First day at work

First work-shop day

May I have the opportunity to introduce my blog post from today, on behalf of TLC and Insert Africa I have the honor to say that we have had a fantastic day. Usually all formal speeches start like this if you change some of the nouns, and we hear about 5 a day.

To earn money for this project we have done various things to collect money. We have applied for scholarships, sold advertisements for Ny Teknik, had a Night for Uganda at Lounge(s) and also sold entrepreneurship lectures sponsored by companie.These seminars are called BITE – Bolla Idéer om Teknik och Entreprenörskap, and today we had our first remade English/Uganda adapted workshop. It was fantastic. The youth really engaged in business and after 15 minutes on a small business case they presented really good material. We discussed everything from ladders, to coffee to infertility (apparently some couples are infertile here too – they are called barrettes or something). Here are some Manafwa prices;
A goat = 40 000 shilling
0,2 l milk = 500 shilling
0,2 l yoghurt = 1000 shilling
One pack of coffee = 500 shilling
A cup of coffee for a tourist in our fictive café = 1500 shilling
A cup of coffee for a local in our fictive café = 500 shilling

After the workshop was done I asked a couple 13 year old girls what type of business they would like to do and they were really interested in farming. Some wanted to work in the cow business and refine milk into yoghurt, others in entertainment and more in coffee. If anyone was worried about Africa, I am not anymore. They will come and strike hard if they get the opportunity. The energy level here is high and the intensity and eagerness is impressive.

From one thing to another – as we mentioned before there are cows walking loose everywhere and they look like thinner versions of the Bregott cow – Anyone who can come up with a good slogan for our future Manafwa-gott?

Fanny



As it was said, we had the first work-shops today and could not have hoped for more happy and eager students. Even though we had some time delays with lunch and breakfast, we managed to do more than we had planned for the day.
The youth was divided into three groups and my work shop was about doing water tests for three different kinds of samples: from the river, the well and a water tap. Since the UV system is still not in place, we are not able to show the results of it. So we had quite similar samples. Apparently all tests came out perfect, so my work-shop end up as highlighting the importance of clean natural watershed, while keeping the difference to potable water. Everyone enjoyed the hands on testing and it was fun to see them getting excited even about vinyl gloves. They are so thirsty for knowledge that it is amazing.
Anyhow, enough with the descriptions, it is not possible to give the rewarding feeling through writing. At least I am not able to. But this day had a positive effect on everybody, as we could not stop laughing through the whole dinner!

Grete