The hand that rocks the cradle........

Women in a quarry

Promoting gender equality and empowering women is goal no. 3 of the MDG.  This goal is strongly pursued in this part of Africa. 

Mobile hammock?

In one of our volunteer training courses on the subject, a video was played where in the household, mother and young daughter were doing all the
household chores, while the father and young son were sitting in front of a television set, or were first served
meals before mother and daughter could eat what was left.

Women sit on the floor

Kitchen chores are a woman's job here, even for working wives with some household help.  In offices, women are tolerated to be late for work or to leave work briefly because they have to prepare meals at home.  I have no personal knowledge of what goes on inside the household here as there could be exceptions.   But someone told me that to let a Ugandan or a Kenyan man share work in the kitchen is a cultural taboo.
Some statistics were published that in the primary education level the number of boys and girls who attend school is initially equal.  As they reach the age of puberty, the number of girls in school dwindles. 
Reasons cited were that the girls are given more and more work, or the parents are afraid for their safety.  Another conjecture is that the young girls feel embarrassed to go to school during their monthly periods as the modern type of sanitary protection is just not affordable.

It is not common to see men with head cargoes.  In some villages, seats are reserved for men.

Hopefully, gender equality will be a perfect balance. 

How I got to Africa

Fetching water for home

In our pre-departure trainings, volunteers were always reminded that despite their skills and competencies they should not expect to produce miracles in their placements.  We are there to share what we have and not to impose.

Chickens come home to roast

I have not accomplished for others anything inexplicable but I had recent personal experiences that I can describe either as serendipity, good luck or miracle. 

Prisoners on the way to court

My getting into volunteer work in Uganda started with the chance reading of the VSO ad in an

in-flight magazine during our return flight from a family holiday

Papyrus stringed into mats

last December 2009.  New year's day found me filling-in the forms for sending online on the first business day of 2010.  I thought this was a 

wonderful gift to me because volunteering was something I wanted to do some years back.

Highway vendors

Initially, I was to go to Vanuatu, formerly known as New Hebrides. The prospect of living in the South Pacific Islands attracted me until I accidentally met a stranger in one of our trainings.  I started our conversation by telling him that I admired the intricately carved wooden cane that he was using.  He said it was a gift from a tribal chief in Vanuatu.

Shot of the moon taken at high noon in Gulu

That's when I learned that he volunteered in Vanuatu, a place that he could circle on foot in one day. (He could be exaggerating because of his limp.) I then changed my topmost placement preference to Africa.  I was not disappointed.   I think at this moment that with these two unexpected occasions, Someone up there where the sun and the moon are, had given me the choice of serving time in Africa - now.