Monthly Archive: January 2017

Fortune Teller

Author: January 22, 2017

In 2012, if a fortune teller told me that in less than five years, my boss would be Donald Trump, I would wonder what possessed me to go on The Apprentice (I’ve seen maybe half of one episode). Further, if that fortune teller said another of my bosses would recently be the CEO of Exxon, I’d be asking for my money back. But here I am; life just keeps throwing curves.

While my application to volunteer was pending, I attended a Peace Corps function at the University of Denver. The assistant to the Director was the main guest, and commented that the Peace Corps was a rare agency because “it has always has friends on both sides of the aisle”. Yet, I think we can all agree, these look like different times.

So what does Trump mean for the future of Peace Corps? Internet sleuthing doesn’t come up with anything more than speculation on Reddit. Beyond his expressed sentiment during the campaign to reduce foreign aid, as far as I could find, Trump has never mentioned the Peace Corps.

In a Kaiser Family Foundation study published in early 2015, the average respondent thought that 26 percent of the federal budget went to foreign aid. More than half of the respondents thought the United States was spending too much on foreign aid. In reality, the amount spent is slightly more than 1%– $50.1 billion out of $4.15 trillion. Of that, $18.1 billion is for Economic and Development Assistance. Seven African countries, (including Uganda) feature among the top-10 recipients of economic assistance, ranging from $400-600 million. Most of the money is funneled toward health initiatives, particularly HIV/AIDS treatment and research. I got all this info here.

The Peace Corps annual budget is $410 million, which supports 7,000 volunteers. The avowed goal has been to increase this to 10,000 volunteers. The Peace Corps three goals are education and training in interested countries for sustainable results, representing the face of America to the people we serve, and ( like my blog), to promote a better understanding of these countries to Americans. These goals are not capital intensive like buying and supplying equipment, goods, or weapons. I do have to keep track of how many people I train in my sessions, so the Peace Corps can quantify totals to justify it’s existence.

The National Peace Corps Association has been urging RPCVs to write to Trump’s transition team to explain why the Peace Corps is needed. It also gleaned some information about proposed members of his cabinet.

Most of the attention on proposed Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, the ten-year CEO of Exxon, has been about Exxon’s role on climate change, and his warm relationship with Russia. But Tillerson also oversaw ExxonMobil Foundation’s contributions to global development efforts in over 90 countries, through partnerships with a wide range of leading government agencies, NGOs and companies in development, including some which also partner with the Peace Corps. The Foundation’s international focus is on women’s economic empowerment and malaria eradication.
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Elaine Chao has been tapped to be Secretary of Transportation. She is a former Director of the Peace Corps (1991-92) and also served as President George W. Bush’s Secretary of Labor She is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. There might be some influence there.

Congress determines funding, but it has been pointed out that volunteers serve under the president’s discretion, so he has the power to call us all home.The director of the Peace Corps during the Obama administration, Carrie Hessler-Radele stepped down last week, when Trump was inaugurated. I suppose her replacement will offer a clue about the future of the Peace Corps. The next four years promise to be an interesting ride.

This was a photo we took after our permagarden training

This the same place today. They did grow tomatoes successfully and promised to re-plant when rainy season returns.

Hey didn’t I see you at the Women’s March yesterday?

 

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I get the heat, heat

Author: January 16, 2017

The occasional cloud is sweet….

The heat has been unrelenting. Every day has been in the low to mid 90’s. This week my weather app is predicting the high 90’s for Bugiri. (Kampala and this blog’s weather app are cooler) It has been the hottest since I have been here, and Ugandans tell me it is exceptional. Usually it was not higher than the high 80’s. The last rainy season was pretty sparse too, compared to the fall before, which totally confused me about when the rainy seasons and dry seasons are supposed to be. The heat is not intense like Phoenix or Vegas, nor humid like Chicago. It mostly compares to …Denver! Since moving to my new home in May, I have had access in the courtyard to a tap, and so far it has held up. I have little doubt they are restricting water at my old bore hole. When I am with Matthews on the motorcycle on a dirt road, and a truck goes by we often pull over until the dust settles. I will be grateful for at least a little bit of rain to tamp down the dust, but its not in the forecast. Meanwhile I understand Denver and the rest of America (Trumpistan? per Krugman) has been getting more snow, thanks to the warmer North Pole.

