In the Garden-Van Morrison

Everyday is a transportation adventure.  Each morning begins with a big discussion about transportation as there always seems to be a new issue or deal that needs to get worked out.  While things in Rwanda are more orderly, Uganda is known for being much more of a free for all and we have experienced that on our trip so far.

Today we rode public taxis, which was a fun adventure.  Taxis are also called Mutatus and they are fifteen passenger vans that are, more often than not, filled with far more than fifteen people.  They don’t really have any set route or stops but they do run fairly regularly so you can take them to large hubs or between cities but you can’t really expect them to drop you off exactly where you’re going, as you would expect in the U.S.  We got dropped off at our new regular stop-the Simple Supermarket and Pastor Francis met us to teach us to his school so we can do it by ourselves in the future.

One thing that is an ordeal for Ugandans is getting water.  There are water faucets spread out throughout the living areas but everyone uses huge 4.5 gallon jugs (and really any container they can find) to carry water.  Wherever we go, we see people carrying containers of water to or from watering areas.

Today a group of four of us was back to Pastor Francis’ to work in the schools, help with the garden and visit more microenterprises.  Kim, Jessi, Michael and I were swarmed with hugs and smiles and “how are yous” upon our arrival because the students were on a break from class.  We then each took a class to teach.  I was in charge of the pre-school and P1 classes-quite a challenge for me considering I’m a high school teacher who has never taught at the elementary level and that most of the students don’t speak English.  At any rate, we sang a lot of songs and two hours later-I was exhausted!

The students love to have their picture taken and then look at the pictures on my camera so I spent some time at lunch taking pictures for students.  We then had another delicious lunch prepared by Pastor Francis’ wife.  During lunch we discussed his project development class and a special session he had asked us to teach the next day about life and career goals.

After lunch we began our work in the community garden.  This involved sorting through piles of garbage to separate out plastics from compostable items, digging holes, filling them with compost and recovering them with dirt.  Two of the upper level classes and some of the teachers helped us and in no time at all we had an entire plot completed.

Since we had visited to male microenterprises yesterday, today we visited two female microenterprises.   On the way I got to try and hold a bunch of bananas on my head-they are heavy!!  We first visited a woman who has opened a salon.  She styles hair and does braids.  Her busiest times of year are special occasions and holidays although she has some regular customers who come to get their hair done every two to three weeks.  She worked on Pastor Francis’ wife’s hair as an example but when she needed the dryer, sadly there was no power.

As we walked on to the next microenterprise Pastor Francis’ wife told us about the women’s support group she hosts.  It is comprised of local female business owners and they meet regularly to discuss business practices, savings and financial management, etc.  The next business was a small shop owned by a mother of one of the most precocious students at the school.   Her shop is sponsored by a charcoal company, but she also sells some small food products and spices.  We all squeezed into her shop to hear her story.  This woman has advanced HIV and was feeling very hopeless when Pastor Francis and his wife helped her start her business.  She is doing better now although now she is having rent problems and is not sure she will be able to stay in her home, which is behind her shop. 

We made a few purchases of mango and fish and then walked back to Pastor Francis’ place.  We were supposed to speak to his project management class but in Uganda everyone arrives a little late so we played with the boarding kids as we waited and I made balloon animals for them which was fun.  Some students finally arrived and we were able to talk with them about their projects for a few minutes before heading back for dinner.  We took a public taxi back again and learned that the phrase, “In Africa, there is always more room” definitely applies to tax rides.  We were sitting in a fifteen passenger van with rows of three seats across but several times there were four or five people in a row and one time there was a live chicken stuffed under the seat like a piece of baggage.

We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day but excited to share stories and hear about everyone’s adventures.