Change of Plans

We came here with the intention of setting up an internet cafe (or “cyber” as they call it here, short for cyber cafe). It looked great on paper. I had been communicating with Felicien via email and chat for the past few months before we arrived in order to get enough information to make an informed decision about the feasibility of starting a cyber cafe. I was also pulling from last year's trip and our experience with the sole internet cafe we used that was down the street from our guest house (which was in a little shack with really slow speed and computers with CRTs). Through those conversations and experiences from last year, I thought I had a handle on the situation and how it would go.

Leading up to the trip, it was amazing how at the last minute, we discovered that we did indeed have over 10 computers, the minimum that we figured we'd need to set up a cafe. God had provided these computers rather miraculously.

I arrived a few days early to do a bit of last-minute research regarding location and any other details we missed. And I found out we missed a ton. Within a few days it became very apparent that we could not acquire a location with enough foot-traffic at a reasonable cost. We discovered that we needed a higher skill-level for labor than we could expect to find and train in a month. We were planning on using people from the church to run the cyber, but that idea proved to be not in the slightest feasible since the church laity is by and large uneducated and cannot explain to people the basics of how to use a computer since they don't know themselves. We also found out that furnishings (tables, chairs) would be far more expensive than anticipated. We only had financing acquired for about 50% of the total costs.

But for some reason, God had given us 11 computers. Matt came on this trip with the sole intention of setting up the cafe. Everything looked great only 2 weeks before. What happened? Was God in this? So we threw out a fleece regarding our involvement with the cyber – if God provided $10,000 and 3 skilled people willing to work for us by Monday (two weeks ago today), we would continue to pursue the internet cafe. Otherwise, it seemed as though we would have to scrap it.

And as of Monday night of last week, we had neither.

So we figured that God was moving us in another direction. During the first week, Felicien told us about a piece of land that he found out about/was offered for only 5 million FBU (roughly $4200 USD). As mentioned in my last post, it is very close to the lake with a beautiful view, and it is a very good sized piece of land. At the same time that the internet cafe was falling through, the land was looking like a great option. So we started moving in the direction of purchasing the land, a process that we're still working on. It looks like it has a great chance of going through. The lady who is selling it has a lot of land, and we're buying only one part. It will be advantageous for her to tell future potential buyers that part of the land is owned by Westerners – that is a selling point.

I also wanted to make a quick note about the laptops. I know many of you donated with the intent of us using them for the cyber cafe. I am truly sorry that the cyber cafe didn't work out. However, we decided to use the laptops by selling them in Burundi. Used laptops are worth much more in Burundi than in the West because of lack of supply. So we estimate that we can get between $3500 and $5000 for all of them (roughly $150-800/laptop). We will then put that money toward the purchase of land.

While we didn't do what we had planned, we gained a lot of knowledge. For one thing, Pastor Felicien is just that – a pastor. He is not a trained business man, nor are most of the people in the church. They look at businesses are think, “It isn't that hard!” but they just look at the big picture and totally miss the details (we ran across the issue of locals missing details time and again). Also, Jeremie and I probably know more about the legalities regarding the purchase of land in Burundi than 99% of the population!

So there's the explanation about that. Matt left Burundi early Saturday morning (early as in 1am), and the rest of us (minus Jeremie) left early Sunday morning. We made it to London alright.

Our New Burundian Names!

Sunday morning in Nyanza Lak, Matt, Liz and I were given Burundian names. Matt has already mentioned his name. Liz's name is Kaneza which means one who is kind and loves much. My name is Mwtonzi which means one who is humble and peaceful. We had a great trip and are all in transit on our way back to our respective homes. Christopher, Liz and I are in London for a few days. Kieran made it to London with us yesterday and traveled to Berne. Jeremie is on his way to London and Matt should be back in Colorado Springs. Grace and Peace to you all and thank you so much for all of your prayers!

almost done... sad day!!!

