DEAR READER
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Misplaced Lens Cap
祝日 / Permanent Vacation
izzy's playlists!
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trying on a metaphor
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let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
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One Nice Bug Per Day
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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
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we're not kids anymore.
$LAYYYTER
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@ugcla-blog
I can hear the Hallelujah chorus echoing through my window. I know its people at church, but it feels like the world is singing to me on my last day in this beautiful country.
So... hallelujah that I'm leaving or hallelujah that I came?
Spent the day with Enoch Magala at his Center for Youth Driven Development Initiatives. Amazing work!
Only in Africa...
Just came home to find two men carrying a decapitated, skinned goat across the house. There is now blood all over the floor, and a goat in the fridge.
Surprisingly, I was not the least bit fazed.
I think it's time to go home.
Children's day at the library today!
A group of students from Hillview Primary School came to the library with their head teacher, and spent the morning reading, playing games, and writing their own stories.
KCL & teachers
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of interviewing Keneth, one of KCL's oldest members. He was uber generous with his time, in fact it was hard to get him to stop talking... enjoy!
Two highlights:
1) When he said the library books inspired him to go back to university and become a better teacher.
2) When he was talking about meeting people at the library and then meeting them on the street and being able to talk to them.
~~~
Interview with Mubangizi Keneth, a library member since 2002, and primary school teacher. Kitengesa Community Library, August 4th, 2013.
Liliana Hertling: Where do you teach?
Mubangizi Keneth: I am a primary school teacher, I taught at the primary school here until 2012, and last year I was transferred a little further away.
LH: What subjects do you teach?
MK: My class is P6 [6th grade] English. I also teach Social Studies to P5 and P7 [5th grade and 7th grade], so there we have things like civics, history, and geography.
LH:When did you become a library member?
MK: 2002
LH: What made you become a member?
MK: I was interested in novels, newspapers, science books, so much. Also, as a teacher I could use the reference books to make a scheme of what I was going to teach, you know, as a teacher we need to make a lesson plan every day. The textbooks were very good help to make my lesson plans.
LH: How often do you come to the library?
MK: At least 3 or 4 times a week. Sometimes 5, if I can.
LH: What changes have you noticed at the library since you became a member?
MK: Yeah… computer studies were introduced, people come to do art and crafts here now, and people can rent out its tent to make some revenue to help run the library. They keep bringing in new books.
LH: How has the library helped you personally?
MK: Some time back I was a P3 [3rd grade] teacher only. The library books inspired me, and made me want to continue my education, so I went to Uganda Martyr’s University to get a full degree in primary school education. I have also gained a lot of knowledge about other useful things such as farming and political sci, and we have all acquired knowledge about how to prevent bad diseases such as malaria and AIDS. I enjoy having discussions about the books I read. If I come across an article, then I start discussing it with Mr. Dan [the librarian], and we talk for a long time.
LH: How has the library helped your teaching?
MK: I am able to plan my lessons better and make them interesting. For teachers from all schools, our ways of teaching have been improved because we have acquired new methods of teaching and helped each other.
LH: Do you bring students to the library? MK: My new school is too far away. At the school where I worked until last year, we have seven classes, and each class comes to the library once a week, not necessarily with me, it can be another teacher.
LH: Have you noticed examination results improving since you started bringing classes to the library?
MK: Yes, definitely. The library has books published by the Uganda National Education Board, and these have example questions for examinations. So, after a student has been learning something, he or she can come to the library and look at these books, so when the final exam comes, they pass well.
LH: To your knowledge, how has the library helped the community?
MK: The library has helped eliminate illiteracy… not 100%, but I think illiteracy is being eliminated thanks to the library. This is due to the fact that we bring students here and they can read different books so they gain interest in continuing their education as far as possible. Then, they have better knowledge and can maybe get better jobs. I also enjoy coming to the library because I meet people here. Then, we recognize one another when we pass on the road and say “hello, you are the one from the library!” It is very nice to know more people.
LH: Are there many more library members now than when you joined?
MK: Of course! People are born every day so then they grow up and join. People from other schools come to study here, so that is how membership increases.
LH: Have you participated in events or projects organized at the library?
MK: Any functions they have here, I come and join them. All schoolteachers from the area converge here and we can have discussions and improve our methods.
Back at Kitengesa Community Library :)
I'm on wikipedia! Who knew.
will you be my frind forever?
Loving the decorated taxis in Kampala
cause I'm that kid who gets way to excited at having one foot in each hemisphere and has to take a million photos
Take Three
Guess who's back! It's hard to believe that I'm in Uganda for the third time, and that its been a year since I was here with my friend Ellie. This time I travelled solo, and am staying with friends Professor Kate, founder of UgClA, and her husband Professor Kasozi in Kitengesa village.
My focus this summer is to research the development impact the Kitengesa Community Library has had on the immediate community through its various projects,
interspersed with work at the library, sightseeing, and (of course) shopping.
Stay tuned!
-LH
MERRY CHRISTMAS HAPPY HANNUKAH JOLLY KWANZAA & A MARVELOUS NEW YEAR
It's the holiday season, let's spread some good cheer!
To donate to UgCLA online: go to www.favl.org and click "donate," at the bottom of the page specifying that you would like to donate to FAVL Uganda.
