Well, it's been a whirlwind of week starting with the bombings here in Kampala.
When I woke up Monday morning, I never expected the series of events that would ensue leading up to today. I didn't find out about the bombings until I opened my email at 8 am and had three emails from the US Embassy. At first I didn't even open them because I figured it was just a reminder to update my contact information or some pointless reminder about living in Uganda. I read all my other emails and then read the first email from the embassy which warned all US citizens to return home because of an "incident" at "the rugby club." The next email had more details about the two bombs and that at least 60 people were confirmed dead.
I spent all day Monday watching the news and reading articles on the terrorist attacks. I researched Al Shabab, the terrorist group from Somalia claiming responsibility for the attacks and listened to the news reports as the death toll slowly climbed higher and higher. Some of my co-workers here at the office lost friends in the explosion and everyone was concerned there would be more bombings.
I emailed friends, family, UNC officials and the Agradu coordinators back home to confirm the safety of all the interns here. Luckily, Scarlet and I are the only two who were in Kampala, and our neighborhood is located on the other side of the city from the sites of the two bombings. Our director assured us that we would be safe where we are, but after talking to my parents and different people from UNC, I have decided that the best course of action is for me to return home early.
It was actually pretty difficult to get my flight changed and Emirates made me jump through tons of hoops to finally get them to put me on a flight on Saturday afternoon. I was hesitant to change my flight right away because I wanted to wait and hear from the Embassy about their stand on the situation, but they have released no other statements since the first Warden's message on Monday releasing basic information about the bombings. After the discovery of a fourth bomb on Monday night at a local nightclub and various bomb scares all over town since then, I feel confident in my decision to leave. I actually went into town yesterday, and it was really weird. It seemed deserted, there were at most half the number of people who are usually out and the traffic was even less than that. Even though there were people were walking around, everyone seemed frightened and very wary of everyone else. Today Avery told me that as she was walking through town with her big backpacking-size backpack that people were asking her (seriously) if she had a bomb in her bag.
It's unfortunate that these are the terms on which I will leave Africa, but I don't think it will greatly tarnish all the memories I have made. I will miss Uganda, especially all the people who I have become friends with over the past two months. Rehema and Vaal gave birth to their babies today (Vaal had a boy, Ethan, and Rehema had a baby girl!) I was looking forward to seeing more of the newborns and hanging out with George and Immaculate at the office. It's been a busy 2 months here; full of grant writing, research, and intern projects. We successfully built tippy-taps, enhanced local sanitation clubs in Katosi and helped train women members of KWDT in book-keeping management and team-building. I've learned a lot being here and had some crazy cultural experiences, too many to count. Living in a foreign country where you are the only white person is an adventure everyday. Just going out to buy vegetables for dinner turns into a performance as children rush out of their houses to stare as you walk by. As much matooke and bananas as I've eaten here, it may be awhile before I even think about anything banana, but for some reason I think that I will actually one day miss it (unclear exactly when that may be)
I'm coming home laden with Uganda items and crafts and tons of pictures of all my experiences. I can't wait to see family and friends and have ice cream and strawberries and blueberries. I've had a fabulous time Uganda, for my first trip to Africa, you didn't do too bad.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
anecdotes
1. i really don't understand Canadian humor. it's a strange combination a dry-wit, crude jokes and rudeness. this, combined with the terrifying nature of bujagali falls in the Nile river, does not make for a pleasant experience with a Canadian "tour" guide.
2. i saw someone get shot while I was visiting a town called Fort Portal. the driver of a car of stolen goods refused to stop his car at a police checkpoint, and so the police barracaded the car, and then shot the driver in the leg. just goes to show that those 1995 ak-47's all the police carry around actually have bullets.
3. one time, a blind ugandan man literally sat in my lap on the matatu ride back to Kampala after doing some field work in katosi
4. dust is the equivalent of oxygen, although less desired and more unhealthy
5. bananas can be made into anything and are served at every meal. you can steam them, roast them, boil them, mash them, fry them, bake them, saute them, any-way-you-can-possibly-think-to-cook-something them
6. i've seen a whopping total of 2 stoplights in this entire country
7. mutant bananas are not rare and can often come in "twins". it's kind of freaky.
8. you can, in fact, be in two places at once (see photo for proof)
2. i saw someone get shot while I was visiting a town called Fort Portal. the driver of a car of stolen goods refused to stop his car at a police checkpoint, and so the police barracaded the car, and then shot the driver in the leg. just goes to show that those 1995 ak-47's all the police carry around actually have bullets.
3. one time, a blind ugandan man literally sat in my lap on the matatu ride back to Kampala after doing some field work in katosi
4. dust is the equivalent of oxygen, although less desired and more unhealthy
5. bananas can be made into anything and are served at every meal. you can steam them, roast them, boil them, mash them, fry them, bake them, saute them, any-way-you-can-possibly-think-to-cook-something them
6. i've seen a whopping total of 2 stoplights in this entire country
7. mutant bananas are not rare and can often come in "twins". it's kind of freaky.
8. you can, in fact, be in two places at once (see photo for proof)
Kampala bomb blasts
If you follow international news you may already know this information.
Last night, two bombs went off in Uganda's capital, Kampala. The bombings were at two bars where people were gathered to watch the final match of the 2010 World Cup. At least 64 people are confirmed dead and many others are injured. Police are still investigating the source of the attacks, though the largest suspect is a group called Al Shabab, a terrorist group from Somali that has threatened Uganda in the past.
All of the interns are safe. Scarlet and I were the only two in Kampala at the time and their house is safely located on the other side of Kampala in a suburb at least 20 minutes away from the bombing sites. We are still waiting to hear from UNC and from the US Embassy if it is safe for Americans to remain in Uganda.
I just wanted to let everyone know that we are all safe and no one is any immediate danger.
Last night, two bombs went off in Uganda's capital, Kampala. The bombings were at two bars where people were gathered to watch the final match of the 2010 World Cup. At least 64 people are confirmed dead and many others are injured. Police are still investigating the source of the attacks, though the largest suspect is a group called Al Shabab, a terrorist group from Somali that has threatened Uganda in the past.
All of the interns are safe. Scarlet and I were the only two in Kampala at the time and their house is safely located on the other side of Kampala in a suburb at least 20 minutes away from the bombing sites. We are still waiting to hear from UNC and from the US Embassy if it is safe for Americans to remain in Uganda.
I just wanted to let everyone know that we are all safe and no one is any immediate danger.
Friday, July 9, 2010
to: my friends
excerpt from a NY Times article, "Friendship in an Age of Economics"
Friendships worthy of the name are different. Their rhythm lies not in what they bring to us, but rather in what we immerse ourselves in. To be a friend is to step into the stream of another’s life. It is, while not neglecting my own life, to take pleasure in another’s pleasure, and to share their pain as partly my own. The borders of my life, while not entirely erased, become less clear than they might be. Rather than the rhythm of pleasure followed by emptiness, or that of investment and then profit, friendships follow a rhythm that is at once subtler and more persistent.
...
Friendships, although lived in the present and assumed to continue into the future, also have a deeper tie to the past than either of these. Past time is sedimented in a friendship. It accretes over the hours and days friends spend together, forming the foundation upon which the character of a relationship is built.
...
Of course, to have friendships like this, one must be prepared to take up the past as a ground for friendship. This ground does not come to us, ready-made. We must make it our own. And this, perhaps, is the contemporary lesson we can draw from Aristotle’s view that true friendship requires virtuous partners, that “perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good.” If we are to have friends, then we must be willing to approach some among our relationships as offering an invitation to build something outside the scope of our own desires. We must be willing to forgo pleasure or usefulness for something that emerges not within but between one of us and another.
We might say of friendships that they are a matter not of diversion or of return but of meaning. They render us vulnerable, and in doing so they add dimensions of significance to our lives that can only arise from being, in each case, friends with this or that particular individual...
- todd may
Friendships worthy of the name are different. Their rhythm lies not in what they bring to us, but rather in what we immerse ourselves in. To be a friend is to step into the stream of another’s life. It is, while not neglecting my own life, to take pleasure in another’s pleasure, and to share their pain as partly my own. The borders of my life, while not entirely erased, become less clear than they might be. Rather than the rhythm of pleasure followed by emptiness, or that of investment and then profit, friendships follow a rhythm that is at once subtler and more persistent.
...
Friendships, although lived in the present and assumed to continue into the future, also have a deeper tie to the past than either of these. Past time is sedimented in a friendship. It accretes over the hours and days friends spend together, forming the foundation upon which the character of a relationship is built.
...
Of course, to have friendships like this, one must be prepared to take up the past as a ground for friendship. This ground does not come to us, ready-made. We must make it our own. And this, perhaps, is the contemporary lesson we can draw from Aristotle’s view that true friendship requires virtuous partners, that “perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good.” If we are to have friends, then we must be willing to approach some among our relationships as offering an invitation to build something outside the scope of our own desires. We must be willing to forgo pleasure or usefulness for something that emerges not within but between one of us and another.
We might say of friendships that they are a matter not of diversion or of return but of meaning. They render us vulnerable, and in doing so they add dimensions of significance to our lives that can only arise from being, in each case, friends with this or that particular individual...
- todd may
july snapshots
some pictures to help you visual what i've been working on during july!
trio primary school students. these kids were a handful and a half (they wanted me to ake videos of them all "kung-fu fighting"), but their postcards were beautiful!
postcards for progress project with Katosi C/U sanitation club. we are helping to set up pen-pals with students from schools around Katosi:
bio-sand filters for clean drinking water, constructed by women masons at KWDT's masonry in Katosi. three of the women's groups are receiving these as awards for their excellent records keeping:
1/5 successful tippy taps built at St. John Bosco Primary School in Katosi. all in a days work with the sanitation club!
at the women's leadership/book-keeping conference. the workshop i held was on team and trust building. the game we played was called "mine field":
trio primary school students. these kids were a handful and a half (they wanted me to ake videos of them all "kung-fu fighting"), but their postcards were beautiful!
postcards for progress project with Katosi C/U sanitation club. we are helping to set up pen-pals with students from schools around Katosi:
bio-sand filters for clean drinking water, constructed by women masons at KWDT's masonry in Katosi. three of the women's groups are receiving these as awards for their excellent records keeping:
1/5 successful tippy taps built at St. John Bosco Primary School in Katosi. all in a days work with the sanitation club!
at the women's leadership/book-keeping conference. the workshop i held was on team and trust building. the game we played was called "mine field":
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
blender chicken
Blender chicken. No, that is not some weird type of Ugandan smoothie. It is actually in fact a breed of chicken that looks, believe it or not, like it went through a blender. Blender chickens usually have no feathers on their heads or necks, and then the rest of their body is sporadically covered in a spotty coat of decrepit, dirty feathers. Easily the strangest domestic animal.
