School Canteen Gives a Refugee Hope

There is a gentlemen by the name of Bonaventure that Mollie and I had the privilege of meeting the other day. He is a tall, skinny man with a strong smile. A smile capable of withstanding even the harshest realities. For the past decade, the now Tutsi led Rwandan government targeted Bonaventure for being part of the Hutu tribe. They accused him of committing some of the horrendous crimes that took place during the Rwandan Genocide. For the past ten years, Bonaventure has been in prison in Rwanda without a trial for a crime that he didn't commit. Finally witnesses that were forced into testifying against him 10 years ago told the government that they had falsely accused Bonaventure and 5 months ago they finally let him go. He has been in Uganda with his wife and three children ever since. He is trying to restart their lives, and we are so happy to be able to employ him to help us with the school canteen project. This employment will help him be able to afford to feed his family and hopefully be able to send his children to Hope School next term.

As for the canteen project. This is something that Jimbo, Jacques, and I thought was very important for the school. This canteen will be able to employ some of the P7 children that just graduated and cannot afford to go to secondary school (high school) so that they can try to save for secondary.  Most importantly though, it will provide children with snacks and eventually lunch for a very small price. As we have told you before, most of the children do not have breakfast or lunch because their parents cannot afford to provide it for them. Until we are able to get a garden going, this will be a way that students can at least have something in their bellies. Hopefully as this project grows we will be able to provide free lunch, but at least now the children will have a place to get some nutritional snacks and meals for a very very small fee.

It brings us great pleasure to let everyone know that their contributions reach far more people than just the children of Hope Primary School. We are taking every opportunity to help as many people in this community of refugees as possible. It is an incredible experience to really be able to see the dollars at work. We are helping Bonaventure and Martin where we can. (Martin is a Congolese refugee that has two children currently at Hope. His wife is Adela who works with us at Kamba Cooperative.) We are excited to watch the project grow little by little everyday. Brick by brick.

Kamba's New Sewing Machine!

Water Under Way

Success! On behalf of our community here in Ndejje, Mollie and I want to thank everyone who participated in this years Global Ties Christmas Ornament Project. The members of Kamba made over three hundred ornaments and within just a few days of them arriving into the hands of our diligent representative, Karen David, they were all purchased. We are still waiting for the grand total of this years event, but we are somewhere in the range of $2000!!! This is beyond our expectations, and we feel so blessed to be able to use these donations, these gifts to improve the sanitary and health situation for Hope Primary's 160 children.

So we have sparred no time upon arriving back to the city. We want your contributions to put hands to work so that those hands can be cleaned with our very own running water. After relaying the profound success of Jacques and his teams efforts on the ornaments, we quickly made arraignments to head to the Water Department to put our deposit down. We gave $250 to the Project Manager who assured us that we would have running water by today. I went yesterday to inspect the progress and found 4 young boys digging the trench who also assured me that they would be laying the pipes today. Everyone is beside themselves that Hope is actually going to start the new school year with running water.

On a personal note, Mollie and I came to Uganda, to Africa, because we knew that God had called us to be a part of a struggle that was not our own, so that we could learn more about this world we share and perhaps pay forward the many blessings we have been afforded in our very short lives. It has been our privilege to share this experience with all of you, and it has been an even bigger privilege to see the compassion and generosity that you have all shown to this community and to our ideas. We hope that one day we can personally thank each and every one of you for giving us the opportunity to pursue this calling. Thank you.

Western Uganda Retreat

Hello again everybody. We are back from our brief safari to the western part of Uganda. One of Mollie's biggest wishes for the past decade has been to visit Bwindi Impenetrable National Forest to get a glimpse of her favorite animal, the Mountain Gorilla. It may even be the reason we chose Uganda in the first place, but I'm not sure she would admit to that. We can say that it was just a wonderful coincidence. We were thrilled to get out of the city for a little while anyway, fresh air and cool breezes were needed. The bus ride took around 8 hours which is a story in itself. We stayed at a beautiful tent camp high in the Virunga Mountains in a town called Nkuringo and awaited our appointment to meet these mountain gorillas.


Mollie here. So, Bwindi Impenetrable. Jimbo is right, it has been my dream for years to visit Bwindi and see the Mountain Gorillas. One reason why Bwindi is so special is because it is the only National Park that is home to two of the great apes, the chimpanzee and the mountain gorilla, my most favorite animals in the world! These two great apes live side by side in this park along with over 150 different mammal species. Also, there are only about 700 wild mountain gorillas left in the world and it is a passion of mine to help their survival! And a mission with its rewards. These are some of the most incredible animals I have ever seen.


We traveled for 8 hours by bus to Kabale town and spent the night in a hostel. The following day we traveled 3 hours by taxi up and down very bumpy, curvy, scary mountain roads to our camp in Nkuringo. We stayed in a traditional banda with a panoramic view of the volcanoes, the jungles of Bwindi, the Congo, and the Albertine Rift Valley. Spectacular!


We trekked through the jungle to view the gorillas and had one hour with them. It was the shortest hour of my life, but also the most exciting! I love mountain gorillas! We also had the privilege of spotting the very illusive Forest Elephant, which I think means that we are the luckiest people in the world. AND we even heard our chimpanzee friends calling and shouting in the jungle. All in all it was the most amazing experience of my life, and I'm pretty sure that Jimbo is now an advocate for my best friends, the Mountain Gorillas. Save the Jungles!


More details to come.

Back from the jungle...

Sorry for the delay, but we are back in action. Jimbo and I spent a week deep in the jungle in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and were very far away from any internet access but very close to the extremely endangered Mountain Gorilla! (Mollie's absolute favorite!) There are only about 700 wild mountain gorillas left in the world!

We have been catching up on e-mails and have been amazed at the success of the ornaments and fundraising. Thank you so much for your support and generosity. Your gifts will make this Christmas very memorable for this community and these children. I cannot tell you how BIG of a gift it is to be able to watch your money put to action. You are really helping us to be able to help in an incredible way and we are so lucky!

So, we are back in Kampala and back to work, ready to catch you up on our adventures. We will fill you in on all the details complete with pictures later today if all goes well with power in Kampala. You never know when the power will go out in this city...Sunday, it was out all day! More details later....

P.S.
Congrats to my very good friends Bess and Nick! Caroline Darby is a beautiful baby and I am so happy for them! We send her our love and and many kisses!