Africa in words...

I just found this interesting...from a blog that I follow by a woman who is a photo-journalist in Liberia, but spent a few years in Uganda. www.scarlettlion.com

via Appfrica via World Famous Design Junkies

Stuff On My Bike 2, by Shannon

As promised, here is the second round of "Stuff on my Bike". Although we were usually all in the car together yelling, "On the right! On the right!" or "Bike, 2 o'clock!", these particular shots were captured by Shannon. They are a pretty good collection...hopefully this will motivate Rachel to get hers to me also for the fullest representation of this wonderful phenomenon of balance, creativity, and strength. The shot above is an amazing stack of mattresses, and the first two below are of the most common material transported, jerry cans for gathering water.


Soda or Beer?A schmorgazboard of random things...among others, I can identify a coffee table, two patio chairs, a trunk and a jerry can.


A long pipe and peice of moulding.

Pineapples (with a very proud owner).




Housegoods...welcome mats, brooms, buckets, etc...

Pile o' wooden furniture.
Blankets?
Stay tuned for more pictures of precariously stacked goods on bikes!

Kato Andrew

For those of you who have been following from the beginning, I wanted to introduce you to Andrew, who is Peter's twin brother. The two of them are Sarah's youngest sons, and were vital to our team, working as translators, as well as becoming fast friends to us all. One or both of them were with us everyday as we taught our classes, aiding us not only in teaching, but also in negotiating prices, giving directions to drivers, and generally building relationships with the women we taught. They have truly become like brothers to me over the years, and it was awesome to see them bond so quickly and easily with the rest of the team also! There were many laughs as Andrew adopted some new "American" phrases. And there were some tears as we heard, through their translations, the heart-wrenching stories of the women and teens we work with. Their gifts of speaking sensitively, yet honestly, with people brought out some true stories that broke our hearts and brought us closer to the work we do in Uganda.

Waiswa Peter and Kato Andrew, THANK YOU! We loved having you as a part of our team!
This is Andrew with Misham, their little cousin whose mother died as an infant. He now lives with Sarah and is the sweetest little thing with huge eyes and cheeks. He is very serious and was captivated, and a bit scared by us. Towards the end of the month we spent in Jinja, he had improved slightly and would take my hand after much prompting, but mostly he kept his distance.

Another side note...."Waiswa" as in Waiswa Peter, means "elder male twin" and "Kato" as in Kato Andrew, means "younger male twin". "Nalongo" as in Nalongo Sarah, means "mother of twins", which means her named changed when she had her twin boys. Peter, unfortunately, couldn't remember her previous name. Peter, if you are reading this, find out and let me know! Interesting, isn't it how some African names are descriptive of factual information like that?!

Stuff On My Bike, part 1

This is just a quick-teaser of a blog post.

During our trip last year, Courtney was blown away by the amazing efficient use of the bicycle in Africa. On every street or dirt path or such, you will see the most amazing sights of men transporting crazy things using their bikes......huge bags of maize, furniture, chickens, etc. We decided that it was a visible picture of a euphamism for when you have so much going on you don't know what to do...we all know that feeling....."I just have so much stuff on my bike!" Before leaving, Courtney presented me with a "Stuff On My Bike" award....a wire statue of a man with piles of "stuff" on the back of his bike. It proudly sits in my living room in New York.

This summer, our team was again constantly amazed by the bikes full of stuff, and decided to do a project where we tried to capture as many photos of "Stuff On My Bike" as possible. So, in anticipation of the "Stuff On My Bike" and, the soon to follow sequel "Stuff On My Head" posts, I wanted to send a little something out to whet your pallette, so to speak. This photo was taken by Kathleen Lindeman, who traveled with Fount of Mercy this summer, serving on another team.

guest blogger, georgette!

So, many of you have noticed that it has been awhile since my last post. I am so sorry I dropped the ball....but I promise to make it once I am back to the land of good internet speed. ha! The past 2-3 weeks have been so full, I can't even believe where the time went. Our second team arrived and we went full steam ahead into our other 2 organizations.

