Five things I’m thankful for

Happy Turkey Day!

I’m sure many of you have the tradition of going around the table on Thanksgiving and each saying something that you’re thankful for. Here’s several of my somethings this Turkey Day.

This year at Thanksgiving I’m thankful for:
1.) God’s provision and love for me. Through some bumps in the road this past year, His presence has been a really crucial constant.

2.) This opportunity here in Uganda, doing something I really care about and enjoy. Also for the skills and experiences I’m gaining here.

3.) All of you. For what you’ve meant in my life, and for the moral and financial support you have provided to get me here to Masaka.

4.) My family, for their love and support, and for the new niece or nephew on the way!

5.) New friends here, including the other interns and folks at church. It takes an experience to a whole new level when you have great people to share it with.


Image- I was letting some of the boys at Buddukiro play with Microsoft Paint, so I decided to have some retro Thanksgiving fun myself!

Snapshots from daily life: #3

I realize I’ve never formally introduced you to the food here. So here is a pic of a typical lunchtime meal. It is ‘mix’ with sauce. Here the sauce is beans. You can also get gnut (peanut), meat, or fish. The mix usually consists of various starches, including matooke (made from plantain steamed in banana leaves, the staple food here), posho (made from maize flour), and rice.

The other pic you see was taken near Masaka market, and it shows matooke as it looks fresh off the tree. You see people carting it all over the place on heavily-laden bicycles or trucks. People here call matooke ‘food’, and don’t feel as if they’ve really eaten unless the meal includes matooke. They always seem very surprised to hear we don’t have it back home!










In terms of my usual meal schedule, here’s what a typical day might look like:
* Breakfast: A mug of tea, a mug of millet porridge, a butter sandwich, a boiled egg, and if my host mom forces me, a banana or plate of greens or beans.
Morning tea: Tea (as always with whole milk and like 4 teaspoons of sugar!) and a snack (such as samosa, banana pancake, or fried cassava)
* Lunch: Rice and beans. I never choose to take matooke at lunch if I can avoid it. Once per day is enough!
* Afternoon tea: Tea with either another butter sandwich or a chapatti (like a tortilla)
* Just wanted to interject and say that I'm starting to feel like a Hobbit here...must take a break from fighting evil for elevensies...
* Dinner: matooke, rice, or potatoes with greens, fresh avocado, and some kind of sauce, and my favorite- passion juice (made fresh from half orange/half passion fruit, water, and lots of sugar!)

Although I sometimes just crave a good slice of pizza, I can’t complain overall. Everything is boiled to within an inch of its life, which kills germs, and it’s about as fresh as you can get (as in, beans just out of the pod and bananas just off the tree!)

Update on what I'm up to

So I thought I’d post a little more about what’s been occupying my week days. Here’s a look at my usual schedule. I’m enjoying it so far!

Typical Day
I usually leave home around 8:00am for the 25-30 minute walk/ride into Buddukiro. The weeks vary a little, but usually on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays I’ll go direct to Masaka, and on Tuesdays and Fridays I’ll start off at the Nyendo Center and head to Masaka after lunch. Before arriving at the center, I often start with outreach, which basically means walking up and down the streets to pass by the corners where the boys gather and encourage them to come to the centers.

The two sites are really different. Whereas the Nyendo boys are younger, very regular attenders, and somehow a little more innocent, the Masaka boys tend to be a little older, and their streets somehow seem a little more rough. In Nyendo, I usually give an English lesson once a week, or come up with some activity for the music/drama time on Fridays. In Masaka, I usually play badminton or soccer, or give a little informal computer lesson to the kids, and do ‘office’ work the rest of the time.

I eat lunch with the other Buddukiro staff at one of the little restaurants that we’ve contracted to also feed the boys once per day- usually at “Mama Eddy’s.” Sometimes I head out mid afternoon to the internet café if I need to do some research online. I usually have some activity or another going on right after work, and then head home to Jennipher’s by 7:00 or 7:30. After that it’s tea, play with Mukiibi, bath, dinner, bed!

Mini Project
I mentioned in a previous post that we had been doing a needs assessment in Ssenyange. Last week I turned in the proposal for the ‘mini project’ we came up with to FSD. I’m calling it the “Ssenyange orphans and other vulnerable children community action network project,” or Ssenyange OVC C.A.N. If this gets funded, it will begin to take up a lot of my time with things like materials development, training, and follow up visits.

