The Ugandan Life

Now that we’ve been here for over 7 weeks I wanted to write a little bit about Uganda in general and hopefully paint a picture of what it’s like to live here. I’ve been writing things down for the last couple weeks so my thoughts are fairly random, but hopefully all interesting.

- The president of Uganda is Museveni and he’s been in office for 26 years now. He was originally very well-liked, but obviously it isn’t good if anyone is in power for this long. His government is very corrupt and the aid money that flows into Uganda from other countries rarely makes it down to the actual people in need. He has 5 houses, one of which is here in Entebbe, and Uncle Tony says it’s worth $75 million USD. The question we’ve been asking people lately is what happens when Museveni dies, but I don’t think anyone really knows the answer to that.

- Uganda is full of weird smells. Anna tells us that even after 2 years she still isn’t used to it yet. I can’t really pinpoint what all of the smells are, but the most common is the smell of burning trash. There’s a very poor waste removal system here, so people are constantly burning their trash. A few months ago Robert found a reliable garbage company, so for 30,000 shillings ($12.50) a month we get our garbage picked up twice a week. Evan always finds garbage pickup to be amusing because the truck is just a pick-up with cardboard tucked around the edge to make the walls of the bed a little higher. As you can imagine, this is pretty ineffective and there’s always garbage falling out onto the road. I feel like waste removal is something that’s overlooked as a priority in developing countries, but all the litter is detrimental to the environment and it must contaminate the ground water as well.

- Almost every day the power goes out at least once, lasting anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 hours, sometimes more. Depending on who we ask, we’re given a different answer about why this happens. Some people say that it’s a punishment for the parts of the country that didn’t vote for Museveni in last year’s election; some say that the electric company used to import power from neighboring countries to cover all their paying customers in Uganda, but last year they just stopped paying them so we’re short on electricity; and others say that Uganda is actually exporting electricity to neighboring countries to make some extra money, but there isn’t enough to go around so ours gets shut off. Who knows what the truth is, but thankfully we have a generator here at the house. It’s extremely loud, but it helps keep everyone safe and makes life a lot easier.

- Occasionally the water stops working, but this doesn’t happen often. However, a few weeks ago we went 5 days without running water. On day 3 the aunties filled the van with clothes and Tony brought them to do laundry in the lake. The laundry room was overflowing at that point because each kid has 2 sets of clothes that get washed daily (school uniform and play clothes), plus the bed sheets of the 3 or 4 kids that often wet the bed at night. Tony also brought big barrels of water to the house each day, but luckily the running water came back just before everyone hit their breaking point. I take for granted the fact that I can clean my hands, flush the toilet, wash dishes, and shower anytime I want at home.

- Another thing that’s different between here and home is the amount of human contact you have each day. At home when I pay my bills online and use a self-checkout counter at the grocery store. I drive my own car to do all my errands and can print documents at my house. In Uganda almost everything I need is a half mile up the road in the Entebbe Town, and everything else is just another mile further around the state house in Kitoro . We go to town and wait in line to pay our electric, water, and phone bills. We go to town for our groceries and to print any documents or pictures that we need. We talk to the people at each of these stores and say hello to others along the way. When we go somewhere that’s too far to walk, or if it’s dark out, we take a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) or a matatu (taxi van). In both cases you have to talk to the driver and negotiate a price. Negotiating prices is also necessary at markets, whether it’s for food or for African crafts, so there’s much more conversation between customers and merchants.

- The last thing I’ll mention about Uganda is that white people are called ‘mzungus.’ Every day when we’re walking around town, countless children and many adults yell “mzungu mzungu!” at us. At first I didn’t mind and we would always wave to them and smile, but now it’s getting old. I found a shirt at a market in Kampala a couple weeks ago that said “My name is not mzungu… I don’t have any money and I don’t have any chocolate.” I think it sums things up nicely, because most people here think that all white people can we can afford to give them money for school fees or food or candy. I don’t think people are using the term mzungu in a derogatory way, but the kids at Malayaka House never call us mzungus and they often look at other people funny when they do. Recently though, Evan told a couple of our kids that no one calls us mzungu in America and they asked, “then what do they call you?” When we’re walking around town we often think about what would happen if we saw a black person in the U.S. and just pointed and yelled “black person, black person!” Definitely not acceptable at home, but here it’s normal.

