Two years and two months

It's hard to belive that I've been back home for two years and two months! It doesn't feel that I've been away from Uganda and my village of Bigodi that long. I think of the friends that I left behind in Bigodi everyday. In the morning when I let my shower run to get hot, I think of my friends and how they still have to walk miles to get water everyday for bathing, cooking, drinking and cleaning. When I drive my car to work, I think of my friends who ride their bikes and walk miles to work and home everyday. I especially think of my friends when I go grocery shopping and I have twenty alies of food to chose from while their choices are whatever they grow in their gardens. When I do to the doctor I think of my friends and their familes members who die from easliy treatable illness. Everytime Uganda comes on the news, I see my friends faces and my desire to return to Uganda/East Africa increases.

During the spring and summer, I was in a contest with Travlocity to win a trip to Tanzania to work on a womens entrpeurnership project. While I was one of the finalists, I was not chosen as one of the four winners. However, thank you all for your amazing support. I know I could not have become a finalist without your support. I ended up 9th based just on the votes which is amazing in a national contest!!!

I appreciate you all supporting my dream of returning to Africa as I know my work is not finished.Please let me know when you see travel and service opportunities here and around the world.

Ugandan Crafts for Sale

Looking for a unique gift for graduation, mother's day or an upcoming wedding. What about a beautiful handmade basket or necklace from Uganda. All the proceeds are sent back to Bigodi to assist with community projects. I can ship and I take all major credit cards, paypal, and personal checks. To see pictures of the crafts please visit, www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125216&id=572152211&l=e88ad1c5c4. If you don't see a color or design that you like do ask, as I have many more pieces and may have just what you're looking for.

The baskets and jewelry are all made by members of the Bigodi Women's Group. This group of 115 members has been working together for 15 years to create beautiful works of art. To read more about this group please visit
www.bigodi-tourism.org/4301.html

I pay the women for the crafts when I order a shipment than all the additional proceeds are sent to the community for community projects. Currently, community leaders are still collecting funds to finish a desperately needed well for the 500 families that live in Bigodi. At the present time, women and children are still walking miles each way daily to get water.

Thank you for your continued support!

Update

It's still so hard to believe that I have been home 21 months!

Last month Tinka and Michelle (the current UNITE teacher trainer) visited NC from Uganda. Tonay and I were lucky enough to get to have a wonderful visit with Tinka. I was so excited to have these two important men in my life meet each other. Since it was St. Patricks day, we got to take him to a pub for a beer. It was wonderful to catch up on all the news from Bigodi. They will be paving the main road though the village this summer and electricity will be coming as well. I have mixed feelings about the electricity as I'm afraid how it will change life for my friends. But as they say the only constant is change. I know with the possible negative consequences will come lots of amazing positive changes. I sent Tinka back with a suitcase filled to the brim with books and gifts!

I had always hoped that I'd get back to visit within two years. With the two year mark looming ahead in July, it was obvious that I didn't have the funds to go back as soon as I had hoped. However, thanks to a friends recommendation I have applied for a volunteer travel grant though travelocity. While Uganda wasn't on the list there was an amazing program working with women's entrepreneurship in Tanzania. With the help of another Jaycee friend, I made a video and got it posted just in time. In the last week I have moved up so I am now 20th in the voting, which is fantastic! I need to stay in the top 25 to be a finalist.

Please share this link with family and friends. You can vote every 24 hours till May 31st. I really appreciate all the support!
www.volunteerjournals.com/volunteer-travel-grants/entries/experienced-volunteer-tanzina

I hope to be back in East Africa soon!

Holiday gifts from Uganda

***Feel free to forward this post to others. If I can sell out my current supply of crafts this holiday season, I will be able to send over $3000 back to Bigodi. That money is needed to help finish the well project and to help rebuild mud classrooms that collapsed earlier this year! Uganda remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

This holiday season give gifts that help others. Click the link below for beautiful crafts that were all made by the women of Bigodi. All profits go back to Bigodi (the village in Uganda that I lived in last year) to assist with community projects.

You can see samples of the items in the album below but I have nearly every color imaginable. I have over 150 in stock! The baskets are very similar to sweet grass baskets from Charleston Sc.

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125216&id=572152211&l=e88ad1c5c4

The baskets are made with coils of banana fiber, around which raffia palm is wrapped. The fibers are first harvested from the swamp, dyed by hand, then woven into works of art. Baskets range $15-$25 a piece, more than 80% of the sale price gets returned to the village!

