First day with IH

The first day of working with Imprint Hope finally arrived. Although I wasn’t totally sure of what to expect, my general expectations are that it will be an amazing experience. I will be spending a lot of time shadowing Pius, the Operations Manager, and Maria, title to be determined. Clare said that Pius is critical for keeping things running and could use some help, which means that I will get a great overview of things from him – in terms of Imprint Hope, Jinja, the surrounding cities, Ugandan culture, and who knows what else. The training/experience with him is something that I would pay for, so I feel extremely blessed to have that be part of my job description. One of the biggest benefits is that he will be taking me to the best vendors and teaching me the right prices to pay for various items. Prices aren’t posted and it’s well-known that the “muzungu price” is at least twice as high for most items. A Ugandan shopping with a muzungu will get charged more because it’s assumed that they are buying for the muzungu. I will also be working with Maria so that I can take over (some of) her responsibilities when she leaves for the states in 2 weeks for 3-ish months.  

                The day started with Maria picking me up. I hadn’t driven downtown yet and it was definitely an experience. Bodas zooming around everything, people wildly turning in front of traffic and changing lanes with very little warning. The only real rule is that you get out of the way of things bigger than you – pedestrians yield to bodas, bodas yield to cars, cars yield to trucks. It’s a bit intimidating to be passing a car with oncoming traffic a stone’s throw away, but I did my best to enjoy the experience. When in Rome Jinja...!

    When we got to IH, I was blown away (or “blown up” as one of the Ugandans says) by the view. The facility itself is very impressive in terms of utilizing all the space available to provide a wide range of services. We had a morning meeting, which gave me a great opportunity to see/hear a bit about how things run around there. I also met 7 of the core individuals (in addition to Clare and Maria) that work at Imprint. I managed to remember all their names after one introduction – arguably a miracle since I often struggle to remember one person’s name seconds after they tell me. I told them a short version of how I went from a career track with a 5-year plan to being in Uganda with barely a 2-month plan. It’s weird to hear the crazy things that come out of my mouth when I tell people how God told me very directly to go to Uganda when I knew nothing about Uganda except that it exists. The good thing is that there are a lot of people who are similarly “crazy” and it doesn’t really stand out. After the meeting, Maria gave me a quick tour and then I met with Clare and Pius to discuss the plan for the week. I gave Clare the items that I had brought with me – donated by generous friends and family – before heading out to “the farm” with Pius.

I’m glad that I had the drive to IH to help me adjust prior to the drive with Pius. He’s a great driver, but I couldn’t ignore the feelings of impending death when you’re going 70-80mph in the wrong lane of a 2-lane highway with a huge truck 200 yards away. There is an entirely different set of rules for how to use your horn and turn signals. People seem to leave their turn signal on to indicate that they plan to be constantly passing the slower traffic and they honk to let bodas and other vehicles know that they’re flying up on them and about to zoom around them. Drivers also honk as they fly through small towns to let the people crossing the road know that their lives are in serious danger. 

 They (we?) are working on some projects to turn a plot of land into a farm for a few years before it becomes the main location for Imprint Hope. There is currently a patch of passionfruit growing as well as some random mango, jackfruit, sweet potatoes, and sugar cane. I thought I would be doing a lot of the work myself, but it turned out that we were there to supervise and talk to the guy who lives on the land. He took me around the edges of the property and talked about possible uses for the land, then he picked a fresh passionfruit for me. Shortly after that, Pius asked one of the guys to cut some sugar cane for the two of us. We sat in the shade eating sugar cane and getting to know each other, with the occasional check on the guys laying concrete in the house. Poor Robert was having rats coming through the dirt floor, but the concrete will solve that.  We took lunch in the nearest town, which was my first chance at an authentic meal in Uganda. Pius treated me to a meal of matoke (green bananas cooked and then mashed into something like very thick mashed potatoes), rice, cassava, and boiled goat. The goat came with a bunch of liquid that can be poured onto the rest of the meal, which is otherwise fairly bland. I found out that I’m a big fan of goat meat!

