Ever since I left Uganda (almost exactly 2 years ago) I have felt it tapping inside me (and no I am not talking about parasites). I am taking about an impatient thump, a wordless spell, reminding me that I took something from the Heart of Africa. See Uganda (and Lugazi in particular) is full of some sort of magic. And I think what happened was that I accidently absorbed some it, maybe through street food or the thick red dirt that stained my feet or those tiny hands that pressed against mine on my walks through the village. Anyway, some magic planted itself inside me and keeps tapping because it pines to reunite with its source.
As the wheels touched down in Entebbe and I looked out to the that florescent green scratched with powdery-red paths, the tapping was appeased and a week-long smile settled itself on my face.
The drive from Entebbe to Mukono was crazy. Things have changed so much here in just two years. The entire stretch is one extended city which has pushed out the jungle that used to surround each trading center. I had come to Uganda to work on an evaluation for HELP International. So, I am going to be staying with the HELP teams in Mukono and Lugazi while I am here. The first night I stayed in Mukono. When I reached the house there, David (our guard in 2008 who I have remained in contact with and who also is their guard now) was outside to greet me. We embraced and giggled with the excitement of being able to see each other again. David is one of the sweetest people I have ever met.
The next day I spent in Mukono. My purpose for being in Uganda is to set up an impact evaluation for HELP International. So I visited Uganda Christian University and talked to a professor there about the evaluation I am doing for HELP and whether we could get the University involved. I also interviewed several people that HELP has worked with in Mukono and worked on the wording of the evaluation.
On Friday I finally made it to Lugazi. The HELP house this year is just down the street from the one that we stayed at in 2008 so I got to walk the same path I was used to walking from town. On the way I stopped my Mama Joel’s house. Mama Joel is the mother of two children with disabilities, Rita and Joel. She was a member of the group of mothers of children with disabilities that we set up. Her children were usually left in the back of the house in the dark and seldom were taken outside and stimulated. We went and visited them and set up a community member, Grace (the pastor’s wife), to visit them as well. As time went by Mama Joel saw that getting the children up and playing with them was helping them to develop more. Joel was getting strong enough to stand if he had something to hold on to. Joel’ father started coming around more. He had been gone a lot lately (rumor has it he had taken another wife) and Mama Joel was afraid the father would leave them without any help. Mama Joel said the attention Rita and Joel were getting was encouraging the father to be more involved. We took Joel and Rita (along with about 10 other children with disabilities) to a clinic in Kampala that diagnosed them and suggested various aids (like wheelchairs, standing frames, sitting frames, and parallel bars). Joel’s father came along and examined the various equipment. He is a carpenter and said he could build many of these things himself. So, he built a sitting frame for Rita and a standing frame for Joel and made several other pieces for other children in the group. So, I went to see Mama Joel to see how the children were doing now two years later. I went to her shop where she charges and sells batteries and asked to see Rita and Joel. She looked down and said that Rita had passed away.
That afternoon there was an opening ceremony for two school blocks that the 2010 built at Ssanyu Primary School. I was so excited to attend this event because in 2008 we had also built school blocks there. Pastor Francis and Sister Ssanyu are wonderful people that started the school to serve the more vulnerable children in the community. When we first started working with them they only had a couple small and shabby classrooms that were already past capacity. By helping them build the first couple classes they were able to expand and take in more children. When the 2010 team arrived they had already built the foundation for two additional blocks and HELP contributed to helping them finish. Pastor Francis gave a speech and asked everyone to look around at the school and at the students, and he said that all of it had become possible because of the support that my 2008 team had given and the confidence that we had put in him and in the community. He said that the parents had been inspired by the help we had rendered and were excited to continue the work. He also explained that in working with Francis (this is a different Francis, a woman with a disability that is on town council) the building would be open to the group for people with disabilities that was taught to make and sell soap by the 2009 team. He asked me to stand and said that I had begun all of this. I was overwhelmed, and when asked to speak I didn’t know what to say. I told everyone how wonderful it was to be able to attend the opening ceremony for these school blocks on my first day back in Lugazi since on almost my last day in Lugazi two years ago we had had a ceremony for the first two blocks. I then got teary-eyed and said that Francis, Pastor Francis, and Sister Ssanyu were incredible people that I hope to be like one day. They are heroes to their community. The little help that we provided would have gone nowhere had it not been for their leadership and the commitment of the parents and community to make a better situation for their children.
