Sweet Gig

(Orphan caretakers in the field)

(on the way to work)

(the sugar cane fields next to my house)

(sugar from the factory)
So I realized besides my previous post I haven’t really explained what I am actual working on here in Uganda. So what am I doing? Hunting lions and fair-trade fur exporting. . . .
Okay, really, I am doing an internship with a local nonprofit called KORD, Kakira Outgrowers Rural Development. KORD is a unique partnership between the Kakira Sugar Works factory and the farmers, basically each entity gives a certain amount of money to the organization based on how many tons of sugar cane are brought to the factory. In exchange, KORD focuses on improving the life of the outgrowers (farmers and families) within a 30km radius of the factory through various projects. Most of the 30km catchment area is only accessible by rural, damaged dirt roads and contains 16 sub-counties with numerous vulnerable children, farmers and households who are dependent on the crops and live in poverty. KORD works on the following projects: orphans and vulnerable children projects, malaria prevention, construction of schools, rebuilding of rural roads, solid waste management in the villages, diary improvement through create of feed, construction of a fuel station, a farmer’s loan project, income generating activities workshops, school scholarship fund for orphans, water purification and access and installation of improved cookstoves.

The main project in which I will be using my seed grant and focusing on is the installation of improved cookstoves. Mostly all of the population in the peri-urban and rural areas of Uganda still use wood burning or charcoal stoves to do all of their cooking. As you can imagine there are numerous consequences by using these type of natural resources and form of cooking on a daily basis, such as destruction of forests for firewood, dramatically poor health from smoke, increased pollution, inefficient burning and cooking times, burns and fires from stove accidents, etc. There is currently a large push in India and Africa to replace the stoves with more efficient ones and the possibility of biogas. As a result, KORD has received a nice grant from AFREPREN to facilitate a pilot project of installing 8 improved institutional cook stoves in 6 schools in the outgrowers’ catchment area where vulnerable/orphans attend. I will be facilitating this project and grant. (more details to come!) I will also be working on assisting with the orphans and vulnerable children projects which include handing out schools supplies, paying school fees, facilitating a sports and psycho-social support event, and helping caretakers with income generating activities. In addition to writing grants for more projects, helping improve the website, recruit volunteers and develop a fundraising program.

The office is nice due to its partnership with the factory and they have a nice consistent source of funding and several successful grants, but there are only two main staff and an infinite amount of need from the outgrowers. There is lots of work to be done and I am busily working between the office and the field. I will give updates as they come.

Jerry Can

I can safely say that at least half of my immediate family has the website gizmodo on their internet browers’s “favorites” list. If they continue to have articles with life saving, ingenious ideas like this,
http://gizmodo.com/5129971/solvatten-solar-jerrycan-purifies-water-using-nothing-but-sunshine
then maybe I will bookmark it too.

The organization I am working with has created an agreement with the organization Solvatten to distribute a trial sample in the surrounding villages. I am going to help them find and write a grant so we can have money to purchase them. I hope to see some of those yellow cans, replaced by black cans with a sunburst on the side.

Sharp End of the Stick

(coloring with some of the kids, Patience is on the left)

The amount of kids who flow in out of the house I live in is impossible to count. Just when you think you got a firm grasp of who actually sleeps there, another one joins the bunch and one disappears. Neighborhood kids are particularly habitual about coming over to stare at me. One day as I was sitting on the couch a little girl, Patience, came up and sat right next to me. Continuing to read, no longer was an option. So I pulled out some paper and we began to color. She was attempting to use a pencil that was determined to remain unusable. I remember I had a pack of brightly colored unused pencils sitting in my bag that my coworkers so lovingly gave to me. I went into my room and grabbed a nice purple one and brought it out. However, Patience is quicker than me, while I was gone she had run home and returned a few minutes later with a brand new, plastic razor blade wrapped in paper and sent from Japan. Seeing my new pencil, she opened up the package and handed the razor to me. I had to admit, I had no idea how to use it. So she grabbed it, sharpened her own pencil and went back to drawing. I picked up the sharpener, and mimicking the 7 year old’s actions, sharpened my very own pencil by hand for the first time. Satisfied with my slow handy work, I carved a “P” on the side of the pencil and gave it to Patience for teaching me how to sharpen a pencil at the age of 25.

