oliotya!

5/31/2011

Paul, Karla and I sat around the backpackers tonight waiting for dinner and completely stressing about the EDGE project on the island and as a whole. It's incredible how multi-layered the island is and how difficult it is to implement a project without having been there or understanding the community. Our frustration was high and morale was low throughout our talk. It's just so confusing how keep motivated on a project that will inevitably falter without having a person consistently living on or visiting the island. We toughed through the difficult conversation of optimistic idealism struggling against a pessimistic distopia. Holy big words batman! Reality is a difficult thing to accept, coming from an established university where we are given the opportunity to find all sorts of paths and ways of connecting ourselves to the world around us.

Our basic ideology is to be able to provide a gateway for people on Lingira, which is so isolated from not just the world, but even their own government. There is a complete lack of primary school funds said to be provided by the government and an empty abyss of sexual and civil rights knowledge. As students, we struggle to understand what is of the utmost importance to the community for the EDGE project to focus on because there are so many things that we think we can help with. With time and money, large goals can be met, but for now our efforts need to focus on very focused and pinpointed projects that we can try and stress through education. Eventually, we can begin to use these projects as means of leveling gender differences or empowering people using their community. With this, we continue to find it difficult to not provide the community with money. It continues to be evident that our educational impact will only have influence if EDGE is to provide something to the community that brings people together. Right now, I can only see this as some sort of community center, or in our case right now, the demonstration garden. I think it would be quite cool if we made the garden more than just that. Something of a gathering place where the EDGE project and community could convene for public awareness campaigns and agriculture/environmental demonstrations.

We have discussed much about beautifying the area, to make Lingira feel more like a community instead of a temporary place for fishers and emigrants. From there, people living on Lingira will care more for their land and hopefully get more out of EDGE's research and projects. This summer, I envision this "beautification" happening in the garden. Karla came up with a solid idea that involves the primary school children, at least a handful, painting part of the fence and naming the garden. This painted area will face the public path that people walk between Kyoya and Lingira village (see map in past post).

Tis all for now my lovelies.

If the world is our stage, why watch from the audience?

6/1/2011

I seem to have spotted a pattern in my personal way of thought that cycles throughout the years. Through university I have learned and learned to the point where I find no black and white in any situation and endlessly research the grey. Understandably many assessments and observations must be taken in order to choose sides or implement projects. One does not want a project to end up a disaster because of a missed calculation or detail that they may have overlooked.

Throughout the last four years, that is what I learned. In the last two months, I have almost completely switched ideologies. Through work with the EDGE project and final research papers, I now understand the need for action. Sure, you could visit Lingira island for four years straight, figuring out what the community seems to most need, but by implementing projects right off the bat, you are able to evolve and modify works to the point of highest impact and where they resemble what people truly need. I go back and forth; research, action, assessment, implementation, research, action. Now I realize that both of these are necessary for one to work and the other to prevail but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, too much research and assessment can reach the point where it is a waste of time and resources.

Kampala has been fantastic these past couple days, as have our travels. We traveled to an area near Mityana to visit a girl in secondary school that Mr. Atwell sponsors. The driving has been incredibly intense around Uganda, mostly consisting of pot holes (more valley-like) and gravel. The driving is so intense (how intense is it?), the driving is so intense that we even happened to find a connection between the front of the car and a large tree (womp womp). Joseph, our driver, started to answer a phone call and completely veered off the "road" into a tree. Despite Karla almost crapping herself, we were plenty fine and keen to continue traveling without worrying too much. It made me think of how often car crashes would occur in the states if people were to drive on these roads and talk as much as usual on their phones.

Sarah, who goes to Kitizo Secondary School for girls, was very excited to meet us (mostly Paul) and finally have a physical connection to the Atwell family. Accordingly, Dennis and Ester were (siblings) were just as excited when Paul and I went to a secondary school in Kampala area later in the day.

6/2/2011
The Suubi Center

We travelled too a place in Lubanda (near Masaka) that deals with community development through training and teaching in a community center. The place began with a woman, Helen from Australia , and a friend, David from Uganda, who developed a demonstration garden to show new farming techniques and a training hall to have a place for women in the area to sew, knit, and weave products for selling. There is also a library attached that a couple women run that includes reading and computer lessons.

Recently, a group of men from the surrounding area has been gathering weekly to coordinate a soccer tournament for the local teams that is presented through an environmentally educational lens to teach people about climate change and other conservation efforts. Also, with a grant from Lonely Planet, Helen has begun the implementation of a reliable health clinic that will eventually be the place for everyone to get medicine, health information, and have the chance to see a doctor or nurse in case of emergency.

Basically, this place is the epitome of community development. It's running at full throttle because of the desire of people around the area to help and run the place. Helen is only here for three months every year, while David and others run and take care of the place all year round. Suubi center, which means hope in Luganda, is able to run so smoothly because of the dedication from the Ugandans working here. They see the benefit of having this center, because everything that is implemented here is through ideas and opinions of what they need the most. It's a collaboration of efforts off-site, back in Australia where much of the fundraising takes place, and on-site, where all of the physical and educational work is completed.

Volunteers are more than welcome, which is why we were able to spend the evening so easily. There are so many places that allow for volunteering that cost absurd amounts of money, which is entirely useless when most people volunteering have very little money. Helen sees this and acts accordingly. Staying here is cheap and the work a volunteer can do here is entirely up to him or her. Flexibility is a necessity, considering the changing community structure, which allows for projects to best fit the needs of people instead of being rigid and forcing people to change parts of their life to try and fit the projects in.

Suubi center is all located within one complex, or at least on one plot of land, so when people from the surrounding area come for one thing, they leave seeing the rest. The training center and health clinic are beside one another and out front is the demonstration garden and mushroom house. All in all, the Suubi center is a highly successful organization because of the effort given by Ugandans here and the intense fundraising done in Australia. The EDGE project is humbled by the work here, and has learned a lot through being here for just one night. Hopefully we can continue the vision of Suubi center onto Lingira, to try and find community members that want to help year round, making our projects much more sustainable that the annual visits that we do now.

After a boda ride (motorbike) back to the paved roads, we took a taxi (exactly like a minibus in Cape Town) back to Kampala, which only took a couple hours. We are comfortably back in the hostel we originally stayed in and plan on traveling to Jinja tomorrow morning. Learning Luganda (language) has been quite difficult. Most of our words are simply saying oliotya (hello/how are you?), webale (thank you) [webale nyo (thank you very much)], sula bulungi (good night), which all can be connected to gender - sabo (sir) and nyabo (madam). The flow of Luganda is incredibly difficult to grasp but I find it quite interesting and enjoyable to try and speak. I'm keen on learning more in the next few weeks!

Stay tuned... farewell folks...