Jerry Maguire said it best...

(I posted two posts today so I could save the trouble of hauling my laptop into town, please note the Youth # 3 feature below...it's a great one!)

A large benefit of what Lisa and I are doing here in Ndejje, Uganda and Africa in general, is learning from those around us. Help comes in all forms, and the kind we are giving or have assisted in giving is by no means the only avenue or perhaps even the best avenue to do so (isn’t everything trial and error in life?). I wholeheartedly believe that help is as beneficial as the acquired knowledge of who you are helping. I say acquired because I find that it is impossible to sufficiently (and as objectively as possible) learn another culture through books, media or word-of-mouth, and requires personal encounters and time spent submissively observing and interacting – not developing an understanding based upon the definitions you’ve been given from the aforementioned means of learning. This is not a criticism on one’s educational system or even the media, all are great tools and encouraging for those who do strive for greater understanding [of cultures, worldviews and humanity as a whole]. I’m simply hoping to explain that ‘aid’ or ‘help’ is a mutual experience and there is not solely a ‘giver’ and exclusively a ‘receiver’. Without one there isn’t the other…chicken before the egg…pot calling the kettle black…choose any metaphor you like.

For example, Lisa and I have run into issues in accomplishing what we have been sent to do, namely regarding the youth center. This youth center was actually built as a community center, with the intention of engaging the wider community and not only HOPE Primary School students. This brings the obvious benefits of solidarity, an increase in support for the school which could lead to greater enrollment, increased development, continued sustainability and in essence the spreading of its success to other refugee communities who probably haven’t dreamed the opportunity of an education was possible for them. And of course, just a great place for people in the community to gather, celebrate and build upon together. Lisa and I have discovered that nearly everyone involved are on different pages and maintain divergent ideas and even ways of addressing the center. While everyone has the best of intentions for this community and school, they are all different intentions nonetheless, and makes it very challenging to initiate any sort of progressive action, let alone make it stick. Right now the youth center (I will refer to it as the youth center as that is the page Lisa and I are on…and well, this is our blog!) is being used as a Nursery for the ‘baby class’ of HOPE School from 7:30 am – 12:30 pm because there is no other space for them; and even after 12:30 many of them stick around because they prefer loitering around school doing nothing than going home to not much else (namely chores). Let me clarify that these nursery kids are ADORABLE, but with so many of them (with zero English skills, continuously in awe of these different-looking foreigners they’ve never experienced before and have a massive amount of energy) it makes it impossible to run any programs that benefit anyone else at HOPE. I’ll have to include a picture of them clinging on to Lisa when we try to play a game – think eight little ones with death grips on each arm, and if they get you to the ground you are done for.

Annette, who is the school’s administrator, refers to the youth center as “the site” (Lisa and I were floored to hear her call it the community center the other day) and largely promotes its use as an extra arm of the school; e.g. for baby classes, which has the added benefit of bringing in a good amount of school fees. Ben (SWB founder) and Chris (past SWB Ndejje volunteer) have spoken of its intent as a community center, meant to be utilized by the wider community and not exclusive to HOPE School as mentioned. The problem with that is there is not a local constant face/caretaker/organizer for the center (being able to become fluent in Luganda within the week would be fantastic). As mentioned – it is a nursery, and with that come walls decorated with A, B, C’s and 1, 2, 3’s, and there would be no way to account for or monitor any of the equipment or resources (even trying to explain this to the students and teachers of HOPE has been frustrating, but is certainly progressing)…and we have a strong sense that it equipment would start to disappear slowly, and then very quickly be depleted if the rest of the community was strolling in and out at this stage. Mainly, there are just so many kids (at the school let alone the community) and so little space and help. Lisa and I are looking at this in the most realistic way while still aiming to respect everyone’s vision for the center. As of now we’ve figured a youth center with programs for HOPE School students is what we’re capable of achieving currently. How their schooling is run there is not much room for creativity or play, so that is what we are trying to provide through intermittent classes during the day, afterschool games in respect to each P-class and have started a Sunday evening reading group at our residence – albeit with the hope that after installing electricity (which I believe Lisa and I will be able to do after our 200 euro donation) this will shift towards evening programs at the Youth Center, in which students can invite friends or siblings not in HOPE School. Jacques, who is HOPE’s creator and SWB’s main liaison in Uganda, floats in between all three of these visions for the center, as is his kind and diplomatic character…and also because he is too busy to even breathe much of the time. But he fiercely wants the center to have computers set up so that P5, P6 and P7 students can begin to learn how to use them. Also, he desires a permanent “caretaker” or program director for the center and shares our emphatic belief that more land/space (in relative proximity) to the school or Youth Center is vital, and a goal to aim for ASAP.