It's hard to believe that we leave in only 2 days. This year, the trip has been a whirlwind. It has been a huge learning experience if nothing else.

We just finished VBS a couple hours ago, and now Jeremie and I are at a cyber so he can print out the English class certificates for graduation tonight. VBS went incredibly well thanks to Susan's planning. We had 100 kids the first day, and roughly 175 kids the second day, down from 300 last year, but we were signficantly more organized this year, and we couldn't have handled more let alone fit them in the church. Everything went incredibly smoothly - by African standards at least.

It is true that we scrapped the internet cafe idea. I plan to post in the next couple days our reasoning and why that happened. However, we have been offered some land to buy, which we can get for $5000 USD. It's a lot that's 54 x 55 meters and about 600 meters from the lake with a beautiful view. It's a great price, and every business-minded person we've mentioned it to says we should jump on it and that we'd be foolish not to. The price is expected to triple by next year. It is also big enough to build a very good sized guest house/convention center complex on, which is what we're leaning toward. We'll be planning that in more detail over the next couple years. Please pray for that transaction - we got the process started, but it will have to continue after we leave.

I'm sure I speak for everyone in saying that we're exhausted. It has been a busy 3 weeks. I hate to leave, but I do need some rest. I am looking forward to coming back next year already. We have built up relationships with our friends here and seen those relationships go to deeper levels. It is sad to leave them.

I pray that all is well with you, wherever this finds you.

Peace and love - amahoro inurukundo

With 5 days left.

Greetings from Tropicana[1]!

We got back last night from our trip to Nyanza-Lac. The entire weekend was quite eventful. Our drive from Bujumbura to Nyanza-Lac (a total of 120km) took 5 hours. About an hour into the drive the back right tire went flat. We pulled off the side of the road into this little village [2] to change it. Fortunately the van we had rented had a real spare underneath so we were able to change the tire without too much trouble - even though we had parked over the remains of an old fire & the van fell off the jack once. All in all it was quite exciting for the village we broke down in. We seem to attract large crowds wherever we go.

And we were off again. About 2 hours later we stopped at a little gas station/repair shop to get the flat tire patched, the spare tire filled with air, and the engine coolant levels refilled. While we were at that station we backed into a truck so I was given the opportunity to drive.

I have driven in Burundi! And not just on the main road, I've driven in & around Nyanza-Lac.

About 30 minutes later we drove past Pastor Felicien's mother's house. We pulled over & walked to visit her. Once back on the road we drove through & arrived at our motel in Nyanza-Lac at 11AM.

We were, by that point, exhausted. We slept for an hour or two and woke up around 2 to eat lunch. Pastor Felicien had gone to the church meeting to see how things were going there.

We were expected at the church at 3 and arrived there 30-40 minutes later.

Their singing & dancing choirs were quite beautiful. It seems as though their songs take one of 2 forms - simple, repeating "God alone is to be worshiped" songs or stories (like full stories). Liz preached & did a fantastic job. She's a real natural. I was distracted during most of the services by the street kids sitting on the side of the church. We were playing smiling & waving & thumbs up games with each other all during church. They really are desperately in need of love that no one gives them.

That night we were planning on having church service & then showing either Jesus of Nazareth or The Passion of the Christ on a projector we had brought, but their generator didn't produce enough power to run the projector so we weren't able to. Chris preached, Felicien elaborated, & then we all went back to the motel & to bed.

Sunday morning Pastor Felicien gave the 3 of us who haven't been to Burundi before names. Mine is Vyizigiro - which means, I think, "one who is trustworthy, one who can be trusted". He wanted people to think of us not as "Mzungu!" but as people with names. I'll have to let Liz & Susan tell you what theirs are. I don't remember.

Kieran preached Sunday morning & the main point of his message was not to simply beg from God but to cry out asking him to help you up.

We think it was well received.

We went back to the motel for lunch & left at 2 to come back home to Bujumbura. It's quite interesting how home-like our place here in Bujumbura has become.

