Since some of the residents were renting their rooms to others, we gave the tenants six months of free rent, then had the landlords agree to let the tenants stay at the previous rate for another six months. We were told that the “squatter settlement” that is Loko would be bulldozed after a year. I even encouraged to landlords to find new work because their places were going to disappear. I even invited them to the leather training.

Well yesterday morning some of the landlords showed up at our gate. It turns out (surprise, surprise) that the chairmen, and LC’s are corrupt (go figure) and they are playing games by taking money from the tenants (less then rent payment) to keep the landlords from kicking them out. The landlords want me to do something about it. They’re coming to me because normally they bother Jesse but he’s out of the country. I feel bad for everyone in that village, but I’m not sure how to help people that don’t want to help themselves. It’s not that they can’t help themselves (they could have come to the free training) but they didn’t help themselves (they chose not to come).

Some folks warned me against a “handout” when we rebuilt that village, saying that in some cases, like those that abuse welfare in the US, people ride the wave of social support for whatever reason and after a while it just because How Things Are.

So I have some paperwork I can dig up that shows the allocations of the properties that I can give them and I’ll offer to sit in a meeting with whatever non-corrput official can spare a few moments but really, I’m nobody. I was part of a team that built a couple dozen rooms on property that wasn’t zoned for construction that’s owned by a company that’s wanted it bulldozed for years, and who has sounded the final gong at least twice in the past year. I can’t even re-offer the leather training because we’re already at 15 people and we can barely afford to pay them because frankly we’re not selling much. Not sure at all what to do to help Loko.

Speaking of leather, I realized today that I have to do something to keep this program alive, so I emailed the owner of Uganda’s most popular (and highest-end) gift shop, Banana Boat. They sell very high-end and pricey handmade African gifts that are considered the cream of the handmade crop. I think our stuff is that good, but only time will tell if they accept it. It would be great if they did. We need a bump for that program. I spent an hour or so in the workshop today (which is rare when I have so much going on) and did a few maintenance things: helped Jen finish a project and cut some leather straps so the girls could finish journals. I miss being in the workshop, and I might have to spend some more time in there creating some new stuff. I guess that’s what I’m best at: coming up with new stuff. I miss the workshop. There’s something soothing about being in there and it’s so right brain. (I had to Google which side of the brain that was. I’m not sure what that means.)

I sent a few very long emotional emails today: one to our board (which I now regret) and one to our old computer program in Kenya. As for the latter, it turned out that they invited me to a graduation of their Computer Training Program. You like how I did that in all caps, like all official-like? Well not only was I invited, I was asked to help pay for it. Croykies. I thought the program was dead because since we don’t live in Kenya I relied on photos and emails to let us know how things were going. I would visit and ask for updates and never received them so I assumed the program was dead, only to find out there are graduates! My email to the director in Webuye was pointed (because HELLO? We donated gear and only asked for some photos!) and as I wrote it I had to push down my frustration because we were sitting on so much gear at one point and all I wanted was to find something worthwhile to do with it. I’ll see what the response is and I’m trying to not have a bad attitude but it does burn me when stuff like this happens. We even donated a video camera so they could send footage. I’ll tell you one thing.. if we send them more gear, they’ll keepus posted. My email made sure of that. :-)

On another subject, the MiGs are flying over again today. That’s five passes so far.

And last but not least, I spent the day working on the Volunteer Network.

Unfortunately I was in a cruddy mood all day because the bad news is outweighing the good news on just about every front. Money has become an issue and we are really hoping some money comes in for the kids’ school, otherwise things will get.. messy.

I rode for twelve hours on a bus packed full of Sudanese families, their chickens, farm implements and what seemed like all their belongings. There were people two to a seat and wedged in every imaginable space including sprawled out in the aisles. Oh, and the Rastafari-Kenyan driver cranked reggae the whole night on the BANGING sound system and rolled and smoked a joint twenty minutes into the trip. At a police check, he pulled out his log book and sprayed a cloud of cherry air freshener right in front of the cop, while the joint burned away on the bus floor.

I arrived in one piece with a bad case of the munchies.

The surprise was appreciated and it was mission accomplished but thirty hours later I was back on another night bus back to Jinja and now I’m .. tired.

I had such a great time seeing Jen and the kids but if course it was way too short.

I got to spend a few moments with a man I have a ton if respect for, Steve Peifer, the Director of College Guidance at RVA and author of “A Dream So Big“, which is a book that has already encouraged me so much within the first forty pages. Steve walked away from a successful career in the tech industry to move with his family to Kenya to work with kids like ours at RVA. His heart was drawn to the Kenyan kids and he began computer training courses and feeding programs to help kids in need.

In the process he’s improved thousands both inside and outside the school walls. I really can’t wait to finish his book. It reminds me of why I came here in the first place.

I met a kindred spirit in Steve and I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds. It’s also gotten me thinking about my own story (not my idea) because my biggest complaint is that I’ve failed too many times and my story has no “happy ending”. Steve has shown me that neither if these things matter, that it is the journey that matters, and what we do with the time we’ve got. Do check out his book if you get the chance.

Going to get some sleep. It’s been a long weekend.

Lots of things going in the last few days and when I look at it all it does seem like quite the hodgepodge but that’s what life is like here. I can’t easily answer the question, “So what do you do?” There was a time when that was a straightforward thing to answer. Not anymore.

The past few days reflect that. We had visitors from YWAM that we met at the Keep who took an interest in our leather project. They were so interested in the project that they asked to visit the shop and learn about making journals. Although its not something we normally teach outside our program, they were nice enough people and were so excited to do it after weeks of slogging through some rough places that it was hard to turn them away. I got to learn about their story, show them the shop and the BnB and share what we did in Uganda. They each made (and paid for) a journal and they were so thankful. It was pretty cool because you could just see the stress of “work” melt as they did something creative. It was fun for me too because the leather program started as something really fun and eventually became “work” as we maintained the program, taught and tried to support the program with sales. I’m happy for the reminder about how fun it is to create something cool out of some of the toughest natural material on the planet.

I also began working on (yet another) iPhone as well as a MacBook belonging to a doctor friend that inexplicably died when she plugged in her daughter’s kindle. It was funny because she described it as a “first world problem” but then told me that her PhD was on that dead machine. Irregardless she’s a doctor taking care of many of the expats and workers here so it’s important to keep her happy and productive so I don’t think of it as a “first world problem” anyhow.

Had a really crazy run-in with some workers on our street. A few weeks ago, I noticed that one of the roads leading to the Keep was closed due to some construction. I stopped and talked to some of the workers around the area, and asked them how long the street was going to be closed. They told me that “none of the businesses have appreciated (them) so it was going to be closed for a long time”. This rather infuriated me, because basically these guys were asking for a bribe on top of getting paid to do their job. I was going to go to the police but I had other things going on at the moment totally forgot about the incident for a while until work started on the sidewalk in front of our place. My manager went and asked the guys how long the sidewalk was going to be torn up because it made it hard to get into the restaurant, and he told me that the guys were also expecting a bribe. When I asked the guys about this, they basically said the same thing my manager said, although they used the word “blood”, which means “assistance in working faster”.

This totally tweaked me the right way so I did end up going to the police and came back with three officers. The officer a long conversation with the two guys, and went on about “investors in the country being important according to the president” and how “it was wrong to be paid twice for one job”.

As this conversation went on I looked at the guy down in the ditch which was the one that was asking for the bribe, and in that moment I realized I had made a mistake. He was completely filthy from swinging a pickax breaking concrete all day. His feet were swollen from standing barefoot on the hard rock. His skin was dark from being in the sun for long days in a stretch, and his clothes were all pretty tattered. All the other guys on the crew looked pretty much the same way. The conversation was rather short and I took the police back to the police station, and thanked them for their help. But on the drive back, I really started thinking about the situation in a different light.

Yes, corruption is a huge problem in this country. Yes, it’s wrong to ask for bribes for anything. But on the scale of things I was wrong to call the police on these guys. I admit, I did it in anger, but I was angry at corruption, not these guys in particular.

I stopped at a local supermarket and got four one Litre bottles of cold water and went back to the keep. I apologized to the guys for bringing the police, and in not so many words told me it wasn’t really a big deal. He also explained more about what the problem was, saying that the concrete was incredibly hard and he was working as fast as he could. One guy said that at the end of the day his arms are so tired he could barely lift the ax anymore and it was usual to slow down at the end of the day. He also went on to explain that they were paid very little so there wasn’t much incentive to work fast.

His explanation didn’t make it right to ask for a bribe, but it did put a human element into the conversation that I hadn’t considered at all. The guys were after all paid very little and had incredibly difficult work. They were just guys trying to make their way in the world.

I tried to explain to them why bribes were so infuriating for foreigners, and why it’s so hard to lift the country out of poverty when corruption rules. They didn’t seem to understand this, so I tried to put it another way. I asked them if their lives would be different if everyone in their town had to be paid twice to do anything. They laughed at this, and I knew the point have been made.

I gave the guys the Cold water, (which they were ecstatic for) and realized in that moment that things would’ve been much simpler if I had just talked to the guys for a few minutes and gave them water.

I would’ve built a bridge, and in the process I might’ve made a difference in these guys lives.

I’m ashamed to tell the story as it really happened, but feel that I should because it was a very educational experience for me. Hopefully someone else will read this story be affected in a positive way the next time they’re faced with something they perceive as incredibly unjust.

Anyhow, attached are some photos of my new “friends” from all over the world.

New friend with pickaxe

New friends from YWAM

We weren’t just running low on cash, we were completely out of money. We paid our staff, and that was the end of it. It was so bad that we didn’t have money to buy cooking gas or charcoal so we couldn’t cook, not to mention the fact that we couldn’t afford anything to cook. We have a handful of faithful supporters that have literally stuck with us for years by making monthly donations and we are so unbelievably grateful to them, but sometimes, that money is simply not enough.

We’ve run out of money several times in the past four years here in Africa and obviously it’s scary. I haven’t had a job for almost a year now, and before that I was out of work for three years. And when the money runs out, one of my first thoughts is, “How can I fix this?”

I usually spend a lot of wasted cycles thinking about getting a job, one way I can “fix this”. I think about the good money there is to be made in INFOSEC. I think about the ridiculous amount of money I was making when I was working full-time, speaking and writing books. Looking back it was an obscene amount of money. I could make a little bit of money plying my trade here in East Africa, but the real money is in the US, Europe or the Middle East(!). No matter how many times I think through the various scenarios, I always come to the same conclusion. Getting a job means moving. It means moving away from the kids in Kenya or (even worse) pulling them out of school. Neither of those options is feasible. It means abandoning our projects here. The Keep would be liquidated, or sold as-is. The Training Center would close due to lack of management. The BnB would easily rent to someone else and of course we could sell all we own to the ravenous ex-pat community who, despite their own financial hardships always descend en mass and manage to clean out Mzungu yard sales.

