BARBADOS!

After 2 years without a vacation for Kristi and myself, we were able to take a trip to beautiful Barbados. It was a much needed time to relax, get a tan and eat great seafood. Our arrival coincided with a big western swell...this meant great surf all week long. We rented a little vehicle called a moke and drove all over the island getting lost and exploring the beaches.

Samaritan's Purse Haiti: Chapter 1

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Eyeing Africa will now be figuratively eyeing Haiti...

Homeless and hungry many Haitians face their futures. We are doing our best to change that.

Au Revoir Karamoja

After 14 months in the wilderness, I have emerged. Slightly smaller than before and a bit more confused. Karamoja has managed to intertwine its gritty nature into the far reaches of my heart. I will never forget the colorful people, barren landscapes, food grabbing and great friends. Kristi and I had an amazing time albeit it challenging at times. Up next is an eating tour of Pensacola and then on to Haiti where i will be managing another food program. Our plan is tentatively to come back for grad school in August at either Georgia Tech or UC Berkeley. Below are some pictures of my favorite places/people in Karamoja.

Camp Swahili slum in Moroto
Home...?
Ruco the Kjong version
Our local shell fuel station
Samaritan's Purse Office Moroto
Team Karamoja - Food Staff
The big house. WFP warehouses in Moroto full of food.
The drive home
Welcome to Moroto. This is the 1 mile strip of pavement in the entire region.

WFP Karamoja 2010

This year the World Food Programme in Karamoja has made some significant changes to its programming. Last year, WFP/SP fed every single person outside of town centers in South Karamoja with a 70% ration. This year we will be feeding EVIs (extremely vulnerable individuals) with a 70% ration, FI (Food Insecure) with a 50% ration and Food For Work Individuals (Karamoja Productive Assets Programme / KPAP) with a 40% ration.
The shift in programming is two fold:
1. To build productive community assets through food for work programming which in turn will render communities more resilient to natural shocks.
2. Decrease dependency of food aid.

Samaritan's Purse will be implementing the actual distribution of food commodities throughout Southern Karamoja (Nakapiripirit and Moroto Districts) as well as implementing Food For Work activities in 4 sub counties. The new programming will be significantly more complicated but also significantly more beneficial to the long term development of Karamoja and its people.

Rains...finally...

It's March in Karamoja and it seems that a 4 year drought might be broken. The ground which normally wrinkles into a cracked dry mosaic has been transformed into a velvet green wonderland. Fingers of life stretch out of the red ground in a performance reminiscent of a resurrection. Birds, butterflies and bees are reborn, rivers overflow, and clouds enshroud Mount Moroto. New life has been breathed into a barren existence. An existence which weeks before seemed to be hanging on the fringe of survival...on the fringe of the world's thoughts. There is a sense of hope...at least for now...

Random pictures of nothing in particular

DR Congo or my long lost love

I recently had the opportunity to go to DR Congo with Samaritan’s Purse. The first few days we spent in Bunia, meeting with WFP (World Food Programme) about potentially starting distributions in NE Congo. From there we went to a village called Nyankunde where SP is helping to rebuild a hospital destroyed by the Ituri conflict sometime around 2002.

Here are some things I learned:

- 1. Congo is gold plated.

- 2. Taxing is a national sport –I was taxed for One Pass (a tax to improve the airport), Health ( a tax on your health ?!?) and road tax (enforced by local guys who take their own initiative to improve the roads)

- 3. The roads in Karamoja are good - After one week on Congolese roads, I will never again complain about the roads in Karamoja. The roads were terrible and I cannot imagine how it would be during the rainy season.

Below are some pictures from the trip. Most were taken at small river where men were panning for gold.