On the way back we got another flat tire. It was slightly comical. We changed it in about 5 minutes & were all quite impressed with our newly developed tire changing ability. NASCAR here we come! We actually broke down right by the monument rock where Livingston & Stanley met in Africa. I had no idea it was here in Burundi. That was pretty cool to see.

We got back to the house & found that 1 of our laptops had been stolen & that there had been an attempted break-in in one of our rooms. We think we had left the laptop in our common room rather than locked in one of our bedrooms. Anyways, the owner of the house & the police got involved & one of the night watchmen spent the night in jail.

Today we're having lunch with one of the members of the church board at his house. I'm definitely excited to get to visit one of their houses. We haven't been in anyone's yet. We're also setting up a bank account with Diamond Trust Bank to facilitate our further involvement in Burundi. And we're meeting with a notary & the land owner to work toward purchasing that plot of land by the lake (it's absolutely
gorgeous). We're also having the second half of our knitting class this afternoon.

This week looks to be an arduous one so please pray for strength & protection for us.

Again, thank you and may God bless,
Matt


[1] The internet cafe we've been semi-frequenting in Bujumbura.
[2] The road between Nyanza-Lac & Bujumbura runs alongside Lake Tanganyika most of the way, and there are houses & little villages for most of its length.

Nietwa Susan

Bite and Hello, from Burundi!
It's hard to believe that we are more than halfway through our trip now and this is my first blog. We have been busy teaching English courses, preparing for the VBS next week, and doing research on internet cafes and other long term projects that we could be involved in here long term. Our seemingly brilliant idea of setting up an internet cafe that would fund the church here is falling through and it is looking like it's not the Lord's will right now. As we teach English classes and talk to the people here, we are learning that education must be an integral part of any lasting change and enrichment of people's lives here. As Burundi becomes a part of the East African Community, learning English and Swahili is becoming more and more important for Burundians in order to find good jobs. Many of the people we work with in the church, are on the verge of illiteracy even in their native tongue of Kurundi. It appears that to make lasting and far reaching improvement of the lives of the people here, learning languages and basic problem solving skills is crucial. We have been discussing the possiblitity of founding a school here or possibly just raising funds for scholarships to send Burundians to Nairobi or other places that would have better schools to attend. The other day a man from the neighbor hood walked into the church where we were and confessed to us that he had a drug and alcohol problem. I was interesting because he did not ask us for money and I believe he genuinely wanted help from his addictions. There are no 5 step programs here and drug abuse and alcoholism is rampant. It would be really cool if the church could provide a program like AA here.
Another feasible option, is to buy land here while land is inexpensive because a good number of wealthy Expats have yet to return to the country after the war officially ended last year. They will probably return following the election next year and when they do, property prices will likely triple. If we buy land for approximately 5,000, we could rent it to farmers and eventually build a house that we could rent out to European and American tourists. The profits will go to support Pastor Felicien and Glory Outreach Church here in Bujumbura. The more that we pray and talk to people about this option the more it seems like God is opening the door. Please pray for us to hear the voice of God clearly regarding this matter and other projects and if you would like to donate to this project please let us know.
I am working tirelessly preparing for the VBS next week as I am in charge of that opperation. We will have lots of games, crafts, music, and bible stories and the second day we will feed them lunch. Please pray for strength for me and that preparations will come together and the VBS will go smoothly. Pray that we have many church volunteers and that the neighborhood children are touched by the love of God.
Thank you for all your prayers!

Interesting Proposition

If anyone feels like donating 10,000 USD to our trip, let me know ASAP via txt (+257 79 69 5673) and email me as well (cgsayler@gmail.com). Please only do this if God is definitely calling you to do so. Thanks!

Life in Burundi

Mwiriwe! Good afternoon! So much has happened during our first few days in Burundi that it is impossible to communicate all the events and feelings we have experienced, but I hope to be able to give you a glimpse of our trip thus far.

