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September 23, 2011

I cannot believe it has been over a year since I last wrote an update. Every story has sections that are slower pace, long paragraphs of descriptions and inner thoughts and struggles that we sometimes skim over as we try to get to the action. Perhaps as life has settled into more of a routine, I’ve skipped in writing those paragraphs.

Overall, we’ve been well in the past 12 months. In July, we finished our year of many trips with a final trip to Switzerland for a beautiful wedding. Back in Uganda, we were excited about having some time ahead of us without trips and to get back to our life. Project number one was the addition of chickens to our family. Our very nice landlord built a chicken coop in the back, and Agnes, our neighbor, provided two baby chickens, which we names Koko and Rolex. Nkoko is Luganda for chicken and Rolex is the name of a snack that has a fried egg wrapped in a chapatti. Koko disappeared after a few weeks, and there are still theories about her fate. Rolex turned out to be male. We kept him for a while, until he matured and started waking us up at 5 in the morning. We gave him back to Agnes, and he lasted a few happy days before becoming dinner. I brought a new hen from Fort Portal and Pia brought one from Lira and now we had Kay and Clementine who on a good week lay as many as 10 delicious eggs and we have been enjoying food from our little farm. Clementine was recently replaced by Omelet, a new young chicken. I received a gift from a farmers group and for a while we had 3 chickens, a real farm! Our tomatoes growing did not go as well; we blame it on the pots, but we do have very nice basil, lemongrass, and rosemary in our little garden.

In January, Pia brought her 11-years old daughter Roweena to live with her and us, and it has been wonderful having her around. Pierre is her very dedicated math teacher and I occasionally help with English homework. Roweena also loves to read and so far her favorites are the Big Friendly Giant and the Clementine series. She is lovely and a bit shy and always has a beautiful smile on her face when she comes home from school. Pia is doing well at hair-dressing school and always coming home with new techniques she wants to try on everyone’s hair. Pierre and I are not the most willing of clients, but we’re proud of her efforts and progress. Sadly, Carol, my favorite child in our neighborhood, has moved away. It is quite common here for children move a lot, often staying with relatives who can take care of them or moving from village to city based on financial considerations. Carol moved back to her village with her mom and siblings. She came one afternoon to say goodbye and it was hard. I gave her a poster I found at home to decorate her new home. I wish I could have given her more for all the moments of joy she added to my days. I still look for her around the corner when coming home. Recently, after many phone calls I was able to track her down, and she came for a short visit, which was very sweet.

Work has continued well as well. There are always ups and downs, successes and failures, progress and delays, but overall the team and I have gotten used to working together and have our systems and routines. We work with some wonderful partner organizations and it has been inspiring to see the impact some of them make in the community. One of my favorite events was the child rights storytelling competitions. We asked children to tell their stories related to child rights and child abuse and neglect. Each school chose the best stories and then we had an interschool competition. I attended one of these and was touched as brave children and youth told us stories about hardships in their lives and also the knowledge, skills, and people who have helped them. Daphine, a young lady with a beautiful smile, told us about finding her father who had left the family when she was young. She found him after her mother died and convinced him that he has a responsibility to support her. Joseph, a young boy, so short and thin he would be easy to miss but for his confidence and courage, told us about helping his classmate report a case of sexual abuse. Susan, told us through her tears, about the time her aunt tried to force her to have sex with an older man. Dick shared his experiences of discrimination as an orphan, and pleaded with everyone that all children should go to school. The children were inspiring and their stories moving. The winners of the competition went on to present their stories on radio and their photographs are on posters we use to promote awareness and to celebrate the child rights heroes in communities.

Another interesting project has been working with caregivers of vulnerable children to help increase their household incomes. For a few years now, Bantwana has been supporting rural caregivers through agricultural income generating activities. Caregivers are trained on improved farming techniques and supported with seeds or livestock to generate income for their household needs. Some caregivers have managed to generate substantial income and improve their houses, send children back to school, and supply basic needs and clothing. Yet, often farmers, who are at the bottom of a long supply-chain, get low prices, either because they sell in a market that is already saturated with the same produce (especially during harvest season) or because they are at the bottom of a long supply-chain in which vendors, middle-men, and transporters take a larger share of the profit. To help farmers get more from their hard work, we decided to pilot a few initiatives to add value to produce. For one group that is growing maize, we supplied a maize miller which turns maize into maize flour. Another group installed solar driers to dry and package pineapples. A final group is working to turn their groundnuts into powder and paste used in cooking. The pilots are still ongoing, and we’ve learned along side our farmers, about the many logistical, business, and organizational challenges of operating in a competitive market, and the creative solutions that dedicated communities find to succeed. When I am in Fort Portal, and I see the dried pineapples from one of our partners sitting nicely on the shelf next to a packet of biscuits, I think of the many caregivers I have visited, from old grandmothers to struggling youth, and I wish the person next to me could see the stories hidden in that packet of dried pineapples. It is why I believe so strongly in fair trade, so that even when I do not have the privilege of knowing the stories living within every product we touch, I can hope that the people involved in making it can also make a living that is dignified.

With the generous support from family and friends, we’ve continued to support the young girls in Kyegegwa district to attend secondary school. We’ve had some setbacks and disappointments. One of the girls dropped out of school because she is pregnant. The relationship was a choice she made and she felt that the man she met could take care of her. It is sad that at such a young age, some of these girls have so little confidence in themselves and what they can achieve in the future. Another girl dropped out of school for reasons that are a bit unclear; to our best understanding she got frustrated with school and had some negative peer influence. She had struggled academically and in the end perhaps she just gave up. It may seem simple to support girls to go to school, but in the end, it is not just fees and books that these girls need. There is so much social and emotional support, as well as personal commitment and confidence, that influences a child’s life in school, and for so many girls in Uganda, that comprehensive set of support is not a reality. Happily, the remaining three girls are doing well and progressing in school. We recently visited them and had some nice time together. We went to Kibale national forest and on our nature walk we even got to see some Chimpanzees.

Summer was busy with many visits from friends and family from the US and France. It was lovely to have people to share our life with and a good reason to travel to many parts of Uganda we had not seen before. Being with visitors was like discovering Uganda again through new eyes, which was a wonderful gift. It was fun to remember all the things that used to surprise that are now part of every day life: the crazy motor-cycle taxis, the colorful markets, women carrying babies and heavy loads on their backs and heads, and various street foods.

Now, we’re preparing for another transition, becoming parents, and in November, our little family of two will be family of three. We’ll be away from Uganda for a few months, but very much look forward to being back here with the new baby and discovering a whole new side of life in this place that has become another home.

Thank you for being in my life

Inbal

Some pictures from work with Bantwana Initiative