Curious George

Hello again! So, time for another update. I promised I would introduce the Jenga staff to you, which I will begin to do in just a moment. Firstly though, I will give you some general news updates:

Grant has now left and another volunteer, Rozzy, has arrived. She's from Birmingham and we like to make fun of her accent! She's very outgoing and lovely and was here with Jenga for about 5 months last year. Tiff has also returned from the UK with an improved (although not completely better) arm, and doesn't have to return home for check-ups until December. So now we're back to having 4 people in the house! Almost seems crowded now after having so much space to the two of us for a while. Our doggie family has also increased in recent times. I went for a morning walk last week and noticed a small animal waddling along up ahead. When I reached it, I found it was a very small and very cute puppy! I stopped to pat it and noticed it was wet and filthy and it started wimpering. I knew I couldn't just leave him there to fend for himself at such a young age, so after a couple of phone calls, I carried him back home with me and put him in a "temporary" home in our garage. Rozzy decided to start calling him George, so it's kinda stuck now. Curious George. He was crawling with fleas and who knows what else, so we shampooed him several times and he seems to be okay now. We're still not 100% if we will keep him long term, but for the time being he is ours to nuture! This is him:

 
The past week or so, I have been compiling material to make a cohesive training manual for the Food Storage project. This covers everything from work ethics to business practices to correct handling and storing of grains to leadership and management. It will be used for all the storehouses (oh which there are currently two, with plans well under way for two more) but will be tested out this Thursday in Namabasa. I think there will be around 20 people there, including those who will oversee and manage the day to day running of the Namabasa storehouse once it's in operation. This is what the store looks like:

The training will need to be done over about 5 days, so this Thursday will be day #1 and the rest will follow at some point. Everything is quite ad hoc in Uganda, but it somehow works! (most of the time).  There is a chance a couple of us may travel to visit some other storehouses in the area sometime before I leave. There is a big industrial one in Jinja, as well as a partly-functional Jenga storehouse in Amuria, which is about 3 hours from Mbale if I remember correctly. It would be cool to get out and see some projects after so much time sitting at a computer in the office!  I'm looking forward to the training session on Thursday, even though I will be more of an observer than a participant. 

I now have less than 6 weeks left in Mbale and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm starting to feel like there's so much more I could have done here and I've only just started getting to know people here and feeling at home. I have now booked a flight from Mombasa to Nairobi, so I am heading to Mombasa by bus around Aug 23rd, then flying back to catch my next flight early the next morning to Madrid. I will be visiting my friend Adele in Mombasa, who is currently working for the Red Cross there on a one year AusAid-funded placement. I met Adele when I volunteered at the detention centre in Darwin and it turned out she lived just around the corner from where I was then living in Hawthorn East. Small world. It will be great to see her again and visit a new part of the African continent!

Okay, so now let me introduce some of our amazing Jenga staff members! This lovely lady here is Grace Namulinda (I think that's how you spell it anyway!). 

She is the mother of three children - Joshua, Pretty & Gracious - and lives with her husband in Namatala. I went to her church on Sunday morning and she invited me to her place for lunch afterwards (as Africans always do!). I had presumed that Grace lived in a decent house, as many of our staff do, because she always dressed nicely and looked neat and is well-spoken etc. When I arrived at her house, I was quite surprised to find that it was actually just a room. And not a big room either. It was much like my friend Natasha's place in Namakwekwe - a single room divided by a curtain, with a sleeping area on one side, and a sitting/eating area on the other. This room had electricity, but it also had 5 people living in it, not just one! I chatted to Grace for a good couple of hours about her life, her upbringing, her dreams etc etc. Her children are gorgeous and have manners that would put most Western kids to shame. It was quite a hot day, so I asked Grace if I could buy her and her kids a 'soda' each, so we walked around the corner and bought some cold bottles from the local store. They were SO thankful - you would have thought I had just given them each a hundred dollars, not a 800 shillings (22 cents) bottle of soft drink. Grace has a beautiful voice and is looking into recording a couple of her songs onto CD at a local studio. Both her parents have passed away and she dropped out of high school in S3 (around year 9 or 10 back home) when she had her first child at 17. She has been working with Jenga in the women's department for just over a year now and says it has made a huge difference in her life. She has a big heart, a big smile and has been a big blessing to me during my time in Mbale so far. She calls me 'Louigee' and I call her 'Gracie'. I am actually older than her by a few months!

The next person I'll shine my spotlight on is Sam. I honestly can't speak highly enough of this man.

Sam was the first person I met in Uganda, as he is nearly always the person they send to pick up newbies from the airport. And with good reason! Sam is one of the most friendly, inclusive, encouraging, faithful, generous & humourous people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. The drive from Entebbe to Mbale is not a short one, but Sam and I didn't run out of things to talk about the entire day. He also helped me shop for bits and pieces I needed when I arrived without my bag! He is married to Debbie and they have one son (pictured), Caleb. He doesn't say boo when I'm around and it's VERY hard to get a smile out of him! My mission is to win him over before I leave! Until recently, Sam was pastoring a church and working for Jenga part-time, but felt like God was telling him to step down from his role at church...without giving him any direction on what to do once he stepped down! Sam has amazing faith though, and I think would do just about anything God told him to do - no matter how crazy or confusing. Sam and his family live in Namabasa, and Sam will be part of the management team for the Jenga storehouse there. He has been to the UK before, so he knows a fair bit about mzungu's and other countries and cultures. He is a very insightful man. I asked Sam a couple of weeks ago to help out with driving a lady who couldn't walk to the hospital for her check up and of course he said yes. I passed along 2000 shillings for him, to put towards fuel or just for him to keep as a thank you for helping out and do you know what he did with it? He gave it to the woman he was helping. That's just Sam for you - always giving away the little he has and helping out wherever he can. He has really challenged me on the real meaning of generosity.  


I won't introduce everyone to you in this post cause it will take too long, but I will do my best to gather up info about the other legends I work with here in Mbale. These people truly are inspirational and constantly put me to shame with their faith, generosity, love and hospitality - in a good way!


Thanks for reading and I will endeavour to update this a little more frequently in my last few weeks in Mbale! Cheers,


Lou :)