Hello, there!
It's going to be a short update right now as I only have about 9 minutes left at the internet cafe. I thought I would take advantage of the unlimited internet access I still get at the Life in Africa internet cafe but a) the power is down and b) Ezra is packing up as LiA prepares to move back to their original location. They can't afford the rent where they are any more. Alas!
But I've had a good, very busy week at MCDT, going to four different neighborhoods ranging from rural at the edge of Kampala, to slums, to urban/downtown, to an industrial edge of town.
I've also heard there's a new Kiva fellow who will be arriving next Friday, so I'm starting to make transition plans.
All in all, things are going well and I'll add more details when I can. Today is for laundry, grocery shopping, and general housework. And all is well.
Showing posts with label Life in Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life in Africa. Show all posts
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Tales from the Office: Staff Meeting
I learned that there would be a Life in Africa staff meeting Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. and asked if I could come. Peter, the center administrator, said sure! Was he wondering why someone would volunteer to come to a staff meeting?
On Tuesday I arrived at 9:30 or so so that I could check my email, a more arduous process than you might think. Luckily, one of the other staff members hadn't arrived and so the meeting didn't start at 10. Or at 10:30. Or at 11. Or 11:30. Or 12. Finally, a bit after 12, one of the staff members told me, "Meeting's starting," and I trooped into the office.
To my surprise, the meeting started with a prayer. Not to my surprise, the meeting required much discussion. It also required some concentration on my part not to lose focus what with the accents and the hunger. I thought I did fairly well, given how cranky I usually get by lunchtime.
At about 3, Grace, who coordinates the programs, said, "We should probably stop. Some of us are probably hungry." I think that was entirely for my benefit because as the meeting broke up, I asked if anyone was going to get some lunch. The six staff members just laughed and continued working and discussing business plans.
I have decided to introduce the American custom of donuts at staff meeting.
On Tuesday I arrived at 9:30 or so so that I could check my email, a more arduous process than you might think. Luckily, one of the other staff members hadn't arrived and so the meeting didn't start at 10. Or at 10:30. Or at 11. Or 11:30. Or 12. Finally, a bit after 12, one of the staff members told me, "Meeting's starting," and I trooped into the office.
To my surprise, the meeting started with a prayer. Not to my surprise, the meeting required much discussion. It also required some concentration on my part not to lose focus what with the accents and the hunger. I thought I did fairly well, given how cranky I usually get by lunchtime.
At about 3, Grace, who coordinates the programs, said, "We should probably stop. Some of us are probably hungry." I think that was entirely for my benefit because as the meeting broke up, I asked if anyone was going to get some lunch. The six staff members just laughed and continued working and discussing business plans.
I have decided to introduce the American custom of donuts at staff meeting.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Acholi Quarters
I've been trying to figure out what to write about the visits I’ve been making to borrowers. I’m still trying to figure that out, but I’ll start by telling you about the Acholi Quarters where I have gone for a few of the visits.
The Acholi Quarters is an area of Kampala mostly inhabited by members of the Acholi tribe, people from northern Uganda and southern Sudan, many of them displaced by the war that has been going on in northern Uganda for the past 20 years (and God willing will end soon as Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has indicated that he will sign a peace agreement on April 5).
To get to the Acholi Quarters from the LiA office, Teopista (the loan officer) and I take a matatu through Ntinda to Spear Motors, a big transfer point, and then take another matatu to a stop about 1-2 miles further on. Then we walk through a marketplace consisting of stalls on either side of a dirt (or mud) track through a small valley (it can get very muddy) and up again, across the railroad tracks, across another paved road, and up a hill. That gets us to the Acholi Quarters.
From there, Teopista will ask someone to take us to the home of whomever we are visiting. The Acholi Quarters is a labyrinth, as far as I’m considered, densely populated with very small, usually one-room, houses. Houses have cement floors and often walls made from logs covered with red mud. Pigs are in pens; goats, chickens, cats and cows travel freely. Water comes from community taps, but many houses have electricity. The terrain is hilly and there are rock-lined ditches throughout the Acholi Quarters to aid in water runoff.
Quarrying is big business in the Acholi Quarters. I asked one of the borrowers why this area is so good for quarrying and she said, “God made it that way.” I also gather the rock is hard and good for construction, but at the moment much of quarry business is not possible due to the flooding of the rainy season.
It’s a tough place to live and the people who live here, I suspect, are always close to disaster. On our second visit, a day after some heavy rains, one of the borrowers told Teopista that a child had been killed by heavy waters on her (I think it was her) way to school.
The Acholi Quarters is an area of Kampala mostly inhabited by members of the Acholi tribe, people from northern Uganda and southern Sudan, many of them displaced by the war that has been going on in northern Uganda for the past 20 years (and God willing will end soon as Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has indicated that he will sign a peace agreement on April 5).
