Uganda: Eric, the king of education

Laura, Hannah and Eric outside the best Chapati company in (well, it used to be the world, but now it's just the local area).

We got hooked up with the Ciyota guys in Kyangwali because of Laura's friend Eric Glustrom. Eric runs a non-profit in Uganda called Educate! with an exclamation point. You have to say it really excited.

We meet Eric our first day in Africa. He's tall, lanky, smiling. He's 25, but he seems simultaneously much younger and much older than that. Younger because his mannerisms somehow haven't acquired that cocky, cynical attitude I associate with a lot of 25-year-old guys. Older because I don't know anyone this age with this kind of vision for the future.

Eric's phone rings constantly while we are with him in Kampala. "What's going on?" he asks every time. This is because for Eric, something is always going on--or, rather, about 50 things are always going on. The first graduate of the prestigious African Leadership Institute (and graduate of Educate!) is coming home this weekend. Benson is getting ready to travel to Kenya for a leadership training and wants to meet up in Kampala. The country director of Educate! is resigning, and her replacement is being trained. The new Educate! staff is visiting Kyangwali and receiving orientation. And three girls from the States are coming for a couple weeks to visit.

Eric is famous in Kyangwali.They've even written a song about him. The lyrics go: "Eric, the founder of educate! Eric, the king of education! Eric, who's kind and good to everyone! Long live King Eric!"

Educate! started in Kyangwali, when Eric met a teenager with no future prospects and realized he had enough money in his pocket to sponsor the guy's education for the next year. Educate! began as a sponsorship program and then morphed into a program that not only sent kids to school, but put them through a two-year leadership course with a local mentor. So when the kid finishes high school, they don't just have a brain filled with the chemistry and grammar rules that they've memorized by rote, but they have a framework for tackling the issues they face in their own communities: Poverty, violence, disease. Educate! essentially teaches them to think creatively about solutions and to believe that they can make a positive change. As a result, you've got micro-lending programs going, small businesses starting, communities organizing to dig water wells.

With all that going on, if you're hanging out with him, Eric's still not likely to rush off to attend meetings, send e-mails, or write grant proposals. He'll get you a snack and sit down and listen to whatever you have to say. Eric is the one who advises us to not do much our first few days in Kyangwali: "Just meet people and hang out with them," he tells us. "Listen to their stories. Relationship is important."

Which is some of the best advice about the trip we ever got.