By Nizhooni
Our day began with visiting SPOUTS. This was the organization that the first E-ship class worked with. Prior to our journey to East Africa, we had already had the spiel about SPOUTS, its ceramic water filters and all of the hard work, time, and sweat put into making the SPOUTS become what it is today. However, seeing the SPOUTS factory in person was so much better! Kathy described it as a mess, but to all of us touring the facility, it looked like a dream come true. From last year, it was a lot larger; inventory had definitely grown. With emotion, Kathy told us the story of SPOUTS. It was intriguing to hear about Billy and Kathy’s time eating posho and beans everyday for months. Kathy informed us about fighting fleas as well as figuring how to have privacy for bathing while living with 2 other men. Kathy broke it down and presented her journey and her fight for SPOUTS rawly. It was bitter sweet to understand that passion and execution are extremely different; it takes a truly passionate person to execute, but sitting on passions alone will get you nowhere. Everyone was on the edge of their seats leaning in for more. Kathy bluntly told us how hard the journey was and is. Although exhausted and still working, she is proud of the work she does. She believes that no one can and will do the work better than her.
The next portion of the day was to meet Thread of Life which is the organization we are here to work for. Everyone was so excited to meet the women and see the facility. We came in with not too many ideas or direction, yet it was a good time to sit, listen, and be present. Mercy and Florence informed us of the story behind Thread of Life. It is an organization primarily for single mothers to learn the skill of tailoring all the while receiving some education in financial literacy and the English language. Many of the mothers in the Thread of Life program have traveled from the villages seeking a better life in the city of Kampala only to find that it is challenging and will often end up in the slum, Katanga. These women are struggling to provide for the children. Thread of Life is there to teach these women how to get on their feet and make a better lives for themselves. This mission resonated with me, especially experiencing a single parent home at one point. To some extent, I could emphasize with the women there.
With such a heavy day pondering about single mothers in Katanga to fighting for a clean water system, I almost forgot that it was the Fourth of July. This year there were no fireworks. There was no traditional BBQ with hamburgers and hotdogs. For me, I was not feeling too patriotic. Instead, I filled up on goat shanks, chapati, and Stoney ginger soda. GLI held a small BBQ to celebrate the Fourth, but it really just felt like a good time to relax and hang out with the new friends that we have made thus far. We taught Mercy and Florence all the most popular American line dances. Aileen and Martina even connected with their love for Latin dance and music. We all laughed so hard and just merely enjoyed each others’ presences. I think that it was one of the best Fourth’s I have ever had. Even though we come from different sides of the world, fellowship never fails to die.
