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| Baby blanket sewn by women |
Life could not be better here in Bwindi. I have recently moved into the village next to some of my good local friends and have a small room to myself. I am a true villager now as I fetch water from the stream near by, use the pit latrine, bathe in a bucket, and cook on a charcoal stove. I wake up each morning to the sounds of the roosters crowing, goats squealing, and babies crying as the sun breaks through the mountain jungle mist. The kids that live next door to me think it is pretty funny to have a Mzungu (white person) living in their village. They love to peak in through my curtain and wait for me to notice them and then they run off giggling.
I walk down the red dirt road with all of the women to the centre and begin my work around 8am. We break for tea and bread around 9am and then continue on. The women laugh and chat all day while they pump the sewing machines with their feet, guide the material with their left hands, and nurse their babies with their right hands. It is truly amazing how they manage to juggle it all at once.
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| My office |
I have set up a small office where I am currently working on making brochures and designing the website so we can increase visitors to our center and generate more profit. I am also working on building local connections among the village so the centre does not have to rely on only tourism for profit. The centre is still so new that many people (even the locals) do not know about it.
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Check out the article in AeroLink/Kenya
Airways Magazine |
I head to the different lodges in the evenings and make small talk with the managers asking them about their textile needs and what we can make for them and then bargain a price for the products. In between talking to the managers, I ask the tourists how gorilla trekking was and invite them down to the centre for a visit. Our hope is that if we can increase profit this next month, we can start a trial run of a micro-finance type program for the women who have learned to sew. We want to supply each woman with a sewing kit (including material, needles, thread, and a machine) so they can start their own businesses and manage their own profit. Each kit is going to cost about $200 and the women will work to repay it over a set amount of time. I have a few concerns about this plan but I think it will work out nicely in the end.
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| My favorite! So happy to be back with her. |
When I am not at the women’s centre, I am with my God daughter, learning Rukiga, attending church with everyone, or just hanging with my friends. Speaking of church… I had to read the sermon last Sunday in front of the whole church. I almost had a heart attack but I made it through and just kept telling myself that most people probably didn’t even know what I was saying since it was in English and not Rukiga.
This week Eve and Denis have gone back to Kampala for their last wedding meeting so I am running the centre. Here in Uganda, rather than the bride’s father paying for the wedding, the whole village contributes during weekly wedding meetings. Contributions come in the form of money, goat meat, flowers, or even the local gin (Waragi). We have almost covered the whole wedding budget now with all of the contributions and we are counting down the days till Eve walks down the isle. It has been a great experience helping her plan their wedding since it is so different than in the USA.
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| Our display of products made by the women |
I still have yet to see my bridesmaid dress since when we left Kampala last week, the city was still on strike and the store was closed. Eve is bringing it home this time and we are just hoping it fits since we only have a few days left till the big day.
I think that wraps up what has mostly been happening here. Hope all is well in the USA!
Sutter Allen, undergraduate, Human Development, UC Davis
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