Skip to main content

From Uganda: A Monday

Yesterday I headed to the women’s centre in the morning for some tea and bread and then got to work on designing new web pages. It was a slow morning at the women’s centre because Eve and Denis are gone and the women don’t speak English so I didn’t have many people to talk to. The good news is Amon (my Ugandan cousin) is giving me Rukiga lessons so I have picked up probably another 30 words.

You can only ask how someone is doing so many times a day though haha! I headed to the hospital in the late morning to hang out with Brian at the computer lab. I sent Denis the rough drafts of the publications I made so he could look them over and get them printed while in Kampala.

After a few hours there, I went back to the women’s centre and met with some Mzungus (an American tourist couple) who were interested in purchasing some products. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be trying to convert American measurements to the metric system and then translating them to the women so they could sew the products. The American couple that came wanted a hope chest cover made and a dress. I had to draw out what a hope chest was to the women so they understood what we meant. I am in no way, shape, or form an artist so they just laughed at my drawing. We figured it all out though and ended up selling quite a bit of stuff which was great so we could pay the women for their week’s worth of work.

On my way home to the village from the women’s centre, it started to down pour rain. It was the first big rain storm since I have been here and I wasn’t quite prepared. Luckily it only lasted an hour or so and then I met up with Barnabas for Fellowship. We spent the whole evening and well into the night singing, dancing, and praying at Hope’s house. Many of the songs we sang were in Rukiga but Barnabas translated them for me and we sang along in English. We finished the evening with a dinner of bread, tea, and popcorn.

I slept well last night though was woken up in the middle of the night having to go to the pit latrine. Let’s just say it is not easy trying to go to the bathroom in a small hole in the dark with no light. My “torch” had died so it was up to the moon and stars to give me light. The morning seemed to come too early with the crying baby next door and the rooster that sounded as if it was in my room. At least hot coco and bread awaited me when I arrived this morning at the women’s centre.

Sutter Allen, undergraduate, Human Development, UC Davis

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to the UC Davis Blum Center Blog!

Here you will find updates on our organization, and blog posts written by each of our Blum Fellows about their experiences abroad. Make sure to check out our website at blumcenter.ucdavis.edu, and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/UCDavisBlumCenter to get regular updates and see our upcoming events.

Visiting the New Roots Farm, By Stella Sappington

At this point in my project I have incorporated my supervisors notes into the first draft of the survey, asked questions regarding his changes, and begun to survey clients. Many of the changes he made were for the purposes of brevity and clarity. He removed the questions I had in place regarding favorite foods and whether the interviewee was the primary shopper, as well as an experimental question about community meals. He also managed to consolidate the multiple questions I had regarding food insecurity that were separated whether they interrogated price, unavailability or distance. I questioned these changes as I was concerned about the knowledge gap between shopper and interviewee that one report mentioned and elucidating rich responses to all aspects of food security. However, I ultimately incorporated each of his changes. At this time I have called 80 numbers intending to administer the survey with only 10 respondents. Their answers are so far similar in nature and offer good gu...

Sky-High Natural Dyes by Jennifer Hoover

In June of 2014, I was bracing myself for my last few days in the Himalayan village I had come to call home. I had spent 3 months there, befriending a few women with whom I worked on various textile projects. As we wrung out the last of our skeins of yarn over a dye bath, Nirmala commented, “You will always remember the time you had only two students.” “No,” I countered, “I will remember the time I had two teachers.” “Three students, three teachers,” we agreed. This, to me, is the power of participatory action research: we are all students, and all teachers; all researchers, and all research subjects. And so I am thrilled to be back for further collaboration, with the support of the Blum Center. I am here in Kullu Valley working with some participants in a women's self-help group (www.whims.in) who produce textile goods as a way of generating some independent income and preserving traditional craft skills. Although the women have started working with the acrylic ...