goods and wooden furniture. Cafecc’s loan, usually around $150 or less with a 6 month term, allowed the borrower to purchase the raw materials they needed to produce the products they sold.
Some Africa Prospective:
An estimated 15% of Africa’s GDP is foreign aid. The top 1% of Africa are mainly missionaries and politicians. Africa has more poverty today than 3 years ago.
But these kids are a kick. They have fun together and sit with us studying us and whispering to each other. Today they enjoy life, it’s simple and seemingly enough for them. But when you consider 20 years from now where they will be it starts to become uncomfortable.
This continent is already stretched in so many ways. Politically, there is seldom an election for a public office where someone is not killed in the process. Human services and all utility services lag far behind serving the growing population. Clean running water is a rare luxury outside the large cities. Education, I see this 2 ways. Families struggle to pay school fees of around $200/year/kid for the younger kids and students who are lucky enough to graduate from college find themselves underemployed especially if they are not willing to move to a large city.
With that said the prevalence of Christianity is striking. Possibly the only benefit of the colonialism of the last 200 years has been the spread of Christianity. The faith community seems strong. God is at work and he knows, sees and feels the need. Here’s to faith, where would we be without it?
The power and the rooster have turned back on but still no Wi-Fi! I’m off to the office to get the password for the other Wi-Fi here.
May 21, 2018, Kigali, Rwanda
In the airport in Kigali, Rwanda for a 2 hr. layover in route to Lusaka, Zambia from Entebbe, Uganda. Our crew is holding up well.
We had a 9 hr. drive yesterday from Arua back to Entebbe. Passed 2 accidents that included fatalities. The day before we had a few locals stop our 2 vans and try and extort some $$. Nice to have good drivers/vehicles and people with local knowledge with us.
While we were in Arua we went from one amazing meeting to another. On Saturday afternoon Cafecc held a celebration lunch for us and about 30 of their clients. Many shared how the loans have impacted their lives. Now they can keep their kids in school all the way to university. Help others in need. Have funds available for life emergencies. Be a witness to their neighbors that hard work pays off.
There is an odd take on the “blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven”. There is an attitude that material success may prevent you from heaven. Groups like Cafecc have to teach through this.
Last night back in Entebbe over dinner we shared our impressions of Africa this far. This is a very complicated place. While Ugandans still have memories of Idi Amin and the lives lost to his brutal regime there is still an undeniable resilience that you can’t miss if you have opportunity to spend time with people at a personal level, get in their homes, see their work and enjoy a meal together. At dinner last night we agreed that the African people are simply amazing and a blessing to us.
In a few hours we’ll catch up with Mark Seymour, Mike Coakley and Isaac in Lusaka!! Looking forward to it.
May 23, 2018, 1 ½ hrs. North of Lusaka, Zambia
It’s Wednesday am in the Chimbombo district of Zambia. This is rural Africa and the differences are striking. Yesterday we had a sports day with 600 kids at a school, Shampande about 20 miles away. Most of those kids live without any utility services, in dirt floor huts and walk miles to get to school.
But they sing, dance and love sports. The first half hour of our visit was just welcome songs and dances with 9 Americans shooting video on their phones! The kids are very well disciplined and totally focused on us. All the students marched to the sports field.
For the sports event the first race was the women in our group against the women staff and next the men in a 100 meter sprint (not really). Then the kids began sprints, relays, soccer and a game only the girl’s play called net ball. This was 3 hrs. and during that time we helped out or just talked with kids. Then around 1 pm we served the kids lunch. Earlier the school staff had cooked up 2 goats, 20 chickens and about the same number of fish to be served along with cooked vegetables and fruit. Serving 600 kids one at a time takes time, like almost 2 hrs. Then we jumped back into our 3 land cruisers and headed to Shinkomba.
This is one of the 3 schools being built with the funds we raised last year. It was amazing, all working by hand they trenched for the foundation, mixed and poured enough concrete for the spread footing, set concrete blocks (2 1/2 feet deep) in for a 4000 sq. ft. foot print in just 2 weeks of work. The next steps are pouring the concrete floor and then the block walls begin.
Fountain of life employee Teddy serves as the construction manager overseeing this and 2 other jobs that all started this month now that the rains have stopped. Looking for completion before September .