Georgette is back in the US now, but sent me an entry, upon request, for the blog. She shares one of her favorite continual interactions with the "Bug Man" we would pass on the way to Idoome, the TAOST location I wrote about in the last entry. Geoffrey is TAOST's director.

"Geoffrey is a remarkable man with a great sense of humor. He picked us up every morning & drove us to Idome for our day of classes & came back for us in the evening.

He always had to make several stops along the way to talk with these & those...Andrew, our translator, asked him if he was running for office because he seemed involved in the lives & problems of so many people.

After about 45 minutes on the main road we would turn onto a small dirt track that was navigated at about 5 mph because it was so chewed up. This road took us through the fields of crops planted by the residents of Idome which was their food supply. There was a man by the rice paddy every day whose job it was to keep the bugs off the rice. That gave us a good laugh because we couldn't imagine how he went about it but once we did see him setting fire to an ant hill. Anyway, each time we passed Geoffrey & he would exchange a few words & then Geoffrey would translate for us. One day he asked Tara for 500 ugs (about 25 cents) - the next day he asked for 1000 ugs. Our amusement factor went up along with the requests. Tara asked Geoffrey to ask him what he was going to give her in exchange & he offered rice. The next evening he said he wanted to go to the UK & everyone had another good laugh. We began to look forward to the interaction.

On the Fri. Tara had other business to attend to & did not come to class with Judy & myself. As we passed "bug man" Geoffrey leaned out the window & told him that Tara was away making arrangements for his ticket to the UK. On our way out on Fri. evening (with a live chicken in the trunk) to our surprise, "bug man" wasn't there. Geoffrey said that he was probably at home packing his bags, or maybe he was getting a passport photo taken, & we all had another really good laugh.

Geoffrey is one of the most charmingly good natured people I have ever met. Out of the goodness of his heart he works toward the improvement of the lives of people, especially women & orphans, in his community. I was struck by how many Ugandans work tirelessly for the benefit of others without any compensation. Whether because of or in spite of the country's history of violence, they seem to have a lot of love & compassion in their hearts. I will never forget them." Georgette

Gifts Gifts Gifts!

The women of Idoome were so wonderful to us last week and each day as we left would bring out gifts to thank us for our day of teaching. The first day, pictured above, consisted of a Jack fruit, a bag of maize, and a bag of greens. We were so pleased and touched to receive these!

This picture is of some of the gifts we gave them on the last day, again, thanks to your generous support of Sewing Hope. Among other things, we gave 20 pairs of Fiskar scissors, 20 clear plastic rulers, and 30+ 6 yard peices of fabric. We are also having a proper cutting table built for them, sending their teacher to additional vocational classes, and supplying a salary for their assistant teacher, Rose.

So, it was really very amazing for us to receive their gifts on the final day of our classes. Pictured above, you see a huge papaya, a whole branch of Matoke bananas (one of the staple foods here), some more maize and eggs, and yes, that's right, you see clearly....a live chicken!!!! Judy accepted it gratefully, did a little dance with it and then they promptly stuffed it in the trunk for the ride home. ha!

English class

One new thing for Sewing Hope this trip has been an english class, taught by Judy. We have capitalized on her ESL training and have started pretty much every day with an English/Lusoga class. It has been really fun to hear the women speak our language and, especially, to learn theirs. It has also been a very easy ice-breaker and bonding time for us to get to know the new groups of women. I just thought that this was a really great and quite representative picture of Judy during one of her classes.

TAOST Idoome

So, hopefully some of you have noticed that it has been awhile since I have posted. Last week was a very challenging and very busy week, so I was not able to even get to the internet cafe until now. So, I am going to try to make up for lost time by catching you up on some highlights of the week with the wonderful women of Idoome.

