Today we had a big rainstorm in the morning so I finally got to wear the sweater I brought! We worked from home in the morning knowing the roads would be a mess. I sat on the front porch watching the rain while I did some work from home and created lesson plans for tomorrows tailoring class. In the afternoon we met with our older group of women. One by one they went over their homework of a S.W.O.T. analysis of their business, or desired business. Using that information they then shared their goals for their business. We found an unfortunate theme for both weaknesses and threats: controlling husbands. Some of the women didnt even fill out the homework, only verbally shared it because they didnt want their husbands to see it. The husbands either take the money meant for savings or they dont want the wives to work. So that is a challenge that will take a lot of time to work through. We did discuss having a meeting that the husbands attend, but RWO didnt think they would actually show up.
soft cheese, cheddar cheese and gouda cheese. They had tiny little pieces, but understood how Westerns could get addicted. Maybe it is fortunate for them the cheese was not very to home.
I learned the hard way that Uganda is very much a cash economy. If you are here for leisure then you will likely be tourist focused restaurants and hotels that can accept a credit card. But, even in the capital you cannot buy groceries, gas, water with a credit or debit card. The only acceptable form of payment is cash.
I only brought credit cards with me for safety so when I got here I was not able to use them at the ATM. After several attempts, I ended up sending myself a money order / Western Union to pick up at the bank so I could have cash. I also requested that my credit cards mail me a PIN number I waited the required week for the PIN to arrive at my house thinking I was now set to use the ATM. Not so fast: the credit cards
and ATM cards we have in America are too advanced for the ATMs here. So even though my credit was approving the request for a withdraw the ATM machine would reject it. After trying many different banks and ATMs I am back to sending myself money orders when I want cash. Fortunately the fees are not high, I just need to plan ahead to make sure I can get to a bank that will process it for me.
I now walk around with what feels like a lot of money, but is really not that much. If I send myself $300 USD that is just over $1M shillings. Their largest bill is $50,000 so you are given a lot of bills to just have a few hundred US dollars.
It is estimated that 17% of Ugandans (over 18 years of age) have bank accounts which means the rest of the population works strictly with cash and keep their savings at home or in a form of assets such as animals. Since most of the population can not access a bank that means they also can not access formal financial institutions for credit. Instead they rely on
informal sources of finance: borrowing from friends or family or loan sharks. But, most of their friends or family would not have the extra money to loan them. As a result, a significant proportion of the population is unable to increase productivity through investments in better equipment, bigger buildings, more employees etc.
As an alternative to a bank, you will see all these tiny kiosks around that work like a small bank. You bring them some cash and then they connect that money to your cell phone and you can ‘text that money to someone else. You can also go to the kiosks and use your phone to get cash. But, you are limited by how much cash the kiosk worker has or how much mobile money they have on their phone to send to you. The average limit seems to be $50 to $100 USD.
When someone wants a house of their own they achieve it slowly with cash. First they save up to buy the land. If they look for land in a small village they could get some starting at about $10M Shilling or ~$3000 USD.
