a name is important isn't it?: The ending and beginning....

So my team for the last two months has gone home and although they did give me a headache, i am finding that i often miss them. They were so much fun and we were so small at the end that we really got to know eachother well and i miss their loud voices in the hallways! Here's a quick snap shot of the fun times we had.

We were so happy about chocolate chip cookies :)

Jordan loved this find in the clothes donation bin.....

Now that the team is gone Samantha is here to keep me company, and we are so incredibly busy. We are meeting with potential partners all the time and there is so much work to be done in Mbale its incredible.

Shaky face pictures...

Sam's shaky face... The kids loved it!

We have been working on a passion fruit garden with HASNN ( the HIV/Aids group) and we have FINALLY found some land for to begin. The cool thing about this garden is that it will be a demonstration garden. We have many many members, and so in a few weeks we will begin teaching them how to plant and grow passion fruit. Then once they have finished a planting, and we have harvested some of the fruit, we will teach them how to sell them in the market and all that jazz. And then when they “graduate” from the program we will give them a few seedlings for them to start their own passion fruit garden and begin making themselves more sustainable. I am so excited about this. It has been in the making for 2 months or so. Its great to see it finally come about.

On our way to check out some land.... love these guys!

The health clinic has run into some tough spots… the grant that we were counting on for the medications hasn’t been secured and we may not be able to rely on it for our medication funds. Which is a REALY BIG loss, so we are scraping together to try and find some funding. We are also still trying to find the funds for the staff to get paid their money for the work that they have done, which is turning out to be harder than expected. One thing that I am learning more and more about development work is that it is always a battle. You have to be willing to fight. There is a lot of risks when you are trying to make big changes and often times things don’t turn out the way you had planned. And it sometimes takes longer to get it going that you would like.

It makes me reflect on why im here. Why is it worth sitting in front of a computer all the time searching for grants, and digging money from my own bank account to help get the health clinic medication, and then trek up the steepest hill known to man to get it to these people living in a remote village. I mean they live in these small mud huts, with no electricity or running water. Where they have to walk at least a kilometer to get to the water source on the mountain to fill up their 10 liter jerrycan with less than clear water and hike back to provide water to their family for the day? Sometimes i think its because i feel i am so blessed that i have an obligation to give back. Or I want to help them to better their lives because that is just what i have always wanted to do. Or because I have the resources to help. But the truth is, they give me happiness! Eventhough its tough, and some days i feel severely overwhelmed, the days of feeling overwhelmed don't even come close to the days that i see the happiness in a persons eye because they have been able to get the health care they need. Or the excitment when we tell the HASNN woman that we are doing a passion fruit garden and they start jumping up and down and doing the xena call :) i love it!
There is a happiness that fills my heart that can't be filled anywhere else! i love it!

I remember having a conversation with my grandpa once where he talked about how people go and do humanitairan projects and most of the time they do it because they want to have the warm fuzzy's and they want to say that they did something good. I understand a little bit about where they are coming from. But when you live with the people and get to know them, and feel their hardships, and see their sorrows and pains, those warm fuzzy's mean so much more! its not a temporary feeling, it changes your heart. I

t doesn't just make it feel good, it makes you different, and you want to help others, not just build them a building, or give them food, but to help provide REAL change, because its the real change that keeps my heart filled with happiness!