Child Sponsorship Updates

Part of the business-related work covered during the June trip included developing a child sponsorship form to help collect information that would be useful in whole-child care as well as to gain an understanding the family life and needs. Lauren and I met with three of the sponsored children yesterday to collect the information. A few surprises might interest you.

Frank gives his pocket money (given by sponsors for children to have food in addition to the twice-daily maize porridge and beans) to his mother who has been told she has cancer of the blood and whose father died a few years ago.

Yunus is supposed to have his own bed at the boarding school but doesn’t. In no uncertain terms I instructed the Matron to get a mattress for him that day and that I would be checking back in the morning to ensure he had his own bed. The Matron said okay and that she would just move the second boy to another child’s bed. Very loud, very big internal sigh!

Godfrey was sent home from school because his shoes weren’t good enough. He’ll be back tomorrow regardless of whether he has any shoes at all. Would you like to purchase some shoes for him? The ones I just picked up for Frank and Yunus cost about $20 (including the white tax).

Olivia gave me her letter to her sponsor, my friend. Included was this poem. I asked her if the poem was created by her and she said yes but I’m not perfectly confident that she understood me. I can’t find any of the lines of this poem in Google so I’m inclined to think it really is her own creation. Get out your tissues and read the Olivia’s Poem blog post…the life of a child…oh!

Coolest of all, every child professed Jesus as his or her Savior!

Kill the Goat

An apparent tradition in the school is to kill a goat and share that meal on the last day of school. I’ve been seeing goats alongside the road in Uganda and I’ve even enjoyed a few meals of goat meat and stew…but knowing exactly which goat I am eating…well…that’s another story all together. This goat appeared on my plate as a delicious and tender stew. Yum!

Food/Business Sponsorship

I met with Agnes, Pastor Phillip’s wife, to ask how best the people in these remote Karamajong villages could be helped. Agnes is an educated and very wise woman and her request was simple, “We need some way to earn money for food.”

The idea was a simple one and one I presumed some people were already doing. They simply lacked start-up capital to follow through. The problem is that most food is bought in gigantic bags that probably weigh nearly 100 pounds or more each. Yet most Karamajong cannot afford to purchase an entire bag, but instead have only a few shillings on rare occasions.

The suggestion…purchase a giant bag of food (rice, beans, sugar cane, matoke, etc.) and resell that food in smaller portions for a profit. Agnes thought the idea was perfect and asked how many women could create an income this way. We talked about how competition for any one food might affect sales and we talked about the practicality of getting to market for reselling. We also talked about managing the food so as not to consume it before it is sold. Finally, we talked about the viability of even beginning the process without funding.

Here’s where you come in. If you would like to sponsor a gigantic bag of food to help at least one family gain a small, self-sustaining income, please press the “donate” button and contribute $100. If you would like to help with a half bag of food for $50, I will match your gift with someone else’s gift to make up that full bag.

I’ll purchase all the necessary supplies (smaller bags) and transportation of these bags to the village where Agnes lives. I’ll make some recommendations to Agnes about how to manage the food supplies for the women and how to maximize profit on a single bag of food. The hope is that your gift will create a self-sustaining income. Can you help?

Chickens for Sale

Shopping can be a challenge particularly when trying to choose just the right cut of meat. To make things a little easier for us, these folks have laid out all the options.

I wonder of these chickens got here via the boda-boda as I saw last time.

Bye-bye Campers

Homemade cinnamon rolls every Saturday send the campers home satisfied. I had four responsibilities that contributed to their success. First, I got to mix five pounds of sugar, five pounds of brown sugar, and five cups of cinnamon for the filling. Yep, I even got the measures correct. Second, I got the privilege of frosting these cinnamon rolls. The technique is one I enjoyed… using my hands (gloved, of course). Third, I got to be sure each serving line had plenty of rolls for the campers who came through. I had sticky fingers all morning because whoever frosted the cinnamon rolls got frosting all over the edges of the baking trays. Fourth, I got to eat them. Yuu-uum!

Weights and Measures

Cooking for more than 400 people every day is a work of gigrundous proportions. Portions aren’t measured by cups, but instead they are measured by pounds. I supposed the regular cooks here get used to it and know just what size mixing bowl to use – laundry tub size or swimming pool size.

I was assigned to mix the cheese layer and the sauce layer for lasagna based on a given recipe and the mixing bowl was preselected for me. I started with the cheese layer because it was smaller. I knew there was a problem when I got only two of the four ingredients into the bowl and it was already full. Surely the experienced second cook knew what size bowl would be needed so, um…

I added 2-10 lb containers of ricotta cheese and was supposed to add 2-10 lb bags of eggs…or so I thought. Okay, well…let me preface this story by saying that the printed recipes included the package size from which the measure was to be taken. So, for example, if you needed 1 cup of sugar the recipe would say something like this:

Sure Fine Sugar 2-10 lb bag 1 cup

Interpretation: Sure Fine Sugar comes in a 2-pack of 10 lb bags and you only need 1 cup for this recipe. Well, I learned to interpret these recipes AFTER I poured a 10 lb bag of liquid eggs into the mixing bowl…heh…I only needed 1.5 lbs not 2-10 lb bags.

Okay so, you know I am not the best cook and that God has a sense of humor by sending me to work in the kitchen. But I can follow a recipe…usually.

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Luke 6:38).

“Yes Please” and “No Thank You”

Would you like some chicken? Yes please.
Would you like some potatoes? Yes please.
Would you like some peas? No thank you.
Would you like a rice crispy treat? Yes please.

Would you like some spaghetti? Yes please.
Would you like some sauce and meatballs? Yes please.
Would you like some corn? No thank you.
Would you like a breadstick? Yes please.
Would you like some apple crisp? Yes please.

