Lyantonde Internet Audio Documentary

Permaculture

Permaculture: an approach to designing human settlements and perennial agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in the natural ecologies.

I’m freakishly excited because this summer I get to take a course in the California desert on permaculture - or permanent agriculture - meaning sustainable systems of agriculture that reduce reliance on damaging industrial systems of production and distribution. This is the future for lasting development solutions needed in communities like Lyantonde, and will greatly improve my understanding of issues the community members are facing. The course also focuses on the ins-and-outs of sustainable aid (i.e. working with cultural diversity, conflict resolution, etc). I couldn’t think of anything more fitting to prepare me for the trip back post summer fundraising.

The courses are developed by Robyn Francis, a permaculture designer with over 25 years of experience in rural and urban community development all over the globe. The action takes place in Quail Springs California. Quail Springs’ site is a 450 acre spring-fed canyon in a high desert, semi-arid landscape, at 3,800 feet elevation (about 3 hours from L.A.). I’ll be camping on the site for the duration of the courses and when I’m not participating in classes I’ll be gaining extra experience thru hands-on labor in the work/trade aspect of the program.

The diversity of these courses are for anyone working in community development in any setting, and I advice you to check out the website at ... quailsprings.org and direct your questions the wonderful Kolmi at info@quailsprings.org

Join me!

State House

Bitone graced the states house in Entebbe on sat morning, performing for Uganda's own, president Museveni, and Burundian president Pierre Nkunziza. Nkunziza was visiting the pearl for 3 days, and Bitone helped send him off in style.

The performance was short and sweet (maybe 3 minutes) but Museveni spent a considerable amount of time talking with the kids afterwords, asking them each their name, age, and place of birth.

I was honored to shake his hand (sorry no picture), and he gave me about 8.5 seconds of his time to explain what I was doing in Uganda, and the work of Project Focus. The fact that PF is based in Lyantonde (very very near to where the big guy hails from) didn't hurt, and I was able to get him some PF literature. The security at statehouse was no joke and at first they weren't going to allow me to take any photos or video of the performance, but as soon as I dropped the names of some Lyantonde restaurants and businesses on the soldiers to prove myself, we got on just fine. Nepotism doesn't seem so bad when you're on the right side of it.

The kids were elated, and they are in the process of writing some personal reflections on the day for there own blog (bitonetroupe.blogspot.com), so keep an eye out. This is definitely the direction Bitone wants to be heading into, and the folks who arranged the show also promised future bookings for state diners and government functions.

A professional photographer from the New Vision newspaper took a few snaps for the whole Bitone crew with the president, and hopefully I'll be getting my hand son those soon.

Ankole Spirit World

The mighty spirits of the Ankole people are partial to 3 offerings: milk, millet, and money. That’s what our tour guide told us as we trudged from prayer site to prayer site to pay homage to the ancient Chwezi (demigods) of Bigobyamugenyi in Sembabule, a village about 2 potholed and dusty hours from Lyantonde by motorcycle. Allegedly my knees graced the same grass and dirt alters frequented by president Museveni (which didn’t stop my pasty neck from burning, but did sharpen my secret hopes of one day becoming a bush-war hero).

We hoofed past trails that if taken would trigger your eternal disappearance, deep empty pits where the sounds of ancient drums are said to be ever-pounding, and a grass mansion that a spirit couple telepathically commissioned the care-takers to construct for them and their set of dybbuk-duo twins. Michael and I took the journey with 3 other Ugandan tourists - technicians from Kampala enjoying a day off from erecting a mobile phone tower nearby. Together we would enter each site – first removing our shoes – and kneel down to sprinkle millet seeds and coins over banana leaves and pray to those who protect and bring prosperity to believers.

The air was the freshest I’d smelt since Mt. Elgon, and all the walking and “praying” gave me time to dwell on recent events and positive-but-unexpected changes that have jolted me out of routine that I was unconsciously falling into here in Uganda.