I’ve pasted the exec summary in another entry because I’m in the post deadline phase of feeling too sick of the thing to write any more about it, but you’ll get the gist. I’m excited about it because I think if we could get the groups set up and functioning (including the savings and loaning function), they have the potential to make an impact in the lives of the kids in those households, and to help the caregivers sustain and advocate for themselves over the long term. Also, working on the ‘prevention’ side is something Buddukiro’s been wanting to get into as part of their new strategic direction, so this has the potential to move them where they want to go as an organization. We’ll find out later this week if it gets funded or not, so keep your fingers crossed!

Other Possibilities
I’ve been praying about what else I should get involved in during my non Buddukiro time- like how to get involved at church, in my community, after my time at Buddukiro is up at the end of January, etc. One interesting possibility is helping my friend Fred, who has a vision to start a Christian computer/resource complex in Masaka with a pastor friend of his. I’ve been able to use some of my MBA knowledge and materials to help them begin thinking about the business plan. Fun! Another idea I have is that my church would like to get something started working with orphans. Not sure yet what I could help with there, but it caught my attention…

Pics and proposal exec summary

Pic 1: Ssenyange (sprawled along the hillside overlooking Masaka














Pic 2: Me with one of the families we interviewed for the needs assessment- a grandmother living with three orphans- two from two of her own children that died of HIV/AIDS, and one that she is unrelated to but had compassion on and took in off the street.
















Executive Summary

Every child has a right to grow up in a nurturing environment where they can realize their full potential. However, for the approximately 112,000 orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) in Masaka District of Uganda, this is often not possible due to poverty, domestic violence, and other challenges. Ssenyange Parish in particular is heavily impacted. However, the few existing service providers operate in a limited capacity, and community members are not organized to collaboratively address the challenges they face. BCA has determined that there is a strong linkage between this underserved OVC population and the influx of the children from Ssenyange coming to the streets of Masaka town. Once there, they become even more vulnerable to an array of dangers.

In response to this situation, BCA is proposing the Ssenyange OVC C.A.N. (Community Action Network) Project. The goal of this pilot project is to target OVC households in Ssenyange with interventions that will improve the welfare of OVC and prevent them from coming to the street, while also enhancing the overall capacity of the community to respond to their needs. This project has three main objectives: to establish OVC community action groups; to enhance the ability of group members to meet the basic needs of OVC in their households; and to promote community sensitization and mobilization around OVC issues. BCA is requesting a grant of $900.44 from FSD to carry out the first phase of this project. With this support, two groups will be formed and 3 will be trained, directly impacting 30-45 OVC households. Additionally, two sensitization sessions will be held for a minimum of 50 community members, and groundwork will be laid for additional action on OVC issues.

With 50% of the population below the age of 15, an investment in orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) through the Ssenyange OVC C.A.N. Project will make a vital contribution to the long-term development of the region. The groups will serve as an enduring structure for promoting welfare of OVC in Ssenyange, and lessons learned can be leveraged to reach out to other needy areas with similar interventions. The project will also fill a major service gap, and position BCA to make significant future contributions to this high priority issue.

Wild Things!

The other interns and I have been feeling antsy to get out of Masaka and see more of Uganda, so this past weekend we packed into a car with three of my Ugandan friends from church and headed to two wildlife parks west of here- one at Lake Mburo near Lyantonde, and the other called Queen Elizabeth park, along the border near DR Congo in the west (separated from DRC by mountains, so no worries there!)

You basically pay an exorbitant (by local standards) entrance fee, and then drive around the trails of the huge park. Ours was the only 'normal-sized' car amidst a sea of jeeps and SUVs, and it sure took a beating! Here are a few pics from this amazing trip! Besides those featured here, we also saw monkeys, baboons, antelopey things, things that looked like fuzzy llamas, and lots of cool birds.

***Hippos! We were lucky to catch a bit of them at the lake- their heads and cute ears, and more of some fighting each other off in the distance. Apparently there are hundreds submerged just below the surface, and apparently they are also very mean. Anyone want to go for a swim?














