I'm here!

I haven't posted yet from Africa.

Maybe cause I've been working and connecting with my people for 4 days, non stop.

It's been really good.  I can't post pictures right now, because I'm on a public computer in Masaka.  But I have some great ones I am looking forward to sharing.

Here's a quick overview of what I've been up to...

Wednesday:

Arrived at Cornerstone in the morning, saw all the friends, reconnected, it was amazing!  It felt like no time had passed.

Met with the Cornerstone Veritas team:  Edmond and Carol (our staff) and the new team of interns!  We had a great time; they introduced themselves, and we all talked for a while about many things.  I shared with them about my original vision behind the internship and about the importance of building a family together.

We then had some time just as a staff, to plan for the coming weeks.  This also included some great one on one conversation with Edmond, he is really excelling in his role!

At about 5 pm we went down to the large fellowship hall and played some games before the "evening program" began.  We were celebrating both Edmond's birthday and my arrival, so we had some speeches, and great food.  All the interns for 2014 were there, along with a variety of former interns and our current staff, as well as many of our friends.  A few hours after the event started, Frank (a former CV staff member) came in, and I got the amazing chance to sit and eat with some of my closest Ugandan friends.

Thursday:

Intern Training!  All 6 interns gathered for a training time with me.  I did one of the lessons from their 12 lesson series.  This one is about how to use the internet and how to figure out what information is true.  We covered a lot of information, and I think it will be a good starting point for them with internet use.

We then had lunch, and during lunch I gave them some questions to think over.  After lunch, we went up to the meeting room on the roof and had a "Listening Forum" which is a time of discussing challenging issues which they don't usually feel free to discuss.  All of them really enjoyed it, and it was amazing to see them choose to think maturely and seriously about a number of issues.

After the listening forum, I had one on ones with 5 out of the 6 interns.  This was a fun time to hear their incredible stories, learn more about their hopes and dreams, and have a chance to speak into their lives.

A little before 5 I ran off to go sit on Susanna and Peter's couch for the evening.  It was GLORIOUS!  Tendai remembered me, and Joshua is huge.

Friday:
Got up early and packed, and arrived to the office in time to get some visiting in with a few good friends.  We then met as a staff about various practical things:  Finances, schedules, and the internship program.  It was so nice to be able to sit and comfortably discuss these programs.

I think had a brief, but very good meeting with Tim (the executive director of Cornerstone Development), before running off to catch a bus to Masaka with Edmond.  The bus we took was SO SLOW!!  It went about 10 mph up hills, which there are a good number of between Kampala and Masaka.  We arrived at the petrol station just outside of town right at 4 pm, which was when our meeting was supposed to start.  There, we waited to be picked up and when the van arrived, I found it full of wonderful and familiar faces!  Denis, Gloryia (with new baby Daisy) and Rina all were there with nothing but smiles and hugs.

We hurried to the new offices that they have for the various businesses they are starting.  There, I taught a 1.5 hour training on Blogging!  It was great!  We did a lot of discussing how to blog, and then I walked them through setting up a blog.  Afterwards, we went to the new NET team house and had some awesome discussion with various friends, before dinner and bed.

So there you go!  I've been a bit busy...

More in a few days!

Here we go... again!

Looking back over 5 years of experience in Africa, it's wonderful to be headed back there on Monday morning!

It was almost 5 years ago, a particularly hot and humid day in late June.  I was in Ann Arbor, maybe for a wedding, and was staying in a friend's attic. When I got back there after a day out, all of my communication devices had "exploded"... 10 messages on Skype, a load of voice mails and texts, and a number of "please call me" emails... When I finally got a hold of my friend Mark, there was just one questions: "Do you want to go to Uganda with us, we leave in less than 3 weeks".

2 weeks later, on the 4th of July, I was on a plane to London. In that time I had graduated from college, gotten a hard to come by vaccination, moved across the state, and raised $800.  I spent a week in London, connecting with the team and preparing.  Then we went, then we flew... over the Sahara, my heart in my throat, and into the arms of Euphrasia at the airport.

It's been almost 5 years since that fateful June day.  Over half of that time I've spent in Eastern Africa, with people I met during those first 10 days.  On Monday, May 19th 2014, I return... to 40 shades of green, a beautiful yet hard existence, a place where hope and despair are best friends, and the sun just don't stop shinning.

I return to a work I believe in more deeply that I can fully express.  The chance to visit my friends, my coworkers in transformation, will be glorious.  To sit and dream, and share, and cry together.  To talk about what has been lost, and gained, what has grown and what has died, where we've been and where we are going.  To hear from each other how our lives are transforming, and how we each are becoming more ourselves.

And not just us.  To this day, the question on our lips for all 5 long and beautiful years, is how to do we invite others into this?  Through teaching, and training, through inviting people into a family, through mentoring and conversation, through laughter and fun, honesty and realism, we invite, we create.

Since Cornerstone Veritas was born, in August of 2011, we've grown a little.  We began with a friend, an idea, and some stuff we'd been asked to do. There were 3 of us who were on board, we had no idea what we were doing.  So I started writing.

Today, in May 2014, we have 2 full time staff, 3 junior staff members, 2 former staff, 11 alumni of our internship program, 6 current interns, and a whole TON of friends who are committed to our work.  Cornerstone Veritas has trained over 800 people in the 10 Principles of Leadership, and worked with over 20 different organizations throughout Eastern Africa.