After some discussion its been decided that I will return to the states for the summer to assist in some fund and morale raising, visit mommy-dearest (she’s coming off shoulder surgery – too much rugby), take a sustainable aid course, and eat 1000 burritos. Project Focus has decided to first conquer the internet café and other smaller projects in Lyantonde to garner a network of development partners, donors, and project-implementing experience before tackling the construction of a school. The café will start extra income flowing into the school, allowing us to establish a solid financial system on a smaller scale before the large amounts of money that come with construction will begin changing hands. This is the right move, but will present a healthy challenge in trust-maintenance among the relationships we’ve built in the Prince community over the past few years. The school management committee (who represents the guardian community) is now onboard, so all that is left is convincing the parents that when the rain descends, the floods come, and the wind blows, theirs will be a school that was founded upon a well-planned rock and not upon the rushed and poorly thought-out sand.

Branco – the Bitone founder and director – has been awarded an illustrious Fulbright scholarship to complete his masters degree in music from a university in Connecticut. This is great news for the long-term stability of Bitone because it will secure him a fulltime position at Makerere University (where he is now a part time lecturer) when he returns to Uganda. His shoes will be hard to fill at the center, and the kids (and me) will hate to see him go, but it will also help to spread some of the responsibilities out so Bitone becomes a more manageable and effective organization whose fate is not hinged on one man. Speaking of president Museveni; Bitone also scored themselves a performance arranged by the bigwigs we traveled to Ethiopia with, at which they will be sending good ol’ Yoweri off from the state house (Uganda’s version of the white house) and then Entebbe airport when he goes to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what. These are the high-profile performances Bitone’s talent deserves.

A little over a week ago I hosted two volunteers (Brian and Alexis) who are touring around East Africa doing third-party analysis of projects that have received funding through an organization called Global Giving. Most of the money Project Focus raised for the materials used in the Ugandan art programs was collected through Global Giving’s online donation services, so the two came to check out the impact of those programs and see what we are up to now. I took them to Prince so they could interview some students and staff about the “Story Ki?” project, and hear about our plans for the future.

I left the room to allow the students to answer freely, and the feedback was better then I would have guessed. Being here and focusing solely on logistical-type aspects for the past 8 months has dulled my right-brain wherewithal, and that day reminded me of the fact that this all begin with children whose lives and creative capacities were forever opened up by art, and that this is something we really need to continue. You can read their full review of our visit to Prince at... ggcommunity.tumblr.com I also took them to my favorite Lyantonde prayer site “the rock”. We disregarding the threats I received last time I was there by a rifle-wielding vigilante security guard posing as a police officer. He said that I would be arrested if he ever saw me there again. The sunset photos we got would have been worth a night or two in the Lyantonde clink.
After Michael and I left the spirit grounds we made a stop at a compound that would rival the Bush family ranch. This was home to a young women who has been coined “the holy one”. In her, the spirits from the other sites often take refuge to escape the trials and tribulations of the celestial space. Photos were not allowed there, but the holy one has built herself a nice little empire from a herbal medical product line, and happened to be out of town overseeing her new church in Kampala. Apparently on certain holidays you can find her parking lot full of the Benzes and Range Rovers of Kampala’s finest coming to seek blessings. I searched the labels of as many of her oils and solutions as I could to find a cure for the hatred of onions, issues with fundraising, or lack of college degree, but to no avail.

It's only been 7 months and I'm out of titles

April has been the fastest month of my life. All month I was doing one of two things; either recording interviews for an audio documentary on access to safe water, or planning the Prince Primary fundraising bonanza with the rest of the committee. Both required me to constantly be out in what snazzy NGO folks call “the field”, which really means you are visiting peoples homes – usually rural and poor. The term irks me because they are just that - peoples homes. Anyway, I was fully immersed and my eyes and relationships were opened up further. I’ll wait until I get a chance to edit the audio to touch on that, so we’ll just chat about the Prince event.