***Zebras! There were so many at Lake Mburo, and I guess their stripes are as unique as our fingerprints!














***Elephant Crossing! We were so lucky to happen to make a wrong turn (one of many!) and come across these guys.













***Pumbas! Along the way, we also surprised a couple of the warthogs as they were taking mud baths!

















***The Group - overlooking Lake Mburo: me, Hagar, Fred 1 (who drove), Fred 2(mentioned in my previous post), and Nicholas, Fred 2's little brother. Brock is taking the pic.
















***Overlooking Queen Elizabeth - lots of variety in the landscape there!













***Changing the flat tire - we it got on the way back in a huge pothole (it was totally trashed!) That journey home was a trip unto itself. Thank goodness the flat tire happened there and not in lion country! (We didn't unfortunately didn't manage to spot any of those :(

Attitudes that kill me

Why are these people poor? This is the question I kept asking myself over and over during my first few weeks here. Compared to other areas in Africa, Uganda has a lot of resources, not the least of which is very fertile land. So what is going on here? The answer is that it’s complicated- there are a bajillion reasons which I will perhaps attempt to tackle at a later time. One reason, which I will elaborate on here, most certainly relates to attitude.

Two families, different outcomes
In preparation for writing a grant proposal to FSD, I’ve been doing a needs assessment over the last couple weeks in Ssenyange subparish, the hill behind Masaka. It's an area Buddukiro has identified as a major source of kids coming to the street. Yesterday, two of the families I interviewed highlighted an interesting theme that keeps repeating itself in the people I meet.

In the first family, there were two able-bodied parents with one child, aged 16, who was out of school due to lack of fees (more on that in my other post). Like many, they were struggling to make ends meet through occasional odd jobs. The second family, a single mother with six kids, all in school, was struggling but managing somehow. She is a ‘fishmonger’ (seller) in town, and also belongs to a savings group.

I’m sure there are many factors involved, but I can’t help but look at the two families and wonder- why is the one with the seemingly harder circumstances somehow making it work while the other cannot? This is another question that I keep asking myself- Why, when faced with similar circumstances, do some people manage to scratch out their food from the soil, and others don’t have enough to eat? Why are some able to cobble together school fees for their children while others cannot? I think the answer is very much rooted in attitudes.

The downside of giving
Every day, people see that I am a muzungu, assume I am rich, and ask me for money- kids, adults, poor people, seemingly well off people, co-workers, total strangers. Even the teacher I talked to at Ssenyange Public school (see previous post), came out and told me that she’s a widow with six kids. She’s having trouble paying their fees, and can’t I help her? I know it sounds harsh, but I was thinking, “Take a number and get in line lady.”

Granted, it may be true that I, even without an income at the moment, am comparatively rich. However, there is an underlying attitude here that is extremely problematic for Uganda’s future. For so many years, Uganda was facing war and calamity, and international aid agencies flooded in to provide help. Good, people in crisis need assistance. However, among too many, this has left a legacy of idle hands, held open to receive help, rather than being set in motion to change the circumstances.

Aid/development work is actually pretty big business here- I think it might be the 2nd or 3rd largest industry in the economy. Most everyone associates NGOs (nongovernamental orgs) with money, and looks to them (rather than the government) for the majority of their services. Among Ugandans there is also a culture where anyone who manages to earn a decent living faces a line of people in their own family expecting a handout. (There are some aspects of this generous, family-oriented culture that I really admire, but there's a down side too in terms of incentive.)

Two types of people, two different outcomes
There seem to be two main types of people that I am meeting, who seem to have very different outcomes in life:

Go-getters
**There are people like my host mother Jenipher (see my previous blog entry about how, when widowed, she went from crying for help to working hard to make a way for her six kids).
**There is also Frank, who was one of the first street kids Buddukiro supported. He just completed university with a degree in development studies. He hopes to start a project to help vulnerable kids, like he once was.
**There is also my friend Fred, who worked his fingers to the bone to earn his school fees after his mom died when he was 12. He is now a doctor who is managing to pay the school fees of his younger siblings, create jobs for his unemployed friends, and build dreams of starting his own hospital one day.

Characteristics Jenipher, Frank, and Fred share: ambition and drive, a willingness to work hard, an eye for the long-term, a tendency to make the most of opportunities, and a feeling of responsibility for their own destiny and that of those they love.

Pic: Frank standing tall at the Buddukiro drop-in center, where he began as a street child and grew into the first college graduate in his family.





