Fundraising DONE!!!

This is unbelievable!!  I have already reached my fundraising goal of $3200 for my mission trip to Uganda in January! 

I have had quite a few people who are interested in donating and even we have reached the monetary goal there are additional ways you can help!

I will be packing tangible items to give away as needed while out in the villages.  If you would still like to donate, please feel free to buy and give me any of these items:
- Socks
- Antibacterial / Hand Sanitizer (travel size)
- Reading glasses (gently used or new)
- Under shirts
- Shampoo/Conditioner (travel size)
- Bars of Soap
** I do only get one large bag so easy-to-pack, travel-size items are preferred**

Support Update!!

Again, my friends and family are amazing!  I have gotten such an out pour of letters, emails, Facebook messages, etc about my Uganda trip!  Your supportive words just fill my heart with encouragement!

Also, I have an update on fundraising!  I have just $545 dollars left to fund raise!  We are so close!  I know that we can achieve this by the end of November! 

Thank you everyone!!

Drilling for Water in Ghana

An amazing story about drilling for water in Ghana...
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/39739114#39739114
Thank you Eric for forwarding it to me!

First Fundraiser!! Wine Tasting - YUM!

We had our first fundraiser last night!  It was a blind wine tasting with Wine Shop at Home and all of the wines were delicious!  It definitely made it hard to decide which wines to purchase! 
Wines that were smelled, swirled & slurped were...
Grand Cadeau Sparkling Brut
Cloud 2009 Number Nine
Talmage T 2009 Chardonnay
EVO 2008 Cabernet Franc
Somersville Cellars 2008 Paso Robles Petit Verdot
Talmage T 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

My favorites were the Petit Verdot... I love the cinnamon flavors in it and the Cloud #9 which was a white wine, blended with Muscat, Sauvigon Blanc Chardonnay and several others...Also known as a great "Porch Pounder"! Ha!  I LOVE it!

To top it off - Kat was donating 5% of all wine sells to my mission trip AND Eddie was going to match it!

Many thanks to everyone who came!  Special thank you to Eddie Yarmer & Kat McKean for making this happen!
Check out the Wine Shop at Home website for wines or join their wine club! http://www.wineshopathome.com/

Fundraising has been MIRACULOUS!!

As of today, we have reached $1175!!!  All I can say is WOW!   The donations have been so generous and even more so, the supportive words each of you have extended!!  THANK YOU ALL!!

Tickets are PURCHASED!

We just found out that our tickets have been officially purchased!  Our dates have changed just by one day though - we are now leaving Jan 5th and coming back on Jan 16th. 

Sports

Soccer, Cricket, rallying and hockey are the most popular or commonly played sports in Uganda.

Even though Uganda has produced many rally champions, hockey is the only Ugandan field sport to date to have qualified for and represented the country at the Olympics in Munich 1972.

Education & Uganda

Illiteracy is common in Uganda, particularly among females.  According to the Human Development Report, for every 20 men, 80 women are illiterate. In the villages we are going to about 90% of the people are illiterate.

1st Group Meeting!

Last night, I had a chance to lay my eyes on my teammates for this trip!  After this meeting, I have a feeling we will all become very close!

We will be spending most of our time in 2 villages, the Kyet kana village and the Agoro village. For these 2 villages, we will be drilling for water - this will be the first time these villages will have fresh drinking water!

We will also set up a make-shift medical clinic usually under mango trees to evaluate villagers and distribute medicine if needed. 

There are several surrounding villages where we will be giving "Mercy Bags" filled with non-essentials such as soap, sugar, salt, tea, and mosquito nets...interesting that these items are considered "non-essentials" only because they have to spend money on food instead of these basic items.

We will also be teaching life skills, financial sustainability, organizational skills, playing and teaching the children, which I think is where I will be placed.

Stay tuned for more!!

Languages of Uganda

Uganda has 40 indigenous languages that fall into 3 main families - Bantu, Nilotic, and Central Sudanic - with another 2 languages in the Kuliak family.  However, English and Swahili are the official languages of Uganda.

History of the Acholi People

Acholi is an ethnic group from districts of Gulu, Amuru, Kitgum and Pader in northern Uganda.  These territories are commonly called "Acholiland". According to the 1991 Uganda census, there were 746,796 Acholi in Uganda and an additional 45,000 Acholi live outside of Uganda, mostly in Magwe County in southern Sudan.
The Acholi are a Luo people, a group of related African ethnic groups, who are said to have come to northern Uganda from the area now known as Bahr el Ghazal in southern Sudan. Starting in the late 17th century, a new sociopolitical order developed among the Luo of northern Uganda, mainly characterized by the formation of chiefdoms headed by Rwodi (meaingin the 'ruler'). By the mid-19th century, about 60 small chiefdoms existed in eastern Acholiland. During the second half of the nineteenth century Arabic-speaking traders from the north started to call them Shooli, a term which transformed into 'Acholi'.

Where is Uganda?

The Republic of Uganda (pronounced yoo-GAHN-də) is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, which is also bordered by Kenya and Tanzania.

Acholi Villages

The average village size that we will be visiting has...
500 people
90 households
5 agricultural groups of 25 people each

Who are we helping...

With 11.8 million people, Africa has the largest population of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP).  Uganda has approximately 869,000 IDPs due 2 decades of Joseph Kony's rebel activity and the insurgency of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). 

The LRA is a guerrilla military group that is responsible for violent acts including abducting, massacres, sexual enslavement and many more human right violations.  Even though the army's power has diminished and activities of LRA have been minimal in Uganda, Kony is live alive and the LRA is still active in neighboring countries, the Congo and Sudan.

With the decline of LRA, the number of IDP's has decreased dramatically from the 1.6 million.  Villages of Hope Africa directly impacts those numbers!

Day 1: Let the Fundraising begin!!

Today marks the first official day of fundraising for my mission trip to Uganda! 

I am one of 23 people headed to Gulu, the northern territory of Uganda, January 4-15, 2011.  During that time, we will visit several villages of the Acholi people and our activities will vary from location to location.  Nonetheless, we will be providing basic necessities that we take for granted everyday.  Our group's activities will include...
- Assisting in drilling for fresh WATER
- Building SHELTERs (homes, community/education centers, medical facilities,)
- Educating villagers on how to SUSTAIN and make their community viable through farming techniques and simple sanitary guidelines

This site will track fundraising efforts and this journey to Uganda!