Thursday



Today we travelled out of Mbale to Martin Nangoli’s home village. Martin currently resides in Mbale with his wife, Jen, their children, and about fifteen foster children that they’ve taken in from Mbale. On the morning of our trip, Martin and his wife had a baby son, their second child. This new arrival did not prevent him from accompanying us on the trip.

We shared the company of several additional associates this day as well. They included a few gentlemen that work for Martin’s ministry, Dr. Brian Rigney, and OB/GYN on the trip, and a few others. There were two vehicles, our regular van driven by Fred, and a rented 4-wheel drive (Toyota Prada) driven by Martin. As photos and ultimately video will attest, 4-wheel drive is not a terrible consideration to be made along the route. However, after several days of faithful and safe travel, I hitched my proverbial wagon to Fred, and rode both directions with African friends new and old.

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The trip was very beautiful. Only one face of the Elgon range is visible from the center of Mbale, but a few kilometers of travel north or south expose the high ridges of the range that continue in both directions for a long distance. We started travelling north our of Mbale, bore east on a pretty nice paved highway, and ultimately left the beaten path in Sironko for a dusty, bumpy, and all around awesome trip up into the mountains. I couldn’t say what direction we trended; I actually have no idea. Briefly, let it suffice to say that it was a great trip. Highlights included a ton of kids having their reality altered by my pale face in the window (Muzungu!), an up close view of some of the finest Arabica coffee in the world, and great company.

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The destination was Martin’s village, which is called Kikobero. What he has created in the village, using donations from international supporters, is free pre and primary school for children of the village and surrounding area. The goals or 'Wake Up Pre/Primary Schools' are roughly equivalent to Wooster’s ‘Early Childhood Education’ program: the establishment of foundational skills and routine so that kids are best prepared for primary school and beyond. You will find pictures of our visit below, and please note that there are two different campuses, one in the village proper and one a kilometer up from the village. The schools were recently built by local craftsmen and community volunteers. You’ll see in a photo that the mud in the walls is still damp in a few places and that not every doorway is trimmed yet. The materials are all local, as is the style of construction, but the dirt for the walls was imported from lower country before being mixed with water and applied to the structure. The soil at altitude, while tremendously vital for crops and staple exports (coffee!) is not suitable for this style of building.

On the drive up and back, we passed the sight of a landslide that happened a year ago after 3 days of hard rain. Evidently the slide buried a trading center, including a lot of people and animals. You’ll see a picture below of where the mountain collapsed.

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 * [[image:Thursday14.jpg width="512" height="341" caption="Local building style"]] || [[image:IMG_3612.JPG width="480" height="317" caption="Rogers and the local craftsman that helped build this building."]] ||
 * [[image:Thursday16.jpg]] || [[image:Thursday15.jpg width="512" height="341" caption="David, a local coffee farmer, father, and supporter of the new schools."]]