Tag: Uganda

Again, Pastor Syrio referred to the fact that PEP encourages you to work with what little you have, but to look at it in a more ‘resourceful light.  He had running water, but it was wasted – just running off.

He decided to build a channel which directed the water to a store (for dry times – which this time is apparently a bit too dry – they are expecting rain very soon),  and also planted around the source as the soil is well-irrigated there. He uses the area to plant vegetables to feed the community, but he’s still supplying vegetables, and water for those making bricks for their houses.

Philemon was another keen supporter of PEP, and demonstrated how it had helped them to see what they could do with the little that they already had. He started by growing some cassava, and when the last team visited the village, he has just managed to buy a plot of land. He’s now started building, and is sleeping in a (part-built) house on that land.

As with many others, he used the term “PEP was an eye opener”, giving knowledge that was implementable – and he noted that he is already ready to sell the cassava they he’d bought.

John Julias is one of my favourite people to meet on this trip … incredibly welcoming and incredibly enthusiastic about PEP – having attended the first training session feeling that they were poor people, and that was how they were destined to remain – there was nothing they could do to break the cycle. PEP made him realise that he was already living in a fertile land, and that more could be done with agriculture and animals. 

With the money he has managed to save – and he lives in a typical mud hut – he has managed to get one son through University, and another is almost finished. It was quite interesting to see him laughing at the web address on our truck, and say that no, he’s never used the internet, but his sons will show him once they have good jobs (although he’s then worried about unemployment). John Julias does have pretty good English!

John Julias has a crop of groundnuts that he’s waiting to sell (for good prices) to pay the rest of the University fees (around 1.5million UGS – which is nearly £400 – huge for these guys). He hopes that what they have started with PEP will continue and they will continue to get a good income. He and his wife have done slightly different things with PEP – she saved for goats and then a cow – which has now calved/gives them milk. They have also been breeding sheep – as for every 10 sheep, he can get a cow. We then went to have a look at his farm – great to see how proud he is of his achievement.

On Saturday we visited our final village,  and the first story that we heard was from Issac. He talked about how he had used the knowledge given in the PEP training sessions to translate into action, and the progress we can see with him is easy to see. He started by growing and selling greens, and then moved onto oranges.

When the previous team came to the village to see what he had done, they visited his house – the first brick-built house in the village – which had been built to window height. He has now put the roof on (unfortunately had to have a cheaper gauge metal, as decided to follow the PEP model of work with what you have). He still needs to put the finishing touches – e.g. doors, windows, but he’s hoping it won’t be too long, but dependent upon crop prices. He now has a business that buys and sells cassava.

We visited his plot of land, and went to visit the first brick-built house we’ve seen inside all trip. There’s 4 main rooms – 1 for the children (2 girls, I think), 1 for the parents, and 1 for living? Plus a “visitor’s room” and an area for washing. A good number of oranges are growing on his trees, and Isaac seemed very phlegmatic about how long it would take to finish the building “let’s see what we get for crops”. 

Isaac was also the only person we met who wanted to (or had ability to) take photos of us – with his mobile phone, so we asked a bit about his phone. He’s purchased a phone for business connections – whereas before he would have had to walk/ride to negotiate prices/selling, etc. he can now do this easily with a telephone call, before transporting anything. He doesn’t have a smartphone, but a “cheap Chinese phone”, which he rarely uses for personal use, but helps him make more money for his goods. His phone can hold 3 days charge, and he takes it ‘up the street’ to someone who charges him 500 (about 12p?) for a full charge.