On the way back from Ssanyu School I ran into one of the cousins of the family we had stayed with in 2008. She took me to that house and I was happy to find that the whole family was there. It was Ramadan and the sun was setting so they were preparing to end their fast. I didn’t want to stay long and delay their dinner, but they told me not to mind and brought me tea and snacks, even though they were not yet eating. They named each one of the 29 volunteers (plus Jackie of other CD) and had me report on how they were doing. It was wonderful to catch up with them and I was touched that they were so pleased to welcome me.
On Saturday I met Edith who was one of my first friends in Lugazi. Together with Steven (on Town Council and teacher at Lugazi Hillview Secondary School where we built a library in 2008) we went to visit a women’s group that had started a savings and loans program with the help of 2009 volunteers. They bring money to their meeting each week and save for 6 months. After 6 months they get the savings back and invest it into various projects. With help from Edith and Steven we interviewed many of the these women. This group happened to be near a woman named Christine who is the leader of a women’s group in Namengo that we worked with in 2008. She is one of the most incredible people I have even met. Her husband died of AIDS as did her sister. Now she has 6 children who she takes care of and pays school fees for. She also has AIDS and every time I see her she looks more fragile. In spite of all of this (or perhaps because of it) she is extraordinarily strong and hardworking. Since we worked with her in 2008 she has built 3 clay stoves and started a piggery project. She now has new baby pigs and is hoping to expand the piggery to fit them. The piggery helps pay for her children’s school fees and her medical expenses.
On Sunday I met Pastor Josiah and he drove me on his boda boda (motorcycle) through the sugar came fields, past a small stream where women line up to collect water, up several hills and into a village called Seya. In Seya Pastor Josiah and his wife Annet run a primary school and help with an orphanage called Hope Children’s Home. HELP built a stove, pig pen, and chicken coup at the Children’s Home and two school blocks at the primary school. They also have done teacher training at the primary school for three years. When I arrived they were cooking me lunch on the adobe stove we built in 2008. It was still working wonderfully! Also, their pigs had just had new babies and they had plans to expand the piggery.
I went to Pastor Josiah’s house and saw their new baby boy, Jeremiah, that was only a few months old. I also saw their little girl that had been born when I was there. We all went together to church. Their services are probably my favorite church services I have ever attended. Someone speaks for a few minutes, during which people are free to yell out “Amen” or “Praise God” or really anything they feel like saying. Then suddenly (maybe its only suddenly to me because I don’t know what was being said during the speech) the music starts playing and everyone begins singing. The singing gets louder and louder and as it crescendos people begin dancing and their movement get larger and larger until finally the air is full with energy and people are jumping as high as they can and yelling and others or on their knees and others are shaking. Finally someone puts their arms into the air and starts chanting to himself or herself and then everyone else eventually follows. Then someone else gets up to speak and we all start over again. There is probably lots of meaning and emotion behind everything that is happening but because I don’t know Luganda I am probably missing a lot. For me though its great because it combines so many of the things I love: dancing, talking to myself, singing, yelling, acting weird, Uganda, and old people.
That afternoon I went back to Lugazi for a game night with The Youth Outreach Mission (TYOM). A guy named Wilson Laker, who is originally from Gulu but now lives in Lugazi, started TYOM. When he was finishing secondary school his friend died of AIDS and it moved him to try and do something about the disease. Wilson, and a group of his friends, began visiting schools and teaching kids about HIV/AIDS. We ran into them in 2008 and a volunteer named Ashley Ward got them involved in our HIV/AIDS support group. They helped us build showers and stoves at the group members’ houses and continued to build these facilities at houses once we had left. Since then they have started a football club for street children, help put on HIV/AIDS advocacy days, and helped set up two eye camps. They have been helped by HELP volunteers who go back to the states and stay involved with TYOM by sending t-shirts, setting up a website, and even sending some money. Now, they have an office in town and just received a grant from the town council which will allow them to start a animal husbandry project which will hopefully help generate income so they can expand to new projects. It was wonderful to be with them and especially to talk with Wilson about all they were able to accomplish in two years. He was so appreciative to me and said that meeting Jackie and I was a turning point for TYOM that has made everything possible. I was uncomfortable with the praise since I was weary about TYOM in the beginning and think that had Wilson not been so persistent we might have dropped our project with them altogether. But, I am glad we continued to work with them and I have a feeling that I will continue to be involved with TYOM. I just know that it is going to continue to expand and I hope to be part of it.