Wednesday night: Scarlet and I are back in Kampala. We left Kampala early Monday morning to go to Katosi for field work for the past three days. This weeks work consisted on initiating pen-pal programs in two primary schools in Katosi. The program is called "Postcards for Peace" and is an initiative to use art and music to promote relationships between children in different countries. The 55 students that we interviewed and collected postcards from will be paired with students from Rwanda where another UNC student is working on the same project. The first day we went to Katosi C/U Primary School where we met with Christopher, the head teacher, who helped us immensely with coordinating the students and their music. We recorded the whole class singing a few songs such as their school anthem and their sanitation club song. Then Scarlet recorded each individual student singing their favorite song while I worked with the class on creating postcards with a picture on one side depicting something that represented them or their family and a letter on the other side introducing themselves.
It was really fun to work with all the kids and they drew some great pictures and wrote even better letters. Things got a little chaotic when I brought out the stickers and then even more so once I brought out the camera, but it was still enjoyable despite feeling minorly claustrophobic as the kids crowded around me to see their picture on my camera.
After working all afternoon, Colleen showed Scarlet and I this awesome path up to the top of the cell-phone tower hill overlooking Katosi. We sat on some big boulders at the very top of the hill and just enjoyed the view for a while. After we returned to the KWDT compound on the main strip of Katosi (downtown Katosi is the equivalent of approximately 100 little shacks selling random things; either produce, kitchen goods, CD's, food or some other random necessity. Our Ugandan friend Dorothy came over and we had dinner and watched the movie "17 Again" with her (Katosi finally got power back this past Saturday!)
Tuesday morning we went to Trio Primary School to set up the pen-pal program there also. I spent the morning assisting kids with decorating and completing their postcards while Scarlet recorded their personal songs. After the kids realized that I could record videos on my camera they all wanted me to take videos of them doing Kung-Fu fighting? At first it was funny and then I felt somewhat uncomfortable condoning violence so I ended that by telling them that my battery was dying (sorry kids!), but I did get a lot of good pictures of the kids working on their postcards.
In the afternoon we went to St. John Bosco to help Colleen and Avery work on some keyhole gardens with the sanitation club their. We were hoping to build 4 gardens on Tuesday, but one took a long time and a lot of effort, so it looks like it's going to be a longer process than expected. Although, this is good because it gives the sanitation club an ongoing project they can work on! Colleen bought seeds for them to plant, but the P-5 teacher, Martin, said it would be better to wait until August to plant after the rainy season has started because the soil is too dry now.
When we got home from St. John Bosco, Mama Gertrude showed us how to deep fry some small plantains and cut up some avocado for us to enjoy. Typical Ugandan snack!
Today's Matatu ride was one of the more uncomfortable 4 hours of my life due in part to the immense heat, the persistent dust cloud that stained my face and my blue t-shirt and red hue of clay, and the taxi seats that could potentially be classified as torture devices. We also had to wait for at least an hour for the taxi to even leave Katosi before we set out on our journey; however, we did finally arrive back in lungujja around one, only to find a completely empty office. Some kind of meeting happened today that everyone went to, so we set about hand washing our clay-stained clothes for the next hour and half.
It's been a wonderful week so far. I can't believe I'm only here for 2.5 more weeks. I'm currently reading the book "Three Cups of Tea" about a guy named Greg Mortenson who builds schools for girls in Pakistan. It's an incredibly inspiring story and a very well-written book, so if you're looking for some good summer reading, I highly recommend it!
Pictures to come. Promise.
ps - found out margaret's husband is a member of Uganda's parliament?! yeah. this past sunday, margaret invited us to join her and her family for a small celebration in a local village about one hour south of Kampala. It turned out to be a campaign rally for the elections next year and we got to experience some Ugandan politics! On the way home we stopped at the equator (took some pictures, obviously) and then got stuck in traffic trying to get back into Kampala for 3 hours. At one point, Margaret and I got out and walked for about half a mile just to stretch our legs. On the upside, we got back too late to make our own dinner so we got invited over to Margaret's for dinner and gossip girl. Best internship ever.
Wednesday night: Scarlet and I are back in Kampala. We left Kampala early Monday morning to go to Katosi for field work for the past three days. This weeks work consisted on initiating pen-pal programs in two primary schools in Katosi. The program is called "Postcards for Peace" and is an initiative to use art and music to promote relationships between children in different countries. The 55 students that we interviewed and collected postcards from will be paired with students from Rwanda where another UNC student is working on the same project. The first day we went to Katosi C/U Primary School where we met with Christopher, the head teacher, who helped us immensely with coordinating the students and their music. We recorded the whole class singing a few songs such as their school anthem and their sanitation club song. Then Scarlet recorded each individual student singing their favorite song while I worked with the class on creating postcards with a picture on one side depicting something that represented them or their family and a letter on the other side introducing themselves.
It was really fun to work with all the kids and they drew some great pictures and wrote even better letters. Things got a little chaotic when I brought out the stickers and then even more so once I brought out the camera, but it was still enjoyable despite feeling minorly claustrophobic as the kids crowded around me to see their picture on my camera.
After working all afternoon, Colleen showed Scarlet and I this awesome path up to the top of the cell-phone tower hill overlooking Katosi. We sat on some big boulders at the very top of the hill and just enjoyed the view for a while. After we returned to the KWDT compound on the main strip of Katosi (downtown Katosi is the equivalent of approximately 100 little shacks selling random things; either produce, kitchen goods, CD's, food or some other random necessity. Our Ugandan friend Dorothy came over and we had dinner and watched the movie "17 Again" with her (Katosi finally got power back this past Saturday!)
Tuesday morning we went to Trio Primary School to set up the pen-pal program there also. I spent the morning assisting kids with decorating and completing their postcards while Scarlet recorded their personal songs. After the kids realized that I could record videos on my camera they all wanted me to take videos of them doing Kung-Fu fighting? At first it was funny and then I felt somewhat uncomfortable condoning violence so I ended that by telling them that my battery was dying (sorry kids!), but I did get a lot of good pictures of the kids working on their postcards.
In the afternoon we went to St. John Bosco to help Colleen and Avery work on some keyhole gardens with the sanitation club their. We were hoping to build 4 gardens on Tuesday, but one took a long time and a lot of effort, so it looks like it's going to be a longer process than expected. Although, this is good because it gives the sanitation club an ongoing project they can work on! Colleen bought seeds for them to plant, but the P-5 teacher, Martin, said it would be better to wait until August to plant after the rainy season has started because the soil is too dry now.
When we got home from St. John Bosco, Mama Gertrude showed us how to deep fry some small plantains and cut up some avocado for us to enjoy. Typical Ugandan snack!
Today's Matatu ride was one of the more uncomfortable 4 hours of my life due in part to the immense heat, the persistent dust cloud that stained my face and my blue t-shirt and red hue of clay, and the taxi seats that could potentially be classified as torture devices. We also had to wait for at least an hour for the taxi to even leave Katosi before we set out on our journey; however, we did finally arrive back in lungujja around one, only to find a completely empty office. Some kind of meeting happened today that everyone went to, so we set about hand washing our clay-stained clothes for the next hour and half.
It's been a wonderful week so far. I can't believe I'm only here for 2.5 more weeks. I'm currently reading the book "Three Cups of Tea" about a guy named Greg Mortenson who builds schools for girls in Pakistan. It's an incredibly inspiring story and a very well-written book, so if you're looking for some good summer reading, I highly recommend it!
Pictures to come. Promise.
ps - found out margaret's husband is a member of Uganda's parliament?! yeah. this past sunday, margaret invited us to join her and her family for a small celebration in a local village about one hour south of Kampala. It turned out to be a campaign rally for the elections next year and we got to experience some Ugandan politics! On the way home we stopped at the equator (took some pictures, obviously) and then got stuck in traffic trying to get back into Kampala for 3 hours. At one point, Margaret and I got out and walked for about half a mile just to stretch our legs. On the upside, we got back too late to make our own dinner so we got invited over to Margaret's for dinner and gossip girl. Best internship ever.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
tippy tap building in katosi
time has begun to fly by!
on Tuesday, scarlet and I caught a matatu (taxi-van) to Katosi fishing village in the mukono district where avery and colleen live. we arrived in the late afternoon in time to sit in on the end of a fish farming meeting happening at the katosi field office. a specialist from France was visiting and to give a small workshop on plankton growth in fish farms (who knew?)
because the French people were visiting, Mama Gertrude (house-mom of the Katosi field office) cooked a huge Ugandan feast that was delicious! we ate with everyone and then hung out with avery and colleen for a little while and helped to prep all our supplies for the next day's activities at St. John Bosco primary school. we made name-tags for all the kids in the sanitation club and planned how to teach the members of the club about tippy tap construction. we went to bed fairly early due to the lack of power (planning and making nametags by flashlight alone was fairly tricky)
on Wednesday morning, we woke up at 7, had some breakfast and then made the 40 minute walk to St. John Bosco in order to arrive at 8. colleen and avery volunteer to teach in the P-4 class, so we went there and sat in on their math class. it was interesting to see how the class was taught and to see the what they were learning about math. during their second lesson, we went to inspect where the tippy taps (hand-washing stations) would be built and to talk to the groundskeeper about planning some gardens that we may get to plant this week.
after break at 10:30 (where we served bread and porridge, which is like sweet, watered down grits served hot) we gathered the students from P-3 and P-4, all of them are the hygiene and sanitation club, to instruct them on how to build tippy taps. we split them into 4 groups and distributed name-tags and rosters. it was a little disorganized at first, but after we finally got pictures of all the groups, we arranged them in a semi-circle around us as we built the first tippy tap near the school latrines as an example.
a tippy tap is a very simple hand-washing apparatus. it consists of two large sticks firmly planted in the ground with forked ends at the top. another thinner stick is then laid across these two and a jerry can is hung from the middle. by drilling a hole in the cap, a string can be thread from the can down to a stick that is used as a pedal to tip the jerry can over. water then spills out from two holes in the side and you are able to easily wash your hands.
each of the four groups built a tippy tap successfully and now the school has five!
it was really cool to see the kids completely take charge of the construction. each of the interns oversaw one of the tippy taps as they were built, but we really didn't do much. my group even went a step further than the instructions we gave them and they built a drain under the jerry can to collect the water from gathering in a puddle. I was seriously impressed.
