Lessons from Uganda

The 4 month mark is quickly approaching and the thought of America makes me nauseous.What tears me up inside is the fact that im living in one of the worlds most impoverished countries, but one plane ticket later it all goes away. But what about them? What about the 35 million Ugandan's all begging for a ticket to see America with their own eyes. What makes ME so special. How do I go on living such a life of opportunity and complete luxury? I guess some answers are left to the lord.

My time here has been unforgetable. Pictures and stories can't do justice, and I don't know how to share such a sacred experience. I wanted to tie this together by quickly sharing a few lessons I will take back with me, since so many of you help to get me here.

- I have learned there is no currency like TRUST. Without it, your no good to those that surround you.
- Reguardless of culture, friends are priceless. Uganda remings me to be true to my beliefs, and to deserve rather then demand things from my life.
- With hard work and the right minds in place, miracels can and still do happen. No matter the size.
- Lastly, I would have to say service. I am certain God has high expectations for his children. Reguardless of one's economic level, social status, or country of birth, does the Lord not call us to stop and show compassion?

The psychology of poverty is so complex. So often those that suffer most; the poor, the humble, are the ones who are most resilient and derive so much happiness and joy from the simplest pleasures from life. These are the people I wish you could meet. They will change you forever. To give back, we have worked hard to develope projects and sustain them by community involment. In the past 4 months we have done the following:

- Painted 7 classrooms at Impact ministries to promote creativity and establish a leadership program among the students.
- Finish a rain water harvesting project to provide clean water to 250 primary age students.
- 2 weeks of training over 300 teachers from Eastern Uganda on how to incorporate practical science experiments using materials around us.
- Introduced the scientific method and opened the first science fair here in Mbale. Over 30 school attended with science projects.
- 2 day business seminars in Maluku to 75 youth and 40 adults. Bi-weekly trainings and radio broadcasting continues weekly.
- water outreaches to several remote villages educating on the importance of clean water to placing 20 water filters donated by "rain catchers."
- Blood bank with the Uganda Red Cross. Total doners: over 200!
- Health and fitness trainings at cure hospital every friday.
- Taught the concept of Virtical gardening to ladies of the slum dwellers association and Namatala.
- English classes three times a week to over 30 Ugandan's.
- Mzungu pancakes to help foster creativity in Business.
- Agriculture and women's health trainings in Bunabuyoka village to 95 adults.
- Contstructino of a school in Bunabuyoka in aim to indroduce education to the young children.
- Roofed the liahona school to increase the number of students.
- Youth empowerment seminars to sonset soccer academy and local schools in Mbale town.
- Dental camp for 300 students at Boma primary school.

There is a Hebrew saying that says "TIKUN OLAM TIKAH" which means repair the world, give HOPE. In the eyes of international development, if you can bring monitary contribution that's great. If you can bring intelectual capital, that also is great, but at the end of the day, it's educating and giving hope that empowers and fosters self reliance. This is what life is about. Not the fancy house, or the new car, or trying to be somebody your not. Not matter what problems I face in my life, or the "unstable" status of our country, Uganda will always be apart of me. Uganda will always be warm, always be bright, and always be green with life. The pearl of Africa it was called by British colonizers. The world may write off this little country, but I can't. Not after this. Words cannot thank you enough for your support that got me here. I hope you were able to follow the past few months with our team here in Mbale. I love you all and look forward to seeing you back in the states. THANK YOU!!

"Nothing worthwhile is easy"

I love Uganda for the people. One thing you will learn very quickly is their level of happiness and commitment to help those in need. How many of us would refuse to save a child if it meant sacraficing nothing? I think none of us. But at what point do we ignore putting our own needs first? I, and apparently millions of others often draw that line. The people here are so willing to give it does nothing but inspire me. With that being said, our work here is keeping us busy, and we feel were starting to see impact. The business trainings are going well. Were having about 25 individuals come twice a week. Women's health trainings are taking place and the virtical gardenings have taken off in the Namatala slums! We only have one months remaining to finish up, and continue to see them implimented by the locals and were making progress. Thanks again for everything!

