January 13^th, 2007

We’ve been in Uganda about 8 days and the work that we are all doing on the projects is well under way. I came to my project thinking I had little to offer a trucking company delivering UN World Food Programme aid to northern Uganda. Rebels, impassable roads, fuel siphoning, and truck maintenance were all completely foreign to me. What I found when I arrived was very different than what I previously thought. The Mukasa family greeted my partner Stephanie Lang and I. As we worked on the business we were cared for beyond measure, with tea time hosted by the youngest daughter, Maria, traditional lunches, and Steven, the oldest son and manager of the business showing us around down for endless hours of sightseeing. The issues and problems faced by this business are common to many businesses we have seen before and I was able to offer far more than I once thought. The most interesting issue was one that I have more recently been in contact with in social entrepreneurship talks, “How should your values and morals affect the mission of the business as well as your bottom line?” A devout Catholic family, the Mukasas feel called to help their fellow Ugandans in the north during this crisis. Picking the dirt off a rhino’s back, creating financials for the Mukasa’s trucking business, attending a traditional Ugandan wedding, rafting the strongest rapids in the world on the headwaters of the Nile River, and perhaps a visit to Chimpanzee Island will remind me of my inexplicably wonderful journey to Uganda.

Meredith McLeod Sears