Elephant Tears

Hello loved ones...

Firstly: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the mothers, grandmothers and Aunts, and also to those who celebrated their mothers today (yesterday in Australia!). 

Secondly: Apologies for not writing for a week or so... we have had a group of about five volunteers working with us to build a health clinic and it all became very busy! Two of them were from Australia -- a man named Ralph who lives in Melbourne, and a Kiwi called Selma who lives in Sydney. Selma and I have similar working backgrounds and are about the same age, so we really bonded. We even made some Anzac biscuits... was just like being in the trenches together... only that the battle zone was Doreen's kitchen and our weapons of massive destruction (the 'golden syrup' wasn't much like golden syrup and the whole thing turned into something resembling more of a crumble, which we named 'Ugzac' ) were wooden spoons and wonky cake tins. Am missing Selma a lot, but I think she is missing us more. She is in London and supposed to go back to Sydney in the next few weeks but I am hoping she will come back here instead! Ralph was also just gorgeous. We worked really well together and plan to continue to work together on YOFAFO projects. 

Thirdly: A special thankyou to everyone who contributed in any way to my idea about the Mother's Day gift for the micro-finance program. I was overwhelmed by how many people chose to give the gift of a loan, and also by all the feedback. If anyone has any further suggestions, I would be only too happy to hear them. Next year, we will run it in a more public way, hopefully via a website called Global Giving. I gave the money to Doreen for Mother's Day and she was flabbergasted. I didn't realise she hadn't been able to sign anyone new up for a while. So it was very exciting and she said the donations can change the life of seven women! To all those who donated or received a gift... keep an eye out in your email inboxes and letter boxes over the next few months!

So, in the spirit of Mother's Day, I thought I'd share a bit of 'women's business' with you all :)

Mother's Day is not something that is really celebrated in Uganda. People might just greet each other at church or send their mothers a text message. But Erin (the other volunteer who is here at the moment) and I thought we'd treat Doreen this year. It was really special to watch, because as we made the suggestion to Valence he got right behind the idea. He insisted Doreen not be allowed to cook for the night, drove us to Jinja so we could take her to dinner, and decided he wouldn't join us so we could have some 'girl' time without him taking over the conversation with YOFAFO business. As we spent the day appreciating Doreen, it was so lovely to see Valence do the same... telling her how amazing she is and how much he loves her. They really have the most loving and supportive relationship - something which seems to be very scarce...

Apparently many men have more than one wife. Doreen said the men sometimes have a few wives in secret, and it all comes out at his burial, when all of his children turn up. Erin said she knew of one man who had 100 siblings -- same father, different mothers! Other men are quite open with their wives about it and have three - all living in different rooms. Others just have one main wife, and then bring others home. They will call wife number one and say "Tonight, we are two. Cook the dinner for us, and make the bed and then tonight you will sleep on the couch". So she will make his dinner and then move to the couch for the night, while he sleeps with another woman in their bed. We have assured Doreen that if Valence ever did anything like this, there will be people from all over the world who will come and lynch him! The same rules about cheating don't seem to apply to women though. I went for a swim with Doreen's brother Dickson on the weekend - just as friends - and Doreen said I had better be careful. I asked her what she meant, and she said I needed to be wary of what his girlfriend might think of us spending time together. She said since women are so desperate to pin a good man down and marry them, a girl to come and pour acid on another girl if she becomes jealous!! She was making a joke to some extent, but I promised to look out for a crazy-eyed girl stampeding towards me with acid. Thankfully for my safety, I am apparently not very attractive to Ugandan men because my bum isn't big enough. In Uganda, it is a compliment if someone tells you you are looking 'fat'. Instead of being stick thin, the mannequins here have ridiculously oversized hips. And in some parts of the country, they lock women up for two weeks before their weddings and feed them lots of food so they can look nice and fat on their wedding day! After hearing these stories, imagine me trying to explain to Ugandans about how many young girls in Australia have eating disorders? It certainly makes you think about how the ideals about beauty are so subjective and are really just about what we have drummed into us from external sources. 

Dinner was a good chance to ask Doreen about her pregnancies with Jo and Beth. Sometimes it is easy to forget to ask the most simple questions, just because we think we already know the answer to them. I guess the wonderful thing about being in another country is that even asking someone's name can produce a fascinating story. Which is what happened tonight. 

According to Doreen, Jo decided he wanted to come out legs first and with his umbilical cord around his neck. She said she was so lucky she was in town and had gone to the hospital in time, because if she was in one of the villages (80 per cent of people live in rural villages), she and Jo would have died. Many women just help each other give birth at home, because there is no transport into town. Doreen said one of her Aunts has delivered two of her own babies. She just sat on the floor and pushed, and then pulled it out of her own body! For Doreen, things were a little easier because she was very familiar with the staff at the hospital because her father works there as a radiographer. But she still had to prepare. When you are going to give birth in hospital in Uganda, you must pack a few things to take with you. Doreen made it sound like she was going on a family picnic as she described how she would pack six plastic sheets to give birth on, a dozen surgical gloves to help pull the baby out with, painkillers to numb the agony, razor blades to cut the umbilical cord and syringes for anything they might want to inject in you. It is likely the hospital won't have any of these things, and they won't deliver your baby unless you have them with you. If you don't have them with you, they will buy them for you from someone who sells them at a very expensive price at the hospital. And then they will give you the bill, and they won't sign your discharge papers until you pay the bill. As there are guards with rifles at the gates to the hospital, it's very difficult to leave without the signed discharge papers. 

