Saturday Morning

Hannah is improving, but having a hard time keeping the medicine down. Megan stayed in the clinic all night with her, and Jajja (the grandmother who takes great care of us here) is bringing her all her meals. Please continue to pray for improvement and a rapid recovery.

We came to the computer school early today to get a jump on the various tasks to complete. All the computers need to be connected through the cafe software so that people can buy minutes and the manager's computer will keep track of the money and time used. But we arrived to find that the internet router wasn't working, and that took 3 hours to fix, and the printer server needs to be changed from one computer to the next. It's always something!

I spent 3 1/2 hours training the two women managers - Eve and Fatima. We covered everything I knew about the computer room, from universal power surge protectors, to the ins and outs of the cafe software. The ladies are very nice, and hopefully will be able to manage the computers once everything is up and running. Hours and Hours!!

Here is a picture of us at dinner last night. We thought we were ordering hamburgers, but that's not what we got! Maggie is having a great time with the children!

Uganda Telecom

We've been dealing with Uganda Telecom for a few days now. They're not much better than dealing with Verizon in the US. ts nice to know that wherever one goes in the world, the local Telephone company will be unresponsive.

In short, we bought a 128K ISDN line from them. I was surprised to see ISDN as its pretty much disappeared in the US, supplanted by DSL, cable, or fiber-to-the-home. I had to redo the entire setup with the router - ISDN requires a computer be connected to the phone jack rather than a router. So now the router sits behind the gateway computer. Getting the gateway computer to share via the router was difficult. Luckily WindowsXP does have a decent network wizard and we got it running. But its slow. We haven't gotten the full128K yet, just one 64K channel. Downloading anything is a long, tedious process.

We had a big electrical storm a 5 days ago and some parts of Busia are still without power. Our hotel is hit or miss with water (mostly miss). They offer to give us a jerry can of water and a basin to wash with, but its not the same as a shower. I really miss a hot shower!

Two more days until we open the internet cafe. We're training the manager today.

Thanks so much for all the emails & blog posts. Its awesome to know we have many people praying for this endeavor.

-Scott

We have Internet!

Well, we moved the computers in today. A few days late but we are up and running.....barely. If you can remember dialup internet, then you may have some idea of what we're dealing with. Our speed is at 64K and at home we continuously enjoy 15000K. So Scott is doing everything he can to patch a system together. It was a long day there. He is going in early tomorrow to get a jump on it. Maggie was a big help setting up every computer with its lock and power cords. She even helped me train some of the older boys today from 5 to 7. They run home from school to learn computers every day. They are having a blast. We're having to remember to teach the basics like what does the word "desktop" mean. We had to chase them out at 730 to go eat dinner. There are about 8 of them from the age of 16 to 20. We're teaching them first and then they'll train the younger children. I'll write again tomorrow.
Blessings!
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Things I've seen on the back of a bike

1. People - its how everyone gets around here. Only costs 15 cents to go across town
2. A stack of firewood taller than the driver
3. 4 cases of water.
4. 2 baby goats in a basket.
5. 15 plastic chairs.
6. 10 lumber boards 8 feet long
7. Man with a baby
8. 2 giant bunches of bananas. 1 on either side.
9. A bushel bag as tall as the driver. Filled with clippings, flour or anthing else.
10. A wheelbarrow!
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See what the Lord is doing!

I will post again later today, but if you are anxious to see pictures of what New Hope is like, please visit Chris' site at www.newhopeafricanchildren.org . It is the site Maggie is working on updating. I'm in an office next door to the computer school still waiting for them to hook up the internet for us!

This is a picture I stole from Chris' facebook, but it is the main street of the town where the computer school is and where I'm waiting.

In case you don't know, the Chris I keep referring to is Chris Higgins - an alum of The Stony Brook School and I taught him for 5 years there.

A Public Holiday

Since it was a public holiday, we spent the day at the orphanage playing with the kids. We brought 3 laptops there on battery power and they were thrilled to learn the mouse and keyboard with the games that Scott has on the computers for them. They had an absolute blast. I spoke to Regan and Elijah for over an hour about the internet. They had never heard of Google, wikipedia, or what was possible on the internet. They are both juniors in high school. I'm especially happy for Elijah since he had to change schools last year and his new school doesn't teach biology- his favorite subject- and he doesn't have a book. I told him about what was possible for him to study with Google and he was so incredibly thankful. It was a great day! When we had to leave because the batteries were dead and it was getting dark, it was difficult to leave! We can't wait to do more tomorrow.
Please pray that they get the internet installed tomorrow and that the tables are finished. The carpenter got malaria and tried to get a replacement for us today but it didn't work out. The red tape for the internet installation is huge as well. I will consider it a miracle if it is installed tomorrow! Ken is doing everything he can but we are definitely not in the US. There are lots of jokes about "Africa time ". : ).
Scott is on the mend but please continue to pray for everyone's health. Some of the girls have colds but are holding up well.
What Chris has done here is remarkable. Everyone adores him - childen and adults alike. They call him Uncle Chris! The donations he has raised have completely changed what Ken has been able to do for the children. The older boys talk about it everyday. Chris' goal is to get every child sponsored by the end of the summer. 70 of the 88 children have bios on his site with their picture, but there are now 88 children. Maggie is working on interviewing each new child with a translator and entering all of this into the computer. She will begin photographing them tomorrow. Hopefully, Chris can have them all added by the end of June. God is good!

Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, a plan to prosper you and not to harm you.

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Muzungu

Well, we're definitely a novelty here! There are 40,000 Ugandans in Busia town and 8 muzungu - their word for white person. Everywhere we go little kids yell "how are you? I'm fine". Its the only English they know! And we hear everyone say "muzungu" as we pass. We've only seen two other Americans since we got here.

There was a mix up at the last minute so we were unable to get the internet up and running today. A bit disappointing because tomorrow is a public holiday so we have to wait until Wednesday. Scott got a slight rash today so we visited the clinic to have in checked out. The doctor took us right away and with two types of medicines dispensed and only $10 for everything! Probably related to his mattress so we moved rooms in the hotel and now we have a hot water shower! Turns out they were holding out on us for the new rooms! But we're settled again and all is well. Please pray that Scott continues to heal quickly.

We're all having fun learning some of the Ugandan language and how to ride a boda boda - a bicycle taxi we can ride wherever we need to go. But you have to balance on a tiny seat on the back and girls sit side-saddle! A good deal for only 9 cents one way. And Megan is getting really good at being sure they don't overcharge us! I will upload pictures when we can.

Praise God for all He is doing in our lives!

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Sunday

What a day! Our hotel is very pleasant and we were able to walk to Ken's house from there this morning for the first time. The weather has been simply beautiful. We joined the children at new hope for church at 10. We sang and danced and sang some more. Since Ken is the director of the orphanage and the pastor of the place I offered to preach today so he wouldn't have to. I told the story of how the Lord arranged for us to come here.

Afterwards we watched all the children open the suitcases with all of the donated clothing. They were so happy and so patient! We were able to go to town for the first time today. We had some cold soda and some chocolate! They moved the tables into the computer room today so we're getting ready to set up computers tomorrow. Maggie spent 3 hours at the orphanage making bracelets and braiding hair. The children are so awesome and so much fun. We're at Ken's now waiting for dinner. There is an amazing grandmother at Ken's house that makes us all our meals. Everyone is really tired, but its been a good day! Blessings! Martha

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