David Leventhal

Today was a lot of fun.  I had an opportunity to go out on an “Insight Trip” which enabled me to meet some of the clients that Opportunity International serves here in Uganda.  It was a long day – we left the resort around 7 a.m. and returned about 4:30 p.m.  Lots of driving on very bumpy roads with the windows open on dusty roads in the heat!

We started the day by visiting the headquarters of Faulu Uganda Ltd. – this is the name that Opportunity operates under here in Uganda.  We arrived in time for their morning devotionals and the CEO gave us an overview of their operations.

From their we left to visit a Trust Group.  Opportunity leverages a group lending model & so once a week members of a trust group get together with a Loan Officer to make payments on their loans.  This is also a time for encouragement, mentoring and support. 

After that we went to visit an individual client.  We met a women who has a brick making business.  She employs a few locals from her area & her grandson is a supervisor.  This woman is an amazing example of sheer, dogged determination & perseverance.  She lost her six children in the early 80′s and they left her with 49 grandchildren…no, that’s not a typo.  She has worked to put every one of her grandchildren through school & university. There are six left in the home that she’s still caring for.  Talk about fortitude.  I felt very small around this woman.

From there we went to visit another trust group.  This group was a bit unusual because it was all men – which is not typical.  These men are all involved in the lumber business in some form or fashion. 

When we left this second trust group we went to visit another individual client.  This man & his wife make & sell art and have utilized loans from Faula to help purchase supplies, etc..  They’ve been at this for a while & have been able to increase their standard of living.

Our final stop was to Bright Community Nursery & Primary School Kyebando.  Opportunity has a relatively new program that provides loans to schools to help fund capital improvements (new / upgraded facilities, etc…).  Bright Community is one of the first recipients of this type of loan product.  This school seems to be doing a good job educating the students.  It’s a boarding school & it broke my heart to see children – as young as six living at the school.  I  just can’t imagine dropping Daniel off at a boarding school.

Opportunity brought in a world-renown photographer to take pictures for their marketing division.   Vanessa Vick is from the states but has lived in Uganda for about 9 years.  She is a regular contributor to the New York Times.  She has photographed quite a bit of the war & unrest in Uganda.  Vanessa told us it was nice to be photographing something positive. 

Here are a few photos from the day.  It’s not exactly a quick process to upload these so you’ll have to settle for three pictures.  When I get back to Dallas (or if I miraculously discover a lot of bandwidth hiding somewhere in Kampala) I’ll post a bunch of my pictures up.

And finally, in what can only be described as a bit of irony – tomorrow I turn thirty-five.  When Missy & I traveled to Tanzania in January it was over her birthday was well.  Not sure if there is anything symbolic in that….but it does suck not being with my hot wife & four kiddos.  And not only that but Wikipedia says the average male life expectancy in the U.S.A. is 75….so I’m almost at the half way point.  Not sure how I feel about that…nor am I sure I’ll make it to 75!  At least the life insurance premiums are paid up!!