This was my last full day in Africa and it was very relaxing. In the morning, we drove an hour and a half from Kampala to visit Father Kizito from Rain Angels in his town, Mityana. Rain Angels is a wonderful organization that has a page on our website and we are associated with, but not directy working with. He showed us around his church, which is beautiful and was built by Germans. We went into the convent and met one of the German Carmelite nuns that live there. The Carmelites are, as she put it, contemplative nuns, which means that they spend most of their time praying and never leave the convent, unless to get on an airplane or something like that. They stay there for years and years or maybe their whole lives!

Afterwards, we went to the home of Fr. Kizito's mother for lunch. She was a gracious hostess and she cooked us a wonderful spread of typical Ugandan dishes. The Ugandan women are amazing cooks. She is the mother of 12 children! In her village, there are two schools with Rain Angels water tanks and, because it was Sunday, people were out and at church in the village and everyone wanted to greet Fr.Kizito. We were invited to go into one church by the church members and it was very interesting to see this small village church. Finally, we left the picturesque village and headed back to the city.

Tomorrow, I will be leaving for the airport around lunchtime fro the long trip home...

Today was celebration day! We joined the ladies of the Mulanda/Lwala Womens Pig Cooperatives for a traditional lunch at the Mulanda nursery school. The women from both groups were there, as well as Fabian, Delphin, Charles and I. As we drove up we were met with the usual singing and dancing. The faces of the ladies glowed with happiness. Their dream was finally realized after a year and half of talking and planning and working hard. I wore the cloth they had given me as a gift the day before and while dancing, someone tied another cloth around my waist.  The women were decked out in their very best and everyone danced and danced and danced. Delphin loves to dance and the ladies get a big kick out of him. Lunch was not quite ready, so those who were not cooking gathered in one of the classrooms and a couple of women told African folk tales, although one of them sounded curiously like Cinderella.  Delphin and I also took a turn at storytelling. His story illustrated that women can accomplish what they thought impossible, if they have strength and courage. One woman commented that it made her think that Delphin was the king and I was the warrior from the story. We all had a very good laugh at that. I told the story of the little boy who cried wolf.

Finally, the food was ready and I am not lying when I say that the food I eat each time in this village is always my favorite meal I have in Africa. It is custom for the visitors to eat separately, so Delphin, Fabian, Charles and Dick, our driver, went into the adjacent room to eat the feast. After lunch, we wanted to surprise the women with gifts from Delphin and I. In the meeting we had with them the previous day, both groups had mentioned that they needed rubber boots and gloves and a stiff broom for the pigsties. Part of the discussion of the previous day had focused on the fact that the ladies would now have to prioritize what they needed most, as not to spend all the money meant for pig feed and medicine.  In light of the fact that we were so happy that this project had finally come to fruition and that there was so much joy surrounding it, we would bring them gifts. As soon as we even started to walk towards the room with the gifts in our hands…you guessed it…they began to sing and dance with zeal. It was a great time for all. Even Fabian danced with the chicken that was given to him by the women!

It was a really wonderful day and then back to Kampala.

This morning we left Kampala to go to the villages of Mulanda and Lwala, which happen to be the location of my very first project in Africa, before the Pilot Light Foundation even existed. We gave a ride to an orphan girl from the village and a woman who took her to Kampala to see the doctor. She is about 5 or 6 years old and had a blocked intestine. She has already had one surgery and will have a second one in August and is visibly not feeling well. The little girl soiled herself while driving, so we pulled over so she could be cleaned. In the mirror, I watched the woman try to clean her with rags and I saw the makeshift diaper she wears. This child has no parents and has already suffered so much in her short life. It is difficult to see the harsh realities that many Africans are faced with.

Upon arriving in Lwala, the day brightened up immediately. The Lwala Pig Cooperative women greeted us, as they always do, saying lalalalalalalala , singing and dancing and we all danced together. There was lots of hugging. They always make me feel so welcomed in their village and today, they were particularly happy, celebrating the arrival of the pigs to the coop only 3 days ago. They presented Delphin and I with gifts and everyone took a turn speaking their thanks, their concerns, their successes and solutions to the small wrinkles in the project that need to be ironed out. We all thanked Fabian, our local partner from Sikiliza Leo, and Charles, the project Manager. We explained to them that they now own the project. PLF lit the small spark for them and now, it is up to them to make the spark become a fire. They expressed to us the great joy they have in knowing that they are now able to generate income. The real joy will come for Delphin and I when we return to the village in a year and see that the projects have really grown and prospered.