We found, after arriving, that we needed to do some rethinking of the classes we had prepared for this group. Not only did we need to do some changing due to skill levels, but we we prepared for a class of 19, but each day our class grew until we had 36 women. The teacher, Mary, and Geoffrey (TAOST's director) were excited about this because it meant that the class was beginning to have a presence in the community....but for us, it just added stress and an organizational challenge with how to teach this many students at once.Our most successful classes were Georgette's bag class, where we managed to have 36 women make bags in a little over a day of class!!!!...and the rosette class, pictured above put together as a placemat. We also were requested to do a hand-knitting class, which we managed to put together despite knitting needles not existing in Uganda. We hired some girls to cut the teeth off rat-tail combs for us, then file them down as smooth as possible. We were actually very surprised with how well that class went. I must admit I was a skeptic! ha!

One amusement of each day was the small herd of cows which passed through on their way to get water each day around 2pm. The women never even batted an eye as they stomped, rather close, right through our class space. But, Judy and Georgette and I giggled every time, and managed to take a picture. Another thing I won't ever tire of is how the women tie their babies onto their backs as they sew or cut. They also hoe gardens, carry water, chop wood, etc. with their babies tied calmly on their backs. Judy has seen several babies not even tied on, but just holding on as their moms lean over to watch us do a demo. Brilliant little things. This baby clearly has a mind of its own and wasn't enthused by the photographer. ha!

Goodbye Georgette, hello girls!

We've had a change in our team....Friday, after a wonderful last day in Idoome, we welcomed our new team of Courtney, Rachel, and Shannon, and had a farewell dinner for Georgette. It has been great to have our new girls here, as they not only bring a new set of skills, but a great sense of humor and lightness to our group. We have been introducing them to the local money, the local transportation, and the local food. It has been great!

But, Judy and I do miss Georgette. She has a frankness about her that is refreshing and easy in this culture. I saw her relate to people by telling them in all sorts of ways how their culture and our culture are different, but more often than not, similar. It was always fun to hear her perceptions and opinions on things, as she either saw them in a different manner, or we saw them the same, but she put things in a way I wished that I could've. Those of you who know Georgette, please take the time to look at a few pictures and ask for her best stories. We have had some good belly laughs...and Georgette, if you are out there, please write something for me to post here....maybe the story about the bug man...or buying the needles...or your triumphs during knitting class.
Here is a picture of Georgette fitting a dress with the women of MOHM. This feels like a memorial or something. Ha! Sorry about that!

Muzungu!

Just a little blurb about the word MUZUNGU. As mentioned before, this is the term used for a white person here and you tend to hear it alot....mostly by kids, but also by people wanting to get your attention. The most common phrases are really kind of cute, in a way, since they make a rhyme...kind of sing-songy:

"Muzungu, how are you?"
"Muzungu, I love you."

Geoffrey, the leader of TAOST, where we spent the day today, explained to us this afternoon that muzungu actually means, "Wanderer". This is because of when white people first came, they didn't actually know what they were doing and were said to be wandering around. ha!!

I wanted to tell a little anecdote from Georgette last week. It was on a day we spent at MOHM, when she was teaching a class about different seam finishings. Shannon had created these amazing little cloth books that have examples of different ways to finish seams nicely if you don't have an overlock machine, which these women do not. She showed a french seam (sorry to those who don't sew and don't know what this is) and Rehema clasped her hands and said, "Muzungu, THANK YOU!!!".

I think this is my favorite way of hearing muzungu said!

New group!

Today was spent in Idoome, a village a little over an hour from Jinja. This was the first time I had ever been to work with the women there. I must admit it was a hard day. It just takes some time to become comfortable in a group, and for them to as well. And, not working with them before made us unaware of their skill level, so it requires some figuring out on how to teach things. Nonetheless, the women are lovely, and we were joined by several men who either are on the local council or have wives involved in the class. They added a great dimension, as the women giggled at their mistakes during English class, and as they taunted a man named Willy when he finished his fabric rosette and pinned it onto his shirt.

