Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
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Another False Start
The second false start came when the women said they were interested in being trained in poultry keeping. There is an organization in Uganda called the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS); their sole purpose is to educate and support Ugandans regarding agricultural practices. I went to the Nagongera sub-county offices and met with the NAADS officers and asked them if they would conduct a training for the women in Nagongera on raising poultry as an income generating activity. The NAADS officers agreed and said they would make sure to spread the word that there would be a training.

I had notified my “counterpart” at MIFUMI to let her know when the training would take place, but somehow wires were crossed, and a domestic violence advisor training session was scheduled for the same time as the poultry training. This meant that the two women that I counted on to help me with translations would be gone, and Hellen, who was also very helpful, would have to be at the Advice Center and also could not attend the poultry training. I was disappointed by this but still felt optimistic about the training.

Food and Payment
The morning of the scheduled session, I went to the office. When the women began showing up for the training, they were asking where the food was. One of the local officials came and told me the women were hungry, and that I should provide some food. Well, there was a budget of zero for this event, but I hopped on my bike and rode down the street and bought a bag of chapattis for the women. They were quickly gone, and as more and more women arrived, the same official told me we needed more. I told her the food was only for people who showed up on time, and we needed to go ahead and start with the training.

It wasn’t that simple though. The two men from NAADS asked me for their money. Um, what money? It turned out they wanted me to pay a “facilitation fee.” This was news to me, since when I arranged for the training no one mentioned any sort of fee, and providing advice to their community members regarding agricultural practices was precisely what their job was suppose to be.

I was angry, frustrated, and near tears, but with over 100 women who had traveled quite far waiting for a training, I agreed to pay their fee. Being the nice guys that they were, they agreed to give me a “discount” since no one had mentioned the fee prior to the event.

What Did He Just Say?
I’d like to say the money was well spent, but the men seemed ill prepared. The training was in dhopadhola, so I didn’t know what was being said most of the time except for the brief summaries the men would say to me. I do know at one point the guys were talking about sex instead of poultry, so I think it is probably best that I couldn’t follow most of what was being said.

After they finished, the men asked me to pay them in the privacy of their office, which just made the whole encounter feel even creepier. They were all smiles and handshakes and told me to let them know if I needed them for any future training.

At this point, I was down, but not quite out. I had one more idea before I was going to throw in the towel … and this one was a winner!

Check out KWC students Marybeth Powell and Matt Mistretta in this 14 WFIE news story about Owensboro’s attempts to attract college students to town:

Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
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Breakthrough
My breakthrough at my site came when I met a lady named Mary Asili. Mary was one of the domestic violence advisors in Nagongera and also worked with a group of women called the Nagongera Women’s Guild. Mary was the first person within the MIFUMI organization that I met who genuinely seemed interested in working with me, and I was definitely ready to grab at any opportunity that came along at this point.

We scheduled a meeting for me to go to Nagongera to meet the women Mary works with and talk to them to see if there was some project or goal that I could work with them on. The day of my meeting, Akoth Thereza, who is a volunteer at the Mifumi Village Advice Center, hopped on her bike to lead me to Nagongera. It was about a 45-minute bike ride.

When I got there I was greeted by Margret Rembo, the other domestic violence advisor at that site; Hellen, who is a volunteer at the center and also a young mother with a baby named Obama; and Betty who was one of the leaders within the Women’s Guild.  There were probably between 30-40 women there for that first meeting.

Nagongera Women's Guild

I introduced myself in dhopodhola and went as far as I could on my own before I sought help with translation. At first the women were quiet, but when I asked them to tell me about themselves, one by one, women raised their hands to tell me what challenges they were facing. One of the biggest concerns shared by most women was inability to pay school fees. Some women had been abandoned by their husbands who were now not contributing at all to provide basic needs for the women or their children. Some women had been chased by their husbands, after their husbands had married a second wife. Some were widows who didn’t have any help or any way to provide for themselves. Most of the women who spoke had experienced domestic violence in some form or another.