The visit to Mulanda was very similar. The two villages are side by side, connected by the bridge that was built by PLF. I know the women of these two places, because I have been coming here for 6 years now. I have a connection to these women and I am so hopeful that they will do a good job with these cooperatives.

Tomorrow, we celebrate and Helen, who happens to be a Mulanda Pig Coop member, will prepare what is always my favorite meal in Africa!

This morning we traveled from Rwanda to Uganda. We were met at the airport by our colleagues, Fabian and Charles, and on the way into the city we stopped to visit the Muru Pig Cooperative. (It is known as Pig Coop #5 on the website). Our car fought its way through a thick market crowd on an incredibly bumpy dirt road and up a big hill until the road became a grassy path, arriving in a breathtaking spot up high with views of hills and valleys all around it. It was a quick visit, as the sty is built, the pigs are there and have had their first litter and now it is just time to wait for the piglets to be old enough to sell.  We wanted to stop by to make sure that all is on track with the project and it is.

Tonight we had the pleasure of meeting with Anthony from the Global Batwa Outreach. Although his organization is based in western Uganda where we visited the Batwa Project, he is currently in Kampala for school, so he met us at our hotel for dinner to discuss the way forward in our partnership. We are all very excited about this partnership. Anthony and his group are young, smart and committed individuals that will efficiently get the projects implemented. We look forward to improving the lives of the Batwa groups that Anthony is working with and know we can do it.

Tomorrow morning, we are off to the villages of Mulanda and Lwala to visit the two pig cooperatives there. I will not have internet for one to two days.

It was a fantstic day today, because there were more visits to PLF projects that produced visible results!

In the morning we went to the Market to visit the Market Cooperative. They are a group of 22 women broken into 3 groups that have stalls in three differnt markets around Kigali. The groups sell vegetables, charcoal and the third sells different kinds of grains and flours. The group we visited was the one that sells vegetables. The cooperative helps them to buy in bulk, rent storage and rent a market stall.

Louise is the chairman of this group in the cooperative. She and her husband both have HIV. Her 8 month old baby has tested negative, so far, but will be tested again in one month. She has 2 other children, whose HIV status I do not know. Her husband is a night watchman at the house of a wealthy person, but the person has been away for 3 months and he has not been paid for the entire time period. She told me that before she knew she would be part of the cooperative, she was ready to run away or go crazy. She said her life was so deperate that she did not have any idea how she would feed her kids, on top of all  her other problems. She told me that the profit she is making now, due to the cooperative has changed her life. She said what had really helped her, even as bad as her situation was, was knowing that there was someone that cared and it gave her hope.

All of the members had a chance to tell me how much their business had improved, since joining the cooperative and it was between double and triple of their previous profits, in the case of all of the women in the group! In Louise's case, that meant going form earning $2.60 a day to $7.80 a day. Each woman had a baby on her back and they all, but one have other kids, as well. We told them that after they have completed their payback, which is 50% of their original loan, they would graduate to a micro credit loan, which would be a bigger loan. That would allow them to rent a more well located stall and more supplies. I could not be more pleased with the results of this project!

We also visited the Murama Pig Cooperative. This group of 20 has completed the first phase of the pig project and even bought their first generation of pigs from the other PLF Pig Cooperative in Mayange. Now they just have to wait for the pigs to mature and begin to produce. They are interested in adding a chicken (egg) business and we discussed the details of that with them. One woman is so motivated to have the chickens that she has already started making bricks for her chicken house. There is a veternarian that is visiting each person at their home, to assess if they are set up properly to keep the chickens. We will pick the 5 most suited people to start the project and then add more once the business is stable.

Our last stop was to visit a small group of 6 women that also want to start a chicken business. The leader's name is Anatalie. She is a genocide survivor who refuses to testify in the court against the people who killed her husband and other family members. She feels that the only way she can deal with it is to move forward and try to let go. Because of this, she is not receiving  support from the government Survivor Fund, a program to support survivors. She has previous experience raising chickens and the ladies are ready to finalize a budget and get started.

In the morning, we leave to fly back to Uganda for the last leg of my trip! There is still much to be done, however...

