Scholarship Recipients Home Visit

January 16th, 2009

I went with Cynthia Murray (United States Peace Corps Volunteer) to visit Just Like My Child’s Scholarship Recipient Kiberu William’s home. His mother Grace was so incredibly pleased and grateful that we had taken the time to come to see the place where William calls home. William’s older sister was there as well with her two young boys.
Their home is certainly a humble one. It’s built from bricks, but tiny. Just about enough room for the two beds they have inside and a table. Their roof is tin, with several holes, but they had mosquito nets hung properly from both beds. After all of the necessary greetings were complete, William’s mother took out all of her photo albums and we looked through all of them as she explained in local language who each person was. Every time I visit a Ugandans home, one of the first activities to take place is the viewing of photo albums. I don’t really understand why to this day, but I certainly recognize its significance. I would never ever refuse to look at someone’s photo album. In fact, the last time I was at Ben and Beatrice’s house for a school building meeting in Katikamu, Beatrice pulled out the family photo albums. One whole album was dedicated to Ben’s father’s burial. Most of the photos were of the dead body being prepared for the ceremony. Not an easy thing to swallow from a Western perspective, but I didn’t bat an eyelash out of respect for the viewing of the photo albums ritual.

William’s sister served us cassava with fried eggs. Cynthia and I observed how interesting it was that we were served eggs. Many Ugandans believe that women should not eat eggs. It’s a traditional myth that men throughout Ugandan history have used to their advantage. They told women that they would become barren if they ate eggs, so that left only the men to eat them. It seems that Grace learned from the counselors at Bishop Asili that eating eggs was an important part of her diet as an HIV positive patient.

Grace took us outside so we could see the piggery that Bishop Asili helped her start as well as a sheep raising project she has going for income generation. She is very proud of them.

Cynthia and I thought that the cassava and eggs was our lunch, but they served us another meal of cassava and mukene (tiny little fish with the eyes still in). The smell and taste of Mukene is extremely fishy and it’s pretty much the most difficult thing for me to eat in Uganda. Ask me to eat grasshoppers or ants? No problem!! But Mukene??? However, Cynthia and I were guests and had no choice but to eat every bite whether we enjoyed it or not. The worst thing you could possibly do in Uganda is to refuse a meal served to you. As we were finishing up, Grace said to us in local language that she was embarrassed to serve us such a poor meal, but she was glad that we had enjoyed it. Now imagine if we had refused it!

We talked about how well William is doing in school and how proud Grace and Just Like My Child Foundation is of his eagerness to learn and his determination to succeed. Grace is doing an amazing job of supporting her son's education in every way that she is capable of doing so. She is a role model and an example that we hope to soon see the other parents and guardians of the Just Like My Child Foundation Scholarship Program follow.

The whole family escorted us back to Bishop Asili. It was a lovely afternoon!