Merchandise Store comes online!
We know you’ve been dying to get your very own mug, shirt or bag with Hands Across Nations Logo on it! Well…now you’re in luck! Each purchase goes to helping the people of Uganda rebuild, whether it’s learning how to sew, purchasing seed for farming, or helping fund a protected spring. You can wear your shirt or drink out of your coffee mug knowing you’ve made a difference all the way across the world!
Visit the store by clicking here: Hands Across Nations Online Store
Hello again from the future bread basket of Africa! (04/29/2009)
Hello again from the future bread basket of Africa!
The Community Churches for Christ in N. Uganda send their greetings, love and prayers to all of you. We continue to see and experience how the love of God knits us together and that the differences of culture, skin color, status, or financial condition do not divide us.
For the past week, we have joined with Medical Teams International mobile medical units both for training staff in some physical therapy concepts for low back pain, and experiencing their methods of providing medical care whether in the remaining refugee camps to the far North, or the villages where people are returning home after years in the camps. Seeing a woman who has had Elephantiasis for 20 years, people with open wounds covered with flies, babies listless with fever from Malaria, amputees from land mine explosions, and people so sick they couldn’t even sit up broke our hearts as we watched them patiently wait their turn to be seen in the hope of some relief from their misery. Someone once said to pay attention to what makes you cry, and what makes your heart sing and both happened during those visits. We cried as we witnessed such poverty and pain, but our hearts sang as we took part in sharing our knowledge and experience which will hopefully help improve their condition. Carolyn joined the staff in evaluating and treating patients needing physical therapy while Keith interacted with the refugees at the camp. Each person has a story to tell, something that grips you, and holds you, that you’ll never forget. The one that stands out for both of us is the woman with Elephantiasis in the photo above. She has had it for over 20 years. At first we couldn’t see that she had any toes, but on closer inspection, we could see all of them folded underneath the swollen foot, to where she had to walk on the tops of all except her big toe. Even though the parasite that caused the swelling had been treated and was no longer at work, the damage to the drainage system remains and the swelling will continue to increase. A massage technique she learned that day is to be repeated at home to reduce the swelling to a level where she can more easily do her daily work.
Keith befriended the old gentleman who was industriously using both hands and a foot to braid a rope in the second photo above, and was introduced to the various ways to construct a hut using different materials. He’s intrigued by the tools used for farming, metal work and woodworking and is soaking in the culture at break neck speed. He’s used local tools to construct an elevated wash table for dishes and clothing as a testing ground for the Omodi family. We hope that they will find standing upright while washing comfortable and back pain will be a thing of the past. Then, they will spread the word about the changes to others in the villages.
Another experience that made us cry and our hearts sing was attending a worship service in a mud hut church in a small village where our friend Richard is the pastor. This was “assembly day” where the 4 churches in their assembly met together. Some people traveled up to 3 hours by scooter to get there! The message was about using our time wisely, because once it’s passed, it can never be used again, and the time for certain things to be done will never come again. I (Carolyn) struggle with being on time, and was really convicted by it. But in another sense, I am living every moment as if it was my last, squeezing each one to get the most out of it. Keith connected heart to heart with all of the pastors and has received a letter from them to be delivered to the churches in the US. He’s sensing that developing deep friendships with these men and coming along side of them to encourage and build into their lives is what God is leading him to do. He’s already made so many friends and been given the honor of eating the chicken gizzard enough times that he’s starting to wake us up in the morning with a little cock a doodle doing!!
The crop projects continue with soy beans, onions, eggplant, red beans and cabbages taking hold. Oh how we wish we could be here for the harvest!! The trees at Lango College are growing well but the vegetable seeds have not yet been planted and it’s getting late – timeliness – it matters. We’ve come to see ourselves as Jesus described – part of a huge vineyard. Christ is the Vine, we are the branches and God tends the vineyard. No branch is more important than any other, and the branches can’t do anything without being connected to the vine. The branches in the US are as important and critical to God’s plans as those in Uganda, and none of us can do anything of eternal value without being connected to the Giver of Life. We continue to be so thankful for all of the stateside branches who have supported what is going on here in whatever way God has led you to do. We’re unbelievably fortunate to be the ones here, allowing the Lord to direct our steps each day, giving whatever we have as he directs, and receiving huge blessings as a result. What could be better??