We returned to Jinja this afternoon knowing that we need to regroup for tomorrow and think carefully about how to plan for this group. In our meetings before coming to Africa, I said to my teams several times that the most important quality you need to have to come work with us in Africa is flexibility....and days like this are exactly why. Because we come for a few weeks in the summer, it is difficult to assess just what the women are learning and what level they are at....even knowing the needs of the class is difficult. So we tried a few things, had some success, but also need to change the way we do our classes a bit. I am confident that each day will get better and better. Not only because we'll get to know the women and they us, but also because Judy and Georgette are excellent teachers and will roll with whatever we face.

One surprise highlight of the day was entering Jinja's central market for the first time today. Basically, it is a labirynth of booths in the middle of Jinja, surrounded by a wall. It can be a little scary. But, assured that we could find knitting needles inside, we bravely entered like we had done it a million times. Unfortunately, the first section we came to was the butchery/meat section. I averted my eyes from the tables of guts several times until we came upon shoes...a section I was MUCH more comfortable in. After asking several times where to go and wandering a bit, we found a woman, who low-and-behold, was actually knitting!!!!!! We begged her to tell us where she got her needles and she said that we can't get them here....she had made hers out of a coat hanger! ha! She was really cool....after leaving her and deciding maybe we can find something else that will work for us, we stumbled upon the spice section....my favorite. That was such a cool place with bags and bags of great smelling curry's, all types of beans, some barks and rock salt, etc....so cool. We then went to the paper section and bought some cement papers to make more patterns for our class tomorrow, and eventually made it out the gate. So cool....it actually brought my spirits up quite a bit after such a draining day.

Being able to find the things you need in a new town and a different culture is one of the things that is most empowering to me. So, finding yarn and machine needles, combs, and pattern paper was really fun. It is a comfort.

Aisha

This is Aisha, one of our MOHM women who is simply lovely. She has a quiet and sweet spirit, and a surprising ambition. Although I have met her in the past, this year was the first time I was able to sit down with her and learn more about her life. The basics are that she has a household of 11, which she supports on her own because her husband cannot work due to illness.

She took an idea of Sarah's and has run with it, turning it into a little business for herself. Basically, she can go to the market and purchase a blouse for 500ugs, around 25 cents in our money. She takes it home, and cuts the sleeves off, takes it in to be more fitted, puts elastic in the waist, opens the neckline using the sleeves as a facing, and can resell it for 1000ugs, doubling her money. As long as the blouse is 30" long, it can be a dress, or she can use the sleeves or a bedsheet to lengthen it also. These are popular among young women or teenagers in the villages. It is a creative and cost-effective way to make a new product, one which most of Sarah's students never latched onto. But Aisha has. It is so satisfying to see that after 2 years of classes, virtually all of the women are using their skills to make money! Aisha is only one example.

Happy Birthday, Judy!

So, Judy celebrated her birthday on Tuesday, the 14th....we had a day of work, and unbeknownst to her, I was able to secretly arrange a surprise with the women. They ended our day with an amazing singing and dancing time, in Judy's honor. Here is Tausi and Rehema, who always end up being the leaders when the dancing starts. It is contagious! This is one of my favorite things about being here...the way the women celebrate with singing and dancing as a group. If I was more technically apt, I could send a little video snippet and you could hear the drumbeats also. Basically once the women started singing, 4 little boys ran to get the drums and sat down to back them up with the beat. It was so amazing, and Judy was very honored. We ended the evening with the 3 of us at a restaurant, sharing a piece of chocolate cake. Happy Birthday, Judy!

Scissors!!!

So, it has been a few days since I have updated, due to electricity being down, taking Georgette to get some medicine, and then 2 really full days which ran long and left me exhausted. So, I am going to try to do a few short little snippets to give you more of a picture of our week.

So, for those of you who donated to our supply request in the last few weeks before we left for our trip, here is the first picture of where your donation went. We were able to either acquire or purchase a pair of scissors for each woman that we work with, totaling around 80. We gave out the first batch on wednesday to the women of MOHM, and it was awesome. They were so excited! Thanks to all of you who gave! For those of us who work in the costume/fashion industry, we all know how important a good pair of scissors is, and now each woman has one of her own!

