Dr. Jean signing in

We are finally back home, to Uganda, the place where God first called me in 1998.

The sun is rising over Moru Angibui (“the mountains of the hyenas”); bleating flocks of sheep and goats, bellowing cattle are dusting up the path between me and the Karamojong sunrise as I pen this to you. Since I left, the livestock no longer bed down in their own village kraal, but rather are protected by night in the nearby army barracks; this has cut down on cattle rustling, but has increased animal disease (overcrowding) and milk loss (into the tummies of the army blokes).
After Tom finishes exercising and Ryan sets down his guitar we’ll head over to our garden and clear the sunflower stalks and plant some greens using local hoes and machetes. We bought some local cow-pea seeds (the leaves can be plucked and cooked in 4 weeks) and Lucy Hirsh gave us some succulent spinach vine seeds from Kansas City to try out. All around us, neighbors are harvesting sorghum and sunflower from their gardens.
Karamoja has been receiving more than normal rains, which is a mixed blessing. This is the first time I have ever seen maize-corn growing in Nabilatuk (“the place cows get broken” akibil-break, ngaatuk – cows). Typically maize is only grown near the mountains of Napak or Kadam – where Josephine (Iriiri) and Joshua (Namalu) live, respectively – but this year, with the combination of rains and more NGOs in Karamoja than ever before, including FAO giving out seeds, Nabilatuk is enjoying a new crop. Unfortunately, the foothills of Napak & Kadam have gotten too much rain – so their harvest has been poor. It would have been a good year for rice and sweet potatoes. Sorghum, a more drought resistant crop that the plains people use as their main staple, was looking good – but, the heavy rains have caused rot and crop loss. But I’ve also witnessed square fields with straight rows. Tractors have come!
Still, we have also come. Tom and I moved up to Karamoja with our teammate Ryan in mid July, the roads (as usual) were awful – over 60 vehicles were stuck on the way. Our old Landcruiser made it, thanks to Don and Penny Harris for the new tires they outfitted the beast with. (INSERT PHOTO).
So where do we live? Tom) and I have never owned our own home before, but we do now. We call it the ‘Pine-Lodge’, well; Eureka calls it their Pine Lodge too. (INSERT PHOTO) Thanks to David and Kim Carney from Tazewell, TN (near beautiful Cumberland Gap) for helping us become first time home owners! We haven’t been one place since we left Ghent, Belgium in August 09 – a full year ago, on the road living out of a suitcase. Thanks Mileen!

What are we doing? Daily we meet with our language helpers for half the day. Tom is guiding us with a program called PILOT, he attended a 2 week course at Colorado’s Missionary Training Institute last October. Setting up house has consumed most of the rest of our time – pitching our tents (with continuous readjusting with fierce winds and overpowering rains bending the poles), making shades to lessen the harsh sun and rain for over the tents, setting up a gazebo hut, putting up solar and wind power, setting up water conservation system, walking to the borehole (not so much now that we have barrels and gutters!), making shelves, cooking – wow this takes a lot of time, going to the market, washing clothes (of course by hand), planting living fences, visiting communities, knocking down termites, thatching the hut, drinking tea and shooting the breeze with visitors and old friends, introducing the KKAB team to church and government officials – all in all, just settling in. On Thursday evening we have fellowship with the KACHEP team, and on Friday morning we go to Okutuut village where Tom stories while Joshua translates. We have been able to clear the building site and string out our huts, gather sand and gravel. (INSERT PHOTO of Ryan and the guys in Okutuut)

Pray for us as we patiently wait for our friend Bob Wright to visit and guide us in building techniques – he’s a busy man pulled in 7 directions, but once he gives us the nod and puts in the borehole that KACHEP has been approved for – the work will really kick in. Come join us! Meanwhile – we have plenty to keep us busy.

Pray for team unity and language acquisition. Pray for patience and understanding in culture and for our neighbors to likewise have patience with us.

Preparing the land, planting His seeds


Jean
PS – look for KKAB updates at www.KaramojaKaabongandBeyond.blogspot.com

Rachel Nangiro Prayer Letter for KACHEP

How easy is it for you to get a cup of cool, clean water?

            This month we’ve been busy visiting many communities in Karamoja to treat their animals, to fellowship and to understand their struggles. Many of their struggles arise from inadequate or polluted water sources. Without water, the people, livestock, and food crops all suffer. One day, me and my fellow KACHEP staff, Sagal Joshua went to Lolachat where we visited communities to see which ones had the lowest water quantity and quality. Let me tell you about Okutoot village. When people in Okutoot heard us, they all came out of the village (home) to know who had arrived. Men, women, children, and theelderly all came out of thick-walled manyatta, we sat under a large fig tree and invited them to sit with us. Lokut, a community facilitator led us in prayers, Lokut is a lame man, all his two legs can’t walk; they are too thin and weak. He uses two metal sticks to support himself to walk.

            The Okutot people were very happy to be with us, and introductions were done around the circle. I and Joshua started discussing specific points with them about their water situation (i.e. where do they get water, how far it is, what is the quality and how many people and animals share the same water sources). Joshua asked them drinking water; one of the girls brought some from the manyatta and gave to Joshua. But when I looked in the gourd, the water was really too dirty to drink, brownish in colour, with some green residue floating underneath and many red worms swimming around. We asked them, “Where do you collect this water? They said, “it is too far”. We asked them to take us there so we could survey their water sources. Joshua couldn’t go with us, because the thorn was

inside Joshua foot, he was not able to walk far distance with us, Joshua and Lokut remained with some old men, woman, blind, and small children under the tree. Most of the people in the village went with KACHEP team. It took us 45 minutes of fast walking to reach their closest water point, Amaatata. The place is really bushy, with many thorns around the pass and too much sunshine on us, this day there was no rain, or any cloud on the sky. Karamoja is a very hot place not like other places in the country. We reached the place called Amaatata (valley dam), there were two next to one another. One was dug in 1962 during the time of Obote, the other in 1989. Amaatata is a very large, deep hole, dug using machines sometimes hands using hoes. When the heavy rain falls, this valley dam fills with water from March to December. Over 500 people and 8,000 livestock use the valley dam for water. The present dams are good for cattle but not for people. We, therefore, recommend that Okutoot receive a borehole for the people.

`           The next water source is called Ekipur, so we walked there, another 35 minute walk away. Ekipur is a bend in a drying river that still has some trapped, stagnate water. We found a small valley, narrow, dark soil on the sides and too muddy, deep brown water flowing slowly. Inside water, we saw round worms with long trails of some green layer on top. At the time of the visit, people drank, bathed and washed clothes all in the same pond of water. Livestock also drank and walked in the water at the same time. I tell you, not only do they drink this water; they also drink direct from puddles along the road side.

            The next Okutoot water source we walked to was a dried river, which only had sand on top without water inside. We stood and we looked at the river, then I asked them “can’t you dig down and to get some water here?” They told us, “it’s impossible, inside it is only mud, which is too hard to dig. We can only get water here when it flows. But, when it does flow, it becomes so full that, we cannot pass over to the other side of the river. Even school children can’t go to class for all week, and we have no schools on this side of the river.” The reason why we asked them about digging into

river is that in some places they get water in dry rivers if you dig down the sand to one meter. This water is very good, very white, clear and cold without any worms. If you could see and taste this water you’d understand there is no way people can bath inside, step inside this water wash clothes, defecate, to play in this water, urinate and even the animals can’t step inside, defecate, and urinate - which is

very common for any water source in Karamoja (except for boreholes). Therefore, this deep water from the dry rivers is the best water that can not be contaminated. The last place we visited was the old bore hole (hand pump well) which was put 10 years ago, which is no longer working. The bore hole is used by big machines to dig down 75-200meters feet to get water, they put many steel pipes, so that the pipes bring water from down to high level, then from there they connect some metal on top, so that one person pump up and down to let water flow following the pipes out, so as to get clean

water out. These people really use dirty water. They told us because of the water they are using, their children are always sick of malaria, diarrhea and etc. We took the all day walking with our foot, with too much sunshine on us, and some of the thorns remained inside our feet. Thorns which had hooks on our way pass tore our clothes. This was just one day for us, but community members struggle daily. I am very happy for the work God gave me and KACHEP Staff, and His protection and care.

In Isaiah 44:3 God says I will pour water on the thirsty land. As the staff of KACHEP, we felt that, this Community needs help in order to get clean (good) water. We sat down to write a proposal, about three bore hole which we have submitted last week. God is able and the Lord will hear our prayers and our cry for our communities. Hebrews 11:1 we should have faith for what we hope for.

Yours in service,

Nangiro Rachael