The Garuga Road

(Photo: The Garuga Road -site frontage)

Hi. What's a 52-year-old doing leaving a highly responsible and well paid job, his kids, friends, comfort, etc and going to Uganda (let alone do a blog)? And with an unfinished barn conversion left behind and only a caravan (14 years old) to live in when he returns with his wife, Sandy, to the UK each break!

Those who know me say that such a move is not entirely unexpected. I would add that my wife and I have known that we would do something like this since we were about 18 and childhood sweethearts. When God begins to set out His destiny for your life its hard to walk away and be happy with anything else. He designed and made me exactly the way I am; I am surely foolish to ignore the mastercraftsman's plans!

I have had 26 years or so plugging away at architecture and project management, raising a family, planting and serving a church, trying to be the very best that I can with the material I have in my hands and life. I feel that I have proved that I do not need to run away to Africa to succeed. I am not copping-out. I am not inflicting myself as a failure on Africa - the last thing it needs.

No! For Africa deserves the best that the 'developed world' can give. After plundering its wealth and violating its people and cultures, often in the name of progress, God and humanity, I feel it is time to repay debts. So much of what I have enjoyed in life has come from Africa. Coffee, tea, chocolate, bananas, pineapples, metals, leather, music, etc etc. But my vision is to serve a people who have everything they need to succeed. What they need are servants who can help build hope and courage, vision and self-respect, who can help them paint a picture of what could be and then hold their hand along the path.

The Team!

I am part of a team. Team. What a sinple word, but what a challenging thing to be a part of. One person can make or break it. Each person plays a unique role and brings to it a unique set of gifts as well as problems! My gift to the team appears to be a set of technical competencies: architecture/design , construction management, tropical agriculture, development. But I am aware that the team out here needs more than that. We need a commitment to each other that goes beyond anything that I have experienced in business to date. The closest I got to it was the first three years of married life when we were founders/leaders of a Christian community house in Ardwick, Manchester ('Barnabas'), living out of each others pockets and coped up really close with almost nothing in the world but each other - and a vision of what 'might be' in that forgotten corner of the inner city. Very similar to here really. Another backwater, bearing the flotsam and jetsam of the capitalist thrash for success at any price.

The team is 'Cherish Uganda'. We all feel called by God in some unique but interlocking way to see today's HIV orphans of Uganda (110,000 estimate) cherished, nurtured and equipped to become the leaders and movers and shakers of Uganda tomorrow. We are amateurs at this but each an accomplished individual in a proven sphere before we met here. And the team is not just those of us out in Uganda but a hidden team of funders, supporters, back-room administrators and friends in the UK, US. Australia, Canada, and elsewhere.

What makes this project unique -at least as far as we can see - is not the idea of orphan villages. that came from KPC's Watoto villages. Inspirational people with huge experience and credibility.

(Top: A typical Watoto house; bottom: Looking out over a Watoto village)

It is partly the fact that orphans with AIDS rarely get admitted to orphanages in Uganda. (AID Child in Musaka is one of the few doing this; pray for them!). It's also that Anti Retro viral therapy (ART) is also rarely given to orphans, since such therapy only works effectively to those living in caring, stress-free conditions with an excellent diet and support. This is unlikely for kids who have lost their family through AIDS and are seen as having o economic value - just a drain of already short resources. Cherish Uganda has been promised full medical and ART support to their children from The Mildmay Centre - the leading AIDS hospital in Uganda. Finally our village will be sustainable in every sense of the word. The leadership will be handed over to Ugandan nationals; the site will be self-financing; the food will be grown organically on the site's farm; vocational training in a wide range of subjects will be given to all the children before they leave the village so that they can either go to college/university or take up jobs in the community.

Sandy and I arrived here on 4th December 2006. This blog will tell the story of how our dreams unfold. Follow with me this incredible adventure. Be a part of it! You will see as you follow that this is probably one of the most integrated and dynamic projects you have ever heard of. It 'ticks all the boxes' that you have dreamed of and longed for when you watched Bob Geldorf and Bono go apoplectic over the pillaging and waste of Africa, the failed schemes and the wasted aid.

See you in the next blog