my name is Setum

Nothing beats a taxi ride in Uganda. We had an hour long trip to another city yesterday and it was quite an adventure. You see, in Uganda there are three modes of transportation: walking, boda boda (motorcycle taxis for short distances) and the taxis (14 passenger vans that take you between cities). On the door it says “licensed to carry 14 passengers,” a rule rarely followed. I was instructed to sit in the very back right next to a mother and her child. And then another person came and sat next to me… and another next to her. There was stuff piled on the floor below me so I had to put my knees high up on the seat in front of me all the while sitting on the person next to me and being sat on on the other side. Anyhow, there was in total about 20 something adults, 3 babies and a small collection of live chickens inside the taxi with a few tables strapped on top. The road was a dirt road rife with rivers and potholes the whole way which the driver delicately navigated at about 50 miles an hour. As he was avoiding crazy gorges in the road, he passed boda bodas, taxis, trucks, people, and goats. It may not sound like too much, but we got airborne multiple times. Busch Gardens: $60, Taxi ride: $1 oh yeah.

I am not starting to understand (some of) the difficulties with development. These people aren’t stupid. They want to work. There just isn’t work available. 60% of the population are under the age of 18 and aren’t legally allowed to work. HIV/AIDS is rampant, leaving orphans everywhere that aren’t properly taken care of (even if they do find a home they don’t have any “parent figure” that are morally responsible for them). Most people make less than $1 a day (a mat that takes a month to make by hand will sell for $20). People have no security, be it food security, financial security, health security, social security; people live on the margin buying day to day. Seeing all of these problems however makes it amazing when you see little things being done by people to increase their position in life.

I witnessed a ROSCA (rotating savings and credit association) a couple of days ago and was amazed. This is a group of people, mainly women, who get together to establish an informal bank system to save money. Saving is very difficult here because wasteful husbands may squander the money at “discotheques” (however the French spelling is) or struggling family members press for assistance. So these 30 men and women entered into the house and then shut the iron door and locked it so that husbands couldn’t see where their money is going. One woman brought out a lockbox with the money inside of it. The box had three locks, and three separate people had keys so that all 4 people must be in the same place to open the box. They then passed around a “welfare” bowl which each person is required to give 500 shillings (around 25 cents). Which funds are used if anyone gets sick or needs special help… an informal insurance organization. They then bought “shares” in the co-op at 1000 shillings each (50 cents). At the end of the 12 months, the money is divided by how many shares you have contributed and interest acquired by loaning out small sums to people in the group. I was fascinated at how these things can really work on such a small scale.

I played pick-up soccer last night. I would probably feel more comfortable playing pick-up basketball in Harlem. I was the only white guy there and probably the only one to have EVER played on their field. They had a full field (replete with holes, stumps, large mounds of dirt, chickens and cows) but still played a full 11v11 game with a ref and all. It was so fun, even if I was nervous the entire time, because everyone was speaking Luganda and all I would hear is Muzungu over and over again, who knows what they were saying. There was one major discussion in the beginning where I heard “Muzungu” very often and then at the conclusion of the discussion the other team removed their shirts. I bet they were arguing who went shirts and skins and they felt that my white skin would throw everyone off… haha.

The wheels aren’t yet turning, but they are getting greased up pretty well on projects! We have just had plenty of meetings with plenty of people. Not many pictures of late because we are just meeting with people, but we did do a photo shoot with a poor praying mantis...

PS: my phone number is 0701-049-650 and texts are cheap! So text me if you wish :)