One Day in Life

 One morning I was inspired to take a picture of everything I did that day. The day happened to be a very busy and unusual day which is good because that is more exciting than me documenting myself sitting in an office for eight hours. You never know what kind of day Uganda is going to bring. Here are the photos from one day in my life in Kampala.

Ready for my morning workout with Maggie

Breakfast - oatmeal with banana and coffee

Showered, dressed, and ready for the day!

Said hi to this neighborhood cutie on the way to get a boda.

Here comes David!

David the boda driver. He is my favorite driver and it is always a good day
 when he is around to drive me to work.

Helmet on - ready to roll

Met up with my co-worker Wilter so we could drive to the girl's home together.
She lives near me and the home is far so we carpooled.

Driving

At Lungujja girl's home

Sandra closing the gate behind us

Madina showing off for the camera as we walk inside.

Meeting with Lungujja mentors and Youth Corp staff at Lungujja home.

Walking to find a boda and then on to the next task.

Me and Jackie heading out to do some textbook

 pricing at the nearby bookstore

Walking down the road

Walking to the bookstore

Books!

Trying to figure out which books are the best for our kids.

Jackie taking pictures of me. I was tired and hungry and this point!

Lunch time at Prunes Cafe

Prunes 

Next stop - Cornerstone head office

All alone in the office but getting work done

Molly, our resettlement coordinator, 

came by for a quick conversation.

Packing up to leave. I tried to put my backpack on 

but the strap was locked in my desk drawer!

Locked in

Alternative Route through the back of the office

Flagging down a boda from the stage across 

from the office to take me home

One of the best boda's in the city waiting for me to cross the road.

Fighting traffic 

Home sweet home! 

Kakooza

John Kakooza was born on Dec. 12, 1993 in Lugazi, Uganda. He was raised by his father. He never met his mother. John’s father was an alcoholic and physically abused him so as a young boy of seven John ran away to the streets of Kampala. He lived on the streets for two years and survived by begging and collecting scraps of plastic and metal to sell.

John

John said, “The life was very hard by that time because I was young. I had nowhere to sleep and no food so life was very bad. Sometimes I used to look for scraps and bottles to sell and get money, but sometimes I failed and I had to look through rubbish for leftovers to get food.”

John said he would rather live on the streets than go back to living with his father. His father is a farmer and still lives in Lugazi. John said, “The life (on the streets) was hard but I had freedom.”

One day when John was living on the streets he was walking around with his friend looking for scraps and his friends showed him an organization that could help him. John decided to ask that organization for help and soon after he moved off the streets and into a house for children. John said he was tired of life on the streets and he desperately wanted to go to school. Unfortunately the organization John was living with was not well funded. They barely had enough money to feed the kids much less pay school fees. Despite the poor conditions at his new home John lived there for four years hoping that one day he would be able to go to school. Eventually the organization shut down and the boys were transferred to Cornerstone Development’s (HALO’s current partner) youth program.

John lived at Kibuli home for two years but during that time Cornerstone did not have enough funds to send all the kids to school so John still wasn’t in school. He continued to wait patiently for his turn to begin school. John said he wanted to study so much so he would look for other organizations that could pay his school fees, but he never had any success.

Finally in 2008 when John was 15 he moved into Bukesa home and was able to start school. He was very excited once he moved to Bukesa and could begin school because as John said, “that was my dream.” He entered school at the primary four level even though according to his age John should have been in high school. John completed primary school at the end of 2012 at the age of 19. Although HALO gave John the opportunity to continue his education at the secondary (high school) level he wanted to pursue a more practical course. After not attending school for most of his childhood John really struggled to do well in his classes. John loved school and was very grateful for the opportunity to graduate from primary school but school was not where his strengths lie and he realized that. John applied for the HALO scholarship at the end of 2012 and was given the scholarship to continue his education doing a training course in hair dressing. John will begin his training in October 2013.

He said, “I am so happy (about the scholarship) because I didn’t expect someone can spend all that money on me.”

Below is an interview with John about his upcoming training and his future.

What are you most excited about?

“The opportunity to learn a new skill.”

Why are you interested in business?