There are so many ways that any of you could also have the joy of taking part by being here for a few weeks. So if your heart is beginning to be pulled to Uganda, please consider coming with us next year.
Sharing the Love of Christ in Practical Ways,
Keith and Carolyn
Hello again from half-way around the world in N. Uganda! (04/12/2009)
God’s provision for people here is their fertile land. Even the poorest people in the villages have land and yet because they don’t know how to use it effectively, they remain in poverty. Giving them a vision of orchards, bee hives producing honey, and high yield cash crops has inspired them to work hard for a future better than today. This week, planting began in earnest everywhere – each individual family is planting their private garden and the 3 village groups supported by Hands Across Nations first prepared their lands using the oxen donated last fall, then used the techniques recommended by Laban, their organic specialist guide to turn all the organic material they’ve uprooted, back into the soil instead of burning it. They learned seed and onion set preparation, how far apart, how deep and all the ins and outs of planting to give them the best prospect for a good yield. All of them worked throughout the days, cheerfully joking and chatting throughout the work, and were obviously enjoying sharing the work together. Ecclesiastes 4: 12 says “Two are better than one for they have a good reward for their work”. We are seeing this in action as the younger ones do the heavy labor of breaking up the ground and digging the spots for the seeds, and the old ones slowly and carefully do the seed planting.
One older lady, Beatrice, the leader for the Anyangopuc group is losing her eyesight though she is otherwise healthy and strong, so she cared for two of the babies while the others worked in the garden. (I’ve attached her photo) God willing, I would like to find a way for her to have cataract surgery to restore her sight. In Kampala, one hospital is specifically dedicated to treatment of eye problems, so the treatment is available. Without sight, Beatrice will be severely limited in her ability to take care of herself let alone help others. She has been a Godly role model for other women and even in her disability, has remained cheerful and positive.
The Bala group had been explaining that one of the oxen we purchased last fall was not working out and in fact would not work at all. He had interest only in grazing on the lush grasses and was growing quite chubby and healthy but was not only lazy, but would lie down and play dead when they tried to make him plow! This week they demonstrated his behavior which was absolutely comical and reminded me of the children’s story about Ferdinand the bull, not wanting to fight in the bull ring even though he was big and strong. But this was another story – during the demonstration, this ox ran off when yoked together with his partner, dragging the plow and the farmer holding onto it helter skelter across the field until he’d broken the yoke. As we came up to him, he laid his head on the ground, backside in the air and then rolled over on his side and gave a completely believable performance of being dead. Pastor Solomon lifted the back leg and dropped it without the ox giving even a glimmer of response! He would do well in Hollywood but the cost of transporting him there is prohibitive! So, when the mad-cow quarantine for the area is lifted, he will be sold for a good price for beef, and his acting days will be over. We decided to name him Ferdinand BA (Bad Attitude). The Bible has a Proverb that loosely paraphrased says, “He who does not work should not eat.” It was referring to people who can work but are lazy and don’t, but we think it applies to beasts as well, so Ferdinand BA’s days are numbered, and he won’t be spending his days eating for much longer. The video footage I have of the whole experience might just win HAN a prize on America’s Funniest Home Videos!
Scary Movie 3 film Also this week I began training staff at Ayira Nursing Home, a private hospital which began as a home being built for Dr. Opio and his family. Before it was completed, he and his wife Semi turned it into a hospital where he performs general surgery. I will be teaching them basic physical therapy techniques which can be used to strengthen post-op patients, along with how to retrain them to walk, move and balance better. A very big part of the training is in taking care of their low backs and how to teach back care to their patients and the patient’s families. The way women work for most of their day is standing, bent forward as in the planting photo above. They cook, clean, wash clothes and dishes, and plant their fields in this position. Pain is a good motivator, and it is an unwelcome companion to most Ugandan men and women. So we are starting with those who will listen, teaching some changes to their methods and the tools used, and hopefully, they will teach others who will pass it on as well.
