Census 2̶0̶1̶2 2̶0̶1̶3 2014

A census, as you likely already know, is when government workers fan out across the country to collect demographic data. These occur on regular intervals of 10 years—err 11—let’s make it 12 years and call it even.

The 2013 census that never was...

The Ugandan census was originally scheduled for 2012 but the funds set aside for the program magically disappeared. To really wow the people, the Amazing Vanishing Money Act happened again in 2013—I can almost hear the shouts from the street corner now: ‘Come one, come all to see you tax dollars stolen right before your eyes!’. Apparently, third time’s the charm though because the 2014 census is finally up and running. Corruption over here is on another level… What is an organization in Uganda, doing good things, and corruption-free? SPOUTS of Water, of course!

This past Monday I traveled to 7 hours to the Namayingo District to make my first delivery to ACM Ministries Water Project. It would have taken 4 hours to get there but we needed to go VERY slowly since we had a truckload of fragile filters on dirt roads with more holes than Swiss cheese. I’m telling you these roads were holier than the Pope! But I digress…

Transporting the delicate filters

ACM Ministries and their students

The filters made it there unharmed and the good people at ACM were overjoyed to see the filters come in. After purchasing the filters, ACM will sell our filters to customers at subsidized rates. It is part of our mission to make sure that the end user purchases our filter so they treat it as an investment and not a handout. Handouts do not inspire the same amount of care as a carefully planned investment does and we want these filters to last as long as possible.  

PB n’ Beard

I think this is the first time in my life that I can legitimately say that I have beard. I remember last summer trying to grow one but people had to be a few feet away to even notice there was some semblance of facial hair there haha. This next pic is a twofer: beard and homemade peanut butter.

This past weekend we made peanut butter from start to finish. It took 4 or 5 hours but now we have a liter of peanut butter! Oh and I had to make some peanut butter cookies, of course, to share our American favorites with the world.

Lots of exciting things happening over here! Please visit again soon!