OR mail a cheque to Friends of African Village Libraries, PO Box 90533, San Jose, CA 95109-3533. On the memo line, you can specify that it is for Uganda Community Libraries Association.
Thank you in advance!
xx
PS please don't be offended if I forgot your celebration of choice in the title.
UgCLA in Paris
I'm on a mission back in Paris - Kate has entrusted me with a USB with pictures and info to update UgCLA's website. As it so happens, the UgCLA webmaster lives in Paris, so this is a relatively easy task for me. I'm excited to see what the renovations are!
THANK YOU
24 hour point until our departure. Before we start to pack, we would like to thank everyone who has made this trip possible. That is, mainly, our parents, Clare & Mike and Sarah & Jim. We had an amazing time here, thank you for your generosity. Also, a huge shout out to Professors Kate and Kasozi, who have hosted us over the past few weeks (has it only been a few weeks?) and have put up with our madness.
We love you guys.
-EM & LH
A monthly challenge, a smart solution.
We visited the AFRIpads factory this morning, and it’s truly fantastic. It’s a two-minute walk down the road from the library, so it feels very interconnected, which is great. In fact, a lot of the girls working there used to use the library, which is how they found out about AFRIpads. Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t a working day, because they’re training some new girls, showing them how to sew all the different bits of the final product together. This product, which is 5 washable liners with two clip-on pads and a little bag for emergencies, is extremely neat, each individual one being perfectly tailored. Sonia Klumpp and Paul Grinvalds, the founders of AFRIpads spent almost a whole year perfecting this design to make it as compact, comfortable but also feminine as possible.
The factory, which is right next to the secondary school employs roughly 40 local women, allowing them to have stable jobs, bank accounts, holidays, the lot. They are all very proud to work for AFRIpads and are happily wearing the t-shirts and aprons provided. There are several tables in the room, each laden with manual sewing machines, baskets of raw materials and empty baskets for the pads to go in at different stages. With music playing in the background, it really seems like a lively, friendly place to work.
http://afripads.com/
Afripads Factory
From left to right: Kate Parry, founder of UgCLA; Sonia Klumpp and Paul Grinvalds, founders of AFRIpads; Professor ABK Kasozi, Chairman of the Kitengesa Community Library board; Jim Hertling, a slightly useless but amusing chimpanzee; Lily Hertling, my second half.
-EM
Camps at Kitengesa
This week, there is a Computer Training and Health Reading camp going on here at the Kitengesa Community Library with secondary school students (who are currently on a 2 week vacation). When we came in this morning, everybody was reading quietly, and after morning break at 11, half the group went into the computer lab to learn how to find a website on healthy living, read some articles, and then write their own based on the information they found. They're having quite a bit of trouble doing things that I have always taken for granted, like turning on the computer and typing in a password, let alone navigating google. When the first group is finished with the computers, they flip flop with the other group and talk about what they have written.
One problem I have seen is that the website they have been told to use has some very complex language, and because of that they aren't really taking the time to understand what they are reading, they are just writing down what it says on the site. Ellie and I are going to try to help with this after lunch by leading a discussion group and trying to get everyone to contribute to writing a group article.
-LH
Empowering Women and Families
Gayaza Family Learning Resource Center is not the only library enthusiastic about a reading culture for the whole family. In fact, the project was initiated by UgCLA pioneer library Kitengesa Community Library, using material created in South Africa, and developing their own based on how this goes. Yesterday, Kate, Ellie and I had the privilege of being shown around 11 different family’s houses, to see firsthand what projects the women of the group have been doing at their homes, for themselves, their families, and to generate an income.
Livestock is the most common form of project amongst the women. At some houses, there are multiple chicken coops practically bursting with birds, goats tied up to trees, and cows out grazing in fields. At some there are fields with coffee beans, maize, sweet potato, or even peppers. At some, there is a mat set up as a beading station, where paper beads can be made. Necklaces and bracelets made from these beads are very common in this part of the world, but you don’t realize how time consuming and tedious they are to make until you watch someone sit down, cut a long, triangular strip of paper, roll it up perfectly and tightly until it looks like a miniature croissant, dap a spot of glue on the end, dip it in varnish, and then hang it to dry. We are told that one necklace alone takes about 24 hours to make, and they are sold for $2, the bracelets for less. The women showing us their projects have amazing dedication and organization, paying a woman to come from Kampala to teach them how to make the jewelry.
Even more impressive than this, though, is the microfinance situation they have. Thanks to the UN 1% for Development Fund, the group has 200 plastic chairs and a tent, which they can rent out for functions and parties, on top of their own personal sources of income (the jewelry, milk, eggs. crops…). They each own a certain number of shares of the project, to get some of the resulting income. Women can also take out loans, which they have 9 months to pay back with a small interest rate. The burden of bookkeeping is shared between them, but is mostly taken care of by Margaret, who showed us around yesterday.
Earlier this year, the Family Literacy Project, which is facilitated at the library by Gorreth, wrote a bilingual book called “Library Heroes Book,” which, as the title suggests, is about the people in the library who are heroes to them. There is a long list of people and explanations about them, including Daniel Ahimbisibwe, the librarian, Kate, who founded the library, Julius Ssentume who takes care of the computers, and various donors to the library. In the front of the small book there is a note: “Everybody in this world is a hero because everybody gets a problem and solves it.”
Aisha & her coffee beans
Christine & her beads
Lucy & her cows
-LH