Excitement in the Neighborhood!

Inspired by workers on the new school next to their home, two children dig a foundation f their own!

There's excitement in the SOVCO neighborhood! Mrs. Abalo Rose, who is the aunt who has often cared for our sponsored girl Komagum Paska, has donated a piece of farmland near her house for SOVCO to build a school!

During the recent brick-making season, the men in the village were busy making bricks (some paid for by our director Tonny and his dad, Kisembo, and others paid for by a fundraiser of the Claypool Elementary School preschoolers...thanks, kids!)

Then when I went to Uganda, I carried along a donation from our church to get the construction started. My first day there, I saw an empty field, but within a few days it was transformed into a busy work site. We commissioned a talented and humble young man named Ivan (really, he has the nicest personality) to manage the project, and hired several men from the surrounding village to help with the work.

Not only do the men get paid well for their work on the school, but they learn valuable skills from our foreman, Ivan.

On March 2 (unfortunately the day after I left Uganda) a service of dedication was held, and I was grateful that my son, Joey could be present for that. By this time they were working against the clock, trying to get the foundation in and ready to withstand the coming rains, which usually start at the end of March. Also, there were bags of cement sitting in the store room, which needed to be used before the roof started leaking. Fortunately, two donations have come in which allowed us to continue the work, and even cover some unexpected expenses that the engineer deemed necessary to make a good foundation. As of two weeks ago, we had made it this far:

 

We hope to make it up to the window level with the bricks and mortar we have available already. Then we are going to need more funds. If you'd like to contribute to this worthwhile project, you can! When the school is finished, we will make a plaque with the names of all who have contributed to the school, and place where everyone can see.

Our church has agreed to process donations over $250, so that donations are tax-deductible. So write checks over $250 to Eel River Community COB. Of course smaller donations are also welcome, and those you can write to SOVCO. Both types can be mailed to my address: 100 Pleasant Way, North Manchester, IN 46962. In about a week I will launch a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo, in hopes of bringing in a larger audience. At that time, it would be great if you could share the opportunity to give with friends and family!

At first I thought his name was "Robot." He was a small, wiry man, who seemed to have a whole wardrobe of ripped and torn clothing. He kept bringing me bottle-caps, which I had mentioned I may want to make into something. Anyway, he didn't want the children to step on them with their bare feet.

Then he began carrying bricks to make a new hut behind the SOVCO office. First he laid them in a circle, and began building on top of that. Robert was always in motion, and he was everywhere, every day. Outside the outhouse, he rigged up a plastic bottle to pour water on the children's hands after they came out.

One day he handed me a thousand-shilling bill, worth about 40 cents. "For airtime," he said (airtime is what they call the pay-as-you -go phone service). I asked him if he had a phone, so I could call him. No, he didn't have one. He just wanted to help me out. Robert is a SOVCO volunteer.

Collin is a SOVCO volunteer, too, and has been for years. Need a bottle of water or some airtime? Yell for Collin. He'll fetch it at the village store. One of the kids is sick and has to be taken to the doctor? Collin will take her on the SOVCO motorbike. There's a package at the post office in town? You need someone to sleep at the worksite to guard the new bags of cement for the SOVCO school? Need to locate one of the children? You can count on Collin.

Collin and his wife Alice just had a beautiful new baby (who was sleeping in the hut when this picture was taken). We took them a bag of sugar from town when we went to visit them. Alice fed us a special meal of squirrel and beans and posho (a kind of cornmeal dish, served with everything). They sent us home with one of their precious chickens (alive, and sometimes protesting, riding upside down held by its feet by Collin on the motorbike), so we'd have a fine meal the next day, too.



"Jesus looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”
                                                                                               Luke 21:1-4, RSV

I'm home! Back to craving hot tea instead of cold water. Back to white snow instead of red dust. Back to missing my family in Uganda instead of missing my family in Indiana.

It was a great trip, and I felt like I really got to know people and the way of life in Uganda even better than last time. My son Joey and I rented a simple house in a normal neighborhood in town, with neighbors amazed to have "mzungus" next door. A cadre of curious kids was always on hand to greet us whenever we opened the door. It was fun to watch them play with toys they'd made: cars made from water bottles and discarded flip flops, kites made from a plastic bag and string, a hoop made from an old tire. They loved my toys, too. Especially my camera. When I would take a picture of them and show them, they'd laugh uproariously.

Each morning, I would wake up under my mosquito net, and after crawling out, would begin washing our clothes from the day before. The dry season means dust, and it was really quite fun to see how much dirt came out of those clothes after just one day! Also, I was amazed how quickly everything would dry. Here's a shot of our bathroom with wash basins and "squatty potty."