To get to the Acholi Quarters from the LiA office, Teopista (the loan officer) and I take a matatu through Ntinda to Spear Motors, a big transfer point, and then take another matatu to a stop about 1-2 miles further on. Then we walk through a marketplace consisting of stalls on either side of a dirt (or mud) track through a small valley (it can get very muddy) and up again, across the railroad tracks, across another paved road, and up a hill. That gets us to the Acholi Quarters.
From there, Teopista will ask someone to take us to the home of whomever we are visiting. The Acholi Quarters is a labyrinth, as far as I’m considered, densely populated with very small, usually one-room, houses. Houses have cement floors and often walls made from logs covered with red mud. Pigs are in pens; goats, chickens, cats and cows travel freely. Water comes from community taps, but many houses have electricity. The terrain is hilly and there are rock-lined ditches throughout the Acholi Quarters to aid in water runoff.
Quarrying is big business in the Acholi Quarters. I asked one of the borrowers why this area is so good for quarrying and she said, “God made it that way.” I also gather the rock is hard and good for construction, but at the moment much of quarry business is not possible due to the flooding of the rainy season.
It’s a tough place to live and the people who live here, I suspect, are always close to disaster. On our second visit, a day after some heavy rains, one of the borrowers told Teopista that a child had been killed by heavy waters on her (I think it was her) way to school.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Tales from the office
Poor Ezra! He’s the administrator for the internet café where the Life in Africa Foundation has its offices in Kampala. All week he’s had to deal with the man I’ve titled Annoying Peace Corps guy and it’s amazing Ezra continues to show up at all.
The first day he shows up, I’m sitting in the café, working on my laptop and entertaining the infant son of one of the other Life in Africa members when this white haired white guy wearing shorts and a gray T-shirt comes in and sees me, the only mazungu in the room, and asks, “Are you in charge here?” No, indeed, and I direct him to Ezra. Ezra spends much of the afternoon helping him as he gripes about everything.
I peek over his shoulder one time, which is bad, but I’m curious. He is working on a resume, proclaiming at the top that he is a Peace Corps volunteer who has been in Uganda for the past two years. His goal is to be hired to a high level position for a non-profit (or NGO) working in sub-Sarahan Africa. He states often and loudly how this is due soon, in two days, tomorrow.
The computers never work for Annoying Peace Corps guy. Files never save. He can never find the file he wants. Linux is too complicated and confusing for him to use and he wants to know why the café doesn’t have Word. He has to move from computer to computer to computer. He has to come back another time. Ezra needs to refund his money because he lost his files or the computer quit on him. And yet he comes back day after day to work in this internet café though there are two others in the neighborhood.
One night as I’m leaving, I ask Ezra what time he gets in in the morning since he is always there before me. He arrives at about 7:30. And what time does he leave, since he’s always there when I go. He leaves around 10 at night.
The next morning, it’s pouring rain and Kevin (the young woman who cleans the offices) and I arrive before 10. Ezra is not there. He comes at about 10:15, saying “I thought I would be the first one in.” He boots up the computers. Then boots them again because they don’t connect to the internet. They are taking their time.
Annoying Peace Corps guy arrives and Ezra tells him the computers aren’t up yet. Annoying Peace Corps guy’s documents are due today, so he’s going to go to another café. Fine by all of us.
At about noon, the computers go down. Ezra gets out his tool kit and loses some of his amazing composure. “I’m about ready to put up a sign saying, ‘Internet Café not yet open,’” he says as he crawls under the desks and begins fiddling with wires.
Annoying Peace Corps guy stalks in and says to Ezra who is under a desk, “All of my files have been erased because your computers have a virus!” I cannot hear Ezra’s response. Annoying Peace Corps guy says, “I’m coming back here later and I need to use THAT computer,” pointing at the computer with Word as its operating system, “and pull all my documents out, and I’d better be able to,” and leaves.
All I can think to myself is, Sir, are you sure you want to be working in Africa?
The first day he shows up, I’m sitting in the café, working on my laptop and entertaining the infant son of one of the other Life in Africa members when this white haired white guy wearing shorts and a gray T-shirt comes in and sees me, the only mazungu in the room, and asks, “Are you in charge here?” No, indeed, and I direct him to Ezra. Ezra spends much of the afternoon helping him as he gripes about everything.
I peek over his shoulder one time, which is bad, but I’m curious. He is working on a resume, proclaiming at the top that he is a Peace Corps volunteer who has been in Uganda for the past two years. His goal is to be hired to a high level position for a non-profit (or NGO) working in sub-Sarahan Africa. He states often and loudly how this is due soon, in two days, tomorrow.