Sit-and-give-me-ers
**There are others who are able-bodied, but either unable or unwilling to make the leap to find a way to pull themselves up. Jenipher herself said that for two years after she became a widow, she wasted her time crying and looking for someone to help her, before finally realizing there was no one but herself to look to.
**Some of the boys who were in Buddukiro at the same time as Frank were also supported by BCA to go to school, but decided to drop out. These days those same boys, now men, are often still on the street, or even in prison, and ask him for money when they see him around town.
**One classmate of Fred's was supported by a sponsor for all of his school fees, but somehow lost steam and dropped out in Senior 6 (just before finishing.)
These individuals seem to share: a feeling of entitlement, a short-term focus, a tendency to squander rather than capitalize on opportunities, a feeling that good outcomes are the result of ‘luck,’ rather than hard work.

Pic- Asheraf, a 17 year old that Buddukiro recently placed in a year-long carpentry apprenticeship (his third and final opportunity, as he has dropped out of two other programs already.) This past week, he skipped out three days in a row. (Did anyone else just hear the sound of my compassion being exhausted?)




What makes a ‘go-getter’ versus a ‘sit-and-give-me-er’? Is the go-getter, entrepreneurial attitude innate, or can it be learned? Perhaps both. One thing is for sure- in considering my ‘mini project’ in Ssenyange, I would sooner do nothing at all than contribute to perpetuating the ‘sit-and-give-me’ attitude. The ‘bone’ I’m gnawing on here is how to design a project that encourages the community to work together, using its own resources to address its own problems, rather than looking to me, the muzungu, with open hands.

Stats that kill me

“School fees, school fees!” This is a phrase I have been hearing over and over like a broken record since I arrived here. It seems to be among the top 2-3 challenges people face: “How to pay the school fees for all these children I’ve produced?” That is assuming, of course, that they value education enough to concern themselves about this (which some do not).

What’s in a school fee?
I’ve been asking around, and there are some higher quality boarding schools that are maybe 300,000Ush (about $175) per year. Even for a ‘lower’ quality school like Ssenyange Public (see photo below), fees are about 30,000 per term, times 3 terms, plus another 50,000 for uniform, books, etc, for a total of 140,000 per year (about $80). Multiply that by 6 or 7 children at 12 years each, and you’re looking at what, for many families, is an insurmountable barrier to education. (Hard even if there are parents in the picture, which there often aren’t- the number orphans is another stat that kills me!)

Pic- Ssenyange Public School (not UPE, despite the name). A teacher there told us that half the student body was recently dismissed due to unpaid school fees. Even for those that manage to pay the fees and remain, many sit through the entire school day on an empty stomach because folks at home can’t manage to send them with anything for breakfast or lunch.


Houston, we have a problem!
In Masaka District, 50% of the population of around 770,000 is under the age of 15. There is, in theory, a government policy of Universal Primary Education, meaning that primary school is free and every child should be able to go. (More on UPE vs. private education later). However, in reality, even if there is a UPE school anywhere nearby, which there sometimes is not, there are still fees that become cost prohibitive (books, uniforms, porridge).

The stats say that 94% of school aged kids in Masaka do in fact enter primary school. However, the retention rate is dismal, and only 14% (!) of those who enter primary school make the transition to secondary school. Now, I was never any good at statistics, but if only 14% of 93% of 50% of your population is getting beyond primary school, I’d say, “Houston, we have a problem!”

Without even looking closely, I see school-aged kids out of school- everywhere, every day. This is in the relatively privileged town area (as opposed to the much worse off rural villages.) It’s like watching precious water being poured out and wasted in the middle of a desert. Right now, at this very moment, as I watch, almost 50% of the population is losing the chance for a better future not only themselves, but also for Uganda. How is the country going to move forward if the majority have either never been to school, or never made it beyond grade 3 or 4? It kills me!

I’ve been mulling this over like a dog gnawing on a bone- what to do? No answers yet- I’ll keep you posted ;)

Rock the vote!

I already did! People here were pretty impressed that our country is organized enough to have gotten this to me! I am too!

Snapshots from daily life: #2

This is the view off to my right as I walk each morning from my host family in Kayarikiti village to Nyendo town. Most of the land around here is pretty densely populated and cultivated, but if I understand correctly, this ‘swamp’, or wetland area is a protected environmental area. I think it’s pretty!