Simply Stated

Okay, I realize my last post was a downer. Those experiences were building, and I felt like corruption was an issue that needed to be addressed as something that affected our work and experiences frequently.

So now I am home, resting visiting friends and family, and sleeping... a lot. I want to conclude this blog appropriately, summarize what this summer has meant to me, what I have learned; but how can I do that simply for a summer that has been enlightening, challenging, exciting, tiring, busy, slow, confusing and ... a lot of other things.

Once upon a time... A long long time ago... Far far away... Well you see there was this angry momma baboon...

Nothing quite starts it off right. During this brief time of R&R before I return to IU next week and start ICore, I have needed some serious time for Reflection and Remembering. Albert Einstein said "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." I feel like that was how a lot of my summer program went. I also feel that the uncertainty, could be seen in our work and especially in my grant proposal. After a week of telling stories, I realize there are three highlights I would like to share:

1. By the end of our Pilot Brand Development Project, I feel like the women of Marusacco understood what their current brand reputation is in the community, and sincerely wanted to help improve that image. Also I was pleasantly surprised how using reputation interchangeably with branding, clarified our message and goals. Women of small communities absolutely understand the positive and negative effects a reputation can have on any entity. The challenges of working in a developing country were great. If I were to do it all again, I absolutely would, and I think I would do a lot differently.

2. I loved and will miss rafting on, swimming in, partially drowning in, walking by, and seeing the Nile Victoria River. It was an amazing reminder daily of where I was in the world.

3. The biggest highlight of summer was probably hanging out with this guy! Baby Solomon and I shared many ups and downs, literally, as he learned how to walk as well as had many other adventures typical for a one year old. Having a host family greatly (and positively) affected my experience and their welcome definitely eased my transition to becoming Ugandan - which will always be a part of me.

Thanks for reading. Nice time everyone,

Nabyrre Laura

Day in the Life of an FSD Intern

Sleep - one of my favorite things as you now know - is often interrupted by an overeager rooster or a dog fight here or there, or an extraordinary amount of birds. Putting that aside I am usually up, mosquito net neatly tucked away and getting breakfast around 8:00 am. Recently it has been tea g-nut spread and bread or fried eggs, or crazy weird and dense but awesome fried pancakes.

Nine weeks has been plenty of time to develop a routine. My workday officially starts at 8:30, but let’s gets real; this is Africa. Twice I have shown up and been the only one until after 9! So around 8:25/8:30 I start to mosey up the road to ORUDE.

Internet access, lots of space, and a free and filling lunch buffet. ORUDE is pretty awesome. I've been spending a lot of that time researching community development, branding strategies and team building activities.

After lunch things get a little exciting. I hop on a matatu to Nakabango Stage right by my Sacco. It is a quaint space with electricity, but no Internet. Adjusting our program to be a training of trainers has simplified work so much. I began traveling the 40 minutes to Marusacco only twice a week and meeting our brand managers there – cutting our transport costs in half! Otherwise I spend my time running errands, making copies, picking supplies and ordering our Marusacco polo shirts (which hopefully will be completed today!!), or attending the occasional FSD workshop.

Matatu home and the day’s work is done! It would not be unusual to see the other interns from Jinja and myself on the patio of Mayfair hotel after work stopping in for something to drink, or at space café using some free wifi, or at a new favorite – Moti Mahal Indian Restaurant! Recently I found a great gym across town, but if I can’t make it out there I usually get enough exercise doing curls with baby Solomon. I don’t know anyone who likes to be upside down as much as that guy!

Tea time around seven starts to close my day and I will sit around with my family and talk about our days, or we enjoy some TV programs – when electricity allows. Dinner is served by ten – ten thirty at the latest. A brief rocking of baby Solomon and I crash – especially since I started walking everywhere, stupid rising petrol prices.

A Healthy Dose of Competition

I apologize for my blog absence - but getting through this midterm week of my internship has been insane!

I submitted my grant proposal to FSD earlier this week and we held our first brand managers training. Hopefully in the next week I will hear back about the grant so we can start planning for the expansion of our Pilot Brand Development Program through a seminar in August. I wish I had three more months to spend here to really educate these women on the importance of upholding a professional brand image, even in their small businesses. My strategy in all this is a training of trainers. It is best this way, as it becomes more and more likely that I will be leaving Uganda before the program is complete. Our goal is to shower information on newly elected brand managers and then allow the integration of training into their respective savings groups at a more appropriate pace. Luckily/thankfully/every other emotion of relief, after our training the brand managers responded that they are confident in their abilities to educate fellow members on branding.

We are also working to clarify what levels of the Sacco we are branding. Marusacco’s brand is our main focus – attempting to increase their marketing capacity to new members and communities, while empowering members to repay their loans because we mean business!

ORUDE is also working to empower their seven Saccos to function independently, which is burdened majorly by not following policies and low loan recovery. They decided these Saccos are growing beyond ORUDE, and invited the District Commercial Officer (DCO) to their Quarterly Manager Meeting yesterday. I was pleased to settle into a corner of the room to take minutes behind 28 managers, treasurers, and chairpersons.

The DCO spoke about ownership and responsibility throughout his report on three recent audits of ORUDE Saccos. It was definitely interesting, inspiring, and shocking. He repeatedly called for ORUDE to sack one of the secretary managers throughout the 6 hour event. Later I found out I had been sitting by that manager the entire time. I asked my colleagues about it and they just laughed. I still don’t understand if that was appropriate, embarrassing, or just to inspire competition – but they heartily agreed about the manager’s incompetence.

