Kamwenge

They day before heading for Kamwenge Elin (Robin’s teacher) and I decided to get some clothes. I of course had brought to little with me as I always do. However at times it is deliberate since I most often get cheaper clothes abroad. Purity joined us since she knew the good places. She took us to the fancier shops at first. She needed to go away for a second so Elin and I were left alone. I have not really got the whole deal of the money exchange rate but when we speak in terms of Euros they speak in terms of thousand shillings. I am really bad at exchange rates, and learning how to think in terms of Euros after my move to Amsterdam and not Swedish kronor was hard enough, now 1 Euro or 8 SEK is around 3000 shilling, I think not sure. I just let the money rate eventually get to me and learn from there. Anyways I had no idea how much a dress should cost and I thought the prices the sales girl mentioned were way to expensive.  You know when you end up bargaining and then you go so low they think you are nuts, No? Well I do that often, as I did today. When she did not give in we left. When we met Purity she laughed at the offers we had made and said that it was way too low. But she realized we wanted really cheap clothes so she said she will take us to the flea market, but no white people go there and it is quite hectic. We headed there and she was so right, it was enormous and everyone was pulling Elin and me in different directions, and trying to sell clothes at the same time expressing their love for us, or in other words as I would like to put it, asking for a ticket to Europe (or the USA since they kept screaming hello America after us) We however got what we needed and more. It was really cheap though you could not try anything on but just buy on feeling. Luckily all my purchases fit me, but Elin did not have the same luck. Before we headed back, we decided to eat out, and we went to an Indian restaurant. I was so thrilled to finally have some spices in my food again, but the others found it too spicy and mainly drank water. Walking out of there I almost got hit by a mattress or more like ten of them. The guy carrying them had all of them on top of his head and could not see where he was heading. The amount of things they can carry on their head is amazing. Elin and I concluded that this must be the reason why we have not seen any hunchback Africans but all have quite good postures.

The following day I left for a field work mission in Kamwenge. Robina the programs officer and Jimmie the driver from ADRA Uganda, as well as Soulpeace from ADRA Tanzania were all heading there. Soulpeace was requested to start a micro finance project for the albino rural community in Tanzania. Soulpeace himself is an albino. At first when I saw him I was not only surprised by his name but also finding out he was an African. However when you take a closer look at him he has the features distinctive of an African but only differs in color. Soulpeace had asked to accompany ADRA Uganda to kamwenge and get inside tips on how to go about the micro finance project. The drive was about 7 hours and an overnight so we had a lot of time to engage in conversations and get to know each other better. It was a lot of fun. Robina who seemed to be so reserved at work turned out to be quite open and amusing. She was constantly teasing with the driver Jimmy as well as Soulpeace. Soulpeace was constantly nodding off in sleep since he had been up until two in the morning the previous night in order to finish a report. West Uganda has beautiful landscapes and a lot of nature, so Rabina kept awakening Soulpeace so he could view the sceneries. Jimmy the driver who is fairly young was cracking small remarks with Robina about everything and nothing. In the background the morning radio show was playing. The hosts were making a parody of how men should cook more for their wives but when they offer to help, their wives say they should sit down and do not need help. Rabina was telling Jimmy he should cook when he gets a wife, and Jimmy said he would if he had one. Jimmy then told about his previous girlfriends and asked for advice from us if there was anything he could improve. His last relationship had lasted for a year, and quick steps of commitment were taken between the two. It ended three months ago with her saying she was no longer in love. Jimmy is only 28 and since it had ended so recently I told him not to feel stressed but that I just don’t think he has met the girl he is supposed to be with. Relationships are not always a bed of roses but require hard work and partnership. If she all of a sudden let go of it that easily she apparently was not in it for the whole way. Robina had at another occasion given him the exact same advice. Soulpeace however had other advice to give him. He started speaking of how nowadays African women have modernized and started gossiping. They meet each other and gossip and compare their men to each other and if one man sounds better than the other they leave.  This triggered of something in Robina and a discussion of how she was tired that the African women always get the blame for failed relationships began. Furthermore nor she or I got his point of the gossiping. Sure women do confide in their friends but so do men. It can be the case that women speak more but that should not be the reasoning behind a break up. Moreover he stated that women should not speak of their relationship to anyone, and the debate just went deeper and deeper into details between him and Robina of what his comment entailed. It was very amusing to listen to but eventually Soulpeace gave up and said he did not wish to have a gender discussion. Then Robina jokingly asked him not to be offended but to maintain the peace that is attached to his name. We all laughed and agreed upon to drop it.