Bunabuyoka Village School

Super exciting news!! We are building a school.  This is going to be a great asset for the people here.  Follow news and see pictures on the blog - http://bunabuyokavillageschool.blogspot.com/

Mzungu Pancakes!

Let's be honest...Everybody loves a good American pancake reguardless where you live right? So why not try selling it on the streets of Uganda? Richard, Mckay, Paul and I have been preparing for a two day Business workshop for the past few weeks, and thought it would be applicable to try out our own case study to show the youth it's ok to think of new ideas and be creative. So we did. We opened A "mzungu pancake" stand and the people LOVED it! We settled in right next to the fish vendors, and the Chapati man on Naboa Street and lighted our little charcoal stoves, listening to the faint giggles from nearby women and children. As the night moved on, the giggles turned to laughter as these two mzungu's sat on the ground and began selling pancakes. Everybody stopped what they were doing with looks of confusion. Then came the flood of people and we sold pancakes for the next 2 1/2 hours with a small profit of 1,700 ugx ( about 70 cents). As a result, we are now known as the "pancake men" and I often here the soft cries from the children repeating "HEY! assist me one pancake" as a crowd of children follow me. It doesn't take much to make the people of Uganda happy.

Other big news, the business seminar went SO well. We had a total of 140 participants come, all eager to learn how to move their families toward prosperity, and away from poverty. We had some awesome guest speakers, that really motivated the youth to make something more of their lifes. We had a great time teaching principles of saving and using the example of "mzungu pancakes" as a case study. With that said, were excited for the weekly meetings and further classes.

Last big update- I believe now, more then ever, that education is the key to unlocking the third-world. I came with the idea of building a school but soon realized that there are so many other needs to be meet. To make a short story, that changed about 2 weeks ago. On a recent trip with Christian Faith in Action (CFAI) back to Bunabuyaka Village, deep in Mt. Elgon, things simply changed. The village is unique, due to the location and a long taxi ride and hike to the very top of the peak where these amazing people have lived for generations. But this time was different. I realized that in the lack of just about everything, there was a village dream aimed to one day have a school and give the children a chance to make a difference. Currently, there are 100 children searching for an education all packed with the walls of a small church and a mud thatched office space where 3 volunteer teachers spend their days giving the best training they know how to this rising generation. Education is what gives an individual a voice in this country. What is so amazing, are the elders of the community trying so hard, simply because they know how differently educated people are treated in Uganda. More details will come as we continue the plans for this big project. Thank you for everything. Uganda is still as beautiful as ever and I love it. We can't thank you enough!

One Love, One Uganda

I often find myself walking through one of the many slums in Mbale town. I pass homes made of mud walls and thatched roofs, and without fail, a smiling grandmother invites me into her modest dwelling at the invitation of bananas, rice, or whatever they have to offer. A crowd of curious children began to gather, laughing and pointing at the mzungus. Without debate...this is the happiest place on earth. Poverty is everywhere. Children in rags play happily in the African dirt along side a riverbed of raw sewage. The children are unusually thin and short for there age, but not uncommon in malnurished countries. Only a small percentage of these children are vaccinated against disease, which explains why so many don't live to see their fifth birthday. But that's life here. In many ways it feels like life is slowly getting better...and I don't know why im so lucky to be here.

After living in Uganda for almost 2 months now, you begin to realize that almost everything is in the same situation-poverty. I sometimes feel like it's just an impossible situation, but we have done some awesome projects that may have only changes a few lifes, but to me, that makes all the difference. We finished our project in Moonie installing a gutter system to harvest rain water. We installed 100 ft and it soon began raining and it works! clean water to nearly 250 school children. The gratitude was unexplainable. Were also planning a 2 day workshop directed toward the youth and weekly classes teaching principles of business and goal settings which im really excited about. Our sanitation outreaches have proven to be a good use of time and were gearing up for the mountains for further trainings and a possible location for the construction of a small school deep in the mountains of Mt. Elgon. The 2nd wavers are here and have already dug in and have gotten right to work and were happy to have new faces! We have a great week planned and are excited about the next 6 weeks! Hope you all are well and thanks again!