That line of thinking makes me realize that there’s not much I can do to fix things, but like I said it does make me wonder if I’m really doing the right things.

Was The Keep really a miracle? Does it really fulfill important needs by providing food, caffeine, relaxation, safety and tech support to the community? What about the Computer Training Center? Was it a pipe dream and yet another challenge I had to overcome just to prove that it could be done? What about the hundreds of students that we trained, and the stories that are pouring in about their successes? And the Bed and Breakfast? What about the miracles that put us there, despite all the odds? What about the clear vision and the series of events that stretched back years before we even knew the place existed? What about all the times before that we were broke and we politely “dared” God to pave a way forward to “prove” that we were supposed to keep doing what we’re doing..and then he did?

So once again, this time without too much contemplation, I began to pray for direction. If we were meant to be here, I reasoned, something needed to break loose. God, I insisted, needed to show up in some way that was undeniable, because this was the end of the road, again.

As I stood up (with considerably more discomfort in my knees than I appreciated) I heard a car in the driveway. It was a team of visitors from the US scouting around for local hotels. They were asking about a hotel that we never heard of. Eventually we mentioned the BnB. They “loved it” and asked if they could book eleven people for ten days in July. This was a serious event, a direct response to prayer and the promise of good money.. in a few months. The rest of the day was so surreal. By the end of the day we were booked solid through July and August and eve double booked for a stretch in July. Surreal, and confusing. This was the promise of money later, not now, and the amount we had to turn away (due to our limited capacity) was greater than what we would bring in.

See the twist there? A miracle had arrived, but why had too many people booked? This was God’s abundance, clearly, but what was the point if we turned away more than half the provision? Then, I had an idea. Perhaps this was a sign that we were supposed to expand our capacity. After some quick math, I realized that if we built three more rooms, and if we booked the entire BnB during the two-month busy season, we could support all of our our family’s living expenses for the entire year!

I decided to get an estimate on what it would cost to build those three rooms. The estimate was more than I expected. We could afford to build it only if we asked all our current booked guests to prepay for the months of July and August. And even if they agreed, that money would be just barely enough to build the extra rooms .. In fact, the income from the currently booked teams would be almost exactly enough to build the rooms .. Odd. That meant we wouldn’t be able to pay down our kids’ school debt (which is so high because we aren’t considered missionaries), we wouldn’t have money to put towards rent and we’d have nothing from that to live off of. But it was exactly enough money to build. Seriously?? What in the world did that mean?

So I’m in a familiar state: Confused. And I started wondering if I was starring in the parable of the talents from Matthew?

Traditionally, the parable of the talents has been seen as an exhortation to Jesus’ disciples to use their God-given gifts in the service of God, and to take risks for the sake of the Kingdom of God.^[1] These gifts have been seen to include personal abilities (“talents” in the everyday sense), as well as personal wealth.^[1] Failure to use one’s gifts, the parable suggests, will result in judgement.^{[1] –} Wikipedia, emphasis mine.

The message there is clear. Don’t hide your “talents” under a rock. Make the most of it. So did that mean to have faith and use the money to build, trusting for the provision to cover the other expenses? Or is it being a better steward to use the money to get ahead of the expenses immediately in front of us?

I’m not sure which way we’re supposed to go, but we have to decide quickly because the busy season is rapidly approaching. Post a comment and let us know which way you think we should go. Do we take the safe path or the risky one?

And please help us as we pray for clarity.

But regardless of which way this goes, I’m thankful for our unexpected guests, for the answer to prayer, for the confirmation that we’re still supposed to be here and for the promise of financial help in the near future ..

• More iPhones.
• Some really odd-looking and quite old Macs for repair (G3′s!).
• More iPhones.
• iPhones. Sheesh.
• Lots and lots of writing as I prepare to pre-release the Volunteer Network to some trusted friends.
• Work on the Volunteer Network with Vito
• Leather work – began work on some new watch bands and helped with some “special-order” belts
• Hosting the Busoga Traditional Dance Troupe Performing at The Keep.

Ancient Mac G3!

G3 power supply!

Sunrise over the Nile

Sunrise Lake Victoria

It’s been a busy couple of days. I worked with Good Shepherd’s Fold in Uganda as we try desperately to get them Internet as they’re out “in the bush”. This has been a several year-long project and right when we thought we were there, it turns out we have the wrong gear. We have 3g gear based on US frequencies and we need gear for Uganda’s 2100 3g. Crud. Back to the drawing board.

I worked on two iPhones for Renee over at Serving His Children, a Macbook Pro and iPod from the folks at Mto Moyoni, and a few other odds and ends. I took some time to track down one of the teachers I worked with at St. John’s Wakitaka, where we installed one of our first computer classrooms. I’m trying to find out what’s going on with that classroom and in preparation for the documentary(!) trying to trace some of the early students, some of whom might be in University  by now.

