I was lucky enough to travel to Uganda this year with Marcus, Felix and Anna and make my very first contact with the continent of Africa. If you ask yourself now: Was it worth it and would you do it again? For sure, the next trip is already in planning. Today I would like to take you along on my personal Magic Moments that I made during the trip:
Uganda is one of the youngest and at the same time poorest countries in the world. Poverty is widespread and even the youngest have to contribute so that they can survive. For me until then completely unimaginable and still not tangible, how much help is needed on the ground, so that one can dissolve the status quo. In personal contact, the children are a little intimidated at first. After the first attempts to touch them, however, their childlike curiosity takes over. After that, there’s no stopping them, and they were as outgoing as teenagers at summer camp.
Despite their circumstances, the children have so much joy in themselves and outwardly carried – simply heart-touching, also with the own review. What I still remember very well was simply waving out of the car and hearing the little ones laughing, or snacking on mangoes together. Whether the white man also does it right?
But not only the children have remained in my mind until today – above all I would like to emphasize two people without whom our project would not be possible in the form in which it is implemented: Jimmy and Joel. Both are role models for me and are already the heroes of Magic to Uganda, although they are not members of the association. With their work they put our project into practice with our financial support. This starts with the selection of local farmers who are eligible for a donation. Only those who have proven themselves in the past or show that they care for the seedlings receive a donation. The entire management in the society is done for us by Jimmy, who is not only a mouthpiece, but also an organizer, mediator and man-for-all. It is simply insane what this person does for his community! On the other hand we have Joel, who takes care of the raising of the seedlings with an almost infinite patience. He also teaches the farmers how to properly plant and care for the young trees, as the first two years in particular are crucial for the survival of the seedlings. With his expertise, we have been able to get as far as we are and get the most out of the donations. He also records for us, with frighteningly accurate detail, who got how many trees and when; looks at the results on the ground; and advises Jimmy on farmer selection. Both have become true friends in the short time they’ve been together and I look forward to seeing them again. Small anecdote: If someone in Uganda says to you at full speed “I have to check the tires” is it not meant that he checks the tire pressure. ?
On the way, however, we also met many other people who welcomed us with open arms and invited us into their homes or for a drink. Of course we tried to adapt as good as possible and to learn the local language. It is important to know that Uganda consists of many (I think 42) different tribes, all speaking their own language. Only with the colonization a uniform language was spread with English, which is today beside Swahili the second official language of the country. Madi Opei as well as the villages around it belong to the Acholi tribe, who are native to the north of the country and speak their language of the same name. As soon as we greeted the locals with “Apwoyo” (which means “hello” – but can also be used as “thank you”, very practical), the rather serious looking faces quickly turned into laughing people who almost fell around our necks. But I only learned one word and with every little scrap more that was picked up, the cordiality increased – cultural exchange can be that simple and beautiful. Enough about the language, we come to one, if not the highlight of our tour: A church wedding in Madi Opei. We were lucky enough to be one of the few present and then also to have the honor of attending as guests. This allowed us to see the cultural outfits, which we also financed through Magic to the World, in motion and actively participate in the dance – what an experience. Surrounded by the experts, however, our own sense of tact was about on the level of Thomas Gottschalk on Wetten dass…
And if you are invited to such a celebration, you naturally don’t want to come empty-handed. But what do they give away in Uganda? The pragmatic answer from Jimmy: “What they can use in everyday life. Yes, well, we couldn’t do much with that at first and asked Jimmy’s wonderful wife Dorothy for help, who luckily was able to find us a suitable gift: Cutlery! Beautifully wrapped – and we could then join the line and dance up to the wedding couple. Thereby we understood what Jimmy meant with his answer: People gave away chickens, goats, grain, rice, mangos, bananas, huge pots and really everything that could be used in everyday life.
Independently of the great people on site, who have grown very close to my heart, I would like to take you to the wonderful nature, which is otherwise only known from excursions by Andreas Kieling. A few snapshots please?
I would have so much more to tell you, but would like to make a small appeal to you at the end of this post:
Each of us can contribute something to the welfare of humanity. Uganda is one of the youngest countries on earth and over 80% of the people are engaged in agriculture. Stopping the ongoing desertification is not only in the interest of nature, but has a direct impact on the hearty local people. With our commitment, we can not only protect the microclimate and contribute to the fight against global warming, but also give the Acholi a gift: Hope for the future. Above all, I want to make this possible for the children and continue to hope that together we will continue and expand this project! I am very happy to be part of this circle of friends and also of this association. Let’s continue together to try to make the world a little better.
Step by step.
Project by Project.
Yours, Magic Florian
So kannst du unser Baumpflanz-Projekt in Uganda unterstützen:
- Per Überweisung auf unser Spendenkonto (GLS Bank, keine Gebühren):
| Empfänger: | Magic to the World e.V. |
| IBAN: | DE65 4306 0967 1309 7243 00 |
| BIC: | GENODEM1GLS |
- Via Paypal an Magic to the World e.V. (ca. 2% Gebühren)
- Unser Vorhaben in eurem Unternehmen, Sportverein oder Freundeskreis bekannt machen und damit evtl. Großspender akquirieren. Kontakt gern über magictotheworld@gmail.com
Für sämtliche Spenden könnt ihr gern anschließend oder zum Ende des Jahres eine Zuwendungsbestätigung/Spendenbescheinigung bekommen, die ihre gemäß §50 Abs. 1 EStDV steuerlich geltend machen könnt!
Vielen Dank!
1 thought on “Apwoyo! Florian’s field report fromUganda”