The Third World

It's funny how in life, you randomly meet people you need to. Especially when your involved in something A lot bigger then yourself. The people of Uganda are so social and greatful that a "westerner" even cares they exist. As we talk to people in town, they seem to know somebody with the skill sets we need to produce sustainable results for our projects. Speaking of projects...we have learned so much about what works and what doesn't in developing communites. Last week 5 of us took of for Kampala (capital) to meet a local friend of HELP, and he introduced us to some possible solutions with side slope farming in the mountains and soil management activities. We had a great time, learned a lot to brind back to Bunabuyoku village. Were planning a 3 day workshop of Agriculture, health and sanitaion, and teacher training courses within the next month or so.

Our team has also done a great job with community outreach programs teaching sanitation and handwashing. We have starting building whats called "Tippy Taps" in schools/orphanages and have had a great time teaching the locals how to build a unit using all local materials we have here in Mbale. The Namatala Slum water project is taking some time since we have had some political issues in the village, but were hoping to fight through coruption and the red tape to find some solutions for clean water.

Lets see...Another recent partner has been God's Grace organiztion. They are aimed to teach skills to the youth to fight for employment. We are planning a 3 day workshop here in Mbale to teach money management skills,long term goal setting, and basic business skills. One challenge we have found in East Africa is the lack of creativity and long term thinking. When you have nothing but survival on your mind, it's hard to think about tomorrow because you may never see it. My goal is to help people understand the mindset of "investing for the future." It will be a ton of work but we have several youth interested and excited.

Things continue to gain momentum here in Africa. First Wavers are leaving this weekend and were getting 8 more to join. Were excited because there will be 2 young school teachers coming and we have a ton of work for them. Life is wonderful here. Thanks again for your support. I couldn't be here without you. Thanks you!

It's been a while since I have last updated. I'm sorry! I have very limited access to the Internet but the past week has been amazing. We have been interacting with a larger orphanage/school by the name of Impact Ministries. It's called home for about 250 students (many walking for several miles) all striving for an education. The school itself isn't in the best of shape, but we spent two days with the kids repainting and adding a little color to the classrooms. Needless to say...the kids LOVED it. It was a good little project to get us started and today all the children invited us to their big "back to school" party. The danced and sang songs and they prepared us a hot meal. Afterwords the kids got their daily meal but as we began serving the rice and meat (they got feed a great meal since the occasion) but we soon realized not all the kids would eat. Limited food means limited mouths to feed. At the end we realized there were 31 mouths to feed but that was all the food Impact had, so the poor kids just put there head down and walk away with their dirty dish. It's sad because death and hunger isn't anything new to these people. It simply woven into everyday life in Uganda.


Every now and then, I have to tell myself I'm not living in a dream or some obscure world. Yesterday was one of those days. We meet a man named Michael about 3 weeks ago. He and several others started a local NGO here in Mbale called Christian Faith In Action International (CFAI) designed to touch the untouchable, and to reach the unreachable. They have been supporting a small village up in Mt. Elgon and yesterday we decided to go with them and do a full on site assessment of the village of Bunabuyoka, in the Manafea district on the border of Uganda and Kenya. Four of us from HELP and six from CFAI all somehow fit in a small taki for 1 1/2 hours on the wonderful roads of Uganda and hiked a couple hours through the beautiful jungles of Mt. Elgon. Passing through the small villages are the most incredible thing. The side path led us to a cliff where we continued on and somehow made it to Bunabuyoka. CFAI informed us of our arrival and the whole village was there in the church and welcomed us with a 4 hour presentation of song and dance and gave gratitude for our long treck. It soon came to our attention that us four were the first white people to ever have visited the village. There was a special spirit of unity there and I instantly fell in love. We then broke off into groups and discussed the needs and challenges the people face every day. Once again, water was a problem. No access to medicine, the school was made of mud, and the lack of new farming techniques causes major economic challenges. Despite everything, they worship our every move and fed us their dinner, which I know left some people with nothing to eat. They begged for knowledge of new skills and ways to educate their children. When we left, they said "if you cannot do anything to help us, just please pray for us." That's the life here. It's hard to know where to start because the needs just flow from every direction. We have several project proposals lined up as a team. We will be starting some Health and sanitation classes at a local medical clinic and I'm heading a project with Dane to find a solution to the water issues in the Namatala slum just outside Mbale. We have found some great partners but have learned there is so much to development and one project research can take so much time. But were excited for what we have lined up. Each day is an adventure.