Uniforms!

This adorable picture contains more than meets the casual eye. The first trip I took to Uganda was with Fount of Mercy in the summer of 2007. Marie Yi and I taught a drawing class. When I went back to visit Sarah's class a few days later, she expanded on our drawing class by having the women spend time designing a new dress for the girls uniforms that they hoped to learn to make over the next year. The women spent about an hour sketching and coloring their ideas, and then came back together to look at each one, choosing the one that would be most practical for them to make. They chose one done by a woman named Florence.

We bought them some fabric to make these uniforms, and when we came back a year later, I was pleased to see that there were some uniforms scattered amongst the kids....i would say maybe 5-6 total. It was a great feeling to see them in flesh, after designing them the year before.

Well, when we arrived to MOHM's site this morning, there were kids in uniforms everywhere. Not everyone had one, but definitely a majority.....maybe 3/4 of the children! It was so exciting! I grouped some together for this shot. This is probably the biggest reward of coming back to Uganda year-after-year...getting to see the changes that happen as the women gain more skills and more confidence, and start making tangible improvements in their own lives and their communities. Thanks to you, our supporters, for making this work possible!

Best-Dressed Boda Driver

So, here is a typical boda-boda...as mentioned in the previous post. They sit on corners, waiting for passengers...you jump on the back and they take you wherever you want. It is a great system...as long as you are not overly concerned with safety issues. ha!....but when in Rome....

I took a picture of this guy because basically I loved his outfit. Not sure if the picture fully captures it, but I thought it was very "smart", as they'd say here.

first village day!

Today was our first day spent in a village. We went to Wairaka to meet with the leadership of Message of Hope Ministries (MOHM). The day started with a boda (the local alternative for a taxi....jumping on the back of a moped) ride to meet Judy and Georgette. We headed into town and went to the taxi park, where we negotiated a matatu ride out to Wairaka. A matatu is the Ugandan version of a public transport system...basically a fifteen passenger volkswagen bus-type van into which they cram as many people, bags of maize, and chickens as possible. They stop all along their path, letting people off and picking people up.

When we got to Wairaka, we headed to Sarah's (MOHM's tailoring teacher) shop, where we met up with one of her older sons, Seth....for those of you following along, Seth is Peter's older brother. We followed him to his mother's home, where we spent an hour or so, catching up, laughing, and drinking a hot poshu drink...much like drinking cream of wheat, actually. I had a great time!!! They have truly become like family to me.

We then headed across the main road to Isaac and Irene's home to officially have our meeting. They welcomed us warmly, and as we waited for Isaac to run an errand (this is called "African time"...things happen when they happen...they cannot be rushed), we got a lesson from Irene and Sarah about how the traditional "gomas" is worn. A gomas is the traditional dress for respectable women...it is definitely a ceremonial dress, and expected to be worn at funeral, weddings, etc., but is also a day-dress for many women. They start wearing it when they "are grown", as Irene put it...or when they get married, really.

Judy volunteered and was a great sport as they dressed her first in the striped underskirt, seen left, then put the dress on and tied the sash. The real test came when they stepped back and said, "now it is your turn!" She was amazing and gave it a shot...only making a few mistakes, which they quickly corrected. The picture to the right is Sarah tying the sash around...the finishing touch to Judy's gomas.

We had our meeting and discussed all aspects of the tailoring program and what our team will be doing while here, as well as this coming year and the future years. The exciting thing about MOHM is that one, they have the most amazing teacher, Sarah, who is very talented and driven, and two, they are the farthest along of our organizations, as far as the women's skills go. They spoke of Tausi, [who is quoted in our press kit, which you can find at www.sewinghope.net] and how she and 2 other ladies have taken their skills and begun to make children's dresses, selling them in local villages. This has been our hope for them, and it is gratifying to see that they have already began.