By the time the women were finished, I was completely overwhelmed. I remember trying to compose myself to say something coherent, but I also remember wondering what I could possibly do to help these women with their problems.

False Start
I have to admit I had a couple of false starts before I actually found the right project to work on with the women of Nagongera. First the women showed me a kitchen that they were given by the Catholic Church in Nagongera. The Nagongera Advice Center is located next to the church, and the Nagongera Women’s Guild started out as a prayer group for the women.

I need to clarify what I mean by “kitchen” It was an empty building – no electricity, no stove, no furniture…nothing. But it was a “kitchen” to the women, and they wanted to start a catering business from this kitchen. The first thing I asked the women to do was to make a list of everything they thought they would need for this business and the price that it would cost.

At first the list started off with the typical things you would associate with a catering business such as pots, pans, plates, bowls, cups, etc., but soon that list was several pages long and included jewels and gowns for their catering uniforms. I’m not sure where that list ended up, but I made it the responsibility of the group members to search out the prices of the items for the business, and I never saw that list again.

Next time: The Pay-Off takes place …

Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending regular updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
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Work was another challenge for me out in the village.  I was supposed to be spending time learning about the work at the advice centers, but one counselor at the center was hardly ever around. She was from Tororo town, and apparently village life wasn’t for her either. The other counselor would leave me behind at the center while she went out on case handling. I read quite a few books those first few weeks out in the village.

Soon a solution presented itself. The school Greg was volunteering at didn’t have an English teacher and wanted to know if I would be interested. I went to James Ochola Memorial Secondary School  (JOMSS) the very next day, introduced myself, and informed them that I had never taught in my life, had absolutely no training, and would be delighted to try to teach the kids if they still wanted me. That first term, I taught all four grades, S1-S4.

It was a huge challenge to say the least. I’m not sure what the children learn regarding English in the primary schools, but it isn’t punctuation, parts of speech, grammar, writing or reading. I bought a local grammar book during a visit in Kampala to help me come up with lessons. There weren’t books for the students to use, so the only information they received was what I put on the board.

Another challenge I had besides not knowing what to teach was discipline. Caning children is supposed to be illegal here, but it definitely goes on. I think the children were excited to have two white teachers visiting them. JOMSS is a government school with very few resources, but it was definitely a status booster to have two teachers (and I use that term loosely regarding myself) from the U.S.

I think this excitement coupled with the fact that they knew neither of us would cane them, and also my own inexperience in the classroom, led to challenges with discipline. Classes were also huge, with over 60 kids each in the S1 and S2 classes. I survived the first term somehow and agreed to teach for a second term but only to S2 and S3.

At the end of the school year, S4 students have to take a national exam, and those scores determine whether they would go on to S5 or not. I felt like the S4 students needed a Ugandan who was familiar with the exam to prepare them. As far as S1 goes, there were just far too many students and they were far too undisciplined for me to continue teaching that class.

Something else was happening too…I finally found work with my host organization.

Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending regular updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
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I would have never really considered myself a city girl. I don’t exactly consider Owensboro the big city, but it didn’t take long for me to discover I’m not ready to move to Green Acres either.  This became abundantly clear the first time a rat paid me a visit in Mifumi.

 This was a HUGE problem in my book, but when I mentioned it to the administrator at Mifumi, she seemed not to grasp the sense of urgency I was feeling regarding this rat.  The rat situation came to a head one night when it was raining outside and I didn’t have any power.  Water was pooling at the bottom of my door, and I heard a noise coming from down there. When I shined my headlamp down at the door, a rat was crawling in under the bottom.

 Picture me seconds later standing on top of my sofa with my headlamp on, shrieking on my cell phone to my then-boyfriend about the current situation.  Another rat made his way in despite the dishtowel dam I tried to build at the bottom of my door. We had now entered code red as far as I was concerned.