“For me, it is a simple job where you can get money without too much struggling. If you know it well you can start a small business.”

Why are you interested in hair dressing?

“The reason why I trained for hair dressing is because in this country there are always new hair styles.”

What is your plan for the future?

“I want to start my own salon and another business after that.”

“I want to be independent. That’s mostly what I need. I want to have a house for my babies and wife.”

“In my dreams I want to be a good dad and a good businessman.”

Barbara

Barbara is one of HALO's scholarship recipients. After the HALO kids finish their formal schooling through high school they can apply for a HALO scholarship. The scholarship allows them to continue their education. They can choose to go to a vocational school and learn a trade or go to college. Since most of the HALO youth in Uganda spent years without attending school before they came to the HALO homes they are far behind in their education and many of them choose vocational school. Barbara is an amazing young woman who despite a hard life always manages to see the good in the world. She is bright and bubbly and very fun to be around. She overcame numerous challenges in her life to get where she is today. Barbara is on the path to achieving her dreams and we are so proud of her. 

Barbara is 20 years old. She’s been living in Lungujja home since 2009. Barbara was born in a small village called Migori in Kenya, but she grew up in Kampala, Uganda because her mother was Ugandan and her family moved there when she was young. Her mother died when she was four years old. She was raised by her father and her brothers. Her dad had a steady job so he was able to pay for her to go to school as well as take care of the family. They had a happy life together. Then in August of 2007 Barbara’s dad passed away. Barbara said that was the saddest day of her life. After he passed there was no one left to pay for her to go to school so she started prostituting herself. She would sleep with many men in order to pay for school. She lived with a group of girls who she also worked with. Barbara would go to school during the day then go to the streets at night. She said she had no other options. She said, “I really wanted to study but no one would pay my school fees so I was selling my body. I had many many men.” Barbara lived like this for two years. Finally she was connected with an employee from Cornerstone Development (HALO’s partner in Uganda). Barbara was offered a place in Lungujja home, a home for girls who have worked in the sex trade. She said she gladly accepted the offer and immediately moved to Lungujja home.

Barbara received the HALO scholarship last year and she is currently enrolled in vocational school at the Uganda Catholic Management Training Center. She will finish the program in December and receive a certificate in Social Work and Social Administration. Barbara already has a job lined up with a nonprofit called Acacia Designs. She will make t-shirts, and continue her education. Acacia Designs will pay for Barbara to continue in school. She is going to stick with Social Work and Social Administration but this time she will receive a higher degree. After she completes her second year of school Barbara still wants to continue with school so she can pursue her dream job. She said

“I’ve always wanted to be a journalist. It is my dream career to one day be on screen, look for news everywhere, and read it to the people.”

Barbara is very happy for the time she spent in Lungujja home. She said, “I was happy to come here. I like the transformation that I went through when I came here.” However, she is looking forward to living on her own one day. She is excited to work and provide for herself. 

Stella's Story

Like so many of the youth in Uganda Stella has had a really hard life but unlike many youth in Uganda Stella was able to find an opportunity that allowed her to rise above her circumstances and succeed.

I am sharing this with Stella's permission. When I asked her if she minded if I share her story publicly she said no; she said she didn't mind because she is not ashamed of where she came from and she wants people to know. 

Stella has lived in the Mengo home for four years now. She has always been dedicated to her school work, and now her hard work and dedication has paid off. Stella was accepted to the best university in Uganda, Makerere University. She will pursue a Bachelor of Science in Population Studies.

Stella grew up with her mom, grandparents, and siblings in a rural area in Western Uganda. Stella was able to attend school but she lived a very hard life. Her mother struggled to support her and her siblings. When she was in her second year of secondary school her mother was no longer able to pay her school fees, so she went with her brother to search for their father. They found their father but the living conditions were even worse where he lived. The father had multiple wives and too many children to count. He worked in another district so he was never around and left Stella and her brother under the care of his wives. The other families did not accept Stella and her brother in to their lives, so they were neglected and treated very badly. Stella and her brother endured these conditions because they did not know what else to do, but in the end the wives forced Stella and her brother to leave their home. They kicked her out in the middle of the night. Stella had nowhere to go that night so she and her brother slept on the ground in the middle of a banana plantation. The next day they made the journey back to their mother’s home.

