On Thursday, we went to the Source Café to await a call from Jamie Duncan, teacher at Mbale, who would go with us to Kampala. There we would connect with Mark Long, missionary in Kampala and recently engaged to Jamie. From there we travel to Ft. Portal, on the western border with the (Democratic Republic of the) Congo. It’s a four-hour drive, although the road is good from about 20 km outside Kampala all the way to Ft. Portal. Lots of beautiful scenery on the way, fewer villages and people than on any long stretch of road we’ve seen in Uganda.
We arrived about 6:00 pm on Thursday, stayed at the Rwenzori View Guest House. Ronald Kizito, church leader and our contact with the basket makers in Ft. Portal, had dinner with us at the guest house. Jeff Cash, missionary of about 11 years in Ft. Portal, and Mark Long recommended Ronald as a trustworthy contact last fall, and we placed an order for baskets through him in February. Due to the timing of the shipment and of our craft sales, we haven’t been able to sell many of those items yet. As in Jinja, one of the purposes of our visit is to meet the women, make photos and videos of them and their work, and to gather information that will help us promote their basketwork and tell about their lives. That shipment of baskets included the baskets made by three women, all of whom we met, interviewed and photographed yesterday.
The meeting took place in the home of Rosemary __________, who has taken in a number of AIDS orphans, some of whom are HIV positive. They live with her in her small home in the town. She wanted to talk with me about her work with these orphans, and after a short conversation I asked her to give me a written description of her work as a basis for further discussion. Ronald recommended her, and based on the recommendations of Ronald by Mark and Jeff, I’m inclined to trust just about anything he says.
The meeting was scheduled for 11:00 am, started a bit late, but went until about 2:30 pm, and the time went very quickly for me. As it turns out, the three women we interviewed are members of a group of 30 (actually, we later found this to be a sub-group of over 150 women who make baskets for this cooperative) women who go collectively by the name Rabona Baskets, named after their village located 15 km south of Ft. Portal. All 30 are widows, most due to AIDS. I believe most or all of them learned to make baskets from Nalongo Gorret. Gorret is 38 yrs old, has been a widow 6 yrs, and has 7 children ranging in age from 7 to 20. Her mother taught her to make baskets and she has been making them herself since 1983. She explained that the money she makes from basket sales helps her to buy food and medicine, and to pay school fees for her children. She personally finished the 5th year of primary school. As if the story wasn’t already punctuated by loss and deprivation, Ronald explained that Gorret and the other two women are HIV positive, a deadly and insulting gift from their late husbands. (Note added later: I was discussing Moses’ death with a relative and co-worker of Moses Kimeze, he referred to Moses as “The Late,” never using his name, as in, “The Late was my father’s younger brother.” )
We had a number of questions about her, about the basket styles and designs, about the dyes used, about the time required, and so on. For those curious about such things, which I am, it was very interesting. She brought samples of the materials used in the baskets, and even samples of the flowers and roots used to make the dyes used to produce the colors used. I want to know about how much time went into the various baskets. She showed us a covered basket about eight inches high, and she estimated that it took about 20 hours to make. The local price for that basket is about 8,000 Ugandan shillings, less than $5. That’s not much, of course, but the local wage for common labor is about 3,500 shillings, or right at $2 per day.
The women brought a large bag of baskets of all shapes and sizes for us, in case we wanted to buy some. With Ronald’s help, I bought all of them for 500,000 shillings, about $300, and gave them money one for transport to and from the meeting. The other two women we’ll describe on the website. As you may be able to imagine, the stories are pitiful and sad, but also inspiring and convicting. I told them that, by describing their work and telling their stories, we are trying to help them sell their work in the U.S. However, their courage, their commitment to care for their children, and the spirit in which they work together will be an inspiration to (especially) women in America.
We prayed with them and left for lunch. We had taken a lot of photos of them, and Seth had managed the videocamera so we could get their testimonies on tape, along with Ronald’s translation. We went to The Gardens Restaurant for lunch, and African buffet with great beans, matooke (plantain bananas that taste a lot like boiled potatoes), peanut sauce, rice, decent beef, and potatoes. I passed on the cow’s hoof and even the goat (I like goat a lot, but the pieces I probed with the serving spoon didn’t inspire confidence--from the pieces I find in the places we eat lead me to conclude that goats are 95% bone and sinew.
After lunch we went to the home of Elizabeth Baguma, 67 yr-old widow who makes some jewelry out of plant that produces gray seeds that make very nice beads when dried. She picks the seeds from bushes outside her house. She takes care of her own children and grandchildren, but has also taken in Rose , an HIV+ mother of three children, and is teaching her to make jewelry. We sold Elizabeth’s necklaces at the Vaughn Park church of Christ ladies day last spring. Because a close relative had died within the past few days, she did not have any necklaces for us to take with us. I told her that we would buy as many necklace/earring sets that she could make by the time we left. We arranged to go back to see her Sunday evening to pick them up, and we’ll take her a gift of rice, salt, sugar, tea, soap, and maybe some meat. We prayed with and for her, and she sent us away with gifts of garden-fresh sweet bananas, guava, and avocados.
Because of prior bookings in Rwenzori View Guest House, we moved to the Fort Hotel, just up the road. It’s a bit more expensive but much newer and nicer. We had dinner there for the four of us plus Mark, Jamie, and Ronald. It was a good dinner, but at about $9 a head (same as the night before at the Rwenzori View) not something we can afford to do very often. Jeff Cash came to visit with us and describe his family’s work in Ft. Portal.
I’ll let Marlea send this out and will write an update in the next day or two.
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