Today was a day that I could see some of the successes that our cooperatives have been achieving. First I visited the first Pilot Light Cooperative that was funded in Rwanda, the Canteen Project, in partnership with the Millennium Villages Project. It is a cooperative of health workers that work on a volunteer basis and the coop was created to give them some kind of income for their efforts . You can read more about it on the PLF website under the Completed Projects tab. They have expanded the original canteen by building a poultry business in the back, where they produce eggs both to sell (increased income) and also to donate to a program to fight against childhood malnutrition in their own village. The Rwandan government was so pleased with the Canteen Project, that they financed the poultry business to use this cooperative as a model for other health worker coops in the country. The Canteen also rents out some of its space to a small caf, in order to generate even more income.
I visited the very first Pilot Light Pig Cooperative in the village of Mayange. This is another one of the projects that we have in partnership with the Millennium Villages Project. Pilot Light funded this cooperative 2 years ago and today I saw the second generation of piglets born there. The women have worked very hard to build and maintain a very strong cooperative, where those members who do not contribute are asked to leave.
My last visit was to the Mayange Community Development Organization (MCDO), the third project in partnership with Millennium Villages Project. The organization was intended to act as a local community fund to lend money to individuals to start small businesses, specifically those who are not eligible for traditional microfinance, and to create a sustainable way for the community to continue developing income-generating small businesses and other community development services. They updated me on their progress and current activities.
Tomorrow, I will be spending the day with a group from UNICEF USA who are here in Rwanda to visit UNICEF Rwandas incredible programs. It was a UNICEF trip to Uganda eight years ago, like this one, that planted the seed that lead to my starting the Pilot Light Foundation.

Today was incredible! We started out driving through the tea plantations and rolling, lush hills of Rwanda to the border and into Uganda. In that part of Uganda, the soil is so rich that the mountains are completely covered in farm plots, like patchwork. The vegetables are so plentiful in this area, that they supply Kampala and even South Sudan. There are enormous cabbages, carrots, potatoes, beans, black eyed peas, corn (I saw purple corn!) among other things. The mountain gorillas live nearby in these mountains.

We connected in the nearest town with Saul, a representative of the Global Batwa Outreach, at a really cool little hostel/restaurant. Saul accompanied us throughout the day and introduced us to the area and the people.

After leaving the main road and winding up, down and around the mountain on a dirt road for two hours, we finally came to the small village where the group of Batwa live. The scenery is breathtaking, really awe inspiring. They are a group of 120 people, living on a plot of land that is less than an acre and a half. The conditions they live in are seriously worse than an average farm animal in the US. When you hear the term extreme poverty, you cannot imagine how extreme that is. This is a group that comes from the forest. They have been forced out of the forest by the government, who wants to preserve it, but they have not been given any land to live on. The land they have now is partially donated by other organizations. They know how to survive in the forest, but are not familiar with farming and other ways of living outside the forest. They are truly marginalized.  Despite the fact that food is growing all around them, the children are all visibly malnourished. That is simply due to the Batwa’s lack of education and knowledge of life outside the forest. We will meet our potential partner here next week when we are in Kampala to discuss the project(s) here.

The drive there and back was long. We left the hotel at 6:30 AM and returned at 7:30 PM. It wasn’t arduous at all, though. It was a real pleasure to see so much of the countryside and to experience the Batwa and their neighbors, whose children marveled in touching my hair and having their pictures taken. All day, I had a smile on my face. I felt so grateful to be there.

Today has been very relaxing, as all of our meetings had to be canceled, since Delphin got stuck in Juba. Tomorrow is going to be long, however, as we leave at 6:00 AM and will not be back until nighttime. We are going to drive for about 5 hours across the border into Uganda to visit a potential new partner, Global Batwa Outreach. We are talking about partnering in a goat cooperative and possibly other projects, later.

Who are the Batwa?

 In central Africa, the pygmy tribes, otherwise known as the Forest People, have been evicted from their ancestral forest. These original inhabitants of central Africa lived in the forests as hunter gatherers until 1991, when they were forcefully removed from the forest to create National Parks. They were promised land and compensation from the government but have received nothing to this day.

The drive should be beautiful and I am really looking forward to getting to know the Batwa. I doubt I will have energy to write about it when I get back to my hotel after 10 hours of driving, but will do it as soon as I can.

