Microfinance Project

Hello Everyone,



Sorry it has been a few weeks since I have written, but I have just been working almost everyday in an effort to make sure that everything I wanted to accomplish before I leave gets finished. I have decided to update you one project at a time in each of the next few blogs and also fill you in on other things I've been up to.

The YOFAFO microfinance project works with Bulumagi village, which is about a 30 minute drive from Lugazi. I think in a past blog I've mentioned it before, but this is an amazing project that is really transforming this village economically. It caters to approximately 75 villagers, about 90 percent of whom are women. Many of these people are HIV/AIDS positive and/or may be widows or single mothers. All of them come from impoverished backgrounds and some of the women even hide the fact that they participate from their husbands. Why would they do this? The reasons may vary, but for some it's because men consider women with money to be dangerous (aka the women become empowered and may become brave enough to leave an unhealthy relationship).

The program offers low-interest micro-loans to villagers, as well as a savings program. First, most of these people do not have collateral to borrow money from the bank because they do not own land or have permanent houses. Therefore, this project offers a form of social collateral to villagers by asking them to come in groups of five (they are told to pick trusted family members and friends) and, together, the group takes out a loan for 500,000 Ugandan Shillings (100,000 each), which equates to roughly $225 ($45 each). They have 20 weeks to pay off the loan (a number decided upon by the members themselves), but if they default it is up to the other four members to pay off that persons debt. Because of this system, members use encouragement, community involvement, and a bit of pressure to make sure that their group members succeed. With each successful pay-off of a loan, the group can apply for another loan, with each member increasing by up to 100,000 each time. As another safety measure, before any person is allowed to take out a loan, they must have saved at least 25 percent of the loan amount requested within the program to prove that if they default, the program will be repaid at least 25 percent. The program has been successfully running now for two and half years and some groups are up to their sixth loan 600,000 UGX each.

And now for the first way that Empower Walk World money has been used....

The microfinance program has two local Ugandan volunteers, Alice and Moses, who record the deposits, withdrawls, and repayments each week on paper for all of the 75 members. At the end of the day, Doreen, my director's wife who is in charge of the microfinance project takes the data home and stores it in folders. She also is supposed to enter the data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, but the YOFAFO computer is rather old and unreliable and it actually does not allow for the external harddrive to be used to store the data. Furthermore, because Doreen had been sick for three months and because she is dependent on volunteers who bring reliable laptops to do the updates, the data was behind by six months. Therefore, one way that the money has been used is by purchasing a small notebook laptop with an extremely long battery life (about seven hours). Now, Doreen can charge the computer at home and take it to the village, that does not have power, to be used for data entry. We are also training the two local volunteers to use Excel. One of the two villagers, Moses, had never even typed on a computer before! So, not only will the microfinance project now have a safe and effecient way to store data, but two villagers are learning a transferable skill.

That's all for now. In the next few days I will update about papermaking activities.

Take care,
Courtney

"He that climbs a ladder must begin at the first rung." - Sir Walter Scott

Banage! (Expression of exasperation)

Hello Everyone,

I feel it is necessary to update my blog considering recent events. Just in case this blog is your only way of keeping up with me, I am safe. Just in case you haven't been keeping up with world news and are wondering why I need to update my safety status, the capital city of Uganda, Kampala, was attacked by suicide bombers on Sunday night. They attacked public venues , such as bars and restaurants, where people had gathered to watch the World Cup Final to, sadistically, kill as many people as possible. I have heard various reports, but there were two or three bombers. The two locations that I have heard of were an Ethiopian restaurants in the Kampala neighborhood of Kabalagala that Robbie, some other volunteers, and I had eaten at two years ago, and another social hotspot called the Rugby Club. The last report I've heard of, 74 people were killed, but somewhere around the same number have been injured.

As for those behind this disgusting attack, it is being speculated that they are Somalians. The member countries of the African Union are currently occupying Somalia and if it weren't for their presence, the capital of Mogadishu would be overtaken by the radical group Al Shabab. The group has threatened to resort to terroristic attacks if the AU does not withdraw its troops. They have already attacked and killed countless aid workers and waged war on the United Nations and Non-Governmental Organizations in Somalia, as well as threatened and carried out attacks in other African nations. They have been threatening Uganda for a long time, so this type of attack was not wholey unexpected.

Basically, I plan to stay out of the capital to the largest extent possible. Luckily, I had visited Kampala on Saturday to do some needed shopping and work for my research, so I don't need to immediately go back. I live in Lugazi, which is 30 miles to the east of Kampala. With road conditions here and the slow state of transport, this seemingly short trip actually takes about two hours, so that means I might as well be 140 miles from there. If you consider that I do work in villages that are further out then that distance grows. In so many words, I am safe--just as safe as if I were in Falmouth, or Lexington, or Caen, or Nottingham, so please do not worry at all about me. Please keep all of the people affected in your hearts, minds, and prayers. President Yoweri Museveni has declared seven days of mourning, but as most of us know from our own experiences with these types of events in our own countries, everyone will be feeling the reverberations for a long time to come.

On other subjects, although maybe not happier ones:

I was sick this past week. My first two and half month trip in Uganda left me with no illnesses, but this time I wasn't so lucky. I had been feeling tired that day and so after lunch I took a short nap [yes, you know me ; ) I like naps!]. I woke up with a sore throat, but I thought that I was maybe catching the cold that has been going around. That evening I was reading in bed and I started to get a really bad case of heart burn. I have rarely ever had heartburn, and it has never been bad, so I thought that maybe my malaria medication had gotten stuck in my throat because it is known to erode the lining in your esophogous (spelling?). When I finally layed down, the feeling sank down into my upper stomach and I was soon have painful cramps. The cramps spread all over my abdomen. Soon, I was having chills. I couldn't sleep from the symptoms and at 2:30 I started getting really hot and sweaty and I went to the bathroom to be sick. This process continued all night and I went from cold to hot, from stomach cramps to vomiting and a running stomach. I felt weak over the next day and because I hadn't slept, I slept most of the day. I didn't have an appetite for a few days, but now I think I have fully recovered. I'm not sure what it was, and it would be hard to know without a blood test, but thankfully it wasn't something serious!

Also, the other volunteer, Angie from Denmark, that is living with me and our Ugandan family, went traveling not this past weekend, but the weekend before. On her way back, she had a 10 hour bus ride, on which she was mostly alone as other volunteers got dropped off at their placement hours before her. When they got off, these men started harrassing her: asking her name, her number, asking her to marry them, etc. She ignored them and made her point clear by taking out her I-pod, putting in her earphones, and turning to stare out the window. We think it was at this point that these men saw in her bag, which contained her I-pod, cell phone, camera, money (about$150 worth), and her passport. When she made it to the capital, she really needed a toilet after 10 hours without one and she still had another 2-3 hours before she would get home, so she got off the bus, walked down the street and asked a nice looking older man if he could help her find one. He took her off the main street, down a side street, and back an alley where there was a trench with a drain and garbage inside where he said she could go. He then left her. We think he was an honest man that had nothing to do with what happened next. As she started to walk out of the alley, three men blocked her in and started pointing to her bag with all of her stuff in it. She asked what they wanted, but they didn't speak English and just pointed to the bag. She kept asking them to tell her what they wanted, but then two of them showed her that they had machetes and so she just gave them her bag and they left. She was so shocked that she didn't go after them and yell "thief" or anything. Because she was in the crowded city, people would have come to her help. Here in Uganda, there is what you call mob justice: if the masses catch you stealing, murdering, or some other major crime, you better hope that the police get to you before they do or else they will often beat you, at a minimum, or even stone you to death or burn you alive. We think they were opportunists from the bus who saw her things and followed her to take them. The fact that they had machetes is actually not very surprising, as a large number of men carry them around as they are all purpose tools for farming, cutting pineapples and other foods, building, hammering, etc.

She made it to the public transport taxis and she told the driver and conductor that she had been robbed and they were very apologetic. They took her all the way to Lugazi for free. She came in shaken, but very strong. To cut a long story short, she visited her embassy in Kampala and they issued her an emergency passport so that she can leave the country when her time comes, which is this week. As for the other things, she will get reimbursed through her traveller's insurance. A very bad experience, but at least she was not hurt and she will get her things taken care of (except of course for her pictures, which is always a bummer).

Overall, this post has been pretty depressing, but I assure you that I have many positive stories to tell and I will hopefully post again within the next few days.

Peace,
Courtney

"Man has burdens, but also shoulders." -Unknown

HIV/AIDS support group, travels, and family

Hello Everyone,

Last week I went to my first meeting with the new HIV/AIDS support group in Bulamagi village and I have to say that I was disappointed. The only man in the group and the only one who speaks English, Nelson, was running the meeting and I felt like he was using his position to take advantage of the others. My director and his wife could not attend because of other last-minute responsibilities, but another YOFAFO employee, Peter who is a social worker, came with us to translate. Nelson started the meeting by saying that the women were late because they are very sick and mornings were bad for them because they had to go to the fields to dig for their food. When they showed up it seemed to me that he was chastising them for being late. He didn't let them speak during the meeting and it was mostly him talking about how the group wanted to do some sort of activity to gain an income and wanting to know how Angie (another volunteer from Denmark) and I were going to help with that. We explained that we knew how to make paper and how it is a relatively inexpensive activity that could be used to make greeting cards, post cards, file folders, photo albums, and journals to sell in craft markets. We said that we were willing to teach them the next week if they were interested. Nelson then was saying how they wanted to make clothing out of African cloth, weave baskets and mats, and learn other things. We explained that all of those things require more start up costs, are more complicated, and would take a lot longer to learn to do and thus longer before they could sell them. During the whole meeting he kept hinting towards the fact that they were very poor and wanted donations to start these projects. Never once did they discuss HIV/AIDS support and awareness. In fact, Nelson emphasized the fact that they should keep their meetings secret because they were scaring off members who were ashamed to tell the community they are infected because of fear and shame. At the end of the meeting when we asked when the group could meet the following week, Nelson didn't even consult the others, he just said that Wednesday mornings were the only time that worked for him, probably because, like he said, the women are not available in the mornings and he is a selfish, deceitful man who wants to learn the economic activities for himself.

Angie and I left very disappointed, but after we talked to Valence we were reinspired. Valence said that he would go to the meeting the following week and tell them that if they wanted to have an HIV/AIDS support group that there would be no hiding because that only prepetuates shame and fear. He said that we would bring in people to lead seminars about breaking down the walls of stigma associated with the disease. We also decided that we would teach papermaking to anyone in the community who wants to learn and that everyone can come to learn and no one will know if htey are HIV positive or not. That way, people can learn the activities and we can have the support group and once the support group has enough confidence, they can come out of the closet and start holding community seminars. In this manner, everyone will benefit from learning a new skill and from learning about HIV/AIDS. As Valence told me, it is suspected that even up to half of the population in this community of 2000 villagers may be infected.

On a side note about this group, one lady who came in late told us that the day before some thugs had entered her home and stolen all of her clothes and food. Now, all the clothes that she has left are the ones on her back. Rose, a woman that Valence and Doreen hire to help do the cooking, cleaning, and laundry because of all of the extra volunteers taht they house, also sells gently used second-hand clothing in local markets. Angie came up with the great idea of benefiting both Rose and this woman from Bulamagi by buying clothes from Rose and donating them to the other lady. I decided to chip in some Empower Walk World money with Angie to help buy clothing. I can't wait to see the expression on this woman's face when we give her the clothes this week!

Over the weekend, three other volunteers, Alison, Stephanie, and Will, and I went on an exciting outing. First, we went to Mabira Forest, which is Uganda's largest national forest, to do trekking. We did a three hour hike where we saw a couple of red-tailed monkeys, a few cool birds, and awesome and enourmous trees. Unfortunately we would have seen more wildlife, but our guide told us that they are more active in the morning and late evening, but we came in the mid-afternoon. Afterward, we went to a place called Ssezibwa Falls. Around this part of Uganda, there are lots of legends surrounding women giving birth to twins, animals, and other abnormal things. One legend surrounding the falls is that a woman was pregnant with twins and when she gave birth, she gave birth to water. The twin waters formed two rivers and the one river leads to this set of falls. In Buganda tradition, the twins receive certain names depending on birth order and if they are male or female. This river has the name Wasswa, which means the older male twin. The river also has another name, I forget, but it means unbroken because the river meanders through the forest and is said to flow in an unbroken path. Because of the lengends about this area, many witch doctors used to have shrines around the falls in small caverns where they would sacrifice eggs, chickens, and other things and do prayers. Although we got to see some of them, now, even though some these practices still exist in the area, I think it is more of tourist attraction around the falls, but you get the general idea of what it might have been like. Sorry that I cannot add pictures anymore, but I do not have my camera cable and I had been borrowing one from another volunteer, but she has left for home now. Hopefully another person will come with my same type of camera because the pictures are great!

Curious about the legends, I asked Doreen what she knows about them. Even though Doreen is highly intelligent, holds strong Christian beliefs, and holds a Bachelor's degree in Development Studies, she says that she has heard so many accounts of people having witnessed someone give birth to twins, one being human and the other being a snake or leopard, that she tends to believe that it is possible. It is amazing how strong this tradition is, even though I don't believe it and it seems far fetched, but one volunteer posed a good question: Is it any more far fetched than people in our own society that whole-heartedly believe in aliens, ghosts, or magic?

