April in Uganda ~20 April 2016

Didas' family in front of their home

Sending me away with a branch of small, sweet bananas

Wilson learning how to use his new crank-powered flashlight

Wilson in my Dad's jacket

Sundays in the village trading center

Traffic Jam

Meat going on the BBQ

Inside the 20,000 liter tank

Didas touring villages

The daily market in Kisoro

High quality security for Wilson to keep his food safe

Wilson on his porch

In the classroom with books from Pierz Elementary

Reading books with Amazing Grace students

Happy students with new books!

The craft shop~stocked and ready for tourists!

20,000 liter tank nearly complete

Kazungu on top of the tank

Inside the tank, getting ready to pour the cement on the top

Sunday Funday....on a bike!

Beautiful Lake Mulehey

Big load for this little lady

Selfies with my new friends along the way

Lake Mulehey

Shepherd resting in the tree

Winding roads and grazing goats

Lunch time in the village!

Curious villagers

Fetching Water

Students at God's Miracle school dancing for me

Mt. Muhabura, village roads and banana trees 

Looks like a home is growing here!

Didas, myself and Sam modeling our newest fashions at the crafting co-op

Our special message is finally revealed!

Here we are already, the middle of April. The rainy season has returned with a vengeance, now the hot, sunny days are a welcome reprieve from the cold, wet days that have been filling the water tanks recently.

The ladies at the crafting co-op are plugging away. They continue to make beautiful bags and pillows for the tourists here and for me to bring home but we are also expanding their business to dresses and shirts for the locals. They go to the market toting their goods every Monday and Thursday, if we’re lucky they find a local who will pay them what the product is worth, but mostly people offer too little for their beautiful things, it won’t even cover the cost of the fabric. We are trying and as is the famous saying here, “slowly by slowly”, it’s the only way things happen around here.

I find myself frustrated with them, their quality of work and the lack of motivation to make money; I remind myself daily that they are so used to expecting nothing more for themselves and resigning to “this is just the way things are”. From little things, like not being able to afford to buy more thread and continue working so just sitting for days, without working because they don’t have thread to bigger things, like ruining a piece of fabric by writing on it, or by making a collar on a shirt large enough to fit around the neck of an elephant. We are working hard on quality and on things looking very “smart”. We all continue to learn, every single day.

Wilson is doing well; he is healthy and strong but tells me he has not been working. Why his family lied to me about him working is another mystery. He tells me that he sometimes walks to his old place of work to visit and they will sometimes give him a small amount of money to buy food. He explains that he is hungry, it’s not yet harvesting season and even his family that invited me into their home to eat with them, that sat and told me that they help Wilson with fetching water, firewood and even with food when he needs it does not help him at all. I struggle to understand this, a culture that shares everything and feeds their neighbors, does not feed their own uncle. When I showed up one Tuesday morning with a 10 kilo sack of corn flour and 4 kilos of beans he explained that his door doesn’t lock anymore and he was afraid his nephew’s wife would come and take his food. Didas and I went to the trading center and found a carpenter who could come and put a new lock on the door. These are real concerns and reality when people are hungry. The potatoes out of your garden are stolen; the beans out of your home are stolen. And, as Priscilla explained to me years ago, “there is one person in the whole world that you can maybe trust, and that is your mother.”

The first water tank is getting the finishing touches with our “special message” being painted on and the second tank is complete, just waiting for the artist to make his way there and spread Resilient Uganda’s important message, “A small family=A better life”. The size of Uganda is equal in size to the state of Oregon. Oregon’s population is around 4 million; Uganda’s population is about 34 million and expected to double in the next twenty years. Already people like Sylvia’s family and Wilson go with one meal a day, or one meal every few days because they don’t have space to grow their food, a small family really does equal a better life.

As always, nothing but love,

Bonnie

              You are rich, when you are content with what you have.