Today we visited three two clients of our Micro Credit Project whose business has been significantly improved by their loans. The first one was a man named Elias. He is the owner of a small kiosk store inside a large open air market. After paying his first loan in full, he took out a second loan. His business has increased 50% through the improvements to his store.

The second visit was to a woman named Alice. She has a small restaurant and she also repaid a first loan to get a second one. This enabled her to begin baking her own bread and, because of this, her business has also doubled.

The third visit was to a woman named Laila. She also has a small kiosk store, but hers is in a quiet residential area. She also serves some food. She has taken 3 loans and has used her profit to purchase chickens, so she now she also has a business selling eggs. Her profits have doubled, as well.

It is a great measure of success of the project to see these clients paying back their loans on time, as well as using the profits to expand and improve their businesses. We only had time to visit three, but there are many more stories like these out of the almost ninety loans clients that are part of the project now. I will post their pictures on the website, once I am home.

Then I headed to the airport for the trip from Juba to Kigali, Rwanda. To understand the chaos that is the Juba airport, one must experience it themselves, because it is impossible to describe the stifling heat, pushing and shoving, disorderly process that is required for check in and security. You are required to stop at several stations to accomplish various unclear things and none has a line, just hoards of people trying to get to the front of the crowd. Money exchanges hands, once, twice, and by the time you are shoved through the door of the boarding area onto the plane, you are drenched and exhausted. I didn’t have it that badly, though, because poor Delphin arrived an hour and forty-five minutes early for his flight (we were not on the same flight) only to be told he was too late and would have to wait until tomorrow at 1:00 PM!! The bad news is that it is really inconvenient and awful for Delphin. The good news is that our schedule for tomorrow will have to wait, so it looks like a leisure day for me!

What a difference a day makes! Where yesterday was long and hard, today has been fantastic. It was an incredibly productive day and the outcome is that we have 2 projects now here in South Sudan. First, we met this morning with our partners in the Micro Credit Project, Sudan Self Help Foundation. After much discussion, it was decided that we will be able to continue that project with them again this year, but at a lower level. Meeting with people in person makes all the difference in the world. I hadn't seen the group for a year and spending time with them reminded me how much they care about helping the poorest of South Sudan and how what we are doing is actually making a difference. The project now has close to 90 clients! That is 90 people that have been able to increase their incomes, due to our partnership and donations made by so many generous people. This is a new country and changes are happening everywhere. It is very exciting to be here at this crucial time in South Sudan's history.

At lunch, all of our concerns about working with the group of young men we met yesterday were addressed. We met with the man and the woman that were involved in connecting us with this group and the man also happens to be a Member of Parliament for the new South Sudan government. The proposed project would take place in his home town, which is also the part of the country that he is responsible for politically. One of our big concerns was that, should we take on this project, would it be dafe for us to travel the 4hour drive on our own for site visits. He told us that, since he wants this project to succeed, he would personally provide us with security for our trips there and back. Our other main concern was the ability to monitor the phases of the project in such an inaccessible location. He also promised to provide us with the person or people that could be our eyes locally. We are very excited about working here and with both is these partners. Everything that happened today was encouraging and positive. I love days where everything is so clear.

Today has been long, interesting, exhausting and presents us with some very difficult decisions to make. We had to leave Kampala extra early to go to the airport, because the roads would be blocked at 8:00 for the arrival of the presidential opposition leader at the airport. There has been much scandel surrounding recent election results for president, some thinking this candidate actually won the vote. Since the election, he has been arrested several times, beaten and finally sprayed with some kind of doctored pepper spray that sent him to Kenya for treatment for his temporary loss of eye sight and today was his return.  After dodging traffic, road blocks, navigating the detours at the airport and seeing the arrival of his plane, we finally took off for Juba.

After lunch, Delphin and I met with a potential new partner here in South Sudan. They are a really inspiring group of young men who are from here, but were educated in Uganda and have the desire to promote education and economic opportunity for women in the area from which they come. Their proposal is relatively large, by PLF standards, and they are a new organization, located in an area of South Sudan that is not easily accessible for us. Both Delphin and I were highly impressed by them, but we have much to consider before deciding whether or not this is a project that is a good fit for PLF. There are many obstacles and working in South Sudan is difficult in general, but even more so for a tiny organization like us that is not connected to a larger international NGO or any government agencies. These men traveled 130 miles on an unpaved road to meet with us (taking 4 hours) and we do not take our decision to fund or not fund at all lightly here. South Sudan is incredibly underdeveloped. It is really unbelievable to see and cannot really be explained if you have no point of reference of what you would find in other African countries. The need is so great here and the people are ready and willing to  work very hard to move ahead, since voting to be a separate country. The question is not if the project is worthy, but whether we are capable of fulfilling the needs of the project.