I would like to start off with a praise! My bags were missing for the first five days of the trip, but we were able to pick them up last night! God is faithful to answer our prayers.
Keiran and I have now taught English classes for four nights. Each evening we have had a two hour intermediate class followed by a two hour advanced class. It is amazing to see the hearts of the students as they dedicate themselves to learning our language. When you ask many of them why there are attending the class, they reply that they want to learn English in order to get a better job and have a better way of life. It is so encouraging to know that we could make a real impact in their lives. Pastor Felicien started teaching the English classes several months ago, which has been incredibly valuable as we can work on more advanced topics rather than starting from scratch. It is especially helpful for them to learn pronunciation of difficult English words from us.

On our first night teaching the advanced class, the lights went off in the church part way through the lesson. Unable to continue our lesson in the dark, we decided to pray for a bit and sing some worship songs. The moment we had finished one of our songs, the lights came back on and we were able to finish! God times things so perfectly!

Some women of the church took Kieran, Susan, and I to the marketplace yesterday. It is a massive building with a high ceiling, packed full of wooden booths selling everything from clothes to toiletries to electronics and everything in-between. There is hardly any room to move between the booths so people are constantly pushing past each other. Our trip to the market was incredibly valuable both for learning about the Burundi culture and way of life, as well as being a bonding experience between us and the women. We were able to pick up knitting supplies so we can teach them a useful skill that could eventually turn into a way to make some money.
The guys have been gathering information about Internet cafes and other such opportunities. They have met several businessmen that could prove to be valuable contacts in future endeavors. Overall, we are well on our way to establishing good relationships and are very encouraged about the progress we have seen in the English classes.

The members of this team that God has brought here are simply incredible. We are growing very close as go through our days here and as we talk and pray together each evening. Already, lifelong friendships have been established and strengthened.

I pray that things are going well wherever you are and we are certainly grateful for all your thoughts, prayers, and support!
Liz

Things are moving

I'm sorry that I'm the only one who has posted so far. Last year we were right next to an internet cafe; this year we have to go into town to get online. Kieran says my writing is very straightforward and factual - not a lot of embellishment and emotion, so I'll force him or someone else to write a few posts soon.

This is a very interesting trip. Team dynamics are good, and overall, everything is going well. There are growing pains with our relationship with our contacts, as would be expected in any relationship. In our cross-cultural communication, things get lost in translation or misunderstood. This is absolutely a learning experience for all of us, with the possible exception of Kieran, our great cultural expert. He is an endless source of stories and insight.

And God is directing us and changing our plans and deepinging our faith, relationships, and love.

We are finding business in Burundi to be much more complex in the city center than we anticipated. We have made some very good contacts with two internet cafe owners here - one is Indian and immediately hit it off with Kieran (who is Indian/Irish). Through discussions with them and others, we are figuring out what exactly we should be doing. God is guiding and opening doors we had not considered. I'll post more when we have concrete plans in that regard.

In other news... Liz's luggage has finally arrived in Bujumbura! ...at least they told us so. After Jeremie and I leave the cyber, we'll swing by Kenya and pick her bags up. That took a bit longer than expected. She hasn't complained at all. It is rather amazing that Liz was the first person I talked to about packing, and she was the only person whom I suggested bring an extra change of clothes with her (she ended bringing like 2-3 days worth). And she is the only one of us with travel insurance. And she is the only one with luggage issues. Either provision or reverse Murphy's Law (if she hadn't taken precausions, maybe she wouldn't have had issues), take your pick. Provision makes most sense.

We are all doing well. Thank you for your prayers. Blessings!

getting settled

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Everyone has arrived, though Liz's bags are still in transit - we will pick them up tomorrow.

Everything is going well - we have no complaints.

We're continuing to do research about the viability and profitability of the internet cafe. we do have a lot of computers, so thank you all for your generosity.

Liz and Kieran start English teaching tonight.