Would you like some lasagna? Yes please.
Would you like some green beans? No thank you.
Would you like some garlic bread? Yes please.
Would you like a brownie? Yes please.

These campers are some of the most polite young people I’ve ever seen. Now, if we could only get them to eat their vegetables.

The Kitchen

The kitchen at Lake Ann Camp runs like a well-oiled machine with lots of moving parts. I’m learning a lot about the processes and enjoy helping where I can. This morning we ate “pan cake” with apples topped with cinnamon frosting. Yum. For lunch we had chicken patties and crispy fries (no fries for me, pant-pant).

Spaghetti was on the menu for tonight and I heard there would be no silverware with which to eat this spaghetti. Here’s what one participant looked like after successfully completing his first plate full. Sometimes the food would be arranged in a more attractive manner to further entice passersby.

There are dated shelves for leftover food. There is a rotation system for incoming dry goods – pack on the right, draw from the left. Sounds like the four gallons of milk in my refrigerator. Gotta keep track of which is the oldest and drink it first. There’s even a list of things to do when you think you’re “done” to which I frequently refer. You’d be proud of me doing me two least favorite things – cooking and cleaning – and doing them well (I think).

The team I work with has been starting to show me some of the camp claps and chants. They’ve even invited me to “Fight Night.” I’m afraid of what that is but I look forward to finding out…I think.

Bethel Junior School

Mercy Uganda chooses which schools its sponsored children attend based on the quality of the education provided. There are some circumstances, such as location, where a Christian school is not available but every effort is made to ensure the children receive a Christian education. Bethel Junior School, in Namulanda, is one of the schools where five sponsored children attend.

School leaders are generally inclined to be helpful and open about their schools, their curriculum, and the affairs of the sponsored children. Of course, the schools don’t function in exact parallel to how they might function in the U.S. so Mercy Uganda is still learning what questions to ask so that each student is most well cared for.

For example, we learned that all of the students receive porridge for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. From what I can tell, porridge consists of milk with cornmeal. Seems cruel but given the available funds in an already poor area of the country, porridge three times a day is more than so many other children receive. The children can bring “pocket money” to purchase additives such as geenuts (peanuts), honey, or some other small foods. In a week’s time, students will generally need 2,500 shillings ($1.25) per week to have access to these extra foods to make the porridge more nutritious and more edible.

What this means is that child sponsors may wish to provide pocket money for their child from which to enhance their meal time and nutritional intake (at least a little). The $450 sponsorship fund is for education and boarding, but that money does not cover pocket money. This approach seems to be mirrored throughout all the schools we encountered.

Traditional Ugandan Meal

Henry’s wife, Alice, prepared a traditional Ugandan meal for Laura, Lauren, Gabriel, and me – and the many others who would join us. Peter moved from person to person with a basin and water jug, as there was no running water in Henry’s home. We washed our hands using the strong soap bar in preparation for dining with our natural fork (our fingers).

As an appetizer we enjoyed gee nuts (boiled peanuts). The peanuts here come in threes rather than twos. We were also served drinks, which Henry hand selected for each person given his very accurate observations of our preferences during previous meals together.

Goat was the main dish, cooked in the outdoor kitchen (not the kind of kitchen an American would visualize), and had been sautéed in some delicious but unrecognizable seasonings. My piece was very flavorful but stringy. Laura and Lauren said their pieces were quite tender. Matoke (green bananas, boiled, peeled, and somewhat mashed), white rice (a very common staple), and Irishes (potatoes) were plentiful. A goat-based stew (gravy) added flavor to the starches. Frenches (green beans) were served as was chapatti, a type of flat bread used to scoop the food.

Our plates were full of this entirely locally grown, organic, homemade meal. The food placed on the coffee table before us must have cost a month’s wages but was given without reservation. Ugandans eat in silence, which felt awkward to Laura. Surprisingly, I was quite content to simply enjoy the flavors of each dish that was served.

Dessert consisted of papaya, mango, pineapple, and watermelon…and then more pineapple. This part of the meal was true heaven.

More introductions following the meal and I asked if Henry or any of his friends had any prayer needs. For the first time since I met him, Henry was speechless. I wondered if, perhaps, I had violated some cultural or social standard. In the end, though, after we sang Amazing Grace together, his friend asked for prayer for his wife who would deliver what he hoped would be his first son and fourth child. Henry asked for prayer that he would continue to maintain focus on Jesus even when the winds tossed him to and fro, and that all the children would be protected from the temptations they face. Amen.

Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Well, I found a suitable replacement for my chocolate Cheerios in the honey nut Cheerios, but that purchase was really intended for those starvation, got-the-shakes moments. You know…just in case I waste away.

Lauren purchased peanut butter and jelly for a breakfast sandwich (no toaster), which was one of two items I enjoyed the first morning. After draining off the top inch of oil from the peanut butter (which I realize was supposed to be stirred in), I spread the paste on the dense bread. I just couldn’t stomach the idea of eating all that oil. The jelly was some fruit flavor and came in something like a soup can. The consistency reminded me a bit of that cranberry stuff you eat at Thanksgiving, the can ridges could be seen on the edge of the scoop I took.

Fruit is the standard fare for breakfast. I struggled with a green orange to go with my pbj sandwich. Green oranges. The skin was quite thin so it didn’t peel off like the Navals. The body of the orange was greenish and was difficult to separate from the skin even after wedging. Essentially, I sucked the juice out of a somewhat bitter orange and made a massive slimy mess all over the kitchen sink (reminder – no water to clean up) and down my elbows. Maggots, ants, and fruit flies…oh my!