The fundraiser was Friday, April 24th, purposely coinciding with the regular end of the term celebrations. We held a community auction in hopes of making some of the money back that the school lost due to the UNEB business. Trying to cut planning costs at every possible turn, we pounded the red-dirt roads and went home-to-home invited folks and asking for donations of food, woven goodies, art, goats, etc to be auctioned off.

Then we hit the district offices to invite as many hotshot politicians as possible to buy up all the auction items. The community gave an incredible effort, filling up a classroom with bunches of bananas, watermelons, sugarcane, and a few plump goats. The planning committee made up of guardians, teachers, Meddy from ICOD, and a white guy also put there hearts and backs into the days leading up.

African time was in full effect. The guest of honor was the district chairman, and he was five hours late. Culturally nothing can really begin with out him so that means we all waited (not that he was the only one late.) Once we got rolling the festivities went really well save a few bumps in the road. We ate, listens to politicians, watched the Prince kids shake out some traditional dances, tried to outbid each other (maybe about 8-10% of the guests have money for this kind of thing), and planted some tress.

A little money was raised, some big promises were made to myself and the headmaster regarding political help for the project, we danced and laughed, and it didn’t rain. I personally made some bad judgment calls in terms of penny-pinching and perpetuating the lop-sided dynamic between the people with and the people without. I re-realized that cost-cutting usually only affects those who already don’t have – and can be disempowering and disrespectful to the people who really deserve it.

This thing is tricky; there are by-products of culture that no one would argue need changing (poverty, corruption, etc), but most people - even the oppressed - scoff at the idea of challenging those traits inside of the culture (gender imbalance, subserviency, false sense of superiority, etc).

Prince Primary

There’s a lot to be excited about right now, and a lot of work to be done. A while back I told you about the UNEB scandal and the trouble it caused in the community. Of course things didn’t stop there, but of course we are doing the best we can to turn trouble into something that will make us stronger.

The rumors that ran thru town were enough to scare a substantial amount of families away from either continuing with their kids at Prince, or enrolling their new little ones in the baby classes. Around 40 students were lost this term. You add that to the 10 or so students who are retaking Primary 7 at an 80% discount and you have a serious financial crisis at Prince Primary. The teachers salaries were not being paid as a result, and they were understandably upset enough to call a meeting and request some action to be taken. Their original approach was to ask PF for money, but that is simply not possible at the moment, as our bank account resembles the pot at one of my 6^th grade poker games (we mostly played for gummy sharks), besides being very out of alignment with our goals. So the conclusion we came to was to role up our sleeves and have a good old fashion community auction. The next step was to have a meeting with the parents/guardians of Prince and to get them on board. Thankfully this was not that difficult. At the parents meetings we held elections to create a committee to plan and execute the event (including 2 students!), discussed which district politicians and community bigwigs to invite, and set a fundraising goal (12 million big ones). The date is set for April 24^th and the planning is moving along. I will be doing a documentary video on the planning process and its culmination to give a deeper look into the way the Prince community works together when times get tough.

We also finally started the “Citizens of the World” pen pal program at Prince which is taking place with 2 elementary schools from St. Paul, Minnesota. Each Prince student in Primary 6 and 7 received 2 letters, one from each school in MN. The program explore themes like identity, value, and social responsibility on levels ranging from family to global. The Prince students also created a committee to facilitate their end of the program, and their reply’s are in the mail. Prince has a blog where you can read more about Prince students, the pen pal program, and check out some samples from all three of the schools student letters (very soon): princeprimary.blogspot.com

I also will be doing audio recordings of some of the students reading their letters, and incorporating them into the coming Prince doc video.

There are pictures from the community meetings but as you could imagine they are not so fun so this is a picture of the Prince students spreading "traditional cement" on the classroom floors a. It's cows sh*t mixed with a little mud.

