Much to the amusement of a village elder, Creighton Prep students (from left) Peter Bailis, Tom Brush, Jeff Lind, Pat Passarelli, Alexandro Alonso test the goatery they helped build in Uganda.

OMAHA – Five Creighton Prep students traveled to Uganda at the end of the school year to help build a goatery for a village there and continue the good will associated with Prep’s ties to the Computers for Africa project.

It was the second year in a row that Prep students affiliated with CFA went to eastern Africa.“Besides the good-will component begun with last year’s visit, this group wanted to contribute their labor in some way to the communities where CFA has had a presence,” says Sue Stein, Prep CFA moderator and trip organizer.

Making the trip from Omaha this year were Peter Bailis, Tom Brush, Jeff Lind, Pat Passarelli, and Alejandro Alonso. Other participants were Prep teacher Nina Stickels, Duchesne Academy teacher Kathy O’Keefe, and her daughter Erin.

Pat Passarelli learns a little about traditional dance from an Undugu dancer in Kampala, Uganda.

They helped build the goatery in Masaka, a small villagenear the Kalungu Girls Training Center, the first school Ignatian Associates Tim and Ruth Leacock, CFA cofounders, traveled to with Fr. Jim Strzok, SJ to set up the first CFA-sponsored computer lab in 2000. Since then CFA has been responsible for shipping more than 900 computers to schools and other ministries and helping set up computer labs and networks.

The Leacocks moved to Kampala last fall to firmly establish the project with an ongoing African presence and explore new ministries, which led to Herbert Busiku, CFA’s eastern Africa agent, and Tim Leacock starting a small computer school at the Leacock’s home this year. There were 11 students in the first class.

“We will be looking for a more permanent place for the school in the coming months,” Ruth Leacock says.

A village goat longs to be joined in a goatery by her own breed of kid.

Money for the goatery project was largely provided by fund-raising events held by Prep and Marian High School, another Omaha school. Sr. Susan Nankya, RSCJ, of the training center, worked with people she knows in the area around the center. They helped come up with a meaningful project and found a local villager who donated the land for a facility to accommodate about six goats. As they reproduce, the offspring will be given to other villagers. Stud fees will help the village earn additional money from surrounding villages.

“The local people around Kalunga knew the school was getting computers. The goatery was a way for others in the area to benefit from the training center’s contact with CFA,” Stein says. “So many villagers turned out to welcome us. They are so poor, but their hospitality and generosity are humbling.” Much of the preliminary work was done by thetime the U.S. contingent arrived.

“We helped with the concrete work and that was about it,” Ruth Leacock says. “They couldn’t understand why we wanted to work.”

For more information about Computers for Africa, go to www.computers4africa.org.

back to news