My Time in Hades

My many traveling companions.

Last week David and I decided I would go to a small town a few hours north of Gulu called Kitgum to get some interviews for him (I’ll explain in a bit.) Sunday night he told me he would call at 7:40am and let me know if there was an 8:00am bus, but most likely I would be on the 9:00 or 10:00 bus.  Instead he called me at 7:25am, waking me up and telling me he’d be there in ten minutes to pick me up for the 8:00 bus.  He showed up about three minutes later saying me “We have to go, now!”   I barely had time to brush my teeth and wash my face before climbing on the back of his motorbike on our way to the bus park (where busses bussing all over creation hang out between transit.)  I soon realized why the big hurry.  The so-called “bus” was actually one of Uganda’s so-called “taxis.”  In actuality, it is a 15 passenger van, of which there are a million here.  They pack people in like sardines and ship them off to their desired destination and the one I was supposed to be on was filling up fast.  David had NOT warned me this would be my mode of transportation and  I was not prepared.  After being told I needed to sit in the middle of two seats that were not on an even plane, and arguing incredulously, “That is not a seat!” I wound up being the last one in, sitting next to the door instead.  With my bag under my legs and my feet up on the wheel-well I was congratulating myself on landing the best spot on the bus.  As the driver was literally pulling away, this kid (about 17) picked up my backpack and put it on my lap, straddled my legs and sat where my feet had been two seconds before. I was within kissing distance of the boy, face to face, for the next two and a half hours. 

The face I stared at for  2 and 1/2 hours.  Yes, he was this close.

Our 15 passenger van was now carrying 23.  Of the five rows of seats (that should hold three people each) mine took the cake, carrying eight people.  No joke.  Four adults on the three seats, three children being held or sitting on the floor, and then my new best friend sitting rather uncomfortably close in front of me.  Oh, and my big backpack on my lap (because everyone else packs their stuff a mile high on the roof of the vans.  My computer and visa and everything else was not going up there.)

Somehow though, I made it to Kitgum.  As I mentioned earlier, I was going for David’s organization.  He needs some reports to send to sponsors, and the reports need to include some personal stories and facts about individuals who are currently using the savings and loan business.  They have a growing branch in this smaller-than-Gulu-but-larger-than-just-a-village town.  So I went to interview 10 individuals and find out about their monetary situation before joining Respond ReNU and their current situation; how much they were saving, what they were saving for, if they had taken loans, that kind of thing.  Through this I would try to decipher if there were any problems or successes.  I was really excited to do this.  I enjoy getting out to the surrounding areas and meeting the local people and seeing the way they live.  I found my two days and 10 interviews to be rather frustrating, however.  Over and over I talked to people who, yes, they were saving more now than before they had joined a Respond group, but they just did not have the first clue about what to do with their money or just what savings or a loan could really do. 

To be fair, David has really done a nice job setting up the business so that when a group joins they go through eight training classes where people are taught not to “eat” their money – when they open the box they should use their savings to buy something that will be an investment, whether to improve quality of life or their business, and not just food.  They’re taught about what amount of loan is reasonable for them to expect, especially in the beginning, and what kind of things are best for them to invest in, i.e. something they can make profit off easily enough pay back the loan and have some left over.  All that said, this is a highly uneducated group of people we’re dealing with.  Just because you get someone to join a group where they have to save something every week, and just because you tell them to spend wisely, doesn’t mean they understand money.  It doesn’t mean they know how to write a budget so they can save the most possible each week.  It doesn’t mean they really know what to save for.  Especially since Kitgum is a fairly new branch, people had quite a few mis-conceptions.  I talked to person after person where this was a typical dialogue:

                “How long have you been saving money?”
                “About five months.”
                “And how much have you been able to save during that time?”
                “About 100 thousand shillings so far.”
                “Good for you.  How long until your group opens the box?”
                “We open the 1^st of May.”
                “And how much do you hope to have saved by then?”
                “I hope to have saved 300 thousand shillings.”

The first couple people, I just wrote what they told me and continued on thinking, “Oh, I’m sorry, you’ll never make it.”  After a while, those words started coming out loud.  People most often responded with a blank stare.  Sometimes they would say something about the interest they were supposed to earn off of their savings.  I started doing the math for them, explaining how much they need to save in order to reach their goal, how much, given what they’ve typically saved in a week so far, they can actually expect to save and just what kind of interest they could earn.  I tried to help them see it wasn't magic, money wouldn't just appear.  Then I would ask what they’re saving for. 

                “I am saving for my business.”
                “Good, that’s good, but what specifically are you saving for?”
                “Specifically for my business.”

I finally made everyone tell me something truly specific they were saving for and I also made them all give me a very loose five-year plan as to what they wanted to be able to obtain long-term through the savings and loan.  

Me interviewing one of my more frustrating interviewees.

My last question was always something along the lines, “Is there anything else I should know, good or bad, about how things are going within your savings group?”  At least four people told me they needed to be empowered.  “Yes!” I would think, “that’s exactly what you need!”  Until they went on, “We need to be empowered by you giving us money so that we can live.  We are too poor, we need more money.”  And then I would just get frustrated again.  I tried hard to explain empowerment came from the mind and heart and not from a hand-out, but I’m afraid too many NGOs have gone before me, handing out the money, for my words to have made any difference.  