Bitone also has established their own blog: bitonetroupe.blogspot.com and will be using it to create more personal relationships with a children’s choir from Los Angeles, CA. The 2 groups of kids will also be exploring similar themes to the “ Citizens of the World” program, but instead of sharing thru letters, they will be co-creating music over the internet. The blog will feature short personal backgrounds of each of the kids, along with the progress of the music collaboration and anything else that comes up at the center... and the documentary video I put together featuring footage from our trip to Ethiopia.

Lyantondepalooza

So it’s been a while since I last wrote. I haven’t been lazy, just absent minded about blogging. I’ve finished 2 audio documentaries (Prince Primary and Lyantonde vs. Internet Pt. 1), finalized and received the blueprints and bill of quantities for the renovations at Prince Primary School, edited a Bitone documentary video (already accepted at Sundance and Cannes), held the second Project Focus Uganda board meeting, celebrated my 37th birthday, started the Prince Primary pen-pal program, moved places in Kampala, took the bus to Rwanda to refresh my expired visa and explored 3 mind-bending genocide memorials... and some other busy-work, but the only thing I feel like telling you about is Lyantonde concert number 2. Last time I told you it was the duo Radio and Weasel, this time it was Weasel’s older brother and rival – the self-proclaimed “heavyweight” – Chameleon. Chameleon can’t catch a break lately. I haven’t really kept up with the tabloids as much as I should but I know that he slept-walk off of a 2nd story balcony in Tanzania and broke both of his ankles, had a bad car accident and got roughed up by some thugs. He was in the paper a few weeks ago leaning on a cane while handing out money to traders to help rebuild Kampala’s biggest market – Owino – after a devastating fire. Maybe it’s all lies for publicity, you couldn't pay me to care, I just know Lyantonde was bubblin. I’m not sure why I am so moved by these concerts but I’ll try to paint you a picture.

Imagine a back lit outdoor stage with massive trees hanging over both sides, the silhouetted branches broken up by stacks of slightly mismatched speakers ascending up to clearest night-sky on the planet. Next to the stage is an incapacitated petrol station; the outside walls lined with peeling coca-cola advertisements, English football posters, and NRM campaign flyers dating back two decades. The empty station finds life during the concert, serving as the main bar, but there are many tables scattered around selling single-serving bags of gin and vodka. Behind the stage the artists congregate before and after they go on. I didn’t make it backstage but I heard Coldplay and Nas were around. There is one band for the whole night. The horn players were both dressed like Jermaine Dupri, but as repetitive and one dimensional contemporary Uganda pop seems to my foreign ears, this band had a range, blessing us with Al Green, Stevie, and Bob Marley covers in between artists.

The chairs run out fast and most people bring their own stools from home but loose them half way through the opening acts and clear the rug for some cuttin. I think this is really why I love these shows; I get to dance with the butcher (and his wife), waitresses, shoe polishers, restaurant and shop owners, mill-workers, hair-dresses, and everyone in between with no thought or mention of our positions on the hierarchical totem pole. I know this is the same reason everybody loves a celebration, but it seems different here. I’m not completely sure of the extent that people here really identify with those roles anyway; it wouldn’t surprise me if it were just my perception. All I know is people get nutty to live music, and there isn’t much that I like better then bumpin asses with a big bad Ugandan woman in a gomesa. Because of the single-serving bags of gin and vodka, the repeating drum pattern, and my bad Luganda, all the songs ran together for me by the time Chameleon came on, and I found myself in the middle of dance circles defying the whiteness of my pelvis. “Muzungu! Omoni Okuzina!” -- “Whitey! You can dance!”
Now it’s the next day and I’m staring down the barrel of my to-do list. Thank God for Chameleon. Thank God for fun.