They did however tell me that women are quite suppressed in Uganda but it is getting better. However in the village ares this change is harder. For instance the women could not eat chicken since the man should get all the chicken. If a woman would question were her husband had been if he arrived late at night she would get a beating, since it was none of her business. However I did relate to one thing Soulpeace said about modernization. He said when it happens to fast it can be implemented incorrectly and takes turns to extremities. He said African traditions can not be compared to Europe since it breaks down the family unities when imposed to fast. I believe that being culturally sensitive is of utmost importance when addressing change. Travelling and living in different places in the world, as well as having a mixed cultural background of my own has taught me, that the concept of our way of doing things does not necessarily need to be neither the right way nor the only way of doing things.

During the rest of the long ride we listened to Lucky Dube. He is a South African artist with good lyrics addressing important topics. Robina told me he was one day driving an expensive car, and some thieves wanted to steal it (Having been in South Africa I knew that this type of car theft was very common). The thieves did not see who was driving and they shot him. When they realized it was Lucky Dube they were devastated and left the car as it was and turned themselves in.

When we entered the remote village area of Kamwenge the people were flocking around me and staring. Some of the children and adults had never seen a person of my color before and my presence opened a realization that there are people with several shades of skin. The Kamwenge community is entailing Ugandans but also refugees from Tanzania that initially moved to Uganda around 70 years ago. However the Ugandans did not wish to have them there so they were sent back to Tanzania, but the Tanzanians did not wish to have them either. Eventually they were placed in Uganda’s care. They were then placed in refugee camps in Kamwenge and lived under extreme conditions. This occurred around ten years ago. They were an outcast of both societies and had nothing to earn their livelihood of and were dying. The government wanted to integrate the Tanzanians with the rest of the community in Kamwenge and give the whole community both the Tanzanians and Ugandans living there a better livelihood. The government then contacted ADRA to intervene and help enable a sustainable livelihood. ADRA gave them goods to prevent famine and the skills and knowledge to create sustainable development in diverse areas. Since Soulpeace intent was to question some of the community groups of their micro finance activities three meetings with the beneficiaries were arranged.

We drove on narrow and bumpy roads to get to the first community group. We reached a small hut and outside there was a goat and a small calf. On the ground there were about 20 beneficiaries gathered and sitting on the dry grass. They had placed two chairs and a small bench for us to sit on but eventually we all joined them in the grass. When the meeting with them was over, we were supposed to drive to the remaining community groups. There were two more meetings left to go. However Soulpeace felt he had received enough of information from this group so it was decided that the following meetings would be very short. I decided to sit in the back of the pickup with some of the beneficiaries who wanted to join us along the way and be dropped off. Jimmy told me not to since it would be very dusty and I could fall off, but I thought if they can so can I. The back was open and we all were cramped in it together. However I enjoyed the ride and sitting amongst them. They were laughing at how poorly I was handling the dust or maybe something else, I am not sure since I did not understand a word they were saying to each other. When we got to the final community group meeting Soulpeace just wished to say hello and good bye, since we had a long drive back ahead of us. However the community group had waited all morning and given up their daily tasks for our arrival. To just leave without asking them anything I felt would be sad. I sat by Robina and saw her upset face, and she asked if I could at least ask some questions to them. I said I would. I told Soulpeace in the middle of his good bye speech that I would like to ask them something even though I had not really anything to ask. However I thought they should feel needed and not to think that ADRA had asked them to come in vain. It just felt like the right thing to do. Soulpeace was a bit irritated but I disregarded that fact. Robina was interpreting for me and I asked them what their current challenges were. They said that they still have too little capital, there are a lot of widowers in the group and orphan children, and shortage of water and of physical assets like a school and hospital. When asking what ADRA had done for them, a crippled man in a wheelchair spoke. He said ADRA has done so much for them and for him. ADRA gave him the ability to write his own name, and he and others no longer needed to use a thumb print as identification. He said ADRA gave the group goods and skills and knowledge as well as the wheel chair he possessed. He said his whole family and relatives were murdered in the bushman war, and has four children to support. He said that his wheel chair was breaking down and he needed a new one. Robina then spoke to the people in luganda asking the community what they could do for the man in the wheel chair. I do not know what exactly was said but it seemed to be a very difficult situation for the community to help the man due to their own lack of money. Suddenly Robina leaves the conversation in tears and hides behind the car. Robina has been working with these types of situations for 10 years, but still got so emotionally heartbroken. It touched me to see her get so affected and I went to comfort her. I asked her if maybe l could contribute with something and she said we all can. We gathered 90 000 shilling which we handed to the man in the wheel chair. This act addresses individual help which is not the perspective of the community based idea, but at times the human heart speaks louder than policies, which it did in this case. We all were pleased we had stayed a bit longer, even Soulpeace.