An oasis of calm against all odds

 

About 2 hours drive north from Mombasa, just over the county border into Kilifi, lies the Asilomar project, and the reason that I have journeyed down to the Kenyan coast. Headed up by Norbert, it is a beautiful oasis of calm and tranquillity, as well as having a more practical and productive role within the local community.

What Norbert has created here is just incredible. The land around here is very rocky – and when I say rocks, I mean ROCKS! Not just the odd stone here and there, but proper massive rocks that mean that it takes huge amounts of hard work to prepare the ground for any planting. But that has been achieved, and Norbert has developed a garden that demonstrates permaculture principles at their best. He has intercropping, he has fruit trees, and he has trees to provide shade for the more tender vegetables. He does rainwater harvesting and careful irrigation so that none of the valuable water is wasted. He does crop rotation and companion cropping to ensure that one plant helps protect the other crop from pests. And some of the garden is just planted to provide a quiet, reflective space, that hums with birdsong, insects, and the gentle rustle of the leaves blowing in the breeze.

The garden in itself is an oasis of calm. But it is also a demonstration garden for local folks who come by, and want to know how Norbert and co are harvesting tomatoes when everyone else’s crops have ended. Or what the philosophy is behind growing some vegetables near to trees, or why they don’t grow the same crops in the same place each year.

Most of this community, being a coastal community, has its identity located in the role of fisherfolk, and all things sea-related – even down to food production being about fish, and using fish as a bartering tool for other food stuffs. Their knowledge of subsistence farming, and producing food from the land, is not something that they know, or identify with. And so the conversations that Norbert and co have with folks as they wander past, look in the gate and see crops growing – these are really valuable opportunities to help change mindsets, educate, and equip the people to try food production in ways that are more likely to succeed.

Because sadly the traditions of this community are struggling to survive – fishing is no longer a viable trade for many due to the big fishing fleets that ply the waters, and fish-related trades are also falling by the wayside. Climate change is also taking a toll on rainfall, water tables, daily temperatures. Fuel prices are high and so setting up as a motorbike taxi is harder because people don’t want to pay the prices to go places unless they really need to. To survive these challenges will require lateral thinking, and that’s a skill that doesn’t come naturally to many in the community.

So, the garden is definitely one with a multi-purpose vision. But alongside that, Norbert has also created another little tranquil space that again demonstrates to local folks the power of thinking outside the box. And this space is all to do with the water tank tower.

As part of the demo garden, Norbert does rainwater harvesting. And given the random-ness of the rains here, a big tank is needed so that as much as possible can be harvested as and when it does rain. So, there is a big tank up on a tower – nothing unusual about that. But creative Norbert had the vision to put an additional room below the tank, which is set up to be a self-contained bedroom with en-suite. And then above the tank has been created a roof space, with comfy chairs and amazing views, and peace and quiet (except when the nearby mosque is doing it’s call to prayer!).

It is just the most beautiful space, and is a real blessing to those, like myself, who are fortunate enough to use it. But it is also a practical example that can be used to illustrate the power of lateral thinking, and looking beyond the obvious, which is a skill that this community will need to develop if they are to adapt to the new contexts in which they find themselves.

My role here has been to come and see how things are going on the project front, discuss obstacles, challenges and possible ways forward. Certainly we have had some excellent discussions that tie in with those aims, and on that front I feel that I can say ‘mission accomplished’. But with regard to the overall visit – well I’ve definitely been blessed in many ways that go far beyond the obvious outcomes. 

 

Uganda visit comes to an end

 And so my time in Uganda, for this visit, is coming to an end. Next stop back to Kenya for another project visit.

It's been so lovely as always to be back here in the Pearl of Africa. Yes, there have been the undertones of Ebola that have put a bit of a downer on things, but I've had some wonderful project visits and meetings.

The Soroti visit I've talked about, so I'll not revisit that one, but suffice to say some of the participants from there are already in touch about doing the online training that is available as follow up to the in-person training.

And then there was the day with John up at the vocational college in Mityana. No students around as it is school break here at the moment, but it was good to see the structurally completed school, and to help John process thoughts that he is having about now moving on to focus on what happens inside the classroom - teaching methods, child behaviour (how much is that coming from the behavioural examples set by the parents?) and how to tackle it etc. 

We also went up to the new sports field that is being established and had a bit of 'blue sky thinking' under the big blue sky of rural Uganda. Big sky, big views, big space for ideas - perfect.

A couple of very good days in Acholi Quarters, chatting with the students who we support, and with many of the parents. We tackled issues that Harriet had raised around parents not always paying their top-up monies due to poor use of the savings scheme, around some of the students perhaps not trying as hard as they might, around some of the older students not wanting to continue beyond their version of GCSE's but wanting to deviate into vocational training instead. All very good conversations, and what I particularly liked was that the parents came up with the solutions to the problems, and just looked to me for my reflections on their solutions, rather than asking me to solve the problems in the first place. 

