Bufoka Orphans

Yesterday I received an email from Ivan, the organizer of the Bufoka Orphans Group on Lake Bunyonyi. The choir he teaches is composed of 70 orphans from just one region of the lake. They perform their songs and dances as a means to raise funds for their school fees. Ivan's email indicated that Sissy Kyampeire, an S-4 student at Lake Bunyonyi Secondary School, no longer has a sponsor, and he wondered if I might be able to help. I told him I would pass on the information in case there is anyone out there who would like to sponsor a secondary school student. The fees work out to about $300 a year, and can be made in 3 payments, $100 at the beginning of each of three school terms. If anyone is interested in supporting Cissy, please get in touch with my by email (pippa@mars.ark.com). Since we arrived back home, sponsors have been found for three more of the students we promised funds to, which is hugely encouraging, including Sarah (Dinah's niece), and Saphon (Anna's son).



Kitambaa has just returned from the Victoria Sewing Show, where I gave talks on the sewing project. For those of you who would be interested in this, I will be giving the same talk at the Abbotsford show the weekend after next, as well at several Guild meetings. If you would like me to come and talk to your group, please let me know, and I'll certainly try to find a way to fit it into my schedule. I will be continuing to sell squares for this year's Grandmothers' Quilt (photo at left)until they are all gone ($5 each), with the funds raised from this going towards next year's workshop with the Bitenge Designers. So have a look at my website to see where I'll be in the coming months. You can look for me at Quilt Saskatchewan, as well as various places in B.C.

A Visit to Lake Bunyonyi

We spent most of last week on Bushara Island on Lake Bunyonyi, about 4 hours south of Mbarara and close to the border with Rwanda. It's at a much higher elevation that other places we've visited, and everything is uphill from the lake, so we found ourselves getting short of breath quite easily. All the more reason to enjoy the incredible bird life on the island. In this photo, however, I am looking back at the lake from one of the secondary schools I visited.






Specifically I was visiting these five girls - Loice, Phiona, Prudence, Agnes, and Immaculata - sponsored by my daughter Emily and four of her

friends. These girls are now in either Senior 3 or Senior 4, and will stay at this school until they finish thier "O levels". Another 2 years will prepare them for "A levels", which all of these girls hope to write. Their dreams include entering medicine, nursing, and being an accountant.

And here is the S-1 class at the same school. There are 110 new students in this class - school starts at the end of January - of whom 6o are orphans, either "single or double orphans". Kitambaa Designs is now supporting 9 secondary school students, and has promised to continue doing so throughout secondary school, providing the students earn good marks. You have already seen photos of several students we have supported over the last three years; the students we added on this trip are primarily the eldest children of the widows in our workshop. The cost of a year of school is roughly $100-150 a term (depending on the school), and there are three terms in a year. This need for secondary education is probably one of the biggest in the rural areas of Uganda - certainly it was the need expressed most frequently by the widows we met.