I spent some time working with our staff at the Computer Training Center as they’re also following up with some of our students for the documentary. This is interesting work and it’s really encouraged me. I never really sought out stories. So in the back of my mind I’ve been wondering if the work here in Uganda is actually accomplishing anything tangible. Yes, we help organizations, and support a lot of people by helping behind the scenes, but I was beginning to wonder if we were making a difference in anyone’s life directly through our training. Instead of searching for stories (which seems self-aggrandizing and makes me uncomfortable) I would convince myself that training is a “long-term investment” in someone’s future and that “I may never see the results of what we do”. And while that’s true to a certain extent, the fact is there are lots of stories to be told and I’ve just missed them. And that sucks, especially when I consider all the people that have supported us through the years. They (so much more than us) deserve to know what’s happened here ..

So I’m SUPER excited about the documentary now because it’s forced me to take a hard look at what we’re doing here and VERY critically judge whether or not it’s been worth the effort. I’m excited to say that it has.

I’ll be releasing some stories on the site in the next few days as soon s I get approval from Jeremy. I don’t want to spoil anything he’ll do with the documentary.

I also had a great interview with CSO magazine for an article entitled Security for Good “about security pros (CSOs, physical and IT security types) who use their skills for charitable causes. We’re wondering how someone would get involved with that, and why.”

It was an opportunity to tell my story from the beginning. Again. And I have to say it was therapeutic. I had to slog through good times and bad, talk about things that failed and things that worked, but I followed the thread through it all and realized that I have purpose. (It’s something I’ve doubted for quite a while now). I realized that me and my family are here (exactly here, in this spot, through this path) for a purpose. I realized that the long, winding path since even before the first trip in ’07 had meaning. I’m doubly encouraged by the stories we’re hearing from our students and by the interview and for the first time in a long time I’m really, really excited about what we’re here to do. I’ve fully “got my head in the game” again.

That’s been a long time in coming. I literally feel air returning to my lungs (physically, mentally and spiritually) and really all it took was kinda getting over my own fears and failures and changing my focus from me to others. I’ve said once or twice that, “If you want to find real happiness, get out of your own way and do something for someone else” and I’m glad to take my own advice. And it’s pretty darn cool that the Volunteer Network has the potential to do that for hundreds of others. Cool, cool stuff.

And for those of you that have read my long serious post (wow, I can go on and on and on..) here’s something amusing. We went to lunch today and the armed guard outside the restaurant stopped us. He made us roll down the window, glared at Jen and said, “I think you don’t have a gun.”

What can you possibly say to that? =)

“I think you don’t have a gun.”

Apple fun.

By American standards, today “slipped” by. I didn’t really accomplish anything I set out to do. But by African standards, today was a good day. I did some work, ate (thrice) and I spent time with people.

I accomplished a few small things, but they weren’t on “the list”. They appeared today and were dealt with today. I sat down to work with Vito on the app, and after getting up for the fifth time to deal with some small thing I decided to just get up and plunge head on into the small things that were threatening to kill me and my American sensibilities. These were not important things, but they were things none the less and they wouldn’t have gone away on their own. I helped organize the building of our puppy pen. I didn’t actually work on it mind you, I Middle Managed the process. I provided some guidance to the students in the leather workshop. I dug into the comments on the website.

I also tasked and supervised a carpenter with the final touches of the dozen chairs we had  made for the dining room at the bed and breakfast. This was one of those painful jobs because it’s a DOZEN CHAIRS. I mean first of all we’re .. (how can I say this without sounding whiny or revealing a lack of faith?) .. kinda broke. But when we were provided with this place and provided the money to move in and get it ready, we had the money for these chairs. Each one cost fifteen bucks for the wood, then we had to get material bringing each chair up to $23. Pretty reasonable, especially considering how awesome they are and how well they match the British colonial period antiques we modeled them after. But then at final assembly I find out they’re just a bit off and they jab into my backside when I sit in them and I realize I just paid just shy of $300 for my very own fleet of Judas cradles. So it kinda sucked to have to bring in a carpenter to fix these things when really we don’t have the money to fix them but without chairs, we can’t take guests into the BnB. So I hand the carpenter some money and try not to think about what bill won’t be paid.

So not only were these kinda meaningless tasks, but the chair thing just kinda put me in a rotten mood.

But thankfully that wasn’t how I spent the majority of my day. I spent the majority of the day hanging out with people. Relationships are so important here, and there are several types of relationships (in terms of how they operate), the two most significant are relationships with nationals and relationships with other expats. It’s not uncommon for expats to cluster together (a holdover from colonial times no doubt) but most expats are so busy with projects, missions and businesses that they rarely take the time to get together. The stars and schedules must align and everything must be right in the Universe. It’s a bit like the US in that way, but here it’s so critical to share experiences, to commiserate, support each other, and take time to feel “normal” again.

So when our good friends the Coggins (who look after our classroom in the north, see here and here) came down from Gulu on their way to take (our new friend) Liz to the airport, we were happy to hang out with them for a while. We talked about projects, our kids and life. Lisa is the amazing artist and craftsman who  got us started with journals and whom we infected with the “leather bug” so we talked a bit about leather and crafts. We shared a few laughs and were refreshed by their visit. It was nice.

Later, we spent a wonderful evening with some good friends who have been in Uganda for decades and among other things run the best, oldest and original rafting company in Uganda. It was so nice hanging out with them, and we had a great time. It was so refreshing and fun, and really made us feel “normal” again. It was also quite interesting because they have such a deep knowledge of how things work in Uganda and they run in different “circles” than many of the folks we see on a regular basis and help make connections that keep us from feeling so isolated.