Thank you again for your support from Uganda!

Pictures - Round 2

Pictures - Round 1

Big Ben and other parlements

Uganda Embassy in London

Arriving in Entebee Uganda!

Welcome to the Mzungus!

Baptism at the LDS Mbale branch

All our new friends

Mzungu!

Ole Otye! This week has been great and very busy! We spent the past 5 days exploring and finding potential NGO's to work with. We visited orphanages, hospitals, and several other wonderful places. We cut the heads off chickens for dinner, collected white ants to eat(but couldn't find enough)and so many new things. It's slowly beginning to feel like home. The jet lag is slowly wearing off but the guilt of what I own so freely back home never seems to leave. We visited a small village yesterday and upon arrival they welcomed us with song and dance all by homemade devices. The people are so talented in what they know. We have a couple great ideas on some projects both near and far and will be submited proposals soon and im so ready to get started. So much work to do, and feels like only a "drop in da ocean" they say, but everybody is so happy we are here. We have secured a compound next to some crazy South Africans that LOVE us and there our new friends when there sober. There has been some political issues with Museveni and the election which caused us to come in early but were all safe and well. Were all becoming experts with playing cards since that's about all we have to do every night but our team is awesome and we love it here. Were slowly making way and finding local leaders who own there own dreams. They strong individuals are the future to find a way out of the slums. Yesterday we visited 1100 kids (many orphans) in the slum living where ever they find a place. The leader Kenneth of a NGO opened so many ways we can introduce some new ways to childrens and were excited to start working there, Life is great. Perfect I should say. More to come and thanks for the support!

T.I.A... (This Is Africa!)

Africa! Well everybody we made it! but more importantly my baggade made it! Wed morning we took off to chicago, where we caught a connecting flight to London and spent a full day there. That was an interesting experience :) stories later to come...then took off on a long flight to Kenya where we caught our last short flight over to Uganda where we were picked up by our country directors. Only 23 hours of flying. No big deal. We flew in yesterday early morning and then all 14 of us Mazungas (white people)stuffed ourselfs into a small ancient bus and all our luggage for a 7 hour treck accross the country over every kind of road amaginable. What an experience that was. Uganda is amazing though! We looked outside as we landed and saw the small barefoot children of the village of Entebee playing soccer with a "ball" I have never seen before and I instantly fell in love. Our journey lead us through village after village and we instantly became celebrities. The children laughed and everybody stared and pointed fingers and welcomed us to their village. I am in a complete daze at the beauty of this country but more importantly the kindness of the people. We are having a few problems securing a safe place to call home, and everybody is willing to leave and sleep outside so we can rest our heads. So humble the people are. Mbale itself is wonderful. We spend the day along the dirty roads and riding the Boda Bodas (small motercycles) to get around. It's amazing how anybody survives those things. Mbale is a pretty good size city and people are everywhere. Villages run along side and become very remote. The day we arrived it was nine at night and after 3 days of traveling, jet lagged and starving we found out no have no electricty either. Instantly I will never complaine again! We were all so tired so just through up our nets to go to bed when about 2 hours later we all woke with burning eyes and swollen faces. Aparentlty the nets were a little strong and nobody slept. This morning we woke up, cut up some fruit, and just laughed at everything that has happened and crazyness of this all and keep saying "guys...were in AFRICA!" I seriously feel like I fell in the Alice and Wonderland hole and get up in the morning wondering where I am. Despite it all, I already feel apart of everything and were now begining to work with the Sr. LDS couple here and there sooo excited to have us. I have found myself already fallen in love with this country and Uganda has a funny way of surprising you. Always something crazy.Stepping off the plane the warm humid air was so refreshing and I'm excited to be apart of something with so much potential. Were just trying to nail down a safe place to live, meet with potential partners and get established. There is so much poverty here, and the lifestyle is quite the shock to me, and is taking some getting use to. Sometimes I just melt inside and try really hard to not burst out in tears for so many poeple. At the same time gives me a lot of motivation to live with these people, build with these people, help these people, and help them help themself. I can't wait for the future and im thankful for what it holds for me. Thanks for your support from everybody. I'll post pictures when I can. Sighing off from Mbale Uganda!!

