2-Page PDF Overview

What a whirlwind these past few months have been. All told, the fire rebuilding process took a month of dedicated time and effort. Jessie Rich and Kelli O’Hea from Calvary dropped practically everything right along with us to care for the residents of Loko village. Returning to “our lives” took monumental effort as “work” was piled up, we were all behind in practically everything “our lives” required.

“Our lives”. “Work”. Odd terms. Jessie and Kelli don’t do construction for a living. I and my family certainly don’t. That’s not why we’re here in Uganda. Or is it?

I’m not considering dropping out of tech. Yet. There’s too much of a need here. Students to teach, machines to repair, internet to repair. There are far too many people in need of tech stuff, Ugandans and those here to help Ugandans alike. But projects like the Loko Fire Relief are just as close (if not closer) to the heart of why we’re all here than a lot of the day-to-day stuff we do. More importantly, the victims of the fire are exactly who we need to keep our eyes and hearts open to. In the spirit of that, I’m closing this chapter of the Loko Village “project” which I’ve called “Fire Relief” and opening the next phase, which I’ll call “Loko Village Fire Rebuild”.

Most of the residents are out of work, squatting on land they don’t own. Many of them have no viable job skills. I feel we’ve done a basic service by rebuilding their homes, but we’ll be doing an injustice if we don’t make an effort to reshape and rebuild their lives. They may be living in a new room, but in a year, will they be any better off? We hope so.

I’ll be partnering with local non-profits that specialize in job skill training and placement to do what we can to help those that are willing to be helped. I’ll keep you posted.

I want to thank each and every one of you that donated finances to the project, sent encouragement and those on the ground that gave of themselves to accomplish this project. I’m inspired by each and every one of you. You gave of yourselves to help those in dire need. Again, thank you.

I’m also excited that a blog headline like “Hackers Help Rebuild Ugandan Village” is real. Those of you that know me well know that I hate the bad rap “hackers” get because of the media. I’m always happy to see hackers involved in projects that promote positive social change, and I’m thrilled you’ve allowed me to play a part in this.

Please check out the PDF files attached to this post and pass them around. My two-page overview is above and Jen’s (well-done, much more detailed) newsletter is below. We’ve got more work to do but it’s important to let people know what we’ve done..together.

Loko Village Part 1

Loko Village Part 2

If you were wondering when to sit down in front of the telly and watch Eurosport, the answer is easy! This Sunday, 10am GMT Marathon Des Sables is about to start and the guy with a number 267 waving like crazy it is me!! :o))

Thank you for all your support and words of encouragement. I will do my best to represent HFC and myself in the best possible way. Watch me out! ;o))

You can follow all happenings on http://www.darbaroud.com/index.php?lang=en where there should be videos from the race and the finish line, photos, actual positions of the competitors and much more. Unfortunately I will not be able to inform you all about the things so will do that once back again.

Wish me luck and see you soon! :o))

Cheerio!

[!v@n]

So I ask. I’m simply not too proud to beg.

First, the personal items:

1) A Nintendo DSI charger – It was a Christmas gift for my youngest, and he was really enjoying it until I plugged the 110 adapter into 220. I’m one of the smart ones.

2) Paralax “Basic Stamp” accessories, add-on kits or similar instructional hardware design and programming kits – I have the Basic Stamp starter kits (from Radio Shack) and I’m going to be using it to teach the kids programming along with hardware design. The only problem is that the basic kits come with only a few pathetic accessories, so the projects are quite boring. I’d love to have some more accessories and perhaps some guides to help make this more fun. Eventually I could see a course for this in the training center, if I can follow it, teach it and figure out how to keep the stuff from getting stolen.