Wednesday afternoon, heidi, the peacecorps volunteer at katosi, took us to a few of the local schools so that we could set up a project we are going to do this week. it's called "postcards for progress" and is part of a peace initiative set-up between uganda and rwanda. it's an art-based pen-pal program that pairs students from uganda with students in rwanda in the hopes of bringing the two cultures together and bridging gaps between the two countries. we bought all the supplies today (markers, pens, paper, etc) and are going out to Katosi tomorrow afternoon to stay for a few days. we are working with at least 2, maybe 3, schools on Monday and Tuesday and then hopefully going back to St. John Bosco on Wednesday to build gardens.
tomorrow is the 4th of july, which doesn't really mean much in uganda, obviously. but margaret (my boss) invited me (and colleen and scarlet) to go with her and her family to some luncheon in a town near the equator. I just found out that her husband is a member of parliament and we have to dress up for the meeting, so apparently he is pretty legit. I don't know exactly what the purpose of the meeting is, but it should be interesting to say the least.
that's all for now!
here's a picture of the tippy tap my group built:
on Tuesday, scarlet and I caught a matatu (taxi-van) to Katosi fishing village in the mukono district where avery and colleen live. we arrived in the late afternoon in time to sit in on the end of a fish farming meeting happening at the katosi field office. a specialist from France was visiting and to give a small workshop on plankton growth in fish farms (who knew?)
because the French people were visiting, Mama Gertrude (house-mom of the Katosi field office) cooked a huge Ugandan feast that was delicious! we ate with everyone and then hung out with avery and colleen for a little while and helped to prep all our supplies for the next day's activities at St. John Bosco primary school. we made name-tags for all the kids in the sanitation club and planned how to teach the members of the club about tippy tap construction. we went to bed fairly early due to the lack of power (planning and making nametags by flashlight alone was fairly tricky)
on Wednesday morning, we woke up at 7, had some breakfast and then made the 40 minute walk to St. John Bosco in order to arrive at 8. colleen and avery volunteer to teach in the P-4 class, so we went there and sat in on their math class. it was interesting to see how the class was taught and to see the what they were learning about math. during their second lesson, we went to inspect where the tippy taps (hand-washing stations) would be built and to talk to the groundskeeper about planning some gardens that we may get to plant this week.
after break at 10:30 (where we served bread and porridge, which is like sweet, watered down grits served hot) we gathered the students from P-3 and P-4, all of them are the hygiene and sanitation club, to instruct them on how to build tippy taps. we split them into 4 groups and distributed name-tags and rosters. it was a little disorganized at first, but after we finally got pictures of all the groups, we arranged them in a semi-circle around us as we built the first tippy tap near the school latrines as an example.
a tippy tap is a very simple hand-washing apparatus. it consists of two large sticks firmly planted in the ground with forked ends at the top. another thinner stick is then laid across these two and a jerry can is hung from the middle. by drilling a hole in the cap, a string can be thread from the can down to a stick that is used as a pedal to tip the jerry can over. water then spills out from two holes in the side and you are able to easily wash your hands.
each of the four groups built a tippy tap successfully and now the school has five!
it was really cool to see the kids completely take charge of the construction. each of the interns oversaw one of the tippy taps as they were built, but we really didn't do much. my group even went a step further than the instructions we gave them and they built a drain under the jerry can to collect the water from gathering in a puddle. I was seriously impressed.
Wednesday afternoon, heidi, the peacecorps volunteer at katosi, took us to a few of the local schools so that we could set up a project we are going to do this week. it's called "postcards for progress" and is part of a peace initiative set-up between uganda and rwanda. it's an art-based pen-pal program that pairs students from uganda with students in rwanda in the hopes of bringing the two cultures together and bridging gaps between the two countries. we bought all the supplies today (markers, pens, paper, etc) and are going out to Katosi tomorrow afternoon to stay for a few days. we are working with at least 2, maybe 3, schools on Monday and Tuesday and then hopefully going back to St. John Bosco on Wednesday to build gardens.
tomorrow is the 4th of july, which doesn't really mean much in uganda, obviously. but margaret (my boss) invited me (and colleen and scarlet) to go with her and her family to some luncheon in a town near the equator. I just found out that her husband is a member of parliament and we have to dress up for the meeting, so apparently he is pretty legit. I don't know exactly what the purpose of the meeting is, but it should be interesting to say the least.
that's all for now!
here's a picture of the tippy tap my group built:
adventure is worthwhile in itself
a large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything.
-laurence sterne
security is mostly a superstition. it does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
-helen keller
-laurence sterne
security is mostly a superstition. it does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
-helen keller
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
mission: intern project. completed.
It is Monday evening, 6:31 pm. And my intern project is complete! (well, almost)
Today we had a successful training for some of the leaders of the women's groups, 12 out of 13 came, 2 representatives from each. Our agenda was somewhat delayed due to a storm that hit this morning, right as we were about to get under way. All twenty four participants were shuffled inside into the garage and other random rooms. We all took "tea time", which consisted of tea and butter sandwiches (literally, bread and butter. I made them)
After the rain subsided, all the chair were moved outside again under a tent, which was there in case of more rain, but more to protect the women from the hot sun that eventually moved in. Rehema then talked to them about the program for the day and gave a talk on good records keeping. Vaal then spent most of the morning going over detailed examples of how to keep records on milk production, cows, loan payback, meeting minutes and project reports. When the workshop was over, everyone was divided into four groups and then their reports were analyzed in detail. This analysis was used to rank the book keeping ability of each of the groups and their records management. Using this information, the top three women's' groups were awarded bio-sand filters as an incentive for the other groups to improve their book keeping.
Rehema translated for me when I talked to them about the bio-sand filters and the importance of keeping good records in order to properly document current and future projects. Afterwards, I carried out a trust building activity with the women called "Mine Field." I set up some obstacles on the floor of the garage to create an obstacle course. The women were then partnered with the other participant from their respective group and one of them was blindfolded. Their partner then had to direct the blindfolded person across the "mine-field" without knocking over any of the obstacles. It sounds simple, but culture gaps make explanation difficult and I wasn't sure how grown Ugandan women would respond to such a seemingly trivial game.
The activity was a magnificent success! While the women were hesitant at first, after seeing the first group of 3 pairs go across, they all were eager to participate. Everyone was laughing and enjoying the activity. After everyone had gotten a chance to be blindfolded we had a short de-brief where we discussed the lessons learned and how to apply the game to daily group interaction. The women took a lot away from the activity and many of them said they learned patience, listening skills and how to trust their partners. I was very impressed at their level of interaction and with the comments they had about the lessons they learned.
I used my intern funds to pay for the bio-sand filters and the transport of each filter to the respective women's groups as well as for 13 bags and folders to help the women keep their records organized. Everyone is exhausted from the long day and now we are planning to go to Katosi tomorrow afternoon to stay the night so that we can help Avery with her project on Wednesday building tippy taps!
Today we had a successful training for some of the leaders of the women's groups, 12 out of 13 came, 2 representatives from each. Our agenda was somewhat delayed due to a storm that hit this morning, right as we were about to get under way. All twenty four participants were shuffled inside into the garage and other random rooms. We all took "tea time", which consisted of tea and butter sandwiches (literally, bread and butter. I made them)
After the rain subsided, all the chair were moved outside again under a tent, which was there in case of more rain, but more to protect the women from the hot sun that eventually moved in. Rehema then talked to them about the program for the day and gave a talk on good records keeping. Vaal then spent most of the morning going over detailed examples of how to keep records on milk production, cows, loan payback, meeting minutes and project reports. When the workshop was over, everyone was divided into four groups and then their reports were analyzed in detail. This analysis was used to rank the book keeping ability of each of the groups and their records management. Using this information, the top three women's' groups were awarded bio-sand filters as an incentive for the other groups to improve their book keeping.
Rehema translated for me when I talked to them about the bio-sand filters and the importance of keeping good records in order to properly document current and future projects. Afterwards, I carried out a trust building activity with the women called "Mine Field." I set up some obstacles on the floor of the garage to create an obstacle course. The women were then partnered with the other participant from their respective group and one of them was blindfolded. Their partner then had to direct the blindfolded person across the "mine-field" without knocking over any of the obstacles. It sounds simple, but culture gaps make explanation difficult and I wasn't sure how grown Ugandan women would respond to such a seemingly trivial game.
The activity was a magnificent success! While the women were hesitant at first, after seeing the first group of 3 pairs go across, they all were eager to participate. Everyone was laughing and enjoying the activity. After everyone had gotten a chance to be blindfolded we had a short de-brief where we discussed the lessons learned and how to apply the game to daily group interaction. The women took a lot away from the activity and many of them said they learned patience, listening skills and how to trust their partners. I was very impressed at their level of interaction and with the comments they had about the lessons they learned.
I used my intern funds to pay for the bio-sand filters and the transport of each filter to the respective women's groups as well as for 13 bags and folders to help the women keep their records organized. Everyone is exhausted from the long day and now we are planning to go to Katosi tomorrow afternoon to stay the night so that we can help Avery with her project on Wednesday building tippy taps!
Monday, June 28, 2010
"waka-waka, this time for africa"
This past weekend I went on a SAFARI with 6 of the other interns. At first I was hesitant about going because I thought it would be a waste of time and money since I've already seen all the animals I would see on the game drive in a zoo or at Disney's Animal Kingdom (clearly not the same thing, but that was my rationale.) However, I am SO glad that I went. It was an incredible experience and I loved every second of it.