Speaking of Doreen, I should tell you about my family and where I live. I do have pictures that I had already saved to my computer before that other volunteer left, so the photos you see above are from my first couple of weeks. So I told you about Doreen's education, but let me tell you a little more about her. She is 30 years old and she is pregnant with her second child. She was pregnant with their son Joe the last time I was here. Both times she has suffered through terrible morning sickness, but she is so strong that she gets through it like a champ. She comes from a family which is better off than most because she is lucky to have educated parents. Her dad is a radiologist and her mother is a midwife. She is really like my sister here. She teaches me about traditional cooking and culture and she even helps me learn some Luganda when she is not too busy. She is also just a great friend to hang out with. She really keeps the house running smoothly and she makes sure her volunteers are taken care of. Valence is her husband and the director and founder of YOFAFO. He just turned 33 yesterday and I baked him a cake, which is a feat since they do not have ovens here and I had to create a Dutch oven to cook with. He also has his Bachelor's degree in Development Studies. Valence had a harder life than Doreen. His father died in a tragic accident when he was only 9 years old. While walking through Mabira forest, during the reign of dictator Idi Amin, he came accross some villagers who were logging illegally. Some soldiers of Amin's regime were patrolling through the forest and when the loggers heard them they took off running. Because his dad had no reason to run, he did not, but he was shot without question when the soldiers saw him. The men who had been logging felt guilty and so when the soldiers passed they came back to help Valence's father, but they could not get him to the hospital in time. Tragically, his mother also passed away when he was only 14 and so Valence was left an orphan. By this time though, Valence had already developled a love of learning, a strong character, and deep morals from his family. His uncle helped support him and he eventually went to unversity where he met Doreen. He started YOFAFO in 2005 from his vision of helping youth like himself. You can read more about his organization on their website at http://www.yofafo.org/. Valence and Doreen have a son, Joshua (Joe), who is now one and a half. Doreen is due in November and we are hoping it is twins because her stomach is much bigger at this point than it was with Joe.

Above I have posted pictures of the family and of the home where they live and where I am staying. It is modest by any American or European standard, but they are much, much luckier than the bulk of the country. Here are some statistics that might help you understand how much better off they are: the average family has about 7 children, the average age in Uganda is 15, life expectancy is 52 years of age, and the average person lives on about $1 per day. The national statistics say that the rate of HIV/AIDS infection is about 7% of the population, but they have not reported in about 10 years out of fear that numbers will have risen. Many suspect that they rate may be 10% or more and in certain areas even higher. Anyway, our home has three bedrooms, one shared by Valence, Doreen and their son, the other two are for volunteers. My room is the bottom one shown, the other volunteer room is the second and the family bedroom is the third on top. We also have running water most of the time, but I still take a "shower" from a bucket and electricity is on most of the time. We also have a flush, sit-down toilet as long as the water is running. The kitchen is detached from the house and we cook over a small clay stove about the size of a big kitchen pot, which is fueled by coal. We also have a mini fridge! The storage room is divided in two with a papyrus mat to give room for an office and we have a living room with an old television that picks up some of the main Ugandan stations. I really am spoiled by normal standards!

Until next time,

Courtney

"The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief." - William Shakespeare

Katugendde! Let's go!

Hello Everyone,

This past week was a very positive week for me as I figured out a more specific work plan. I am very excited to get to work on many things.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was hoping to work in the village where the piglet project is because I had been very close to the women there. I also mentioned that the group had kind of fallen apart because of major setbacks in their projects and that I was hoping to work with them to start up their projects again. However, after talking to Valence, my director, we have decided that this may not be the best approach. Valence says that to rebuild trust, create firm foundations with a strong plan for YOFAFO in that village, and to reelect a council it could take a year. In the beginning stages of this long process, he didn't think that it would be a good idea to bring in a foreign volunteer because it can make them think that I am there to solve all of their problems and that I will be a sort of magic wand, which of course I am no such thing, and so it would not be building a strong community effort and commitment. He thought that it is most important to let YOFAFO be the catalyst and the local community propel the program forward and then, maybe after the year it would be a good idea to bring in a volunteer for encouragement and new ideas.

At the Children's Village last Monday morning I was able to teach a really fun lesson on animals with the P2 class (children around the age of 8). I had them teach me the Luganda words for different animals and they taught me how to spell these words. Then we talked about how animals move (hope, gallop, swim, fly, etc.) and played animal charades to demonstrate the movements. At the end, I read them a book about Elmer the elephant and they were so attentive and excited. The traditional style of teaching in Uganda is called rote learning, which basically means that teachers write on the board and students copy and memorize, or they say things out loud and students repeat it over and over agian until it is memorized. Therefore, any unique ways of teaching are very important for expanding their minds and showing them new ways of thinking. For example, instead of saying frogs hop, horses gallop, monkeys climb, etc. and having the kids write that over and over or say it out loud over and over, you can play charades to teach the same idea. It's also good for kinesthetic learners and it teaches drama/acting and physical activity. There are many simple things like this that we take for granted in our schools, but in other parts of the world the techniques may be unheard of.

