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Offerings for traditional powers

Our last full day in Uganda was a special one.  We woke up and followed our normal morning routine to Lugazi.  We stopped at Ssezibwa Falls on our way.  This is an important area to witch doctors and believers of tribal healing powers.







We spent the majority of the day at Musana-a women's organization aimed at employing mothers to empower them to educate their children and break the cycle of poverty.

Some of the women of Musana welcoming us in song.

Learning basket weaving

Musana employs twenty women and they make jewelry that is sold in the United States and via the internet.  The women who work at Musana make a living wage, they are fed lunch and also have education sessions for an hour each day-topics include budgets and saving, health information, English classes, etc.  Musana matches the school fees paid by each employee so they are able to keep their children in school.  Additionally, the organization also helps pay for any medical fees for the women and their children above the equivalent of about $15.  We spent most of the day rotating through craft stations where the women taught us how to make baskets, make clay beads for the jewelry, paint beads, and weave mats.   I was pretty good at the basket weaving; however, I wished I could go back in time and renegotiate that five dollar a basket price I had negotiated at a market in Jinja because I learned it takes about a week to make a basket!  The mat making was not my forte but my teacher sure had a good time laughing at my lack of skill and encouraging me to keep trying.  After lunch we spent the education hour with them reading books from the community library to offer the women an opportunity to practice their English skills.  This was one of the most impressive organizations we were able to visit throughout our entire trip.

Late in the afternoon we had to say goodbye to our new friends and we headed to a local neighborhood where they put on an interactive music and dancing performance for us which was a truly joyful experience!


 

Neighborhood kids excited about Bozeman Tourism efforts