Once she was back at her mother’s home an uncle decide to bring Stella to Kampala and pay her school fees. Stella moved to Kampala to live with her uncle and his wife, but the uncle never kept his promise. He continually told Stella he was going to pay for her to go to school and that she just had to wait but he never followed through. While she waited for her uncle to take her to school she was working at their house as a house cleaner. Stella knew her uncle was never going to keep his promise, but she held on to the little bit of hope she had left that one day she would get to go to school again. Then one day she met a girl who was collecting water from the same well. Over time Stella and the girl became friends. Stella told her new friend about her situation. The girl happened to be in contact with a mentor from Cornerstone Development (HALO’s partner). The girl was offered a place in a Cornerstone youth home but she did not want to go because she was already attending school, so she offered her place to Stella. Stella was more than happy to accept the opportunity to go to school.

The next day Stella moved into Mengo home, but at the time (2009) HALO was not yet partnered with Cornerstone, and Cornerstone was not able to take on Stella’s school fees at the time. She just needed to wait until the next year. She was happy to wait. Then in 2010 HALO formed a partnership with Cornerstone and began supporting every child in Mengo home. Finally after a long and difficult process Stella was able to continue her secondary level education. Stella worked very in school and she did well which got her to where she is today, a university student.

This is Stella with a copy of the newspaper her name is printed in for being accepted to Makerere University

Below is an interview with Stella.

What about going to college are you most excited about?

“I am most excited about the fact that I am joining the most beautiful university in Uganda. It is very hard to be accepted there. Even if I’ve not touched the sun at least I’ve touched the stars.”

Are you scared about going to college?

“Not at all. I am very happy and proud.”

What was the hardest part of your journey to this point?

“Before I joined HALO school fees were my stumbling block, and moving long journeys from home to school.” Stella explained that she had to walk very far every day to get to school. She said it was hard to stay late and get there early and the teacher would beat her for being late and not having all her homework.

What was the most joyous moment in your life?

“When I completed Senior 6 (the last level of advanced secondary school) because I never thought I would reach that level.”

What was the saddest moment in your life?

“When I was in Senior 2 and the people (my step-mothers and siblings) I was living with chased me away.”

Was there any point when you thought you might give up?

“Yes, when our father neglected us and didn’t give us anything. I thought I was born by mistake. I thought I was the problem. Our mother struggled so much that we thought maybe we shouldn’t be alive.”

What do you want to do after college?

“I will search for a job so I can support myself and my family. I would also like to continue to get my masters.”

What advice would you give the other Mengo girls?

“Be patient, very, very patient. Think about the future.”

My Week Without Water

It took me a few days to post this so as of right now there is water in my house. I wrote this when there was no water. The water came back after a long fight with the water company but I have a feeling it is going to go out again since they are doing a lot of work in the area. We’ll see. For now please continue and read about life without water.

We haven’t had water at my house for a week now. I thought not having electricity was bad but not having water is way worse. Not having water makes life very hard and very frustrating. You probably don’t realize how important water is to your daily life. I’m here to tell you that, after learning the hard way, water is crucial to your life, and I’m not even talking about drinking water. If you live in a place that has consistent water then your use of water probably never crosses your mind. I know plenty of people do try and be conscious of how much water they are using but it is still there when you need it. For the past week I did not have water when I needed it. The difficulty of life increased significantly.

I can’t just get up and wash my hands or my face and that alone is surprisingly infuriating. Not being able to wash dishes drove me crazy, not being able to shower was getting annoying, but not being able to wash my hands was probably the worst part for me. Uganda isn't very clean so washing your hands is an important part of life especially when you have the cutest but at the same time dirtiest little neighbor children who love to hug and touch you. Hello germs! I wash my hands and my face frequently and not being able to was seriously affecting my usual happy demeanor. I was getting annoyed. Oh wait, I’m still annoyed because we still don’t have water. I’m sitting at a coffee shop right now instead of working from home because at least this place has a working toilet. Let me take a break in my complaining and tell the story.