Another “emergency” visit to Mifumi’s home office was made. The staff was laughing when I once again brought up the “rat problem,” but their amusement subsided when I said I wanted a cat. It turns out that many Ugandans fear cats. Rats, on the other hand, are just part of village living and nothing to fear.

 Sister Goretti was tasked with the assignment of finding me a cat. Goretti asked me if I wanted a big cat or a little cat. I told her I thought a small cat would be fine. Moments later she hopped on her moped and zipped away. When she came back, there was half of a yellow jerry can on the back of the moped and inside was an incredibly dirty, black and white kitten.  Hello Oreo!

Oreo cleaned up pretty well, and soon became a bit of a neighborhood celebrity. The children living on the compound would come by knocking on the window looking for Oreo. I would go to the Mifumi market and buy omena (which is the same thing as sun-dried minnows) to mix with rice and feed to Oreo, so the local women liked Oreo because he was good for business.

At first I thought I got jipped when it came to mouse-hunting skills. We would hear a noise, and Oreo would perk up, but instead of going to check the situation out, he would stand there looking at me. I’m pretty sure he was thinking, “After you,” and he never went onto the scene until I gave the all-clear.

 Later, he did better at chasing rats, and I had a new problem of him gifting me with rats. He’d come home with a live rat in his mouth, and proceed to play with it for about an hour before he’d eventually eat it. Despite our little differences of opinion about bringing rats home, Oreo was good company and I became happier with my village living.

Next time … teaching school!

Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending regular updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.

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Charles Osinde, who does legal aid clinics out in the village, was the one who came in the Mifumi truck to pick Jude and me up. Charles was the exact opposite of Jude, and they cracked me up most of the drive back to Tororo. While Jude was happy and easy-going, Charles was impatient and grumpy, but still polite. It was kind of like watching the Odd Couple. The bed of the truck was filled with plastic containers with lids, so all of my belongings were squeezed in the backseat with me.

By the time we got to Tororo town, it was raining. We stopped in town, so I could get some kerosene for my lamp, a box of matches and a couple of basins. I also bought a set of silverware, one plate, one bowl and one coffee cup. From Tororo town, we drove on another hour to Mifumi village. I was going to be living in the staff quarters of the Mifumi Health Clinic. It was dark by the time we arrived, and there was no power. Sister Goretti, who manages the Mifumi Health Clinic, met us and let me into my new apartment. As soon as I was settled in, Charles and Jude took off.  I was exhausted. I found my sheets in my suitcase, and was soon tucked in under my mosquito net.

During our early days of training, we had meetings with our program managers to discuss what kind of site we wanted. One of the questions was if we wanted a rural or an urban site. I had said I wanted a rural site, and I don’t think you could get much more rural than this. The first weekend at my site I decided to go exploring in the “neighborhood.” I could either turn left or right out of the compound – I chose left and started walking. I walked past mud houses with thatched roofs. I walked past rice fields. I came to the first small trade center and asked them if they had rice. No rice.

I decided to search for the school that fellow volunteer Greg was going to be teaching at. We had passed it on the way to my site, but it was dark, and I couldn’t remember which direction it was or the name of the school. I asked some people at the trade center and a man decided to walk with me. We walked to an intersection, and rested there under a big mango tree. I had been away from my site for an hour now and didn’t bring any water with me. The man flagged down a motorcycle for me, and I tried to explain that I wasn’t allowed to ride motorcycles here. I thanked the gentleman for accompanying me that far and told him I would continue on my own.

I decided to turn right at the intersection. I walked for about 30 minutes, during which time I had a mental conversation with myself about how I was in the middle of nowhere and was likely to starve to death before I found food.

Eventually I came to a bigger trade center. I didn’t know where I was, and I didn’t see too many women around. It was mostly men, and I felt very intimidated. I found a shop that sold rice and beans, bought half a kilo of each, and enjoyed a soda before heading back. I gave up finding Greg that day, but at least I had gotten out and looked around. My new top priority was getting myself a bicycle to get to the local villages and explore more. There was still a lot left to see!

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