FLOUR TAX

The generator—our only electric current—runs every morning. It is used specifically to operate the oven at the bakery. Two years ago, a VOICA volunteer—Luca—contributed the bakery to the community and today, volunteers work Monday to Saturday from 7am-1pm and 3-6pm. The business is overseen by a Canossian Sister.

Here’s the frustration: the generator is expensive to run, but the costs are covered by the bakery. However, the border tax recently increased on goods purchased from Uganda, which is where we happen to buy our flour. Long story short: we can’t afford the tax. So what does this mean?

Without flour, we can’t make dough: Bakery is Closed; Without Bread to bake, we can’t afford to run the generator: No Electricity; Without the generator, we can’t charge our computers, cameras, or phones or run our laundry machine: Decrease in Communication & Increase in Labor; And without the generator, the Cyber Café can’t make many copies or scans and has limited computer time: Decrease in Business: Welcome to Africa

For now, the generator is run for a couple hours in the morning; as everybody rushes to charge electronics, wash clothes, and scan/copy documents. In the evenings, we are forced to drain our solar batteries (though we are thankful to have solar power at all); typically we lose electricity by 7pm and are left to cook, eat, visit, and play cards or Twister by candlelight.

Furthermore, without our Pane de Luca (Luca Bread, as the local people call it) we enjoy a coffee only breakfast, sometimes complimented by our own creative flour-substitute bread or oatmeal packets. The people of Aru resort to the packaged, tasteless and often expired rolls that are sold by the small boutiques alongside the road: if they eat anything at all.

The Sisters are trying to cut a deal with border security & are visiting with the Governor, so we’ll see when we get our flour.