Catching rain water

I was leaving for Gulu early Thursday morning two weeks ago and as I was leaving the house my housemate said there wasn’t any water. I wasn’t too concerned about it at that point for a few reasons one being that we never have problems with the water and I figured it would come back in a few hours and two because I was leaving for two days and didn’t have to deal with it.

Oh how wrong I was.

I came back from Gulu on Saturday afternoon and the water had just come back. I was glad I was out of town for the lack of water but felt bad that my housemate had to deal with no water. The water was on until Tuesday. On Tuesday water stopped flowing from the kitchen sink and the outside tap. We still had water coming from all the other faucets because they are also connected to our reserve tank. We could shower, wash our hands, brush our teeth, etc which was great but by Thursday we were starting to run out of dishes because we hadn’t been washing them. On Friday we decided to have our cleaning lady come because she hadn’t come in two weeks and the house was really dirty and we needed our clothes washed. She used the water from the shower to clean the house and to wash the clothes. She had to use a lot of water and that’s when it happened. Saturday morning we were totally out of water. No more water in the reserve tank. We used it all up. The house was dry. We were not happy. However, at the top of our street there was a loose hose that the neighbors were gathering water from. We started filling up buckets and cans from there. We stored the water in the house so we could flush the toilets, bath, wash some dishes, etc. It wasn't easy but at least we had some water to use.

Catching rain water to flush the toilets with

On Monday the people who live in the house that the hose was coming from realized that it was their water the entire neighborhood was using and, understandably, they blocked it off. At this point we had absolutely no access to water. We couldn’t even fill buckets anymore. Things were getting really tough. I was extremely frustrated and had no desire to be at home. I work out at my friend’s house four mornings a week so I started showering there after working out.

Emily, my housemate, getting water 

from the hose up the street. Thanks neighbors!

This entire time we’ve been calling the water company and complaining, but they were less than helpful. On Wednesday afternoon I left work early so I could deal with the water situation. I called the water company for the 10^th time but this time I couldn’t control my anger and I screamed at the woman on the other end. I started off the conversation calm but then she asked me a really stupid question and I lost it. After I told her we still don’t have water she said, “It says here they fixed the problem. Why would it say that?” So after that comment I was no longer able to remain calm. Long story short I was put in contact with the person who was working on the project. A man was up the street working on the pipes going to the neighbor’s house so I talked to him and he said they would not be able to work on our pipes until the next day (today). As I type this I have no idea if there is water at the house. I saw them working early this morning but then didn’t see anyone working later in the morning. I have little faith we will have water today.

This has been one of the most frustrating experiences, and I am continually surprised at how hard life without water is. I always knew not having running water was a pain and that access to water is a huge issue in the developing world but I never really understood how hard life without water is until I experienced it. So while I am not happy we haven’t had water in weeks I gained a lot of perspective that I would not have had otherwise.

Uganda has taught me to be thankful for things I never even thought to be thankful for before I lived here. Water. Electricity. Street lights. Paved roads. City trash pickup. Good city planning. These few things significantly improve quality of life. We usually have water and electricity. Street lights are rare but exist on main roads. The main roads are also paved but most roads including the roads around my house are not. Also many of the paved roads are so riddled with potholes it doesn’t seem paved. I still haven’t decided if a paved road with tons of potholes is really better than a flat dirt road. I go back and forth. 

Anyway, now as I travel around the city and see people everywhere washing dishes in large buckets of water I understand how difficult that task really is and I think about how much easier that person’s life would be if they had access to running water. The daily tasks of Ugandan families living without direct access to running water would decrease significantly. From the looks of things kids spend half their day fetching water from nearby wells and other types of water sources. Uganda is growing rapidly but just as so many other developing countries it still lacks very basic infrastructure like running water and consistent electricity. I am so thankful I am able to live in a house that (usually) has water and electricity. 