             

                    (sugar cane, after being peeled)                     (jackfruit, not quite ripe)

    

("the farm" and surrounding beauty 😍)

      

After our meal, we walked down a side street to several stores to buy supplies for Robert. Everyone we passed stared at me, which I definitely have not adjusted to yet.  I could tell that they were giving Pius trouble because I was with him, but he seemed to get the price he wanted for everything. Once we had everything we needed (which was carried around for us by a young girl that he recruited from the place we ate lunch), we headed back to the farm. The project was close to being done for the day and Pius talked to them about the price. They had given a firm quote before the project but were demanding 2.5x that quote because Pius “brought that rich man with him.” They were speaking Luganda but I almost instantly picked up on what was going on and wandered away so Pius could handle it. It took him 5 or so minutes to get them back to the original price. He told me that he asked them if they could tell if someone was rich or poor by looking at their face; then he asked them to look at him and tell him if he was rich or poor based on his face. He pointed out that I wasn’t wearing any expensive clothes and told them that I am here to help their organization as a worker, not as a financial supporter – “I am the one who hired you and I am the one who is paying you. Don’t look at him, look at me.” Yikes, I’m glad I didn’t have to be involved in that discussion. It’s an unfortunate thing that happens, but it definitely doesn’t make me feel jaded about the average person or the culture here. I think a big factor for that kind of behavior is the number of people who are willing to throw money around in the name of charity and aid. I’m so thankful that I read “When Helping Hurts” prior to coming so that I can avoid contributing to unhealthy dynamics like that. One of the big things that I admire about Imprint Hope is that they do so much to empower the Ugandans they serve rather than acting like they are saviors for a helpless population. We headed back to “the center” (IH’s facility) while Pius continued to give me amazing advice about Uganda, life, and faith.

                I was lucky to be there to see a birthday celebration, which includes “showering” the birthday boy/girl with buckets of water. After helping to soak the birthday boy (and insisting that they could not justify celebrating my birthday from 3 weeks ago), we continued the celebration with cake and music (on an awesome Bluetooth speaker that someone donated and I had brought with me). Everyone honored him by each taking a few minutes to tell him what they appreciate about him. It was really beautiful to see the connection between the staff and the joy of the dancing children in the background. It made me very excited to get to know these wonderful people and it made me even more determined to contribute.

                A little while later, Maria drove me home as we chatted about how awesome IH is and a bit about my day. When I got home, I joined Blake (previously referred to as “one of the guests”) and her friends for dinner and games. They had told me how good the Indian food is here because the British brought Indian servants with them when they colonized the area (for about 70 years, until 1962). I was happy to have a chance to try it and I’m pretty sure it was the best Indian food I’ve ever had. After dinner, we played “taco cat goat cheese pizza” (ridiculous but excellent card game) and Dutch blitz (nerts with a special deck). It was a very fun group of five adults and one super-adorable 2-year-old, who made me miss my perfect little nieces.

                When they left, I went to my room to get ready for bed; as I walked into the bathroom and flipped the light on, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I decided it was probably just my hair, but paranoia is one of my specialties. I determined that if I had seen something, it was near the basket next to the toilet. I bravely stood on a stool next to the toilet and kicked the basket, which scared the big, disgusting, horrible cockroach out from under it. He darted behind the back of the toilet as I stood on the stool dying inside. I brushed my teeth while keeping my eyes locked on the toilet, then I left the bathroom and tried to figure out how I was going to sleep with the knowledge that there were giant cockroaches living that close to me. It was about 3” long and there’s never only one cockroach. I devised a containment strategy for the little monster and wondered why I came to a place with  cockroaches big enough to attack me. The bathroom is now at risk for toilet snakes and cockroaches.  

          (cockroach defense plan)                  

    Bonus fun fact: Idi Amin, the Butcher of Uganda and "one of the most brutal despots in history",  used to live in the residence where I'm currently living. The guest that's staying in Idi's old room told me that he heard the house is featured in "The Last King of Scotland" but neither of us has confirmed that yet.