Empower African Children Blog

The Tooth Rat vs. The Tooth Fairy

By Jeremy Phillips 

Finn, 6, and Max, 4, walking through their village in Uganda.

One of the best parts of my job is being immersed in Ugandan culture. Being thrust into a new culture causes you to stretch and grow. You end up having thoughts, experiences, and conversations you could have never imagined yourself having. We see it when Empower students travel on a Spirit of Uganda tour, when a new Ugandan scholarship student arrives in America, and when American visitors come see our work in Uganda.

Personally, I also get to see it in my own children as they experience the complexities of living in a different culture.

Recently, our family returned to Colorado for Christmas. It was our first trip back to America since we moved to Uganda a year and half ago. A week or so before leaving for the U.S., my wife and I were in the kitchen talking one night when we heard our son Finn, age 6, shouting from the shower. “Guys! My tooth is getting looser … it’s getting REALLY loose … IT CAME OUT!”

Finn showing off his lost tooth.

He had lost his first tooth. He came running down the hall bare naked, dripping wet, with blood running down his lip, and his tooth in his hand. He was jumping up and down and in tears he was so excited. But then he stopped. He realized he had a dilemma. Should he follow Ugandan protocol and leave his precious first tooth in a corner of our house for a rat (yes, a rat) to leave him money? Or, should he keep the tooth and bring it to America for the tooth fairy? Who would pay more? It was a monumental cultural conundrum for our little first grader.

Cultural side note: You may laugh at the notion that Ugandan children believe rats collect teeth and leave money for children, but it actually is much more believable than a little fairy that slips under your pillow, isn’t it?

Finn went with the tooth fairy. Once in the U.S., he wrote a carefully crafted letter to the tooth fairy, explaining that he would like to collect his money and keep the tooth. The next morning, he was thrilled to find $2 and the tooth.

“Dad, how much is $2 worth in shillings?” he asked. I converted it to roughly 5,000 Ugandan shillings, to which he pumped his fist and said, “Yesssss!” He was confident a Ugandan rat would not have paid that much. He had made the right decision.

What a privilege it is to step outside of our own culture and learn about another. It expands our understanding of other people, it opens us up to new ways of thinking, and it presents us with the opportunity to see the good and the bad from our own culture. It changes us. That is why creating connections between Americans and Ugandans is a critical element of what we do at Empower African Children. And it is a playing a pretty important role in shaping the lives of two little American boys, too. 

Jeremy with Max and Finn at Murchison Falls on the Nile River.

Jeremy Phillips is program director of Empower African Children and is based in Kampala, Uganda. He can be reached at Jeremy@EmpowerAfricanChildren.org.

 

The Hope A House Built

By Ford Noble

This blog post by Ford Noble, 16, was submitted to the Huffington Post, winning a runner-up award in the publication’s “Teen Impact” contest. Noble, whose mother is on Empower’s board of directors, started a group at his school called ReThink the Possibilities, through which he continues his work in Uganda.

Ford Noble and Sharon Kyomugisha in Uganda.

My parents have instilled in me from an early age the importance of traveling and experiencing other cultures. Last Thanksgiving on a trip to Uganda, I realized the significance of other cultures and the position I am in to help others.

My experience began with an emotional encounter with an African girl named Sharon. Sharon is an Empower African Children student. Her father died of HIV; her mother is destitute, HIV positive, and cares for her three siblings by ironing clothing for money.

Sharon was able to join Empower and thus receives the highest quality education in Uganda. Her younger brother has one uniform, one pair of shoes, and attends school at the local grade school. In Uganda, grade school is free until sixth grade as long as you can pay for a uniform and books. Many families cannot.

Sharon’s older brother has diabetes. Sharon’s mother spends almost all of her money trying to buy him medication that needs to be refrigerated. The family had no refrigerator, so Sharon’s mom would bury his medicine in the sand, hoping for the best. Her home was one room, no bigger than my closet at home, filled solely with bunk beds. Next door, the landlord leased a small space to a bar owner. Late at night, people would drink and play loud music. The wall she shared with the bar did not reach the ceiling. Besides being loud and uncomfortable, the house was in a dangerous location.

Instead of asking how people lived like this, I found myself asking why people had to live like this.

I raised $7,000 and gathered donated supplies that filled 25 duffle bags. The money I raised purchased computers, desks, and chairs for a learning lab. I then made sure I had enough money leftover to move Sharon’s mother out of danger. A few thousand dollars allowed for her relocation, a refrigerator for the medication, replacements for the shoddy bunk beds, and basic household appliances.

Moving Sharon’s family changed me. After they had settled in, the youngest son came home from school and immediately led the family in prayer. First Sharon’s mom began to cry, and then tears flowed from her sons’ eyes as well. I turned to see my mother and father crying. Before I knew it, tears started streaking down my face.

I began to look at Africa not for what it did not have, but for what it did have. There is so much poverty, but within the poverty, there is so much hope, gratitude, and inspiration. I realized that one small gesture snowballed into inspiration for many.

I never knew what hope truly meant until that day. 