We ate a local meal with them, and then headed back to Sarah's shop. On the way, Sarah stopped and introduced us to Beatrice, who was a previous student of Sarah's, who now works in a small shop where one can buy what this muzungu (word for white person) believes is a weave. ha! Anyway, she was sitting there hand-embroidering some small table linens with beautiful flowers. Her picture is below.

It has been an exhausting, but gratifying day. It is so good to reconnect with everyone here and see their progress and be reminded of their needs. We have a day off tomorrow to rest, then will begin our seminars with MOHM on Monday. Until then....

meeting with Yusto

Yesterday, I had my first official meeting with the leadership of one of our organizations, the Orphans Rescue Mission (ORM). ORM has been working with Fount from the beginning and although Sewing Hope was able to provide them with 3 sewing machines last year, this will be the first summer to teach seminars and to "officially" partner with them. The meeting began with Yusto, the director, and his wife Joy. Then, we were later joined by the tailoring teacher, Patience, and Yusto's oldest son, Andrew.

Here is the Mission Statement for the proposal they sent to us, asking for support of their sewing program: Our mission is to equip ORM Children with skills and later, upon satisfactory process of rehabilitation and restoration, re-integrate them in our communities when they are already self-supportive and decent people.

The exciting thing about ORM is that they are not only working with adult women of the community who need a way to support their families, but also with older, teen-aged orphans who will soon be expected to support themselves entirely...age 15. Their hope is to help provide tangible life-skills, sewing and tailoring being a huge part of that, but also including skills such as baking and cleaning.

As exciting as their program is, and as dynamic as their director is, they still have a long way to get to their goals. One of the biggest goals for the immediate future is to secure a contract with a local school to make school uniforms. The school has 700 children, so this size business would be amazing for their program! But, before they can pursue a contract, Sewing Hope has started to help them be sure that they can actually sustain and follow-through with filling such a large order.

Our 5+ hour meeting consisted of not only my first truly local meal since being back in Uganda, but of meeting and creating a salary agreement for their new teacher, Patience. She will be graduating from a Kampala-based vocational school, the YWCA funny enough, at the end of August, and has agreed to teach for a full year at ORM, sharing her knowledge and skills with the women and teenagers there. Securing a consistent and qualified teacher has been a struggle up till now, and is the first step in getting ORM in a position to move forward with the rest. This program is young, but full of energy, and dynamic.... and has tons of hope to accomplish their goals! There is no doubt that given enough time and resources ORM is going to succeed. My team will be back in 3 weeks to lead our seminars. Can't wait!!!

commonalities...

So last night brought a strange phenomenon. Upon returning to the hostel with Peter last night, the television was broadcasting Michael Jackson's memorial service, live. Pretty cool, I thought, to be watching it from so far away at the same time that it was happening. We are 7 hours ahead of New York, and 10 ahead of LA, FYI. Also interesting was the fact that all the muzungus (the term used for white person here) from the US and Europe were being completely disrespectful and cracking jokes, while the Ugandans were taking it all in with wrapt attention. It was kind of ironic, I thought, but also neat that this pop culture icon really is a connector of cultures. He was/is an important presence here. When Queen Latifah talked about people watching from all around the world, I can attest that it really was true! Very cool.

Peter told me that the school where he is doing teacher training is going to have a Mass for Michael Jackson, and that they still have one every year to honor the losses of 9-11. Who knew? When was the last time our country remembered an African atrocity with any sort of regularity? Maybe it happens in small places as here, or maybe we will in the future, as our world becomes smaller and smaller....closer and closer.

I know that so far this blog has not spoken much about our work, but starting tomorrow, I will be reconnecting with the organizations and preparing for next week's seminars. It has been so great to ease back into being in the country: relearning the transportation system, connecting to my friends, and adjusting to the funny quirks. I also hope that throughout this blog I can continue to show you all the things which connect us, not just the differences.

