For those who might not already know, Richard M'Kananga is our first HDC2 funded volunteer in Gulu. He arrived in the last week of May from Kenya, underwent 2 days of orientation in Kampala with 4 other volunteers who arrived from the USA, and then headed up to Gulu where he's providing support to the Internet4Change program, and doing a ton of great stuff with the children online in spite of terrible power issues in Gulu that are keeping the computers off most of the time.

David Bale - you are absolutely wonderful for undertaking to conceive and develop this initiative. THANK YOU for your incredible support to the LiA community this whole year so far. You've really been great and this initiative is very much appreciated!

This just in by PM from Richard:

Dear Christina,

Sorry for staying out of touch for long. We have been experiencing connectio problems here but all is well now. Hope things are well with you all back at Kampala. We are well too.

Thanks a lot for the money. Nobert gave it to me yesterday.

I met him for the second time then and I liked him a lot. I also accompanied him to the Opok. We both wandered half burried in the long grass of the Opok for hours. We were able to venture deep deep into the farm. The shape of the old farm; the portions and apportionment ridges are all in place. The farm is not after all very densely overgrown. We also managed to locate the bore hole, the old underground water source, the tractor's implements like harrows and stuff. It was both very exciting and successiful. I could not help noticing Noberts deep attachment to the farm!

Later,

Good night,

Richard

I'll get Richard to come post here later to confirm that he's received shs250,000 from me in cash plus his housing so far. I know some funds have already been raised but we haven't received them yet so I'm fronting his costs out of my own pocket for the time being.

David can you maybe post the link to the workspace where we can see the funds already raised? I will also be posting new funds that come in over here: http://www.omidyar.net/group/lia /ws/wemarket/

Its great to see this real impact! As a donor, I haven't received any acknowledgement of receipts, nor generally a status update of the campaign, which is a nice "conversation" to be in. Anyway, congratulations to Richard and your team for getting this neat project off the ground.

Yes, this started pretty organically and there really hasn't been one space for that conversation to happen. The aim is to consolidate that here so everyone concerned can stay updated.

I've also had a couple of requests from potential volunteers who want to come in the next team, so would love to chat with folks here about a selection process that makes sense.

Thanks Christina for bringing this discussion thread to my attention.

Thanks Lars too for being here as a funder. I feel greatly priveledged to be a beneficiary of your generosity, humanity, love and kindness. It will be my honour to uphold the principles of our community here, to abide by all norms of LiA throughout my volunteership period, and to stand by every promise that I make.

I am very glad to be able to with confidence confirm the receipt of the above said money and in the exact quoted amount. The amount is mainly being expended in food purchases. A very small percentage is dedicated to other miscelleneous expenses like transport about town, etc. The influx of the "Southern Sudanese Dollar" coupled with the becoming-popular peace tourism has driven prices of everything wild in the Gulu markets.

My feedind budget runs like this:-

Breakfast...UShs 2000

Lunch.......UShs 2500

Supper......UShs 2500

Total food expenses

per day....UShs 7000

I must say that with my American coleagues I am experiencing a problem with food since they are not accustomed to African heavy types of food and for a young African man the American light feeding is a bit of a problem. This does not on the other hand affect our relationship in any way however.