This is my new Prezi presentation I'm preparing for speaking engagements. I'll be utilizing it this upcoming Sunday at Connections Community Church in Schoolcraft, MI. I hope to eventually add voice over and video inserts so that it can be a full featured introduction to OJM's partnership structure. For now it will just give the basics, but might be enough to help you understand how we have structured our orphan care model. Let me know what you think!
 
http://prezi.com/4tgitpskdcgg/ojm-partnership-molecule/

It's been an intense 5 days since I arrived in Ddwaniro. We've stuck to the itinerary pretty closely and excluding one or two post-lunch naps, it's been a sun-up to sun-down affair. I'm currently in Kyotera, at Motel Highway taking a Sunday break (which is really due to the fact that my Econ midterm was due today and I needed good signal and a consistent power source). Now that my exam is done, here's a brief pictoral update:

Data entry training with the health committee...They love working on computers!

 

I have arrived safely in Kampala! Thank you, Lord, for safety once again. Anytime I look out the window at 40,000 ft (or whatever we fly at), I appreciate His protection. Paul greeted me right on time and we made it right on schedule back to the house. We had a nice evening catching up and taking a late tea and I was even able to complete my Econ homework assignment using Paul's interent modem. This morning, I overslept by 45 minutes, but now we're in full swing.

I'm sitting in my living room with the evidence of last minute preparations strewn about. I just printed the last of the hard copy documents I think I'll need and I'm about to seal up my computer in my carry on. At 3:30pm I'll leave on my second trip to Uganda for 2010. I'm traveling solo this time, partly because of the late decision to confirm the trip (my wife is pregnant and due July 1; I wanted to make sure no complications would arise) and partly due to volunteers saving vacation time for future trips.

We are making a brief stop in Kyotera again, back from an early morning visit to the birthplace of the AIDS virus, a small fishing community on Lake Victoria called Kasensero (Kah-sin-say-ro). There is a potential partnership opportunity we were exploring there: a small church which is operating a school for several hundred children as well as running an aids clinic. As a fishing village, the community is mostly transient with very little health or educational infrastructure (the school we visited is one of two for the estimated 2,000 children in the village).

I'm in Kyotera right now. Don't really need to be, but here I am. Funny story, though. I get a call from Paul during the morning STS training (which is incredible and amazing and will be a powerful tool for Glory of Christ Church). The airline won't let him take John and Kelly's bags because we didn't give him an authorization letter to act on their behalf. Okay, a little bothersome but understandable.

The shrill laughter of about twenty kids has just died down as I start this post. After a long day of worship and meetings (my kind of day), we took tea back at the pastor’s house, then played with some of the local kids who kept peeking in the door. Kelly (of the John and Kelly Sanders duo) took the lead with about 10 minutes of copy cat. We then took it up a level and tried Uganda-fying Duck Duck Goose. We went for Chicken Chicken Cow (or “enkooko enkooko entay”).

Due to the snow in Washington, D.C., my flight to Dulles to meet up with John and Kelly has been cancelled. I've been rerouted to Amsterdam with a direct flight out of Detroit. This would be my normal path, but I was hoping to get some catch up and debrief time with John and Kelly. We should still have our Amsterdam to Entebbe flight together, as long as they can get out of Washington.

Here it is, 11:38 pm, and I'm making final preparations for my trip to Uganda tomorrow. This will be my first visit of 2010 as well as my first visit since going full-time with OJM. I'm excited to get back and see my friends, evaluate some of the projects we've been working on recently, move other projects forward and do some training.