Common Values

On Thursday Steve went with Mr. Lubega to the Annual General Meeting of the Regional Chiefs. He wore a tie for the occasion but decided to leave his new spear at home (a good plan). As he left he wondered what Mr. Lubega would have in mind for him this time.

Mr. L led Steve up directly to the front row, facing the speaker and the head chief. He was given seat there while M. L sat with the senior chiefs. Once there was a break in the agenda, the speaker called upon Mr. L who stood up and walked to the front of the room. First he introduced Steve (and the rest of us, although we were absent), and offered an animated and very emotional speech. He spoke in both languages so that Steve could follow along.

Steve was very excited about what M. L had to say. He spoke of working with foreign partners and the importance of accountability and transparency. Often he was interrupted with vigorous clapping. Of course, he also made sure to tell them that each of our team had been given Bugandan names, which the many chiefs also loved (Steve estimated there were about 150 of them).

Unbeknownst to Steve, a speech was required! He was given three minutes to address the chiefs. Thankfully, Steve is good on his feet, and was able to clearly articulate both our gratitude for the welcome we have received and what we have learned through this partnership. He praised the centre’s committee and Mr. Lubega. He also said that people from other countries can offer assistance, but only local people can offer effective leadership. The chiefs were quite pleased when Steve suggested that other groups could follow the example of the Learning Centre to meet the needs of their own communities.

As the session ended, Steve was honoured to be asked to lead all the chiefs as they processed out. It also meant Steve got to the buffet lunch first! Nice work.

Success Stories

In one of our meetings the first week, we met the university students. The level of education is extremely high, but because of the political situation the chance of employment is very low. Most students we talked to are looking to do post graduate work in another country. The problem is they have no real idea about how to get there.

When they met Steve and heard about his business and consulting background, they immediately wanted to know if he was available for further discussion. Steve not only agreed to meet with them but was excited by their total commitment to learning. He was also impressed with their desire to give back to their families.

Two of the six students came for meetings. One was a medical student with one more year of school left. He is hoping to enter the field of cardiology, which is an area of specialty not available in Uganda. Steve gave him advice on how to approach getting information on scholarships in other countries. The other is a chemical engineering student, who is also in the third year of a four year program. Steve helped him to begin thinking about multi-national companies and recruiting processes.

Both students took notes, and asked excellent questions. Steve agreed to continue to encourage their work and says he even expects emails from them to be waiting in his email box when he gets home. Both of them credit the learning centre with helping them get this far.

Success. Hallelujah!

And on his farm he has some cows

Wednesday morning Anne, Steve and I got up before sunrise (about 6:00) and got ready very quickly. Mr Lubega drove us to the taxi park in Kampala, and helped us find the right one to take us to Jinja. The traffic was incredibly congested (“a jam” they say here) and even at that early hour it was wall to wall people. The taxis here are actually long minivans, rated to sit 14 people. There are no American vehicles here—just Asian and European ones. The taxis are all Toyota Hiaces, and have these cute little fold up seats inside to make an isle where people can go to the back seats.

We were not crowded at all, but the journey was quite long. We passed the huge football (soccer) stadium that Steve figures seats 70 000+ people. We also crossed the River Nile (too fast to enjoy it, really). We also saw beautiful green countryside. We didn’t get to Jinja until just after 10:00, where Sam was waiting at the taxi stop. The first thing we did was visit the school where Joyce’s husband (Patrick) worked until his death. Although we didn’t stay long enough to meet the headmaster, we were able to take a few pictures. It was not far from the place the health clinic used to be, where Joyce worked before they came to Canada.

We stopped at the market to buy pineapple and mango and then we got on another taxi (bus) to Sam’s family home. This was more crowded than the first: 21 people all squished in. Thankfully the windows were open.

Sam gave us a wonderful tour. First we saw the house, which is quite lovely: several bedrooms, kitchen and living room, and even two bathrooms. It has a very large garden outside (puts mine to shame) with banana, mango, jackfruit and avocado trees. We met the cows which graze on 12 acres of pasture, as well as the cattle stalls and milking parlour.

We were so glad to finally see the home where Joyce and her young family had started out. Having heard all about it when we were in Canada, it was also great to see Sam’s working farm. In that area of Jinja, it is so calm and picturesque. Steve said it reminded him of a summer cottage at home…

…which was quite a contrast to the hot, dusty trip home. First a bus into Jinja and then another into Kampala. By then the day was extremely hot and the taxis overcrowded (I was hoping to sit beside some chickens, Tanya, but no luck). By the time we got into Kampala it was rush hour and the traffic was unbelievable chaos. Thankfully, Amazing Anne saw Mr. Lubega on the sidewalk (if you had seen how crowded the sidewalk was, you could better appreciate what a feat that was) and he led us to where he had parked the car.

All the dust that had soiled our clothes, filled our noses and covered our feet made me think of the biblical practice of foot washing. That beautiful act of hospitality makes much more sense to us now.