While visiting Uganda last fall, my friend Livia and I were invited to observe a day of surgeries. We made it through three procedures then could not continue due to the extreme heat while wearing full scrubs, and rubber boots. You can’t observe too well while sitting down with your head between your knees to keep from fainting. It was then and there that the decision was made to find a way to purchase an air conditioner for the operating room. Through staff members at N. E. Washington Health Programs and another generous donor, the funds were raised to provide a high quality air conditioner with all the surge protection which will allow it to function for years to come. It now feels more like Washington State in the O.R. rather than Africa, and there are some very happy people who are thanking God and the people he used to bring them such a huge gift.
Today is Easter and Mother’s Day combined, so the women of Faith Mission Church were in charge of the services which were 2 ½ hours each. Dancing, singing and congregational prayer are all a part of the interactive way Ugandans worship God. I was given the privilege of giving a short message at two of the services and also sang a song with the women’s choir. Esther had made me a special dress for the occasion, so I blended in well with my Ugandan sisters. What a joy to celebrate the most important day in the lives of Christians with brothers and sisters in the family of God even so far from home.
Alegi gum aber Easter! (I pray you have great blessings this Easter)
Sharing the Love of Christ in Practical Ways,
Carolyn
Hello once again from beautiful fertile Uganda (04/06/2009)
In the last newsletter, I hinted about a project which just seemed to arrive suddenly with little pre-planning– a gift from God through connections from opposite sides of the globe. Matt McLain, a high school English teacher in Chewelah, WA, had graciously allowed me to present a program about Hands Across Nations work in N. Uganda to his Sophomore Honors English class recently. The students were given a background on the atrocities suffered by the people for over 20 years, at the hands of the “Lord’s Resistance Army” (LRA) and their leader Joseph Kony. The LRA for reasons which are difficult to discern, had abducted village children, pressing them into service as soldiers if they were boys, and “wives” of the LRA officers if they were girls. The children were often forced to kill their own relatives so they would be afraid to escape and return to their villages. Within the past 2 years, Kony and the LRA have been pushed into the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo through military activity of the Ugandan Army, and relative peace has returned to N. Uganda. I’ve seen more building, rebuilding and farming activity in the area during this trip, than I’ve seen in the 7 previous years. People who had been forced to live in huge refugee camps for several years up to 20 years, have been returning to their villages to attempt to pick up the pieces and begin again to develop communities. In some villages, nothing remains from their former life, and property boundaries are difficult to discern.
One of the Hands Across Nations projects which drew the student’s attention was the village crop planting project which I spoke about in the second HAN newsletter. Mr. McLain donated some funds for the project and I intended to use them for one of the villages. I had also requested that interested students write pen-pal letters to Ugandan High School students, getting an around-the-world dialog going for the mutual benefit of each group in understanding another country and its culture.
My Rotarian friend, Levi, is an English teacher at a boys boarding High School in Lira called Lango College, so I asked if he had any students who might like to practice their English by becoming pen-pals. It occurred to me that the school had a lot of land around it, and nothing had been done with it for a number of years due to the war (in fact it had been ransacked by the rebels and their library completely destroyed). The vision became a US/Ugandan pen-pal, tree and vegetable planting project where the students could be in contact through letters and emails, photos and videos. It quickly became a reality as it was OK’d by the headmaster. The Interact Club on the campus, a youth arm of the Rotary Club, took responsibility for planting the trees and vegetables and overseeing the watering, weeding and harvesting over the next several months. Last week, the students prepared the ground and planted 10 mango trees, 10 orange trees, 5 Jack fruit trees, and 50 pine trees Next week beds of tomatoes, egg plant (they actually LIKE them!), onions and cabbages will be planted. Our village crop project trainer, Laban, has agreed to speak to the students about managing and grafting trees so they can start their own trees without much expense. The enthusiasm was over-the-top as I had to limit the number of young men in each tree planting photo, and the numbers in the group kept swelling. The plan is to be able to harvest veggies and fruit which can supplement the posho (corn flour, water and salt boiled together into a large pasty type ball that is cut off in chunks), beans and tea which is their usual daily fare for the two meals a day they eat.