On Thursday evening, we went over to Red Chilli hostel in Kampala to spend the night because we departed from Red Chilli at 8 am Friday morning. After a breakfast of muffins, tea and toast (so well-balanced), we loaded into our special safari van to make the 6 hour drive to Murchison Falls national park north of Kampala near the town of Masindi and Lake Albert. The drive was long, but our van was comfortable and we stopped in Masindi for lunch and to buy various food items for the weekend.
As soon as we entered the Murchison Falls park, we started seeing wildlife, mainly baboons. At first we were all trying to take pictures of the groups of baboons we passed, and then we realized that they were EVERYWHERE. Baboons are also picture-shy, so it was hard to get anything other than their butts running into the forest. Our driver, Hasan, was very patient with us though and kept stopping so we could try and snap a shot.
We drove about through the park for about 2 hours up to Murchison Falls where we got out and hiked to the top of the waterfall. Along the way, we waged war against the Tsetse flies who are incredibly annoying and persistent as ever, not to mention their bites feel like bee stings and they are impossible to kill. We were all hot, miserable and annoyed by the time we reached the falls, but the site of the powerful rapids rushing through a narrow canyon and the sound of the roaring falls were enough to brighten our moods. A park ranger lead us up and down trails around the top of the falls. We got to stand right at the edge of the Nile before it plunges down a cliff creating the falls. I've never been so close to something so powerful. My favorite part was standing in the mist of the falls on the edge of a cliff that juts out into the middle of the falls.
After we had our fill of taking in Murchison falls, Hasan drove us to the Red Chilli Rest camp, near the banks of the Nile. We ordered some dinner and settled into our 2 person bandas. We had a peaceful night and went to sleep early due partly to exhaustion and partly to our 5:30 am wake-up the following morning. I was so tired I immediately passed out and didn't wake up until the following morning. Apparently there was a huge storm that came through in the middle of the night and also hippos that came into camp looking for food, but I didn't hear any of it.
Before our game drive (which left camp at 6:30 am) on Saturday, we hurriedly ate some breakfast and chugged some coffee. We got to watch the sunrise and it was purely epic. We were waiting for our ferry to cross the Nile as we watched the sun come up over river. In addition to our driver Hasan, we picked up Dennis, the park ranger, on the North side of the Nile and he accompanied us as our guide during our game drive. We spent the next four hours standing on our seat with our heads poking out of the top of our safari van. Even if there hadn't been any animals, the park itself is beautiful and the landscape changes as you get go through grasslands, dense vegetation, fields dotted with palm trees, savannahs covered with "Lion King" trees and down into the marshland right near the Nile. Besides the beauty of the park itself, we saw hundreds of giraffes (my new favorite animal), giant elephants, at least four types of antelopes (I can't remember all of their names), soooo many cape buffalo, jackson's heartbeast, warthogs, and even a leopard (a serious rarity). We didn't encounter any lions, but I was not in the least bit disappointed. Dennis was full of information and kept teasing all of us about the various animals we got excited about. Although, he was pretty excited about the giraffes himself. We got really close to a bunch of giraffes and Dennis kept talking about how beautiful they were.
After our morning game drive, we took lunch back at rest camp at 11 and hung out til 2 when we went on a 4 hour boat tour of the Nile from the launch point to the base of Murchison Falls. We saw more elephants bathing at the river's edge and hundreds of hippos floating around. Some fellow boat cruisers were very passionate about birds and so we kept stopping everytime they spotted a small bird up in the high branches of some tree. Half the time, I didn't see anything at all. The coolest part about the boat cruise was getting to see one hippo jump out of the water and dive back down, almost like a blue whale. I didn't even know they could do that.
We spent Saturday night back at rest camp hanging out and talking with the other interns. We talked about the month we have already spent here and the month we have left; what we have done and what we still have left to do. I'm really enjoying getting to know the other interns and spending weekends with them will definitely be a large portion of my memories of Africa.
Today is Monday and we are hosting a "Book Keeping and Records Management" workshop here at the Kampala KWDT office. 24 women from 12 of the women's groups are here for training on how to do efficient book keeping and we are checking up on all of their records for milk production, member registration, loan payback, meeting minutes and report writing. After lunch, some of the participants will share their experiences and we will examine some case studies and group reports. The final activity is a trust building game that I am putting on.
The leadership meeting last week went well, but we moved my presentation of the bio-sand filters to today so that we could judge the groups book keeping from today's meeting. After the activity, I will announce the best 3 women groups that will be awarded with bio-sand filters. The filters themselves are not here for me to hand over because they are built out in the field, but I will be announcing the recipients here and hopefully get to go out to Katosi later in July to distribute them.
Here's today's schedule!
Registration
Break tea
Welcoming remarks &
Recap: Introduction to good records keeping
Group discussion / Review of records
- Members data book
- Registration book in meetings
- Milk records
- Cow records
- Minutes book
Report writing
Lunch break
Sharing of experiences: 3 case studies
Comments on group reports
Trust Building activity and awarding best groups
Closure
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
from [Into Thin Air]
"evenings were peaceful...there was loneliness, too, as the sun set, but only rarely now did doubts return. then I felt, sinkingly, as if my whole life lay behind me...I knew (or trusted) that this would give way to total absorption with the task at hand. but at times I wondered if I had not come a long way only to find that what I really sought was something I had left behind..."
- thomas f. hornbein
everest: the west ridge
- thomas f. hornbein
everest: the west ridge
Monday, June 21, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
cycling, caving and hiking.
Well, we just got back from a weekend in Fort Portal, a small town at the base of the Rwenzori Mountains. The town is in the western part of Uganda and is incredibly beautiful. We stayed at a small villa up in the hills, about a 15 minute walk from the main strip of town. I travelled with the other katosi interns and 3 other UNC students who are volunteering at a health clinic in a town Kyetume. We had "The Big 5 Guest House" all to ourselves, and had a lovely woman who offered to cook us all our meals. I didn't order breakfast saturday, but some of the other girls did, and it looked delicious! (veggie omelet, chapatis, fruit, and coffee). We did get to watch the USA v. Slovenia soccer match at a local bar. If you didn't see it, it was a really exciting game (USA almost won, but the ref recalled one of our goals saying we were off-sides. Ended in a tie)
On Saturday we rented bicycles* from Kabarole tours and biked out 15 km out into the countryside up and down hills to the Amabere caves and waterfalls. Biking seriously made me so so so happy. It reminded me so much of Summer's Best Two Weeks Camp (where I spent the last two summers leading mountain biking trips) and it was great to get to experience the same thing in Uganda. Recently, I have been missing being a camp counselor , and so it was good to get to take the role of "bike trip leader" this weekend!
*note: if you are thinking that we rented some really nice mountain bikes to ride on this long journey along mostly NOT paved roads…think again. These bikes were most definitely from the 1980's and have seen more wear and tear than any bike should ever experience. I'm also pretty sure that they just contacted locals around Kabarole tours and asked them if we could rent their bikes for the day. We had our fair share of bike break-downs and serious struggling to make it to the caves.
Once we reached our destination, we hired a guide to take us down to the caves to see the stalactites and stalagmites and an AWESOME waterfall. The cave opens up to the back of the waterfall and we got to climb down and stand behind it. We climbed around in the mud and walked through the jungle. I loved every second of it. It was so peaceful and secluded from everything else and we had a fun time taking pictures and laughing with our guide. One of the highlights of my time here.
The best part, however, was the hike afterwards up to the crater lakes. We walked up some giant hills through grassy fields, and palm tree forests up to a giant lake. We sat on the edge of a cliff and watched birds fly across the lake and marveled at the beauty of the towering mountains behind us. Then our guide pointed across the lake the tallest hill between Fort Portal and the mountains themselves. "We climb to the top now."
Best. Thing. Ever.
We hiked up a steep incline to the top of this semi-mountain and looked out over the entire valley. From there we could see three crater lakes, the giant Rwenzoris, the town of Fort Portal, and miles around us in all directions. We stayed up at the top for a long time taking in the view and catching some intense African rays before we descended the other side of the hill past some small homes and around the other side of the first lake.
After biking back to Fort Portal, we went to a local "Italian Pizzeria" to get some pizza and watch some more World cup games. We had a relaxing night back at the guest house after we got some local Ugandan food (rice, matooke and g-nut sauce, what did you expect???) for dinner.
This week, it's back to more grant research and also my intern project! On Tuesday, KWDT is holding a follow-up leadership meeting for all the leaders among the women's groups. I plan on giving a presentation on essential leadership skills and conducting an activity to re-enforce cooperation among leaders instead of competition. I am also donating three bio-sand filters using my internship funds and presenting them to the best three leaders in the community. The criteria for selection is based on nominations from other leaders, book-keeping skills and commitment to projects. I'll post an update later in the week with how the conference goes!
In July, I hope to go out to the Katosi field site for a few days to help build a bio-sand filter with some of the women construction masons and visit a hygiene and sanitation club at one of the schools in Katosi.
I'm incredibly exhausted right now. After two 5-6 hour bus rides (to fort portal and back), two nights of little sleep (the pillows in Uganda are less than optimal), a full day of biking, and a full load of laundry (washed by hand)…I think that a 9 pm bed-time may be in order.
On Saturday we rented bicycles* from Kabarole tours and biked out 15 km out into the countryside up and down hills to the Amabere caves and waterfalls. Biking seriously made me so so so happy. It reminded me so much of Summer's Best Two Weeks Camp (where I spent the last two summers leading mountain biking trips) and it was great to get to experience the same thing in Uganda. Recently, I have been missing being a camp counselor , and so it was good to get to take the role of "bike trip leader" this weekend!
*note: if you are thinking that we rented some really nice mountain bikes to ride on this long journey along mostly NOT paved roads…think again. These bikes were most definitely from the 1980's and have seen more wear and tear than any bike should ever experience. I'm also pretty sure that they just contacted locals around Kabarole tours and asked them if we could rent their bikes for the day. We had our fair share of bike break-downs and serious struggling to make it to the caves.
