After jumping through the hoops of the Ugandan education system, we succeeded in gaining approval from the necessary local government and church-heads for their stamp (literally for their stamp) of approval for this conference. It would be way too straight forward if we were permitted to go directly to the schools themselves!
After joyous experiences of making copies of the letters announcing our Youth Conference (ha ha! Check this out if you want details: http://daneenleidig.blogspot.com/2010/06/challenges.html) it was time to deliver the letters. HAND DELIVER! The postal service is not reliable enough (or fast enough), email is simply not available to most all schools and phone calls are not formal enough.
I spent the past 2 weeks visiting 3-4 secondary schools a day to meet with the Head Teacher (Principal) to inform them about the Youth Conference. I, Daneen from the USA, would have loved to have been able to inform the schools weeks ago. Alas, this is Uganda. Most Head Teachers and SU Patrons (teachers who head-up the SU clubs at their schools) were NOT phased when I said the conference was next weekend!! I was very encouraged as, at nearly every school, I was greeted with much welcome and support for the SU ministry. Very few even bothered to ask me what country I was from. I found this positive, as if that’s their way of simply accepting me for who I am and not where I come from and the assumptions that go with what I can “provide” being a white person . (Or maybe because they’re s use to all the NGO’s in the region!??)
Most of the large details are set. I fully expect there to be a variety of last minute issues and items. Now we just hope that students show up. We’ve budgeted and planned for 400 students. Yet, when I went to make the official request for buns at the bakery (for tea break), Susan (my SU co-worker) suggested I only comment to ordering 200. Hmmmmm!!? What does she know that she hasn’t shared??!! Oh yeah, experience of working with students in northern Uganda! :-)
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