Posted on July 27, 2009 - by Larry

July 25, 2009 – Mbale, Uganda

July 25, 2009 – Mbale, Uganda
Today the plan was a bit different. First we had a little meeting about development in Uganda with Janet, Betty and Daisy. They talked about ways and ideas we might have for the development of Uganda and they explained some of the challenges facing Ugandans as they move into the future. My fear for Uganda is that they will look to the west and “developed” countries as models of success. Sure there are successes in how we’ve gotten to where we are, but I hope they can evolve as a country and culture on their own. They have unique challenges that if they will need to address, like the fact that very soon there are going to be 82 districts (like states) because of the number of different tribes. Janet said that if the British had been smarter they would have broken the country up into better sections lumping together tribes that get along instead of the random way that it was done. (This illustrates to me why I hope that they try to evolve without some of our Western “we do it better” attitudes.)

After the meeting we headed out to another village (which I think is the same village/district as Fred, Habert and Janet…oh Janet is one of the FDNC workers.) At this village we were to see how the women are creating sustainable work through bead making/jewelry and “cookery” (baking.) The “beads” are made of rolled up little pieces of paper. They cut a piece of colorful magazine into what is basically a very long triangle. Then they take the thick end and begin wrapping it around a needle or thorn until they get to the end of the paper. Then they glue it together, take it off the thorn/needle, laquer it and put it on some fishing line and voila you have a beaded necklace. They sell these, baskets and other goods at FDNC and other markets to bring in money for their community.

The women also showed us how they have started (with the help of FDNC) a little bakery. They made us these really good little donut things that are made basically like we make them in the US. They also showed us the outdoor brick oven that they use to make bread and cakes. The baked goods are also sold at the markets.

After their demonstrations they wanted us to visit one of the women in the group who has to stay home now because she has cancer. We walked through the little village and came up to her sitting outside her home. I was in the back of the group so I didn’t hear the full story. I hope someone will write about this.

After the village tour we headed back to FDNC to continue work on the dorm but when we got there they workers had already poured the top foundationy thing that is supposed to keep the walls from falling outward. They told us that we need to wait until the cement dries so there would be no work until Monday.

I think everyone was kind of happy about that and we headed back to the hotel for a free afternoon and evening.

Normal kind of night…off to bed.