Once we reached our destination, we hired a guide to take us down to the caves to see the stalactites and stalagmites and an AWESOME waterfall. The cave opens up to the back of the waterfall and we got to climb down and stand behind it. We climbed around in the mud and walked through the jungle. I loved every second of it. It was so peaceful and secluded from everything else and we had a fun time taking pictures and laughing with our guide. One of the highlights of my time here.
The best part, however, was the hike afterwards up to the crater lakes. We walked up some giant hills through grassy fields, and palm tree forests up to a giant lake. We sat on the edge of a cliff and watched birds fly across the lake and marveled at the beauty of the towering mountains behind us. Then our guide pointed across the lake the tallest hill between Fort Portal and the mountains themselves. "We climb to the top now."
Best. Thing. Ever.
We hiked up a steep incline to the top of this semi-mountain and looked out over the entire valley. From there we could see three crater lakes, the giant Rwenzoris, the town of Fort Portal, and miles around us in all directions. We stayed up at the top for a long time taking in the view and catching some intense African rays before we descended the other side of the hill past some small homes and around the other side of the first lake.
After biking back to Fort Portal, we went to a local "Italian Pizzeria" to get some pizza and watch some more World cup games. We had a relaxing night back at the guest house after we got some local Ugandan food (rice, matooke and g-nut sauce, what did you expect???) for dinner.
This week, it's back to more grant research and also my intern project! On Tuesday, KWDT is holding a follow-up leadership meeting for all the leaders among the women's groups. I plan on giving a presentation on essential leadership skills and conducting an activity to re-enforce cooperation among leaders instead of competition. I am also donating three bio-sand filters using my internship funds and presenting them to the best three leaders in the community. The criteria for selection is based on nominations from other leaders, book-keeping skills and commitment to projects. I'll post an update later in the week with how the conference goes!
In July, I hope to go out to the Katosi field site for a few days to help build a bio-sand filter with some of the women construction masons and visit a hygiene and sanitation club at one of the schools in Katosi.
I'm incredibly exhausted right now. After two 5-6 hour bus rides (to fort portal and back), two nights of little sleep (the pillows in Uganda are less than optimal), a full day of biking, and a full load of laundry (washed by hand)…I think that a 9 pm bed-time may be in order.
nightly walk: in pictures
from the bottom of the giant hill we walk up everyday.
the view of kampala from our sunset walk to mengo
sunset across lungujja
Monday, June 14, 2010
bazungu in gomessi
here are some pictures from the ceremony:
welcoming the grooms family
officially greeting the grooms family as the daughters of the family
the bride "introducing" her fiance to her father
the proposal and presenting of rings
welcoming the grooms family
officially greeting the grooms family as the daughters of the family
the bride "introducing" her fiance to her father
the proposal and presenting of rings
a traditional ugandan experience
This weekend, I got to experience a traditional Ugandan "introduction" ceremony. The basis of this ceremony is that the bride is introducing her fiancé to her family and asking formal permission from her father to approve him as her husband, but it is so so so much more than that.
While this is a traditional ceremony that is supposed to happen before all marriages, not many couples in Uganda still participate, so when one actually occurs, it's a huge deal. There are no American celebrations that I can really compare this too, because it is essentially the proposal, engagement party, and wedding reception all rolled into one (although, Ugandans also throw a big wedding reception after the wedding ceremony).
The celebration is a weekend-long affair, with members of the bride's and groom's family travelling across the country for this special day. Preparations begin days in advance with tents set up, chairs brought in, hundreds of pounds of matooke and rice and beef and chicken prepared for hundreds of people, traditional dresses bought and ironed and women getting all "done-up" in the salon. We arrived in Mubende on Friday evening and went straight to the home of the bride's family, where the celebration was to be held. The bride happens to be the niece of Margaret, my boss for the summer, and she invited Scarlet, Colleen and me along with her to take part in the ceremony. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by our guests and met the bride's father, some more aunts, brothers, sisters, cousins, and many others who I can't remember. We were then officially accepted as part of the bridal party and told we would be participating in the next day's events. At this point, I was not aware that our status at the party was to be the ultimate in VIP (I think we may have stolen the spotlight from the groom's family). Before we left, we took some pictures of the preparations and of the cow that was about to be slaughtered for the next day's ceremony.
We stayed at a hotel on the side of a hill overlooking Mubende and had a beautiful view of the valley on Saturday morning as we ate our breakfast on the porch. Our escort, George, drove us to the top of the hill after breakfast to see the Nakuyima shrine, an ancient spiritual tree that people journey to for prayer and celebration.
After, we went back to iron our gomessi (the traditional Ugandan dress that most women wear here daily) and to prepare for the ceremony. We had some trouble getting the dresses on correctly, but when we arrived at the bride's house around noon, every woman there wanted to help us fix them. In all their eagerness to help, my dress was untied and re-tied at least 10 times. This may have done more harm than good, but everyone was so excited to see three "mzungu" in gomessi that I don't think they could help themselves. Everyone kept saying "you look so smart, you look so smart!"
The ceremony lasted for about 8 hours.
All of the bride's family arrived first and sat under one of the large tents. The important fathers (taatas) of the family sat under a smaller tent in the middle and across from the bride's tent was another tent set up for the groom's family. The ceremony officially begins when the groom's family arrives. They all line up outside of the tents on the other side a decorated arch with a ribbon stretched across. Before they enter, they are formally greeted by the bride's family. As the VIP, we were asked to go and greet the guests. We walked up the red carpet to the archway and I was handed a microphone. Luckily, I practiced the traditional greeting repeatively the night before;
"Tusanyuse okubalaba bassebbo. Tusanyuse okubalaba banyabo. Eladde bassebo. Eladde banyabo. "
Rough translation: "We welcome you gentlmen. We welcome you ladies. How are you gentlemen? How are you ladies?"
The groom's family was more than surprised and delighted to have been greeted in the traditional Ugandan way by a mzungu. They then cut the ribbon, and the grooms family processed down the red-carpet to their tent. For the next couple of hours, the groom's family was greeted by various members of bride's family. Men in traditional tunics and women in gomessi danced out to ugandan music, kneeled before the family, and repeated the greeting I wrote above. We also got to participate in this and danced out with all the other daughters of the family to kneel before our guests and formally greet them. ( I say all the "other" daughters, because scarlet, colleen and I are now officially daughters of the bride's family, which was confirmed on Sunday when we were toted around the small village where margaret's entire extended family lives)
The there was much presenting of gifts, and joking between the two emcees (one for the bride's family and one for the groom's family) as they built up to the identification of the groom (done by the "Auntie of honor", margaret) and the presentation of the bride. After the bride (Joannie) and groom (Godfrey) were "identified" (it's clear who each is, but each party pretends they don't know) with a bouquet of flowers and a boutonniere, the bride then formally presented her fiancé to father. He accepted, naturally, and there was much rejoicing as the groom's family all went out to their cards to retrieve the gifts.
Godfrey's (the groom) family then re-entered with hundreds of gifts for the bride's parents to show their appreciation for the father's approval of Godfrey. The gifts included but were not limited to: pineapples, melons, tobacco leaves, cooking products, coffee, sugar, bread, pictures, personal gifts, two chickens, a cow's leg, a suitcase, a bull, and kitchen cabinet set. All of these gifts were then presented formally to the bride's parents as we sat and watched.
After the gifts, dinner was served to all the guests. Delicious matooke and yams, white rice, brown rice, beef stew, pineapple, fried irish potatoes, and kale. All types of soda in glass bottles were available and guests ate and laughed in the glow of the evening sunset.
We took a short walk after dinner to "make room in our stomachs", as George said, and then returned to watch the formal proposal between Joannie and Godfrey and the presenting of the rings as they placed a "permanent mark" on each other. Then small fireworks (yes, fireworks) were lit on the cake before it was cut and distributed among the guests. The groom's family then processed out and congratulated the couple as they left. With the formal ceremony over, the after-party began soon after with dancing and laughing and rejoicing among the bride's guests.
The dancing went on all through the night and we crashed in our bed's late at night, exhausted, full and happy.
Before we headed home on Sunday, we made the rounds in Margaret's family's small village to greet all her family members. We were served tea (with milk) and steamed maize at her father's, given avocado's at her mother's, and received warmly everywhere we went. Everyone seemed excited to meet the Mzungu's who had been at the party the day before. Our final stop was the bride's family's home, where we stayed and talked for a while before we said our final goodbyes.
We packed the car full of gifts and leftovers from the party. After a three hour journey home to Kampala along some paved roads, some shambly roads, and some not-really-roads-at-all, I took my backpack out of the trunk only to find it covered in fresh cow's blood from a bag of meat that Margaret had brought home from the slaughtered cow.
No better way to end a traditional Ugandan weekend than with a little cow's blood on your belongings.
All in all, a great success.
While this is a traditional ceremony that is supposed to happen before all marriages, not many couples in Uganda still participate, so when one actually occurs, it's a huge deal. There are no American celebrations that I can really compare this too, because it is essentially the proposal, engagement party, and wedding reception all rolled into one (although, Ugandans also throw a big wedding reception after the wedding ceremony).
The celebration is a weekend-long affair, with members of the bride's and groom's family travelling across the country for this special day. Preparations begin days in advance with tents set up, chairs brought in, hundreds of pounds of matooke and rice and beef and chicken prepared for hundreds of people, traditional dresses bought and ironed and women getting all "done-up" in the salon. We arrived in Mubende on Friday evening and went straight to the home of the bride's family, where the celebration was to be held. The bride happens to be the niece of Margaret, my boss for the summer, and she invited Scarlet, Colleen and me along with her to take part in the ceremony. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by our guests and met the bride's father, some more aunts, brothers, sisters, cousins, and many others who I can't remember. We were then officially accepted as part of the bridal party and told we would be participating in the next day's events. At this point, I was not aware that our status at the party was to be the ultimate in VIP (I think we may have stolen the spotlight from the groom's family). Before we left, we took some pictures of the preparations and of the cow that was about to be slaughtered for the next day's ceremony.
We stayed at a hotel on the side of a hill overlooking Mubende and had a beautiful view of the valley on Saturday morning as we ate our breakfast on the porch. Our escort, George, drove us to the top of the hill after breakfast to see the Nakuyima shrine, an ancient spiritual tree that people journey to for prayer and celebration.
