Our Last Day

We continued to struggle with our impounded van. In the morning we pulled off the road so Christopher could talk with the traffic police. Every truck or van that went by had to pull over to "kintukidogo" (give me something small, and let your hand come out and rub the thumb and first two fingers together).  We again asked our friend, Norman, to help us. Generous worked on the situation all day. However, it was fruitless. Christopher has to stay behind for the entire weekend because the inspector "Left for the weekend". It is distressing how this has hurt our dear friends and we are very sad about it. Everyone around us was supporting and loving.

Guma hired a driver for us tomorrow and we expect to meet him yet this evening. We are sad to leave but happy to return to the USA.

In the morning we all traveled to MHS so Christopher had the freedom to leave us and try to figure out how to get his van back. We asked our ACT staff to find their way up to Muko High School so we could have our staff meeting up there. Each member of the staff presented their program, its achievements and any challenges they might be facing. We loved hearing from our staff and enjoyed the meeting together.

Around noon we heard the sound of about 400 voices singing from the Chapel. We are bringing back some videos and we are hoping you may be able to understand their magnificence. Rev. Philip assembled the entire school to a worship service to pray for our safe return and thank us for our time together. Each of us spoke briefly, the students especially like it when we speak their local language, Rukiga.

After the service and some photos with the "chapel wardens" and the choir, Karen and Keneth walked down the mountain to the ARC (about a mile walk) to spend the afternoon working on music. They had a productive afternoon, accomplishing every objective! Sue and Dave worked on budget training with Rev. Philip and Prudance. Dave is extremely happy with the understanding achieved.

About 5 pm Christopher returned with the bad news that he still had no van. We hated to say goodbye to Christopher in Kabale. He will have to stay here for at least the weekend due to all the corruption around this accident. 

We are saying good night and see you soon! We leave at 9am for Entebbe and the airport. Our flight leaves around midnight for Amsterdam then a connection to DTW arriving around 1:30pm on Sunday afternoon. 

Thank you for reading our blog and supporting us along the way. It is great encouragement to know you are reading about our journey! 

Comments

  1. LynnSeptember 10, 2022 at 9:36 PM

    Prayers for safe, uncomplicated travel for your return. Warm-hearted thanks to all the folks in Muko who work so hard to keep ACT moving forward. We are so blessed by everyone's efforts!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Treasure Name Lovina

Image
 In 2008, the US Travel Team and the ACT Staff established a program, which at the time was named Muko Empowerment Program. This program was created for the purpose of providing a market for local women with HIV to sell their baskets and beaded jewelry. There were about 25 women in the beginning all very eager to participate to earn cash to be able to send their children to school.  2008  Guma with MEP Weavers 2008 With Guma (Alexander Gumoshabe) leading the MEP Program, it grew and grew. We have carried thousands of baskets, jewelry and sewn items back in our suitcases for 20 years! Soon after we began the program, we learned of Lovina! Lovina was clearly the standout best basket weaver in our program. Lovina is lame, unable to use her legs except to walk in a squat position. She is such a strong woman. Her lack of able-ness does not even slow her down. We soon gave her the title of Basket Quality Manager and her responsibility was to come to the ACT Resource Center once...
Read more
Image
Hello Everyone! To those in the US - Happy Spring, the snow is melting and March Madness is almost over (Kansas Jayhawks are still in it as I write this!) To those in Uganda - Happy back to school finally after such a long shut down for COVID. Today I am reflecting on the beginnings of ACT. The very first contact as most of you know was a handwritten letter from Richard and Generous Turinawe - written on April 22, 2003. I had no idea of who they were and in fact, I had to look up where Uganda was in the continent of Africa! I'll bet some of you don't know I still have that original letter. Here it is! I looked at that letter on my desk for a couple of weeks and my heart stirred! I wrote Richard back and the rest is history. The first trip was September 2006 when John and I traveled there. The second trip was the first Travel Team in 2008. As of now, we've made 15 team trips to Muko and just scheduled our 16th for August 2022. So, I always hesitate when people ask me, "...
Read more

ACT's Sustainable Future

Image
How can we make ACT more self-sustainable? That was the question that led the ACT US Board to charter the FUNDS (Financial Ugandan Needs for Development & Sustainability) Task Force in early 2020 to research and propose new models of sustainability for ACT, for both programs in Uganda and ACT US.  FUNDS Task Force members include (from Muko, Uganda) Alexander "Guma" Gumoshabe, Generous Turinawe, Onesmas Arinda, Ken Blickenstaff (Indianapolis), and from Midland: Bill Busch, Kelly Busse, Gail Hoffman, Mark Maxwell, Roger Moll, Dave Molzahn, Lynn Pottenger and Sue Waechter (Traverse City).  The Task Force brainstormed possible social businesses that could be run in Uganda to provide ongoing revenue to support the ACT Uganda programs. There are many business models for a social business (also known as venture philanthropy), but generally it is a non-dividend company dedicated to solving human problems. In our case, the goal would be to raise money for ACT programs, with seco...
Read more