Eleventh Day in Uganda

SixSeeds friend Andy Mills has created "The 5810 Project," predicated on the belief that while “teaching a man to fish” will provide him with a fish diet for a lifetime, it will not lead him out of poverty. To escape poverty people need to develop sustainable business activities. The 5810 Project’s vision is to help people build businesses and break the poverty cycle in Uganda. SixSeeds will be posting portions of blogs from our friends as they go through this journey.

This morning, Daniel picked us up and took us into the poor communities. In Kampala, the richer people live in better homes up the hill. Therefore, as you go down any of the 21 hills of Kampala, the people become poorer and poorer and the houses become more and more shabby. Today, we were in the valley. We were in a slum where most of the homes were one or two rooms, both the size of average closets in the US. In these two rooms, the people fit all of their belongings and all of their families, with the number of children in a family ranging from two to twelve. However, a lot of the children are orphans, and so their aunts or uncles are housing them along with their own children.

As we walked through the community, children would run at us, screaming “Muzungu!” or “White people!” They found a lot of amusement in rubbing our arms, hair, and faces, mostly because we are white which is very different. They also proceeded to use us as human jungle gyms, climbing up and down us, and wanting us to pick them up and swing them. We handed out crackers to the children, and told them that they could see us again in the morning.

We also saw a lot of children who had been in our classes the previous two days. Some of the children even remembered my name, saying, “Hello, Teacher DJ!” Seeing where these children live made their situations very real to us. Also, it made us realize why their parents have so much difficulty paying school fees. Finally, we were able to appreciate their enthusiasm in the classroom even more.

This afternoon, Daniel arranged a meeting with the parents of the children in the school. Because most of these children come from such extreme poverty, it is very hard for the parents to pay school fees. Also, because they believe that white people like us who know Daniel are paying all of the fees. There was even a group of white people who came to Kampala last year, visited the school, and took all of the children out to lunch, which does not help the parents mindsets that Muzungu should pay the fees. However, because of the economic decline, these people were not able to help the school financially this year. Moreover, because the church operates in this poor community, it cannot bear the burden of all of the school fees either. So the school is in a precarious situation, where there are not enough funds to even pay for the teachers.

Andy talked to the parents about changing the way the school works. For one child to go to school, it only costs 140,000 /= (about $70) per year. (At each school, there have to be school fees because there aren’t free, government-run schools in the area.) Andy told the parents that each parent has to contribute some money to the cause of their children’s education, because that will make it important in their minds. Then, a scholarship fund will be created so that kids who cannot pay the full price will be able to go to school. The school will become a school of excellence, where the best children will be accepted, as many as the scholarship fund allows. This school already tests as high, if not higher, than the other schools in the area, so the school needs to stay in operation. These changes should be able to keep the school in business.
After the meeting with the parents, we met about the proposed changes.

On a side note, we were held up after our journey through the community because of an interesting Ugandan ritual. As we walked back to the car, we saw many men in white robes and western suit jackets, and women in bright, colorful dresses and sashes. As we got closer, we saw dozens of adorned baskets filled with rice, sugar, matoke, and live chickens. Then Daniel told us that this was the groom-to-be preparing to go to the parents of whom he hoped to be his bride. He was giving a speech to his posse about how to behave at the feast. Daniel told us that the parents can either deny or accept the man’s request and if they accept, then the baskets would be the dowry. However, then the groom would also have to pay for a wedding.