After, we went back to iron our gomessi (the traditional Ugandan dress that most women wear here daily) and to prepare for the ceremony. We had some trouble getting the dresses on correctly, but when we arrived at the bride's house around noon, every woman there wanted to help us fix them. In all their eagerness to help, my dress was untied and re-tied at least 10 times. This may have done more harm than good, but everyone was so excited to see three "mzungu" in gomessi that I don't think they could help themselves. Everyone kept saying "you look so smart, you look so smart!"
The ceremony lasted for about 8 hours.
All of the bride's family arrived first and sat under one of the large tents. The important fathers (taatas) of the family sat under a smaller tent in the middle and across from the bride's tent was another tent set up for the groom's family. The ceremony officially begins when the groom's family arrives. They all line up outside of the tents on the other side a decorated arch with a ribbon stretched across. Before they enter, they are formally greeted by the bride's family. As the VIP, we were asked to go and greet the guests. We walked up the red carpet to the archway and I was handed a microphone. Luckily, I practiced the traditional greeting repeatively the night before;
"Tusanyuse okubalaba bassebbo. Tusanyuse okubalaba banyabo. Eladde bassebo. Eladde banyabo. "
Rough translation: "We welcome you gentlmen. We welcome you ladies. How are you gentlemen? How are you ladies?"
The groom's family was more than surprised and delighted to have been greeted in the traditional Ugandan way by a mzungu. They then cut the ribbon, and the grooms family processed down the red-carpet to their tent. For the next couple of hours, the groom's family was greeted by various members of bride's family. Men in traditional tunics and women in gomessi danced out to ugandan music, kneeled before the family, and repeated the greeting I wrote above. We also got to participate in this and danced out with all the other daughters of the family to kneel before our guests and formally greet them. ( I say all the "other" daughters, because scarlet, colleen and I are now officially daughters of the bride's family, which was confirmed on Sunday when we were toted around the small village where margaret's entire extended family lives)
The there was much presenting of gifts, and joking between the two emcees (one for the bride's family and one for the groom's family) as they built up to the identification of the groom (done by the "Auntie of honor", margaret) and the presentation of the bride. After the bride (Joannie) and groom (Godfrey) were "identified" (it's clear who each is, but each party pretends they don't know) with a bouquet of flowers and a boutonniere, the bride then formally presented her fiancé to father. He accepted, naturally, and there was much rejoicing as the groom's family all went out to their cards to retrieve the gifts.
Godfrey's (the groom) family then re-entered with hundreds of gifts for the bride's parents to show their appreciation for the father's approval of Godfrey. The gifts included but were not limited to: pineapples, melons, tobacco leaves, cooking products, coffee, sugar, bread, pictures, personal gifts, two chickens, a cow's leg, a suitcase, a bull, and kitchen cabinet set. All of these gifts were then presented formally to the bride's parents as we sat and watched.
After the gifts, dinner was served to all the guests. Delicious matooke and yams, white rice, brown rice, beef stew, pineapple, fried irish potatoes, and kale. All types of soda in glass bottles were available and guests ate and laughed in the glow of the evening sunset.
We took a short walk after dinner to "make room in our stomachs", as George said, and then returned to watch the formal proposal between Joannie and Godfrey and the presenting of the rings as they placed a "permanent mark" on each other. Then small fireworks (yes, fireworks) were lit on the cake before it was cut and distributed among the guests. The groom's family then processed out and congratulated the couple as they left. With the formal ceremony over, the after-party began soon after with dancing and laughing and rejoicing among the bride's guests.
The dancing went on all through the night and we crashed in our bed's late at night, exhausted, full and happy.
Before we headed home on Sunday, we made the rounds in Margaret's family's small village to greet all her family members. We were served tea (with milk) and steamed maize at her father's, given avocado's at her mother's, and received warmly everywhere we went. Everyone seemed excited to meet the Mzungu's who had been at the party the day before. Our final stop was the bride's family's home, where we stayed and talked for a while before we said our final goodbyes.
We packed the car full of gifts and leftovers from the party. After a three hour journey home to Kampala along some paved roads, some shambly roads, and some not-really-roads-at-all, I took my backpack out of the trunk only to find it covered in fresh cow's blood from a bag of meat that Margaret had brought home from the slaughtered cow.
No better way to end a traditional Ugandan weekend than with a little cow's blood on your belongings.
All in all, a great success.
9 + andrew - scarlet = agradu interns 2010
the interns exploring on our first full day in kampala. andrew and ben took us to oweno market for some cultural immersion.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
day 16
1. There was a chicken in the house today. Not a typical American looking chicken. This chicken looked like it had gotten dragged by a truck, put through a washing machine and then run over by a lawn mower.
2. My debit card was hacked today after I bought some skype credit. Wachovia immediately put a hold on my card and then informed me there was no other option but to cancel that card and order a new one (which will be sent to my home address...not Uganda..).
So now I have no access to a debit card and only the cash that I brought with me.
3. Rice, matooke and beans for lunch…again.
4. Apparently you have to cook the milk here before you can drink it
5. Today is "National Budget Day", and we have been watching the reading of the budget for the last 3 hours. Apparently money is being spent to construct the exact same things that they paid to be constructed last year. Corruption…or inefficiency? Hard to say.
2. My debit card was hacked today after I bought some skype credit. Wachovia immediately put a hold on my card and then informed me there was no other option but to cancel that card and order a new one (which will be sent to my home address...not Uganda..).
So now I have no access to a debit card and only the cash that I brought with me.
3. Rice, matooke and beans for lunch…again.
4. Apparently you have to cook the milk here before you can drink it
5. Today is "National Budget Day", and we have been watching the reading of the budget for the last 3 hours. Apparently money is being spent to construct the exact same things that they paid to be constructed last year. Corruption…or inefficiency? Hard to say.
personal reflections
It's crazy how fast certain things that would appall you in the US can so easily become the "norm". I've only been here for about two weeks, but things that I never would have considered part of my daily life are suddenly thrust upon me that it is hard to accept them all at once.
The sight of children collecting water from polluted streams and puddles in plastic "jerry cans" and carrying them up giant hills back to their homes. Living next to an orphanage where some children are taken care of, but then also seeing kids in the neighborhood with no one to take care of them. I live in the middle of an interesting neighborhood on the outskirts of Kampala. I say it is interesting because it is part slum, part shanty-town, part gated homes. All together in an area no bigger than 5 acres. Some of the people live in small "homes" consisting only of tin walls and a tin roof, a structure smaller than my own bedroom. There's no telling how many people try and cram in there at night. Others live in somewhat bigger more permanent homes, but there are no doors or window coverings, simply concrete walls and a concrete floor, no electricity or running water. And then, right next door, could be a gated home with electricity and running water (granted the running water comes from a rain water harvesting tank that is elevated 30 feet above ground to prevent stealing and contamination). But all these people and homes are all shoved together on one plot of land. At first, it was a little strange to see the juxtaposition of wealth and socio-economic status, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone here. Or at least they don't talk about it.
It's hard to be culturally relevant and try and fit in with the culture while still being painfully aware that I am very very different from everyone. Anywhere I go, I hear whispers of "mzungo" (meaning, white person). Little children yell out to me as I walk by, "Mzungo mzungo!!" An unneeded reminder that I am different from all of them. My roommate is Chinese and she is not altogether culturally sensitive, but maybe I am too much? It's hard to tell. We are an interesting pair. A 18-year old chinese girl who is young and oblivious to all her surroundings (and germaphobic) and a 21-year old american who is all too aware of everything happening around her and sometimes far too concerned with how the locals view her.
It's hard to say how we are accepted here. I know that the people in our office are welcoming and want us here, but I just don't know how other Ugandans feel. Even the women who clean and cook for us seem distant. Maybe they are afraid of us, or maybe they have just never really interacted with white people before. There certainly are no other white people anywhere around where we live. I guess I expected everyone to be very warm and inviting and want to talk to me about everything, but people seem very reserved and hesitant.
This is one of my more serious and thoughtful updates. I guess I've just been thinking a lot about things and trying to process them as I go instead of waiting until I get back to America.
I want to make the most of my time here and learn as much as I can from this culture.
Uganda is just one part of Africa and it is so different everywhere you go. You get a different perspective based on where you are and what you are doing. I'm not working with children in an orphanage, or with patients in a clinic, or building a school in the bush. I'm in an office, writing grants and project proposals for a CBO that is doing some great work in rural Uganda. I'm hesitant to call this the "real" Africa, but I think that people, Americans especially, have a skewed perspective of "Africa". They either picture orphans or they picture people in tribal dress beating drums around a fire or wild animals roaming on the plain. While much of Africa is like that, there is so much more also. There are people living in urban slums next to people living in houses next to children playing soccer on a clay field next to a cell phone tower (everyone here has cell phones. One lady I work with carries around 3..unclear why). I don't know how I'm supposed to picture Africa, but my guess is that whatever your mental image is of where I am, is probably not entirely accurate.
My brain is starting to hurt from all this processing, so I'm going to go back to working on my 19 page grant application for the Japan Embassy of Uganda on grassroots projects for green development initiatives. Longest application of my life.
Oh, and it rains here. Almost everyday.
The sight of children collecting water from polluted streams and puddles in plastic "jerry cans" and carrying them up giant hills back to their homes. Living next to an orphanage where some children are taken care of, but then also seeing kids in the neighborhood with no one to take care of them. I live in the middle of an interesting neighborhood on the outskirts of Kampala. I say it is interesting because it is part slum, part shanty-town, part gated homes. All together in an area no bigger than 5 acres. Some of the people live in small "homes" consisting only of tin walls and a tin roof, a structure smaller than my own bedroom. There's no telling how many people try and cram in there at night. Others live in somewhat bigger more permanent homes, but there are no doors or window coverings, simply concrete walls and a concrete floor, no electricity or running water. And then, right next door, could be a gated home with electricity and running water (granted the running water comes from a rain water harvesting tank that is elevated 30 feet above ground to prevent stealing and contamination). But all these people and homes are all shoved together on one plot of land. At first, it was a little strange to see the juxtaposition of wealth and socio-economic status, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone here. Or at least they don't talk about it.
It's hard to be culturally relevant and try and fit in with the culture while still being painfully aware that I am very very different from everyone. Anywhere I go, I hear whispers of "mzungo" (meaning, white person). Little children yell out to me as I walk by, "Mzungo mzungo!!" An unneeded reminder that I am different from all of them. My roommate is Chinese and she is not altogether culturally sensitive, but maybe I am too much? It's hard to tell. We are an interesting pair. A 18-year old chinese girl who is young and oblivious to all her surroundings (and germaphobic) and a 21-year old american who is all too aware of everything happening around her and sometimes far too concerned with how the locals view her.
It's hard to say how we are accepted here. I know that the people in our office are welcoming and want us here, but I just don't know how other Ugandans feel. Even the women who clean and cook for us seem distant. Maybe they are afraid of us, or maybe they have just never really interacted with white people before. There certainly are no other white people anywhere around where we live. I guess I expected everyone to be very warm and inviting and want to talk to me about everything, but people seem very reserved and hesitant.
This is one of my more serious and thoughtful updates. I guess I've just been thinking a lot about things and trying to process them as I go instead of waiting until I get back to America.
I want to make the most of my time here and learn as much as I can from this culture.
Uganda is just one part of Africa and it is so different everywhere you go. You get a different perspective based on where you are and what you are doing. I'm not working with children in an orphanage, or with patients in a clinic, or building a school in the bush. I'm in an office, writing grants and project proposals for a CBO that is doing some great work in rural Uganda. I'm hesitant to call this the "real" Africa, but I think that people, Americans especially, have a skewed perspective of "Africa". They either picture orphans or they picture people in tribal dress beating drums around a fire or wild animals roaming on the plain. While much of Africa is like that, there is so much more also. There are people living in urban slums next to people living in houses next to children playing soccer on a clay field next to a cell phone tower (everyone here has cell phones. One lady I work with carries around 3..unclear why). I don't know how I'm supposed to picture Africa, but my guess is that whatever your mental image is of where I am, is probably not entirely accurate.
My brain is starting to hurt from all this processing, so I'm going to go back to working on my 19 page grant application for the Japan Embassy of Uganda on grassroots projects for green development initiatives. Longest application of my life.
Oh, and it rains here. Almost everyday.
a typical night in lungujja
Reasons why last night was the worst night of sleep of my entire life:
- Ate dinner at 10 (indigestion?)
- My pillow has the same consistency as a flat rock
- The neighborhood dogs started howling and bawling at 3.30 am and did not stop until 4 am
- Before I went to sleep, Vaal informed me that our house has a "history of being broken into", paranoia ensues as I lay in bed thinking that the sound of dripping water outside is actual the sound of someone walking around trying to get inside
- The incessant buzzing around my head was in fact a mosquito trapped INSIDE my mosquito net. Defeating the purpose entirely.
- Finally turned on my fan to perturb the mosquito and distract myself.
- 5 minutes later: rustling of plastic bag coming from the closet informed me that the mouse had returned to snack on Scarlet's cookies. Tried to ignore it, but I soon realized that the mouse would simply keep eating, so I got up and scared him out of the closet. Mouse 1, me 1.
- Got back in bed, but paranoia about mosquitoes, mice, and robbers prevented any form of sleep from coming.
- By this point I've been awake for about 3 hours.
- started to read in my bed and then I heard the sound of doors creaking and bolts being unlocked, signaling that it was about time to wake-up anyways.
- Around 6.30 - Roosters started crowing, birds started chirping, pots were being cleaned, children were running around shouting as they headed off to school.
- Total hours of sleep = 3
- Total hours of laying in bed trying to sleep = 7.
Epic. Fail.
- Ate dinner at 10 (indigestion?)
- My pillow has the same consistency as a flat rock
- The neighborhood dogs started howling and bawling at 3.30 am and did not stop until 4 am
- Before I went to sleep, Vaal informed me that our house has a "history of being broken into", paranoia ensues as I lay in bed thinking that the sound of dripping water outside is actual the sound of someone walking around trying to get inside
- The incessant buzzing around my head was in fact a mosquito trapped INSIDE my mosquito net. Defeating the purpose entirely.
- Finally turned on my fan to perturb the mosquito and distract myself.
- 5 minutes later: rustling of plastic bag coming from the closet informed me that the mouse had returned to snack on Scarlet's cookies. Tried to ignore it, but I soon realized that the mouse would simply keep eating, so I got up and scared him out of the closet. Mouse 1, me 1.
- Got back in bed, but paranoia about mosquitoes, mice, and robbers prevented any form of sleep from coming.
- By this point I've been awake for about 3 hours.
- started to read in my bed and then I heard the sound of doors creaking and bolts being unlocked, signaling that it was about time to wake-up anyways.
- Around 6.30 - Roosters started crowing, birds started chirping, pots were being cleaned, children were running around shouting as they headed off to school.
- Total hours of sleep = 3
- Total hours of laying in bed trying to sleep = 7.
Epic. Fail.
work begins
It's the end of week two in Uganda and we have finished our first week of work!
Scarlet and I had an interesting first week here at the Katosi main office in Kampala. On Monday morning( at 7:30 am) we jumped right into working at our newly set up desk in the office (we are sharing one of the bigger desks in the office). I started reading through a couple of websites for potential grants for our organization and started gathering information to write a grant on expanding the community water harvesting tanks program. The first website I looked at might have had some potential, but it was very political heavy and focused mainly on setting up a program to fight corruption in government administered projects and programs (I know very little about this), so I moved on to work on other grant possibilities.
I submitted applications for the Global Giving philanthropy website in order to expand our donor base in the US and UK as well as a request for funding to the Rockefeller foundation for an Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program. The internet was down on Tuesday so I could not research for funding online and instead spent the day reading some of the past Katosi proposals, annual reports and information on water sanitation programs in Uganda.
At any given time there are different people in the office. It is always Rehema and Vaal (and me and Scarlet) and then sometimes George, or Leonard, or a variety of other people who just seem to filter in and out of the office at random. Hopefully I will figure out who they are as time goes on!
Wednesday and Friday I started working on a Coca-Cola Foundation grant, though I have not quite completed it because it needs to be reviewed by Rehema, our project/funding manager, to make sure that the budget and organization demographics are collected. Hopefully I can finish up that application early this week and get started on another one soon! Friday I also wrote up a proposal for a "Community -Led Sanitation Program" which mainly focuses on allowing the community members in any given region to design their own culturally relevant and economically feasible sanitation program. I really believe in this idea of letting communities take charge of their own development and change. Not only does it give the locals and sense of responsibility for the proposed project, but it also simply makes the most sense. I think everyone would agree that the members of a community know their community better than any outside could. By providing basic training, initial funding and the necessary educational tools, my program would support local communities in initiating a sustainable clean water and sanitation program. Margaret comes back to the office on Monday and I'm really excited to meet with her and talk more about potential projects for Katosi and how I can best help the NGO expand the work they are already doing.
Thursday was a national holiday, so we had off of work and went into Kampala for the day just to walk around and get out of the office. Scarlet and I caught a ride into town and started our day at the craft market. There was a big missions group there and one Ugandan woman and I shared a good laugh at their uniforms. For some reason they had decided that the best way to fit in in Uganda was to all wear matching BRIGHT orange polo shirts with their organizations name branded on the front, long JEAN skirts and tennis shoes. All of them, the whole group. Hahaha. Best thing. Then we walked over to 1000 cups to sit for a while before setting out on a long walk across the city to Garden city where we bought a few grocery items. I bought a soda there, but didn't have a bottle opener. I tried to open it with my hands for a long time (unsuccessfully) and eventually ended up carrying it in my bag all around Kampala until I finally broke down and bought a Manchester United bottle-opener from one of the vendors on Kampala Road.
After, we went back to 1000 cups and sat in some comfy chairs and read some magazines about Uganda. I decided that I really wanted some beaded sandals from the craft market so we went back and shopped around until I found a pair that I really liked. They are brown and black leather twisted at the top to look like a snake and I absolutely LOVE them (thanks for being so patient with me scarlet while I tried on every pair in the entire market!) I also made a mental note of all the items I want to buy for Agradu to sell, for the culture kit I am going to make to use for Carolina Navigators back in the states and for friends and family back home. I had to use a lot of self-control not to buy it all right then!
I'm getting adjusted to the laid-back pace of things here and enjoying slowing down for a bit. I read a lot here and have already devoured "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas and "Out of the Silent Planet" by C.S. Lewis. Next up is Perelandria, also by C.S. Lewis. Even if I keep up this pace of reading, I will be surprised if I finish all the books I brought. Overpacked much? Whoopsies. Oh well, whatever I don't use I will leave here for others.
If any other interns are reading this, let me know if you want to borrow any books, I've got plenty!
Tomorrow is Sunday and Scarlet and I are going to do laundry and then take a long walk up to this Anglican church on the hill across the valley from us. I'm excited to get out and explore some more. Scarlet says I am making her be more active than she has ever been, haha. Best.
Also, the World cup starts this week! We are going to Jinja on Friday to meet up with other interns to hang out, explore and watch some games. I'm going to try to make it to Bugalugi falls and hike for the day.
Hope all is well with everyone!
(Sorry my blogs are so long, I would upload pictures for entertainment purposes, but the internet really can not deal with that kind of file size capacity)
Scarlet and I had an interesting first week here at the Katosi main office in Kampala. On Monday morning( at 7:30 am) we jumped right into working at our newly set up desk in the office (we are sharing one of the bigger desks in the office). I started reading through a couple of websites for potential grants for our organization and started gathering information to write a grant on expanding the community water harvesting tanks program. The first website I looked at might have had some potential, but it was very political heavy and focused mainly on setting up a program to fight corruption in government administered projects and programs (I know very little about this), so I moved on to work on other grant possibilities.
I submitted applications for the Global Giving philanthropy website in order to expand our donor base in the US and UK as well as a request for funding to the Rockefeller foundation for an Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program. The internet was down on Tuesday so I could not research for funding online and instead spent the day reading some of the past Katosi proposals, annual reports and information on water sanitation programs in Uganda.
At any given time there are different people in the office. It is always Rehema and Vaal (and me and Scarlet) and then sometimes George, or Leonard, or a variety of other people who just seem to filter in and out of the office at random. Hopefully I will figure out who they are as time goes on!
Wednesday and Friday I started working on a Coca-Cola Foundation grant, though I have not quite completed it because it needs to be reviewed by Rehema, our project/funding manager, to make sure that the budget and organization demographics are collected. Hopefully I can finish up that application early this week and get started on another one soon! Friday I also wrote up a proposal for a "Community -Led Sanitation Program" which mainly focuses on allowing the community members in any given region to design their own culturally relevant and economically feasible sanitation program. I really believe in this idea of letting communities take charge of their own development and change. Not only does it give the locals and sense of responsibility for the proposed project, but it also simply makes the most sense. I think everyone would agree that the members of a community know their community better than any outside could. By providing basic training, initial funding and the necessary educational tools, my program would support local communities in initiating a sustainable clean water and sanitation program. Margaret comes back to the office on Monday and I'm really excited to meet with her and talk more about potential projects for Katosi and how I can best help the NGO expand the work they are already doing.
Thursday was a national holiday, so we had off of work and went into Kampala for the day just to walk around and get out of the office. Scarlet and I caught a ride into town and started our day at the craft market. There was a big missions group there and one Ugandan woman and I shared a good laugh at their uniforms. For some reason they had decided that the best way to fit in in Uganda was to all wear matching BRIGHT orange polo shirts with their organizations name branded on the front, long JEAN skirts and tennis shoes. All of them, the whole group. Hahaha. Best thing. Then we walked over to 1000 cups to sit for a while before setting out on a long walk across the city to Garden city where we bought a few grocery items. I bought a soda there, but didn't have a bottle opener. I tried to open it with my hands for a long time (unsuccessfully) and eventually ended up carrying it in my bag all around Kampala until I finally broke down and bought a Manchester United bottle-opener from one of the vendors on Kampala Road.
After, we went back to 1000 cups and sat in some comfy chairs and read some magazines about Uganda. I decided that I really wanted some beaded sandals from the craft market so we went back and shopped around until I found a pair that I really liked. They are brown and black leather twisted at the top to look like a snake and I absolutely LOVE them (thanks for being so patient with me scarlet while I tried on every pair in the entire market!) I also made a mental note of all the items I want to buy for Agradu to sell, for the culture kit I am going to make to use for Carolina Navigators back in the states and for friends and family back home. I had to use a lot of self-control not to buy it all right then!
I'm getting adjusted to the laid-back pace of things here and enjoying slowing down for a bit. I read a lot here and have already devoured "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas and "Out of the Silent Planet" by C.S. Lewis. Next up is Perelandria, also by C.S. Lewis. Even if I keep up this pace of reading, I will be surprised if I finish all the books I brought. Overpacked much? Whoopsies. Oh well, whatever I don't use I will leave here for others.
If any other interns are reading this, let me know if you want to borrow any books, I've got plenty!
Tomorrow is Sunday and Scarlet and I are going to do laundry and then take a long walk up to this Anglican church on the hill across the valley from us. I'm excited to get out and explore some more. Scarlet says I am making her be more active than she has ever been, haha. Best.
Also, the World cup starts this week! We are going to Jinja on Friday to meet up with other interns to hang out, explore and watch some games. I'm going to try to make it to Bugalugi falls and hike for the day.
Hope all is well with everyone!
(Sorry my blogs are so long, I would upload pictures for entertainment purposes, but the internet really can not deal with that kind of file size capacity)
first days in kampala
Day 3
It is now my third evening of being in Uganda. It has been a crazy experience so far and I have been loving every minute of it. This city seems to live in a sort of organized chaos. It's unclear exactly what people's jobs are, although I see a lot of people dressed up walking around. The traffic is out of control and essentially pandemonium free-for-all.
When we first got into our matatu at the airport I was momentarily confused by the driver getting in on the right side until I remembered that Uganda was first a british colony. The city population has grown faster than it has developed and the roads are in shambles. I think there may be one or two roads here that are actually paved, the others are littered with pot-holes and bumps or simply a lack of pavement. It isn't too bad if you know what to expect, just don't come here expecting anything close to an effective and nice transportation system. Not many people drive themselves and the two main forms of transportation are matatus (van-sized taxis) and boda-bodas (a hybrid between a motocross bike and a motorcycle). The streets are full of these two vehicles and they definitely do not stop for pedestrians much less each other. "Look before crossing" has taken on a whole new meaning.
On our first day, we ate breakfast near our hotel at "The Bread and Cake Shop" and then we got escorted around Kampala by Andrew and Ben. They took us to Oweeno where we bought our cell phones and were overwhelmed by the massive market full of every type of good you could imagine. We then headed over to the crafts markets on Buganda Road and sat at an upscale coffee shop called 1000 Cups. It seems to generally attract only white customers and was much much calmer than the oweeno market. We then toured Garden City conveniently located near our hotel and complete with a movie theater, bowling alley and supermarket. Not what you expected? Me neither.
We are staying at the New City Annex Hotel on Dewinton Road. It is located in the heart of Kampala near all the fancy hotels and parliament. The staff here is very accommodating and the rooms aren't bad at all. We have three to a room and access to a bathroom and toilet (note the distinction). The restaurant downstairs also has good food for all three meals and is reasonably priced.
On our second full day here, the four Katosi Womens Development Trust interns had orientation at the Katosi main office in the Lungujja district of Kampala. The office also happens to be my home for the next eight weeks. Scarlett and I will be sharing a room in the office (which really is more like a house) right across the hall from Vaal, the administrative assistant. The office is very pleasant and I'm excited to move out there tomorrow. Lungujja is not in the heart of Kampala and is much quieter and calmer than the bustling downtown. The office is situated directly next to a church and a small orphanage. In my down-time I would love to volunteer at the orphanage and attend some of the church services.
We stayed at the Katosi office all morning and then had lunch with the staff. Reheema gave us an overview of what Katosi stands for and all the ongoing projects. We then discussed the roles of the interns and talked about some of our desires and expectations for the summer. After a quick tour of the house, the three other interns and I sat outside and played with some local children while we waited for lunch to be served. It started as a simple paddy-cake game and turned into a big dancing circle with a lot of singing that I didn't quite understand and jumping around and laughing. I'm sure they all ran home after to tell their friends they had talked to and played with a Mzungo.
After talking with Reheema and Vaal today, I am excited to start working with Katosi on Monday. I am going to be helping with grant proposals, project write-ups and expanding their international donor base. I hope to work with Global Giving and set up an account for Katosi and get some of their projects up on the site. I am pumped about the possibilities for what I can get involved with and excited to learn more from these incredible women. I will be sure to keep you updated with any new events!
If you get a sudden urge to talk to me, feel free to call my cell via skype! My number is +256 788077866.
It is now my third evening of being in Uganda. It has been a crazy experience so far and I have been loving every minute of it. This city seems to live in a sort of organized chaos. It's unclear exactly what people's jobs are, although I see a lot of people dressed up walking around. The traffic is out of control and essentially pandemonium free-for-all.
When we first got into our matatu at the airport I was momentarily confused by the driver getting in on the right side until I remembered that Uganda was first a british colony. The city population has grown faster than it has developed and the roads are in shambles. I think there may be one or two roads here that are actually paved, the others are littered with pot-holes and bumps or simply a lack of pavement. It isn't too bad if you know what to expect, just don't come here expecting anything close to an effective and nice transportation system. Not many people drive themselves and the two main forms of transportation are matatus (van-sized taxis) and boda-bodas (a hybrid between a motocross bike and a motorcycle). The streets are full of these two vehicles and they definitely do not stop for pedestrians much less each other. "Look before crossing" has taken on a whole new meaning.
On our first day, we ate breakfast near our hotel at "The Bread and Cake Shop" and then we got escorted around Kampala by Andrew and Ben. They took us to Oweeno where we bought our cell phones and were overwhelmed by the massive market full of every type of good you could imagine. We then headed over to the crafts markets on Buganda Road and sat at an upscale coffee shop called 1000 Cups. It seems to generally attract only white customers and was much much calmer than the oweeno market. We then toured Garden City conveniently located near our hotel and complete with a movie theater, bowling alley and supermarket. Not what you expected? Me neither.
We are staying at the New City Annex Hotel on Dewinton Road. It is located in the heart of Kampala near all the fancy hotels and parliament. The staff here is very accommodating and the rooms aren't bad at all. We have three to a room and access to a bathroom and toilet (note the distinction). The restaurant downstairs also has good food for all three meals and is reasonably priced.
On our second full day here, the four Katosi Womens Development Trust interns had orientation at the Katosi main office in the Lungujja district of Kampala. The office also happens to be my home for the next eight weeks. Scarlett and I will be sharing a room in the office (which really is more like a house) right across the hall from Vaal, the administrative assistant. The office is very pleasant and I'm excited to move out there tomorrow. Lungujja is not in the heart of Kampala and is much quieter and calmer than the bustling downtown. The office is situated directly next to a church and a small orphanage. In my down-time I would love to volunteer at the orphanage and attend some of the church services.
We stayed at the Katosi office all morning and then had lunch with the staff. Reheema gave us an overview of what Katosi stands for and all the ongoing projects. We then discussed the roles of the interns and talked about some of our desires and expectations for the summer. After a quick tour of the house, the three other interns and I sat outside and played with some local children while we waited for lunch to be served. It started as a simple paddy-cake game and turned into a big dancing circle with a lot of singing that I didn't quite understand and jumping around and laughing. I'm sure they all ran home after to tell their friends they had talked to and played with a Mzungo.
After talking with Reheema and Vaal today, I am excited to start working with Katosi on Monday. I am going to be helping with grant proposals, project write-ups and expanding their international donor base. I hope to work with Global Giving and set up an account for Katosi and get some of their projects up on the site. I am pumped about the possibilities for what I can get involved with and excited to learn more from these incredible women. I will be sure to keep you updated with any new events!
If you get a sudden urge to talk to me, feel free to call my cell via skype! My number is +256 788077866.
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