LAST DAY

We've had a very full time over the last three weeks, and it's amazing how fast the time goes when you are busy.

Purpose:  Our main purpose this trip was to spend time with the staff in head office leading them through an Organizational Assessment.  Action For Children is in transition just as most organizations are around the world.  As the saying goes "times they are a changing".

This was a very rewarding experience to help lead the staff through this exercise as they identified the areas that they need to strengthen in order to position themselves for the next five years.  Seven areas were identified and all of the staff went to work putting their action plans in place.  Today each of the areas reported back.  We were so impressed as to how well they had progressed.  This will catapult them forward in preparation for their strategic planning to take place in the near future.

These are the highly dedicated, trained and enthusiastic head office management and staff who make a difference in literally thousands of lives through the programs delivered to vulnerable children and their families around the country.

We are honoured that they have allowed us to work with them, and we are returning to Victoria energized to continue our work in Victoria supporting Action For Children in Uganda.

Kampala head office staff

Kampala:  We have seen & tasted a lot of things that we will miss like the mangos and avocados as big as grapefruits, and some other things like the traffic that we won't miss.  There are around 7 million people in Kampala with diesel fuelled cars and trucks all competing for space on the roads with the thousands of boda bodas, which by the way don't seem to be regulated at all.  So you see boda bodas carrying several people, or a load of lumber, or huge sacks of charcoal or food, wheelbarrows and even live animals.  

Boda bodas

There are also thousands of taxis that are 14 seater vans competing for space on the roads.  There is a public transportation system although it is small and not visable.  Then there are bicycles as well, so when you get into a heavy traffic jam...well it's always very interesting!

Taxis

A "jam"

Wild life:  Interesting wild life in the trees by the golf course.  Have you ever seen a bird like this?  

Parrot like birds

Marabou Storks are scavengers and are found everywhere.  This is a massive bird and the large specimen can reach a height of 60 inches and wing span can be 12 feet.  It is credited with the largest span of any land bird. 

Marabou Stork has largest span of any land bird.

Geoff, Jolly, Leanne

Thank you Jolly and George for hosting us while we were here.  We always gain so much insight and history into the life of Uganda!  May the Lord bless you and keep you till we meet again.

LIVING LIFE TOGETHER

When I was here in Oct/Nov 2013 Beatrice taught me how to make fresh passion fruit juice.  I love this fresh juice and I thought I would make it once I returned to Victoria.  Well, that was not to be because of the cost.  In Uganda passion fruit is plentiful and one small fruit would cost 500 UGX which is .20 CDN.  In Victoria I discovered that two small fruits would cost $5.00, and you need at least 17 to make a jug of juice.  So we will just enjoy it while we are here.

It takes at least 17 passion fruits plus 4 oranges,
sugar & water to make a jug of juice.

That's me cutting the fruit and straining the flesh to get the juice.

But I did have a chance to help Beatrice once again make juice for a large family dinner.

The family turkey woke us up every morning for a week and half...
until one day it mysteriously disappeared!

The family turkey dinner was very similar to what we would cook in Canada.
The two things missing were gravy and cranberry sauce.

The menu consisted of fresh smashed avocado with cut up tomatoes (avocados grow everywhere and they are very large); rice dishes; roasted carrots, onions, & other vegetables that were stuffed inside the bird; deep fried irish potatoes (as opposed to sweet potatoes which are widely grown and eaten) cut like fries; coleslaw without the creamy dressing; some chicken; and a large fresh green salad which was delicious.  It was the first time we had fresh green salad this trip.

The whole family came over and a few extras so there were 20 of us altogether.  It was a great time together.  Ugandans celebrate wholeheartedly so there is always a lot of laughter when they get together.  We have grown to love this.