After a very productive week in Kampala, I hit the road to visit existing loan hubs and meet with women interested in establishing new ones. Last Saturday we visited the women of our partner CBO in Wabulanga B village, near Jinja, about 2 hours from Kampala. The ladies began dancing as soon as our van came into view. Olive, Jackline and Penina from Buyobo were with me to train the loan groups for the January loan issue. This loan hub started in October of 2010 and the first group will transition to bank loans in October of this year. Their businesses are doing very well, and we think there will be a smooth transition.
That evening we had a very scary drive back to the city on the Kampala-Jinja Road in the dark. This is not a road one should be traveling after sunset, but the training had taken longer than expected. The entire road is lined with stores selling every item imaginable and much of the stock will show up in the markets of Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the DRC. It seems everyone’s favorite time to shop is Saturday after dark. Bars and restaurants are numerous, their clientele spilling over onto the roadsides. Children are off from school and outside in droves, weaving in and out of the merchandise displayed right next to the road. The traffic is non-stop. Giant trucks with men perched on the tops of huge sacks of grain try to squeeze through the most improbably small gaps between vehicles. People think nothing of darting out into the road to stand in the middle and wait for a break in the traffic to sprint to the other side. Kids love to run alongside the cars that are moving slow enough so that they can grab on to the rear fenders and get dragged along for a couple of yards. It is nerve-wracking. If you pick up one handy hint from this blog let it be: DO NOT TRAVEL THE KMAPALA-JINJA RAOD AFTER DARK!
After the harrowing experience of Saturday night, we had a tranquil drive Sunday morning to the town of Mpigi about 2 hours south of Kampala to meet with a group of women from Volunteer Action in Development (VAD), who would like WMI to consider opening a loan hub in their nearby village. First stop of the day – banana purchasing so we don’t starve on the drive.
Led by Noeline Nagaddya, the women assembled to hear Olive talk about the WMI approach to microfinance. They were extremely interested in the program and asked excellent questions about various aspects of program operations. One of VAD’s organizers, John Boscoe Lubyayi, a former MP, joined the meeting to translate and offer ideas for financial support. VAD has received funding for the past 10 years from Ilsa Schumer, who mobilizes funds for them in Germany. Ilsa had learned of WMI through our web site and sent the information on to John, who then contacted us. John was very optimistic that Ilsa would be interested in helping to fund the launch of a new program in Mpigi.
On the way back to Kampala the typically slow moving traffic came to a standstill as we neared the site of a recent car wreck. A speeding tractor trailer truck had smashed into a van, totaling it – the occupants had just been rushed to a nearby clinic.
On the way back to Kampala we stopped for another snack at a roadside fast food place.
Monday morning we headed out for the 6 hour drive to Gulu, picking up Hope Okeny outside of Kampala. Hope had contacted WMI last spring to see if we would consider starting a loan program with women she works with in the north. Gulu was the hub of fighting in what many characterized as Uganda’s 20 year Civil War between the Northern Acholi and Nilotic speaking people and the Southern Bantu speakers. It was the site of many atrocities perpetrated by Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their traditional homelands and their children were abducted to become child soldiers. The economy of the area was reduced to shambles and has been slow in recovering. Gulu town itself is dominated by NGOs and their very noticeable, very shiny, very new, imported vehicles. The road to Gulu crosses the Nile at the dramatic Karuma Falls.
This area of the country is wild. The roadsides are lined with roving bands of baboon families that chase down your car until your chuck some food out the window.
Olive, Penina and Irene traveled to Gulu to train the next group of borrowers. This is one of the poorest rural areas WMI serves. The women had been waiting for three hours by the time we got there and still they paid close attention to the training, with those who could write taking copious notes. One woman was deaf and she had her daughter sign for her during the entire training. She was literate and by the end of the day had created a perfect reproduction of the WMI training presentation in her notebook. This group especially enjoyed the songs Olive and the ladies have made up to convey business skills principals, so we sang quite a few of them over and over again.
I spoke to one of the women from Blue group, Susan, who had launched her produce business in October with her WMI loan. She told me that it is doing quite well, and she appreciated WMI coming to the Gulu area. Even though the area has few resources, she said trade is beginning to pick up as they are located on the road to South Sudan.
After the training was over the ladies treated us to entertainment by a dance troupe of former child soldiers. These young men and women were trained through the efforts of Hope Okeny. She is trying to establish a cultural tourism business for them, linking up with the nearby lodges of Murchison Falls. Their dancing was electrifying. Notice the stuffed mongoose on the back of one of the dancers – as he undulated back and forth it appeared to be biting his neck. As soon as the drumming began village children came running form every direction and were mesmerized by the performance.
WMI team