I may be rambling, as I am extremely jet lagged and it is getting late, but I wanted to write this down before the impression of this group had mellowed in my head. The people of this country have suffered so much and for so long. I always say this, but I can't help repeat that the strength of the human spirit is immense and I am humbled so much by the people I meet.

After two days of travel, I have finally arrived In Uganda. Although I have been here many times, I am struck each and every time I arrive by the incredible stimulation of all of my senses. First, as I exit the plane, the warm, balmy air is so welcoming after days in a stale plane. Next is the warmth of the people. Where else on earth would the customs official chat with you and smile and laugh with you? Even the soldiers in the airport are friendly. I was met by my friend and colleague, Fabian, and his son Tim. It is always nice to see a familiar face in the sea of faces when I arrive. Leaving the airport, there are the beaches of Lake Victoria, the rolling, ridiculously green hills covered in banana trees, amongst other things and the smell of cooking fires. I arrived at my hotel, where I am always welcomed back by familiar faces, as if I were family. I feel good here. I always feel good here.

Tomorrow morning, I will meet my colleague, Delphin, who is flying in tonight from Rwanda. We will leave early in the morning for Juba, South Sudan. Tonight is relaxation time, because tomorrow we will start to move and will not stop moving until the flight back to the US...

Today we visited a group of farmers in a village not far from Kampala. The group consists of a couple of western Ugandans that have come to this area, local Ugandans and refugees from Democratic Republic of Congo and they are both men and women. In fact, I was very surprised to find that they had elected a woman as the chairman of the cooperative. Men in rural Africa are still not so progressive. This group will also be doing a Pig Cooperative. It is a very lucrative business in east Africa, as there is a lot of pork consumed here.

I also met with my associate here in Uganda, Fabian. We have worked together already on 2 projects in the villages of Mulanda and Lwala and we have decided to form 2 pig cooperatives there, as well. The one difference will be that, instead of paying back a portion of the loan,as the other cooperatives do, they will be giving a portion of their earnings to the local orphan daycare centers to feed the children. There are around 300 orphans in this village alone!

Now I am getting ready to go to the airport and feeling a little emotional. I really want to go home now, but I also really want to stay...

I am at my hotel having lunch and then leaving for my flight to Kampala, Uganda. I am feeling somehow very torn between the readiness to go home and a sadness of leaving this place. Despite its extreme poverty and oppressive heat, there is a sense of hope among the people I have interacted with, that with the upcoming election in January 2011 and the impending separation of Southern Sudan from Northern Sudan there will be change and progress. You cannot help but get caught up in this idea that change is on the horizon. I am only fearful that it is wishful thinking and have South Africa in the back of my mind. However, I choose to believe what my associates at SSF believe and that is that the new government of Southern Sudan will take care of its people. Next year when I return…

Today we finished up the client visits and have postponed the final follow up meeting until tomorrow.  The businesses we saw were shops, restaurants and a market stall. We spoke to a beautiful young woman that is having trouble getting pregnant and has lost one baby already, but she wants to use her profits to start a hair salon in her village. We met a woman who is using her profits from her shop to build a second house on her property where she can rent to lodgers. Her sweet 1 and half year old son was there and is weak with malaria that he has been fighting for over a month. We met a slightly older woman than the rest who has a small roadside restaurant and is trying to save money to move into a real structure, as she is concerned with the cleanliness. She had a beautiful smile and made a great effort to try out her English on me, promising that by next year it would be good. The people here are so kind and so strong under such adversity.

I am looking forward to meeting tomorrow with our partners here , so we can decide what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong, but can change. This project is actually changing the quality of lives. I have heard it myself from the mouths of those who are benefiting.

We spent a second day visiting clients today. It was 114 degrees! We are learning much about what we and our partners are doing right and what we are doing wrong here. Tomorrow we will all meet to discuss what needs to be changed and what is working.