Originally there were 18 pen-pal letters written from Chewelah students, but so far there are over 100 Ugandan students who have written letters and want to be part of the cross-cultural dialog. Each one has had a photo taken which will be attached to their letters. (I’m sooooo grateful for digital cameras and computers!! My children have dragged me into the high tech age, thankfully)
When Americans think of boarding school it is entirely a different picture than the reality of many N. Ugandan boarding schools where students live in dormitories with triple decker bunk beds, their tea cooked in huge pots over open fires, and the posho and beans served out the kitchen window to the waiting bowls of hungry students. They have one well with a hand pump for water for the 1,000 students studying there. Each student has a 5 gallon jug to be filled each day or so for drinking, bathing and hand washing their own clothes. This is not a posh set up.
Young people may have different traditions and beliefs depending on their culture and history, but they all have an enthusiasm, energy and optimism that is infectious. Over the next several years, hopefully a lasting bond and friendship between the two schools will develop and deepen with increasing understanding of each others’ country. The possibility exists for a team of students from the US to visit their partner school sometime in the future to see the orchard and gardens started by their pen-pal letter exchange, and help with a joint project in person.
Another side project will be a letter writing campaign by the Lango College students, teachers, headmaster and myself to the Kennedy family asking for assistance to restore their library named after John F Kennedy. Hopefully the Chewelah students and their teacher will add their voices through letters as well.
This project thrills my soul as the possibilities for it are almost endless. These students have suffered much. Some of them were themselves abducted and were forced to kill or be killed – something you never forget and is not an easy thing from which to recover. But they are resilient, and bright and hopeful and it will a pleasure working with them.
Thank you, to Matt and his honor students for venturing out of your comfort zone and into something which has the potential to be life changing for all of us. Just think, in 3 years the trees should be producing fruit, and if we plant a group each year for the next 5 years, possibly adding other types they will have quite a large orchard which would help fund their school, lower their food costs, and be a great training ground for the students!
Several group photos have been attached, with labels. In the group photo, to my left is Esther, then Levi, and with the glasses is Alfred the Head Master. There is also a photo of Favor, Esther’s daughter carrying the Jack fruit tree she planted in the village at Anyangopuc.
Truly, only God knows where this initial project will be in 5 or 10 years, but I am prayerful that He will use it for good for many people.
Sharing the love of Christ in practical ways,
Carolyn
Hello again from not so sunny and wonderfully cooler Northern Uganda! (04/02/2009)
It seems that the dry season officially ended this week with a downpour during the time that 2 Ugandan Rotary Club members and I were traveling to some of the new or never viewed Spring Protection projects in the area. For those who have no idea what a Spring Protection Project is, I’ll give you some background information which might be helpful. The Rotary Club of Colville, WA, had 4 members visit Uganda in Late 2006-January 2007 for the main purpose of observing a Hands Across Nations spring protection project from start to finish. Abundant Life Fellowship, Chewelah WA, had donated the funds for the project. It started with a small pond of unclean water, from an underground spring into which villagers would dip their jugs to gather water to cart back to their homes. The water source was cleared and cleaned with a product that kills the parasites and the land dug out for the foundation of a brick and concrete structure. Local villagers provided the bricks and the unskilled labor while a team of skilled Ugandans provided the expertise and masonry labor needed. A pipe was placed in the cleaned area, gathering clean fresh water that consistently pours from it, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The structure allows villagers to enter with their water jugs using stairs, while animals can drink the run off . Photos of the construction of the structure can be found on the Hands Across Nations website: www.handsacrossnations.com. Two of the Rotary members raised funds and wrote a grant which almost quadrupled the funds they raised toward a large spring protection outreach in the Lira and Apac districts of N. Uganda. Over the next 2 years, the Lira Rotary Club were the overseers of 29 projects, inspecting each one and handing it over to the local village with the instructions for maintaining it. Four more springs are in line for protection which will bring the total to 33 villages which now have water nearby. Each spring project was sponsored by a family or group from the US.