So at the end of the day I was both exhausted and refreshed, strangely. My task list was still there, but nothing had exploded as a result of letting the list lie. I still laugh at myself for thinking that it might.

I’m starting to see why the old saying is so true: “Westerners have all the watches, but Africans have all the time.”

Judas No More

On my way out the gate, Jen asked me what we were doing about a dog cage.  Our female German shepherd is preggers again, ready to have puppies any day but since we moved we lost our outdoor pen. Now the scramble’s on to build another one. She saw a cool one at our friend Bobby’s house, so that meant a trip to his house to see the design and find out who build it. I returned an hour later, after greeting some visitors at Bobby’s (who’s son found a “big spider” which was small by our standards), finding out about the cage, greeting his shamba (who used to work for us and is now one of our computer students) and stopping at the bank.

I spent a few more hours working with Vito, mostly consolidating code to make it more efficient, pulling JavaScript into consolidated libraries, etc. I’m now a big fan of Sublime. I’ve been a fan of old school editors for a long time, and can throw down in vi. I still love vi and will continue to use it, especially for regex and certain types of edits but I’m loving the speed and flexibility of Sublime.

For some strange reason I decided to take apart one of my prized possessions today: my Leatherman Skeletool. It needed cleaning and sharpening. What a mistake. It was so hard to get back together and somehow I lost one of the screws. It still works and looks ok, but in my heart I felt like I injured my BFF.

The MiGs were flying around again today. Such a strange thing.. so surreal. I took a video. In other odd news, I found some of our guys crouched down staring into a bush when I came home. I had to ask them what they were up to, since not only did it look strange but one of the guys was our guard. They explained that there was an enormous caterpillar that they had been trying to find for a “while”. This is pretty funny to me because so many Ugandans are flat-out TERRIFIED of caterpillars because, “they’re all so poisonous”. So I joked with the guys that, “That beast was probably so big it rides a motorcycle”. They laughed, nervously. Then I saw the turds on the ground. They looked like rabbit turds. Before I could ask the question, they told me somberly, “Those are the caterpillar poops.”

Holy crap. Not I’m worried. The photo shows the “Caterpillar Poops” next to a coin the size of a quarter.

Oh crap.

MiG Video (IMG_5619)

Here’s a few photos of some things we drooled over in the supermarket. Odd stuff, but so precious and foreign. Real Vlasic relish! Can you believe it? Now we need good hot dogs.. and rolls. And how about that tuna!?! Bumble Bee tune in Water FTW!!! And the icing? Evil. Pure, sugary evil. Divide the prices by 2580 to get the US dollar equivalent. Ouch. Ok. We don’t need any of that stuff.

I did manage to get out of the house briefly yesterday but the majority of the day was spent working.

I had a few sick iPhones to fix and one in particular was a bear. An OLD iPhone 3 that “a buddy” jailbroke for this guy. Those are the worst. The phone was so mangled internally with a bootloader that didn’t match the IOS and all sorts of Cydia duct tape holding things together, that it was no wonder he had problems with it. All told it took a week of several standard reloads, DFU reloads, pwned DFU reloads and finally a good beating with an ancient version of redsn0w (newer ones wouldn’t even talk to this phone) before it finally gave up. I like this photo because it shows the final stretch to success and my old-school terminal (older even than the phone) ..

After that I spent another 6+ hours with Vito on the Volunteer Network app. He finally let me play with the code and I managed to not break much. For some reason I’ve always been better at breaking than building. But I can tell you from experience.. breaking is so much easier. :-)

We focused on the map view today. The map is really a key part of the app because whether you’re a charity or a volunteer, you’ll be using the map to find someone to help (or help you as the case may be). Originally the map was a very basic affair. Although it was fast and worked well, the pins didn’t give you too much information:

Once you clicked on a pin, you got basic information but then had to click on the name to enter a profile screen to read about their skills/needs. If it wasn’t a match, you clicked back to go to the map again and continue searching. This was a bit clumsy and time consuming. What we did was change it so that if you’re a charity and you click a volunteer pin you see the skills they have that you need. And if you’re a volunteer clicking a charity, you see needs that match your skills.

This way, you know what you’re getting into before you even click on the profile to potentially engage. We had to come up with shortnames for skills/needs and of course change every view that the map was in. This was a small change that shuffled a lot of things. We’re moving along at a pretty good pace now.

Odd occurrence of the day: A couple MiGs were making flyovers all day. This is a really strange thing because we’re not used to planes. When any plane goes over it’s usually a little puddle jumper and people stop what they’re doing and watch it pass. We don’t have chem trails in the sky and the sound is quite out of the ordinary. And fighter jets are unheard of. We had seen these guys in the North and heard they’re owned by Uganda but flown by Brits(?) but I’m not sure. Either way, odd.

