You should see our children!

I couldn't resist snapping a pic of these ladies walking down one of the bajillion rutted dirt roads that encircle Kampala.  When I told them how lovely they looked, the one who spoke English said, "If you think we are beautiful, you should see our children."

Meet Damalie

This adorable young lady is Damalie Winslett Naluyijja.  Damalie is a great example of social entrepreneurship. She borrowed 2.6 million Ugandan Shillings (the equivalent of $1200 at the time) from the LDS Perpetual Education Fund and completed a series of courses at a fashion design school in Kampala.  She pays back about $22 per month to the church for the loan and is almost finished paying it off. 

Last year we commissioned Damalie to help us make several thousand reusable sanitary napkin pads kits for a project to help girls stay in school.  We bought her a sewing machine and a snap machine & gave her enough money to buy materials to make 500 reusable sanitary napkin kits we plan to give to the female student body of a little high school our organization has been working with: Saint Ann Grace Secondary School in Nakifuma, Uganda.  (We will be delivering the kits to the school this Friday, with any luck, and will write more on the project then.) . Damalie now uses that sewing machine to make and sell clothing.  She has clients as far away as Kenya placing orders for her products.  She is amazingly skilled. She is exactly the type of person needed to develop Africa in productive and positive ways. And, much to our delight, she has been great to take us to wonderful craft markets and show is the inner workings of the wholesale markets in downtown Kampala.  Thanks, Damalie!

Africa's Past is Not Africa's Future

Thanks to my friend, Scott, for sending me this.  There is much good going all over this continent. We see it all over the place.  The wealth gap is widening, a natural and unavoidable side-effect to such growth.  Rethink Assumptions

Notice from the State Department yesterday: "This Emergency Message is to advise all U.S. citizens residing and traveling in Uganda to avoid possible large demonstrations coming from the Nakasero, Kibuli and City Centre areas in Kampala between 1PM and 2PM.  Exercise due caution when moving through these areas today."  Unfortunately, we did not get this message until AFTER we spent all afternoon in downtown Kampala yesterday.    We walked over a mile to and from a craft market, completely oblivious to any possible demonstrations.  While waiting for Dave to iron out some Internet troubles, we even just sat on a street corner for over an hour.  Kampala was as crazy as any place on the planet can be, but thankfully, we were safe. 

A Nice Day Out-(Despite the Rain)

Happy Birthday to Joe!

Jack the dog

Our guard dog, Jack.  He has a gaping wound on his face and paw, supposedly from trying to jump the fence and meeting razor wire head on.  The more we feed him, the nicer he becomes. 

The House

Our rental house. It is actually quite comfortable, all things considered.