Frances, my least frustrating interviewee.  He's done really well and vastly improved his nice store.

The two days was spent having these conversations, walking from village to village in unbearably hot weather, which left me very….I'll say it again, frustrated – there’s no other word for it.  These people were better off for their association with Respond, yes, but they had so many struggles to overcome.  They are uneducated, often illiterate, they are living in a desert waste-land where even if they invest in more or better seeds for their farms, there is no guarantee it will ever rain again to produce more food and therefore more profit.  No one has ever taught them a Family Finance class.  They have never read a book entitled Starting your Own Business!  Many of them have never learned basic math skills, much less how to write and balance a budget. 

I sat in that unbearable heat waiting for my bus Tuesday afternoon with George Otim who is running the business in Kitgum and who acted as my interpreter.  I pulled out my travel alarm clock which has a thermometer in it and discovered it was 102 degrees.  We were in the shade.  I asked George why it was so bleeding hot in Kitgum?  He responded, “Maybe God doesn’t care about Kitgum.”  

The traveling chicken.  Before eight people had their feet on him.

I got on the bus (which was a real bus this time) and sat next to my assigned window seat.  A small family sat across the aisle from me in three seats.  A mother, father and their three children.  A big Acholi man came and sat next to me and from the very beginning was encroaching on my half of the space.  He definitely took up two-thirds of the leg room.  And then someone informed the lady sitting behind me she was sitting in his seat.  She was supposed to seat in the same row as that family across from me.  One would think she could find another seat, one with a bit more space, but one would be wrong.  They packed that bus the same way my van the day before and been packed.  People stood up in the aisle when there was no seating left.  So, in the three seats were now crammed three grown adults, three children, and, you guessed it, a chicken.  A live one.  Sitting under their feet.  Did I mention it was 102 degrees outside, in the shade?  So the whole way back, I was just inhaling dust through the open window, sweating profusely because the man next to me was basically sitting on top of me, and feeling extremely frustrated by the events of the past two days.  And yet, somehow, I was happy as a clam.  Watching the dusty scenery go by outside my window, I pondered this, trying to figure out how that could be.  Why was I so happy?  Why in the face of what I just experienced and discovered was I allowed to feel such calm, serene happiness?  I still haven’t figured out the answer.  But I know I love it here.  I know it makes any problems I ever thought I had seem infinitesimal.  It makes me wonder why I should ever leave. 

The next morning at the office, David and I talked over what my impressions had been and I told him of my frustrations.  I am proud to say he took my suggestions to add a couple pages to the savings booklet he passes out to every member of the organization.  The very first thing they will see now is a space for four goals for each saving cycle, how much each costs, and how much their weekly savings needs to be.  Next are a couple pages for people to keep track of how much they’ve saved each week and to show if they are on target with their goal savings.  It’s already in the booklets that were printed on Thursday.  That is the great thing about working with grassroots organizations.  There is no bureaucracy to cut through, just an obstinate Irish guy who is surprisingly good at taking criticism and suggestions from me.  I know the extra pages won’t solve all problems.  Obviously.  But hopefully it will at least help a couple people improve their monetary situation.  

On a lighter note, I would say the highlight of my week was that I actually got to visit one of my Paper to Pearls groups this week and buy some necklaces from them.  There is a lady in Seattle who makes a couple personal orders a year – large orders.  She sells the necklaces and uses the proceeds to pay for Ugandan orphans’ school fees.  She doesn’t pay herself for the work at all.  Kind of amazing.  So this is an order that she had placed back in November, but because of all the project manager transitioning, etc., it had not yet been picked up.  So I got to go buy a ton of Zebra Grass necklaces from a group in a village about thirty minutes’ drive outside of Gulu, called Awer.  It was a lot of fun to be with the women, they are all so warm and friendly, especially since I am there to give them money!  I’m including a little bit of a video that one of Suzy’s (Seattle lady’s) friends took.  She came to meet the women and see how things were done.  You can see me and Fiona and all the Awer women.  Lucy, the woman in orange is the chair person of this particular co-op.  She is really smart and makes awesome necklaces.

Alright folks, I have tried again and again to upload this video and it's just not working.  Maybe someday I'll internet that works properly and I'll get it on here.  Until then, just use your imagination :-)

OK, onto the food.  Since much of my week was spent in tiny villages, I ate a ton of rice and beans.  But there was one morning when Concy brought me this amazing dish for “tea” (breakfast.)  It’s called Nyoy - though I really have no idea how to spell that.  It consists of several types of beans – including chickpeas, which I love – and onions.  Now, I’ve never been a huge onion fan.  I love the smell of onions, I love the flavor they give food, but I have a hard time just eating onions, especially if they’re raw and I have to bite them.  Ew.  It’s a texture thing.  But these onions.  They are fried to a crisp and taste kind of like the fried onions you buy in a can and put on salads and what-not.  These are fresh however, and are just amazing.  I have no idea how they’re made, but I will find out!  It’s safe to say that while eating that dish, it was the first time in my life I sat picking out the onions so I could eat them instead of throw them out.