Normally I not a huge fan of broadcasting my thoughts and every little detail of my life through social networks, But sometimes I have opportunities that would be selfish not to share. I dedicate this blog to capturing my experience with HELP international and to the small children in Uganda hoping for a brighter future.


It's going to be an amazing summer for all of HELP's programs, but especially Mbale Uganda! Im excited to work with all the volunteers on our team. We have a lot of diversity of skills and assets everybody is bringing to the table. And for all those haters who don't think it's not possible for a small group of students to make a difference in a complicated country such as Uganda we echo the words of Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed it's the only thing that ever has." Here we go. First wave leaves Wednesday. Wow. That's tomorrow. No looking back. THIS ONE'S FOR AFRICA...

Greetings from Uganda!

Uganda is in East Africa and is known as the "Pearl of Africa" because of its lush jungles, rolling hills and temperate climate. The official language is English, however most Ugandans speak a tribal language as their first language. Though Uganda lies on the mouth of the Nile River and is replete with natural resources, the Ugandan people remain deeply impoverished. Uganda has suffered immensely from a civil war in northern Uganda that ended a few years ago. 

This will be HELP internationals first year in the city of Mbale, and surrounding villages. Projects in Uganda include: HIV/AIDS support group, business training, adobe stoves, square-foot gardening, public health campaigns, support for children with disabilities, eye camps, and more. HELP international is a non-profit organization started at BYU in 1999 in response to Hurricane Mitch. Since then, HELP has expanded their work across the globe, empowering local community members by teaching self sustainable skills that can be passed on to others.

Currently HELP is working with impoverished communities in eight locations around the world- Belize, El Salvador, Fiji, India, Thailand, Uganda, Tanzania, and Peru. 

     "Why Africa?" This seems to be the popular question. I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and served for 8 months in a west African refugee camp in southwest Houston, TX. During this time, I saw the aftermath and stories of the civil war fought through the 90's. It was during this time I fell in love with the kind and pure nature of the African people, and since then, I have always had a special draw to their homeland. Since then, I knew I would make it back to help them as they did for me. The conditions of Uganda call for the needs of education and sanitation. For these reasons, my family has decided to come together and raise $9,500 by April 30th 2011 to fund a new school outside Mbale. As we speak, 51% of Uganda's population is under the age of 14, and the schools ratio is over 80 children for every teacher. For this reason, we come for your help to provide a need we take for granted every day. At the 1 minute 10 second mark in the video below, is a similar design of the school we are fund-raising for. We know money is tight, but any amount of money contributes significantly. To donate, click on the "Donate" tab up at the right and you will be directed to HELP's website.  From there, you can donate through PayPal, including "Devin Wengert" in the comments section, specifying your donation to our school project. Or you can send a check addressed to HELP-international with "Devin Wengert" in the memo line to HELP-international, 455 N. University Ave #212, Provo, UT 84601 to avoid transaction fees, and please remember, every penny donated goes toward this fight against poverty.

While I spend the four months in Uganda this summer, I will be heading this project and construction of the school. This blog will be updated weekly so you can see the progress and faces of those being touched directly and see where your donations are going. We ask that you give whatever you can to this cause, and stay tuned to this blog through the months of July and August 2011.  Thanks to the commitment of community members, donors and volunteer programs such as HELP, we can take action and be of great service in this achievable progress against poverty. 

                                HELP international, Lugazi Uganda 2010