Day 4 - A Day in Kampala: Shopping and Meeting up with Millie

This morning we got a quick game of Five Crowns in before heading to Kampala to exchange money, shop for crafts and meet up with Millie. Zak won!!!

Kampala is noisy, energetic and filled with traffic. There’s always something to comment on and ask Phoebe about, but it takes patience and stamina to get your work accomplished.

A typical street in Kampala.

Phoebe went and exchanged money for us and Brynn, Zak and I started to go from craft booth to craft booth looking for treasures we can sell back home. We explained to the shop keepers about what we were doing and how all the money will come back to Africa to help keep girls in school. We often get better prices because we buy in bulk and the salespeople appreciate what we are doing.

As my friends can tell you, I am not fond of shopping in the best of times, but this situation is more difficult than most shopping sprees. Too many dealers are begging me to come to their shop, and it gets overwhelming. We worked out a system where I’d close the deal, Zak would wait for the change and the receipt and then Brynn and I would continue onto the next vendor. Brynn was constantly figuring out the money conversion as we went along, and Phoebe was getting us better and better deals. I was trying to keep track of how many of each thing we had or still needed.

Just as we were at the last couple of booths Millie showed up. I met Millie in 2014, the first year I came to Uganda. She was a student at Busoga school in Begumbe, near Jinja. I noticed her as one of three girls in a class of 12-year-olds. We had stopped by this classroom to say hello to the students. I wondered why there were so few girls and was told that parents often take their girls out of school around this age because they don’t think girls need an education.

That just didn’t work for me so I asked if the parents would consider keeping Millie in school if I paid her fees. After a lot of back and forth they agreed and Millie finished high school, and then nursing/pharmacy school. She now works at a pharmacy in Kampala and I see her when I’m there.

Millie has grown into a lovely young woman. Our MoonCatcher Kit helped keep her in school too and she is one of our many success stories.

All of us went to dinner so that we’d have some time to talk and be together. I learned that not only does Millie work 5 days a week at the pharmacy but she spends her Saturdays working at a salon. She is making her way in the world and expressed her gratitude many times. I know it takes more than school fees and a pad though. Millie wanted to pursue her dreams and worked hard to get where she is.

We hugged and promised to keep in touch and wished each other all the best.

Tomorrow we go to see our Kimenyyedde sewing guild and teach at one of our schools there. We are hoping to interview a few girls who have been using our kit for a while.

Off to bed.