So, all things considered, I’m enjoying my life here very much. There are days when I miss home – both Norton and St. Mike’s – but there are things I really love here. I like that I don’t ever think about the weather because it’s always beautiful, with the occasional thunderstorm. I like that I spend the majority of my time outside every day. I’m now ok with the fact that I’m perpetually dirty all the time because of the dust, mud, and outdoor lifestyle. I like that I can walk everywhere, though I do miss driving. And, of course, I’m falling in love with the kids. There are times when we wonder if we’re really helping anyone by being here, and there are days when we feel like we’re not being very productive, but I think that’s the same with any service experience. We can see that we’ve made a positive impact on the businesses and I think we’re teaching the girls some skills along the way. We just added February to our profits chart and each business has a balance far above what we projected. The pizza business is approaching one million shillings (over $400) and the girls hosted a perfect dinner for 19 people last Tuesday. I’ve also realized that we’re helping the young kids just by giving them more individual attention, taking them out around town, and checking their homework each night. I think they enjoy having us here, and we certainly enjoy hanging out with them, so I look forward to seeing how our relationships evolve from here.

Pictures!

This is Che Che, one of the 6 year old triplets. Evan had some of the kids pretend they were walking down a cat walk the other day so that's why he's posing like this. Che Che is funny and wild and can cry on command, a skill he turns on quite often. He was missing a front tooth when we met him, but it's growing in now. Everyday Evan holds him by the upper arms and does bicep curls and Che Che thinks that he's the one getting stronger.

This is the older of the two Justine's at Malayaka House. She's in P6 and plays on the rugby team. Justine has a great sense of style and enjoys looking nice all the time. She can often be quiet and reserved, but other times she explodes with confidence. We discovered last weekend that she's an excellent dancer.

This is Hadija, trying to carry all the girls water bottles after the rugby match last week. She's on the team, but hasn't played in matches yet because she's young and quite small. She speaks less English than most of the girls, but we've discovered that she's very funny. She came to Malayaka House last year with 9 other girls that had been living in an awful orphanage that has since been shut down. These girls are family to each other and the 8 oldest are inseparable. Hadija fits in perfectly with them while still being totally unique.

This is Fran, our Spanish housemate. He stays up late to protect the house, so this picture sums him up well. If you look to his right (your left) you'll see his 1.5 liter Coke bottle and his panga (a large knife) stuck in the ground. He usually has a cigarette in his hand as well, and when he's not acting as security guard you can usually find him in the garage building things.

And this is Kovy. He's growing everyday and changing color rapidly. I'm sure Evan will blog about him again soon.

Market, School, and Pizza...

