Roller Coaster of Emotion

September 21st – the weekend is over, back to business
I will have been in Uganda for two weeks as of this Wednesday, I would be lying if I told you if things have been easy so far. The pit latrines, and baths from a bucket are merely fun and games compared to what I have experienced this past week. I have been given the title of Program Director & organizational consultant for the organization, sounds good doesn’t it. However with this great title came a lot of responsibility and a immense amount of pressure. Towards the end of last week I found myself angry and frustrated with the way people perceived my job title and why I was here. First of all the mentality here and in many developing countries is that white men have money, sadly this is true as most of us know it, as poor as I actually am I do have networks and I do have people willing to donate towards development work. Therefor everyone and their uncle in this town have come to see me, and ask for money or things they need. I cannot solve their problems instantly or may be even to help them, it has really worn on me this past week as it is very difficult to turn people away. That is the frustrating part, which got me a little angry towards the end of the week as I had almost 20 people daily coming to see me and asking for donations. I am only one man and need to stay focused on my organization objectives in order to get something positive accomplished.
Now for those of you wondering what I have started planning I will give you a small taste… Beacon of Hope Uganda has since 2006 established itself in Mukono as a aggressive organization that finds money through several privately financed projects to pay for children’s school fees. So far it has helped hundreds of kids each year attain education. This has been a great thing for Mukono however unfortunately sometimes donators run dry or move on to other projects. My Project here will help establish a full sustainable educational resource center, this center will initially require grants or donations however after established will be able to sustain itself indefinitely for years to come. How will this happen? The land purchased to build this center on will be several acres, and on this acreage they will have pigs, cows, goats, chickens which will all be grown, reproduced and sold for a rather large profit. Piglets for example can be bought here for 25,000 shillings, which is approximately 17dollars when fully grown they can be sold for 300,000 shillings (200 dollars around every 6-8 months). Wealthy people in the area have like 5 and reproduce them and make a really good living off of it. 300,000 shillings could put more than 20 orphans in school for a year. Among pig rearing I am looking to establish, candle making, crafts, selling of dried fruit & honey, aquaculture and various other small entrepreneurial activities that will benefit the center. From the goats and cows milk can be produced, eggs from the chicken and fish as well if a fish pond is constructed. Large Scale farmers have also mentioned that they are willing to help out by donating maize, potatoes and other various local fruits. Good Idea? Not sure, but these activities have worked in several other development situations and some have been gaining a lot of headway for local communities. This Educational center will have housing for some orphans as well as a primary and secondary school. Later once established and running we will be looking to initiate a small clinic on the land and progress in our promotion on HIV/Aids education. I am hoping to finish my concept paper in about a week or so and will email it out for you all to see if you are interested.
The hard part about all this is that my organization has few resources, however I do have a lot of faith in Isaac the chairman. Watching him speak at local community meetings I have noticed that he has a talent for captivating the audience. He speaks with passion and ignites it in many whom listen to him. After most meetings most community members come to us telling us that they will lend their services. Many are either willing to help make crafts to sell to fundraise, or donate some small quantities of food, water, or labour to build the schools. So far we have had a great response! So although we don’t have many resources to help us we do have great manpower and are pushing forward utilizing every small thing along the way.
Working on all that this past week had been extremely trying, Friday came around and I needed a break! I desperately wanted to go see my friends in Kampala however I was out at a community meeting until very late (630) it gets dark here around 730 and the family I am staying with does not let me go out during the night time. I ended up paying around 20,000 shillings for a boda boda (bike taxi) which is a lot of money for me just to get home pack a few things and run to Kampala. I got there just as it was getting dark. Kevin met me close to his place, I got off the boda boda paid the man and gave Kev a huge hug, I was so extremely happy to see him. We went directly to a local pub for a frosty brew and rambled on for a good few hours. It takes time to get accustomed to different areas, you often feel like you are riding a roller coaster of emotion, hating it one moment loving it the next, we both exchanged experience and he told me that he felt the same way the first week he got here too.
I was supposed to go to a wedding in Mukono on Saturday however decided to stay in Kampala. I thought it would be better for my mental health to be around friends for another day and it turned out to be a great idea. My friend Laura whom lives with Kevin returned home from her field work and we ended up celebrating by going dancing with some other foreign aid workers. It was truly a great weekend. I feel much refreshed after my weekend away and enjoyed the different food available in Kampala. I hadn’t touched a potato the whole weekend. I went out for Ethiopian coffee several times and I have to say it was the best coffee I have ever tasted, put through a French press the fresh coffee grinds created an amazing experience, very euphoric!
Sunday morning Kevin and I walked around the markets downtown. There were a zillion things there, everything to nike shoes, designer pants, watches, bracelets, peanut butter…the list could go on and on…anyways I quickly noticed that I spent my entire time in the market avoiding eye contact with the merchants. Even if I didn’t look at them they would grab my hand and say, Mazoongu try this on. It got really annoying but Kevin and I quickly devised a great plan to get them off our back. As they grab us or harass us we simply pointed in another direct behind them, they seemed to turn around and look every time as we quickly whisked by, haha suckers!
So now I am back in Mukono eager to start my new work week. I am hoping to get a lot accomplished this week however still need to realize that I need to work on African time, meaning this get doen here very slow. Nobody rushes or stresses out about getting things done, they all assume or know it will get don’t eventually. It’s kind of nice having it that way however annoying when you are working hard and actually need to accomplish something for your own mental health.