That night I went back to Seya. They boiled water over the stove and gave it to me to bathe with. Then Annet showed me my room and they brought us dinner. We sat on the bed eating dinner and talking for hours. Finally Annet said goodnight and I lay in bed listening to the orphan girls in the next room whispering and giggling to each other. At one point they started singing "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" which I knew was for me.
David called me from New York that night and I tried to express how grateful and happy I was for everything that had been happening to me since I reached Uganda. My heart was so full and I was overwhelmed with emotion. I really wish he had been there with me and could have experienced it too, because my descriptions were lost over the phone.
On Monday I met with TYOM all day. I went to their office in Lugazi and we discussed the evaluation that I am working on for HELP. They were incredibly helpful in getting the interview questions right and figuring out the particulars of the methodology.
On Tuesday I went with David Olweny to his home in Tororo. David was our guard in 2008 and I have stayed in touch with him since. I have sent him money from time to time to help him pay the school fees of his brother’s children who were left orphaned. He was also the guard for HELP in 2009 and 2010. We had to wake up at five in the morning and loaded our boda boda’s up with all of David’s stuff because he was moving back home. This summer his house was robbed and the thieves took his goats. So, the HELP team bought him 2 goats and during the summer one of them had a baby. Which means my boda carried me, the driver, the backpack I brought to Uganda, my purse, one baby goat in a box, and one full-grown goat wrapped around the driver’s waist.
Our bodas took us to a spot where we caught a minibus and then it was only a 5-6 hour drive to Tororo where we got a private hire to make it out to David’s village. When we arrived David’s little boy George (everyone calls him Georgie) came running up saying “daddy, daddy”. He looks exactly like David and is absolutely darling. He had some infection that made his fingernail kinda rot and fall off. He showed it to us and made a sad face so that we would comment. David put all his things down and looked at the finger and cooed in Georgie’s ear to comfort him. I also met Irene (everyone calls her Irenie). She is only 7 months old and one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever seen. She had a cold so was acting very docile but still happy. I spent the rest of the afternoon hugging and kissing them and making them play games with me. David’s wife made a wonderful lunch and dinner for me. They know how much I like avocado so they had plenty of it for me to mix with my matoke, rice, beans, and greens (like spinach). They also bought bananas for me.
David took me to the old church that was built on a pile of stones. He also took me to his family’s house where he grew up. He showed me the graves of his parents and his to siblings that had died. He is the only one left of his close family. He also took me to his auntie’s house and introduced me to the two little girls that I had sent money for. They are still going to school and were very sweet, though extremely quiet. They both held my hands the entire time I was there but were afraid to look at me for too long.
We went to town and bought Rocky in Luganda subtitles. We brought it home and everyone piled into the small thatched-roof hut to watch it on my laptop. They brought a mat for me to lay on and I fell asleep. David woke me up and showed me to the only mattress in the hut. I protested but David insisted that I sleep there. In the morning I woke up to find David, his wife, Irene, and Georgie snuggled up to one another sleeping on a mat under the same mosquito net. The sight of how effortlessly they fit together and how freely they seemed to love each other made me cry. It is so wonderful to me that no matter where you go in the world love is common, it always looks the same.
I had to leave rather early the next morning and begin the trek back to Kampala. Once I finally made it to Kampala I met up with David Opiro and Wilson Laker. Both are good friends of mine and both are attending university in Kampala. I agreed to hang out with me all night because I had to be at the airport at 2am and didn’t want to pay for a hotel room or travel at night alone. So we wandered around Kampala. First we went to a super fancy hotel and said we were considering it as a venue for an upcoming event and got a tour of the conference rooms and dining rooms. We also loitered around the lobby and sat and listened to a piano player.
We saw a World Bank cocktail party going on and I begged the boys to crash it with me, but they insisted that that was a horrible idea. Instead we went to a restaurant/bar and had fish and chips. Then we danced the rest of the night. It was amazing to spend my last few hours in Uganda with two amazing friends dancing to local music. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