Doreen had to have a caesarian with Jo. But she was much more organised the second time around. Valence missed the birth of Beth - but not through any fault of his own. When Doreen was in hospital in labour with Jo, Valence brought family with him to "calm his nerves". And not just a couple of close siblings. He literally almost brought the whole family to witness watching Doreen in labour - including children! She was determined not to let this happen again. So, when she started to feel contractions coming on, she waited until Valence was asleep to start packing her plastic sheets and razor blades. She boiled a big thermos of tea, packed some sugar and was ready to go. When she thought it was getting close enough, she woke Valence up and told him she thought there was a bit of a problem and he should probably take her to hospital. When he questioned why she was taking all of the birthing things she told him that since her due date was so close she thought she had better pack them just in case. She explained they would probably just keep her in the hospital until she had the baby. They were arguing all the way to the maternity ward as he couldn't understand why she was taking the things. She told him that she had to pack them or they might not let her in to the hospital, or might make her pay for the expensive ones. When they arrived at the maternity ward she had a win, because they wanted to see her pregnancy pack. She told Valence to go back to work and that she'd keep him posted on what the doctor said. He agreed to go away, but called her two hours later. Doreen was well on her way into labour by this stage, but held it together and told him nothing was happening. She text him 30 minutes later to say she had given birth to Beth. Doreen said she is still embarrassed to go to the ward because she knows all the nurses and staff there and she knows she was abusing them so much. They were all laughing at her as they weren't used to her being so aggressive. She was trying to convince them all she needed to go into theatre (she didn't want to push Beth out) but they said she would have to push. She told them all it would be their fault if Beth died! She was screaming that she didn't know how to push, and then they told her how. In Doreen's words: "If that nurse hadn't been there ready, Beth would have flown over her feet. I gave one big push, and 'WHOOP', she just went flying out. She landed on the bed with a 'BUMP!', and I said 'Has her head been mashed in?!'. She just flew out of there so fast, and my belly went 'BOOP!' down like this. It was big, and then it was gone. I really think if that nurse wasn't ready Beth would have hit the wall and her head would have landed on the floor."

In conclusion. If I ever have babies....I'm coming home!

What is probably more astounding, is that people in the villages - who comprise most of the voters - don't seem to have to issues with this kind of health system. Dickson said if a woman in one of the villages died giving childbirth because the ambulance didn't get there for a few hours, people would not be angry with the government and the state of health care. They would not blame a health minister. They would just say: "Oh, if only it hadn't rained, maybe that ambulance might have been able to make it through that jungle."  Similarly, if they can no longer afford soap and don't have any for a couple of weeks, they don't complain about wages and a lack of earning potential. They just think: "Oh well, we will have to go without the soap for now". On one hand, this is reflective of a nation of positive thinkers and gratefulness. On the other hand, it is symptomatic of a nation which is uninformed about their human rights.

Continuing with the theme of women, Mother's Day was preceded on Friday night by a dramatic poetry performance called 'Cut Off My Tongue'. The title of the performance is also the title of a book of poetry from Kenyan poet Sitawa Namwalie, who writes about land, tribe, identity and relationships. Although her writing puts a deeply passionate, unpretentious, candid and witty poetic voice to Kenyan history and politics, her themes and stories are universally relevant. Sitawa studied botany and zoology at university, represented Kenya in tennis and hockey and worked in development for many years before embarking on further study and then finding a voice as a poet. It was amazing to meet her and some other female African writers while I was there -- they were so welcoming and invited me to come along to their writer's club. The club is hosted by FEMRITE, which is an indigenous NGO founded in 1995 to promote women writing in Uganda, as their was a general absence of female writers and therefore female perspectives in literary and cultural heritage.

Here is one of her poems.

SKY LEAKING ELEPHANTS

It rained last night.

No, not like that,

The meek pissing of a man grown old: drip, drip...

This was a tropical storm,

Sky leaking elephants,

Angry torrents of urgency,

From nowhere a dramatic surprising deluge.

It rained last night.

No, it's not what you're thinking...

A placid hushing monotone,

The preaching of a pious monk.

Tropical rain crashed down,

Drops the size of ripe mangoes

Rocked sense right into my head, bang, bang!

It rained last night.

It hasn't rained in a while

Not like this, a tropical torrent

Soaking parched, thirsting ground right through

Emptying floods of gushing water

That threatened to free me

From my moorings, wah, wah!

It rained and rained

And rained last night,

Just on time.

A tropical tempest releasing life, whoosh, whoosh!

Knocking tendrils of grass awake.

Hastily they started to grow

Glistening upwards

Like small green snakes

Lots more to tell about too many things... but won't overload you for now :)

Much love,

Amy xox

Care Package

Dear Mum (and anyone else out there who is listening),




Please go on an Amazing Race to complete my 'Care Package' list!

If you are able to send the following... That would be awesome! But only what you can fit into an affordable package. Camera stuff is probably most important. Let me know if you need me to transfer some money into your account.