After an extended period of introductions our ‘Pastor’ Isaac gave a prayer of dedication for the school. Standing on the foundation made it meaningful. http://fountainoflifeafrica.org/
On May 25, 2018, 1 ½ hrs. North of Lusaka, Zambia
Today (Friday) is our last day in Chimbombo. We’ll be relaxing. Yesterday we loaded up at 5 am, headed out for a 4 hr. drive and did not get back to Ibis (our lodging) until 10:30 pm.
Our first stop was a Mukunkwa, similar to Chowe that we visited by chance last year. Their need is acute. In both cases the schools are 3 plus miles from a public road, have about 500 to 600 kids who are or should be attending and there is no school building.
Unfortunately the head teacher had cancelled school that day so staff and students could attend the handover ceremony for Muuluka School. Fortunately some folks were around and we were able to talk with them about the need for a school building. Currently the 270 kids who attend Mukunkwa are taught in one grass roofed fenced wall structure that is divided into 4 class rooms. Nearby is an open area with small logs lined up to make 2 more classrooms. Pretty sad.
Near us was a standard bore hole (well) but the shaft had caved in and so it was abandon. The village dug an open well about 30 feet deep and had a plastic bucket with a rope. The water quality was substandard. Fountain of life has already arranged for a drill company to come in within the next few weeks to drill a new well complete with hand pump and surrounding concrete.
Next we headed to the school handover. Fountain of life builds a school and when completed it is given to the community. Muuluka is the school name and it is in the community of Chabembwa.
The day included a sports day, lunch and the handover ceremony. But it’s Africa. The sports day went long, the lunch was not ready and the Chief was late. In the end we did a sports day and the handover ceremony. An African ceremony is a unique blend of ancient customs and the influence of the colonialism of the past. The list of speakers was long ranging from 3 fountain of life people to national & local government officials and most importantly the Chief.
The Chief arrived with 3 vehicles maybe an hour late and the 600 people in attendance were all dancing and celebrating. A traditional drum and dance group lead him and his entourage into the gathering area. He took his throne (a chair) and the people began bowing to him. Some doing a strange roll on the ground. The Chief was a cool guy who embraces his position. At one point he walked around the dance/drum group taking a video of the crowd with his phone. Another time he walked around dancing and throwing money in the air. Mayhem ensued. Of the 10 speakers he was excellent and unlike the government officials he had no political overtones, if we had to have a Chief I’d pick one like him.
The ceremony went from 1:30 to well after 4 and from there we went to the school building for the ribbon cutting. It was delayed while we looked for a pair of scissors. And by 5 pm we loaded up headed to Chowe.
So we head out, 3 SUV’s on a deeply rutted dirt road. The first 2 vehicles missed the turn for Chowe so only 1 vehicle visited the site and I was in it.
Chowe was the community we visited last year and it was powerful. What a difference a year makes. Now there is a foundation for a 3 class room building that will be completed well before September.
A new well is going in with in the next few weeks, currently the closest well is almost 2 miles away. Imagine using your head or a bicycle to transport enough water for each day.
After a look at the old and forming new we left Chowe in the dark for a 4 plus hr. drive almost all of which is on very rough roads.
Back to our lodge at 10:30 for our first meal of the day!! A very long day. We slept well.
May 26, 2018, Between Lusaka and Livingston, Zambia
Today we are driving 6 African hours (translates to 9 hrs.) south to Livingstone / Victoria Falls. We’ll be tourists for our remaining 2 days in Zambia. Mark has some things scheduled so we’ll see wild life and of course the Victoria Falls.
So on the drive I’ll look at helping Africa....
On our flight from Frankfurt to Addis, Ethiopia we met a Lufthansa flight attendant. On her layover in Addis she was visiting and helping support an orphanage. Lufthansa has a cool system for the crew. When they book a schedule for work they can research relief opportunities for the locations they layover. All this through the Lufthansa portal. The flight attendant had just celebrated her 50th birthday and had asked well-wishers to give her money for the orphanage. It’s encouraging to see social responsibility supported at the corporate level.
We shared pictures and stories of causes that were important to us. Seeing pictures of orphaned babies in grocery carts because there are not enough cribs has impact on you.
We deplaned supplied with a bottle of dry German wine (delicious and not sweet like they usually are) saying good bye to our new friends.
Then a few days later when we flew to Arua, Uganda of the 15 passengers on our small plane easily 12 were involved in relief work, mostly Christian from the US.
