Babies and building and business! Monday August 18th

It's Monday evening and we arrived back at the hotel about 8pm.  A boda in the dark is a whole new experience but we are grateful that Janet has a trusted friend who delivered us safely at our home away from home.  

Our first meeting this morning was at a baby's home.  I wish they were completely unnecessary, but abandoned infants or those orphaned at birth need a safe place and "Welcome Home" was really so nice.  The staff to child ratio is 54 to 65.  Not all are hands-on caretakers, but it was evident that these little ones are loved by many of them.  We met with a woman named Hope who gave us a tour and explained all that they do. Forgive me if you cannot picture this and they don't allow pictures that are taken to be posted on the internet or I would have about 50 hundred of them, but the most darling moment was a group of about 20 that had just finished eating and were all lined up perched on a potty chair.  Calm, cool and used to the routine, they sat each with their hands on their tiny pair of bare knees and smiling faces waiting patiently for "potty time" to be over and they could head to the playground.

Chayah is not intending to adopt out, but the more we are here, the more we see and learn about the overall care-taking of vulnerable children.  This particular home is also a place where mothers walk in to give up their babies...the reasons vary, but it did our hearts good to hear how they minister and stand along side women with business loans etc... doing everything they can to assist them in keeping their children.  We could have stayed all day...or week really and played, but we had another appointment so had to have some restraint from losing ourselves playing grandpa and grandma to the whole group.  

Beautiful view.

We met Janet and Solomon at the house and headed out to see some property that was for sale.  It was beautiful and we spent some time wondering about the possibilities.  Then we went to see what Solomon of C.O.M. home has done with several acres they purchased a year or so ago.  6 cows, goats, chickens, a big garden area and the very best part, a well that has enough water and is accessible to everyone in their area.  For their own personal use, I doubt it will ever pay for itself, but supplying water to everyone around, preventing children from falling into a swamp or stream unable to swim, and building relationships with the neighbors...that is priceless.

Red dirt against the lush green...beauty

We went from there to meet with a team of builders.  Picture pulling the van over to the side of the road and standing along the ditch talking in the shade of a tree.  Really, the money we waste on offices in the US.  (smile) Dann asked them to explain the building steps from beginning to end, thinking building a larger home that what we did last week would probably be entirely different...nope!  Seems we got our Ugandan building internship out of the way, sans plumbing and electrical, which is added after the building has gone up anyway.  Holes are chiseled into the places you want water or electrical and conduit is run on the exterior brick layer.  The conduit disappears during the plastering phase that follows.  You can have an architect draw plans or you can sketch them yourselves.  Approvals, building codes, engineering reports...nope.   Time frame for building from digging the foundation to the finish work for something that is about 2,000sq ft?   About 3 months.  

We grabbed lunch and then headed back the Chayah.  The two oldest girls have been sewing t shirts with a reverse applique pattern on the front.  I think there are about 12 of them in various sizes and colors.  

Today was the day to head to the tourist area, approach shop owners and see if we could convince them to purchase the shirts as part of their inventory.  So we sat down at home and added up our materials cost + transportation to town.  Then decided on what our target pricing would be if they sold 1 or 2 or more.  What price they would begin with asking for and how much they would come down to.  We talked about the rejection factor and that they had nothing to loose and a great experience and education to be gained in just being able to "talk about business" with these store owners.  All the way to town they studied the numbers and figures.

Melisa and John going over the numbers.

Olivia putting in a few last minute stitches.  Melisa and John talking about sales techniques...or more probably dreaming of all they things they could do with their profit:)

 Dann, John and I stood outside and sent them in.  If they needed my help, they beckoned me to join in on the negotiations, and though they were both nervous, in they went.  We probably visited 6 different shops.  We only had two shops each purchase 1, and we sold it at our "sample" price trying to convince them that visitors here on vacation or a missions trip would really like this new style.  We'll see.  They wanted our contact information to purchase more if this first one sold.  I'm just keeping it real when I wanted to flag down someone and give them the money to go in and buy the shirt...you know to impress the store owner with how quickly it sold...but alas, I decided to trust God with this new and very small business.  I was so proud of them, studying the pricing and speaking to adults.

Dann was driving on this particular day and it was "rush hour" which seems like a completely foreign idea...it just means there are a whole lot of motorcycles and public transportation vans out.  Its a free for all, lanes, traffic direction, parking, pedestrians, potholes.  I think its all very exciting, the driver...not so much.  We decided to stop and get ice cream for the whole family since the big kids keep getting to go with us on outings.  Tomorrow though we have an entire day at Chayah.  We've already read most of the books, at least once, but we'll do pretty much whatever they want for the next two days.  Its my favorite kind of day with them.  We'll have to be really intentional about the younger ones because its so easy to have conversations with the ones that know English well.  

Pray for us as we close out our time here with them.  Its always difficult to say good-bye and with each trip, they seem more and more like our own.