Tonight, a Ugandan worker at our hotel named Florence arranged for us to eat Ugandan food for dinner. Since this hotel mainly serves foreign NGO workers and business people, the food is all western food and I mentioned to her how much I love Ugandan food, so she made it happen. That is how the people at this hotel are. They have definitely made this experience the best it could be.

Today we spent the day visiting micro loan clients at their place of business, which was mostly at home. The majority of them have shops in the front of their houses that sell basic needs, like soap, candy, soda, water, different types of grain and flour, beans and a few fruits or tomatoes. There was one woman that also sold some random pieces of hardware and one who sold charcoal for cooking and dried fish, which is commonly cooked with when in places away from any water source.  Another thing that all of the clients have in common is that they all have a minimum of 5 kids of their own and up to 8, plus they all have other dependents living with them making the family as big as 14 or 15, in some cases. It is very common in Africa for women to be taking care of the children of their siblings or their grandchildren, due to death or the vicinity to schools.

There was one man that we met with a very kind face and a warm demeanor, named Alex, who is a widow and taking care of 8 kids and 2 dependents with no woman in the house. He is a retired school teacher and extremely poor. His store is helping him with some income to feed the family and he is a hard worker.

We also visited Charity, who has 6 kids, 3 dependents and her husband is working somewhere far away. She has a small store, but is also focusing on cultivation of sorghum and maize on her land in her village about 105 miles away. This part of her business is doing very well and we advised her to focus on it. She is an intelligent, good businesswoman. She let us sample many of her goods.

And the list goes on…Juba is much bigger than I had realized before. It is quite large, but apart from the main road or two, it is all dirt and extremely hot and dry. Many people live as they would in the villages and not the cities, because of the level of poverty. One thing that sets Southern Sudan apart from other countries I have been to is that there is no agriculture to speak of. The soil is not fertile, so the poor cannot even grow some of what they need to eat. The only thing I saw was mango trees. Tomorrow, we continue the client visits.

Yesterday, I arrived in Juba, South Sudan alone. Delphin was not allowed to board the connecting flight in Nairobi, due to visa issues. The airport was small, hot, and chaotic, which reminded me that I was in one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in Africa and even the world and that, unlike all of the westerners around me, I was not connected to any big international organization that was going to whisk me away from the airport. I was being met by the director of  our partner, a small local NGO and a man I knew only through emails. Deep breath, I told myself and keep moving.
As it turned out, everything was fine. My colleague is a wonderful man and brought me to my hotel, which is clean, convenient, comfortable and full of very interesting people and the friendliest staff in the world.  From my bedroom window, I look down on a small hut inside a completely dirt compound and watched a mother sweeping the dirt and bringing water for the family to wash.
Today, I woke up to the roosters crowing and looked out the window to see my neighbors asleep in the dirt outside their hut and in one flimsy bed. The hotel is an oasis and outside its walls, the people are living in conditions that are worse than anything I have ever seen outside of the refugee camps I visited in Northern Uganda, only the entire town is like this. There are few constructed buildings and mostly shanties and traditional huts. Even the government buildings are in decay. There is only power sporadically and only in the buildings that are in the main part of town. There is no running water and only one paved, main road. The rest are more like dirt paths and fields with enormous potholes in them.
Later, after Delphin arrived from the airport, we met with the staff of our partner here, the Sudan Self Help Foundation (SSF). They are a group that is deeply committed to helping the poorest of their country to help themselves. They took the time to give a detailed history of this country, explain the present situation here and also talked about the large micro loan organizations. I learned so much from them.
South Sudan had been at war for more than 50 years over the course of 3 different wars and millions of people had fled to internally displaced persons camps (refugee camps) in the north of the country and to neighboring countries. A peace agreement was signed in 2005 and people started returning back to this region, but there has been almost no development of infrastructure in a very long time. The poverty is so dire. It is the extreme end of the spectrum. The micro loan banks are charging these poor people 30% interest. This only allows them to become slaves to their loans and makes any kind of progression in business almost impossible. SSF wants, not only to give the micro loans at 18%, but to train the loan recipients and follow up on the them regularly to insure they do not fall behind and drown in their debt.  The goal is to help the poor , not to make money off of them. After only one month since receiving loans, recipients have begun to pay them back.
I am feeling so positive about this project, as the need here is so great. I am excited about all PLF projects and the people they affect in each country are very poor, but the situation is so bad here, that it is even shocking to my Rwandan colleague. There is real opportunity to make an enormous difference, if all goes as planned.  I am taking pictures that I will post both here and on facebook when I get home, as they load too slowly here. Tomorrow, we are going to visit the businesses of several loan recipients. I am looking forward to talking to them personally.