- Allen's snakes or Natural Confectionery snakes
- Garden seeds for Doreen's vege and herb garden (and so I can eat something other than rice, posho, plantain and beans)
- Hair colour
- Anti-breakage hair serum (this is actually for Doreen)
- Facial wax pen... Eleanor is going to look at photos of my eyebrows and have a freak out if I don't do something soon.
- SDHC Camera card. Mum... you can go to Camera House (Ramsay's??) or Camera World or Harvey Norman and tell them it is for a Canon Legria HG21 so must be a series 4 or 6...NOT 10 (these are references to speed). A 16g or 32g would be best if it doesn't cost you too much. I can put some money in your account
- Camera battery. I have one there somewhere but not sure where exactly... You need to go to Battery World and they may need to order it in as I don't think they would stock this battery anymore. I will email you soon with specifications.
- Any family friendly movies -- ie. Finding Nemo, Red Dog, Summer Coda...


LOVE
Xxx

Mother's Day

Hello all :)

Just a quick email (that in retrospect, has actually become quite long...) in advance of Mother's Day. This year I am giving Mum something special from Uganda and thought I'd let you know about it in case you are stuck for a gift idea for your mothers or grandmothers! But please do not feel any pressure or obligation to participate, it is just something I thought I'd share. I am also looking for some feedback on the idea, as it is something I thought YOFAFO could run as a fundraising campaign next year.

Each year at Christmas, organisations such as OXFAM pitch campaigns such as 'OXFAM Unwrapped', whereby people purchase things like goats or chickens for their loved ones. These animals are then given to people in communities in developing countries. After seeing the impact one cow can really make, I can vouch for the fact this really does make a difference!

In a bit of a Mother's Day twist I thought I'd send Mum a gift which will hopefully change the life of a woman in Uganda, and also the lives of her children.

I have already emailed you a little information about YOFAFO's micro-finance program, but here is a rehash. YOFAFO currently has 120 women on their books for the micro-finance program, and many others who would love to join and are waiting until YOFAFO receives some more funding from the heavens! The program has been running for about four years and has been a huge success. Women are first assessed on their ability to manage their money and make repayments, and are provided some education about money management. They are then placed in groups of five, with each member of the group guaranteeing the others. Combined with the nature of the tight-knit community and the leadership provided by its women, it has been very rare for a loan repayment not to be made. And in most cases where the repayments haven't been made on time, YOFAFO has eventually been able to recover the money. YOFAFO charges 3 per cent compounding interest on the loans, with those profits injected back into the program. The interest charged pays for stationery and a very small wage (stipends) for the community volunteers who give their time every week at the 'community bank' where they provide education, receive and process applications, do the paperwork for the loan repayments etc.

Without programs like this, women in Uganda would not be able to secure any type of loan. Women cannot be granted a loan from the bank unless they have the colateral of a husband or father. Most women in the villages where YOFAFO works lose their fathers when they are children, meaning they really rely on the colateral of a husband. The women who make up the 120 people on YOFAFO's micro-finance books are those who have lost their husbands (in which case the husband's family usually comes and takes everything and leaves the woman with nothing), who have had children out of wedlock, who haven't yet married, whose husbands have left them for someone else and taken everything with them, and also some young entrepeneurs. 

At first, many men in the community were reluctant about the program and were unhappy about women having their own independence. Some women have had to continue with the program in secret so as their husbands don't take the money from them. But attitudes are changing, as YOFAFO is also providing education to men about the importance of women having a strong sense of self-esteem, of being empowered and independent. They educate the men about how a woman's financial independence and programs such as this can benefit the entire family. They can now see that it not only improves the family's financial position and health status, but also provides role-modelling for their children.

Initial loans start at 100,000 Ugandan schillings, which is the equivalent of about $50. This is enough for a woman to start her own business and completely change her life.

Small businesses have included fruit and vegetable stalls, second-hand clothes sales, tailoring and the hire of boda bodas. The income the women generate means they can afford better food for their families, some school supplies and clothes for their children, soap for washing clothes etc..  Some women have even been able to build a new room for their 'house' so they don't have six children, four chickens and one grandmother sleeping and living in the kitchen.

This Mother's Day, I am giving my Mum a loan of $50, which will go to a woman in the village of Bulimaji, near Lugazi. I will ask Doreen to help me follow what happens with this loan and connect Mum with the woman who receives it. Mum will receive a small surprise gift from Bulimaji in the mail. Next year, YOFAFO is considering offering packages whereby people can donate any amount they like, but $50 will mean they receive a photo story about the woman who receives it, and $150 will mean they receive a small film about the woman.

If anyone else likes this idea, knows of anyone else who might, or has some feedback on it I would love to hear from you. Again, please do not feel any obligation -- it's my trial run of the idea and also a bit of a Mother's Day surprise for Doreen. Doreen is Valence's wife and as well as running the micro-finance program, she is also an amazing mother and has been doing a wonderful job of looking after myself and all the other volunteers who have come and gone over the years :)

An early Happy Mother's Day to you all!

Love,

Amy xoxo

Naked Ugandan men...

Hello loved ones!

Things are still going phenomenally well here in the “Great Lugazi!” (this is how Valence says it…) and am feeling more and more comfortable here each day.

