Half the story

So again its been a while and a million and a half things have happened. One day I'll get on top of this blogging thing and update more often so to not miss out on a bunch of things. The good news is I still have 6 weeks left so plenty of adventure. That is probably the last time I will refer to having 6 weeks left as a good thing. So we have continuously been working for both ILF and MAPLE (please please donate if you haven't already...shameless plug but everything we're doing here is for nothing if we don't get donations...even 20 bucks is helpful here...seriously people step up to the humanitarian plate it's a big world, sacrifice a week of Starbucks...ask me if you don't know how). We have worked out a distribution model for ILF and are about to implement a pilot program using an organization to the North that works with widows. This should be a good way to work out some kinks and test all of the assumptions we've made in a relatively short time frame. Hopefully, and I trust, it will turn out very well and not need too drastic modifications. In addition to that we have also been working very hard on MAPLE which is the student group that is our actual main focus. A large portion of our beginning was getting adjusted to and learning the culture, which consulting for ILF greatly aided. Now that we are a few weeks in we have been able to develop a strong mission statement and beginnings of a business structure. In the coming days we will be solidifying that with the help of all the students back home and continuing to get the infrastructure set up to start our more permanent activities and make sure all the future trips aren't starting from scratch.

We were able to get out to a village early last week and talk with a huge mobilization of people, everyone is incredibly excited when they hear we are coming, though it often takes a while to break through and have them realize we aren't just giving handouts. We keep trying to emphasize our intent on learning and that any money will be a loan to help them help themselves, but it is such a dependent culture and it is tough to break through. No one ever said Africa would be easy. That day we arrived and Doug and I played football (soccer) with the children at the local school who were on an hour break. It started by them surrounding us and us just kicking it around the circle and then the circle getting slowly smaller until Doug and I were almost shoulder to shoulder. At that point I launched the ball into the open field and all mayhem broke out, Doug somehow beat them all to the ball and made a goal. This led to direct challenges from each and every child to a shootout to see if they could score on/stop our shots. It was certainly entertaining and I managed to only hit one kid with a full speed ball to the head. While he was not hurt I get the impression he will not soon live down the stigma of being the kid who got beamed by the mzungu. His fault...head on a swivel kid...any coach will tell ya that. I spoke with a group of men aged 18-35, as this one how they broke themselves up. One group was women, one was men 18-35 and one group was men older than 35. My group was incredibly difficult to get through to as they kept wanting more of the same, more corn, more tomatoes; it was very difficult to get a new idea from them. Eventually the flood gates opened and the ideas flowed though and I got a lot to work with.

That next day we went to a village to talk about microfinance and got some decent replies. The important part of that day is that we prepared dinner in the village and ate there. For those of you who don't know...that means killing, slaughtering, de-feathering and butchering a chicken. Thats right I have beheaded a chicken. It wasn't quite as surreal as I expected it to be but it was still quite an experience, certainly glad to have done it so that I can better appreciate the Costco chickens. I am definitely glad I don't have to do all that prep every time I want a chicken sandwich, that is for sure.

So that was what led up to the trip to Kampala which was a whole other set of adventures for another day...hopefully tomorrow.