Rural Education: An Opportunity to Help

Greetings from Uganda!

Uganda. What are you doing in Uganda; I thought you were in England? Was that the question you just asked yourself? Yes, we are in Uganda. Jon is currently in his “research” year of his Ph.D. We arrived here in mid-October and hit the ground running. While Jon is off interviewing different political figures and digging through old dusty boxes, Jennifer is filling in as the field treasurer for World Gospel Mission. Kiah, Jacob and Karis are also enjoying their time here.

We would like to share with you a special project that we are helping with here in Uganda. Many of you have seen on our facebook or read on our blog something about a school in Uganda. So here is some information about the school and how you can help.

In April 2009, we purchased--- with our friends Livingstone and Stella Illakut--- a nursery and primary school in rural Uganda. Good Daddy Nursery and Primary School is located in a small village called Mukura and serves 294 children from nursery class (pre-school) to P7 (7th grade). Yes, we know--- the name of the school is certainly unique, but we assure you it is culturally appropriate.

Good Daddy Nursery and Primary school is a private institution and we rely on parents to pay school fees each term (there are 3 terms in a school year). It costs 45,000 Uganda shillings for a student to go to school each term, the equivalent of $23.50. There is an additional fee of 45,000 for meals. So for $47 per semester a child can go to school and eat lunch. These fees are minimal, but the average income in this area is only about $600 per year. Also, the families that we serve are mostly farmers who rely on the success of their crops to pay for the school fees. Unfortunately the conditions were particularly dry last year, resulting in extremely low crop production.

Families in the Mukura area tend to be large, having anywhere from six to twelve children. In short, if they paid fees for all of their children, it would cost more than what they earn for an entire year. Due to this, many children are simply unable to go to school. The families that can afford to send their children to school will bring in a small amount of money each week to help with the costs, but many of them are unable to pay for an entire term. Currently fifty percent of children in Uganda do not complete primary school mostly due do the cost.

The average school day begins with most Ugandan children walking 1-2 miles in time for classes to begin at 7:00 a.m. and they finish their studies around 5:00 p.m. Many families are making the tough decision to send their children to school but can not pay the additional fee for meals. This means that we have many children at the school who cannot even afford to pay for their lunch. We try to stretch our resources and feed all of the students, whether or not they paid their fees, but we can only do so much with our limited means.

Imagine if you were unable to send your child or children to elementary school? What if you were able, but couldn’t afford to send the funds for them to eat lunch while at school, knowing that they will go hungry all day? These are only some of the challenges that many of our parents face in Mukura, Uganda.

As a response to this enormous need we would like to start a scholarship fund to help children pay school fees. Currently, if a student has not paid their fees after the first month they are expelled from school. For just $47 you can send a child to school with lunch for one term (sorry to sound like a TV campaign). A gift of $140 will send a child to school with lunch for an entire year. Will you help us keep these children in school? Will you help us send children to school who cannot afford school fees at all?

Thank you for considering a gift to support the education of the students of Good Daddy Nursery and Primary School. We have not received our 501c3 status, but hope to finish that process in the near future. In the meantime those who would like to make a tax-deductible gift can do so by sending a check made payable to Oakdale Free Methodist Church with “Good Daddy” written on the memo line and send it to:

Oakdale Free Methodist Church
5801 Beattyville Road
Jackson, KY 41339

If you are not concerned about the tax deductibility of your gift, you can send a check written to Good Daddy Primary School directly to the school account at (earmarked: Account #2374):

Grant County FCU
6033 E. Big Play Way
Marion, IN 46952

In the coming months, we hope to get a lot more pictures up on our facebook wall and blog. We hope that you will enjoy seeing our progress and interacting with us there. We are open to questions and suggestions and look forward to hearing from you.

We cannot thank you enough for considering a gift to Good Daddy Nursery and Primary School and supporting us with your encouragement and prayers means so much.

Merry Christmas from Uganda

A Long Overdue Post

I will have to admit I have gotten lazy about blogging. Well, maybe not, lazy, but just so busy I haven't had time to post anything.

First, can anyone guess where we are living now?? We are in Uganda. We arrived here in the middle of Oct. Jon is in his research year for his Ph.D. We will be here until June 2010.

I will admit I wasn't eager about this move. I was a little excited to come back to Uganda, but the thought of packing our lives again in 50 pound bags did not excite me. We moved from Cambridge at the end of July back to the United States for two months to see our family. We now have things on three continents; a storage unit in Lexington, things in a friend's garage in Cambridge, and our things we have right now in Uganda. At each move in our lives, Jon and I dream of a day when we will be able to settle in one place.

Jon spends most of his days interviewing people and reading through different archives. I have been staying busy also. I am back working 2 days a week in the field office doing accounting. We are also home schooling Kiah, which takes a good part of my day. She is in part kindergarten and part 1st grade. She loves school, always begs to do more. I cannot believe she will be 6 next month. Jacob just loves to play. He loves cars, trains and anything else with wheels. He loves playing and talking with our gardener, Mugisha. Karis is such a fun baby. She is rolling over now and for the most part is pretty happy. My favorite part of the day is when I walk over to her bed and peak in, she smiles from ear to ear when she see's me.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week, I am reminded how much we have to be thankful for. I am thankful for 3 healthy wonderful children and a husband who loves me and takes such great care of me. We will be celebrating on Friday with our friends here in Uganda. I am a little nervous as the 2 turkeys are my responsibility to cook. My oven is very big and they will both fit. Unfortunately, there are no Reynolds Turkey Cooking Bags here. I have to cook them the old-fashioned way.

I am going to try to do a much better job at blogging. We have already had some interesting experiences while here that I will share next time. Thanks for reading!!!

Summer Part 1

I cannot believe it has been two months since I posted last. We have been so busy.

Here is a brief update of where the time has gone. First, the last weekend of August we joined my birth family for a houseboat vacation on Lake Barkley. There were 19 of us and we all stayed on a huge 80' houseboat for 4 days. It was such a great time. The weather was beautiful.


A week later we took off for a 3 weeks adventure through 8 states to visit our family. We first headed to IL to visit my Dad. We took a big trip to the Decatur Zoo, the play area at the mall and Dairy Queen. There really isn't that much to do there. We had a great time there.


Next, we headed to Cincinnati to the Great Wolf Lodge to meet Jon's mom, sister and family. If you haven't been to the Great Wolf Lodge, you must go. We love it and the kids love it even more.


After three days of the water park, we headed to Oakdale. Oakdale is one of our favorite places in the world. Jon and I both worked there and we love to go and visit as much as we can. We have so many dear friends there. Kiah got to participate in the home school coop while she was there, which included soccer practice. Jacob enjoyed playing with "boy toys."

We left Oakdale for North Carolina to visit Jon's brother Brad. Jacob thinks Uncle Brad is pretty cool, he can lift him to touch the ceiling and he has a motorcycle. Jacob wanted a ride, but he is just to little.

Our last visit on this trip was to Spartanburg, SC to visit my birth grandparents. The kids had fun playing with silly Aunt Shelly on grandpa's scooter. Jacob loves it there because there are trains. Grandma was happy to meet Karis, since she is named after her.

From here we headed back to KY. This wasn'y the end of our traveling, more to come...

Kid's Photos

Summer

It is hard to believe that it is August. The summer has seemed somewhat a blur to us. Since Karis joined our family in June we have been so busy. I have spent most of the summer getting used to having 3 children with a little amount of sleep. Jon has spent his summer looking at really old documents in libraries around England. Since, having a baby wasn't enough adventure for us we decided to move. Yep, we packed our lives again in 50 pound bags and headed back to the USA. Well, this move to the states is technically a visit, it is preparing us for our next move to Uganda in October. This next year is the "research" year for Jon. So we will be heading to Uganda for 9 months. We have been in the states for about 2 weeks and already miss Cambridge very much. We miss our friends.

This past year we have had the privilege of meeting people from all over the world. In our apartment complex of 70 apartments, we were the only American family. We now have friends from Oman, Israel, Russia, Japan, China, Ukraine, Pakistan Malaysia and India. Almost everyday, the children would gather in the courtyard and play. When we left Cambridge the weather was actually a little cool, about 65 - 70 everyday. The kids are now enjoying playing in the water. We are still getting used to the humidity, if one can really ever get used to it.

Will post some pictures soon!!

She has eyes!

For the first few days, Karis didn't open her eyes. But the other night, she decided to take a look around. Here are few pics.

we welcome

Karis Ruth Earle
June 15, 2009
7:55 pm
8 pounds 1 ounce

A lot going on

Well...things have been very busy here lately.

First, we are about 2 weeks from the due date. We are so excited for our new baby girl to come. It seems like it has been such a long pregnancy. Yesterday, we had an ultrasound and the baby is head down and hopefully ready to come at any time. Kiah and Jacob are excited, although I am sure they don't know what to expect. Since we don't have a car, we will depend on the cab to get us to the hospital. I am sure there will be lots to share after birth, since things tend to be a little different here.

Secondly, Jon is finishing up his first year of his Ph.D. The past several weeks have been very busy for him. He has been working on his first year assessment. This past Wednesday he went before his committee and got some great suggestions for his project. He has a few loose ends to tie up and he will be able to take some time off when the baby comes.

Thirdly, we have been working on the plans for next year. It is the great unknown for us. We have several options on the table. Do we go back to the states for a few months? Do we go straight to Uganda from here for Jon's research? We are waiting on the results of Jon's hard work in finding scholarships. Already we have been blessed with four, but we need a lot more in the next month to fund the next year for us. God has been so faithful with us in the past, I am sure that He will provide again.

Lastly, we have taken a leap of faith and purchased a primary school in Uganda with our friend Livingstone. This has been a dream of ours for quite a while. We have had a passion for education in very rural areas. We visited the school in January of 2008 while in Uganda, since Livingstone's children attend the school. The school is in the village of Mukura in Eastern Uganda. You probably won't find it on a map, the closest town is Kumi. It has about 300 students enrolled. We look forward to the possibilites of the school and look forward to using it as a ministry to the children and familes that attend. We will keep you posted!!!

