What day/time is it?

Outside of the village in a tiny town with a horrible internet connection I have no way to email friends or family so here goes the blog. This is Nikki and I am feeling much better after a few days of the "flu". Today is our last day in Maundo as tomorrow we proceed to start our journey to meet Lee and Trish and we are filled with bittersweet emotions as we leave a place with no running water, sewer systems, electricity (actually there is a solar panel and a latrine at our host's house) but WONDERFUL people and INCREDIBLE experiences to share. Today was a huge day as we were finally able to make our donations to the primary school and daycare in Maundo and brainstormed what to do with our remaining funds last evening ( a surprise!). Love to you all as I will keep this brief and hope to be more in touch for the rest of our trip. (Plus who knows how much this will cost, it took 20 minutes just to log in!) -nik

a letter to my mom...

Beeyabo? (How are you?) Jocama (I'm fine:). These are some key things I learned around communication yesterday, in a small village just outside of Tororro (about 45 mins N of Maundo). Yesterday was all about tours, as we visited: A boarding school for the deaf and various disabilities & Salvation Army's orphanage home in the morning; afternoon - this village outside of Tororro called Quapa where Larry's Rotary club and several others in the US have recently started an 'Adopt a Village' project to REPLICATE what he started in Maundo several years ago. Adopt a Village focuses on: Heath (mosquito nets to prevent spread of malaria and eventually reduce new cases), rocket stoves to reduce smoke in kitchens), Education (HIV prevention, Mosquito Net Implementation. all = sustainability practices), Nutrition (purchasing cows for milk, chickens/fish ponds for protein), Economic Development (eventually the goal is to SELL whatever stuff - milk for example - is in excess BEYOND what the family needs to make ends meat), etc. So, we went into this building where over a hundred people sat and we sat up at the front on this stage behind a desk with several key Rotarians from Tororro that are partnering w/ Larry and US clubs on this project. The presentation was to "kick off the project" for the village. This particular building was apart of a local village project called Post Test Club, which offers education and greivance counseling, most importantly SUPPORT, to people living with HI V/Aids. So, a group of women and men in these red and white uniforms walked up just several feet in front of us and performed several songs for us. Unreal! All this in a very hot and sticky full house, with kids and families in chairs and on the floor and the way back to the end of the hallroom. In the back, I could make out art work from the kids with montra's written in between focussing on creative energy, working together, expanding one's mind - leading to empowerment for all. There was an actual strategic plan listed on the blackboard behind us, with Goals / Objectives / Tools to Measure the goal / Critical community partners / etc. Just when you think your in a poverty stricken village where there's goats and cows tied up outside, grazzing, and you stumble into this whole room full of incredible energy and such clear intention. I quickly talked to one of the village leaders and learned this few local (they didn't speak Swahili, so I couldn't use the catch words/questions I had already learned earlier that day:) words so I could officially introduce myself. I stood up and said what I started this email out with and then told a quick story of a man i knew at the Port of Seattle through work that died 4 yrs ago from Aids. I said "it was difficult....you all here are doing such critical work..with a pause...and it's also refreshing to be a witness. Yalamma! (which means Thank You) When I introduced myself, I held up my journal and pointed at the catch phrases I had just learned and smiled and they all started laughing. :) One of the songs they sang had the chorus words "my life is gone". A young boy w/ our Rotary group afterwords stood up and said that he didn't like those words and said that they were all losing 'hope' when they said that. The primary music group leader, quickly stood up (woman), and clarified in English (which was impressive) that "when they say those words, my life is gone, they are telling the kids of the village I am dead. We don't want our people to live with this disease. If we use positive words, then they go on not really thinking about the importance of this bad disease and nothing changes." wow - I was almost in tears. A recent college grad, working in sales for a solar panel comany out of Tororro, got up at the end and gave a motivational and educational speech on Aids and that was really cool. I thought of Meg.

The day before we were in Maundo talking with various groups (one group of folks that were most disabled due to health and lack of $, rather than actually born into; the local PTA and teachers group at the school were working with next Monday, etc). One group, the women who runs the micro-loans for the start up businesses via the Adopt a Village, was set (in our ears/minds) to meet with us at 2pm in the village at their building where they work. Mom, we rolled up and they = probably 50-75 people all singing together and welcoming us. Turns out, John Okumu (our host) looked over at us after he spoke with one of the key folks there and said "they have been waiting for us...they arrived here at 8am." unreal......you just have no idea what those feelings are like...from pure love, to determination for change and help at any costs, to what i am now starting to feel and see. That's a sense of 'common people' who instantly relate to you and vice versa and have the ability to work together far more than anyone I have met in my life. * Yesterday was the first day that I told Nikki and Sarah that everything I see now feels normal. Up until that point, it was hard to physically and emotionally relax w/ stimulation overload everywhere you looked. it will be hard to leave this place...

I captured videos of the singing within all these stories I'm telling you, so you will almost feel like your right there.

We went to the Tororro Rotary club meeting last night and that was awesome. The food is very good and I'm learning so much about agriculture in this country which literally survives off the land. Kosava is my favorite, a potato root, that is sliced in long pieces and you dip it into a nice peanut sauce.

Trish and Lee arrived (Larry got a call) yesterday and are off to do sight seeing stuff. We meet up with them in Entebbe this coming Tuesday. We do village stuff in Western Uganda w/ them Wed/Thurs/Fri, and then do the safari Sat/Sun - my b-day! :)

I hope Meg had a great B-day. I thought of her yesterday. The only tough thing as of late has been exhaustion due to packed days with high altitude at times and very muggy weather yesterday - not so today. It's crazy cause we carry several bottlles of water and even drop electrolyte tabs into our bottles and you still get tired and light headed at times because your sweating most of it out. Were taking breaks, like right now at a parish/home within an orphange development for kids. The minister who is a Roatarian let me use his awesome computer (fast and easy to type with vs last communication via a cafe in town that was hard to type on, not to mention expensive!

love to all -
Jon Hankins

In Preparation

The trilliumites here have been spending the last few weeks getting shots (ouch), gathering donations (including so far, 30 soccer balls, laptops, and some school supplies), finalizing lodging and travel plans and purchasing bug repellent and camera memory cards. We are so excited that it's hard to remember we are at work! With less than 3 weeks until we leave we try to fit more work into every day...