Unnatural Selection

Every November in Uganda hundreds of thousands of Primary 7 students gear-up to take their P.L.E. (Primary Leaving Exam). The results are of heavy consequence for both the individual students who hope for high scores that will enable them to enter the secondary school (high school) of their choice, and for the private primary schools who hope for a solid school-wide performance to attract new students in the following term. Government (or public) schools are already over-enrolled and are generally dispassionate to the outcome of their candidate’s exams. In late January the top scores are published in the newspaper for all to see. Unfortunately for many students who study for free from the government primary schools, P7 represents the end of their classroom education, as a state-subsidized secondary school program has yet to be realized, and secondary school-fees are unmanageable for the average Ugandan family.

Not every school qualifies for a P.L.E. testing or “sitting” center. Standards set by UNEB (Uganda National Exam Board) must be met before your school is allowed to hold the exam. In it’s current state Prince Primary does not qualify for a sitting center, so the P7 candidates must travel about 10 miles to St. Kizito Malongo Primary School (a government school) to test. Even though the distance sounds short, the change of environment can add to the stress surrounding these exams. In late November of 2008, 19 students from Prince and 96 students from St. Kizito sat for their P.L.E., and on January 16th, 96 students (12 from Prince and 84 from St. Kizitio) were informed that their exam results had been nullified due to “impersonation”. That’s it! A one-word explanation from UNEB as to why nearly one hundred children’s past 12 months of studying had been deemed “a dead year” and must be retaken. The head mistress of St. Kizito received the letter and shared it with Joshum, the headmaster of Prince Primary. Before informing Joshum, said mistress wrote a reply to UNEB in which she bent the truth regarding the student’s I.D. cards – the student’s photos and identification information were compiled in a book at the testing center, and in her letter she stated that they had individual I.D. cards (the book was officially accepted by UNEB’s on-site supervisor). They were given no proof or further explanation so it’s impossible to know if this had any actual bearing in the mess.

Apparently it’s not uncommon for exam mal-practice to take place, either by schools themselves or students (sometimes their parents) for the reasons I mentioned above, but I’ve discovered it’s even more common for UNEB to nullify without supplying evidence or remorse (it reminds me of our beloved patriot act). Students who wish to contest the decision are charged a non-refundable 200,000-shilling appeal fee per individual case, and all cases are closed indefinitely14-days from the initial ruling. At a rural school like Prince, the entire year costs around 100,000-shillings, and many vulnerable students are charged less on Joshum’s sliding scale, so UNEB’S appeal fee is inconceivable for any struggling rural family (and most families have more then one child attending).

A handful of students were sent into UNEB in Kampala and “investigated”, but none of them claimed to have been aware of any mal-practice. One of the students was Jackie, who I spent Christmas with in Lyatonde. She had her uncle contact me and asked me to come see her in Kampala. She was devastated, and told me she would not leave Kampala without her test results. Since Prince students were testing from a different school, their administration had little-to-no control over the situation, which means I had absolutely none. The 2-week window had already closed, and considering that almost 30,000 (out of approx 400,000) P7 students had their P.L.E. nullified across Uganda this year alone, a small rural school without it’s own testing-center is like a tiny gnat on UNEB’s windshield. Some folks tell me that when poor rural schools test exceptionally well, UNEB becomes suspicious and takes action without rhyme or reason. Jackie would have been a prime “suspect” for performing too well relative to her situation.

The fun doesn’t stop here. In a small village community like Kalegero – where Prince is located – a scandal like this puts the gossip alert into the red zone. Rumors spread like malaria that Joshum had intentionally neglected to register his students in an evil ploy to collect school fees from them again next year. The rumors came from an ex-Prince teacher who was recently recruited by a new school located in the Kalegero trading center. Since he knew the entire Prince guardian community, he literally moved door-to-door spewing lies like “Prince won’t be open this term”, “Joshum is a thief”, and “Prince has been sold to whites who are building it up for rich children only”. These were admirable attempts to lure students to his new place of employment (the school was also offering free uniforms as an incentive). Many guardians stayed loyal to Joshum, or at least came to him first to allow him to explain for himself, but a few were easily swayed and some even threw gas on the fire by contributing to the mud-slinging, so we printed flyers and announced on the Lyantonde loud speaker that we would be holding a community meeting in which Joshum would explain the details of the saga. I felt sympathy for him. He had no control over the situation, and after 11 years of service to the community he was clearly hurt that some people’s faith in his motivations could be so easily shaken.

