The Price of Stones: Building a School for My Village »

Twesigye Jackson Kaguri was raised in Uganda, graduated from Makerere University and was a visiting scholar at Columbia University. He is a director of development at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, and the founder and director of the Nyaka and Kutamba AIDS Orphans Schools in Uganda.
Susan Urbanek Linville, a biologist and writer, lives in Pennsylvania.

The extraordinary story of Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, a man from rural Uganda who, after settling in America, returned to his hometown to build a tuition-free school for orphans.

Publishers Weekly

So many people die of AIDS in Uganda that at times bodies are stacked in city mortuaries like firewood. Moved by the plight of more than one million AIDS orphans in a nation with a population of 30 million, Kaguri, a human rights advocate returning home after studying at Columbia University, decided to build a school for children who had lost one or both parents to the syndrome. Kaguri and his American wife used their modest resources and contributions from friends and churches to open the two-classroom Nyaka AIDS Orphans School and initiate advocacy campaigns to counteract the superstitions that have stigmatized HIV/AIDS in Uganda. Anecdotes about the students, the author’s family—his own brother and sister died from the disease—and his dealings with donors and corrupt officials, reveal Kaguri to be at once vulnerable and ferociously determined. Written in simple, straightforward style, the book is an affecting and accessible tribute to the difference one person can make in the world. (Jun.)

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Line at Our Door 5

Chapter 2 The Devil's Hand 11

Chapter 3 The Chicken Is Full of Bones 17

Chapter 4 My Brother's Keeper 26

Chapter 5 Through the Valley of the Shadow 33

Chapter 6 The Prospect of Marriage 43

Chapter 7 The Great Escape 53

Chapter 8 Only One Acre 62

Chapter 9 Plans 69

Chapter 10 The Price of Stones 79

Chapter 11 An Article of Faith 88

Chapter 12 Constructive Solutions 94

Chapter 13 Being the Man 101

Chapter 14 It Is Not Enough to Be Sorry 106

Chapter 15 Two Girls 110

Chapter 16 There Are No Streetlights 118

Chapter 17 My Meeting with Mondo 127

Chapter 18 A Song of Hope and Despair 134

Chapter 19 One Never Knows 141

Chapter 20 Cows in America 149

Chapter 21 If you Do Not Reach, You Cannot Grasp 159

Chapter 22 Nothing Worthwhile Is Easy 169

Chapter 23 Scovia 175

Chapter 24 Who Is My Neighbor? 181

Chapter 25 Big Trucks and Soda Pop 188

Chapter 26 Ideas and Ideals 197

Chapter 27 In That Rich Darkness 205

Chapter 28 More Than a Composition 211

Chapter 29 The Brigadier 222

Chapter 30 One More Grave 232

Chapter 31 A Gathering of Grannies 238

Chapter 32 Graduation Day 249

Afterword 259

Glossary 265

Acknowledgments 267

Help Make a Difference 269