After breakfast I stopped some of our leather journals (http://www.hackersforcharity.org/leather) up to the Source Cafe, one of the mainstays on Main Street and arguably the biggest tourist destination. So far we’ve only sold our leather crafts from The Keep, and business has been slow. I talked to my friend Bobby, one of the key guys at the Source and he suggested I bring the stuff in. So I grabbed some stuff and shlepped up there (around the corner) and ran into Bobby there. We talked for a long time. This is normal here. You set out to do one thing, and something else pops up. Relationships are important here, so it’s a bad idea to blow someone off if you run into them. But I never mind talking to Bobby. He’s a modern Renaissance Man. The guys knows more than Google. Seriously. If I need to know about oddball plants or bees or technology or crabbing or African history, or a good recipe for homemade Feta (yes, he’s done it and it’s DISGUSTING!) I ask Bobby. We had a great chat about lots of things then talked about the Volunteer Network, our latest project. As always, he had great insight.

After checking in on the leather team at the workshop, I dug in for the next eight hours working with our amazing app developer Vito on the Volunteer Network.

Some of you may remember us talking about it at various conferences. It started as a talk at Defcon where we launched “Infosec Without Borders” as a way to connect Infosec professionals with charities that had need for free or low-cost security work. Then, we launched the Volunteer Network v1.0 at DerbyCon with an expanded scope: it wasn’t just for security anymore but rather for anyone with tech skils (or gear) and spare cycles that wanted to lend a helping hand. We put it up at http://volunteer.hackersforcharity.org and hundreds of people signed up. (Don’t sign up on that site yet. It’s getting upgraded).

The problem was, that after signing up, there wasn’t much to do. The app needed some work. So we’ve been working for countless hours on getting the app right, and Vito, Sam, Glenn and I have literally put in hundreds of hours to get this thing right and it’s been my full time job working with Vito this past week.

I penned a letter to a trusted group of friends explaining how the thing will work, and I’ll paste it here. It’s a good overview of the system and where we are with it.

-=-=-=-=-

Since my first trip to Uganda, I’ve wanted to share that feeling I had when I used my skills to help someone in need. I dreamed of hackers coming to Africa and building trippy things, and of course that leaves out the majority of the community, most of whom would rather not risk getting eaten by a grue. Still, I find there are lots of people asking for things to do.. people with good hearts and some spare cycles.

Eventually I had an idea for a simple app that would connect volunteers, charities and (equipment) donors. I’m calling that the “Volunteer Network”.

<plug>I’m working with an AWESOME web coder in Croatia, a young man named Vito. If you need some talent, please let me know.</plug>

The concept is simple and it’s nearly finished. It centers on a Google map that shows volunteers and charities (charities can also see donors) and this allows you to easily see what’s around you. You can register as one of the three entities. If you volunteer as a charity, you fill out a lot including basic information, proof of non profit status and a select from a list of needs (“I need a web site” or “I need graphic design” or “I need an app assessment” or “I need hardware repair”,  etc).

Similarly, volunteers answer some questions and select from a list of skills (like “pen testing” or “graphic design”, etc).

After verification by a human charities get access to the system. From inside the system, the map is searchable and more interactive and both sides can poke around to (likely) find some things in their local area. Another approach is to go to the dashboard which presents them with various simple things including a list of volunteers within 100 miles (configurable) whose skills match their needs. (At some point we may allow a more global/specific search mechanism to find help/work that is non-geographical).

A logged in volunteer is presented with a similar list of charities whose needs match their skills. At this point, either side can click on the profile to see more information about the other, and then do one of three things: send a message, ask for (or offer) help, or report the user/charity. Messages are straight forward and stay within the system.

“Help” can be accepted, denied or reported. If it is accepted, a work “journal” is created. The journal is done in a handwriting font, and allows the charity and volunteer to “chat” back and forth as the work progresses. Each entry is timestamped, uneditable and is signed by the author. Once the work finishes, the journal can be closed with a final review statement that can be made by either side, at which point the journal is archived and can be reviewed by either party but not edited.

This is as far as we’ve gotten. Now the sticky parts that require some thought.

1) “Groups”: Especially in my area, I want to be the “core” volunteer agency. I would like charities to find me and ask for help, and once I accept it, I will task a “volunteer” (HFC employee) to do the work. So my volunteers are on the system, but set to not show on the map, and set to inactive (these are configurable options). That means they don’t show (duh) and can’t be tasked except by me. So I was thinking that instead of groups, we would make the work journals shared so that once I share it, the charity, my employee and I can all read and write to it. In this way, the hand off is mostly transparent but the work continues through the journal which like other things in the system can reach out via SMS / social networks when there’s something new. (Anyone know of a reliable free SMS gateway?)

2) Rewards / “Reputation”: I want to reward volunteers. I know that most people who do this will have purely altruistic motives, but still it doesn’t hurt to have other motivators. Anyone have any ideas? I also like the idea of “reputation scores” for work well done, but can’t get my brain wrapped around how that will look in the app or in real life. Does a score translate into something IRL? Do their map icons get shinier and blingtastical? Are reputations floated as a number near the marker if that’s even possible with gmaps? I’m just at a loss here. Perhaps companies donated shwag or jobs or gear or something for top volunteers once a month? Wide open for discussion here.

3) Community integration: Although I feel like I’m losing my perspective / perceived relevance quickly these days, I still feel in my heart like this is a good and needed thing.. that there are people out there that still want to do good stuff and that it’s about damn time to change the hacker image even slightly by doing positive stuff. But this isn’t possible without the rest of the community backing it up. But what does that look like? This isn’t about giving HFC money (which YOU ALL have made happen time and time again), but rather about the community making it fun and cool and perhaps providing the kick in the pants some people might need. Any ideas here? Conferences are a big one, but other than thinking about swarming a con area ahead of con with good work then providing at-conference prizes, incentives (which isn’t creative, likely or plausible) I’m just drawing a blank.