There were a few other challenges that needed to be worked through, and there were also some one-on-one conversations that I was asked to have with particular students who had discrete and unique needs. It was a privilege as always to be part of these conversations and to be able to have the chance to share in the process of exploring challenges and coming up with solutions that are contextually suitable and workable for those involved.

Alongside all of that I've been blessed with times spent with dear friends and I'm so very grateful to each and every one of them. Being in Uganda really is the closest that I feel to home from home when I'm away, and I always leave a bit of my heart behind when I depart.  

Until the next visit Uganda - love and prayers to you all.

 

Hope for Hope to become a nurse

 

Hope has lived all of her life in Acholi Quarters with her mum, her two biological brothers, and variable foster siblings as her mum has taken in different children over the years when their family circumstances broke down.

Her home has always been some variation on a 3m square room, although more recently it was a couple of rooms as there wasn’t enough space for everyone to sleep in the one room. Her bed has always been a mattress or blanket on the floor, and sanitation has always been a long-drop pit latrine.

Due to the civil war, her mum never went to school, and Hope has never known her dad, so doesn’t know if he was literate or not. So the chances are that, when Hope completed her senior 4 exams at secondary school last November, she was the first one ever in her family to get a secondary education. That’s quite an achievement, and a big milestone in her family. And it was enabled in part due to the sponsorship of her education by CRED donors (which will continue, to cover nursing tuition fees).

But now Hope has her sights set on the next stage of her education. Ever since she was in Primary 5 (age about 11), she’s harboured a dream of becoming a nurse. She admits that she’s more of a practical person than an academic, and nursing for her is about fulfilling a wish to help others, make them better, and gain skills that can be of use in her family, in her community and across the country.

So, it was great to sit with Hope today and hear her talk about the Certificate in Nursing course that she has registered for, and will start in July. When I asked her what she is looking forward to about the course she said that she is excited to be learning about health and gaining medical skills so that she can help people in her community to get better. She’s also excited about moving to a new environment and becoming a boarder at the college, as she’s never really been anywhere except Achol Quarters.

She says it will be weird to leave her mum and her brothers at home, and not know each day what they are doing, but she knows she’s doing the right thing and that it is best to board so that she can have more time for studying and learning. She also mentioned how weird it will be to have a bed all to herself, and to not have to cook the meals for everyone (more insights into Hope’s current lifestyle!)

As Hope gathers together the requirements for being a boarder (mattress, blanket, bucket, broom, cleaning cloths, soap etc), and prepares for this big new chapter in her life journey, I pray that this will be a time when she really flourishes, and finds her own identity outside of the community of people who have shaped her life until now. They are wonderful people, and have definitely helped give Hope a great start, but now is the time for her to find herself, and to carve out her own journey in new and exciting ways. I wish her all the very best, and look forward to hearing updates on how she is getting on. 

 

Launching ‘Vita Plenae Uganda’

 

Over the past couple of days I’ve had the joy and privilege of delivering 360Life training to a group of teachers, church leaders, community leaders, youth leaders etc who are all based in and around the Soroti region of Uganda.

One of the key outcomes was the launch of Vita Plenae Uganda, a Ugandan-registered organization that has been set up to deliver trauma healing and mental-health training inspired by and based on the 360Life training programme. How wonderful – to know that the VPU folks believe in 360Life so much that they want to find a way to get it out across the nation through a locally-registered vehicle.

The vision of VPU is to see ‘lives transformed through healing, identity and wholeness across Uganda’. Their mission statement is ‘to educate, equip and empower individuals and communities to discover their God-given identity and fullness of life (uzima) through trauma-informed healing, compassionate service, and holistic wellbeing’. NB uzima is Swahili for wholeness.

The main trio who are heading up VPU are Sylvia, Pastor Steve, and Augusten, and after the training we sat together and discussed the next steps for the organisation, as well as the bigger dreams, and the various steps to be taken towards those dreams. These plans include working with NGO staff serving vulnerable populations, church and community leaders, teachers and school counsellors, prisoners and prison officers, refugees and host communities, and survivors of gender-based violence. Big dreams and big plans, but there’s nothing wrong with that, and as they shared their ideas with the other participants at the training, there was a real buzz of excitement and buy-in from all.

360Life programme initially emerged from conversations with various folks in Uganda, and then Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia and beyond. But the first conversations were in Uganda, and so it felt very appropriate that the first ‘expansion’ of 360Life has also been in Uganda. My prayer is that we will also have iterations of 360Life in other countries, as other folks trained in the programme follow similar paths to the VPU team.

But for now, I’m grateful to Steve, Sylvia and Augusten for taking these first steps, and I pray that the journey ahead for them will bring healing and wholeness to many – individuals and communities alike – across the nation of Uganda.