The computers never work for Annoying Peace Corps guy. Files never save. He can never find the file he wants. Linux is too complicated and confusing for him to use and he wants to know why the café doesn’t have Word. He has to move from computer to computer to computer. He has to come back another time. Ezra needs to refund his money because he lost his files or the computer quit on him. And yet he comes back day after day to work in this internet café though there are two others in the neighborhood.
One night as I’m leaving, I ask Ezra what time he gets in in the morning since he is always there before me. He arrives at about 7:30. And what time does he leave, since he’s always there when I go. He leaves around 10 at night.
The next morning, it’s pouring rain and Kevin (the young woman who cleans the offices) and I arrive before 10. Ezra is not there. He comes at about 10:15, saying “I thought I would be the first one in.” He boots up the computers. Then boots them again because they don’t connect to the internet. They are taking their time.
Annoying Peace Corps guy arrives and Ezra tells him the computers aren’t up yet. Annoying Peace Corps guy’s documents are due today, so he’s going to go to another café. Fine by all of us.
At about noon, the computers go down. Ezra gets out his tool kit and loses some of his amazing composure. “I’m about ready to put up a sign saying, ‘Internet Café not yet open,’” he says as he crawls under the desks and begins fiddling with wires.
Annoying Peace Corps guy stalks in and says to Ezra who is under a desk, “All of my files have been erased because your computers have a virus!” I cannot hear Ezra’s response. Annoying Peace Corps guy says, “I’m coming back here later and I need to use THAT computer,” pointing at the computer with Word as its operating system, “and pull all my documents out, and I’d better be able to,” and leaves.
All I can think to myself is, Sir, are you sure you want to be working in Africa?
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Basics: What I'm actually doing
I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while. My computer’s powercord died over the weekend, and it was the work of well over a day and two trips downtown to innumerable stores to get a new one. Shops were closed on Easter Monday, don’t you know, it and Good Friday being a national holiday, and so though many places such as restaurants continued to offer services, computer stores did not.
I am told that one reader commented, “I’m enjoying the blog, but what is Laura actually doing there?” I’ve added some more information on my role in the “about me” section to the right, but basically I’m helping a local non-profit (NGO, or non-governmental organization in local parlance) improve their microlending processes and practices, and especially how they utilize Kiva loans. And I cannot believe how well church work prepared me for this. There were all these people at the Kiva Fellows training from corporate and high finance worlds and I felt very intimidated, but we’re not talking about corporate high finance, here. We’re talking about basic do your best, seat of your pants tracking of relatively small amounts of money, managed by well-meaning people whose first love is people not money management. Just what I’m used to.
I probably won't be writing about work much as I want to preserve confidentiality both for Kiva and for the folks at Life in Africa, but I'm sure stories from the office will pop up from time to time.
In general, the mode of work seems to be of the “hurry up and wait” variety. Small bursts of activity interspersed with lingering stalls as I try not to be in the way and try not to feel bad about Not Getting Anything Done. It’s a very different pace from what I am used to in the U.S. where anything less than continuous activity or productivity is seen as wasteful. I really don’t know how much I will accomplish here. There are times when it feels like what I have been sent here to do should be cleared up in a couple of weeks; there are times when it feels like I will never accomplish anything. It is what it is, and I’ll do what I can. Resignation is an excellent discipline.
I am told that one reader commented, “I’m enjoying the blog, but what is Laura actually doing there?” I’ve added some more information on my role in the “about me” section to the right, but basically I’m helping a local non-profit (NGO, or non-governmental organization in local parlance) improve their microlending processes and practices, and especially how they utilize Kiva loans. And I cannot believe how well church work prepared me for this. There were all these people at the Kiva Fellows training from corporate and high finance worlds and I felt very intimidated, but we’re not talking about corporate high finance, here. We’re talking about basic do your best, seat of your pants tracking of relatively small amounts of money, managed by well-meaning people whose first love is people not money management. Just what I’m used to.
I probably won't be writing about work much as I want to preserve confidentiality both for Kiva and for the folks at Life in Africa, but I'm sure stories from the office will pop up from time to time.
In general, the mode of work seems to be of the “hurry up and wait” variety. Small bursts of activity interspersed with lingering stalls as I try not to be in the way and try not to feel bad about Not Getting Anything Done. It’s a very different pace from what I am used to in the U.S. where anything less than continuous activity or productivity is seen as wasteful. I really don’t know how much I will accomplish here. There are times when it feels like what I have been sent here to do should be cleared up in a couple of weeks; there are times when it feels like I will never accomplish anything. It is what it is, and I’ll do what I can. Resignation is an excellent discipline.
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