I have also seen enough naked Ugandan men to last me three months! Spotted about a dozen today. I was not at all prepared! I was driving along with Valence and another gentleman, out in the forest. As we came over a hill and into a dip in the road I noticed a small channel. And then, there they were! A dozen naked men, washing!! I’m not sure who was more shocked. Myself, or the men, who were certainly not expecting to see a white girl in the back of a car drive past! Some of them looked really embarrassed and tried to cover themselves up.. but most of them realized it was pointless and just started laughing! I didn’t know whether to laugh back or look away or what to do??!

Five other volunteers are here for the week and it has been amazing to watch them settle in, interact with them, and also a nice reminder of how far I have come in three weeks. They are a really eclectic mix of people with lots of energy and varied experience. Their focus is on building a health clinic at the organisation’s Hope for Africa Children’s Village. Valence has been waiting six years for this clinic so he is very excited. We won’t be able to finish it as YOFAFO still needs another $3000 for the roof and medical supplies, but the walls will be up! The clinic will service so many people from surrounding villages who would otherwise not have access to a doctor. I helped them lift bricks on Monday, but my feet became so sunburnt I had to spend the night with my feet wrapped in wet towels! On Tuesday I tried to film as many shots as possible from the shade. I was so impressed with how much they achieved in two days!! They have had a pretty big helping hand from the community – people have been pouring in from everywhere to help out.

Amongst the group there is a Colombian girl; a London woman, who grew up in Zimbabwe, but whose Mum is Australian and Dad is European; a Kiwi who lives in Sydney who was a lawyer working in media law, but is now working in communications for the National Broadband Network.; an Australian man called Ralph, who has been the IT architect for ANZ; a weightlifter called Julie who is from Wisconsin in America; and a British girl called Erin who has already been in Uganda for three months.

Ralph is in his 50s or 60s, has three children (one of whom is my age and works as a general manager/ personal trainer at the gym where Eleanor used to work) and is currently in a relationship with a yoga instructor. Ralph doesn’t really look like a yoga man, but it doesn't surprise me that he's giving it a go. In his day he was a pretty good runner and cyclist (Arron and Eleanor will appreciate his time of 28 minutes for a 10km run). He is lovely and has spent a lot of time helping out with projects in West Africa. He is well travelled and has been an amazing resource while we are trying to revamp the organisation’s website. Ralph, Valence and myself took a day away from lifting bricks to work on the website rebuild. We set up office at the most beautiful place in the rainforest near the village where Valence was born. The rainforest is called the Mabira National Forest Reserve and is the one I have mentioned previously. It is such a special place and it just seems so wrong that the sugar company may be allowed to destroy part of it.

I have been doing a bit of research and asking some questions around town about the sugar company and was able to go to the site last week. The people I went there with have some major concerns with the way the company is using and storing chemicals. I also spoke to **** about this, as *** did some research on the factory when at university, and claims to have discovered some really awful things about the way they are exploiting the community. Some of the workers have protested about the lack of minimum wage or permanent positions by burning sugar cane, but none of the issues about workers’ rights at the factory seemed to have gained much coverage in the media. I am still unsure as to why, but expect it is because there is not enough political will from the right people. There is also the issue of the government controlling the media.

Am getting along with the Kiwi/Aussie (her name is Selma) quite well and she is now considering changing her flights and staying! Apart from having some similar professional backgrounds, the New Zealand / Australian rivalry kicked in straight away. But we pulled together, in true ANZAC spirit, to make biscuits of the same name. After all, they would just be alled ‘AACs’ if it wasn’t for the kiwis… and who knows how to pronounce that??!! Unfortunately the biscuits turned out more like a crumble, but since Ralph was the only one who knew what they were supposed to taste like, I think we got away with it. We had to improvise a lot… there were no rolled oats – just these really small, fine, quick-cooking porridge oats. The golden syrup was so clear it was barely even yellow. And we didn’t have an oven or baking tray. I had to make an ‘oven’ putting two massive cake tins together on top of the coal fire, then putting the ANZAC mixture in the bottom of another smaller cake tin, then baking. Was pretty hard to tell if it was cooking at 110 degrees, or 300.  The 18-month-old, Beth, was the biggest fan and wasn’t happy for the rest of the night unless she was munching on our Uganzac Crumble. Jo’s assessment was that it “tasted like sugar”. Doreen described it as ‘that Australian / New Zealand scrambled biscuit’. So while it might not have been as good as my coconut/honey/ginger/citrus cake royale from last week, or the chocolate/banana extravaganza… it was still an upgrade in Doreen’s eyes. I think it's because of the cakes she is suggesting marrying me off to one of her brothers! And Beth is much more of a fan of mine since I made cake (half of the ginger cake went missing and Doreen thought I ate it… then we realized Beth had discovered a way to climb up on the table and had spent the day grabbing handfuls and munching away at it!) I now have an extra shadow. She is very small and walks around saying my name, attaching herself to my leg, trying my shoes on, and chitter-chattering away to me in a mixture of English, Lugandan and creative Beth language. We have dubbed it ‘Bethuganda’.

The British girl called Erin who has already been in Uganda has been volunteering in a town not far from here for three months. But she loved Uganda and didn’t want to go back, so was able to change her flights and visa. She has a Masters in Health Psychology and will spend six weeks working with YOFAFO on health promotion and public health initiatives. She is really sweet and bubbly and I am glad to have her company.