Here are some highlights and interesting things about the last 10 days…
- Me, Evan, and 4 other volunteers went into Kampala last Friday with Jacinta, Namatov, and Naiga. We went to the big market and I got a feel for how much different items will cost. As in South Africa, there’s a lot of back and forth between the merchant and the customer before a price is decided. Because we’re white, we get the “mzungu price” which is always really high, and then you have to talk them down to a small fraction of what they originally asked. The market had everything from jewelry to bags to wooden salad bowls and spoons to animal carvings, and much more. After the market we all went out for lunch and treated the girls to something other than rice & beans.
- Last weekend, after a couple volunteers did a barbeque for the children, the older girls stayed up dancing in our house for a while. At one point they had a soda chugging competition with the sodas left over from the cookout, then the dance party turned into a fashion show. Some of them are quite shy with us still, so it was nice to see another, more confident, side of them.
- On Tuesday and Thursday of this week I went to Entebbe Junior school, with Evan and Marta, to observe our children in class. I spent a couple hours each in baby class, middle class, and P1. There are 2 classes for each level so I didn’t get to see everyone, but I was with Ishmat and Ruthie (baby class), William (middle class), and Jimmy, Johnny, Che Che, Achen, Lucas, and Malayaka (P1). For the 3 nursery levels, the classes are split randomly, but starting with P1 they are divided by ability. The P1 class I attended is called East and it’s for the weaker students. We have one child, Shakira, in P1 West, which is the stronger class.
I was impressed with the nursery program and pleased to see that our kids were well behaved there. The teachers are enthusiastic and kind, and they have an effective teaching style. The kids are learning their numbers and letters, as well as important social development skills. The sing lots of songs, read stories, and participate in physical education twice a week. I think it’s a great introduction to school for the young ones.
The P1 teacher that I observed was also very nice and seems to well-liked by the kids, but the Ugandan education system needs a lot of improvements. It’s known as one of the best in central/eastern Africa, but it doesn’t compare to our schools in the U.S. All the kids do is copy material from the chalkboard, repeat after the teacher, and memorize material. There’s really no critical thinking involved. For example, the kids in P3 are learning about maps, so at home when we asked each of them what a map was they all responded “a map is a projection of an object as seen from above.” Besides the fact that this definition is incorrect, the kids are only learning the exact words that are written by the teacher. If we ask them more questions about maps they usually can’t come up with an answer that’s in their own words. Now that we’ve seen the way they learn, it’s obvious why this happens. The teacher repeats things many times and the children just parrot it back to her. They don’t ask open-ended questions and they don’t use any creative teaching techniques. Plus, because there are no text books, and because the teachers stress good handwriting, the children spend most of their time copying things into their workbooks. The all have excellent handwriting (all of our P1 kids from Malayaka House write nicer than Evan), but it takes them forever to write.
We’ll be back at the school a couple times next week so I’m sure I’ll have more to say about the P3-P6 classes. And on Saturday I’m going with Marta and Evan to the parent-teacher meetings for the nursery children so that might be interesting.
- Lastly, we had an exciting pizza night last week. We had 17 guests which included the usual volunteers, some German teachers, a couple of our business partners, and a group of Spanish guys who work for the UN. The East African hub of the United Nations is here in Entebbe and some of the guys spend time at Malayaka House in between their projects in the Congo, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and many other troubled countries. Jacinta made 14 pizzas and the night brought in a profit of about 150,000 shillings ($65). It was a bit of a crazy night, and the girls were exhausted by the end of it, but all the guests enjoyed the food and the atmosphere so hopefully they’ll tell their friends.
That’s all for now – thanks for reading! I’m going to post soon about Uganda in general and what it’s like living here, but if there’s anything specific that you’re wondering about, or a subject you’d like to hear more about, feel free to comment or email me at sregan3@mail.smcvt.edu.

Crafts!

patchwork apron

zippered bags

paper bead bags

paper bead necklaces

paper bead earrings

I know there are some people at home who are interested in the crafts made at the Malayaka House, so I wanted to put some pictures up. If anyone wants me to bring items home for them when I return, just let me know. I'm hoping that by the time I leave here I will have found a couple places at home that are willing to sell some items. Robert is friends with the owner of Healthy Living, a grocery store/cafe in Burlington, and they have a display of jewelry with some information about the Malayaka House. I would love to be able to set up a similar situation with some more places. Because there are so many people in Uganda that make the same crafts, the girls can't sell them for much here, so it's great when they get products to the U.S. or Europe where they can be sold for a price that reflects the amount of time they spend working.

So here at the house, Naiga is the head of the craft business. She's 17 years old and finished S3 last year (junior year of high school). She might go back to school next year, but right now she's working on the craft business. She goes to Kampala and buys supplies, makes all the beads by rolling paper very tightly, designs the jewelry and bags, makes the items, dips them in varnish so they're weather-proofed, and hangs them on the clothesline to dry. During school holidays the other girls love to sit and make beads with her all day. Robert told us that Naiga doesn't ask for help, but the girls just want to spend all their time with her because she's so funny and kind.