3) Rock Band instruments and Rock Band / Guitar Hero XBOX 360 games – Guitar Hero has become a favorite in the house. A friend of ours donated his guitar and game, and one of our volunteers donated another guitar so we can do multiplayer Guitar Hero. I love playing it and so does my daughter. My oldest son would be interested if we had the keyboard, and one of his friends would be more than happy to sing, but we just can’t afford the instruments and games. So we’re looking for Rock Band games (Beatles, anyone, please, please help me now!?!) and the keyboard and mic instruments. We’re even thinking of setting up Rock Band to the Keep’s sound system before Karaoke Saturday nights so people can come and take Karaoke to the next level! Rock Band / Karaoke might not seem like a big deal but it really is. Not only are we supporting 20+ Ugandans with the (SERIOUSLY struggling) business at The Keep, but we’re serving those working here, and energizing them to get back into the fight. Karaoke night is one of our busiest and funnest nights for those serving in Uganda and those that come have a chance to unwind and blow off some steam in a safe, family-friendly environment. In a town whose nightlife consists of clubs and bars, alcohol, drugs and prostitutes, that’s really saying something. Ah, it doesn’t matter what I write. I just know someone will give me a hard time about begging for “toys”. I get a lot of those emails, so I’m used to it.

4) Arnold Palmer powdered (quart-size) drink mix packs – This one is totally for me, but I will share.. I promise.. I’d like to thank Bill Gardner for my addiction to this stuff. There’s no justification for this item. But it’s mean to keep an addict away from his stuff. Y’know? And there are no suitable rehabs here. Just send me the stuff. SEND IT. NOW. *ahem* .. where was I? Oh yes,

Moving on, we also need a couple of things for the Keep and our training center..

1) A 3.5mm stereo audio cable, 5 meters (15ft) or longer – This is for connecting my laptop audio to my video camera mic jack when we record performances from the mixer.

2) A shotgun microphone for our donated Canon HF-10 video camera – This camera uses a “Mini Advanced Shoe” which is pretty non-standard. Our camera uses a 3.5mm stereo mic jack if the hot shoe is not used. This one is recommended by the manufacturer, but it’s expensive : http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/539265-REG/Canon_2591B002_DM_100_Directional_Stereo_Microphone.html. Ouch! But beggars can’t be choosers. Any shotgun mic with a 3.5mm jack will be fine. That’s what duct tape is for.
This is for recording music performances at the Keep and student interviews at the center. We’d also like to let others in the community borrow the camera for their work. It’s often pretty hard to record any decent audio here without a shotgun mic + wind guard. These videos will go a long way to promoting struggling artists and those served by the Training Center and other non-profits in the area.

3) Mac laptop magsafe chargers (All wattages). We blow through these things like crazy here because of the bad power. I know not many people have spares, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. I’m already looking for two 60W adapters, one for a training pastor friend and another for a young lady running a small non-profit, both here in Jinja. A massive power surge rolled through town this week, destroying hundreds of computer systems, refrigerators and more. I swear it was like a mini-EMP and for Mac users, that’s a drop-dead. There’s simply nowhere to get parts.

4) An LED projector. We’re starting to do computer training classes in schools around the area. Standard projectors do not last here because of the bad power and the dust. Bulbs blow like crazy. The only thing that lasts is LED-based projectors. They’re also small, so they’re easier to ship. I know they aren’t cheap, but if you happen to have one around that you don’t need or use, send it our way, we’ll use it to train young Ugandan hackers students. =)

5) A couple of tripods: one for our camera and one for the LED projector. (How’s that for faith that someone will donate a projector?)

6) Point and shoot digital cameras and SD cards. Really, I don’t care how old the camera is or how small the cards. If it takes photos, please send it. I want to give them to our center staff to use to take photos for the web site. I’m putting the staff in charge of updates so they come more frequently. I’m not at the center nearly enough so I’m missing a lot of good stuff that should be on the web site. Cameras that use AA batteries are best (remember our power situation?) but send any you can.

7) A decent Intel Core laptop for our training center manager, Teo. She’s worked very hard for us and she wants to review classes and take training at night while she’s at home. (!!) The laptop must have a DVD reader so she can read the course material.The laptop must have a good battery (new preferred) as she will likely be working off the battery at night and charging it at the center during the day. She likely won’t have power at home.

8) Hacker stickers. Odd request, but my kids and our staff love them. =)

9) Ipod / iPad / iPhone charging cables. Another odd request, but they can’t be replaced. They are going bad left and right and we can’t replace them.

10) An OSX Lion install USB and other OSX install DVD’s. Not much to say here, but thiese are critical to our Apple repair efforts for the folks here.

That’s about it for now. If you have anything you’re willing to donate, or suggestions that aren’t on this list, please  drop me a line (johnny -the at sign- hackersforcharity – period – org) and I’ll send you the hotel address.