Yesterday was such a great day. First, I went to visit the Agahozo Shalom Village for orphans, which is a school and community where they live full time. The location of the school is in one of the most beautiful spots in Rwanda. Truly breathtaking! It was one of those places that you can never forget seeing. I was very impressed with the "Village", but it is very well funded already. The people who run it are wonderful and emotionally connected to the kids, most of which lost their parents in the genocide and can remember it.

Later, I went to meet the women of the COOVEPAK cooperative, which PLF is going  to support now. They each have small businesses in the city selling meat or agricultural products and are trying to join together in a coop, in order to cut out the supplier, "middleman", between them and the village women that farm the products. I will write more about it on the website when I am home, but this is a group of 18 women who between them, take care of around 100 children, their own and orphaned relatives. I had a great connection with these women for some reason. By the end of the meeting, we were hugging and laughing.

My colleague, Delphin, needed to make a stop for his family near the bus terminal and I stayed in the car. I was immediately surrounded by men trying to convince me that their busline was better and what cities they could take me to. Once I had convinced them that I was not planning on buying a bus ticket, we had the most amusing conversation. One man from Kenya had the best sense of humor and another man was obsessed with american culture. When I said I was from LA, he asked if I was from Santa Ana or Santa Monica or Inglewood! They bantered between themselves and with me and, to tell you the truth, I enjoyed it immensely.

Finally, we went to Delphin's house for dinner. I met his beautiful family for the first time and immediately fell in love with his 4 year old daughter, Isimbi. She is so smart and so full of personality and expressiveness. I was completey entertained. They also have an adorable baby girl and Delphin and his wife graciously offered me a delicious dinner. I even learned a few words in Kinyarwanda, thanks to my new, very tough, 4 year old teacher!

I went back to my hotel to pack and get ready for bed and was full of a feeling of satisfaction. I am now on the way to Juba, South Sudan...

On the longest leg of my journey from Sierra Leone to Rwanda, I had the honor of sitting next to the lead prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda! He was such a soft spoken and unassuming man who simply introduced himself as Hassan (Hassan Boubabcar Jallow). I come to find, here in Rwanda he is very famous and is thought to be doing a great work.

On the first afternoon, I met with a man who is trying to put together a Grant Proposal to Improve Access to Health Care through Community Health Insurance in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is beginning in the North Kivu Province first. He has already successfully been part of a team that did this same thing in Rwanda. PLF has supported the funding of the grant writer and is now going to support a feasibility study, as well as funds needed to start the program off as a model with survivors of sexual and gender based violence.

Today I had the pleasure of visiting the Pig Cooperative that PLF funded last year. This dynamic group of women, mostly widows, did an amazing job of learning the business, building the barn, and laying the road for success. There was an official inauguration of the Mayange Pig Farm today and I am so proud to be in partnership with these strong women. They are uneducated, have endured horrific events in their lives, without husbands and with children, but they have proven they can do anything they commit to doing.

We also visited another group that PLF will help to start a Pig Cooperative. This group is located much further from the main road and in an area that was heavily devastated by genocide. They are noticably poorer than the villagers in Mayange. I will write more about it on the website, after I return home.

The last group we met with was the Mayange  Community Development Fund. They are a community run "bank" that gives small business loans. The rate of loan payback is almost 100%, because it is managed by local people, so hard to not pay back. The funds belong to the whole community. PLF is also going to support this Fund.

I have pictures of everything, but I will post them from the States,as the internet is very slow here. This country is so beautiful. It is hard to imagine that only 16 years ago it was the scene of such atrocities. It is the cleanest county I have seen in Africa and has a superior infrastucture to many countries, but from the road, it is common to see small memorials to the genocide in the churches that were the site of massacres and other such places. My driver, Jean Marie, tells me strories of that time, some too horrible to ever say outloud. You would never believe it from just looking at this lush paradise.