One little girl I noticed had a rash from head to toe that I suspected was a side-effect of HIV, but I wanted to check to see if it was something else that could possibly be treated easily. I was told though that it was HIV and that her parents could probably not afford the ARV medication (with ARV's people can hope to live a full, productive life). I asked how many students were HIV positive and the answer is that no one knows. I asked about testing the students and I was told that without paying for proper counceling and medical treatment, it's like telling someone that they have a deadly cancer, but not offering them any counceling or medical treatment....it's a death sentence with no hope for a cure, unless you can get the ARVs.

I have also started working on an application to help YOFAFO get more international volunteers. As their programs expand, so will the need for more ideas, more support, and more income, all of which are supplied by volunteers because they pay a program fee and they offer a positive attitude and new ways of doing things. Besides that, other office work for me includes creating a Facebook group for YOFAFO that highlights their projects and especially children at the school that are in need of sponsors. I also do record keeping on the computer for the micro-finance program.

Soon we will be starting work with an HIV/AIDS support group. This group was formed by a recent volunteer from Jackson, Mississippi in the USA who is HIV positive. Here, there is a lot of stigma and shame associated with the illness, even if you contracted it from your mother during birth, got it from a blood transfusion, or were infected from a partner who was not faithful to you. All of these cases can not be helped, as opposed to premiscuous sexual activity or sharing drug needles, but people still feel a deep sense of shame. They also feel like their life is over because they do not realize that, with proper treatment, they can lead normal lives.

This group is coming together to work as a type of social support system, but they are also looking to learn some sort of trade so that they can generate an income for their families. From my own art projects in middle and high schools, from knowledge of other volunteers, and from a bit of internet research, we are going to start training this group, and possibly others, in handi-craft making, which they can then sell to tourists, volunteers, and in local markets. For example, over the next couple of weeks we are going to teach papermaking. With the handmade paper, they can press flowers into it to make a beautiful wall hanging or they can construct useful items such as folders, photo albums, and journals. Later, we hope to move on to things such as candle-making, soap-making, and weaving. The last three are often done locally anyway, but we are looking for unique ways to do them so that they are marketable to a wider consumer group, such as international fair-trade organizations. For example, you can add beautiful flowers and spices to candles or you can use local weaving techniques to make table mats. There are many possibilities and we are searching for ways to market these items.

I have also had a great start to the lending library at Buwele High School. So far, I have purchased 40 books with Empower Walk World money (I nearly wiped out this small book store of all of its novels!) and I am waiting to purchase more. First, I want to make sure that the check-out system is working properly and I have the current selection organized with the old-fashioned check-out cards (remember that time before computers?). I also want to make sure that students are using them and taking care of them properly. I will find out on Friday if any have been checked out over the past week. Hopefully I will be purchasing more this weekend and continually over the summer.

I met a very interesting person in a public bus on they way out of Nkokonjeru village to Mukono town, which is about a one and a half hour bus ride over holey dirt roads. He is a Ugandan man named Abdul who has a degree in micro-finance and he works in a village micro-finance project. He is also passionate about traditional African music and he works with two youth groups to teach them to play traditional African instruments. I have exchanged contact details with him and I am hoping to visit his project sometime in the coming weeks. Hopefully it is a legitimate project (at least so far he hasn't asked me for money or a plane ticket out of the country, so that is positive), but I plan to visit with either some local people that I know and trust or other volunteers. I am just excited to see some rural village kids play some great music!

That's all for now. I am going to help Doreen prepare supper: chapatti (a flatbread introduced by Indians), pork stew, ground-nut sauce and fresh mangoe and pineapple for dessert. Yum!

Courtney

"We're not as good as we're going to be, but we saw some things that give us an idea of what we might do." "We'll have more to talk about in a couple of weeks, really. At this point it's all conjecture, but in a few weeks we'll know more about what's possible and what we need to work on." - Dan Rohrs

Planning my work and starting research

Hello Everyone,

Instead of going back and recounting every last detail of my trip, I will simply go over some of the highlights, so that I can talk about more current things.