Ford Noble is a sophomore at Parish Episcopal School in Dallas, Texas. For more information on his continued work in Uganda, visit the Huffington Post article or Ford’s blog. 

 

 

 

Sandwiches and Global Competence

By Cecilia Nipp

Ursuline students who traveled to Uganda in November reunited with their Empower friends on New Year's Eve, as students arrived in Dallas for the 2012 Spirit of Uganda tour.

I think a lot about relationships in my work as dean of diversity and global education at Ursuline Academy. We want our students to be competent and knowledgeable global citizens. But how does that goal become a reality in their daily lives?

At Ursuline, part of that global competence comes from developing relationships — that is, friendships — all over the world. Once a student has a friend in another part of the world, that part of the world suddenly becomes interesting and matters in a real, personal, and profound way. So, as we have deepened our partnership with Empower African Children, we have deliberately created the opportunity for relationships between our students and Empower students. We are guided by the timeless words of St. Angela, who founded the Ursuline order in the 16th century. She instructed the women in her company to “know each student by name” and to know the “special circumstance” of each student. This type of knowing — by name and circumstance — is exactly what we wanted for our students as we traveled to Uganda last November.

Our time was an awakening of so much awareness for our students. The great privilege in which we live in the United States became clearer, as did the infinite potential Africa holds. We spent time — the most critical ingredient for relationship building — with the Empower students. Together with our new African friends, we shared meals, attended mass, rode on the bus, sang, chatted, painted, volunteered, danced, and just laughed and laughed.

Strong friendships were formed with great ease and joy. Today, our Ursuline students feel particularly close to the Empower students because now they know them by name and circumstance. We know where they come from and have experienced their culture. We know about their passion for Oreos and dislike of sandwiches.

We know Faith is the youngest but not necessarily the quietest.

We know Donna’s favorite American restaurant is Wendy’s.

We know what awesome musicians Moses and Brian are, and that they are patient teachers when faced with really bad drummers such as ourselves.

We know Noelle loves fashion, and Sharon is an expert hair stylist in addition to being a talented dancer and singer.

Our Ursuline students could tell you so many details about their Ugandan friends —from their favorite songs to what obstacles they have faced and overcome in their young lives. And, as in all good relationships, the love goes both ways. The Empower students have come to know the Ursuline students by name and circumstance as well.

We also learned that welcoming others works both ways. The joy of being reunited with our friends when some of the Empower students arrived in Dallas on New Year’s Eve as part of the Spirit of Uganda 2012 tour was immense and the laugher, again, abundant. How ecstatic we will be this week when we welcome Spirit of Uganda to our school! The children will not only perform but will also join our entire student body in a day of learning, celebration, and, of course, relationship building.

Cecilia Nipp is dean of diversity and global education at Ursuline Academy in Dallas, Texas. She can be reached at cnipp@ursulinedallas.org. You can find her blog at www.uadodge2011-12.blogspot.com. If you’re interesting in visiting our students in Uganda, please contact Rosie@EmpowerAfricanChildren.org.

The Strength Within

By Frank Roby, CEO Empower African Children

Joseph, pictured in the center, is preparing for the Spirit of Uganda's 2012 U.S. tour in ways that aren't always obvious.

You know that really dark wood called ebony? It is very hard, very precious, and actually so heavy it sinks in water. But I learned something new about it in Kenya last week when I was meeting with our social enterprise partner, Bata Kenya. The outside of the wood looks  very much like most other trees. It is the core that is so strong and dark. The bigger the tree, the bigger the ebony core. So when you see a large object carved from ebony, you know it came from a massive tree.

Learning more about this tree made my observation of one of our students in Uganda especially poignant. Joseph is one of our emerging student leaders and a great talent who will be traveling to the U.S. as part of the upcoming Spirit of Uganda tour. I saw the strength of ebony  growing within him as I observed his leadership and his attention beyond the music and into the overall performance. Joseph is talented and soft spoken. Our students are no different than any other group in that some are quiet and others, well, not so quiet. Joseph is a quiet study of Peter Kasule, Spirit of Uganda’s artistic director. He is a protégé much like Peter Mugga, our music technology major at Sante Fe University of the Arts once was.

Joseph is becoming who he is capable of becoming. He now sees beyond his role and into how the pieces fit together to make for a spectacular result. And this skill now allows him to adjust and adapt to circumstances. There is an African proverb that you will see featured on our 2012 tour T-shirts. It says, “When the music changes, so does the dance.” What a perfect statement alongside the image of ebony. A strong center, often hidden from view, but resilient, and able to be molded into something of great beauty — in heart, in character, and in knowledge.

That is Joseph. And that is the nature of Empower students. I can’t wait for you to meet them. May we all have a core like Joseph’s that when revealed, shows the beauty that stems from our inner strength — a strength that allows others to lean on us in troubled times. That is the character of what Peter Kasule is teaching Joseph and what Joseph is learning to do in turn for our younger students. And it is a measure for each of us as we prepare for this Holy season.

Frank Roby is CEO at Empower African Children, based in Dallas, Texas. He can be reached at Frank@EmpowerAfricanChildren.org.