Week of Sep 6, 2010
Hippo: Reloaded
Hello Everyone!
It’s been too long since we have all had a chat; we hope you are enjoying summer! We finally feel adjusted to life in Canada again, it took us a while, and we really did have a lot of reverse culture shock when we got back. Everything is just so different here; the clean, wide open, smooth streets, the huge modern buildings, grocery stores full of absolutely everything you could want, everyone busy with their good jobs and their healthy, happy, well educated children - so different. How fortunate we are to have been born here instead of in the slums of Uganda! It has been great to see so many of you while we have been home!
We arrived home tired and jet-lagged to our very dilapidated (just ask those who saw it) fixer-upper house to a few burst pipes and a broken hot water heater. We were so thankful that there was some oil left in the old tank to keep the house warm, it was really chilly in May! Tim, the kids and I went right to work ripping out the majority of the old log cabin part of the house, including 5 layers of flooring, the scary second story, an old bathroom, and the ceiling. A few weeks later, Tim and Matt were able to start framing houses in a subdivision in Vaughn and have been working there ever since. I have spent my time taking care of Oli and the house, doing as many renos as I can, shuttling Emily to her English and Math classes which are now over, visiting my sister in Indiana, dealing with all of the HIPPO stuff and preparing for our time in Uganda. Emily is working full time right near our house at Scott Mission which is a camp for inner-city, low income kids from Toronto.
How are things going at the school in our absence? We have been in email contact once or twice a week with Wycliffe, our school administration and Esther, our school nurse. Communication has been much harder than we expected with many questions going unanswered and with very little detail about things we want lots of detail about. For example, a boy from our school went missing for more than a week and then "was found thanks to God". No details at all. And then there was one from Wycliffe "we must have fire equipment at the school, the government is insisting immediately because of all the recent school fire." Tim replied with "find out what we need and how much it will cost so we can do this right away". We never heard back on that one. It has been funny and frustrating and we will have to come up with a better method when we are there in August.
It seems that things are generally going well. I guess the worst thing that happened was that the guy we used to help us with lots of building projects took our money without delivering the classroom dividers he was supposed to build. I guess he assumed we weren't coming back and it should be an interesting conversation once we see him. Melman, one of our dogs that live at the school with Wycliffe got sick but was "treated" by Wycliffe. Don't know what sickness he had or what the treatment was, I don't think I want to know. On the positive side, the nurse says she has treated a lot of malaria during the rainy season and the kids are healthy and happy, the food we pre-purchased has not yet run out, and the school supplies have lasted through Term 2.
As for our plans for the coming year, Tim and I have decided to go back and forth to Uganda every 2 or 3 months. Emily is in her last year of high school and it makes sense for her to complete her Ontario Secondary School credits here as it is nearly impossible to transfer credits from the British system which she took in Uganda. The girl’s tuition was also increased to $18,000 which is just way too much. Once Emily graduates, it will be a lot easier for us to travel back and forth with Olivia, since she is only 8. We still have our little apartment near the school which ends up being much less of an expense than getting a hotel each time we go and gives us a little more space and a kitchen to make meals in. It will be a good test for the staff to keep the school running at a certain standard in our absence.
We are headed to Uganda next Saturday and then a few days after our arrival back in Canada, we will be taking Matt to Indiana to begin soccer pre-season at Bethel College.
Now for some really exciting news! Before we left for Uganda a year ago, some long time friends of ours told us that they wanted to take on the big and daunting project of registering HIPPO Africa as a Canadian registered charity. Well, less than a year after they began the process, it happened. This means we can now accept donations for HIPPO projects and issue receipts for tax deduction. We are so grateful to the HIPPO board in place for taking care of this very difficult task. Here is the address for those of you who don't already have it:
Hands In Poor Places Organization
6045 Creditview Road, Suite 205
Mississauga, Ontario
L5V 0B1
Please note that tax receipts will now be issued at the end of the year. Also, we are happy to be able to continue to support ourselves and any administration, so that 100% of your donation can go towards the HIPPO projects.
Let’s all give a HUGE thank you to the Maxwell’s for allowing us to put HIPPO donations through their foundation for the past year so that we could give you receipts for tax purposes. They are great friends and some of our loudest cheerleaders!
UPCOMING TRIP TO UGANDA:
A week from today, on August 2nd, Tim, Matt & I are heading to Uganda. Joining us is Dr. Kai Chau, his wife Jenny, an architect and their two teenagers, Wesley and Caeden. I have known Kai since I was 17 years old and worked as his first assistant when I graduated from Dental Assisting and have worked with him as a Dental Hygienist for many years more recently. They are a wonderful, caring and generous family. When I talked to Kai about moving to Uganda last summer, they immediately said they wanted to be involved and would come to help.
The Chaus went to Brazil as a family two summers ago to do volunteer dentistry on a boat travelling through the Amazon. Dr. Lun Hangfu will also be joining us in Uganda. He went on the same trip to Brazil with the Chaus and was there again earlier this summer. Kai and Lun have purchased two portable dental units and we will be able to set up a makeshift clinic at the school with lounge chairs for patient chairs and flashlights for overhead lights. With their equipment, we will be able to do cleanings, fillings and extractions. We are excited to be able to provide this service for the students, staff, their families and the community; most have never seen a dentist except for an emergency extraction here and there.
Matt, Wes and Caeden are already planning the murals they will be painting in the library and on the yet to be built classroom dividers. Wes and Caeden are both involved in volleyball and are bringing nets and balls to teach and play with the kids. They also want to spend time helping the kids to read and learn basic math. Jenny is excited to build houses with Tim and I will be helping to clean teeth, sterilize instruments and prepare the school for term 3.
We have been given donations for three houses to be built while we are there, one came from a HIPPO garage sale that our friends, the Amarals had this summer, one came from donations given in memory of Bradley Rozell, a close friend of Tim’s family, who passed away this summer, and one came from someone we met recently who has given back after others reached out to her. What special donations to be able to build 3 widow’s houses with!
Thank you again and again to a lovely couple in Mississauga whom I finally met recently, they are paying for the Nurse Esther’s salary for the whole year!
I have to thank my mom, Lynne, her sister, my Auntie Shirley and Tim’s mom, Monica for spending so much time this summer preparing resources for our HIPPO school’s curriculum. They have spent countless hours making, buying and organizing tons of stuff that the teachers can use to help them teach their lessons, it’s really amazing and our extra three suitcases are already to their weight limit with school stuff. Thanks to those who helped them with your donations of books, paper, supplies, craft stuff etc.
We will update the website with new articles, pictures and video from our upcoming trip as soon as we get back.
What’s next? Tim will be going to Uganda for the last two weeks of November. As school will just finishing it’s year there, he will be concentrating on building, likely in Wycliffe’s home village on the border of Kenya. They are really struggling there as their crops were mostly destroyed by flooding and food prices have risen so drastically. He will be fixing up and building houses and distributing food, clothing, mosquito nets, blankets and mattresses. These needs, along with some current ones are now on the Help the Kids page of the website.
We'd love it if you would continue to follow our journey and keep us in your prayers as we do our best to help the poor in the Banda slums of Uganda.