6/5/14 After one travel snafu after another, my husband and I finally arrived in Kigali, Rwanda last night at 1:30 AM. We are two days late! Gratefully, we were greeted warmly at the airport by Jean Marie, our driver and friend, who quickly delivered us to a short, but well needed sleep. This morning, we …

6/2/14 Today, I am leaving for my annual trip to Africa to visit our projects and to meet with potential new partners on new projects. If you would like to learn more about the work we are doing, hear stories about the people with whom we are working, see new pictures of the projects, people …

1/25/13 This morning, I made my final visit for this trip to meet the Kajjansi Mushroom Farmers. Kajjansi is located on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda’s largest city. This group is part of the Muru Pig Cooperative (called the Pig/Mushroom Cooperative in the timeline) and has 12 members, 8 women and 4 men. There is …

1/23/13 On my last morning in Kigali, we met with the leaders of the Market Cooperative. This group is always one of my favorites. They are a dynamic group of women that are having much success and continue to be able to take larger and larger loans, as they pay back previous ones. If you …

1/19/13 Yesterday was one of those days that made me sure that we are not wasting our time here. The day started early on the road from Kigali to the border of Rwanda and Uganda. It is a breathtaking drive, which I know I have described in blogs of years past, but it is equally …

1/18/13 I will start by saying that today was a wonderful day, because I visited 3 projects outside Kigali, all of which are really changing people’s lives and are growing each time I come to visit. First, we went to see the Murama Pig and Chicken Cooperative (called Rwanda Pig and Chicken Coop on the …

1/16/13 We had a very productive day. We met with the Mayor of Juba who liked our project very much and told us that he would help us procure the land we will need. This is particularly wonderful, because it allows us to skip a timely step of submitting an application for land. We met …

1/15/13 Today it seems that luck is on our side. Firstly, I woke far too early, because of jet lag and really enjoyed the sunrise, the sound of the birds, the city waking up. We left the hotel in Kampala for the airport early this morning and had absolutely no traffic getting there. For anyone …

1/14/13 After arriving late on Saturday night, I had the day to relax and adjust on Sunday, but today we had our first visit. We drove to the outskirts of Kampala to Kajjansi and then up a long, winding and VERY bumpy road until we got to the Muru Pig Cooperative. The day was sunny, …