And it just keeps getting better.  As of the end of 2013, the Cornerstone Veritas internship program has been expanded and empowered into a new, large scale, high school outreach... which was actually the original vision for Cornerstone Veritas work.  There are over 10 highschools across the region that are being trained in leadership and character development programs, through the leadership of CV's Edmond Elasu.  Thousands of young people are being reached with transformational tools and knowledge which will help them develop with vision and passion, justice and equality.  And our team is at the heart of it all!

And so, 5 years after it all began, after the first seeds were planted, and my heart was officially stolen by red earth and black hands, I return.

I return to do what I did in 2010:  Love, Serve, Encourage and Learn.  Those words do not grown old.  They are as true today as when I first chose them.  Though we have come far since then, and much as changed, I still want to give in this meaningful way. With open hands, an open heart, with love to give.

For this trip, I would add one more word.  And that word is Celebrate!  I am traveling around the world to celebrate the work being done, the people involved, the unity built and the passion that is shared.

I hope you know you are a huge part of this.  Each of you have played a role in this story, let's keep writing... together.

Follow: HERE! and on facebook at "Noelle in Africa"
Donate:  Through the "donate" button on the right, you can donate any time... money can be reimbursed retroactively!
And if you are a person of prayer, please pray for safety, peace and wisdom in all that I do!

Let us go forth, for we were made for such a time as this.

Katie's Post

My friend, Katie Booms, wrote an incredible, humbling and honoring blog post about my work... It's so well written and real, I am deeply grateful!

Playing Yahtzee Under a Mango Tree by Katie Booms
http://white-bread.tumblr.com/post/85585615016/playing-yahtzee-under-mango-trees

Reflections on Intangible

Words are a hard thing, trying to craft a picture, an understanding, a concept.

It's even harder when the thing you are trying to explain can't be held, or touched, or even seen. My work in Africa, and the work of many people I serve with there, is intangible.


It'd be so much easier to connect people to "stuff"; Give me these things and it'll all be great.  But that's not how this works, that's not how I work. I don't think stuff matters, I know people do.


People






 People: Their stories, their experiences, their choices, their dignity... this is what deeply matters to me.

 Working with them, to form long term, transformational partnerships.






 

Loving people, so they know what family feels like. 

   

Equipping people, to be the best they can be.

 Laughing with people, so that, even for a moment, everything is beautiful. 

Serving people, so that they go and change their world. 










Singing, dancing, laughing, eating, learning, celebrating, crying, playing, sharing... it's hard to do those things from 15,000 miles away.

Present.  

It's intangible.  But I am going to Africa to be present with my people.  As we say at Cornerstone Development: "Who we are is primary, what we do is secondary" 

Somethings this feels impossible to explain, maybe you have to experience it.

It's intangible.  It's not a snap shot or success story.  It's a long, hard, dusty road.  It's not a moment of glory, it many thousands of foot steps forward.  It's not change in a day, it's transformation over a decade.  It's not a quick fix, it's creating life long family.

It's their faces, their comments, the possibility that I see and hear in each one of them... that's why, it's my reason and my rhyme.  It's intangible. 

"You're already home when you feel loved"

Back to Africa: 2 practicals!

So Noelle, why are you going back to Africa for 3ish week?

That's a great question!

Here's the answer:

I will be...

- Strategic Planning and Program development for the 2014-2015 Cornerstone Veritas and High school program calendar.  This will probably include working on our leadership development curriculum to continue improving it and making it easier to teach to a variety of people.
 
- Connecting and mentoring the NEW 2014 Class of Cornerstone Veritas Interns!

- Offering continued training for the Cornerstone Veritas team, including some specific skill development.  I also will be visiting our Cornerstone Leadership Academies and have time to work with many of our students there.

-Meetings with our partner organizations and facilitators to schedule the 10 Principles of Leadership training courses, offer ongoing training, and organized programs for our interns to attend

- Celebrating and serving with friends in Kampala, Masaka, Luwero and Gulu

- (very possibly) Visiting the newest Leadership Academy, recently opened in South Sudan!

I am excited beyond words to get real TIME to work, in person, with my wonderful team and partners.  They have done such an incredible job this year, I am very glad for this chance to see and document all the wonderful work they have done!


 How can you afford this?

 Through the generosity of my monthly donors, and the kindness of friends in Kampala, I have enough money to cover the plane ticket, basic life on the ground, and have found a wonderful place to stay (when in Kampala). 

I would like to raise a little more money for this trip to cover costs like travel insurance, accommodation outside of Kampala, and also so that I can cover the costs of our team  and partner meetings.

 Please consider donating so that I can spend time with this wonderful family and continue to work with them to spread the great work of leadership development happening throughout Eastern Africa!

Africa: A Sudden Surprise

I've been content with stability.  I'd embraced this way of life:  present, stable, American.

But then life became a snow globe of transition, over and over again, and it was time to see what this all meant.

When the snow flakes stopped falling it was clear that this is a new season.  Not just spring, not just warm, but a chance to do something new... or perhaps something very old.

I didn't expect to travel internationally this calendar year, but here I am headed back to Africa, yet again!  Through the generous donations of my monthly donors, I had enough money saved for a plane ticket.  So with some time on my hands and people to serve, I can't help but go back to visit my dearest of families in Uganda!

I'll be leaving May 19th from Chicago, and arriving back June 8th. 

If you've followed this blog, you know I'll write, add pictures, and tell you about this unexpected adventure.  I do have the money to do this, in a basic way... but could use a little more to help along the way. 



Please consider making a tax deductible donation towards my trip!  Click the donate button on the right! ->