Traveling in Africa is sometimes difficult and often frustrating, but as I sit here in the Dakar airport in transit, I am surrounded by the exotic desert people of Mali, the glossy people of Senegal and the gracious people of Kenya, among others. I am reminded how much I truly love to travel this continent and to experience the different cultures that exist here. The different regions of Africa are so radically diverse and each one is fantastic in its own way. Every morning that I wake up here, I am aware of an overwhelming feeling of calm. This is true even after a hellish travel day in oppressive heat or any other kind of stressful situation that may have occurred. Despite all of its warts, there is something magical magical and sometimes surreal about this continent. I love it.

Yesterday, I drove from Freetown to Bo with the same driver I had last year, Festus. He takes very good care of me. PLF gave twenty scholarships to students at the Haikal Academy and I was on my way there to visit the school. Although it was a school holiday, I was greeted by many students and faculty, from the nursery school on up through the high school. The littlest ones were amazingly cute in singing their renditions of the national anthem and B-I-N-G-O. I was treated to skits, by the older students, about the reasons that some kids end up in the streets and why they should be in school. The students, faculty and administrators all took a turn at expressing their thanks to PLF for the support and requested continued or even increased support. Two things in the presentation stuck out to me. The first was that these kids, some as young as 4, are very aware of the difficult social issues that leave them orphans and have a great understanding of the harshness of the adult world. In our world, small children are  protected from such unpleasant thoughts, but this is the reality these children live in. They are wise beyond their years. The other thing I was very impressed to hear is that these kids are being taught at school that education will give them a chance at a good life, but moreover, it will allow them to give to other children what they are themselves being given. They are being taught to be very grateful in a reasonable way and to understand they should also give service when they are able. This is exciting to me, because I can see that Africans are anxious to cease being a society that can only exist with aid and determined to be  self sustaining. This is exactly what the idea of the pilot light is about. Hawa Turay, the founder of the school, is headed for Saudi Arabia in a couple of days to meet with some people there that may be willing to fund a full dormitory at the school. This would be an enormous gift, as many of the students are now living in the streets and it would create a kind of feeling of family and security for these kids.

On a personal note, later in the day, we visited an amazing doctor from Texas that has started a phenomonal foundation, the West Africa Fistula Foundation, in Bo. He is funding it with his own money.  He comes to Bo every 3 months to do crucial surgeries for a couple of weeks. I will add his link to this website when I am back home, as the internet here is very slow. Then we went to visit Hawa's father, Alhaji Mohamed Turay. This man is 105 years old and is still in good health! He had 27 children, 55 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren, 1 great great grandchild and 4 wives. He was a diamond minor that had a very good understanding of money and the belief that education was the most important thing. Fifteen of his 27 kids were educated in the west, including Hawa. Even at the ripe old age he is now, his house is full of orphans of all ages that he allows to live with him on the one condition they are in school and doing well. I am so in awe of this man. The impact he has had on so many lives is immeasurable. I will upload a picture of him, once I get my suitcase with the necessary cord in it.

This is the start of the hottest month in Sierra Leone and yesterday was hell hot (I have been wearing the same clothes for almost 3 days now. Ew!) I spent the night at Hawa's house, where there was no electricity and it was hotter than hotter than hot! I laid in bed all night trying to feel the air on my skin. Needless to say, when I arrived back at my hotel in Freetown this afternnoon, the manager said it looked like I had a rough road. Ummmmm...thanks? Anyhow, the good news is that my bag will definitely be on a flight arriving tonight, just in time for me to leave tomorrow on the 22 hour jouney to Kigali, Rwanda. I will sing and dance with joy when I have that beautiful suitcase in my sweaty little hands!

Sitting on the tarmac at LAX waiting to take off, there was a perfect rainbow. The man sitting next to me pointed it out. He said, " I am not a romantic man, but look at that. We are just beside the end of the rainbow." That was all he said to me during the whole 10 hour flight, so I will take it as a good omen for the trip ahead. Despite the fact that I arrived and my suitcase did not, I did make a very close connection when the flight from LA was late to London and the ocean was calm for the water taxi crossing from the airport to Freetown tonight when I arrived. Last time I was here, the crossing was terrifying, so all considered so far, my luck is good! Tomorrow morning I will buy myself a new t-shirt and head for Bo to visit the Haikal Academy and the children who were the recipients of scholarships funded by PLF.

Stay tuned for stories and information pertaining to Pilot Light Foundation Projects in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Sudan and Uganda. I will be sharing stories from my travels as they occur, technology permitting. The first stop will be on March 1, 2010 in Sierra Leone to visit the Haikal Academy.