About mid-morning, our director Tonny would pick me up with the SOVCO motorbike to begin the day's adventures, which included visiting the children at their schools, and bead ladies at their homes, spending time at the SOVCO office (looking at receipts and report cards, chatting with volunteers and whatever children stopped by, checking progress at the SOVCO school worksite, and eating lunch made over a charcoal stove).

Late afternoons and evenings, I often spent time at Tonny's home with his wife Beatrice and their adorable baby Dan. I experienced for the first time what it's like to be a grandma...and I love it! We spent lots of time together sitting on their doorstep and watching the life of the compound. Babies in Uganda don't wear diapers, and it's said that if they feel comfortable with you  they will pee on you. Dan definitely feels comfortable with me! And I miss him so much! 

I’m in Uganda! Sorry it has taken me so long to write…life here presents all kinds of obstacles to accomplishing one’s goals. But I finally have an internet connection and a bit of extra time, so here I am.

My first day here, I was greeted at the SOVCO compound with a procession of children and their guardians, the women emitting this high-pitched warbling sound that means they are happy and excited to see you. I immediately recognized many of them from last time, and they were touchingly grateful for that. A committee of parents had organized the program.  I was seated under a sun shelter with the director and board members. Parents and guardians were grouped under a tree, and the children were under another sun shelter. There was a wonderful program with songs by the children, and a traditional dance by the women.  All the while there were women working hard preparing a meal over fires around the compound, and children trooping to the cute new outhouse hut and back. There’s always so much to look at here in Africa! Click here for a link to a video of part of the program.

We did not give the gifts to the children the first day, as there were children there who are sponsored by a church in Florida, who would not be getting gifts. They wouldn’t have understood why they didn’t get anything, so we have been giving out the gifts to the kids as we see them. Yesterday several stopped by after school to get them: Arach Eunice, Agnes and Babra, Ivan, Gerald, Brenda, and Prossy are the ones I remember.

Building has started on the SOVCO school! They had made bricks during the month before I came, using money from fundraisers some of you have done. My church sent $2,000 along with me, which we have spent on more materials. The land was cleared, and a trench has been hand-dug in the dry, rocky soil by local men grateful for the work. Soon, the foundation will be laid, and we hope to have enough to build the walls up several feet before running out of money. That’s the way it’s done here, since banks take such high fees, and money hidden in the house is not safe. So they just start building. They know with a growing population, and a fierce demand for education, a school is always a good investment.

I have visited several of the existing schools this past week, and always get a warm but shy welcome from the children. Tonny and I establish ourselves  in the head teacher’s office, and someone is dispatched to gather all the SOVCO sponsored children in the school. Then we sit and visit for awhile, me giving a speech about how much you care about them and pray for them, that it’s not just money you are supplying, but spiritual support as well. Then Tonny gives a longer speech about how therefore they should work hard to achieve their goals, and SOVCO will be so proud of them. And I take pictures, which I will send to you when I get home.

I am constantly feeling amazed that I am actually here, experiencing a life so different from life in North Manchester, Indiana (where I hear the snow just keeps on coming). I’m so grateful to God for letting me do this work! And to you for supporting these children. Thank you.

Blessings,

Sally

We have a plan!

As many of you know, our sponsored children's school situation is not ideal: Most go to government-run schools where there are 100 children to each classroom and teacher. This picture shows how the classroom looks when half the class is in the classroom. Where are the other half? At recess, of course, where they spend about half of their school day. I don't think they get much individual attention. Sometimes the schools are so crowded, kids get turned away. Parents have started this school for their kids: open walls under a grass roof shelter. Volunteer teachers. No books, paper, desks, or chairs. Just boards lined up on the ground to sit on, and a chalkboard that SOVCO bought for the school with a special donation we received. Well, we have a plan to fix this! Our good director Tonny has a friend who is a qualified engineer, and he has donated his skills to draw up a plan for a small school to be built on a donated plot of land not far from the SOVCO office. The land was donated by a relative of one of our sponsored children (often people have land, but no money, so that is how they show their appreciation). The school fits with SOVCO's philosophy of "Start small, dream big, change lives." The first phase of construction, after the money is raised, will be a small nursery and primary school. As more funds are raised, more classrooms will be added for the higher grades. This is a BIG step for SOVCO, which two short years ago, before you guys came along, was supported mostly by selling vegetables to local restaurants, and paid school fees for a handful of kids. We invite your creative participation in this new venture! How can you get involved to help us raise the $30,000 we need to build this school? Here you see my good nephew, Ben. He's graduating this year from high school. He's grateful for the education he's received (except maybe for the math), and he wants to help other kids get a good education, too. He plans to organize a skateboarding trip from point A to point B, and get people to sponsor him, and then donate the money to build the SOVCO school! That's what I call taking a thing you do well and using it to do good! What do you do well? And how can you help SOVCO meet its goal? I'd love to hear from you any ideas you have! And your school or youth group may like to sell paper bead bracelets and lanyards, or bead kits as a fund raiser for the school (can also be a double fund raiser, for your group AND the SOVCO school. Contact me if you'd like to do this. And meanwhile, there is a great movie about a school in Kenya called The First Grader. I highly recommend it. It's on Netflix, but also I have a copy (thanks, Mim), and you are welcome to borrow it. Thanks for all your steady support, and God bless, Sally PS: If you're on facebook, be sure to join our director Tonny on his page, sovcogulu...a few sponsors have enjoyed impromptu "chats" with Tonny. He's a fun guy. ©2013 Forresterich | 100 Pleasant Way, North Manchester, IN 46962