The other day the taxi I was in nearly rolled off the road. Everyone pushed to get out to the right, which I feared would finish us. It doesn’t look too bad here.

Ahmed and Aiman play with toys sent by my brother for Christmas

Little Emron comes in when I leave the door open. He’s trying to shut out his brother. Poor guy got circumcised last week, very painful, had to wear a skirt for a few days!

My org ATEFO continues to work with youth groups and their businesses, which were each provided the equivalent of $100US working capital in two installments. Last week the funding conduit, Bantwana World Education, sent representatives out with the ATEFO trainers to see how the groups were doing. ATEFO is supposed to be sure each group has a constitution registered in the District (amazing how important this is), a business plan, adequate record keeping, and a viable business. These are 15-18 year old village kids, many with little education. Girls are often married with children. I think this is a pretty serious challenge for ATEFO. Problems include attrition in the membership; inadequate support from caregivers; not following the rules in the constitution (but many can’t read English); not changing written business plans; caregivers or patrons actually running the business; and “eating the capital” and/or disappearing. Groups who wanted to grow and sell vegetables were damaged by the drought. Not to say there weren’t successful groups. A few groups have successfully changed their business midstream. Besides growing and trading vegetables, businesses I saw included rearing poultry, pigs, or goats, candle making, soap making, brick making, and rice selling,
I was pleasantly surprised that the Iganga trainers took my simple model for a cash book and printed out pages to give to their groups. But a couple of groups were making the same recording error, leading me to suspect their trainer didn’t quite have the handle on it.
This project also had a requirement to dig 600 backyard gardens. They are not digging drought resistant permagardens however, so they are struggling in the drought. Too bad. I am quite anxious to see the permagarden I dug with Carson and Becky in our efforts to recruit them to “our way”. Hopefully, I’ll get to see it this week. Here is an article citing a UN report which argues small scale organic farming is the best hope to feed the world in the future. Monsanto has other ideas.

Dusty feet of the village kids

This girl borrowed funds from her chicken rearing youth group, started selling second hand clothes and paid back the loan. That’s her inventory after reinvesting proceeds.

Adams poses with a group showing off the soap bars they made.

These boys are showing the three goats they are rearing. Makes me think of 4-H.

Freshly made clay bricks on the ground, drying in the sun

The number of inspectors seemed excessive to me.


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This is about 200 yards of shucked maize (corn), drying next to the main road through Bugiri. They are not using a tarp underneath. Not good post-harvest handling, although that would be a lot of tarp.

A little bit further up the road is rice, with a tarp

Even further up the road are coffee beans, no tarps.

Matthews and I are also checking out places where we taught sack gardens as I close out my grant.. We are seeing how many new ones are being made. I knew the used sack this village donated would have trouble lasting.

This storm sewer is full of trash and moldy sludge. A good rain would push it somewhere.

The inner sanctum of Wiltech Computers, a rare place with wi-fi. The picture doesn’t do justice to how cluttered it is. Wilber has been there 20 years.

This is behind my compound. Rats live in the brick pile in the rear of the photo, and they like to feed on the refuse in the foreground, which is frequently burned.

I spent a good part of Saturday night chasing this guy in my place. He was rather sluggish, having been poisoned by Margaret, but ultimately I recruited the oldest son, Juma to help catch it. I am too much of city boy, I guess. I miss ol’ Meowri at times like this.

Azedy has to water his orange seedlings twice a day. He has 18,000 of these seedlings, I hope he can sell them.This his son, also named Azedy. They don’t call him Junior.

Azedy has hired people to “bud” the seedlings, grafting orange buds onto the lemon seedlings. They are doing 6.000 grafts per week for three weeks. The leaves at the top are still lemon, providing nutrients until the grafted orange buds produce their own leaves. Then the lemon leaves are removed. This makes hardier orange trees.

Chicken vendor at the market

The three older boys are all home from boarding school for a month, They are bored, and it’s so hot, I let them watch some of my movies on my computer.

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