In my last email I told you about how challenging I have found it to try and run while I have been here. Everyone was staring at me and laughing and sometimes it is hard to tell if people are laughing at you in good humour, or if they are making cruel fun of you! I was also feeling very vulnerable as a single, white, female and was attracting a lot of attention I really did not need while I was running and didn’t feel very safe. But I have now convinced Valence to come jogging with me! We went for the most beautiful run this morning, through the sugar cane and the jungle. He is really enjoying it, and I have also managed to convince him and Dickson to participate in a run along on the Nile River in about four weeks time!

I have to say, even though I felt a little vulnerable when I went running… I have been blown away by how friendly and trustworthy people are here. Despite the fact this is a developing country, more than half the population are unemployed and many live on less than $1 a day, I have barely been asked for any money. I once had some money hanging out of my pocket, and instead of pinching it, some young children came and told me about it. Also, I nearly destroyed my phone on the weekend. I was on a boda boda and trying to carry too many things…. and the phone fell out of a bag and onto the road!! It was in the middle of the roundabout and I thought I was never going to see it. Three man ran into the roundabout and I figured they were going to pinch it and run. But they joined forces to stop the traffic, and one of them jumped out in front of a car as it was driving over the phone, and then reached under the car and saved it for me!

I have enjoyed visiting Kampala, but my favourite places to go (thus far) are out into the villages. They are situated in what would have to be some of the most spectacular places in the world, and the people there are so welcoming. They know you have come as a volunteer and just keep saying ‘Thankyou’ all the time. They cook for you and are always so impressed if you can have a go at helping or just say two or three words in Luganda. I am learning slowly (mpola mpola).  I really love all the sounds of the words, but they are just so different! And words can mean such different things if you emphasise the vowels or syllables in different places. For example, the word for water is actually the same as the word for s**it, but changes depending on how you say it!

I did have a very relaxing weekend in Kampala last weekend though. I headed over on Saturday morning and was able to find a 50m metre pool! It was at a resort about 15km out of Kampala, and there was a wedding happening right beside the pool. I discovered it is the only full-sized swimming pool in Kampala. And in all of Uganda. And in fact.. in all of east Africa! I have a new-found respect for any East African trying to qualify for the Olympics now! This is the only full-size swimming pool they can train in, so most of them just train in 25m pools! So had a big swim and then jumped on a boda and headed off to a meditation class. It was with an organisation called Isha --  http://www.ishafoundation.org/   Am looking at doing a two day yoga workshop on May 12/13 with the founder of Afrikan Yoga. http://afrikanyoga.com/

 I will go and check out Jinja this weekend. Am also helping out an arts organization called Bayimba with a bit of media / marketing this week. I was put in contact with the organization through a friend of Minerva’s, in South Africa. They are holding some events / workshops / exhibitions / concerts in Jinja this week and on Saturday. I will head over there on Friday to help them out and participate in some of the workshops, and then Valence will join me on Saturday. Can’t wait!!

Hope this finds everyone well and not too cold… although you can be happy knowing that too much sun is sometimes too much (see photos of my sunburnt feet).

Lots of love,

Amy.

I say 'banana', you say...?

In Uganda Matooke (mar-took-ay) is served with almost every dish... at least every second dish! I have eaten it straight from the tree, served with a ground nut sauce, as an accompaniment to Nile Perch, or just with posho (cornmeal), rice or beans...

For the first week I thought I was eating sweet potato. 

Then someone said: "Did you like the banana?". 

I said: "I liked the potato". 

She said: "No, the banana we had for lunch". 

I said: "Wasn't that potato?". 

She said: "No it was banana! Potato is sweet!".

Go figure.

So Here's an explanation of how to cook it.... enjoy :) 

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One popular local dish is matooke (bananas of the plantain type...ie when they are green) which are cooked boiled in a sauce of peanuts, fresh fish, meat or entrails. Matooke really goes with any relish, except that the best and most respectable way the Baganda cook it is to tie up the peeled fingers into a bundle of banana leaves which is then put in a cooking pan with just enough water to steam the leaves.

Real process

When properly ready and tender, the bundle is removed and squeezed to get a smooth soft and golden yellow mash, served hot with all the banana leaves around to keep it hot. In Buganda, the food production process revolves around the banana tree.

Tender banana tree shoots are removed from the plant and singed over fire to make a fine foil into which chunks of pork or beef are tied up and steamed on top of a bundle of bananas.

This style of cooking preserves all the flavours and cooks up food like a pressure cooker, if not better. Dry banana leaves are used like bandages when bundles of matooke are being wrapped up for steaming.

Strips and chunks cut from the banana tree stem can be used as a foundation at the bottom of the cooking pan so as to avoid the boiling water touching the bundle of the matooke being steamed.

Uganda Snow

Hello all! 

Apologies for lack of descriptive Ugandan content in your inboxes, but I have only just secured internet access for my phone and computer.

I am yet to spot any signs of Kony (surprise, surprise), another white person or any Allen’s snakes. For those who know me well, you will no doubt be laughing at the thought of me without hot showers for three months, and you are probably having a giggle at the thought of me washing my underwear in a basin with soap. My Girl Guide skills are also making a resurgence in the kitchen, where there is no oven, stovetop, fridge, kettle, toaster, sink and basin, benchtop, coffee maker, dishwasher … etc. etc … think coal in a bag, chopping board on the floor, and washing dishes in a bucket. So I’m camping for three months! At least the kitchen is indoors and there are plenty of utensils, spices, and it is kept super clean. Also, there’s usually at least one lady or a young guy here who is cleaning up and helping watch children or cooking, a guard, and a lady who comes to do the washing… Thanks to Mum’s recipe I even managed to make a delicious cake. Doreen and the children will vouch for me, I swear!