On Tuesday I returned to the Children's Village, where I observed a Primary grade 6 (P6) English lesson. I also did some work for a new project idea that YOFAFO has had: starting a Facebook page which not only advertises their organization, but also tries to find sponsors for school children. For this project, I interviewed (with the help of the head master Benon) five students who are already sponsored to find out about how they are doing in school, about their family, and how their sponsor is helping them and I also took their pictures. Then I asked for Benon to select a student still in need of a sponsor that I could also interview and take his picture. On the Facebook page we plan to do something like show the pictures of the five students who are already sponsored and tell a bit about them and then show the picture of the student in need and show his picture. Once we find a sponsor for that student, we will move his picture and story to the sponsored group and find a new student to take his place. One highlight of my day was befriending a teacher named JoAnn. It is often difficult to make friends with the teachers, but JoAnn and I walked together after school to catch a bus home and she was very kind and talkative.

On Wednesday, I got to go back to the village of Bulamagi where YOFAFO runs a micro-finance program. I was so thrilled to see that it is still going strong with community members taking out small loans to invest in an income-generating activity, repaying loans with interest, and setting money aside in a savings account. Some people have even repaid their first and even second loans and have moved on to a second or third loan. It is so inspiring to see villagers come each week, with their maybe 1,500 Ugandan shillings (roughly equal to 70 US cents) and put it into a savings account. With such modest savings for such simple goals, like sending their children to school, it really gives you some prespective on life.

At the end of the week I went to Nkokonjeru village to Buwele Memorial High School. This is the school where Robbie volunteered a teacher in 2008 for six months. This is a very isolated village, but the 45 minute boda-boda (motorcycle) ride there is stunning and completely worth it because you get to drive through sugar cane plantations and then through thick forests, small trading posts, and very rural villages! There is another way to get there, by public bus, but it takes more than double the time and maybe only saves a US 50 cents or even less. I was welcomed very warmly and I was fed in one day what I would normally eat in two days. I had five meals in 24 hours! This is the school where I will be doing my research. I will be developing a lending library there and trying to measure the impact that it has on the school.

On Friday afternoon, after I was finished with the part of my research that could be done, the head master at Buwele, Moses, invited me to visit the cocoa plantation that his family owns. It was very interesting to see the trees, taste the seeds of the cocoa plant (not at all like chocolate! They have a hard center covered by a gooey white membrane and you can suck on the sweet membrane like candy and spit out the pit), see how they ferment the seeds and then leave them in the sun to dry. They are then shipped to other countries that use the dried seeds to make chocolate. Some of the family land is also used by the school to teach agriculture. Crops that are grown are used to provide food to the students, especially the boarding students.

We walked up to a large group of people sitting around, the men seperated from the women, and I just assumed that they were the plantation workers taking a break. After doing the customary Luganda greetings, one woman continued to speak to me in Luganda, but I could not understand, so I asked Moses what I should say back to her. He told me and I said it and then I asked what it meant. He said it means, "I am sorry for your loss." Little did I know that a big reason for going to the plantation that day was to go to a funeral. The woman pointed behind me and I turned to discover that the blanket on the ground behind me had the shape of a man's body beneath it. A plantation worker had died the day before and it is custom that everyone in the village, whether you know the deceased or not, goes to the funeral and burial to pay their respects. Because this man was poor and did not have any family he was buried on the plantation and the funeral process was simplified and did not include any of the traditional wailing that the wife, mother and daughters normally do. We just simply walked out into the bush and it was mainly the saying of a few prayers and singing. One tradition that was carried on was the waiting. It is very normal that any major Ugandan function, whether it be a funeral, marriage, village meeting, etc. start late, very late, sometime even hours late, from the scheduled time. Overall, I felt very out of place, being the only white person and having everyone staring at me, especially children who said the normal "Bye muzungu. How are you?". Muzungu means foreigner and instead of hi they always say bye. I just tried to stay as far in the back as possible. But, as I learned, funerals are so common place, that besides the immediate family and friends, they tend to be very informal. There were babies crying, children laughing, adults whispering, and even mobile phones ringing. Leslie told me that it doesn't matter if I had some peoples' attention, the important part is that I went and participated with the rest of the village. As we left, a local fish seller on his bicycle stopped and honked his strange sounding, clown-like horn to notify the villagers that he was there with his fish to sell. Life had already moved on.

Courtney

"For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity." -William Penn

Kulikayo. Welcome Back.

Hello everyone,

It has taken me a week, but I have finally been able to purchase wireless internet, so it will be very simple now to update my blog. My first week passed quickly, so I will give you a brief overview of what has happened.

The first night I stayed in Backpackers Hostel and the next day the owner, Frank, drove me to Mukono. I was so thrilled to make the aquaintance of this man-- he is probably the most unique Ugandan that I have ever met--he is a Buddhist engineer! We had a wonderful conversation and it really started my trip out on the right foot.