Pictures, finally

I promise I am getting the hang of this...here are the pictures from the previous post. Next time they'll be in the same post.

Pictures, taxi park, and Makere University

Pretty soon, I will be able to post without issue, but today is my first attempt at uploading pictures from the slow-net computer lab. So, they may be small....bear with me.

The first is of one of the cool displays in the Amsterdam airport, where I had a 3 hour layover before continuing into Entebbe. I have never seen so many seed packets in one place....shelf after shelf of them...which I suppose makes alot of sense in Amsterdam, but it still took me by surprise. I resisted the urge to buy them, mostly because of my desire to save money for ugandan jewelry and fabric, but also because I know my HUGE lack of a green thumb.

The next picture is of the DREADED "old taxi park" here in Kampala. This was taken last night as Judy, Georgette, and I ran errands through town with my friend Peter. I asked him to take us to see it, but was sure to add that I only wanted to look down on it from above. I only enter this heinous place when absolutely necessary!! ha!! that sounded dramatic, but really after squeezing through the vans you see there (called Matatus. They are the public transportation system here..more on that later), which are inches apart and all moving in different directions, you either are so thankful to be alive that you never want to go again, or you simply stare and marvel at the shear brilliance of how it works....to me there is no rhyme or reason, but to them, it is organized and somewhat efficient. Oh, and a side note for those of you who are judging me and saying how I am not saavy or cool for my feelings on the taxi park, I saw an old lady hit by a Matatu in the taxi park last year....not cool!

So, I did brave actually entering the park with Peter this morning. He is in the last picture you see here. We visited Makere University, where he recently finished his degree in English literature. It is a HUGE campus, and VERY fascinating! I especially liked the art department, where there were many final projects on display and tons of sculpture around the grounds. The library and bookstore were cool too. Mostly, it was just great to get a picture of where Peter has spent the past 3 years, and what his life was like there...it is a HUGE accomplishment for him to have completed his course work!

Arrived!

At last, after about 24+ hours of travel, I have arrived in Kampala, the capital of Uganda....along with Judy and Georgette, the first of 5 amazing volunteers to come work with Sewing Hope. We have spent the last day overcoming jetlag, getting our barings in the city, and now, braving the internet cafe to send greetings out to our loved ones and supporters.

I must report, for those who have traveled with us, or in Africa in general, that the internet cafe here in Kampala is much improved....much faster and generally easier to navigate, though Georgette is having issues as I speak with her email. ha! But, even with these improvements, my brain is still not much-improved, as I have forgotten to bring the cord for my camera. So, I will have to wait till the next posting to show some of the interesting shots I have taken.

What is in store for us? Tomorrow, Waiswa Peter will be joining us for the day to work with us on our luganda and lusoga language skills and generally help us prepare for our work next week. Then, I will visit Makere University with him, where he has just finished his coursework in English literature. I am anxious to see what the university is like and what his life is like here in Kampala. He is one of Nalongo Sarah's sons...she is the teacher at MOHM, the organization we will be working with next week.

That's the news....only negatives so far have been accidentally ordering 2 egg and toast breakfasts instead of "2 eggs and toast", and seeing Georgette's life pass before my eyes while attempting to cross the treacherous streets. No harm done, really.

Thank you!!

You are either here because you know someone who is traveling with us to Uganda this summer, you have supported Sewing Hope during the past 2 years, or you are just curious to see what we're doing...No matter how you got here, thanks for coming to our blog.

Sewing Hope is a program within the non-profit Fount of Mercy which provides vocational training to the women in several Ugandan communities. On July 2, our first team will leave for Uganda....followed on July 25 by our second team. We will be updating this blog every few days throughout our trip so that our amazing and numerous supporters can see our work and what their generosity has gone towards. We are able to go to Uganda with tons of supplies, well-prepared classes, and excitement because of those of you who came to our event in April or gave money or supplies since then. We can't thank you enough and hope to show you how important your donations are in the lives of these Ugandan women and the children they care for.