I'm sure we'll update more as we go along - we are not near a cyber cafe, so that makes it a bit more difficult. We did find a nice cafe downtown that is airconditioned and all, but Jer and I are the only ones using it at the moment. And the computers/keyboards are in French - joy.

Blessings

Arrived

I made it into Bujumbura yesterday after roughly 48 hours of flights and layovers.

Just a reviewer from last year on the code in case we have some typos on our french keyboards:

q=a
z=w
,=m
w=z
;=,
:=.

So if I type ze, it means we; also ",eqn" = mean.

I'm at an expensive cafe, so I should get off. I'll update more later.

From London...

Hey all,

I'm the first one to get going on this trip, setting out yesterday at 7am from the Springs driving up to Denver International Airport. I'm in London now, Thursday at 3:30pm here, and I just posted a long post in my personal blog about my trip so far (edit - sorry for those of you who clicked this link earlier - I accidentally had my blog set to private; it's public now). It isn't very relevant to Burundi - just ramblings. I'll be getting into Burundi at 1pm tomorrow, which is about 5 hours later than I anticipated - my flight from Nairobi to Bujumbura was changed (unbeknown to me prior to getting my boarding passes).

Anyway, I'll try to post sometime soon after I get into Burundi.

iCafe name

Hey friends!

We need a name for the internet cafe that we are setting up in Burundi, and we want your input!

Comment on this post and leave your suggestions. We'll consider the responses along with our own thoughts. The winner gets a business in East Africa named with their suggestion - a noteworthy accomplishment to be remembered for years to come! I'd even put it on a resume/CV if I was you - that's quite the accomplishment!

Entries in French and English are welcome.

We'll be sure to post pictures of the sign when it's completed.

Skype meeting, June 12

Last meeting before Sayler leaves! (He leaves June 17, everyone else leaves the 20th.)
Update

• Internet Cafe:
• We have over 10 computers!!! Praise God! That will allow us to set up the internet cafe much more easily. God multiplying computers like he did fish and bread...
  
• Everything is falling into place, just need funding
• VBS
• We should be ready by the time we go
• Need construction paper, colored pencils, etc
• English teaching
• Building on what Felicien has started
• Liz has lots of ideas
  
• Damaged Wall
• Jer: Talk to Felicien about building a wall with tires
• See if there's a tire dump, people of church rebuild wall - they have given money until it hurts, but few people showed up to help move timbers last year
• Find easiest way to fix problem, and cheapest
  

Everything is coming together!

To do

• Get new bills
• Copy immunization and passport (copy on self, copy w/ Jer/Sayler), allergies
• Register w/ Embassy
• Jer: still deciding on car - probably not
• Matt: get power strips and such (2-3 strips w/ adapter)
• Jer: find out about cat5 from Felicien

Prayer

• Pray for no problems entering country - Smuggling computers into Burundi
• Kieran: thesis and money; visa upon entry; Stefan's mom's cancer
• Susan: still stressed at work
• Susan/Liz: need malaria meds
• Church: especially since we're helping rebuild the wall
• Praise: everything is coming together
  

Damage

We received two emails from Felicien in the last week that I wanted to pass along.

Hi,Friends, I am sad to let you know that the new building of our church has been partly demolished by the heavy rain that fell yesterday around 12am. it has also destroyed Many neighboring houses in the area, the damages were many including our musical instruments. At the same time while my wife was busy trying to contact some people, a young girl who was helping my wife stole some of our property and ran away. All of these were done the same day. I m writing this from Kigali Rwanda where I am training leaders in a conference. Please pray for us. I will let you know all things that were destroyed by that rain later. God bless you yours in the Lord Rev. Felicien (June 4)

And then we received this a couple days ago:

Hi, Dear friends, I hope you are doing well. The attached is the photo of the wall of the church that fell. Continue praying for us especially for financial breakthrough. it is difficult for us to conduct a service because of the wind that comes from the north.But otherwise everything is going on well. We thank the Lord so much for what He has done.. Yes, sometime the devil does things to hurt us but the almighty God changes it for Good. the Instruments that were damaged are Keyboady, three Guiters, one Amplifier, generator, and two Speakers. May the Lord bless you. thank you for your prayers Rev. Felicien Juma

Please keep the church in your prayers.

