June 13, 2007

Dear Friends,
 
I've been in Gulu for six days now and I've been working long humid, but not-so-hot days. It's been overcast and cool -- only 80 degrees.
 
My friend Ken Goyer met me at the airport and we spent the night in Kampala before driving here. The road is terrible! More evidence of the south ignoring the north. The power is less than spotty. It was out from Sat. eve until about 6 this evening (Monday). The water reservoir is *below* the city so if there's no power there's no water. Maybe we'll get a few gallons from the tap before it goes off again. It can't be just load shedding. Why would it go off from midnight to 6?
 
Anyway, about Aid Africa.... Our staff now is our original two, Freda and Priscilla and we have Issa and Bam, too. And Ken hired a social worker trainee yesterday, Gloria. She'll do intake work for us at the Lacor Hospital. The "C" is pronounced  like "ch" as in "chore." Bam is our brick guy and has built stoves with the Rotary Club in Tororo. He's developed a new, low fuel kiln and is burning our bricks a couple of times a week. We need six of our special bricks to build a stove. We mix rice hulls in with the clay so that when fired, the rice burns, leaving holes in the brick making them light and insulative -- but not strong. We've trained our staff in how to present them to the people in the camps and done one successful demonstration. Today we returned to that camp - Monroc - and built 23 stoves. Not many, but a start. We plan to build at least 100,000 here. We've taken over 50 babies to the hospital and saved many lives although we learned Sunday morning that a three month old that we'd taken the day before died. She'd had malaria and didn't respond to the medication. Today we took a one month old that they put on oxygen as soon as we arrived. I hope he/she does well, but my expectations are not high. We have met with other NGO (non-governmental organizations) representatives and had very good contacts with them.
 
So the bricks are being made, our staff can present the stoves and help people assemble them and the health part has saved many lives. I was sitting with Ken under the eaves of a hut at Monroc telling him that this is why I have to come -- for the successes that make me grin.
 
We start to work about 8 every morning, meeting at our office and going to our several stops, buying supplies, picking up bricks, visiting camps, going to Lacor Hospital. I wish I could take pictures at that hospital! It's so chaotic, but everyone gets care. It's huge and the people actually want to help. They don't groan when another sick baby shows up, but show compassion and care. It is run and supported by the Italians. We pay admission, and give the mothers some "small money" for food, and we check up on them every day to see how they are and who's ready to go home.
 
Tomorrow, Ken, Bam and I will go to Lira to visit Mathew Longol of All Nations Christian Care. That's where we got our start. Ken, my daughter Christine, our friend Chuck Wojnowski and Adelitus Mgao from Tanzania started our 10,000 stove project there. I'm here to make a documentary about the six-brick Rocket Stove in the IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps around Gulu. I'll interview Mathew about our success there as well as our employees, JK and Mary who continue a stove project there for ANCC. I think I've gotten some wonderful pictures, but I won't know until I sit in the editing room and try to put it all together into a story.
 
I went into a couple of huts today for the first time. There is not sleeping mat or furniture. A couple of pots and a cooking stove. The main use of the stove is as a still. Seems everyone is making moonshine! Well, obviously not everyone, but it is a hobby for some. The people in Monroc have just tatters for clothing and not one is fat. They do not get enough to eat. There is a dispensary, but if there's a real illness, they are referred to the hospital. Of course they have no way of getting there! So along comes our van and we take 3 to 5 babies and mothers a day. We don't ask how sick they are because we're not doctors. If they say they need to go, we take them. So far almost all have been admitted -- mostly for malaria.

Bam led the stove assembly today because he'd done it in Tororo. Next time Freda will lead.
 
I have two more weeks here to get some personal stories of the IDPs and to get more visual material. It will probably take some months before I get it all assembled. So don't look for it in your theater too soon :-) We plan to use it for fund raising. We need a lot of money to continue our work -- about $40,000 to finish out this year. So I hope this works.
 
I'll tell you more another time. Thanks for your attention.
 
Peter