4) System enhancements: Are there things that I haven’t mentioned that should be integrated into this system that I haven’t thought of? We have a task manager which is super-simple (Name, due date, rating, status) but not much else.

For those that have read this part, I commend you. I hadn’t really intended this to be such a long email, but those that know me know I can’t help it sometimes.

I’m looking forward to some dialog around this. I’ve been alone in the closet far too long with this. No, not that closet.”

-=-=-=-=-

And as our one-year trip to Uganda turned into three and then four, life became more mundane. We were more used to the culture and I stopped blogging because I thought, “Who cares, anyway?” Basically I got lazy. But I also felt like I was whining a lot, so I turned to a place where that seemed more natural: Facebook.

Facebook became my primary outlet and I abandoned this blog. I started caring about odd things like how many friends I had, how many likes my posts got and how many messages I got. I found myself pulled into the trap of caring too much about how many people liked me. And I got frustrated.

The fact is, this wasn’t ever about getting people to like me. I’m doing what I do because I can’t NOT do it. Every time I stray too far from what I’ve been called to do, whether it’s personally, spiritually, mentally or physically, my life goes off the rails in some (often dramatic) way.

So it’s back to basics. I’m blogging here because I found that Facebook took me too far from my purpose. I wanted to talk about HFC stuff and what’s going on. I wanted to get input about projects and hear what people have to say about what we’re doing. It’s not Facebook’s fault that I couldn’t find that there because Facebook isn’t about that. This blog, although it’s clunky and a bit too one-way for my liking is the one small place in the universe where I can talk about what’s going on with HFC (and what’s going on in Uganda) without worrying about what my readers might think. Because if you’ve come here to read this, you already have an interest.

So my goal is to post every day and talk about what’s going on with HFC in general, the work in Uganda and the rather HUGE and time consuming project we’ve been working on over the past few months.

See you soon back on the blog.

Johnny

“Jeremy Druin will demonstrate how to set up a web pen-testing lab on a Windows laptop using Virtual Box, XAMPP and Mutillidae. Additionally Jeremy will show how to set up a “pen test lab in a box” using Samurai Linux and Mutillidae. Updates and links will be tweeted to @webpwnized.”

These folks have always been big supporters of our work, and this course is no exception. We’re already seeing donations from attendees and the class isn’t until May! Check out their web page and attend the course if you’re in the area! Thanks guys!

We had set up classrooms before in Kenya and Uganda, and the result wasn’t always that great. In most cases the machines were neglected and the classrooms deteriorated sometimes to the point that we had to remove all the equipment. So needless to say I had some fears about how this equipment would end up. After all, they were living in a very remote area.

But the photos they sent set my mind at ease. I could see that the machines We’re in excellent shape. They were all clean, the room was swept and it looked almost as if we had just installed everything.

Students seemed interested and attentive, and the teacher had their attention. If this doesn’t seem like a big deal, rest assured that it is. We haven’t had the best track record with these classrooms which is why we moved to the model of running a community training center where we could maintain the machines ourselves.

I had a feeling this time would be different. Keith and Lisa initially reported that the computer teacher, Emily was extremely excited to have the machines at her disposal, more than that she was anxious to get more training for herself. So they signed her up for classes at our training center and sure enough she showed up. Not only did Emily show up, she exceeded our expectations and took more than the basic requirements. Now she’s anxious to come back to Jinja to take more advanced training during the term break.

Needless to say, I’m excited about this progress and can’t wait to see how things continue to unfold.

Thanks for making this classroom possible and enjoy the photos!

Jen called a missionary doctor friend when I started hallucinating. She checked me out (so I’m told) and her initial thought was that I had a bacterial infection. I only remember bits and pieces of that night, but I know it was miserable. It turned out I didn’t have malaria (still not sure what it was) so the treatment was antibiotics, water and rest. The days that followed were miserable between the headaches, neck aches, fevers, stomach problems and body aches. As I was laying in bed on the third day, I realized something pretty profound, at least for me. Ready for it?

I realized I was miserable. I know. Deep, right?

There I was with every comfort. I had a laptop, and all the movies I cared to watch. I was in a comfortable bed with lots of blankets and pillows. I had a nice fan to cool me off and wet washcloths I could put on my face. I had all the medications I could need. I had a clean, comfortable, private bathroom with nice cold water and a toilet that I could sit on comfortably instead of squatting as is the norm here. I had clean, cold drinking water and even some Mio and AP thanks to some good friends. I had access to massive quantities of chicken soup. I had people to care for me.

But despite all this, I still felt really really bad. Despite all the comforts, I felt like death and I was miserable.

That’s when I started realizing stuff. When I get sick, or something bad happens, there’s really only two options. I can turn in, or I can look out. (Or some combination of the two). When I turned in, I was miserable. After all, I felt miserable. Everything hurt and I was sicker than I had ever been in my adult life. But, when I tried to get outside my little bubble, I realized that I had a lot to be thankful for. At first, I ignored the neck ache long enough to realize I appreciated the movies I had to keep me occupied. One tiny step. Then, I realized that if it weren’t for the meds and the water and the food, I’d be even worse off. Then I realized that without people caring for me, I would have likely croaked. Then, I realized that there were people likely within a stone’s throw that would be eternally grateful for even one thing from my list of comforts. And just like that, with one little step, I was outside the bubble, looking out, my mind reeling with ideas about ways I could help people that were in desperate need, with no comfort and no hope.