Gossip Around the Water Cooler

I know some of you do not read the Book of Mormon. And these verses may not be the typical introduction, but they do embody what is valuable about the BOM, that in the simplest of lines you find meaning you did not expect.

Alma 8:14-32, particularly verse 27

You can find the verses here, but I will summarize. In this chapter, Alma is on his way back to the city to once again preach the word of God, when he meets Amulek. Faithful Amulek, instantly knew that he was the man of God that he is suppose to nourish him. So he did just that. For several days, these two great men tarried together in the home of Amulek before setting off to the city to do the Lord’s work. There is no detail about what went on in those few days. But in the progress to do the most important task of sharing the gospel these two men took a few days to linger. Without explanation, I am sure there were many significant reasons why.
I am always in a hurry. My body and body functions on ultimate capacity. I start my day early, make lists and go from place to place. Like at home, each morning, I wake up very early and run. Each day I run by several watering holes where all types of people in the village come with colored jerry cans to get water for their every day needs. As I run by they stare and as I run back I see individuals straining to carry them the distance to their home. The other day, I saw a older skinny man in black rain boots carry two jugs, one in each hand, 30 feet, stop. Then, go back 30ft. and pick up one jug and carry it the 30ft to meet the other two. Then pick up the other two and repeat the process. I stopped and stood there, contemplating my limited time and my desire to finish the last ½ mile to my house. For once I was the one staring. Then I put my ipod in its plastic bag and walked over to the man and picked up the one jerry can. I then followed him up the dirt hill, down the ditch, along the road, through the alley of mud houses and to his front door. There were no words exchanged beyond an acknowledgement and directional grunting. At his house, his son came out brushing his teeth, laughing.
“Hello! Thank you
“No problem, have a nice day.”
I walked the rest of the way home and did not look at my watch.
This is not a big or unusual act and Ugandans do things like this every day. Ugandans take life at a good pace and maybe with good reason. I like the opportunity to become a little more Ugandan each day.

Window Seat

(the view from the back of the bus, which is about the size of VW van, and filled with 19+ people)

If you have ever seen the movie "Winged Migration" you can understand how amazing it is to have a bird's eye view and travel right alongside their wings. I am not nearly as agile as our feathered friends and do not have an award winning camera crew following me around, but I thought you might like to get a muzungo eye view of getting to and from my village.

It starts with a walk on foot, then cruises with a boda boda on wheels, squeezes into a taxi van, and sometimes on lazy days ends with a perch on the back of a bicycle.

Household Sex Talk

(my front yard)
Yes, I just used the “s” word and like most advertisements it is in an effort to lure you into reading this. Is it working?

At home in Denver, Brandon and I choose to use sponges as our household cleaning tool. We are not particular with brands and usually end up with the cheapest value pack. We do prefer to get the kind that has one rough side for scrubbing and a gentle absorbent side to give our dishes a good guy/bad guy kind of love. I know some of you are appalled at the idea of sponges (Amber). And trust me, I am the reason people criticize them, the length of time we continue to use the sponge before we finally succumb to the fact that it is now actually just spreading bacteria on our dishes instead of cleaning them is embarrassing. Aside from this, I think sponges have gotten an unnecessary bad rep. There is something exhilarating about ripping open the package and pulling out a brightly colored, virgin sponge. Unknowingly, its rough side ready to rumble, the soft side quick to absorb soap. When a guest comes over and sees an unspotted sponge sitting next to the faucet, there is no shame, it is as if dirt doesn’t even exist in your house. Yes, there really is something charming about a virgin sponge.

