Reason for a Change-Mitch’s Blog

Tim, Eileen and I had dinner at Turkaz on Sunday nite, we don’t have much time to get together, and he is leaving soon for the west coast. Tim has 2 jobs, a bunch of activities, and too much to do before leaving, but I am sure it will all get done.

Emma has decided to be a one woman NGO, is raising money for a girl who wants to go to school to become a nurse. Here is her message:

Dear everybody,

Have you ever wanted to send some money to Africa, but was afraid it would get embezzled by corrupt officials or organizations? Of course you have, and that’s probably what would happen to your money if you sent it to Africa! But not anymore, because Honest Em is here to offer you a chance to give like you never gave(?) before.

I have a group of kids aged 10-17 who meet almost daily for their Straight Talk Club. They practice songs, dramas, and discuss questions about health and HIV. They also have an amazing garden and a nursery for coffee trees. This whole project is run by an amazing girls named Tapither Namono. She is 18, and she wants to be a nurse She is also an HIV orphan and lives with an aunt in my village, Magale. School is not free here, and her aunt is not willing to pay school fees for her to become a Nursing Assistant. She needs fees for one year which will total about 700,000 Ugandan Shillings or 425 US Dollars per year. I am determined to get this girl through school, so any help would be appreciated. I am going to just spend my pitiful Peace Corps allowance on it otherwise. Her first term would begin in April, so only half of a year ($215) would be due at that date.

So here is the deal, you either send a check to my Mom or give her cash. She deposits the money into my account and I take it out from Uganda. It’s that easy!

Also, if you can’t donate but you know someone who can, could you please forward this email to them?

Thanks so much,
Emma

To ask questions:
Emma Rice
alleykitten7@gmail.com
PO Box 62
Mbale
Uganda
cell phone: 011+256 75 1700 564
Send money to:
Eileen Rice
1215 E. Hunter Ave.
Bloomington, IN
47401
812-334-3852

Eileen and I spent Thanksgiving with about 30 other folks at Sue and Katy’s house, and the big hit of the party was the Xbox game Guitar Hero, most everyone played, and I tried, but just could not get the hang of it. Dinner was great, with tons of good food, Eileen made baked apples, and there were three kinds of stuffing.

A bunch of pictures came from Tim of his SF trip:

Tim got on the 10:50 am shuttle for the Indianapolis airport, he is traveling light with just a pack containing clothes, pad/sleeping bag, his portable audio recorder, and a new Nikon Coolpix L12 that I bought just before he left, I couldn’t imagine him going out west without being able to take some snapshots.

This nest is now really empty, he may decide to move to California if things work out, or maybe to Chicgao, he made some new friends at Jesse and Sean’s wedding, and felt at home there. Or maybe he’ll come back to Bloomington, there were a couple of job opportunities that popped up just before he left, so that may be what comes round.

The California trip is exploratory, he will start out staying with his friend Jacob Sattinger, go to a hiphop music festival, and maybe pick up some work during the harvest season. We shall see, with both email and a cell phone with texting we will be able to keep up.

Eileen and I went to Chicago for the 4th of July week, a bookend sort of time with Deb and Johnandrew’s wedding in Lafayette at the beginning and out neice Jessica’s Shower at the other end. We like to drive slow on the non-interstate roads, and so drove to Spencer and up SR 231 to Lafayette. The wedding was in an historic building amid other old buildings, Layfayette is obviously older than Bloomington, at least in the houses that have survived. We stayed the night, and headed towards Chicago by going east into Illinois and the Kankakee river. There are two roads that run parallel to the river into the city of Kankakee. On the north side are entrances to various parts of the state park, while on the south side are parking lots with access for fisherman and hunters. We took this southern road and pulled over to enjoy the cooling river current.

We found these butterflies were interested in the gravel that lead to the river, they just keep landing and spreading their wings in the sunlight.

Here is a video we took on Mother’s Day in 2001 when Mickey came to visit us, and we went to a party at our friends Linda and Darrell’s home and flower farm in Greene County. This is one I learned from Mickey, I don’t remember a recording, but I do remember hearing at the time “with a cigar at every door”, and of course this offered a surrealist view of the problems of society. Fortunately I asked my parents about this congative dissonance I was experiencing in my 4 year old head, and they explaine why guys with guns were guarding, not cigaring the doors.

We called Emma last week, Tim came by and we all 3 listened on the speaker phone in my office. She is doing well, the mountain weather keeps the heat bearable, and she actually needs a hoodie to wear at night. Her friend from the next village over was there for the weekend, and they were cooking. We will be sending her another package soon, her Aunt Kitty just sent a big package of dried lemonade, and her friend Lois had called earlier in the week. She is of course homesick, but quite excited about her village and work.

Emma called the other night, our first call from Africa. She is doing well and has been assigned to a region in ___________, working with a health clinic. which is a large extinct volcano, and is a tourist/hiking destination, the area is know for coffee and dairy products (and she thought she was getting away from latte culture!) She will be probably learning a Nilotic or Bantu language, I am not sure which.

I have to figure out how to get and use an African calling card, otherwise we may set up a special account with Cingular for 50 cents per hour.

Emma left last nite on a flight to Belgium, then on to Kenya and finally Entebbe airport in the pearl of Africa, Uganda. She will spend a nite in Kampala getting acclimated and meeting the in-country PC officials. Then the group moves on to the (undisclosed) training site in the heart of the countryside. I used Google Earth the look over the area, it seems the whole of the country is a drainage basin for the White Nile flowing out of Lake Victoria (~3700 ft. amsl) to Lake Kyogo and on to Lake Albert (2700 ft. amsl), then on to Chad and Egypt. So the country is a large plateau surrounded by mountains or lakes on all sides, with rivers running everywhere. Here is some info gleaned from the web:

Uganda’s weather conditions are ideal , ranging from the warmth of the lowland areas to the coolness of the highlands in the South West Kigezi.

For the most of the year, Uganda is sunny with temperatures rarely rising above 85 degrees.
The average temperature is about 79 degrees F, with a maximum of 65-88 degrees and minimum of 59-74 degrees depending on the part of the country.

The rainy season is March-May. There is a light rain season in November and December. Wet seasons are March-May & October-November; dry seasons are December to February & June to August. Rainfall ranges between 20″ to 99″ & the relative humidity is 70% -100%

The four seasons (2 wet, 2 dry) allows two planting and harvesting seasons a year in most parts of the country, without the use of irrigation. About 34% of the country is covered in wetlands with a dense network of rivers,lakes and swamps. Generally, the country is endowed with fertile soils. Uganda shares Lake Albert to the west and Lake Victoria to the south, which is the 2nd largest fresh water lake in the world and also the source of the Nile.