The necklaces are made from strips of magazines and other papers that are rolled into a bead shape. The bead is not painted, but becomes the color of the paper that was used. Later, the bead is coated with a lacquer so that the beads can withstand rain, snow and moisture. Necklaces are $10-$15 a piece with more than 80% of the sale price going back to the village. 

Thank you for your support!


 
 

Ten months later…..

It’s hard to believe that it has been over ten months since I left Uganda and headed back home to the states after an amazing six months living in Bigodi! It’s hard to believe that six months have passed since my last blog entry. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve gotten caught up in daily life here in all of its complications, financial worries, and busyness. There are many days that I miss the simpler life of my little village, though it certainly is not without its hardships.

I miss not having to schedule every hour in my blackberry

I miss walking down the main road in the village and hearing mzunga shouted at me by the children

I miss having healthy natural food cooked for me daily- I’ve gained 30 pounds since being back in the US

I miss feeling healthy and strong

I miss the beautiful Rwenzori Mountains

I miss working with the amazing dedicated teachers

I miss feeling like my work has an immediate impact on my surroundings

I miss having quiet time to read and journal daily

I miss showering outside

I miss the thousands of bright stars in the night sky

I miss the children of the village who always brought a smile to my face

I miss coming up with hands on ways to teach classes of over 100 students about the
environment

I miss sitting on my friend Julia’s porch and looking at outskirts of Kibale National Park

I miss walking in the Bigodi swamp and counting how monkeys I saw that day

I miss living amongst the most friendly and welcoming people I have ever met

I miss the music and dancing of the children

I miss my favorite guest house in Fort Portal

I miss Leon

However, there are also many things that I do not miss. I don’t miss seeing extreme poverty everywhere I turn, I don’t miss hearing of people dying from things that I know are treatable with western medicine, I don’t miss seeing girls pregnant and married off at 12, I don’t miss waiting for it to stop raining so the solar panels can charge and I can do computer work, I don’t miss the corruption that is pervasive at nearly every level of government, I don’t miss being homesick and feeling so far from everyone who I love and loves me, I don’t miss eating meals of plain potatoes and tomatoes, and I don’t miss seeing teachers struggle to teach in nearly impossible situations.

We are so very blessed to live in this amazing though sometime overwhelmingly busy country. I was in bad car accident in mid March, if that same accident had happened in rural Uganda – the outcome would not have been the same. A loved one got diagnosed with cancer in late April, that same cancer would have undetected in rural Uganda until it was too late to treat it. When I returned and needed to find a second job to help pay for needed home repairs, even in a recession I had choices of places to work and ways to earn additional income. My friends in Uganda do not have this luxury. I think of my friends every morning when I turn on my shower knowing that they are walking miles to get unclean water to bathe from. I think of my friends when I microwave a meal that is ready to eat in three minutes and they are spending three hours cooking their meal over an open fire (admittedly their meal is healthier). I am thankful for air conditioning, my refrigerator, an air conditioned car, and my washing machine!

I continue to sell baskets and jewelry made by the Bigodi Women’s group- http://www.bigodi-tourism.org/4301.html. You can view the products for sale at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125216&id=572152211&l=e88ad1c5c4. All proceeds go back to community projects in Bigodi. Currently, the community leaders have a contract to build the first well ever in the village! The original estimate came in around $4,500 and now the estimate for the project is up to $12,000. $12,000 is actually an average price to dig a well in Uganda but certainly more than the village leaders had hoped and a lot of money to raise in a place where people live on less than $2 a day.

In addition to selling Ugandan crafts, I also continue to speak to community and school groups about Uganda. Since I’ve been home we have raised over $1500 for projects in Bigodi. I have collected lots of children’s books and sanitary supplies. Last week, I spoke to over 200 elementary students about Uganda and what they could do to help. Currently, I am sponsoring one young boy to attend a private school near Fort Portal, I would like to be able to sponsor more.

Ways you can get involved

Water is Life Project- Women and children carry water great distances from unsafe water sources in heavy containers every day. A donation of any amount for the well would be very helpful. I take cash, check or credit cards and then wire the money to the Water is Life project.

Book and school supply drives- The schools are terribly under resourced. There are very few to text books so instead there are paintings of the human body, the world, etc.. on the outside of the school walls and the teachers teach from those. Families have to provide children with paper, pencils, books and many can’t afford them. The children don’t have books to discover the joy of reading. This also becomes an academic problem in the later grades as the students are tested in English but they don’t have English books to practice reading! You could collect used children and young adult books than have a fundraiser to pay for the shipping costs.

