Friday was Day 2 of the Mastering the Land conference with PDN. We arrived at 8am and chatted with those who showed up early. Something about their smiles just floods you with joy--they're so vibrant and true. Each pastor was so happy to see us, though I felt like it should be us who were more thrilled to be back for a second day.
Richmond and Jason got the conference rolling and we chose our 20 new participants for the Bear Pit. The session seemed to start out with less energy, but we were pleasantly surprised by their innovative ideas and dreams by the end of the day. We ended up choosing three participants from today rather than just 2 because there were so many solid business ideas that were presented well.
I spent most of the day working with a sweet, sweet woman named Pastor Hellen. She spoke English fine, but could not write it. She was so soft-spoken, but the most gentle and kind person. She is beginning a chicken business, and though she has much more work to do to set her business apart, I could tell she really stepped out of her comfort zone and shared her ideas with us.
We even had one pair of gentlemen who wanted to start an online reservation system to reserve tickets for sporting events, movies, buses, etc. Again, they have a lot of work to do, but they are only asking for $2500, and I believe with the help of an IT expert, they could do big things. They were two of the best presenters by far, and understood what we had taught far better than many.
We finished sessions around 5 again and boarded the bus after clean up to go to dinner. We met 30 students from the Uganda Business Development Center at a restaurant in downtown Kampala (near all the Big 4 accounting firm offices, lots of excitement on that bus full of future CPAs) called Cafe Pap. The sign looked like "Cafe Pad"...appetizing. But the food was good! We all LOVED this dinner. These people were so interesting to talk to, and I felt like I learned so much more about the business culture of Uganda from them. They are all around our age, most of them just out of university. They attend nightly classes at the BDC for 10 weeks to learn how to start and maintain a business. They all had such passion for their businesses, and it was a nice reprieve from the pig and chicken farms we'd heard about for 2 days. One of the guys at our table, Timothy, has an economics degree and is working for a logistics company that handles oil and gas clients. Oil was just discovered in Uganda, which is a huge deal. He told me all about the complications and his hopes for where the industry will go--I used my very limited Phillips 66 knowledge to keep up, but he was just unbelievably intelligent.
We finished dinner and went back to the hotel to write postcards to our donors, supporters, and friends. Jayson and I discussed our picks for the Bear Pit with Dr. MacGregor and Dr. Hurtt, and settled on Frank, the bakery guy from Thursday, as well as Medard, Fred, and William from Friday, who sold fish, construction supplies, and fruit juice, respectively. This was our latest night so far, rolling into bed around midnight.
Saturday was the last day of the conference, a half day. Jayson and I waited for the four Bear Pit presenters to arrive so that we could give them the news of their selection and help them prepare for the actual Bear Pit that would take place on the main stage in front of the entire conference. We spent a couple hours helping them refine their presentations and tried to grill them as hard as we knew Dr. MacGregor would (think: Mark Cuban).
When the time came for them to stand up in front of the investors--Dr. MacGregor, Dr. Hurtt, Molly Campbell (a trip alumni and PwC first year), and Rose Mugabi--I was so impressed by their confidence. It took a lot to stand in front of all those people and put their dreams on the line. In the end, two of the four walked away with funding, one was told to talk to Richmond to get his fish business off the ground, and Frank was promised help in working his budget down to less than $7000.
We had many more people come up to us and thank us for all they had learned. One man told us that what he had learned from the conference in three days felt like three months' worth of knowledge. I still feel very inadequate to be imparting all of this knowledge on these people, so praise be to God for facilitating these sessions because it was certainly through no wisdom of our own. We handed out t-shirts and cake for Dr. Hurtt's birthday, and took pictures with those who requested them.
I would love your partnership in prayer for these men and women who want so badly to find an extra way to provide for their families through the businesses they've dreamed up. They have the deepest, most genuine faith that the Lord will provide. I attend a university I love where I am now getting a second degree, I live in a nice home where my stove isn't in my bedroom, and last week I threw away 2 garbage bags full of food we couldn't eat in time because we had so much. Yet with all of that, I find myself questioning God's provision at time. So thank you, Lord, for perspective this week. You have provided for these people who wholeheartedly desire to serve you above all else, and I lift up praise for Your continued, unending faithfulness.
After we packed all the supplies back onto the bus and waved goodbye to the pastors still mingling in the parking lot, we drove to the most incredible Italian restaurant for lunch. I have now had margherita pizza in 16 countries (though this was the first I have not shared with my faithful roommate and favorite travel companion). We were stuffed to the point of explosion and food babies by the end of our meal. Maybe because I had 7 pieces of bread prior to my entire pizza. But please note that this was 3pm, and the first meal we'd had since breakfast at 7am.
We got some long awaited nap time back at the hotel. Arthur, the youth minister at Richmond's church (New Life Baptist, where we will worship in the morning), brought his youth group to play games and eat dinner at our hotel. When we were told about this plan a few weeks ago, I was curious as to what I was going to find in common with a Ugandan 13-year-old. Apparently, though, "youth" here is 20 years and up. We played more ultimate frisbee and had another big meal of barbecue and rice and French fries and, most importantly, ice cream. The girl sitting next to me asked why we eat cake or ice cream after every meal, and wondered if it helped with the digestion. Nope, we're just fat and I love chocolate.
We filled bags of rice, beans, and sugar that we will deliver to the women in the slums tomorrow when we visit. Our Ugandan youth friends left for home, and we returned to the conference room upstairs to finish postcards while we watched Jim Gaffigan. Given my nap today, I had just enough energy left to post this, and if you've made it this far despite my unforgivable lack of pictures, bless you.
We only have one week left! Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.
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