Skype meeting, June 6

Plan on Skyping at 6pm MST, 5pm PST next week.

To Do

• Everyone needs to make copies of everything
• Everyone needs to sign release forms
• Get travel insurance - possibly not worth it
• Need to push loans - even small amounts would be great
• Peter's prof is involved with mf in Rwanda
• Contract
  

Update

• Sayler, jer have Doxy, Cypro
  

Prayer

• Financing for internet cafe, general financing
  
• GOA - church was partly damaged by heavy rainfall this week
• Leaving in 11 and 14 days - peace, getting stuff done
• Susan - stressed at work, with the trip
• Jer - not looking forward to being away from Katelyn for 3.5 weeks; hoping insurance stuff doesn't move while gone
• Kieran - oral exam on the 16th
  

Random Thoughts

• Changing people's mindsets and the way ppl do things in Africa is difficult - takes years
  

Skype meeting, May 23

Check out our new website with info about the trip! It should be fully developed by the end of this weekend.

To Do

• Put a paypal donate/loan link on facebook/blog/site
• Need to request donations/loans for internet cafe
• Sayler: talk to Riann about website
• Susan: create list of materials, outline of what we'll be doing
• Need to get ethernet crimper
  

Prayer

• Kieran: hasn't heard from prof yet, not sure if he's in the office Monday; might get an extra day if he's in tuesday; has to finish thesis quickly
• Matt: moving into his new house this weekend
  
• Susan: switched jobs; pray that taking time off will go smoothly; praise - got inheritance money!
  
• Liz (all): funding
  
• Sayler: needs to sell a house
• Jer: same old; busy/stressed at work
  
• General
• Protection/safety
• Funding

Skype meeting, May 16

Update

• Kieran might have to take his final test after June 20, which would mean he couldn't go to Burundi; has to finish up his final revision by Friday

Planning update:

• Internet cafe: got numbers, need to plan budget
• Nyanzalac - care packages, evangelism

To do

• Liz: bring chalk/dry erase markers, paper
• Equipment list by Wednesday
• Plan for VBS: how many kids max, how many helpers, etc
• Need to create budget for while we're there - transportation, care packages, etc
• Will create tentative budget then pass it by everyone
• Need to figure out how long it takes to get to Nyanzalac
• Plan for management, contract, something that makes sense to them
• Bubblewrap, FedEx boxes for shipping laptops

Prayer

• Kieran: thesis, beuracracy and exam date (which might be during Burundi trip), visa
• Susan: changing jobs! (praise - no more getting beat up by troubled youth)
• Liz: just finished work! (praise)
• Sayler: finals through this monday
• Jer: still not sure about insurance, finishing planning
• Finances

Skype Meeting, May 3

Update

• Visas: Matt, Chris, Susan have visas; Jeremie mailing his today; Liz sending hers out soon; Kieran will be getting his in Burundi
  
• Projects: Matt is pming the website (mahoromf.org), internet cafe is moving forward, VBS and English teaching are slowly moving (not urgent, though)
  
• Fund raising: Kieran has 200-300 to go
  

To Do

• Jer: list expenses, intra-team contract
  
• Talk to Skyler - will be in Denver next week
• Malaria/cyproflaxen - get at travel clinic
• Sayler: buy Kieran a collapsible bucket
  