New School Uniforms!

Written August 19,2013:

Hi Sponsors! It's been a busy few weeks for our family, as our daughter Sarah was married on Saturday, and as the proud mother, I cannot resist including one tiny picture of the newlyweds! They are about to embark on a two-year volunteer stint in a rural community in Nicaragua. If you have children in school, you have probably just finished the task of getting them ready for the school year, outfitted with new school clothes and supplies. That's what SOVCO is up to this month, too. There is a long list of children whose uniforms have become quite worn, and our money this month will go to replace those uniforms. One thing you may not have thought of when supporting a child, is that your money is also going to support small local businesses like the tailors who make the uniforms for the children. And that is an important thing to do. With used clothing from developed countries flooding into Africa, tailors have found their businesses declining. But school uniforms help keep small-scale tailoring businesses alive. Most of the children have just one uniform, which gets washed once or twice a week, on Sunday. Most of the children do their washing themselves, and dry their uniform on the thatch roof of their house, like you see below. Here Aron and Gloria model the kind of state a uniform can get into after a year of that kind of treatment: And here is a fashion show of uniforms from the different schools our SOVCO kids attend: Gerald, Hamis, Reagan, Mercy, Babra and Patrick in the Koch Ongako uniform Aron and Eunice in the Kweyo uniform Paska, Scovia, Patricia, Babra, Eunice and Winnifred in the cheery yellow Bethel Gulu Christian School uniform Joseph is our only student in the beautiful purple uniform of St. Bakhita Primary School. Nancy in the uniform of St. Mary Immaculata Isabella, from Christ Church Primary School Arach Eunice in the uniform of Koch Koo Primary School Caroline in the uniform of Laminlawino Primary School Juma attends Bwobomanam Primary School Winny in the uniform of Goma Central Primary School Flavia attends Layibi Green Primary School Levi attends Lacor Primary school, in the lower level. Christopher also attends Lacor, but in a higher level. Most schools have a different but similar uniform for the different levels of school. Here you see the differnt girls uniforms for Kirombe Primary School: Trecy in nursery, Janet in primary, and Franka in high primary: So, if you think getting your kids ready for school is a lot of work, imagine getting 57 kids ready! And as always, thanks so much for your financial support in making this happen for the SOVCO kids.

Find out why your kid is yours.

Hello, SOVCO sponsors! Here is Gerald, who is sponsored by friends from my church. He has a catarract in one of his eyes, and last year soon after they began sponsoring him, he was able to have an operation, which has helped somewhat, but not completely. This picture was taken not long after the operation. Both of Gerald's parents have died, so he is living with his grandmother, who is 75 years old and caring for eight other children on her farm. One would be tempted to pity him, but Gerald is one smart cookie. He was number one in his class, and Tonny says, "our Gerald is very intelligent and every teacher is really appreciating the tireless efforts that he is putting forth to challenge other fellow children." Gerald likes science, math and English. He wants to be a pilot. At the recent Annual General Meeting, Gerald asked permission to recite a poem that he had written in Acholi. He did this in front of all the guardians and special guests, like head teachers and even a minister of education. John, our friend who sponsors Gerald, suffers from Parkinson's disease. He's had countless surgeries and adjustments of medication and the deep brain stimulator in his head, and right now has a gash on his head that makes him look like someone you might feel pretty sorry for, too. But John, like Gerald, does not resort to self-pity. He still sings in our church choir, and when he starts to fall over, one of the tenors pulls him upright, and he keeps right on singing. He goes walking with his wife Carolyn, and always shows up for events at church. Until recently he maintained a hiking path through his woods and loved hunting for mushrooms in the spring. It's getting harder and harder for him, but, like Gerald, he presses on, doing as much as he can. I believe that God has matched each sponsor and child; that there is something shared about each pair. What is it about your child? It's time to write letters again, and hopefully over time, you and your child will find your common ground. Think of that when you write. You may want to consider sending a nice card this time, and in your message somehow express one essential thing about yourself.