From my garden in Masaka to Italy

By Mrs. Muwanga Jesca Harriet in Italy

I come from Mukungwe kiyanja Village in Masaka district. I have been married for 31 years to Mr. Muwanga David. We have 10 children of whom 6 are boys and 4 are girls. My first born is Derrick (31years) and the last born is Dorothy (16 years).

I AM CHOSEN TO GO TO ITALY …
I cant remember the date but it was last year after we left the training in Mayuge AT BROSDI center that i was told to work on my passport that i may travel to italy but the truth is i didn’t believe these women.

I was even too scared to tell anyone but within myself i was totally overjoyed. I traveled to my relatives in Kampala and i told them. They too didn’t believe me and they said that i was just going to waste my money looking for a passport at my old age. I then told my kids and also they didn’t believe. So i went to my brother who works in the passport office and i told him and he agreed and told me that it was important to process it early because of the tedious process. I had money in my bag and gave it to him and told him to start right away. One week later, ednah called me on phone and told me to take to her my passport. Maria also rang me and then i realized that eh!! Things are real. I boarded to kampala and told my brother who then luckily told me it was ready and then i took it to ednah and she started chasing the trip details for me. I still hid this information from the CELAC Masaka Network team for fear that if they didn’t develop i would feel ashamed amongst my fellow farmers.

In my village, it is very very rare for a woman of my age to travel abroad and now how was i going to tell them that i was to travel abroad? Suppose things didn’t go through? There was no way i was going to tell them. So i decided to start praying and fasting … i spent a whole month praying that i manage to travel because from what Maria had told me, this was an another way i could earn money for me and my family and also after teaching my fellow farmers, they also earn some money.

From the day i was told, i stopped sleeping. I even started counting the days when i was due to travel. The days were not moving first enough. There are particular days i remember in my waiting period.

One was when Ednah rang and told me the hosts; Corfilac had sent me the invitation letter. I was so happy … i even thought that Ednah was lying to me. I boarded immediately to Kampala and asked to see the letter for myself. I looked at it but it was in a language i couldn’t understand – it was in Italian. I thought that they were deceiving me and just lying to me. Ednah tried to read it and interpreted it for me but i still didn’t believe it. Maria made it worse by saying after Ednah had finished reading it that Ednah was lying that she cant read Italian!! I felt like dying. So i asked for a copy and took it to my son, Dan aged 27 and he told me he couldn’t read it either. He also read it out to me, but no i could tell that he was also lying to me. So i took it to my other son Derrick (31yrs), and he said he couldn’t interpret. So i went with the same letter to my brother Tom to interpret it to me. Now because Tom travels to Italy often, he read it and told me that Ednah had told me the truth. Fore sure i spent 3 days walking looking for someone to translate the letter.

Another interesting incidence is the day i was told that i had gotten my visa!. I remember clearly the day, it was 4.30pm when Mrs. Mpungu, the chairperson of CELAC Masaka Network sent to me a message through her son that Ednah had rang her telling her that the visa was ready and i had got it. I was in my bed sleeping, just dreaming about my traveling to Italy and wondering whether i was going to travel for real. I alarmed, i screamed, i shouted, i made all kinds of noise. Then i ran to Nakanja Florence, my neighbour to ring Ednah for confirmation. There were ululations in my house that people came running to see thinking that there was a problem or maybe somebody had died. All we told them was the ululations were for the visa.