Prayer

• Jer: continued prayer for potential lawsuit
• General preparation for trip - know what we're doing and getting things done
• Protection while in Burundi
• Praise: Matt owns a house now
• Matt: ability to pm website well
• Matt: hurt his knee
• Kieran: thesis - needs lots of prayer, lots and lots; meets w/ prof at 11am on Tuesday morning (2am LA, 3am in CO); very stressed, spiritual stuff going on; needs one week extention to go from rough draft to finished project
• Liz: tavel protection - will be in Texas this week, has 7 days of work left
• Sayler: spiritual attacks, confusion, discouragement, frustration - pray for focus and clarity
• Susan: moving to a new department at work soon (no more getting beat up, gets to work days)
  

Skype meeting, April 26

Forgive the typos previously on this site as I had thrown this site together rather quickly without giving it much thought (I told you it wasn't ready to launch!). Note that the ministry we're routing funds through is "Magnetic Ministries", as it was previously wrong. And yes, Kieran, receive is spelled "i before e except after c" - my bad.

Also note: we're down to a week under 2 months! The countdown has begun, and there is still a decent bit to do!

• Immediate to do
  • Liz - shots on the 28th
  • Saving the world
  • Work on legal contract
  • Continue interacting with our connections to find computers, puppets, financing, etc
  • Susan, Liz: connect with children's ministry at NLC
    
• General to do
  • Start big idea planning
    • VBS (Susan)
    • Teaching english (Kieran, Liz)
    • Teaching internet things (Jer, Matt)
    • Teaching business (Sayler)
    • Internet cafe as business (Sayler)
  • Legal/social contract on internet cafe, operational contract (outside organization bringing accountability)
• Update
  • We have a place to stay!
  • Matt, Susan, and Christopher's visas are out
  • Matt volunteered to take over project managing Mahoro.com development
    
• Prayer
  • Kieran: stressed, has to have a work on par with Einstein, 2 chapters left
    
  • Jer: still working with insurance to our knowledge
    
  • Matt: has to get internet cafe stuff done
    
  • Susan: doesn't know
  • Liz: boring week
    
  • Sayler: less stressed this last week, still has a decent bit to do (finishing the semester, not sure what to do for class this summer, working on microfinance stuff and legal issues involved in starting that, etc)
    

Update so far

Over the next week, we will hopefully have a lot more information up about the trip, but for now, here's some basics.

Notes from our meetings from the last couple months are available here.  I will try to keep those meeting notes on here from now on.

We are currently looking for a few key items for our trip to Burundi this summer.  We are going to be setting up an internet cafe in Bujumbura, the profits from which will support the church and outreach projects that the church runs.  In the long run, we hope to use social businesses of this sort (and possibly this specific internet cafe) to provide funds for an orphanage.  We are planning on bringing laptops to Burundi to use for the purpose of the internet cafe.  If you have an old but functional laptop that you are interested in donating for this purpose, we would greatly appreciate it.  We are currently working to have those donations be tax deductible.  Let one of us know if you have a laptop you'd like to donate, or email me at MahoroMF@gmail.com.  We could also use puppets to use in VBS.

Here are the notes from our last Skype meeting on April 15 (since the meeting, we did find a place to stay, though it's more expensive than we wanted - $950 for the month):

• Immediate to do
  • Liz - shots on the 28th
  • Visas - out shortly
  • Saving the world
• General to do
  • Start big idea planning
    • VBS (Susan)
    • Teaching english (Kieran, Liz)
    • Teaching internet things (Jer, Matt)
    • Teaching business (Sayler)
    • Internet cafe as business (Sayler)
  • Legal/social contract on internet cafe, operational contract (outside organization bringing accountability)
• Update
  • Still need place to stay - Felicien is working on it
• Prayer
  • Kieran: feeling pretty stressed
  • Jer: still working with insurance
  • Matt: work has been better, woke up deathly sick (but he had maggie moos so he's better now)
  • Susan: doesn't know
  • Sayler: lots of stuff - setting up a nonprofit, working on school, other stuff

Hello Everyone

Welcome to our blog. Please post any questions you may have for us and recommendations, suggestions and prayers. And if you want to help out in any way... Thanks
K2