Check out the New Fundraiser – Kili for a Kause

Hi Everyone!

Please check out the new fundraiser Erin and I are starting in order to raise money for the NGO we are working with out here in Uganda. In order to raise funds, we will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in a little under a month. Please help us out by clicking the link at the top of the page or clicking here. Any little bit helps. Hopefully we make it to the top (we’re not exactly your quintessential mountain climbers). Wish us luck!!!

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So… What the heck are we doing here?

That’s a good question and one we’ve been asked a lot! Well besides lying in the sun eating bananas and playing with monkeys, we’ve been pretty busy here in Nyeihanga.

We spend time every Thursday playing with the kids who belong to the LOLGM school for orphans and vulnerable children. They’ve been on summer vacation since we arrived (though start up a new term this Monday) so we have been doing sort of outside activity days with them. This is pretty challenging considering that there is not so much as a soccer ball to use in games and that they don’t understand most of what we say so giving instructions is pretty tough. Usually there are about thirty kids ranging in age from two to about ten. We play a few local games – one that is sort of like Duck Duck Goose and another that is like Red Rover but instead of running through people’s arms, two kids try to pull the other across a line. We tried Red Light, Green Light but the instructions were pretty hard to explain with just gestures. We do relay races pretty successfully, though after a few races they get too excited and all go at the same time. Still, it is a pretty fun game! The best game to play is Freeze Tag. For those of you who didn’t grow up playing it, a few people are “it” and if you get tagged you have to freeze until someone crawls under your legs. Watching a five year old tell Brian to crawl under their legs is pretty funny. On a rainy day we brought our computer and played Freeze Dance for a few hours. It turned into Brian and I taking turns being the leader and doing goofy dance moves that the kids would copy til the music paused and we all froze. They loved it. And of course Brian represented by teaching them the Hokie Pokie!

My absolute favorite thing we do is to work with the Functional Adult Learning class that takes places twice a week. The women (and occasional man who comes) are amazing in their drive. They mostly learn English and literacy but are also learning some basic math and household budgeting skills. The teacher is an incredible and smart woman from the village who volunteers her time. They work so hard that usually the class only ends when the sun has set and they need to rush to get home before dark. Brian and I mostly help with speaking English. Especially with confidence in speaking. I have to say though, I think they have taught us as much Runyankore (the local language) as we’ve taught them English!

One of the major things we’ve set out to accomplish is starting up a microfinance initiative in the LOLGM Nyeihanga community. Microfinance is basically giving small loans to a poor individual that they can invest in a business to generate income, pay back the loan, take out another loan to reinvest in their business, generate more income, and so on. Its success comes from its sustainability and accountability of the individual receiving the loan, but also from ‘empowering’ an individual to help herself. Also, lending often takes place in groups so the whole process of microfinance fosters community involvement and support- all goals of LOLGM. So far this project has moved quickly. Well quickly in Africa time! In the past few weeks Brian and I have researched different potential microfinance organizations to partner with, contacted ones we thought would be a good fit for LOLGM, met with them, had one come give information to the beneficiaries in Nyeihanga, and now, starting this Monday, there will officially be a microfinance initiative at LOLGM Nyeihanga!

Once Nyeihanga members have access to finance, the empowerment options are endless. We’re looking into giving beneficiaries training in income generating activities along with assistance in creating a business plan once they have the skill. One activity is in making handy crafts such as woven reed baskets that are very popular here yet in limited supply. Another activity is mushroom growing. This is a good option because once trained in the growing process, returns are huge: for every dollar put in, a grower could make $4-$6. And mushrooms are in high demand yet low supply.

We’ve also been helping out with getting a barn built that will be a church/community center for the quickly expanding organization. Even just since we’ve been here, the current building has become overflowing during church services. The class size for the school for orphans and vulnerable children is doubling this term. Plus new activities like the microfinance and training for beneficiaries has really created a need for more space. Earlier this year Blake did a Crossfit fundraiser to raise money for the barn and now here we are starting to build it! Well, really this is Brian’s gig. You know, since he’s a man. He’s done a lot of sitting down with Jackson and the builders to make some semblance of a budget (an almost impossible task here in Uganda), gone around in a pick-up truck to pick up bricks, sand, tree poles (yes I have pictures). He is trying to track the costs as best as possible but again that type of accounting is a pretty foreign concept here. We head to a city near us later today to pick up more funds and look into getting more supplies. The plan is to start building next week and be finished before we leave. However, a saying here in Uganda is slowly by slowly. It pretty accurately describes the pace that everything here moves. We’ll see 🙂

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