A letter from Lawinter

Here is a letter from one of the students that Karin worked with on Tuesday morning. Many of them wrote letters and drew pictures for students in Canada. This is our favourite.

Dear Friends,

My name is Lawinter Foreste. I live in Uganda, Masooli. Uganda is a beautiful country. I am 12 years old. I am going in senior one at World Ahead SSS, Matugga.

I want to tell you about the life in Uganda. In Uganda we have two seasons, namely the rainy season and the dry season. In the rainy season, that is when people plant their crops and in the dry season that is when people harvest their crops for eating selling and getting money. We have four types of weather: sunny, rainy, windy cloudy. During the suny weather we experience sunshine throughout. During the rainy weather we experience rain. During the windy we experience wind and cloudy we experience types of clouds like Nimbus that bring rain, cirrus, stratus and cumulus.

Mrs. Karren has said that in Canada you have provinces but here in Uganda we have districts, tribes, clans, etc. we have tribes like Acholi, Langi, Baganda. Clans like Lugave, Momba and Mbogo. I Lawinter my clan is Lugave. And districts like Kampala, Moroto and Mbala. Kampala is the capital city of Canada. I want to come to your country but I have no access to money. Here in Uganda we have big lakes and rivers. We also have the second largest lake in the world called Lake Victoria and it also acts as the largest lake in Uganda. The longest river in Africa is called the Nile River. There are high mountains and rift valley lakes. The highest mountain in Uganda is mountain Rwenzori and in Africa is Kilimanjaro. Some of the rift valley lakes include Lake Albert, and some swampy lakes are Lake Kyoga. We do have any waterfall in Uganda like Murchison Falls and I would love to see Niagara Falls and the CN Tower.

There are big forests like Mabina and Budongo forests. I love visiting these forests because there are plenty of animals to see likr monkeys, cheetahs, deer, birds like doves, peagions, etc. I love birds. All about school. In my former school Buganda Road Primary School, we had 20 teachers and my class teacher was Johnson and other teachers were Florence for Science, David for Social Studies, and Samuel for English. Our headmistress was Mrs. Turyasingura Bitress. Uganda is a blessed country, After four years, Uganda experiences the eclipse of the sun and eclipse of the moon. Uganda has a good climate and plenty of animals like cows, donkeys, cheetahs and hyenas but we don’t have tigers, rhinos. Fishermen go fishing around lakes and they catch a lot of fish like Nile Perch and Talapia. Me as Lewinter, I belong to the wildlife club. I love to visit interesting places like the beach, forest, game parks. I love all the Canadians you sent to us. My hobbiues are playing netball, singing and dancing. I wish you come and visit our country. I have loved teacher Kerren, Pastor Christine, Mrs. Annet, and Mr. Steve.

Lastly, I send you greetings and may God bless you. I love you all.

Yours sincerely,

Forest Lawinter.

Tidbits brought to you by the letter C

We met Catherine, Joyce’s sister, on the first day. She has been here every day or so, dropping in to chat or to bring us treats. She sells fruit in village, and so brings us fruit: bananas, avocado, and passion fruit. She also makes pancakes (small, like Scottish ones) and sells them each day. We were so honoured when she brought some to us. They were so good, Steve stole Karin’s pancake while she wasn’t looking. Yum.

Of course, it is difficult to receive such lavish gifts from a woman who barely ekes out an existence—she is still paying school fees for her youngest son Patrick, and helping with her grandson’s school fees as well. She has a warm and generous spirit that we admire.

Cockroaches, on the other hand, are not nearly as delightful. Steve tried to convince us that they were beetles—three-inches long and about an inch wide—but we figured it out. One night after crawling into bed, I was quite interested to discover one of these critters in my bed. I managed to encourage him to leave and went back to writing in my journal. A short time later (these suckers can move, Steve says) Karin gave a little yelp: the bug had made its way inside her net. There ensued a great deal of swatting, squirming and laughing around Karen’s bed, while the three women did their best to encourage him out (to be honest, Anne and I mostly offered verbal encouragement). Steve, meanwhile, was strangely silent…until we heard the faint sound of snickering. “Oh for goodness sake” he said with a sigh, and came into our room, swatted the cockroach on the floor, and stomped on it. Unfortunately, That was not our last encounter….so far it’s Steve-4, Cockroaches-0.

What we have seen a lot of are students. Karin has enjoyed teaching them some new things, including the song, “Land of the Silverbirch”. They wanted to sing the “Masooli-Kittetika” song, but then complained that it would never work because they didn’t have Steve! A small group of older girls decided that they could do it after all, singing “dum, dum, dum….”, although some others corrected their pronunciation.

Karin also taught them to play a name game, where each one had to say their name along with an adjective beginning with the same letter. There was Jolly Joanne, Pretty Purity, and Dynamic Doreen, among others. But the best part came in the evening when Karin was helping with the dishes and they started giving names to the adults. They came up with Beautiful Barbara, Careful Kristine (they think my name begins with a C), Strong Steve, Kinetic Karen, and Amazing Anne.