In addition to Naiga, we also have two employees from outside the house who do the sewing. Carol and Dora work Monday-Friday in our craft shop and they sew aprons, bags, cushion covers, pillow cases, change purses, and curtains. Carol does beautiful work, and she's teaching Dora everything she knows about sewing.

Enjoy the pictures, I'll put more up as they make different things.

Week 5 in Entebbe

The last week has been pretty routine, with a few fun adventures mixed in. We had 2 more successful pizza nights, we had 4 days with no running water, we had our first rainfall after 32 days of sun, and we used about $13 worth of internet to watch the Super Bowl. The most interesting, and frightening, part of my week is that I unintentionally joined a rugby team. Last Tuesday I went with Marta, Denise, and another volunteer named Anya to the older girls’ rugby practice. I thought it would be a good opportunity to spend more time with them and learn a bit about a sport I’d never played before. It turns out that one of their starters is injured and, after practicing again on Thursday, they needed me to play in the matches on Saturday. I really enjoyed the practices because most of the team is still learning how to play, and its fun to learn an entirely new sport, but they matches were terrifying. I spent most of the time trying to casually avoid being near the ball, although Evan says my game strategy was obvious. Both times that I had to try to tackle an opponent, it ended with me on the ground and them carrying the ball several meters past me. I did score a try, but as soon as I crossed the line I was thrown to the ground. So, needless to say, I’m a bit worried about getting hurt and having to visit a Ugandan hospital, but we’ll see if I can keep avoiding the ball until the injured player returns next month. All the children and aunties came to watch the matches on Saturday and had a good laugh when they saw me get run over. But it is fun to play with the girls, they’re improving greatly with each practice and they really enjoy the sport.

In other news, Evan and I took the babies to the zoo on Friday while the other children were at school. We left Diego at home because he’s too young and just took Mercy, Elijah, and Amina. I won’t say too much because Evan’s planning on writing about our day later, but we had fun and saw a lot of cool animals. On Saturday night we went to a barbeque at the hotel residence of a Spanish volunteer. His name is Raphael and he works for the UN, which has their Central African base here in Entebbe. There are 12 men in his crew and they are pilots, co-pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics. They stay here in a hotel that the UN rents out, and they fly to projects in Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Benin, Burkina Faso, and other countries. When Rapha’s here in Entebbe he comes to the Malayaka House to play with the children, and sometimes take them out on field trips. So we went to their hotel, enjoyed delicious food, and talked with some of the guys about their work. They have interesting stories because they go to places that most people aren’t allowed to visit, usually because it’s dangerous and/or there’s political unrest.

Two volunteers from Germany, Walther and Jessy, arrived early Sunday morning and the children were so happy to see them. They’ve both spent a lot of time here in the past couple years and are important people in this project. They’ll be planning some activities for the kids, implementing programs for us to continue once they’re gone, and contributing money that’s been raised for Malayaka House in Germany. Walther is a primary school teacher at home and played a big role in getting our children situated at Entebbe Junior School. He spent time observing classes there and establishing the necessary support for our students that are far behind in their education. So on Monday he took Evan, Marta, and I to Entebbe Junior and introduced us to the head teacher of Nursery. Miss Grace was very nice and showed us around her classrooms for the Nursery, Middle Class, and Top Class. Five of our kids are in her program, and we had heard tremendous things from Robert about how she runs the Nursery. The classrooms are colorful with displays of the children’s artwork, the school schedule, and effective teaching tools. Grace introduced us to the new headmaster, Erasmus, and we talked briefly in his office. The school just got a whole new staff last week so Walther explained to Erasmus who we were and what he had done at the school last year. He asked if we could spend some time observing in our students’ classrooms so that we’d have a better understanding of the Ugandan education system and how each of our kids learn, especially the older girls. Erasmus said he would love to collaborate to improve the education of our children, so hopefully sometime soon we’ll be going back to the school. Even without observing in the classroom yet, we’ve found major issues with the education here, but I’ll talk more about that later.

Thanks for reading!