My arrival in Uganda was an initial scrummage for lost luggage but I had an amazing introduction to the city…

Valence, who is the director and founder of the Youth Focus Africa Foundation, arrived at the hotel with open arms and smiling face and all of my fears were settled. It is almost impossible not to be inspired by this man. His ability to consistently deliver inspiring conversation is astounding, and it is easy to see how he makes so much happen with such little funding.

Over lunch under some banana trees where I tried to not be distracted by all the funny looking birds and big bright flowers, I learnt Valence is 34 and grew up in a village called Kitoola. It is just outside of Lugazi (where I am staying), which is about 50km east of the Ugandan capital of Kampala… which is in the south of Uganda and sits right on Lake Victoria. His father died when he was nine, leaving his mother with four children. She remarried and had another three children. Almost everyone I have met in Uganda is one of about seven siblings! They don’t seem to have any problems breeding and the population is a triangled skew of high birth rates and high death rates. Before Valence’s mother remarried, someone had spoken to her about the value of education. She later heard about an organisation which was sponsoring children and became determined to access a better future for her children. With her four children, Valence’s mother trekked 30 kilometres into the mountains to find the organisation and ask if they could sponsor her children. They told her they could, but they would come and see her. She trekked back home and waited. After three months, she became sick of waiting and walked there again. She did this four times before they finally arrived at her house and offered to sponsor just one child. The child was Valence, and he is determined not to be the only college graduate from his village in 15 years. 

It was through a lot of hard work and resourcefulness Valence was able to make it through secondary school and university, where he studied development. He made a promise that if he made it through, he would use his education to go back and help his community. After secondary school there were many other temptations. There were plenty of other professions which could earn him good money and a much easier life. On top of this, his mother died when he was 14. But the grieving teenager headed off to college. It was here he also met Doreen. Doreen, 32, is the daughter of a radiographer and midwife. She was also studying development and grew up in an underdeveloped village near Valence. They became great friends and she even used to confide in him about her boy problems! After one bad experience she even vowed she would not marry an African man and Valence tried to set her up with one of his American friends (although he failed to mention to Doreen that he was doing this). After many years of friendship, Valence proposed. Proposals are different in traditional Uganda. They are basically a proposal to start a relationship, or take the friendship to ‘the next level’. But it is understood this will lead to marriage and there is not really an engagement as such.

Doreen, who is now 32, was working as a community development officer for a government organisation when she married Valence and agreed to be his partner in his dreams for YOFAFO.

Despite the temptation to find a well paid job, buy some land and a house in Kampala, Valence and Doreen went back to their community where Valence started mentoring young people and attempting to inspire them to think beyond their current situation. The poverty here is rife, most children do not make it through secondary school, corruption and bribery is inherent, youth unemployment rates range from 10 per cent to 83 per cent, people die young of preventable diseases, and many workers are exploited. Valence is encouraging young people to dream big. The organisation has grown in leaps and bounds and many children have completed secondary school and even gone to college thanks to child sponsorship. The foundation also runs health education, free health clinics in remote villages, a microfinance program for women and a primary school/children’s village. Valence’s current big dream is to build a first class secondary and vocational school next to the children’s village (where there is already a primary school catering for 450 children, most of them orphans). His vision is that this will mean the organisation will not have to rely on child sponsorship, as the costs of running the school will be subsidised by school fees from parents who can afford them.

While in Kampala, we still had time to kill, so we spent the next couple of hours at the beach discussing Valence’s belief in the power of the recognising the past does not exist, and if you want to change the world you must first change yourself (Mahatma Gandhi quote) etc etc. 

Yes, I did say ‘the beach’. It was a pretty surreal experience to be sitting in the middle of Africa on a beach. Driving in, there were statues of a waving Nelson Mandela, and one of Queen Elizabeth chatting to the former president. Valence thought the Queen “looked hot”. I am pretty sure he was not referring to her body temperature... although it is very warm here, being on the equator and all. There were also old aeroplanes painted up (although a little run down) for people to look through, camels to ride, volleyball nets, and funny shade huts dotted along the shoreline. Sitting down and a young guy comes over to ask what we’d like to drink. There weren’t many people on the beach, but Valence said it would become busy with the after-work Friday night crowd a bit later. And then, with some scratchy reggae playing in the background, a group of about 30 secondary school students turned up. They had come from about 300km away and most of them had never seen a beach, let alone gone swimming! Some jumped in early and started splashing around and trying to navigate their way through the water like frogs! Others stood on the shoreline, undoing their belts and just waiting for 20 seconds of dutch courage which never seemed to eventuate. Some girls giggled, while others who had nothing appropriate to swim in just looked longingly as their classmates splashed and jumped around, leaving their teenage self-consciousness in their clothes on the sand.

