Update: Guest house, primary kitchen, tree planting & current needs! Please help!

[EcoMercy International]

Dear friends,

Thanks to your support and thanks to the hard work of our school dean, my father in Christ, Stephen Lunagula, his son, Stelio, and others the "guest house" is now finished! May God bless all who have contributed!

I received these photos July 4th. Eventually the house will be for just guests, but for now it will be where Fr. Stephen and his family stays:

Stelio accomplished most of the labor with his helpers, also adding a tile floor:

And he even made this decorative ceiling relief:

Our friend, Simon Kisa, installed a solar lighting and phone battery charging system:

Getting creative with ladders. Be careful!

 

Some spectators of the smaller variety view the solar system installation:

And there was light!

Stelio also built a three burner stove in the primary kitchen with a chimney. You can see the old three-rock stove on the right hand side. This should help our cook and any guests she has in the kitchen to not suffer from smoke inhalation.

See the chimney being installed below. Plaster will cover the metal lath.

 

And here is the completed stove. It appears that there is still some smoke in the room, but hopefully that can be mitigated by cutting the chunks of wood smaller and by allowing the chimney flew to fully heat up.

And here they are preparing to plaster the exterior of the kitchen:

Once again, thank you for your support, which makes these projects possible for the benefit of all the students of St. John Chrysostom School.

 

In other news, Annah Lunagula has graduated from the YMCA Comprehensive Institute with a diploma in "Customs Clearing and Forwarding.” Her father and mother, Elizabeth, and traveled to Kampala to celebrate with her. Congratulations, Annah!!!

 

Also, we sent money for tree seedlings to be purchased from nearby tree nurseries and students have begun planting them. These photos are from June 28:

Every new tree will make a difference on our campus by providing beauty, shade, and of course food.

Mark Lunagula, in the white shirt, spearheaded the project:

Here Fr. Stephen poses with a Tamarind tree, a species native to tropical Africa. Believe it or not, despite being native to Africa, this tree was not very easy to source.

Nice photo, Mark!

My own kids, Edith and Oliver, helped to plant some bottle brush bushes in front of my parents house, which are loved by the hummingbirds. Here they are posing as plants:

 

And with my children’s help we finally managed to install an automatic watering system for the bunnies:

I’ll leave you with these photos of Fr. Stephen and Elizabeth cutting and drying chunks of Cassava, which is a staple tuber widely cultivated in East Africa. Once the vegetable dries it will be ground into flour.

 

May God bless Fr. and Mrs. Lunagula for all they do to promote food security, both for themselves and for their community, especially the staff and students of St. John Chrysostom School.

Our most urgent need at this time is for assistance with building a latrine for the Lunagula family near their new living quarters. See the budget below.

The total cost is $3033 at the current favorable exchange rate of $1 / 3780 UGX. As of right now, about $1421 has been contributed toward the latrine, leaving $1612.

And there are other needs. Fr. Stephen needs a newer car. His old one is unreliable and the frame is so rusted that it is not worth fixing. And before too long we would like to repair fences and purchase two or three milk cows to be kept at the school.

If you haven’t done so yet, please set up a recurring monthly donation at facebook.com/ecomercy.org or at ecomercy.org. May God bless all who give! Please recommend EcoMercy International to your friends, whether via Facebook or by forwarding this email.

A blessed day to you,

Martin Becktell, director

EcoMercy International

541-698-6832

ecomer...@gmail.com