Despite a death in the community on the morning of the meeting, people turned out in impressive numbers. Joshum presented all the evidence needed to clear his name and came to a compromise with the guardians of the students forced to retake P7. I took the opportunity to reiterate to the community that buying or controlling the school was the polar opposite of Project Focus’s objectives, and reminded them that the reason we have had so many previous meetings, interviews, and planning sessions together was so that a school that works specifically for them is what gets developed. I also reminded them that since exhibitions of their children’s artwork and their own stories are the real driving-force behind the school’s development, this project is theirs, and will only progress and survive with their cohesive efforts. It seamed appropriate to apologize for the way UNEB had marginalized their community, and by publicly expressing condolences to Joshum for the frustrations he had suffered, I was able to shine some light on the fact that they were all mistreated. By the end of the meeting community members were standing up and consoling the headmaster, and one man – thru a Ugandan proverb – compared the parents who so easily abandoned Prince on the brink of it’s improvements to a wife who toils alongside her husband while cultivating the fields for the whole season, and leaves him right before the harvest.

A sense of relief filled the air as we all filed out of the classroom, but the whole situation reminded me how easily things can fall apart if people are not together. This helped me to really see how so many other outsiders with gobs of money and worthy intentions have failed to truly empower communities like Lyantonde because they have put the people’s ideas and voices second to their own. Even though the planned renovations will qualify Prince for their own P.L.E. sitting center, it also became obvious that no amount of water tanks, micro-loans, or classroom blocks will ever substitute for the compassion-vacuum created by the UNEBs of the world.

Level Best

Last week we began leveling the site for the new buildings at Prince Primary. Four months ago I would have pretended to know what that really meant, and thanks to the unexpected generosity of Reynolds Construction Company – an Israeli-owned outfit building new roads from the capital of Kampala to the southwest town of Mbarara – we are conquering this task relatively cheaply. Other than some after-hours fuel and auxiliary motivation for the machine operator working on his Sundays off, we are receiving the service as a donation. Lesson: Be fearless in asking for help from others. This is not my project, or Project Focus’s project, or even a project limited to this community, but rather a project to improve humanity on a small scale, and all people should be expected to give what they can. Even though this is a relatively small stage of the project, I was absurdly excited to watch the first cuts into the red mound of earth where the new school will sit, and I wasn’t alone. Dozens of community members came out and sat with me for hours as we savored in the initial (tangible) signs of change.

Since Christmas I have spent a good portion of my time around Prince doing interviews for a recently completed radio documentary about the school’s history, struggles, strengths and what the all stakeholders see as the path to success. I interviewed the founders, staff, students, parents and guardians, and the headmaster of the nearby government school to get a sense of the community involvement in both public and private school circumstances. I am very happy with the results of the piece, and if I ever find a way to email the 18-minute file, you can make your judgments.


The search for our dream-engineer continues. It’s not easy to find someone who is willing to work with our approach of community involvement, stringent accountability and transparency guidelines, and relatively bizarre methods of fundraising… all at the right price. Especially when the “right price” seams to be a bit of an anomaly. Of all the consultations I’ve gotten the estimates for essentially the same building (a few variables) have ranged from $45,000 to over $600,000. I’m not exaggerating. It’s been a mystifying but advantageous experience in which I’ve learned about things like corruption, corruption and corruption. I’ve got our search narrowed down to a few trustworthy candidates and will be deciding within the weeks end.

Last Wednesday Lyantonde had a visit from Uganda’s hottest music duo called Moses Radio and Weasel. It was damn fun to see everyone that I greet and chat with from around town all in one place, dressed to kill and letting loose at the concert. I had a ridiculously good time and gained a new level of respect once I unleashed my rug-cutting prowess.