"We are moving somewhere."

It has been a roller coaster of a week for me here in Uganda. My main concern early in the week was the lack of students that had shown up for school. Only 35 kids were in school the first week, but I was assured "they will come." It is common that children do not arrive for school right away, but I was deeply concerned with such a shift, since last year there were about 110 students.

I asked Steven, the head teacher to go to various households to find out why children were not in school. There were a variety of reasons that my Western mind could barely comprehend. The majority of parents/guardians had shifted their children to other schools which offer a better infrastructure. The Kibooba primary school has one large room where nursery-2nd grade are held and three other smaller rooms for 3rd-5th grade. It is a bit chaotic in the large room with each corner being occupied by a different grade. There are a handful of desks, only one textbook per grade and few learning tools. The other excuses for missing school included working in the garden to provide food, fetching firewood to sell it for food, caring for younger siblings while the parents was working, and sickness. Despite the challenges, by the end of week two there were 85 children enrolled and I am told more will come.

I met with a wonderful woman, Dr. Claire Card, who is in charge of the Veterinarians Without Borders in Uganda. She lives and teaches in Canada, but spends two months of the year here in Uganda training vet students about animals in Africa. She was exactly who I needed to speak with to learn about which livestock would be the smartest path to pursue for income generation. We spent hours together and in the end she said, "When all the animals in Africa are dead, goats will still be standing." They are resilient animals requiring low start up funds, low risk of illness and high profit. Hallelujah! This is music to my ears. I plan to meet up in a town called Mbarara to visit farms, learn more about goats and start developing a business plan for goat production.

I had a meeting with eight ladies from the women's group in the village. They all have children or granchildren attending the school, and they are the only formally organized group of citizens in Kibooba. Only a few speak English so Joel translated for me. I asked questions about their backgrounds and listened to their ideas about income generating projects. I mentioned the idea of goats to them and they seemed interested and eager to learn more. They requested training to become educated on goats. I told them that if we pursue goats, of course training would be required. I also told them that I was a volunteer for 4 Oneworld and that I am not paid for my work. I said that my main purpose was to help the children of Kibooba and empower the community. They clapped after hearing this and that just made my day. I thought it was important for them to know that this isn't a job for me, it's my service to humanity and that everyone involved with 4 Oneworld is coming from the same place of giving.

One of our board members, Niki gave me a variety of learning tools for the school. The alphabet, numbers and posters to hang on the wall, and card games. I passed out the alphabet and posters and Joel was thrilled. Steven was incredibly thankful and appreciated the valuable tools. Joel said to me, "We are moving somewhere. We are not alone." My sentiments exactly. We are moving somewhere. Slowly, but surely we are moving forward. I just need to be patient and thoughtful as we progress.