Here are a few pictures of the school from our last trip.

Jacob

Jon's cousin sent the kids some swimming items. The kids loved them, in fact, wore them around the house and in the bath for several days. Jacob was so excited to wear his floaties in the shower.

Family Travels

This week Jon's mom, dad and brother have been here. On Monday, we boarded the train to Edinburgh, Scotland for 2 days. We also went punting on the River Cam and made a trip to London. Here are just a few of the pictures taken this week. Click on the first picture and you should be able to make the slide show bigger. The slideshow moves rather fast, but you can hit the pause button and go through it manually so you can read the captions.

Cambridge Entertainment

The tightrope violin man.

Kiah learns to ride her bike

In Cambridge, bikes are essential. Everybody has one, it is the main transportation of the city. I read somewhere that about 30,000 people ride their bikes to work everyday in Cambridge. You will find the young and the old on a bike. It always encourages me to see someone in the 70's riding their bike to the store. Kids learn to ride bikes very young here since the start school at age 4. So Kiah was a little on the old side around here still riding her bike with training wheels. So on Saturday, we decided it was the day to take them off. She caught on so quickly. After a few spills she was off and riding. She says, "The hardest part is to get going by myself. Sometimes Daddy gives me a little push."

Happy Easter

Kid Thoughts

I love listening to a 5 year olds' ideas. Kiah's world is so innocent and fun. Recently, a friend in our complex was moving back to Singapore. While I was explaining this to Kiah she asked, "What do people do in Singapore, do they sing?" A few days earlier I had made fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. I asked her if she wanted gravy on her potatoes, she said "No." She went on to say, "The only gravy I like is pancake gravy." I asked her what pancake gravy was, and she said "Syrup."

Jacob on the other hand is such a simple little guy. The other night before bed he looked out the window and saw the moon. He said, "I am going to get a rope so I can catch the moon."

I love their creativity together. This morning, they were locking a mean old crocodile in the cabinet with very cheap tape. One of the their other favorite games recently has been "water park." They get on their swimsuits and pretend their beds are water slides. They even measure each other to see if they are tall enough to ride.

Waiting

Jon has been gone in Uganda since March 19. We are waiting for April 9th when he will be home. He has gone to start his initial research for his dissertation. We do talk to him everyday and he is having a great time. Today he was heading to Kumi to visit our good friends Livingstone and Stella for the weekend.

The kids and I are doing well here in Cambridge. We have kept busy, despite the weather has been very windy. We are looking forward to this next week since the forecast is for sunny skies in the 50's. That is pretty warm for this neck of the woods.

I am glad to be in the last trimester of pregnancy. I think each one gets harder. The baby is very active and has quite the punch. I go back to the doctor on Wednesday.

Holiday

We just returned from a holiday to the Peak District. Here are just a few of the 400 pictures that we took. The Peak District is known for beautiful landscapes, sheep farms and 26,000 miles of stone fences, enough to go around the globe once.

Spring!

Spring is coming!! The weather has turned a little warmer these day. The spring flowers have arrived and it is beautiful, they are popping up everywhere.

Cambridge Life

I thought I would give a little cultural view into our world. While we do speak the same language there are many differences.

A baby in your belly is referred to as a bump.
Squash is a concentrated juice, butternut squash you eat.
Pants are your underwear, you wear trousers.
A biscuit is a cookie, they don't have traditional southern biscuits.
A bathroom is called a toilet, you go to take a wee.
A band aid is called a plaster.
A theatre is were you have surgery, not see a movie.
A surgery is a doctor's office.
A shot is called a jab.
A lady bug is called a lady bird.
When you are being bad you are cheeky.

Other Interesting Items:
There are 110 pubs (local bars [but so much more] that serve food) in Cambridge, 1 McDonalds and 2 Burger Kings. One is actually in the hospital.

Cambridge was established around A.D. 40 by the Romans.
Cambridge University was founded in 1209. It will celebrate it's 800th anniversary this year.

Famous People who went to Cambridge: Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Charles Darwin, Oliver Cromwell, Stephen Hawking, Jane Goodall, C.S. Lewis, Prince Charles, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, and some 82 Nobel Prize winners.

There are a 110,000 people in Cambridge, 25% of them ride their bikes to work. There are 22,000 students which almost all have bikes. This city is full of bikes. Bicycles are the main transportation followed by walking, buses and cabs.

Every neighborhood has it's own pub and grocery store. Literally you could walk 5 blocks in any direction and you would find both.

There is a Walmart here, it is called ASDA. I have not been there yet.

All major grocery stores deliver. You just go online, get what you want, pick a delivery time, and they bring it to your door for a small fee. It would be impossible to haul a weeks worth of groceries on the bus and then walk to your house. You also have to take your own bags to the store with you, if not you have to buy them there. Most people use cloth bags.

An interesting sign that is found in our neighborhood.

Jacob's Birthday