Collected luggage and baggage and went skittling through Kampala en route to Lugazi. These people are crazy drivers, and the boda boda drivers (smallish motorbikes) are completely insane. Pedestrians and bikes have no right of way, and vehicles just keep charging through. It's like they just close their eyes and hit the accelarator or step out on the road and hope for the best! But somehow it works and they all miss each other??

Over the past week or so I have spent most of my working time with Doreen’s younger brother Dickson. Dickson is a clinical medical officer (a doctor) and gives two days a week to YOFAFO. He lives and works in Kampala for the rest of the time. YOFAFO provides health outreach to 10 villages, visiting one village per week. Running the clinic requires a lot of improvisation! At the first village we went to, they initially asked Dickson to consult with patients and dispense medication under a tree outside! It would have been lovely to sit under the tree… but there were of course a few confidentiality issues! So someone lent the main room of their house. This week he treated people inside an old classroom. HIV/AIDS is obviously a massive issue, and there are reports the prevalence is on the rise. The official rate is now about 7 per cent, but Dickson says the rate in some rural areas can be anywhere between 30 and 70 per cent. The other major issues are intestinal worms and malaria. Doreen’s three-year-old son Joe had malaria last week. Doreen took their 18-month-old daughter Beth to the doctor today and she was diagnosed with it. I am sure we are sharing mosquitoes! But they don’t take medication every day … and I do. So it should be okay ;)

The villages are so remote and people would miss out on health care if YOFAFO didn’t run these clinics. For old people with arthritis it is impossible for them to make the trek into town and it would be too expensive for them to pay for transport. But they are living in a most spectacular part of the world. The tropical surrounds take your breath away, and they are sitting on views of Lake Victoria you would pay a small fortune for in Australia! So strange that in contrast, these people don’t even have electricity and live off what they can grow ie. matooke (mar-toke-ay ….. steamed plantain / green bananas), beans, ground nuts (like peanuts), posho (cornmeal) and rice.

Dickson and his patients have been extremely generous with me and allowed me to pester them with a video and still camera. Have almost finished the first film, but will do another interview tomorrow. Dickson also wished to pass on a message that he drove very carefully when I was on the back of the boda boda and we were slipping and sliding around the mountains in the mud (it is very warm here at the moment, but is wet season… so usually buckets down once a day). He said to me: “Amy, have you ever been to the snow?... Well welcome to the Ugandan Snow”. He also said that if something did happen, he would give Valence the honour of explaining it to my mother...

I also spent a day at the women’s microfinance centre. Doreen explained to me how they have used donations from volunteers to change the lives of many women in the community. In Uganda, a female is unable to secure a loan without collateral – ie the support of her father or husband. But many women have lost both their fathers and husbands (some husbands have died, others left…). And when a man dies, his family usually comes and takes everything from the woman and leaves her with nothing. And she cannot get a loan. The women are given a minimum loan of 100,000 schillings (about $40) once they can prove they have some skills in managing money. They are placed in groups of five. Each woman is given a loan but they have to look after each other and guarantee each other. For example, if one person cannot meet their loan repayments for the week, the others will pitch in for her. The program was working so well, the women were paying off their loans much sooner than they needed to! It also made them realise the more they paid off, the more they could borrow, and the more money they could make. Empowering women is very important to Valence and Doreen. Valence refers to his mother as his hero and is more than aware of the power a mother has to instill ‘big dream’ values and a sense of self belief in her children. The microfinance program has seen women start up small businesses selling fruit and vegetables, clothes etc etc. Some have gone on to purchase boda bodas which others drive for them and make money for them. It has meant many women have been able to build themselves a small house, and feed their children.

I have been a little uncomfortable with the male / female relationships here. It is not so much the case in the city, but in Lugazi, things are still very traditional. Doreen does not wear pants in Lugazi. Only skirts and dresses. It is okay to show a bit of cleavage, but never the thigh! The majority of women kneel to their husbands, and the man does not help around the house at all. Valence has told Doreen she does not need to kneel before him when she speaks to him as they have a mutual respect for one another. He said he felt if she knelt before him she would really be laughing at him on the inside.

Although Valence does help with washing the children and wiping their noses, he is still happy to read the paper while Doreen is on her hands and knees with a cloth, mopping the floor, washing clothes by hand, sweeping, cooking, doing dishes, and trying to keep small children away from knives, fires etc etc… It’s such a massive job!! She has help during the week, but does it all by herself on Sundays.

But Doreen and Valence have a lot of respect and love for one another and Valence plays a much bigger role in the house than most Ugandan men. He also works very long hours and the pair of them run the organisation as a team. I also have to remember that I am in a different country with different rules and upbringings…

I have been trying to go jogging, but am attracting a lot of attention. Not only am I the only white person in town, I am the only one who jogs, and I am a female. Children run out in large groups, shouting and jumping “Mzungu! Mzungu!” (moo-zoong-goo = white person). So everyone knows I’m coming from 100m away. Some of the women smile and laugh (some wait until after I’ve passed to laugh) and some have stone faces I can’t crack no matter how much I smile! And I don’t feel so safe when I am by myself and six men on boda bodas are yelling at me to stop and are asking for my phone number. So I am trying to rope Valence into jogging with me, and in the meantime I am skipping at home. I can deal with waving every 20 seconds, but feel uncomfortable enough when I am around lots of people speaking in Luganda and the men are yelling out things at me. I’m sure it’s harmless, but I really have no idea what they are sayng!! Most of the time I really appreciate all the friendliness, but sometimes I just want to put a bag on my head.