Upcountry

My trip to Gulu this past weekend was a bouncy and exhausting one but one that is well worth the bumpy bus rides, lack of electricity, icy cold showers, and long days. Gulu is the second largest city in Uganda. It is in Northern Uganda about 338.8 kilometers (210.5 miles) from Kampala a ride that would take approximately 3.5 hours on US roads but takes anywhere from 5-7 hours depending on traffic and road construction. The road to Gulu is not great to say the least. It is riddle with pot holes and in some parts the pavement has been worn down to a small strip in the middle of the road barely big enough for one vehicle. There is construction being done currently which is promising for the future but a pain right now.

Once you finally make it to Gulu it is quite lovely. It is small town that has come a long way in a short time since the years of LRA control and general political strife and civil war in Uganda. A friend just shared his experiences of Gulu in 2006 with me and explained it as having little infrastructure and one restaurant with C+ food. Now Gulu has many restaurants and some even have A+ food (A+ for Uganda that is which is an entirely different rating scale). When I arrived in Gulu I hopped off the bus and headed to a popular restaurant to enjoy their delicious brick oven pizzas. After a late lunch I made my way to the girl’s home HALO supports. I rode a boda (motorcycle taxi) and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. The air is so much fresher in Gulu and I found myself sucking it in trying to clean out my lungs of the gross Kampala fumes. The ride was also quiet which is such a treat for me. In Kampala I am assaulted daily by noises from all. Such is big city life.

Ahhhh, peace

When I got to the girl’s home I was greeted with smiling faces running towards me bombarding me with hugs. It was so great to see those girls again. 

We spent the evening doing art as we always do and taking pictures. We had a delicious traditional Ugandan dinner prepared by the girls. 

It was a lovely evening but I was ready to turn in early after the long bus ride. I feel asleep immediately (which never happens to me) but woke up in the middle of the night to the rain pounding on the tin roof. Despite being woken up I was happy for the rain because it brought the temperatures down and made everything less dusty. It hasn’t rained in Kampala in months and the dryness is getting to be too much. The plants on the side of the road are no longer green but have a thick coating of reddish brown dust stirred up from passing vehicles. It was nice to smell the rain again.

In Kampala

Poor plant, it was once green.

Dust Prints

The girls were in school all day Friday so I did some work and charged my electronics at the same restaurant I went to the day before. I ran into some people I know so I ate breakfast with them and we spent some time catching up. It was nice to see them at breakfast because I never really have time to socialize with the people I know in Gulu since I only go for a few days and I spend them working. That afternoon I went to see our girls who are in boarding school. The school they attend is called Restore Leadership Academy. It is a great school inspired by the visionary Bob Goff and run by a few people who I am proud to say are my friends. Check out their website for more information. http://www.restoreinternational.org/

Restore Girls

The view from the school

Me waiting on the side of Juba Rd, the road that goes from Uganda to Juba, South Sudan, for a transportation opportunity. A boda eventually drove by.

I only had an hour with the girls since they had to get back to class but we had a good time catching up.

After visiting Restore I had a meeting with the mentors who manage the Gulu home. I was so happy to hear everything is going really well and they didn’t have any major problems to discuss. Finally the girls got home from school around 5pm. I did some art with the girls who were not busy preparing dinner. We had another delicious dinner and after eating the girls treated us to a few performances. First the girls performed a danced they choreographed themselves. Then they did a news broadcast that I really loved. The girls wrote stories about what has been going on in Gulu Girls home and reported them like they were newscasters. One girl read the headlines then the other girls read the in depth stories. It was adorable and I actually learned a lot about what the girls have been up to! To end the night we watched Shrek on a laptop. The girls loved the movie.

The Neighbors 

The Neighborhood

Main water tap at the house

I left early the next morning for Kampala. I was able to catch a ride with someone I’ve never meet but heard about many times. His name his John and he worked for Restore International in Uganda for five years. He left last May about a week before I came to Uganda to attend law school. He was back in Uganda visiting and working with Restore. He shared many stories with us on the ride down to Kampala and I really enjoyed hearing about what Gulu was like six years ago. Six years may not seem like a long time to you but a whole lot can change in six years in Africa. Gulu has definitely changed a lot in the past six years.

I am always happy to be back in Kampala because I am not much of a small town girl, but I always wish I could spend more time with the girls in Gulu.