With my boss Ariful Islam at the BRAC Uganda country office in Kampala.
Vancouver Is Calling Me Home
I'm coming home to live in Vancouver after 14 months in Uganda. The beauty and lifestyle of Vancouver call to me, I miss my spiritual communities and I want to be more helpful to my sister, who has faced a health crisis. My job as publications manager for BRAC Uganda has reminded me that I retired from full-time work at the end of 2006. I've given a month's notice. Uganda is beautiful but its charms are fading for me. I've caused two minor traffic accidents here in Kampala in the last two months. No one has been injured but I'm afraid of hurting myself or others. I'm accident-free in Canada but here there's a gap in my attention. I had thought of returning in mid-November when my daughter Lisa receives her Masters in International Affairs from Carleton in Ottawa. But that would mean arriving on the cusp of winter, rather than summer. My favourite event of the year, the Vancouver Folkfest in July, is beckoning.
So, I fly out of Kampala's Entebbe Airport on Sunday, June 27, arriving that evening, by virtue of the time difference, in Ottawa. I'll be there a few days, and look forward to meeting Ottawa family and friends who have been so supportive of my volunteer projects with the Abayudaya and others. On Wednesday, June 30, I arrive in Vancouver.
I'll be looking for temporary accommodation during July while I search for a long-term rental from Aug. 1. In July I would be grateful for just about any arrangement in the city of Vancouver - housesit, vacation rental, or sharing a home, including helping with rent, expenses, cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc. For the long-term rental, I'm thinking of paying up to $1,200 for a nice one-bedroom, if that's realistic these days. I'll also be looking for a three- or four-year-old car, perhaps a Prius again. Any leads for these would be appreciated. My Skype address is lmallin.
I leave feeling that I've been able to do some good work with help from many of you. The orphans' lunch project was a major initiative that has meant so much to vulnerable students at the Abayudaya-administered Semei Kakungulu High School at Nabugoye Hill. Kulanu, the New York-based non-profit I represented at Nabugoye for six months last year, has attracted enough funding this year to expand its nutrition program to the point that it began feeding all the students a daily hot lunch last month. Kulanu expects to keep it going for some time. More than $1,000 of the donations I received remains and I am in discussions with Kulanu and the high school about how to use it. For example, deputy headmaster Jaffer Satte has suggested supplying drinking water to the students to go along with the lunches. The area at and around the school is not suitable for drilling a well so water needs to be hauled from more distant wells in jerrycans. The monthly cost would be about $90. Right now the students find water wherever they can. Clean water is essential and we could provide it for at least a year.
For the five students and one toddler I've found support for, I've begun communicating with them and their sponsors (I support a sixth student myself) about how to switch from funnelling the money through me to probably sending it directly via Western Union, a reliable way to transfer funds. If I haven't discussed this with you yet, I will.
Some of the other ways your donations have been spent since December:
- Eight double bunks for the girls' dorm at the high school
- Two months of feed for starving chicks at Hadassah Primary School's poultry project (after the contractor squandered the budget)
- Support for Hebrew education in the Ghana Jewish community, whose spiritual leader Alex Armah studies in the yeshiva at Nabugoye
- Supplying beading and Judaica materials to members of the Abayudaya Women's Association who've sent necklaces to Ottawa for sale
Since moving to Kampala in December, I've visited Nabugoye to be with and pray with friends from time to time, as well as other Abayudaya villages. But my main way of staying connected to the Ugandan Jewish community has been hosting Abayudaya students going to university here, as well as others, on the first and third Shabbat of the month. We've been developing a Kampala branch of Marom Olami, an organization for 18- to 35-year-olds that is part of Masorti Olami, the Conservative movement in Israel. On the Thursday evenings I do a lot of cooking ahead. After work Fridays I pick up students at Kampala International University about 15 km away. Then we celebrate Kabbalat Shabbat, share dinner, songs and conversation, followed by a sleepover for as many as seven guests. After breakfast, we have a Shabbat morning service, lunch and I drive them back. Marom Olami is reimbursing me for my expenses. I'll be transferring the mattresses, bedding, prayer books and ritual objects to the students. With Marom's help, they will likely rent a space near the university to keep things going. At least I hope so.
One project that is stuck is the Abayudaya Jewish Cookbook. Last year I worked with Jewish women in several villages to create about 30 recipes, and took hundreds of photos of food preparation and display. But I discovered there is nothing uniquely Jewish about the food. It's everyday Ugandan food, which is dominated by bland, starchy dishes. I tried testing some of the recipes in my western-style kitchen but lost enthusiasm. I don't much like Ugandan food and have found sources for the ingredients for the Japanese-Chinese-Korean dishes I love to cook.
About my job: BRAC is an extraordinary organization helping to raise the poorest of the poor out of poverty through microfinance and an integrated program of livelihood enhancement services. At first, I was sent into the field in Eastern Uganda, Tanzania and Southern Sudan to interview and photograph the people whose lives have been changed through BRAC. Then I wrote the annual reports for the East African countries. More recently, editing dry research reports has been less exciting.
I've led some chants in services here as well as before some Sunday morning yoga classes. But I'm really looking forward to the wonderful chanting world in Vancouver. I want to begin again hosting Evenings of Jewish Chant in Vancouver once I'm settled
See many of you soon!
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