Unexpected Goodness

It’s been a busy week in the ‘Jule.  I got out to the women’s vocational center 10 km away for some secondary project face-time. At PTU we conducted our quarterly board of directors meeting, had meetings with the guardians and students, had an ‘organization day’ planning session and welcomed a guest from the US Embassy.

Yep, that’s right, we’ve been shortlisted for the small grant we applied for back in January! It’s funded through PEPFAR and would be awarded in October. We’d be using the funds to purchase a tractor we’d use to open and cultivate PTU’s land, in addition to renting the tractor to 21 farmers groups (including our student’s guardians- all at a subsidized rate) and other community members and organizations at a higher price. Considering 95% of the locals are subsistence farmers, and most don’t have access to oxen and plows, we hope that the tractor will increase crop yields (and therefore food security during the dry seasons) while providing an additional source of sustainable income to PTU to help pay the student’s school fees. I think that the interview went well… keep your fingers crossed! We should find out if we got it in early Sept.

We were also paid a visit by Bosco Uganda (http://boscouganda.com/) who is potentially looking to set up in Pajule.  It would be great to have them in our area, especially since no public wireless or internet services exist currently the community. I think they’d be great to partner with and would provide our students with resources for computer literacy they don’t get access to in school.

When I got home today, I was greeted with another unexpected surprise. My neighbor, who lives in Kampala but does occasional work here in Pajule, was in town last week with a friend who is also doing some part-time work in Pajule. We were all chatting about life in the ‘Jule and the friend asked me what I had the hardest time with here… and I promptly replied by saying ‘the heat and the food.’ Anyway, they came back up from Kampala today and my neighbor’s friend brought me a big, beautiful loaf of grainy brown bread (we don’t have bread in Pajule), a jar of homemade feta cheese in herbs and oil (apparently he makes cheese!!!), and a jar of his farmer friend’s sun-dried tomatoes. I thought I was hallucinating. I mean, feta and sun-dried tomatoes!?! To ensure that I wasn’t dreaming, I promptly made a toasted sandwich with feta, sundried toms and a bit of kale (from my garden) for dinner and boy was it delish.  

It got me to thinking… through this experience I’m realizing that people can be really awesome. Not that I didn’t think that people were awesome before, but I’m often amazed with people’s awesomeness these days. Whether it’s my friends and fam from home sending me super care packages and great emails, or acquaintances that have shown interest in this adventure by following the blog or facebook, or my coworker’s wife who cleaned my house before I’d gotten home from a long trip, or little kids that run after you just to shake your hand and kneel (an Acholi tradition for greeting elders), or random people that are willing to give me a ride when I’m stuck on the road somewhere, or a neighbor’s friend that’s thoughtful enough to bring a stranger some treats… People. Are. Awesome.  And we can all use a little more awesomeness in our lives. A small act can really go a long way…

I’m sure friendly feta guy has no idea how much his gift will brighten my whole week. I hope to pay the goodness forward to someone in my community... even through a small act.