The small white bird that moves with cows

Yesterday, Thursday May 29^th, was super productive. We started out by meeting with the Persons with Disabilities group. The mothers were lead in a discussion of goal-setting, while we played with the children. I left a few moments early so that I could be on time to the first business training meeting. We are teaching a group of local businessmen basic business skills and concepts. Their businesses range from hardware, wholesale, carpentry, retail, ect. Jeff and I taught about analyzing you business and creating a business plan. This following week we will be visiting the individual businesses and advising the owners as they create their business plans and set goals.

Following that meeting, Jeff, Trent, Tori, and I went to the market. Trent and I bought fruit and came back to the house to make a smoothie. Our smoothie was amazing. We then went to a neighborhood called Nmango where we taught Janet’s women’s group how to build an Adobe Stove. Those women are awesome. Each of the women brought a bucket of clay to contribute. The type of social capital that exists here is really inspiring. 20 plus neighbors volunteered to help build a stove for the nearby school. All of them were actively engaged in the construction. The stove will not only help to provide the school children with lunch. Adobe stoves conserve firewood, which is in short supply here. In addition, they channel smoke away from the lungs of the women who cook the meals, and the small children who play nearby. Acute repertory infection is one of the main causes of preventable death for young children in the developing world. Our hope is that as we build stoves with community members they will learn to make them, and be able to replicate them all over Lugazi even after we leave.

We had a great time with the women’s group. We took off our shoes and stomped on the mud and clay to mix it. The women thought that I looked silly and they taught me the word for funny in Luganda. They laughed with me as I tried to speak to them in Luganda. They told me that they would build me a house so I could stay in Lugazi forever. They told me all I would have to do is learn to peal matoke (a really important skill for women here). They gave me a Buganda name, Nnaneojo. It means: small white bird that moves with cows.

Last week we made a disgusting discovery: As we were walking home one evening we noticed that all of the children had little white whistles. When we asked to see them they laughed at us and ran away. Lauren picked up one of the kids and realized that the small whistles were made from the tampon applicators that our volunteers had thrown away. That night in a team meeting, Heidi recounted the story, “We tried to convince the children to throw them away, but they just wouldn’t… that was when I realized there was not hope for Africa.”

Today, once I am finished posting this blog, I am going to lunch with a Peace Corp volunteer named Grant. He has been in Lugazi for one year. I ran into him a couple days ago and found out that he is working with micro-businesses. He actually introduced the idea of paper-bead necklaces to Faith and the PWD group which I am going to try to sell to you guys in the US. Increasingly, I have been interested in private-sector solutions to poverty. Before I came, I read two books by Muhammad Yunus who champions microfinance. Sadly, it seems that micro-loans in Uganda have been all but criminal – require large collateral, charging huge interest rates, and giving almost no grace period to pay loans back. I have heard no triumphs, only horror storied of mirco-finance here. I am anxious to talk to Grant about micro-loans and run over some ideas I had for the business training we are doing. It is going to be so helpful to the ideas of someone who has been here trying to do a similar thing.