All this happened in my brain while I lay in bed.

As I regained my strength, my daily routine started beckoning. There were things to do. We had our first team staying with us downstairs (the bed and breakfast). I could hear hammering from the workshop and realized that the leather program likely needed some attention. The Computer Training Center likely needed attention.

And then, like a whisper came a spirit of regret and guilt. What about the people in need, sick in bed? What about those profound revelations? Was is supposed to change course again? Was i supposed to reinvent myself yet again, not as penance or as a way to run away (which I’ve done more than once) but shift gears into something wholly different?

The answer came slowly.

As I descended the stairs, I found the team preparing for the day. I talked to them about the work they had planned. They were bringing medical supplies, treatment and comfort to children through local baby homes. One of the members, an Army-trained nurse cared for an HIV+ baby that was deathly sick. He hydrated the baby, brought his fever down and fed him. The next morning the baby had made drastic improvements.

I wandered out to the leather workshop and found two members of the team toiling away. The village teams had sent in paper that they had stained. The leather project was working. People had jobs, income, skills, a way forward.

I wandered back to the house to check on the day’s work. A single MacBook waited for repair. It belonged to a young lady that had completely sold out to move to Uganda to Serve Children. Her laptop was the link to her supporters and donors. Her hard drive had crashed, but thanks to one of our volunteers donation of a hard drive, I was able to get her back up and running.

And just like that, I understood. When we first left for Uganda, we had no clue what we were supposed to do here. Over time, though we listened and we learned. We found a niche in computer support, then computer training, then through community service and support through the restaurant and BnB. Through lots of missteps, heartaches, disappointments and trials we landed in this spot which is clearly defined as “support”.

The work that’s in front of me is important, and for a long time I guess I started to doubt that. I wanted to be center stage.. again. But I’ve spent a lot of time there, and right now I’m supposed to be backstage. I need to work harder and smarter at this role, but I’m sure this is exactly where I’m supposed to be.

It’s just curious that I had to be thrown off the stage to realize it.

It’s taken over a year for us to get this training program rolling. After meeting the Williams family from northern Uganda, I fell back “in love” with leather, a holdover from my D&D/RenFest days and from my time in Morocco watching some of the finest leather crafters in the world. Although the local tannery(!) supplied leather, I was amazed that no local craftsman had taken the initiative to make anything decent out of leather. After talking the the HFC board we decided to invest in some leather crafting tools with the goal of learning to create items to sell at cons and to start a program to teach those in need a skill that could help them out and set them on a course for a better future.

Of course that meant I had to learn a bit about leather crafting. After months of watching videos online (at pathetic painfully slow Internet speeds) and reading lots of web pages and books (thanks to Tandy for all that!) I had finally figured a few things out. Then Jen took an interest and her creativity and artistic talent blew the lid off this thing until suddenly, we knew enough to teach others.

So with all that history out of the way, I’ve caught you up to this week and our training.

We are teaching various levels if skill this week to find out who has what strengths. Our goal is to provide jobs to anyone in the program facing dire need, regardless of skill, creativity or natural ability. In short, there’s something for everyone.

One of the the biggest products we’ll produce are journals, which are made with leather covers and have a feel of something old, that’s traveled the world. Theses require tearing, folding, punching and dying paper. This can be quite time-consuming, especially the dying and sun drying which even in the Ugandan sun can take two hours per batch, but this job in particular pays well and doesn’t require much strength or ability other than patience.. Especially when the wind kicks up and the pages turn into tiny kites. Our paper teams will work from their homes and we will supply them with all the tools they need. This allows them to work at their own pace and on their own schedule and lets them work other jobs if needed an also attend to their families.

Jen came in to teach a sketching and stylus course which definitely takes some artistic ability. As the group began their sketching it became obvious that only a select few would be able to assist with the more artistic pieces such as journal covers and bracelets.

I also taught saddle stitching, which is much harder than it looks. As we sat in the grass and the ladies followed along, i found that, again, only a small majority of the ladies had the hand strength to work with even the thinnest leather. However, as I helped refine their grip, I saw a lot of improvement and eventually everyone from the youngest to the oldest made near perfect stitching runs. Some were advanced enough that they made perfect runs at record pace. Our advanced students were starting to emerge.

As the ladies stitched, I took the men aside and we started working with metal for bracelets and dog tags. I chose the men because metal work takes lots of hand strength and the men were more interested anyway. After some time cutting and filing, the men proved that they had great skill and we found another job that could be done from home.

As the students advanced through various training exercises, we learned that we will likely have an advanced team that works out of our workshop (converted garage) where they will have access to more instruction and a wider variety of tools. These select few have raw ability and we’re excited to see how they will grow.

Our training continues until Friday when we begin testing and will make final selections for various teams.

The leather products you see in our etsy store (http://www.etsy.com/shop/hackersforcharity2) are still made by Jen and I since they are rather advanced but in the weeks toxins we will release products made in collaboration with our new students.

Thanks for supporting us and for making a real difference in the lives of our students. Without your donation and support we never would have been able to pull this off.