As I said in my last blog, the first day I got to see Leslie, which was rad, as we like to say here. The next day Lee came to see me and it was great to reconnect with her as well. I spent most of the day at the Mukono guesthouse with a volunteer named Vanessa from Florida. She was sick with Typhoid, apparently the vaccination doesn't stop you from getting a mild form of it (which involves a high temperature, vomiting, and a running stomach--WOO HOO!). Her and her friend Chelsea, also from Florida, were heading back home in about a week, but I was happy to meet them because they were both fun girls. I met a lot of volunteers who were in from the villages for the weekend. There are a lot of interesting people from all over the world. Angie is a Danish girl who is living in the same house with me, Chris is Australian, Naimh and Kim are Canadian, Beth and Sheena are from New Zealand, Anna is from Portugal, and Steven, Stephanie, Adam, Phil, Megan, and Jason are American (please forgive me if I left anyone out but there are so many!) My friend Dustyn (a volunteer from Tennessee that I met on my first trip) was also back and it was amazing to see him. He is volunteering in the north of Uganda where he started his own organization called CreatED Uganda (check it out online!)

On Sunday Valence picked me up and took me to Lugazi to where I live with him and his wife Doreen and their son Joe. It has been amazing to see them and spend time catching up. Doreen was pregnant with Joe when I was here the last time, so it has been a new experience having a baby around the house. He is one and half now and is running around and babbling. He says words in Luganda and in English. Sometimes I think he is just babbling, but then Doreen tells me that he is saying something in Luganda.

On Monday I went to the Children's Village, which is the primary school where I volunteer. It was great to see the school and some of the kids. On the plus side, the school has expanded very much since my last trip, thanks to the donations of volunteers, and most of the temporary classroom structures that were just made of stick and boards nailed together have been torn down and replaced with brick structures that have concrete floors. This makes the learning environment much more agreeable and now when it rains it doesn't flood the classes out, except for the two that still are in temporary structures. On the downside, a lot of the children that I knew are no longer at the school. Of course some of them are too old to be there now and have moved on to secondary school, and some of them have moved schools, but I know that a lot of them have been forced to drop out because their family cannot afford to send them to school. Out of a class of 25 kids for example that were in the fifth grade during my last trip, and should therefore now be in seventh grade, there were only 8 remaining.

After that visit we made a stop at one of my favorite villages called Buyenje, which literally means cockroach. I made a very quick and close relationship with the people there the last time and they even held a feast and traditional dance where I was the guest of honor during my last trip. All of the villages I work with are quite rural, but this one in particular is more isolated than most. To get there you have to turn off the main road and take really rough dirt roads, until you finally turn off the road all together and you better either be walking or in a four-wheel drive or else you wouldn't get there because the village is in the middle of the trees on the side of an enourmous hill. I got to see a few of the ladies that I knew, but because the visit was unexpected, many were not there.

I was disappointed to find that the village women's group was not operating as usual. The way it works is that The Youth Focus Africa Foundation (YOFAFO) goes to villages that are interested in their empowerment projects. In this village, the women had elected a council of women leaders to observe the needs of the community and listen to villagers about what their needs are. They then would pick a project and raise some money to start it up, along with money from YOFAFO. They may not be able to put in much, but their participation empowers them by putting them in charge and making them partially financially reponsible.

One project that they had been working on was a piglet project. Women who were interested in having a piglet would notify the council of their interest and based on how many piglets there were to give, they would pick the women based on need and responsiblity and give them a piglet. They would then raise the pig until it was old enough to breed. When that pig has piglets they would give one to the breeder as a payment, give some back to the village to expand the project, and keep one or two to expand their own project and sell one or two for income. Another major project they were working on was building a community center where they could meet hold village meetings and events, and organize their projects. Villagers had come together to clear the land and put up the skeleton of the building with local materials, such as wood from local trees. After putting in the man power, YOFAFO saved money to invest in iron sheets for roofing. Eventually money was planned to be saved to brick the walls. Unfortunately, after the villagers had put up the structure, the person selling the land, which was a relative of the president of the women's council, decided he did not want to sell the land after all. This was a crushing blow to the project as everyone had saved money and put in so much manual labor. This also made them loose confidence in their president. The whole operation was put on indefinite hold.

Now that I am back, and very passionate about getting their project up and running again, Valence and I are talking about the feasability of restarting the program there in Buyenje from the ground up. It will take a lot of trust and a lot of discussion, but I am quite excited to get to work on it.

That's all for now, but now that I have internet, I will be able to update more often.