Thanks in advance. I really appreciate anything you can send!

So I ask. I’m simply not too proud to beg.

First, the personal items:

1) A Nintendo DSI charger – It was a Christmas gift for my youngest, and he was really enjoying it until I plugged the 110 adapter into 220. I’m one of the smart ones.

2) Paralax “Basic Stamp” accessories, add-on kits or similar instructional hardware design and programming kits – I have the Basic Stamp starter kits (from Radio Shack) and I’m going to be using it to teach the kids programming along with hardware design. The only problem is that the basic kits come with only a few pathetic accessories, so the projects are quite boring. I’d love to have some more accessories and perhaps some guides to help make this more fun. Eventually I could see a course for this in the training center, if I can follow it, teach it and figure out how to keep the stuff from getting stolen.

3) Rock Band instruments and Rock Band / Guitar Hero XBOX 360 games – Guitar Hero has become a favorite in the house. A friend of ours donated his guitar and game, and one of our volunteers donated another guitar so we can do multiplayer Guitar Hero. I love playing it and so does my daughter. My oldest son would be interested if we had the keyboard, and one of his friends would be more than happy to sing, but we just can’t afford the instruments and games. So we’re looking for Rock Band games (Beatles, anyone, please, please help me now!?!) and the keyboard and mic instruments. We’re even thinking of setting up Rock Band to the Keep’s sound system before Karaoke Saturday nights so people can come and take Karaoke to the next level! Rock Band / Karaoke might not seem like a big deal but it really is. Not only are we supporting 20+ Ugandans with the (SERIOUSLY struggling) business at The Keep, but we’re serving those working here, and energizing them to get back into the fight. Karaoke night is one of our busiest and funnest nights for those serving in Uganda and those that come have a chance to unwind and blow off some steam in a safe, family-friendly environment. In a town whose nightlife consists of clubs and bars, alcohol, drugs and prostitutes, that’s really saying something. Ah, it doesn’t matter what I write. I just know someone will give me a hard time about begging for “toys”. I get a lot of those emails, so I’m used to it.

4) Arnold Palmer powdered (quart-size) drink mix packs – This one is totally for me, but I will share.. I promise.. I’d like to thank Bill Gardner for my addiction to this stuff. There’s no justification for this item. But it’s mean to keep an addict away from his stuff. Y’know? And there are no suitable rehabs here. Just send me the stuff. SEND IT. NOW. *ahem* .. where was I? Oh yes,

Moving on, we also need a couple of things for the Keep and our training center..

1) A 3.5mm stereo audio cable, 5 meters (15ft) or longer – This is for connecting my laptop audio to my video camera mic jack when we record performances from the mixer.

2) A shotgun microphone for our donated Canon HF-10 video camera – This camera uses a “Mini Advanced Shoe” which is pretty non-standard. Our camera uses a 3.5mm stereo mic jack if the hot shoe is not used. This one is recommended by the manufacturer, but it’s expensive : http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/539265-REG/Canon_2591B002_DM_100_Directional_Stereo_Microphone.html. Ouch! But beggars can’t be choosers. Any shotgun mic with a 3.5mm jack will be fine. That’s what duct tape is for.
This is for recording music performances at the Keep and student interviews at the center. We’d also like to let others in the community borrow the camera for their work. It’s often pretty hard to record any decent audio here without a shotgun mic + wind guard. These videos will go a long way to promoting struggling artists and those served by the Training Center and other non-profits in the area.

3) Mac laptop magsafe chargers (All wattages). We blow through these things like crazy here because of the bad power. I know not many people have spares, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. I’m already looking for two 60W adapters, one for a training pastor friend and another for a young lady running a small non-profit, both here in Jinja. A massive power surge rolled through town this week, destroying hundreds of computer systems, refrigerators and more. I swear it was like a mini-EMP and for Mac users, that’s a drop-dead. There’s simply nowhere to get parts.

4) An LED projector. We’re starting to do computer training classes in schools around the area. Standard projectors do not last here because of the bad power and the dust. Bulbs blow like crazy. The only thing that lasts is LED-based projectors. They’re also small, so they’re easier to ship. I know they aren’t cheap, but if you happen to have one around that you don’t need or use, send it our way, we’ll use it to train young Ugandan hackers students. =)

5) A couple of tripods: one for our camera and one for the LED projector. (How’s that for faith that someone will donate a projector?)

6) Point and shoot digital cameras and SD cards. Really, I don’t care how old the camera is or how small the cards. If it takes photos, please send it. I want to give them to our center staff to use to take photos for the web site. I’m putting the staff in charge of updates so they come more frequently. I’m not at the center nearly enough so I’m missing a lot of good stuff that should be on the web site. Cameras that use AA batteries are best (remember our power situation?) but send any you can.

7) A decent Intel Core laptop for our training center manager, Teo. She’s worked very hard for us and she wants to review classes and take training at night while she’s at home. (!!) The laptop must have a DVD reader so she can read the course material.The laptop must have a good battery (new preferred) as she will likely be working off the battery at night and charging it at the center during the day. She likely won’t have power at home.

8) Hacker stickers. Odd request, but my kids and our staff love them. =)

9) Ipod / iPad / iPhone charging cables. Another odd request, but they can’t be replaced. They are going bad left and right and we can’t replace them.

10) An OSX Lion install USB and other OSX install DVD’s. Not much to say here, but thiese are critical to our Apple repair efforts for the folks here.

That’s about it for now. If you have anything you’re willing to donate, or suggestions that aren’t on this list, please  drop me a line (johnny -the at sign- hackersforcharity – period – org) and I’ll send you the hotel address.

Thanks in advance. I really appreciate anything you can send!

Thanks to Ivan for flying our colors and trying to raise some funds for our work. We’re all cheering you on and even more excited that you’re the first-ever Slovak participant in this famous race. Stay safe and do your best!

For more information, check out http://logitdown.com/ivan, and Ivan’s personal page on Darbaround.

We had a team from Give International in Canada come and help us paint. They were also kind enough to donate nine sets of household supplies including mattresses, mosquito nets, pots and pans and more. I’m happy to have met and worked with these folks.

A .. nice man .. Came to us with a “problem”. Seems he was a landlord for four of the rooms (yes, making money off the poorest of the poor) and demanded we remove our buildings that were on “his” land or “help him with a little something”. He works for UNRA, the owners of the land who graciously allowed us to build. We refuses his offer and in front of witnesses, he responded, “There will be chaos and I will be behind it.” the day before he threatened the LC1 with a machete. We took him to his boss and his story changed to him “being affected by the fire” and him simply “looking out for the interest of the others affected by the fire,” himself included. Yes, he has a job, and yes he is greedy and pompous and yes I made a police report. I’ve included his picture as insurance, you know, just in case there is chaos.. Victims will know who is “behind it”.

Progress is coming rather quickly as the interior and exterior boards and the roofing all happens at once. Now with the painting, it’s quite staggering how quickly this project is moving along.

We are going to be in this for the long haul, though, because many of these people need more than a room. In a year, this village could be gone and we will need to help each family help themselves. Our goal is to ensure that each and every family is in a better spot a year from now. We’re looking at job placement, skills training, financial management and micro loans, all with the help and supervision of friends in the community that have more experience in this than we do.

Thanks again to everyone working in this project, especially our friends at Calvary and those who have supported this effort. I’m proud of the work we’re doing and excited for the future of this community.

Lovely.

As for the work at the site, we are doing the final framing. Those of you that have been with us from the beginning may recognize the shots of the big tree. Some of the video footage from the fire showed several people tearing away part of a building near this tree. We’ve come a long way since that shot.

Thanks everyone for you continue support!

Today we measured the distances between the poles and found that one building was completely out of square which threw off all the distances. This is a problem because each room measures 8′x8′ and the lengths of our wood is 8′. With the gaps out of whack, we either have to patch things together or move poles, which is a problem because the poles are sunk and the rafters and frames are in place. Thanks to Bob (seen in the yellow cap) none of this was a problem. See, Bob has experience as a carpenter and he took one look at the building and saw that one corner pole was bent like crazy. After removing one rafter and replacing that pole things fell into place and .. like magic .. everything fell into place.

The moral of the story: one bad pole wrecks the whole house. This was the theme for more than building.