Athletic equipment drives- Children in rural Uganda make balls out of plastic bags or banana fibers, which fall apart halfway though a game of soccer. Imagine what joy a few soccer balls would bring these kids. Your group can collect gently used soccer balls and then have a small fundraiser to pay for the shipping costs.

Purchase or sell crafts from the Bigodi women’s group- The beautiful baskets and jewelry can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125216&id=572152211&l=e88ad1c5c4. All proceeds go back to Bigodi for community projects. You can purchase them directly from me, sell them at your place of business, or your group could set up a table and sell them at a community event.

Exam fees- Students have to pay to take monthly exams that help get them ready for their end of year exams. Those students who can’t afford the monthly exams don’t take them. Students who don’t take monthly exams do far worse on the end of year exams which determine if they continue or not. It cost only $5 for each student to take the nine monthly exams.

Sanitary supplies- I visited over 20 schools and at nearly every school was told about the need for sanitary supplies for girls. Unfortunately, many girls miss schools while they have their periods because they do not have proper sanitary supplies. You can donate an Afri-pad menstrual kit complete with washable pads for just $5. http://www.afripads.com

A tax deductible donation- The Kasiisi Project based out of Cambridge MA works in the same region of Uganda where I lived, is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. All donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. They do amazing work! http://www.kasiisiproject.org

Conserve resources here so we don’t have to harvest timber in the rain forest

Thank you for your continued support!
Love,
Jamilyn

Ps. Check out this incredible video of the students from Bigodi primary school.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEjuPa8XaLk

Gifts with a purpose

This holiday season give gifts that help others. Click the link below for beautiful crafts that were all made by the women of Bigodi. All profits go back to Bigodi to assist with community projects.

Yes, I can ship them! Thank you for your continued support!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125216&id=572152211&l=e88ad1c5c4

Holiday greetings

Jamilyn’s Christmas Letter 2009

I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. - Henry David Thoreau

Dear friends and family,

I hope this letter finds you and yours doing well this holiday season.

I remember when I first came across the quote above; I was in high school and had just finished watching Dead Poets Society. At the time, I was profoundly taken with living life to the fullest and seizing all the opportunities that are presented to us. I’ll admit that in the fifteen years or so that have transpired since then I still believe in embracing life!

This year, that belief took me to the other side of the world (literally) where for six months, I lived in a small village in western Uganda with no electricity or running water. What was lacking in modern amenities was made up for by the breathtaking landscape and wildlife, the friendliest people I have ever met and the knowledge that the work I was doing was having a positive impact. During my time in Uganda, I trained over 100 teachers in conservation education. When I wasn’t training teachers, I was able to travel and explore much of what Uganda has to offer: chimp trekking, a ten day safari, white water rafting on the Nile, the beautiful Renzori Mountains, Kampala (the capital city), and most importantly getting know the Ugandan people. My experience in Uganda will always be with me and I will always be grateful that I took that leap of faith.

In the last four months since I’ve returned to the states, I’ve continued to raise awareness and money for community needs in Western Uganda. So far I’ve sent back just about $1000 raised from donations and basket sales. This money will be used to help build the first well in the village! In addition, I am still raising money to send children’s books and sanitary supplies to the schools that I worked with.

In addition to raising money and doing community presentations on Uganda, I have been busy with work, travel, and just enjoying being home. I am back in my old position at Wake 4-H Youth Development and working part-time at Williams-Sonoma. I feel so blessed to been able to take a six month leave of absence and return to my position.

In the last few months since I’ve been home, there have been many travels as usual. In September, I went to New York City with my boyfriend and two of our close friends. We had tickets to the Yankees/ Orioles game so I could see my childhood team play at the new Yankee stadium. It just so happened that we were there the night that Derek Jeter broke Lou Gehrig’s record becoming the Yankees all-time hits leader! In November, I was off to western NC so I could co-teach a week long pie making class at the John C Campbell Folk School! For an entire week in November, we made 19 different types of pies during the day and danced, attended concerts, and watched craft demonstrations in the evening! It was an amazing week.

I don't know what 2010 will bring but I'm sure it won't top the excitement of 2009. Thank you for your continued love and support.

Merry Christmas ---Love, Jamilyn