Take care,
Courtney

"Progress. It's two steps forward and one step back."

I've landed!

Hello Everyone,

I have landed safe and sound. I have been reunited with Lee and Leslie and Esther (the Ugandan woman who runs the guesthouse) and it was wonderful to meet them! Spent my first day with Leslie and two other volunteers doing some work in Buikwe village. Besides that, the electricity has been out until now and the internet is slow. I will try to blog again soon. Am off to Lugazi tomorrow to my placement. I cannot wait to see my host family, Valence, Doreen and their son Joe! I have missed them so much.

That's all for now,
Courtney

Preparing to leave....

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!

Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 9th 2010, I will be leaving England in route for Uganda. The first leg of my trip involves a bus trip from Nottingham to London, where I will take a plane to the Netherlands at 20:25 and it will land in Amsterdam at 22:35. I will be sleeping in the airport in my sleeping bag for the 12 hour 25 minutes layover. Compared to my last three day adventure of getting to Uganda, which took me on three planes and a bus through four countries, I will be content to snuggle down in the comfort of that one airport! On Thursday, June 10th I will board my next flight at 11:00 and it will touch down at the airport in Entebbe, Uganda at 19:50 local time.

At this point I will be met by a pre-arranged taxi that will drive me to a hostel in Entebbe called Backpackers, where I have reserved a dorm bed for the night. The following morning, Friday the 11th a taxi will take me to Mukono where I will be dropped off at The Real Uganda volunteer guesthouse to be reunited with my old friends from my last trip, the directors of The Real Uganda, Leslie, a Canadian woman, and Lee a woman from Montana, USA. I will spend the weekend here, settling in, buying some necessitites, and making a trip to the capital Kampala. On Sunday the 13th, Valence, a Ugandan man who is the director of The Youth Focus Africa Foundation (YOFAFO) and husband of the couple I lived with during my last trip will pick me up in Mukono and we will head to Lugazi (where they live and where I will be living). It is here where I will get to see Doreen, his wife, again, and their son Joshua. Doreen was pregnant with Joshua during my last trip and so I am very excited to meet him for the first time. I am also thrilled to meet all of my old friends once again. Although I have stayed in touch over the past two years, nothing can be better being together in person! During that weekend I will have interent access in Kampala and Mukono and so I will be able to update my blog.

During this trip I will be volunteering in the two villages where I did most of my work the last time. The first is what we call the Children's Village. That is not the real name of the village, but there is a primary school there with children from pre-school age through the 7th grade. I will be working here once again teaching lessons. With the little ones, I plan to do a unit on animals. With the middle age groups I will be doing lessons on health and hygiene. For the oldest students, we will be doing a unit on the environment. I will also be doing some very basic first aid in the school clinic. The second YOFAFO village I plan to work with is named Buyenje, which literally means cockroach. At this village YOFAFO has established a piglet project and other sustainable development projects, which are overseen by a council of women. This council was elected by the women themselves and they assess the needs of the village and decide which projects they want to undertake. I will be working with this council and other villagers on their projects and possibly teaching some lessons.

I will also be teaching at another school called Buwele Memorial High School located in Nkokonjeru village. This is the village where Robbie was placed during his six month volunteer placement and where he taught English, History, and other subjects, as well as coached the school football (soccer) team. I made many visits to his school during my last trip and I am very excited to get to teach at Buwele because there is less of a language barrier, making teaching and getting to know the students a lot easier.

Within the volunteering, I will be making investments for Empower Walk World. For those of you who don't know, Empower Walk did a 200 mile walk across Kentucky to raise money for sustainable development and empowerment projects. Although we are waiting to speak to those I will be working with before final decisions are made about how most of the money will be spent to ensure that their interests are being met, we plan to use some of the money to establish a small lending library at both schools. We are also considering sponsoring a woman that works in a women's group to be trained to become a seamstress. If she is trained she will be able to train other women in her village, thus spreading the knowledge and allowing more women to become seamstresses and make a living for their families.

I applied and was chosen to receive a $2000 research grant from the University of Kentucky. In brief, my research project involves interviewing students about their educational experiences, doing creative exercises with them, and observing their test scores. After the students have been exposed to the lending libraries, I will re-evaluate them both at the end of the summer and months down the road to see if their exposure to books and other resources have improved their academic performance.

In addition to working, I will of course be traveling and meeting new people, both Ugandan and other volunteers from all over the world. Robbie will be joining me in Uganda at end of July since his school year does not end until then.

Well, I look forward to updating you all on my summer as I complete my 13 month trip abroad in France, England, and Uganda. Take care!

Peace,
Courtney

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain