A few weeks ago a local TV station highlighted the plight of Night Ampurire, a market vendor in Kitoro. One of many market vendors, Ampurire’s stood out because of her rickety pickup, which she used to transport her water melons for sale at Kitoro market on Entebbe road.
The pickup she uses for her deliveries has to be a wonder of the world. Badly beaten
up, its tire bald as a babies bottom, the foam all that is left of the car’s
upholstery, it squeaked and groaned with every move.
It is a car where you have to have a prayer on
your lips when you turn the ignition, you never know on any given day whether
it will start or not.
"As if the precariousness of the car’s condition was not bad enough,
Ampurire had to juggle shifting manual transmission gears with
placating her four month old baby, who sometimes rode in her lap and sometimes
she held her down with one hand in the passenger seat, while steering with the other...
In the accompanying interview she told how she saved for the
car, which she bought for sh3.5m, how she repairs it herself and how it is
enables her look after her family. She has four children.
Her story came to light again last week when telecom company
MTN gifted her a new pickup.
Ampurire’s story left
me in awe of the woman, her indomitable spirit and unflappable will to make something
of herself, despite her obvious personal limitations, a backfiring economy and the
public around her, which did not give her half a chance.
When faced with hardship financial or otherwise the easier
thing to do is to lie down and die. It takes a certain will to look around and
use whatever it is you have available, to climb out of your hopelessness
and misery. And it is always impossible until you do it.
My favourite story of a nation that has pulled itself up by
the bootstraps, is that of South Korea.
After the Korean war, which split the peninsula into North and South Korea, the two countries had
been literally razed to the ground.
The market oriented South Korea faced with this predicament, determined that to pull themselves out of the poverty they would have to export
to foreign markets. This made sense because the poverty in their internal
market could not be a driver of economic growth, at least for a few years after
the war.
But South Korea with barely any natural resources to speak of, had nothing to immediately sell to foreign markets. Or so it seemed.
They sold the only thing the 20 million South Koreans had in
abundance and that was a renewable resource – human hair.
Since then South Korea has grown into a high tech hub with
such brands as Samsung, LG Electronics, Kia and Hyundai now driving their
economic growth.
"Ampurire is not the only one hustling out there. For every
Ampurire who captures the national imagination there are easily 10,000 just
like her – the real salt of the earth, working anonymously, keeping their noses to the grinding stone and
trying to make an honest living....
We know that while the economy continues to grow, the
benefits of this growth are not enjoyed equitably. A lot of this has to do with
government corruption and the subsequent failure of service delivery, which
makes it difficult for the lesser of our society to climb the ladder.
But as people like Ampurire show us that with improved access
to market, we need not wait for government to educate and treat us to climb out
of poverty.
But as we saw with Ampurire’s story it is not a walk in the
park. Individuals will have to gird their loins, take the leap of faith to take
advantage of the opportunities within our reach.
Another major lesson from Ampurire’s story is that whether
we try or we don’t, the time will pass. Ampurire decided to save for her car,
dropping any coins she could spare in a savings box until she had accumulated enough
to buy the car.
Whether she saved or did not save, the time would have
passed. And while she has been struggling with a car that was worse for wear,
it is safe to say she would have been worse off had she not had the car. Of course
the only reason she crossed MTN’s radar was because of the car.
Interestingly most of us have discounted all the blood and
sweat she shed and think she is lucky. We should know better.
