6/22/15 Tonight I am finally heading back to the US. We have travelled hundreds of miles by car through Uganda and Rwanda, through some of the most beautiful scenery that exists. We have met wonderful new people at every stop and reconnected with all of our extended Pilot Light family of colleagues, beneficiaries, drivers, hotel …

6/21/15 What an incredible way to end this 3 ½ weeks of visiting Pilot Light Projects. I met our partner Henry from the Youth with Disability Entrepreneurs Program at a conference in Mexico last October. He heads an organization called Youth With Physical Disability Development Forum (YPDDF). We shared a very special experience when my …

6/19/15 We are nearing the end of the project visits and today was the last full day in Rwanda. I wanted to take Rand (the filmmaker who is with us) to the genocide memorial in Nyamata. It is a very difficult place to visit, but I believe it is our responsibility to know what happened …

6/18/15 Today was another day that is the kind that re-focuses and re-energizes me to keep doing this kind of work. It was the second day of our visit to the Mother/Child Development Center Project (MCDC). We began the day at the Beverly Hills Academy, a pre-school and daycare for children of our beneficiaries. It …

6/17/15 Back in Kigali now, we had our first day visiting the Mother and Child Development Center (MCDC) Project, along with our partners Chantal and Hope and their volunteer, Olivier. Two of three vocational skills taught at the center are hair dressing and manicuring. Since my visit last spring, MCDC has opened a hair salon …

6/16/15 For the first time since I have been coming to Africa to visit our projects, I took a couple days off to visit the mountain gorillas, which live very close to our Batwa villages. It was great to have some time to relax and the gorillas were spectacular! However, a wonderful unexpected plus was …

6/12/15 I have seen so many parts of Uganda, but today driving to Kihihi from Rukungiri, where we are staying, to visit the Rice Farmer Cooperative I saw perhaps one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The long dirt road winds through the tall mountains, which are literally covered in banana trees …

6/11/15 I am thrilled to say that today I bought a modem stick and should be able to get online daily (I think…) This morning we travelled from Kabale to Kebisoni for a visit to our Coffee Farmer Cooperative (named KECOFA, Kebisoni Coffee Farmers), consisting of 700 members, both men and women. We met our …

6/10/15 Day 2 Today was extraordinary in several ways. We visited a Batwa group that I had never visited before. It is located on the edge of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in a place that is physically different than the others. We drove until the road ended and continued on foot down a path alongside …

6/9/15 Day 1 These last two days have been spent visiting the Batwa. The drive from Kigali back over the border into western Uganda has beauty that never ceases to amaze. In contrast to the hectic Ugandan streets with cars, trucks and motorcycles vying for space with no regard to laws or rules, the roads …