JESSICA BIBER
Staff Writer
When people travel, they often take photos or jot down memories to convey their experiences to family and friends back home. But for junior Laura Colvin, neither photos nor journal comments nor even her own video footage can fully explain her experience in Uganda this summer.
Colvin boarded the plane June 19, planning to spend a little more than a month-and-a-half in Africa. Colvin wanted to go after hearing about the experiences of her friend Deborah Cole’s sister, who traveled with the American Jewish World Service’s Volunteer Summer. The program partners with grassroots organizations in developing countries to improve the citizens’ quality of life.
During her time in Uganda, Colvin participated in two service projects. One of them was to create a 24-pen piggery. For Ugandans, providing a piggery is arguably as beneficial as teaching English. Pigs are cheap, they are full grown within one year, they have short pregnancies, and they can earn Ugandans the equivalent of $80 per year, a large sum for most poor villagers.
“We were basically there to help, to make cement, to carry water,” Colvin said. “All the women and kids would help us. We made this game where we would yell, ‘3,2,1, Go!’ and we would all run down the road and get as many bricks to take back [to the piggery] as we could. The kids thought it was so funny to see us ‘old women’ running so fast.”
Colvin’s second project was to help create a stage at a vocational school for the local brass band. By performing throughout the city and at weddings, students earn money when job opportunities are scarce.
Such projects benefit a budding Ugandan economy called micro-financing.Because there is such a shortage of ways to make money in some communities, micro-financing allows an entire community to support one person at a time. That person repays his loan and the money is used to help someone else.
One day, Colvin assisted an ophthalmologist and dentist who provided glasses and pulled rotten teeth for free.
“We gave out numbers and people showed up for glasses before sunrise,” Colvin said.
By the time it was 4 p.m., the dentist was packing up, but Colvin noticed one girl who was in a lot of pain and made a case for her.
“Eventually he put back on his gloves and helped her,” she said. “It was this overwhelming feeling of ‘We have to keep going.’”
As time went on, Colvin began to feel at home.
“You know, people are people everywhere,” Colvin said. “At about the three-week mark I remember thinking, ‘Whoa, I am actually living here.’ It wasn’t as much culture shock going there as it was coming back. It felt like home there.”
Colvin plans on returning next year and encourages everyone to think about making their own travel plans to Africa. While Colvin will stick with the program she went with last summer, she said many of her friends are opting for Pepperdine’s new summer international program in Uganda, which combines class with service learning.
When Colvin finishes school, she plans on going back to Africa to videotape people’s stories.
“If I can I will open a studio there, and tell their stories, and show them how to use one of the most powerful mediums in our world,” Colvin said. “I learned we are definitely a global community. We are all human beings. People need us. I don’t know why I was born in a country that lets women go to school, or why I am so blessed in that respect, but I feel like it is my birthright to give back.”
09-20-2007