Home At Last, Home At Last

The students at Suubi.

Such a short trip - so much time spent in the airports. Remind me never, ever to do that again. Uganda to Ethiopia, to Dubai, to London, waited for 12 hours, flew to Boston, slept in the worst airport ever for 12 hours, to Dallas, and finally home to Vancouver.

I thought it was going to be an adventure, but it turns out I'm not really up for that kind of adventure. I also caught an African flu the day before I left and its turned into bronchitis. Yuch.

In London I met a man who also runs a trade school or something in India. He was a US Navy Seal until he retired a few years ago. He studies Buddhism but wouldn't go so far as to call himself a Buddhist - interesting. He said that Buddhism is being embraced by the untouchables caste in India because it frees them from the clutches of the caste system and Hinduism. I was amazed because I thought thats exactly what Jesus was doing in India too.

Somehow, I think Jesus freedom is way better than Buddhas'.

Anyways. I'm glad to be back, but we have a lot of work to do. We need power for our school, and we fell behind in paying our electricity bill - so they have cut off the power. Help?

Coming Home

ahhh coming home is the best part for me. can't wait to see Irena and Noah again. skype is nice but its not the same.

got a lot done here on this trip, but not enough. lots to do back home now. we have our AGM coming up, a fundraising banquet on May 14, i think i'm opening for a band called Abel at House of James on April 10 and the list goes on.

when i get back i'm going to upload this great video of David giving you a tour of the shop here. its eye opening and hilarious.

til then, may the Lord of heaven and earth expose you to His great smile...

in Jesus

jd

And Again

Hi - not to be a downer, but it happened again. Ina village called Kalagala, 3 km from our school, a young man tried to steal matoke, or bananas for you newbies, and a mob beat him to death. This place just makes no sesnse to me. Where does it say its ok to beat someone to death because they stole your bananas??? Shouldn't the mob be put in prison???

Enough of that. Things are going well here. We've been learning to set up the guitars like a pro would. Very nice. Today we're focussing on painting the guitars and the art of spraying a sunburst.

And in big news, David and I created a blog yesterday for him and the students to blog with; http://suubitradeschool.blogspot.com/2010/03/welcome-to-suubi.html

So check it out!

And lastly, thanks to British Airways for always getting me here. I'm sorry they felt the need to strike - and I'm even more sorry that my flight home had to be moved up a day and now looks like this...
Entebbe/Uganda to Addis Ababa (sp?) to Dubai to London (sleep over in the airport) to Boston (sleep over in the airport) to Dallas to Vancouver.

oh it will be nice to be home again.

and lastly, a big thanks to our Heavenly Father who answered prayers that Noah would have a good nights sleep.

jd

mob justice

It seems that with every trip I make to Uganda, I learn more about the ugly side of life here. Last night a young man lost his life for trying to steal a mattress. I am not kidding. A mob beat him to death over a mattress.

In trying to understand this, I asked David to explain how that can happen. Here it is.

Thieving is common here, and life is cheap. If a thief breaks into your home and you catch him, or them, (there could be 2 or more), there is the possibility that they may kill you rather than face being identified later. So thieves are lumped together with murderers because they are sometimes one in the same.

Sometimes the thieves have guns. Almost everyone in Uganda knows how to use a gun because of a government program that exists.

By the time the police arrive, an angry mob has beaten the young thief to death. Last year I heard a young thief was trying to steal a scooter and was burned to death by the mob.

So how does this happen in a country that claims to be 80% Christian and 20% Muslim?

I have no idea.

I will never understand this place.

lifting the spirits

Today was pretty cool. had a lot of great moments as we sat together with the students and talked about the year gone by and the future. They had some concerns about wage increases, medical coverage, supply problems and electr4ical problems. And it would be a shame if I didn't mention that some of them want an extra chipati for breakfast, fancier lunches and travel money. Of course all of this would be possible if they made more guitars!

We decided that our biggest challenge is electricity. We need another diesel generator to run the power in the climate room so that our production won't be interrupted by power outages. So I made them a deal. Whatever they can raise locally towards that, we will match 2:1. You ought to have seen them come up with ideas! They are going to throw a fundraising banquet for 300 people, build and sell a guitar for the event, and have lots of speeches. It was nice to see the entrepeneur in them come alive. It was beautiful.

Anyways, here's a pic of Chris, Josh and Alex having fun at the warehouse with a batch of new guitars. Incidently, we've now switched from Fedex to TNT couriers and thier African counterpart, and we're saving 50% on shipping from Uganda to Canada.

peace

jd

Casting Crowns Gets Guitar

Well today was a fun day. I received an email from Hector Cervantes of Casting Crowns - he has received his guitar and loves it! Nice. Maybe it will end up onstage in front of thousands...

I had a fun thought and I'm wondering if you could let me know what you think. I'm thinking of asking Mwesige David, our shop foreman, to do a blog of his own. Would that be interesting?

We're working on touching up a few guitars today. And then we're going to spend the 2nd half of the day hearing from the guys about the past year.

It seems that every day we are getting someone new following this blog so if thats you, then welcome to the blog!

*** I just had a call from Walter Loewen of Spruce Grove , Alberta, my hometown. Walter is in Kampala (30km away from us here in Mpigi), and needs a guitar for a conference he is a part of. It seems that with the British Airways strike, all thier luggage and thier guitar is temporarily missing. So here we go! I'm glad I brought a pick up with me! Its going to be an interesting day as we'll be under the gun to get this one right, the first time...

peace

Skype On!

We have video Skype!!!! Unbelievable. Soooo great. I talked with Irena and Noah tonight with Video! The connection was a bit worse than doing the same thing in Canada, but not much. Oh God is goooooood.

We have pics now from one of our first attempts at blessing the community around us here in Mpigi. Attached is a pic or two of some kids from a needy elementary school. We were able to buy them some school supplies, (notebooks, pens/pencils and math sets for each student), and lunch for a month!

We'll only be able to continue this type of thing if our fund raising grows - right now we are (all of us at DA) being paid only a little at a time because funds are VERY tight right now. If you want to help a bit each month it would totally help us out. You can find out more using the 'Donate' link at our website www.duncanafrica.com