January 28, 2008

Hi All,

Here's the latest from Ken in Gulu. Kelly Mahon and I spoke with him Friday evening for about a half hour. I see a page of my notes is missing! Well, if I leave out anything important, Kelly or Ken can fill it in. Ken arrived in Uganda on January 11th and in Gulu on the 16th. He'll return to the U.S. on February 20th. That's a short trip for Ken, but he has to return for an appointment with his doctor.

First he wants you all to know he is *well!* And doing good. He's staying at a hotel that is in a lower part of town. That means they have water more often than the higher parts of town. I figure he's just babying himself! Who needs flushing toilets and showers!? :-)

Our Aid Africa staff is all there including Freda with her new baby, Ken (of course). Bam had been in the south working with Rotary Clubs on their Adopt-a-Village program and returned with Ken. We partner with the Rotary Clubs to supply stoves, so Bam was gone from Gulu to help them for a while. The clubs also provide mosquito netting, clean water, and basic sanitation among other things to about 300 poor villages.

Ken is working with the CAO (pronounced "cow"), the Chief Administrative officer of Gulu to get permission to repair some wells and dig a couple of sheltered springs. Of the 200 camps about 120 of them have no clean water source.

He's found some land at Monroc Camp to start a citrus nursery. An agricultural company near Kampala is going to send him ten kg of bitter orange seed for root stock. In eight to twelve months we can graft on just about any kind of fruit we want -- probably oranges. So he's found someone to water and tend them in the mean time and is going to build a fence around the lot to protect it from animals.

In 2007 we started making good bricks in June and through the end of the year we'd make about 600 stoves. Not nearly enough! We'd prefer to make 10,000 a year. So we're revamping our manufacturing process and perhaps we'll open another brick yard or two.

We've completed distributing stoves at Monroc, Rot Obilo and Owo camps north of Gulu and we're starting at a decongestion camp about 10 miles south of Gulu, Lela Obero. Ken is also conducting tests to see just how efficient our stoves are. We have a test group of women cooking on traditional open fires and another group using our Rock Stoves and then we're measuring the amount of fire wood each uses over a period of time. There are several other tests we'll try including timing how long it takes to get a measure of water to boil.

Last June and July Aid Africa installed our Six Brick Rocket Stoves in the visitors' cooking area at Lacor Hospital. There are four large cooking alcoves, each with 16 wood burning stoves. We've replaced the traditional stoves with our Rocket Stoves. Every patient needs someone to look after them while they're in the hospital since there's a lack of nurses. And someone has to bring food and feed the patient, too. Hence, the need for cooking facilities. Anyway, Ken was disappointed to see how the stoves had deteriorated. The people using them come and go and don't know about taking care of them or feel the responsibility to repair them. Ken has instructed our staff to modify them to make them stronger and to check back more often to see that they are maintained. Maybe add a concrete exterior.

When the violence in Kenya broke out, Uganda shut its border which meant no supplies came into the country -- including fuel. Gas shot up to about $17 a gallon and we had to curtail our work for a short time. Fuel is now down to "only" $7 or $8 a gallon now and we're putting UGs 50,000 in the tank every day. That's about $30.

Aid Africa is going full steam ahead to work with some of the poorest people on the planet. Help can not wait. Now is the time for us to do what we can. There's no reason for 1000 babies to die every month. That's 1000 more deaths than expected in a normal Ugandan population. We're working on MAD in babies -- Malaria, Anemia and Diarrhea. We're making progress through all our programs and there's reason for hope that these Internally Displaced People can improve their lives and rise out of poverty. Many who are returning to villages and farms are finding they have little support from the government and that they need all the domestic and farm tools that were lost and destroyed during the oppression.

All the Aid Africa staff and volunteers want to thank you for your interest in what we're doing. Some of you may have questions about something we're doing -- or not -- so please ask me about what I may have left out and I'll try to respond. Thank you all again for your interest and support.

Peter