In Lugazi, many people are ‘employed’ by the Mehta Group – an Indian corporation which has subsidiaries across the world, but in Uganda, runs the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd. The sugar factory was established in 1924, but the Mehta Family lost their Ugandan assets in 1972 when former president Idi Amin dispossessed  all Asians of their businesses and personal property. The assets were returned in 1980 with a change of government. The organisation claims to be playing a major role in the development of Uganda and points to how it provides in-house training and schooling for the children of employees. It earned ‘Employer of the Year’ and ‘Best Employee Relations and Welfare’ awards. I am finding this rather baffling though. I can see the Mehta Family has built a golf course / botanic garden / soccer field / hockey pitch / large house in Lugazi for their own very private use. Meanwhile, local people tell me the Mehta Group's ‘employees’ are all casual and are paid less than $10 a week. From what people have told me, the money for the schooling is taken out of the ‘employee’ wages and the company is actually making money on this. Apparently they only train / provide education to the students to a certain level, and do not encourage them to attend college. Some politicians and local leaders say the workers and this community are being completely exploited by this company. But nothing is being said about it in the media or elsewhere (from what I can tell) because a) the people are not educated about their rights b) they are desperate for any kind of employment and cannot risk the small pay they receive from the organisation c) the government/president potentially has some financial interests in the organisation  d) the government owns and has a lot of control of the media. The one time the corporation did attract negative attention was when it tried to acquire part of the Mabira Forest near Lugazi for sugar production. Mabira Forest is one of the largest natural forest reserves in Uganda, is one of the most environmentally valuable forests in Uganda and in Africa in general. President Musevini tried to give some of the forest to the corporation in 2007, resulting in violent demonstrations in which two or three African-Indians were killed. He retracted his stance on this, but has recently reinstated the offer. Late last year, Musevini announced he would give about 7100 hectares for sugarcane growing...  so there seems to be political will when it comes to national environmental issues, but not worker's rights?

I went to Kampala by myself on the weekend which was really lovely. I had to sort out the internet on my computer, so jumped in a maxi taxi thing (matatu) without about a dozen other people and went rocking and rolling to Kampala. It took about two hours to go 50km! Sorted out the internet, went to where I was staying and had the best hot shower ever! Then just spent some time enjoying a good internet connection, a big comfortable double bed, normal floors, my own uninterrupted space. Went to a small swimming pool at a hotel in the morning and had the pool to myself. Well so I thought… at the end of the swim I looked up and about 30 men were standing on a balcony watching me!! It is uncommon for people to swim here. There is only one 50m swimming pool in all of East Africa – at a resort outside of Kampala. Even the Ugandan swimmers competing for Olympic spots train in 25m pools…

Met up with a friend of a friend of Minerva’s for lunch (for those who don’t know Minerva… she is a dancer who used to work with Gerard at Phunktional). Ellady is a really interesting guy who is a member of the Arterial Network, of which Minverva is connected with. The organisation is based in South Africa and aims to build and develop regional / national / continental / international networks in support of Africa’s cultural and creative sector. Ellady is currently heading a campaign to save Uganda’s national museum. The museum has been collecting important artefacts from across East Africa since 1908 and yet this historically significant resource is not funded by the Ugandan government. It is also important to note the site was the location for the 2007 CHOGM conference. The Government of the Republic of Uganda wants to build a 60 storey commercial trade centre on the site of the museum, and is suggesting its demolition. Ellady’s civil society is taking the government to court… their next hearing is on Thursday. Ellady also used to be a member of Uganda’s ruling party, but says he became very disillusioned with the corruption and policies. He recently ran for parliament as an independent and intends to do so again in 2016. He was very generous with his time, is doing a lot of phenomenal advocacy work in the areas of heritage, the environment, tackling government corruption, and malaria prevention. He was also able to answer many of my questions about some of Uganda’s political issues which I am interested in (I had a lot of questions…!) and provide some insight into key issues which I am hoping to look into and perhaps start some stories on while I am here. 

After lunch Ellady took me to the museum and then to a baptism for the young son of a friend of his. I wasn’t really prepared for what would happen at the baptism and Ellady gave me no warning. I was in jeans and t-shirt and when we turned up, I realised Ellady was quite close with this family. Everyone was dressed up like they were going to wedding/nightclub and I found myself in the front row of the ceremony, seated next to the parents! I am in their family photos forever now…  Everyone was speaking Luganda so I didn’t have much of an idea what was going on, but as usual, I just smiled and laughed, bopped along to the music a bit and threw in a few Luganda words which everyone is always impressed by. People are constantly laughing at me and I have no idea why. 

By the time I made it back to Lugazi I was soooo happy to see Doreen and Valence. They are such genuine and generous people, and it is starting to feel like home. Plus Doreen puts extra ginger in my tea...

Lots more to tell and many more descriptions of Lugazi, the villages, Kampala, Doreen, the kids, politics, the ebb and flow of each day etc…but have probably weighed your email inboxes down enough with this one!! Will try to log in a little more regularly now… I figure since Gran is giving Facebook a go to stay in contact, I should be able to manage a few more emails.

Lots of love and thanks for all your correspondence,

Amy xox