As we started off to inspect and document the recent spring projects, dark clouds loomed and the wind picked up – no worries, we had 4 wheel drive. Wellllllll……..let me tell you, my Rotary friend Sam Okello had his 4-wheeling skills sharpened as he maneuvered through huts and bushes on the slurry of red mud out in the bush. Levi Abongo, his sidekick, who struggles with post back surgery neurological damage to his nerves to his legs, got a work out in his balance and coordination training hopping over rushing rivers of run off as we made our way to the isolated springs. I just slogged my way through, happily drenched to the skin, chilly for the first time since touch down in Uganda. I actually enjoyed shivering. Levi had been fasting and praying for the delayed rain to come so people could plant and the long drought would be over. God answered his prayer in a major way and we’ve had a good soaking rain each day since then!
The two springs visited were sponsored by two Colville families, and were quite different. The first was well kept by a villager named Esther, (standing in front of me in the group photo, Nance Spring) who asked that we bring her a brush so she could scrub it better. The run off canal was open and running well, but there was just a small stream of water coming from the pipe. The drought had lowered the flow to almost nothing, and yet this is the life blood of 300 families who typically have 7 – 10 members. The school across the street, which has over 200 children, also uses the spring. So this trickle of water serves over 2000 people a day. They value every drop and were intent on taking care of the precious flow. Spring number 2 was a very productive spring, which allowed for 2 pipes which were pouring abundantly. In fact the outflow had provided irrigation for a field of greens which were ready for harvest, and corn – now, at the very end of the dry season when most people don’t grow anything. They had successfully learned to use this life giving, precious commodity to feed their families fresh produce during a time when most are struggling to provide anything to eat. You can see the parched ground surrounding the lush green garden provided by the spring. However, the run off canal had been overgrown by grass and shrubs, and it had backed up into both chambers of the protective structure and water was mid-calf deep under the flowing pipes. This harbors all those microscopic things that cause diseases, so the people responsible for the upkeep of the spring were strongly encouraged to clear out the ditch and drain the water out of the jug filling chamber. There seemed to be a lack of enthusiasm from the caretaker though he agreed to get a team and clear it out. We will make another surprise visit in the near future to ensure this is done.
Prior to the joint HAN/ Rotary collaboration, the number of springs protected had been about 7 per year so protecting 33 in just over 2 years is viewed as a miracle for many people in those villages who had been waiting for clean water. I am indebted to the Colville and Lira Rotarians who personify the Rotary motto, “Service above Self”. The club is international and has people of the highest caliber of heart who not only volunteer their time, talents and resources free of charge in attempting to change the world around them for the better, but they pay yearly dues for the privilege! I’ve been honored to become one of them. The Lira Rotary, which has fewer than 20 members, will have completed 3 major projects since their establishment in mid 2006 and they are ready to partner with us again for another project which is yet to be chosen. I’m humbled by those men and women, many of whom are raising families and up to 5 or 6 orphans as well on salaries which are less per month than many of us make in a day, and some of us, in an hour!
I’m struck with the fact that each of us is given only so much time, talent, health, money and all of it is a gift which we can use or squander. As I see these men and women living out a life of significance even though they are ordinary to the world at large, their efforts have not gone unnoticed by those they’ve served or the God that created them. It makes me even more motivated to use what I have for such a time as this.
Stay tuned for a surprise project that suddenly dropped in my lap this week. Chewelah High School”s 10th grade honors English class, headed by Matt McClain, had written pen pal letters to Ugandan students in the hopes of setting up a “round the world dialog” It has mushroomed into something unexpected but should be a great youth project in the coming years.
I’m grateful to all of you who are praying for God’s work to be accomplished in His way, and for sending notes of encouragement. The impact on my spirit can’t be measured, especially on the days where it seems I’m not accomplishing much except moving forward in learning the language. Discouragement is always knocking at the door, but your support through the letters keeps it from coming in. Thank you, from deep in my soul, I do appreciate it.
Sharing the love of Christ in practical ways,
Carolyn