There is a word that they use a lot here: cute. They use it differently than we do. It means fabulous, as in “You look cute”. Sometimes it even comes with two thumbs up. Steve says all of us women are ‘cute’ (insert eyeroll here).

The Spirit and the General

We met with the committee on Monday morning. Mrs Milli Sessanga, Mr. Cosmas Lubega, Mr. Mohammed Sekebembe, Mrs. Anne Kiwanuka, and Mrs. Efulansi Mutumba were there, along with our team. Steve (a.k.a. The General) had a full agenda prepared for us.

Before we got down to business, we thanked the committee members for all of the time and effort they have poured into the centre. We presented each of them with a prayer shawl, explaining that they area a symbol that the Trafalgar community continues to uphold them in prayer. We shared with them the story of the women of our congregation who have knitted this, and the fact that warm knitted shawls, although unusual in a tropical climate, are perfect in our often cold country. The Spirit was palpable when each of them wrapped the shawl around themselves. They promised that that the committee would wear them at every meeting.

We called the staff in so that we could thank them, and we praised their work in front of the whole committee. We presented them with Trafalgar T-shirts and cookbooks, which they loved. We told them that just like the T-shirt says, they have friends at TPC. We also presented Betty (our cook) with a cookbook and Trafalgar pin, and took the opportunity to thank her for the wonderful food.

Steve led the meeting and we achieved a great deal. Based on the comments from the students, and their parents, we prioritized their recommendations and suggestions. We reviewed and made minor adjustments to the purpose and objectives of the centre; approved a new financial reporting method; and put in place a Board Structure. They agreed to add Irene Mutumba to that Board, understanding that she will bring her leadership and network to the table.

Four hours later (phew!), we closed the meeting. The committee suggested that Mr. Sekebembe (who is a Muslim) lead in prayer, but he insisted that we do it together. So we held hands, and he said a prayer in Lugandan; I followed with a prayer in English.

Amen.

This problem has four answers

This week we were visited by Joyce’s niece, Teddie (also called Constance). She is a soft spoken, articulate woman and seemed intent on sharing her story with us. We are wondering if she needed us to hear about the rest of the country, beyond the Kampala region we are experiencing.

Teddie has a diploma in fine arts from a school in Lira, in northern Uganda. When we asked why she would go so far away when most students here go to the Makarere University, she explained that she went because she received a scholarship. After graduating in 2003 she stayed there to teach until 2005. She was distraught, however, as she watched her students become child soldiers in the long-standing conflict nearby. She shared stories with us that are far too painful to write about here.

Teddie has 2 children: Marvin is 7 years old. When he was born, his father denied his paternity, leaving Teddie to raise him on her own. More recently she married and had John Carlos who is just 14 months old, and they live in Soroti , which is about 5 hours travel from here. Soroti is in the Eastern part of Uganda, near Kenya. The climate is drier there (they have had no rain for two months now), and many of the people are “pastoralists”. That means they continually move together with their animals, in search of water and pastures, and do not have permanent homes. Cattle rustlers are a problem and most live very temporary lives.

All around Teddie’s home are IDP (internally displaced persons) camps, which are filled with thousands of Ugandan women and children. Many have fled the conflict in the northern and eastern parts of the country, although the men have stayed behind. She says that life is very hard there; poverty is rampant and many cope with poor living conditions. Both Sundays we have been in Uganda, we noted that the worship leaders prayed about the country’s conflict and for the children caught in them.

Although she has a background in fine arts, Teddie dreams of being an HIV/AIDS counsellor. She is already trained and shared with us some of the wisdom she has gained in both her life and her education. Whatever the problem is, she said, “money will not solve it”. Instead, she named the four things that are essential to help solve any problem, whether personal or global:

1. Empathy
2. Caring
3. Acceptance
4. Confidence

These are what people really need to receive, she said. Things will get better when a person (or a people) are welcomed just as they are and then helped to believe in their own abilities.

We received her comments as genuine gifts from God because we have been discussing exactly this issue. Clearly, from everything we have heard and experienced in the past two weeks, money is not what people here need. Perhaps more accurately, money alone is not what people need. For example, a woman might say she wants money to buy a cow, so that she can make money selling milk. If she does not have the skills to properly care for a cow, keep a ledger, and market her product well, however, her business will take time and effort but not yield results.

Through many in depth conversations, and by observing our surroundings, we have learned that the current generation of parents places highest priority on educating their children. Business skills, however, have been regarded with suspicion because traditionally, Muslims and people from India have dominated the small business sector. A shift is occurring now with the youth who are discovering that entrepreneurial skills are essential to their success because their chance of getting jobs in the current system is nil.

It made us recall the comments of Irene Mutumba. In her opinion, people in Africa have become quite accustomed to the financial aid that comes from the western world. It has left many believing that they are not able to improve their lives without being given money from others. What we need is not to buy a cow, but to share genuine friendship with a poor woman, understand her situation, and then work together with her to help achieve her goals.

We recognize that this is a complicated process. We also can see why just sending money would be so much easier.