I can confidently say that I am not that kind of sponge. I have reached a point where I am honestly comfortable and enjoy living abroad, not because I like adding colorful visas to my passport or because I think I will be able to save people; but because I like new communities and the challenge of adaptation. I have reached a point where I go into restaurants, bathrooms and take transportation and notice the reaction of foreigners around me. Sometimes they are amazed and/or appalled by the standards and habits. I am not. I don’t say this with a cocky air or with the assumption that most people are sheltered, but mainly out of a subtle, surprising, personal insight. I have honestly reached a point where doing this is natural for me. The situation is new but my level of comfort is not. I am able to connect and relax with my host family and prefer being away in the village, which is allowing me to take full advantage of my time here.

However, there is a slight sadness to this newly recognized development. There is a certain kind of excitement and willingness to soak it all in when you are a virgin traveler that you just can’t get back. Though I am happy to be a ‘been around the sink sort of gal’, and do not think I will ever stop being amazed or curious, every once in awhile I wish I was that bright little yellow sponge sitting next to the faucet.

Trading Spaces

For those of you who have done similar expeditions as the one I am embarked on or have been to Uganda or have travelled quite often, I hope this blog does not become lackluster. I am trying to find a way to explain the smaller details to the unfamiliar while providing a more substantial content for those who may be looking for more beyond stories of held orphans and the wonder of how people live (neither of which I look down on or am oppose to just try not to subscribe to). On that note I am going to talk about where I live.

I arrived at my host family on Tuesday evening. Anytime you enter a new living situation, there is a bit of harbored uncertainty. The drive to my house began with a 10km car ride from Jinja to a township called Kakira. As we turned off the main road, we head up a long straight pristine hilled road lined with gigantic shady trees and not a bit of trash (RARE). We then passed through two guarded gates, passing a horse corral, an air strip, expanses of sugar cane fields, and immaculately landscaped flower beds. I was beginning to wonder just where I was. Then we came to a round-about which perfectly captures the polarization that is Kakira and explained everything. On one side is a typical African village with dirt roads, roaming livestock, multitudes of people living in small homes and rickety structures, alongside markets and trash. On the other side is a high functioning sugar cane factory open in 1985 which is owned by several East Indian gentlemen, then on the final side is the large properties and facilities in which the owners of the factory spend a portion of their time. As we left the road and entered the village, the reason the factory is able to function is apparent, lots of cheap labor and a vast amount of picturesque sugar cane fields. Atop a hill, next to the mosque at the far end of the village is where my home is. I entered the home I was immediately greeted with laughter and cake. I decided I much preferred my village to the clean roads and riding horses.

My host family is full of spirit. I was beginning to doubt if I would be able to do with Ugandans the one thing I love most- laughing and grinning, particularly of the full-hearted kind. But I think there was an unseen hand in my placement. My family loves laughing and teasing. William is the host brother and is apparently the mover and shaker of town. I am sure everyone knows this guy, he is everywhere, knows everyone, has a hand in everything, but no one is quite sure what he actually does. William’s sister Annette is a very smart woman who owns her own school and loves to talk books and funny things. The head of the house is Josephine who I call maama. She is a farmer, mother of 10 children, wants to learn more English but talks to me in Lugandan and is convinced that I don’t eat enough, ever. There are also a handful of younger children who are in and out but never particularly constant in the home. As to be expected of me, one of the best features is the fact one of the older boys likes to run and joins me every morning at 6am. Though I normally like to run solo, a personal guided tour of the area by a handsome young fit African guy is a good substitute for solitary. (picture- right my brother, left his friend didas)

The house itself is a bit nicer than usual. I have my own room with my own wash bucket and mosquito net. There is a kitchen and family room with a 10in TV that apparently only plays Indian shows. A couple of other rooms and then another section of quarters behind the house. We have cows, chickens, goats, lizards, plenty of ants and mosquitoes and several neighbors who like to come look at the muzango (white person). I am fairly positive that I am the only muzang in the lives in the entire village or even 20km area. And trust me Ugandans are not shy at ensuring I am aware of this fact.