But the big news is that we finally took delivery of the wood donated by Nile Ply. They donated approximately 120 4′x8′ sheets including ceiling board (think thin particle board), 3/16″ plywood and “block board” which is basically furring strips sandwiched between 1/4″ plywood sheets.

The ceiling and ply will be used for interior walls and the block board will be painted and sealed and used for exterior walls.

We still have more wood to buy and we are anxious to heard for Roofings about their donation. We should know something from them by tomorrow.

Breaking rocks, moving dirt, hauling trees: hard work. Convincing an entire village that if they don’t accept a gift of a one year eviction extension, they will lose everything: nigh impossible. Convincing the local politicians to accept and quickly act on the decision of the people before they get a power trip out of being the last thing preventing a village of 400+ from being bulldozed: Requires Miracle.

When I got out of bed this morning, every muscle ached. My eyes burned, my throat was nearly closed. I was dehydrated and exhausted. The last thing I wanted to do was manual labor. After several meetings though, I was longing for some manual labor. I hate meetings. I hate politics. But had our ragtag group bailed on these meetings, I know without a doubt that an entire village, even those unaffected by the fire, would have been bulldozed.

The politicians were lazy and the people were clueless and lied to by the very people elected to protect them.

We had a mini town meeting and explained to the residents what was really going on. We told them that if they didn’t ask for a formal extension they were going to face eviction by bulldozer. They agreed even though some residents were wrongly convinced they could do nothing and they would be blissfully ignored for another five or ten years.

We passed the job of finalizing and delivering the letter to the LC1 and explained the hard deadline of 8am Thursday morning. He missed the deadline and jeopardized the homes of over 400 people. We hunted him down and delivered the letter ourselves two hours past the deadline. It was accepted by the landowner, no thanks to the politicians.

All the sweat, blisters and wasted muscles are nothing compared to the importance of that simple letter.

But by saving them from eviction, we’ve also committed ourselves to them for the next year. We can’t just build shelter and walk away because a year from now they will likely be evicted. We are setting ourselves up for a job much harder than building homes.. we must build futures.

This, I think, is why we are here. This is why I was so inexplicably drawn to the victims of this fire. I’m seeing with fresh eyes that charity is not a solution and it is not a “means to an end”. Rather, it is a stopgap measure. It is triage. Triage is necessary in a crisis situation. Stabilization is critical. But no one breathes a sigh of relief when someone they love advances from “critical” to “critical but stable”.

And I can’t rightly allow myself to, either.

This morning I was exhausted, secretly hoping for an end to the labor. By the end of the day, though, something in me had changed. I didn’t have a job. I wasn’t facing labor. My attitude had changed and I realized that I am not merely called to help or to simply work for these people, I am called to love them and even love the stupid self-serving, transparent politicians.

It’s a bit of an epiphany and I know it will sound strange to many who read this, but regardless of how it will make anyone feel, it happened today. This paradigm shift happened and in that shift from labor to love, I found strength to keep going.

Our tiny town meeting:

But even understanding basic building techniques is not enough. For example, once we know exactly where a pole needs to go and we put in a market, someone has to dig. So they generally take out the stake and start to dig. A rock might knock them off course, or each person might decide to dig in the left or right of the stake. The result can be a mess. Ugandans are very smart about building in their own way, but most structures are relatively small, like a 16′ x 8′ building split into two homes or “rooms”. Most buildings are not bigger than that because wood is cut at 8′ lengths and larger projects require a small margin of error. In our case, we are saving money by building larger structures (each with 8′ x 8′rooms) with shared walls. But this means smaller margins for error and “western” techniques that are frankly hard to explain to the locals. We are trying to pass on the techniques but also trying to keep to a relatively good pace so this doesn’t turn into a longer project than it needs to be.

That’s the poles. Now the politics. Jessie, Kelli and I spent some time talking to the land owner representative. It turns out the land the entire village is using is owned by the Ministry of Works/UNRA. So all the hundreds of residents, including the fire victims are squatters. And to make matters worse, UNRA sent them a legit eviction notice effective Jan 9th, 2012. The people grumbled, and sought a reprise. The UNRA rep mentioned that the residents have never asked to stay on the property and if they worked together and asked to stay (say for a year) they would likely be granted a reprise. The LC1 is the people’s government representative so the task of organizing this falls to him.

The afternoon went like this:

UNRA: “The bulldozers are coming. But if you produce a letter asking to stay maybe we can stop this. If you can’t organize enough to produce a letter then we’re sorry.”

Us: “Thanks for the offer. We’ll get right on it.”

LC1: “I will schedule a meeting with the whole village, then draft a letter an meet with the LC3 (his boss’ boss) and get this signed by the Mayor.”

Us: “But the bulldozers are coming!”

The Mayor was beaten and stoned earlier this week. I’m sure he’s busy. And this has nothing to do with the LC3 or the mayor, but the local politicians want face time and community “vote for me” schmooze time. Sound familiar? So construction is on hold.

Here’s a fisheye of the progress today:

Jessie began working on a prototype for a daytime interior light. This bottle of water (with a teaspoon of bleach) is recessed into the ceiling. When the light hits the bottle it diffuses into the room and can give off as much light as a 55watt bulb.

The hard work today was running the remaining site lines and clearing rubble from the worksite. This was really tough work. We all have more than our share I inhales dust, blisters and aching muscles.

Even the children were hard at work carrying the heavy poles from Calvary.

By the end of the day, the site was looking really good. Click this image for a fisheye view of the site:

And here’s a standard view of the site:

The day ended with the thunder of teargas canisters from riots in the market and thunder from the sky as rain and hail (hopefully) marked the end of the hot season and the start of the rainy season.

Continuing with Saturday, I also met with an engineer from the US named Bryce who helped us with some details about building. We need to do some serious grading to prevent water erosion and our design needs cross braces.

I met with Grace, our carpenter and foreman, to figure out what tools we need for that work. We used HFC donated funds for that equipment which included rakes, hoes, pick axes, shovels, post hole diggers, rebar pieces and twine for marking the site.

Jen and Kelly were busy organizing the massive pile of donations from the community into separate groups for each family that lost their home. This was a lot of work as the donations were of all sizes and types. They spent several long hot hours working with all this in preparation for the distribution Saturday night which went really well. This photo shows the group that received donations. Each is acting as a head of household.

I met again with the chairman to sort out the list of fire victims to figure out who lived in each home. This helps with the distribution but also with an attendance list so we can learn who in the group might not be helping with the work. We learned that some perfecty healthy residents are sitting around “letting the Mzungus build them a house”. These people are in the minority and the chairman knows who they are. I have no idea what he’ll do about it but so far he’s been honest and fair.

We also had a nice lady come and distribute clothes on her own. We heard the ruckus over in the field and investigated. She told us she was only giving donations to victims but I didn’t recognize any of the crowd from meals at night and none of them had our bracelets on. I’ve been working for hours on the list of victims with the chairman and we don’t even have it completely sorted, but she was convinced she had it sorted. Also, the heads of practically every household and many of their children were at Calvary working on the poles so they all missed out. She did a good service for the community and has a good heart and it reminded me of myself three years ago when I would just jump in and recklessly do something good even if it wasnt well planned, coordinated or sustainable. Good is good. Anyway we were glad to see some benefit for the surrounding community.

We also started cutting rebar to act as stakes and did the initial layout of the individual buildings. It’s cool to see the buildings taking shape.

The night wrapped up with the meal
Service and Calvary showed the Jesus film to about three hundred people in the village. It ended up being a 16 hour day, but it was wonderful.

Having never stripped bark from a tree before, I watched the process for a while and decided it looked easy and fun.

They used machetes to separate the bark at the base and then peeled it away from the tree with their fingernails. Once they had a couple of inches to grab, they pulled the bark in long strips revealing the gorgeous white wood underneath. All in all it looked like they were peeling massive bananas. They chatted in Luganda as they worked. Beyond fun, it looked somehow therapeutic. I decided to jump right in.

The first thing I realized was that it was getting very hot in the sun. I also realize that the trees were extremely heavy. I already knew this from pulling the poles off the truck on Friday, but that was easier.. we only had to drag them off the truck bed. This was tougher because the trees had to be rolled around to get access to all the bark and the poles weren’t straight. My first tree smashed several toes and nailed me in the shins just to let me know who was in charge. That first tree took me an hour as I peeled tiny spindly pieces of bark one layer at a time. The chairman, working beside me, finished five in the first hour. By the time I got to the second tree I had figured out one of the secrets was to get every layer of bark in one shot. I dug deep for my first piece an before I knew it, I had completely stripped a third of the tree in one long strip. It took time because I had to stop every now and then to work around a branch or a knot, but the result was worth it. Eventually I completely stripped that tree in three long strips. (check out the picture of the tree and the three strips).

After two hours I had stripped four trees and I was soaked with sweat. No one else had even broken a sweat. These guys are tough. I’ve got chunks of bark jammed into my nail beds and I was told the will have to “grow out”. By eleven I was already pretty exhausted but it was time to meet with Nile Ply to see about their wood donation. Jessie and I headed over there.

As it turns out they are donating almost all the wood we will need except for about 50 sheets which thanks to your donations we can afford to buy if we need to. The wood will be available on Tuesday.

My best pole: three strips, about 45 minutes of work:

This is a lot of the necessary stuff we forgot about.

Thanks everyone for the donations!

When I witnessed the fire that destroyed twenty-six homes a stones throw from where we live in Jinja Uganda, my heart sank. I felt hopeless.

As we mobilized with donations from the hacker community to feed the victims who had lost everything, I began to feel hope.

But we couldn’t sustain the food program forever so we started looking for a longer-term solution. We started investigating options for rebuilding.

Yesterday afternoon I was really questioning why in the world I got involved in this. The food money was running low, and the estimate for the poles (which represented the very beginning phase of the construction) was around $1000. That meant we were $1000 from even beginning to help the victims with their long term needs. Less than a week into this project I was already discouraged and the blessing of the food program already seemed inconsequential because it wasn’t sustainable.

I should have had more faith. Really.

In the span of twelve hours, the hacker community responded and we tripled our financial need for the poles!

I had to check and recheck my math because I couldn’t believe it. The math was right, and just like that I witnessed a miracle. I should have more faith. I say that a lot.

After nearly 25 donations ranging from $5 to $1,000, the hacker community stood in the gap once again for the people of Uganda.

Today has already been a really busy day. We met with Grace, a carpenter recommended by Jessie and David and Edmond, a carpenter and engineer recommended by Barb, and we planned out the acquisition of the poles. We sat down and drew up a list of all the other materials needed to rebuild the village (excluding the lumber and iron roof sheets which may be donated) and the total for everything including the poles cost around $1,500.

This includes hammers, saws, pangas (machetes one for each home to be used as a cutting tool and for defense), nails, plywood, hinges and latches for doors, etc.

I put a rather sensational, exclusive-sounding title on this post. But I want to be perfectly clear: this is a group effort.

- HFC donors have provided the majority of the funds.
- Local missionaries from so many organizations have tirelessly provided labor, funds, household items, transportation and support.
- Ugandan tradesmen are working very hard gathering materials and their skills and effort will be critical as they oversee the building phase.
- Calvary Chapel staff has donated their compound and their staff has been working tirelessly cooking, distributing food and working as liaisons to the community.
- Jessie Rich from Calvary has put in countless hours on this project. His construction experience is invaluable and his connection and interface to the community has made a real difference. I’m really enjoying working with him. He’s been here in Uganda for 14 years and his experience is invaluable. I’m learning so much.

This thing is really coming together. We are actually rebuilding a village. Crazy!

Thank you all for your donations. Big and small, each one is making a huge difference.

I’m also proud to say that the overhead on this project is near-zero. Other than PayPal and ATM transaction fees, all the donation money is going right into rebuilding the homes, stocking them and feeding the owners. Thanks again everyone. This really is a miracle.

I knew going in this was going to be expensive but right now I’m stunned at the cost. My trusted carpenter quoted me 25,000/= per pole. Barb, a wonderful lady I met yesterday took the matters to her crew and got a quote of 7,000/= per pole. I’d like to take a moment to thank our trusted carpenter.

Anyhow, that gets us to 2,100,000/= or just under $1000. This is a big number. After a generous private donation of $200 from someone here in Jinja we still need about $800 which would drain the HFC Fire Relief fund.

This photo shows a thinner version of the poles we need. This Photo shows approximately where six homes would be placed, as each home was approximately 8′ x 8′ x 8′. The lady in this photo guards her poles (which she had as spares and saves from the fire) all day and all night. I’ve never seen her leave the remains of her home.

This photo shows some of the children who lived in the burned homes. They are standing inside the square that made up the boundaries of one home.

So that’s where we are. We are either going to drain our fund or someone will step in and help with the foundation of the homes: the poles.

Thanks for following along with us on this journey. We are moving ahead in faith. :-)

As always, we are thankful for your donation.

This installation replaced about six beat-up Linksys routers and blanketed their property with wifi for the staff and guests. For those of you that haven’t used Ubiquity gear, it’s decidedly NOT SOHO stuff. I’m really impressed with the features and the power of this thing (When tied to a 15db antenna) is quite impressive, although it’s not nearly as user-friendly as Linksys. This gear is also MUCH more robust than Linksys junk.

But like I said, I had a whole pile of tech stuff I needed to dig into, but my day would not be about tech. Instead, I started the day with Jessie (@CalvaryChapel) at the fire site. Jessie drew this diagram:

I know it looks a bit dodgy, but this sketch represents a LOT of work and a lot of ground covered in a short period of time.Yesterday morning we were swimming in questions. How many homes were burned, exactly? Were the homes owned by the residents, or landlords? Was the property owned by the residents of the landlords? If the homes or property are owned by a landlord, we would need to secure their permission before rebuilding? How much material would we need? What did the original site look like? What would the new site look like? Since local building suppliers have verbally agreed to donate materials, how much would they donate?

It took a couple of hours on site to get the answers to these questions.We walked around with local leaders and saw each and every plot. We met many of the residents and got what we needed.

I delivered the building material list here:

This is Nile Ply, one of the largest local sources of wood and timber. They have graciously agreed to donate building materials to the relief effort. We won’t know until Saturday, but we are hoping they will donate all of the materials.

In the evening we served another meal, this time to about 65 people.

Some of the early arrivals

It was a busy, exhausting day.

That, in a clinically presented nutshell, is basically what I did.

But my day wasn’t clinical. Some things happened to me, especially as I walked around the fire site..

When Jessie and I approached the site, I heard the familiar cry of, “Mzungu, Mzungu!” I ignored this, because in towns like Jinja, “Mzungu” has come to mean “give me money”. One of the kids caught my eye and I realized they were calling us to show us their brightly-colored “meal ticket” bracelet. The kids were excited because we were visiting them, and excited about what they had, not what we could give them.

I remember a time, about three years ago, when, for this very reason, I left the US with my family to head to Uganda for just this reason. I’ve told countless people that during Jen’s first trip to Uganda she filmed kids who, “had nothing but Joy” and that by contrast I, “had everything and was miserable”. That’s what started this whole adventure.

In the past years, I’ve lost touch with that. I’ve gotten wrapped up in “trying to do more”, then in “trying to have a greater impact”, and step by step, I got too wrapped up in myself. I became suspicious of those in need because I had been taken advantage of over and over again by “town people,” the Ugandan “middle class” who were separated from the village who had become somewhat self-sufficient (and materialistic.. greedy). I got wrapped around the axle over the abuses I had suffered at their hands. Combined with my own selfishness and several other factors, this bitterness slowly consumed me. The result was that I became someone I didn’t recognize. I spent too many weeks and months wrapped up in my selfish, bitter cocoon than I care to admit to.

Yesterday, I saw light. In the eyes of the children and the smiles of the grateful parents, I recognized a long-forgotten purpose. Isaiah 58:6-11 blasted through the cobwebs of my heart and yesterday I remembered what I had too easily forgotten. I came here with a vision to “break the chains of injustice”, to share my “food with the hungry, [invite] the homeless poor into [my home, to put] clothes on the shivering ill-clad.”

And along the way, I hoped it would have something to do with computers, something to do with technology so that those supporting HFC could feel connected, valued. But it wasn’t ever about HFC, and it wasn’t supposed to be about me and my ideas, my wants, my needs, my desires.

I’m so glad my day was about more than technology. I’m thankful for the opportunity to serve at this most basic, fundamental level. I’m proud to stand alongside others (like you) who are united in this cause, caring for the “hungry, the homeless poor and the shivering ill-clad.”

Thank you for your continued support, for your encouragement and your donations and comments that thrust me into this situation that’s reminding me about what I had forgotten.