Trip Information

SIFE has been working with ACT Uganda for the past year. ACT stands for Agape Community Transformation. ACT is a partnership between the five churches in Michigan and several churches in Muko, a village in southwestern Uganda. ACT does several projects in the community. The specific project SIFE is working on is the creation of a business plan to help the village sell their handcrafted items (such as baskets and beads) in international markets so the proceeds can return to the village. Holly and I will help the village members create an inventory shipping and identify shipping methods to help create a sustainable business.

We will depart from Detroit on December 28 and fly to Amsterdam to connect with the flight to Entebbe, Uganda's main international airport. Each flight takes eight hours and we expect to arrive in Entebbe on December 29 at 8:15 pm local time (12:15 Eastern time). We will visit Jinja and the source of the Nile on Thursday, December 30 and then we get to work. We will visit Kampala's (the capital city) markets on Friday morning then depart for Kabale in the afternoon. The drive to Kabale takes eight hours so we will spend the night in Mbarara. We will arrive in Kabale on Saturday morning. We will be staying in Kabale while we are working in Muko which is a twenty minute drive.

While we are at the village we will meet with ACT Board members, work with the ACT team to create a sustainable business plan and visit the Guardian Families of local orphans. We will work in Muko until the following Friday (January 7) then depart for a day at Queen Elizabeth National Park. We will arrive in Kampala on Saturday then depart Entebee late Sunday night (actually early Monday morning). We will arrive back in Detroit on Monday, January 10 at 5:00 pm (Eastern time).

I hope to post updates every day while we are in Uganda. However, the internet and electricity are not always reliable and therefore updates may not occur every day. Please feel free to post comments and ask questions. I am very excited about this opportunity and hope you enjoy this blog.