On the ground In Arua I happen to meet a gentleman from the Netherlands at “terminal 1” as we lovingly called the only building next to the dirt landing strip. He was departing having been there setting up wireless networks in refugee camps north of Arua. The refugees had come into Uganda from Southern Sudan. As we talked I kept asking myself wireless networks for refugees? Surely they have more pressing needs than internet connectivity? My thoughts unanswered we left the airport headed to the Crane Guest House.
In Arua, a rural area, I was surprised at the number of support organizations. Additionally there was a constant presence of new spotless white United Nations land cruisers. Most of the relief groups had fully secured, walled compounds that seemed to separate them from their purpose. With my limited understanding, it seemed that the mobilization for the work they came to do could be more costly than the work they were there for.
Later talking with Cafecc staff it was clear that there is significant competition between aid organizations for staff, local resources and even at times people to help!
While in Arua we meet Evans, a consultant for End Poverty, he’s from South Africa. He is arguably the number one expert on African microenterprise. Super guy. We talked about aid in Africa and confirmed that outside organizations are not as effective as local aid groups. That government officials tend to benefit the most from foreign aid. And that a solution to correct all this is not obvious.
Then at our lodge in Chimbombo, Zambia we happen to meet a couple who 20 years ago were expelled from their family owned tobacco farm in Zimbabwe. With the passing of time they were not bitter but believed that someday thing would change and they could go back to the land they still held legal title to. Don and Annette were a kick to talk with and they and their kids have been active in Africa relief work for many years. In fact their daughter started an organization that set up an orphanage in Zimbabwe.
I asked them if I had $10000 to give in rural Zambia where should I put it for the most impact. We agreed that’s the question and there is no simple answer.
Food, Safety and Education are the critical needs. Understanding that if a community of people is lacking any of these needs leads healthy aid organizations to their task.
May 31, 2018, at 6:38 AM Ndalani, Kenya
Tuesday night, really 2 am on Wednesday, we arrived at Mully Childrens Family (MCF) about 2 hrs. north and east of Nairobi. https://mcfus.org/
We spent all day Wednesday looking at the property and meeting with kids. MCF can be shared in words but honestly you have to be here to really begin to see and feel what God is doing. If you want a taste go to amazon his book and movie (released last year) can be found by searching ‘Mully’.
We are at his largest family center with about 700 kids and Ndalani, today (it’s 5:45am) we’ll go to Yetta about a half hour away and see that center after breakfast This is my second visit to MCF. For me it’s a retreat. Revelation 19 talks about a thousand years where Christ will reign, in this time we’ll see what this world could be with the rightful ruler in place. When you see MCF and sense what God is doing here you start to get a glimpse of heaven. The concert of the physical property with water, trees and Gods garden around you or the kids rescued from the broken world growing and learning in this place of refuge (as I type I can hear them singing 100 yds. away) or the man made stuff, buildings, water treatment system, acres of crops growing and construction happening everywhere all products of Gods provision. This place is unique in Kenya, in Africa and in the world, peaceful, productive and in harmony.
It’s important to know this is not an orphanage. MCF does not have an adoption program. They bring kids off the street that have been orphaned, abused or abandoned and raise them. They call it the 3 “R’s”. Rescue, Rehabilitation and Re-entry. You come here you are part of a family. The goal is for these kids to leave MCF when they are ready to enter society as healthy, balanced, educated, skilled believers.
Yesterday we spent time in 3 class rooms. With elementary, middle and high school kids. We broke into small groups and talked. It was evident in every case how MCF has become a family for these kids. Their joy, confidence and energy was overwhelming. Before dinner last night we went to chapel with about 100 3rd grade and under kids. Our Isaac leading them in singing.
June 3, 2018 Ndalani, Kenya
Wow. Last installment! Its Saturday pm. At the Hilton Nairobi Airport booked a 1 bedroom suite and went to the pool, stole extra towels so folks can take showers. In 2 hrs. Isaac flies out. In 7 hrs. Laura Carter and my friend Thom Kalkman head to the airport and in 24 hrs. Deborah and I fly out.
Since my last update we have been running hard and MCF is pretty remote with marginal internet service. Hence a little communication gap.
Thursday we spent the day at Yetta it’s an MCF property about 45 minutes from where we are staying. 500 acres with everything on it. 5 reservoirs for water storage and fish farming, 2,000,000 trees they planted, 20 acres of greenhouse, 30 acres of field crops, 2000 laying hens, a vocational school, a nursery and a college. Hard to grasp, but we saw it!
On arrival we learned about the sustainability programs, all that seek ways to make MCF self-supporting and an encouragement to the environment. For example trees:
After some research MCF found a tree that provided ‘regrowing’ lower branches that could be used for cooking firewood, drought resistant, grew fast and straight, could be harvested for lumber after 12 years and grew from seeds they could collect from the trees. Thirty years ago more than 20 percent of Kenya was forest today it’s barely 1 percent.
MCF sees climate change as a serious problem. They teach that God gave us the earth to tend and care for. They practice methods that live out that teaching.
The MCF trees are distributed all over Kenya. They sponsor a school competition where kids will be given 50 trees to plant and care for. Each year the schools provide MCF with a report on the trees and the environmental projects the students are undertaking. Awards are given and students learn how to care for and value the environment and the resources available to them.
Through MCF 5,800,000 trees have been planted in Kenya. At Yetta we planted 5 more! Why do this when there are so many kids abandoned on the streets of Nairobi? Because it is part of the transformation of rescued lives includes learning the care and keeping of the environment then they and this world will be better.
Cooking fires. Traditional African cooking requires 3 same sized rocks, charcoal or dry wood for a fire and a pot to sit on the rocks over the fire. MCF has designed a clay ring that replaces the rocks. It requires less than half of the amount of wood because it directs more heat to the pot. MCF has an area at Yetta where these are made, kiln fired and encased in sheet metal. Some are sold and some are given out in the rural areas where trees are being cut down for fire wood. This reduced deforestation and air pollution from smoke.
The ponds at Yetta were constructed about 5 years ago. Several years of no rain dried up the river that flows along one side of the property. MCF could see they needed water storage. They built the 5 reservoirs and stocked them with fish. Yes they have a D6 bulldozer (in perfect shape) and a nice front loader.
Last year when I visited Yetta there were about 80 “child mothers” that had arrived at Yetta for 2 years of vocational training. These girls had become pregnant and were abandoned or escaped abuse, slavery or street living Hearing the story of a 13 year old girl (we did not meet) held as a sex slave in a truck moving cargo from the Congo to Mombasa. The truck driver trades her for a different girl along the way and in the process she escapes. Pregnant and lost she ends up at MCF.
Last year these 80 girls had only been at MCF for 2 weeks I shared with them some encouragement but it was obvious that they were still going through a huge adjustment. Now a year later we saw the same girls. Some were in the sewing class (made Deborah a skirt), some in knitting class and others in the hair salon class (where Isaac, Laura and Deborah got their hair braided).
We spent sometime in the nursery where about 80 little kids climbed all over us. Yes some were coughing on us, had running noses and very wet pants! But we are tough, by our standards and got in there and had a blast with the little ones. Later we were with them and their mothers in chapel, we each had a toddler on our laps and we sang worship songs with them. Isaac did his music. Deborah shared a devotional on being secure in Christ. Then we headed back to Ndalani for dinner and much needed rest. Another moving day with a lot to process.
Friday (our last day at MCF). Mully joined us for several meals. You can read the book or watch the movie but to hang out with the guy is something special. Last year Mully had encouraged me to be more proactive in what I was feeling I could do. This year my take away (at least as I type now) was to keep focus of purpose in all that we do. MCF can be mind boggling when you consider the physical, programs, initiatives, building projects, fundraising, publicity, worldwide network and in the end the focus simply is the transformation of the kids. They count 3500 kids in their care and nothing happens that does not trace back to their transformation process. Mully and MCF do not waiver in that.
This day Thom and I got to talk career with the high school seniors, Deborah and Laura did a dance class with a group of younger kids and Isaac got to teach the high school choir 2 songs. The afternoon was low key. I spent some special time with one of Mullys sons Dixon. And that evening we joined the high school kids for chapel. Deborah and Laura brought their dance group on stage, Isaac shared a devotional on life change and then brought his choir up font for 2 songs. Any worship service in Africa is loud and by our standards intense but this one reached a new level for us. It was so cool to see these kids respond and Isaac was solidly in his gifted place.
Another late dinner and an extra hour with Mully and off to bed and up the next am headed to Nairobi and then home, I think we were ready.
Our last night of this trip was special. Kind of like the feeling of having finished an amazing meal, can’t eat anymore but wow that was good. That was us.