Mozzarella Cheese

I’ll be updating about the past week’s events soon, but I wanted to talk first about the cheese business because it’s been a focal point of the last few weeks. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the older girls at Malayaka House are developing a ‘cooperative of businesses’ because there is almost no job market in Uganda. Right now we have a craft shop that produces handmade jewelry, aprons, and bags; a pizza restaurant that serves dinner to guests at the house every Tuesday and Thursday; and a mozzarella cheese business.

Jacinta, the oldest girl at Malayaka, has been making her own mozzarella cheese for a few months now. She was taught by an Italian man who lives in Entebbe and owns a popular restaurant. Right now she’s making about 13-20 kilograms of cheese each week, depending on the demand from our clients. On days when she makes it, she gets up at 6:00am and takes two boda bodas (motorcycle taxis) to a nearby farm. At the farm she purchases 70 liters of milk and then transports them home with the help of the boda drivers. Each driver sits with a jug in front of them, and Jacinta also holds one behind the driver. Once she gets back home she works for several hours in her kitchen and usually has about 6.5 kilos of cheese made by noon.

Right now she sells cheese regularly to three clients: Anna’s Corner, a small café; Entebbe Backpacker’s, a nearby hostel; and Boma, a backpacker’s and restaurant. Whenever they call with an order, Namatov, another one of the older girls, delivers the cheese via boda boda. Jacinta also sells 2 kilos of cheese to the pizza business each Tuesday and Thursday as it is used on the pizzas here. Jacinta, Namatov, and Marta, a volunteer, have been visiting local restaurants and trying to find more clients. They’ve been dropping off samples, spreading the word about the Malayaka businesses, and even inviting people to the house for our pizza nights.

Namatov is the bookkeeper for all of the businesses and she’s been keeping detailed balance sheets for months now. When Evan and I first arrived here, we put some money into the businesses, but after just one week of organization the cheese business has been self-sufficient. Every time Jacinta needs to buy milk, the money is taken from the business’ profits, and the balance continues to rise. After working with the girls for the last 4 weeks on this business, they are already eager to expand. They have a system that works well, and we’ve found that there are very few competitors in the area. Rennet, the ingredient that is needed to make mozzarella, isn’t produced in Uganda so the Malayaka House gets it from volunteers that come periodically from Spain. This is somewhat of a nuisance, but we’ve found that it may work to our advantage. Many restaurants that the girls have visited informed them that they currently import their mozzarella from Nairobi, Kenya because they can’t find a local supplier. This is excellent news for Jacinta and Namatov because they can make a good profit on each kilo while still giving these restaurants a much better price than they’re currently paying.

They’ve also found some stores that import mozzarella from Kenya and would be interested in buying from the Malayaka House instead. The issue with this is that we need to find a way to package the cheese effectively. Right now, since they only sell to places that use the cheese for cooking, they haven’t needed to package it. We’ve been researching for the last week, trying to find the appropriate machine that can vacuum seal each kilo or half kilo of cheese, but we’re having trouble. There is so much potential here for this business and, in turn, some job security for these girls as well as the ones that will follow in their footsteps.

I’m hoping that we can continue to help this business grow because it has already proven to be so beneficial for the girls involved. When they come back home after visiting a restaurant or talking to a hostel owner, they are smiling ear to ear and simply overjoyed about the entire experience. The confidence they’re gaining from creating a product that people all over Entebbe enjoy is really inspiring to watch. These two girls are 19 years old, they grew up with the label of ‘orphan’ hanging over their head, and now they are developing skills and a greater sense of self-esteem. Jacinta just came to Malayaka House 18 months ago, she has 2 young children, and her life has been anything but easy, but the pride she has in her work and her ability to talk to clients is absolutely remarkable. In just a short amount of time we’ve all seen tremendous growth in this business, but as we learn from our experiences and develop a better knowledge of packaging and marketing we hope it will expand even more.

Hakim and the babies...

A few days ago, we looked out our front window and saw Hakim playing with Mercy, Elijah, and Amina. He had put a long board on top of his skateboard and was riding down the pavement with them, then having the kids push him back up it. We thought it was funny. Notice that Amina gets tossed off at the end.