Amasiko

Back in December , for the second time in my life, I visited Kabale the home to Amasiko one of our network team.The first time I went Southwards was when I was still very young . It was sports that took me ,we travelled at night and so we did not have the time to move so much, this denied me the opportunity to see the beauty of this area.My God there are places that God has really been so artistic.The landscape is just breath taking!


The beautiful landscape

We went in Christina's car and left very early to catch up with the people who were going to the site of the meeting which is about 30 km away from the town at the shores of lake Bunyonyi, said to be the deepest lake in Africa. We left Kampala at around 5.30 am and reached at around 1.30 pm at Kabale town and left for Hamukaaka village ( our destination) at around 4 pm. We spent some time pitching our tents are generally settling down.
That evening , Wilfried and the 4 facilitators went around the village reminding people of the next morning's meeting which was scheduled to beginn at 8 am. While Christina and I remained behind chating.

The following morning ,it took a little while for the meeting to begin, it does not seem very suprising according to African standard time. The meeting started at around 10 am . It all looked very unique the atmosphere was very calm with the lake breeze all around the place.



The youth group


Though there seemed to be a few people at the beginning, when the drum was sounded, many responded and in a few minutes the place was really full.

It was the Appreciacive Inquiry, quite a new term to me and many others.They all got into different groups , the youths, the women and men. All were discussing the good things that has happened to them or rather what they appreciate in themselves and how they can use it to make things better.This unique way of handling things gave them the opportunty to discover what they can do by themselves and drove them away from the traditional way of thinking that they should always be expecting something from somewhere I truly feel that this is very much in line with what we are trying to help people do.it's a good idea to lead people into thinking that there are resources just besides them and with proper planning can be utilized to bring developement,without donations from abroad.



At the major meeting place

At the end of it all, a lot was decided . A school was to be built, a chicken house to be erected,the growing of potatoes to be started and the roads done. And from the report that I got from them later, a school will open in one of the churces and they will use materials that can be locally found to begin erecting the chicken house. This is a lot of accomplishement. I know that with a little help here and there, these people will be able to do a lot towards their developement.They just need a bit of support to help them get onto their feet.More about what has taken place at Hamukaaka village meeting can be found here as reported by Wilfried , the man behind all these :http://amasiko.blogspot.com/

I will get back with photos later, the network here is not so good and I cant upload anything.

Bye- bye 2008

It all went very fast and now it's 2009. For me it was all a jumble of things , I had initially planned to travel to the village for Xmas, but was not feeling very well that week.The week before that , I had visited Amasiko people in kabale and had some great fun there. I had Xmas in Kampala with part of the family while some of the elder children where already in the village.This time while I was resting, I also took sometime doing paper beads with the big girls who have made it part of what they do when they are at home for holidays.



I then travelled to Kitgum for New years day. It was fun though I still wasn't feeling very well. I visited a few relatives who are still living in the camps , some 20 kms away from town towards the Sudan border, it was abit quiet this time though in early December everybody thought that the rebels were trecking their way towards Acholiland again after failing to sign the Peace Agreement in the DRC. We really all dread that day when they will enter into Uganda again.

Well it's time for work again, new year with new beginnings. We shall very soon begin our very new program for the We Network members who will have been visited and verified.So keep watching out for details here and on our discussion board on ned here:http://www.ned.com/group/lia-global/ and also at our transformed website: http://www.lifeinafrica.com/ where we shall from time to time be updating what's new on this particular program.
Till then, Prosperous 2009 to all!