This got us feeling a bit frustrated, a bit dizzy, slightly down at times, but mainly just stumped at how to approach the added complexities of an already challenging situation we were sent facilitate. In other words we needed their help in order to help. Everyone needed help. So during tea the other day I asked Annette, Jacques and Jacob (P5-P7 Math teacher) to explain more about the Kingdoms in Uganda and their relation to the Central Government. Essentially, my goal was to learn how each viewed decision making, structure and mediation (and of course, I found it interesting and wanted to be educated on this aspect of Uganda), as I knew each came from different kingdoms (Jacques coming from a different country and kingdom).

Annette explained that each kingdom* controls a part/region of Uganda (Kampala is in the Buganda Kingdom) and that those living in a particular kingdom had to pay the King/Kingdom a fee of some sort. This was explained as anything from a type of tax, payment for use of property/land, purchasing land and so on and so forth (shedding more light on why the State doesn’t own much land and is so expensive, as it is mostly all owned by respective kingdoms). A major problem I pulled from this conversation was that this system doesn’t have an egalitarian method of dolling out these fees. Also, some kings/kingdoms (like Buganda) take the viewpoint that they are above the Central Government, e.g. President Museveni (who has been in charge for over two decades at this stage, FYI), and you can guess how well that is received. Buganda’s King stands by that with the explanation that Kampala is in his Kingdom – his jurisdiction if you will. Then there is the murky aspect of kingdoms paying the Central Government fees from the fees they collect. And of course the common factor prevalent in all country’s governments, “Big Men” or “patronage” politics, in which the heads of state attempt to put in power or back those with their interests at heart (and those interests not necessarily nor usually compatible with their frontrunner’s respective kingdom’s interests). The common theme between Jacques and Jacob was the agreement that there wasn’t enough knowledge of how or what money changed hands, and there should be one form of governing in a country or all forms would fail. Traditionally, the king of a kingdom is genetically chosen, but in Jacob’s kingdom Museveni’s government is trying to promote the election of a non-hereditary candidate. That is also something of interest that sparked further discussion as to whether people respect the central government or kingdoms more. Annette said that some people were devoted to their kingdom and would die for them, but not feel that strongly regarding the government and vice versa. She mentioned she personally respected both her kingdom and Uganda’s government equally and was not bothered by the perceived power share. Jacques had a unique take as well, he said that his kingdom’s king in the Congo was “elected” and not decided based on birthright. He made it sound like it operated similar to State Governors in the United States. All this was not only extremely interesting, but very telling of how each broke down responsibility, duty and delegation.

Understanding the roots of these aspects in our particular context as well as geopolitically, and then connecting them on a larger scale (all uniquely tied to conflict and conflict mitigation)to the African continent – and all its history, overwhelming diversity and of course that vast land mass, will make sense of more of the issues we’re facing than I thought possible. Education at its finest. I just finished reading this great book called The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence, and will leave you with a paragraph that really stuck with me:

“In 2000 there were more than ten major conflicts underway in Africa. One-fifth of all Africans lived in countries battered by war. Some 12 million were classified as refugees – 40 percent of the world’s total. When Abdou Diouf of Senegal accepted defeat in an election in March 2000, he was only the fourth African president to do so in four decades.”…. “Africa is the world’s poorest region in the world. Its average per capita national income is one-third lower than the world’s next poorest region, South Asia. Half of Africa’s 880 million people live on less that US$1 a day. Its entire economic output is no more than $420 billion, just 1.3 per cent of world GDP, less than a country like Mexico. It is the only region where school enrollment is falling and where illiteracy is still commonplace: two in five Africans – and half of all African women – are illiterate, compared to one in every eight adults in East Asia or Latin America. It is also the only region where life expectancy is falling. On a list drawn up by the United Nations Development Programme, all twenty-five countries that rank lowest in terms of human development are African. The World Bank has estimated that 40 percent of Africa’s private wealth is held offshore. A report prepared for the African Union in 2002 estimated that corruption cost Africa $148 billion annually – more than a quarter of the continent’s entire GDP.”

While the above paragraph is obviously overwhelming, what if the focus was on the roots of these things, the cause, and not simply remaining in awe or defeat of the effects? What if everyone experienced and learned through immersion and intercultural/interpersonal communication in order to work towards achievement or change? Too many people have eliminated the choice of others, namely the choice of the younger generation, by perpetuating their reliance on others to solve or explain for them, and in essence think for them. There must be a shift, and I personally believe that shift starts with changing the definition and ideology of ‘help’.

*a kingdom is made up of many tribes, and is more of a regional identity not a tribal one, although there have historically been intra-kingdom conflicts between tribes. Although, lately Lisa and I have had an increase in people warn us about the untrustworthiness of tribes in a certain kingdom or the morally decrepit characteristics of people that belong to a certain tribal area (a conversation that Lisa and I were smart enough to solemnly nod and stay quiet about). Sounds a lot like a watered down version of the Yankees / Red Sox relationship, no?