I was proud that Marusacco (my Sacco in Mafubira!) was constantly referenced as an example of good banking practices. Most of all though I think it was eye opening to see how to inspire healthy competition. I have wanted to avoid offending members, but that was exactly the purpose of the Quarterly Meeting. They were publicly compared in a way that removed their individual advantages of claiming that ORUDE was hiding something, or that they are being treated differently.

Inspired, we have taken a more aggressive approach to mobilize members. I am so curious to see how the women of Mafubira respond to their now public group loan repayment rates. Maybe that will inspire the group returning only 8% to pay up.

The Struggle Boat

Sunday Mallory, and I knocked a big one off our bucket list - white water rafting the grade five rapids of the Nile River! That was not the easiest feat if I say so myself. A glaring sunburn, a few bruises, and one chipped tooth later we came up out of the water alive!

Along the way we definitely encouraged each other as our raft continued flipping over (nearly)every rapid, but really we had a great time with some other interns, our guide, and that peace core volunteer who kept jumping ship...

(no you can't see me in this one - I was in the back, thus I was at that point under the boat)

(Some Muzungu Birds)

(The Dream Team)

That struggle boat we were in was one of many struggles I have faced throughout this summer.

It's time to get real on this blog and let you in on those struggles.

I'll begin with that brief mention of a chipped tooth - yes that was me of course. It is now expertly filled by a Jinja dentist who does not believe it necessarily to use anesthetics before digging right in.

On a less physically painful note, my project keeps slipping behind in its schedule. It is incredibly unfortunate - but what can we do when the road is washed out from construction right before the heavy rain, or when a community member passed away and the savings group is making burial preparations. My supervisor in the field is very supportive of trying to find solutions and we are finding ways to skip some steps or revisit them later as time allows.

Also as we visit groups I hate reaching that point of our presentation where we need to clarify that some groups will not be included in the pilot program - they smile, eyeing me and say "I think you will pick us..." I may have learned how to give a bad news message (shout out of thanks to Jeanette Heidewald and the Kelley School) but it is still not something to look forward to.

Through careful communication we will keep moving forward, and I am proud to say we have organized our brand goals, developed respectable logos, and chosen three savings groups for our pilot branding program! Ever the optimist, I laugh off the setbacks with my colleagues who face the same challenges every day - rather than for a short eleven weeks - and get back to work!

Please Grant my Grant!!!

What a week this has been! I decided midday Monday that it would be worthwhile to write a grant proposal in order to receive more funds with my project. My project, known as the Pilot Brand Development Program, is packaged into a nice little compact 10 page single spaced proposal. The quality of that proposal is yet to be determined! I spent my time writing amid field visits, which rocked my vision of the low level at which we are beginning, and with an occasional break for Marimar or some passion fruit juice with a friend.

Mini pep talks helped to get me through "Come on Laura, its not like this is Target project all over again..."

The first objective of this pilot program is to choose who will be in the program. Without too much thought beforehand about the requirements to be in the pilot (mistake!), we visited the first of 12 Village Saving and Lending Groups. They were absolutely interested in participating, so we began to discuss what their current brand image is.

The Marusacco Secretary Manager Esther acted as translator, and took a rather long time with the first question. I could see some confusion, internalizing, and small responses prompted Esther to expand once again. Pulling out simple traits of the group's image was like pulling teeth, and basically rural marketing is nonexistent among the inconsistent sales of their commodities in local markets. It will be a learning experience for all of us, as banking and marketing take on whole new meanings when everything is done on paper.

Square one. This is where I am, no foundation other than some enthusiasm and a COMPLETED!!!! draft grant proposal. Luckily, that could be just enough!

LIFOA (Life is Full of Acronyms)

Two days in to work and I already get my first holiday? I hope everyone had a joyous Martyrs Day on Friday.

Leading up to this luxurious three day weekend I began a needs assessment at ORUDE, burying myself in reading material in order to understand the organisation's mission and prior projects. ORUDE has recognized that they would like me to help with some needs in Mafubira. Mafubira is a community which is home to ORUDE's (are you ready for this) MARUSACCO, their most developed SUSALECO. MARUSACCO consists of five VSLG, further divided into FABAs. The SACCOS ORUDE starts and supports work to empower women in rural areas who don't have access to loans from MFI's because of their high risk potential. ORUDE's current Strategic Plan of ERUSCA lays the guidelines of where they want MARUSACCO to be in three years, entering independence from ORUDE, and upon my visit to the community tomorrow I will continue developing a SWOT to see where I can contribute!

My training feels scattered, from stats classes to folkloric studies of what creates a community, to three long days of community development training. I am straining to compound my knowledge in able to create a sustainable impact. My work plan should be set by Wednesday, and I am feeling the immensity of what profound changes can result if I work hard and smart.

I have found the limits and bounds of my project, in my eleven (now ten) week departure and a $200 grant. I want to push those limits, and I just feel tomorrow can't arrive soon enough so I can meet these groups so I can start thinking big (and realistically) for a SMART goal.

To avoid a total muzungu move, I have not taken as many pictures as I would have liked to be able to share, but I do hope to describe in great detail what I have seen and experienced with my host family and throughout this lovely little town, but all these acronyms have worn me out. So that is a blog for another day.

Acronym Key:

MARUSACCO - Mafubira Rural Saving and Credit Co-operative (Limited)

SUSALECO - Sub-county Savings and Lending Co-operative

SACCO - Savings and Credit Cooperative

VSLG - Villiage Saving and Lending Groups

FABA - Farming as a Business Advocates

MFI - Micro finance Institute

ERUSCA - Enhancing Rural Women's Savings and Credit Access

SWOT - Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats

SMART - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely