Tuesday, July 29, 2003

When I woke up this morning I felt horrible and started having delusions that perhaps I had contracted malaria. After all, after a nice respite for the last few weeks, the mosquitoes have returned at night with a vengeance. My mosquito net did not serve its purpose well last night. I hadn't noticed, but Kupe, the guy who cleans my room, had moved my bed, so the mosquito net no longer fitted like it should have. I spent a restless night fighting off those infamous blood-sucking beasts. Anyway, I am feeling better now, and think it was just one of those typical traveller's sicknesses that cannot be avoided, and usually pass quickly. Of course, it would happen right when I am about to leave! Normally I get sick within the first week of arrival, and I had thought that it was amazing that I passed my entire time in Uganda without being sick at all.

I had a wonderful time last night- Hannah, Danny, Freda, and Mike Hendricks all came for dinner. It was one of those convivial settings where everyone sits around the table for hours and discusses everything ranging from Mugabe's imminent downfall, to the laziness of Cape Towners, to our recent, and uninspired, viewing of the Spanish film "Talk to Her." After everyone left I took on the Victorian mien and flung myself onto my bed in a fit of melancholy, wishing I didn't have to say goodbye to such a great group of friends. It's such a depressing thing, having to say goodbye. Everytime another departure approaches I try to avoid the unavoidable moment of realizing that I am leaving, and that I really have no idea when I will next see the person that played such an important role in that stage of my life.

Monday, July 28, 2003

My last weekend passed fairly uneventfully. I went to the craft market one last time, wandered the streets of downtown Kampala, hung out at the house, and had dinner and a movie with Hannah and Danny. Saturday night was interesting because there was a graduation party for Makerere University MBA and MSC students at Maria's Place. LaRuan and I were invited to attend, and then one of the organizers decided that it was absolutely necessary to introduce me as a law student from the United States, and I had to give and impromptu speech in front of around 100 people. I don't think I sounded too much like an ass, but still, impromptu public speaking is not my favorite pastime.

So I'm headed into the last couple of days here. Got a few things to finish up at work, but I'm about ready to go. This is what I will miss the most from Uganda:

1. fresh squeezed juice and pineapple every morning;
2. matatu rides across country with 20 other people crammed into a van;
3. maribu storks- and the fear of being crapped on by a 100 lb bird every time I walk under a tree;
4. jewelery shopping at the craft market, and making up necessary lies in order to get a better bargain;
5. long walks in the morning past trash heaps and through clouds of black exhaust- it really is very nice;
6. swahili rap music videos;
7. tea time- samosas and Ugandan donuts;
8. dance parties at Maria's place;
9. prolonged power outages that give me an excuse not to work;
10. LaRuan, Walter, Hannah, and everyone else!

Friday, July 25, 2003

The disaster that was my hair is on the way to repairing itself. I had my head shampooed consistently for over 2 hours yesterday until my scalp felt like it was being scraped raw. I need to go back on Monday for another shampooing because there is still some wax left. yuck. I have really short hair though now, and it is kind of cute. Well, it's a radical change for me at least!

I am feeling a bit disappointed because I was getting all excited to go on a trip to one of the National Parks this weekend. But it ended up being sooooo expensive- twice what I thought it would be, so I can't go. sad, sad. The problem is that there is no public transportation to get to these places, so you have to hire a car and driver, which can be outrageously expensive. So I will see no giraffes, lion, or hippos on this trip to Africa... However, missing such experiences motivates me to come back to Africa when I am working and have a bit more expendable money (and maybe my own car). And that will happen! Besides, Walter and I made a promise that we would do the Cape to Cairo thing someday.

This visit to Africa has really been fabulous. And I definitely want to come back and explore more of this beautiful continent. Hopefully, I will have a job out here in future, so that will give me the chance to have ready access to the many wonders of Africa. I'm still thinking about pursuing the USAID foreign service officer career track. If that works out, I could spend 2 years at a time in different countries around the world. I would think somewhere in Africa would for sure be included in that! Of course, I still have to figure out how the heck I get a job like that...

Thursday, July 24, 2003

For some reason these posts sometimes publish in opposite orders- i.e. the newest post is not at the top. I'm not sure why this happens, but I just wanted to add a disclaimer note that a newer post may sometimes be second, or maybe even third?
Small catastrophe. So I went to the hair salon on Sunday to get dreadlocks. I was assured that the guy there knew how to do dreadlocks on caucasian hair. ha, right. He used the twisting technique, which works on African hair, but not caucasian (you have to use a backcombing technique instead). Basically, it looked kind of cool (although at times when I got a glimpse of myself I thought that I looked rather like Sideshow Bob)- tiny, little twists all over my head- but it was not "dreads." I kept the twists in for a few days, but then they started to get loose, and they never dried, and I didn't love them all that much, so I decided to take it out. I managed to untwist everything and brush out my hair. The only problem is that everything was covered in wax and I can't get the wax out of my hair now! ahhhhh. The wax just repels the water. It's kind of funny actually- I could totally give myself an awesome mohawk if I wanted. But now I have this waxy head that barely even resembles normal hair, and I want it out! I am going back to the hair salon today to see if they can get it out. Hopefully I don't have to cut all my hair off... I already have it cut a lot shorter than I've had in probably 10 years, but now I might have to just go for the bald style. Actually, it might be kind of interesting to shave my head, although this is not exactly the method I wanted to use to get there. Man, why do I get myself into these crazy situations? I just wanted dreads!

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Walter left this morning to go home to Zimbabwe for a couple of weeks. Since I am leaving next week, that meant that this morning was the big "goodbye" for me. I already miss Walter! He's such an awesome guy, and he and LaRuan and I were pretty much inseparable for the last two months. So it is going to be a bit strange spending my last week without him. When will I see him next? The hard part about meeting such wonderful people while abroad is that you really have no idea when you will be able to see eachother again. I have no doubts that I will see Walter again sometime though. If I am ever anywhere near the African continent I'll always make sure to stop in and visit him! Besides, he's told me so many whacked out stories about Zimbabwe that I will have to get him to prove it all to me someday(you wouldn't believe the stories that boy tells- Komodo dragons who milk cows, witches who fly in baskets using voodoo across the world, magic caves with invisible walls....). Of course, he thought my stories of 100 lb Alaskan cabbages were just as fantastical!

Monday, July 21, 2003

Colleen's probably going to be a wee bit annoyed with me when I see her in Europe. I got coerced into buying this fabulous basket... only problem is that it's huge cuz it's a laundry basket. I am going to fill it up with random crap that I don't want to take with me on the rest of this trip and make Colleen take it back to the States for me. Well, at least it has a handle. I think the hardest part will be taking it on the few train rides from Berlin to Prague to Warsaw etc, especially cuz I have my other backpack as well.... at least on the airplane I am sure I can just check it as a bag. Sometimes these things are just too good a deal to pass up!

So that's what I did this weekend. Hung around Kampala and did a bit of shopping. I bought some fabric as well, which is probably my fave thing to buy. I love going to the tailor and having things made... I think I am going to wait until India and then have some clothes made there.

We went to the orphanage again too. This time we bought the kids a bunch of new clothes. They were so cute. As soon as they saw the new clothes, everyone stripped naked right in the main room and rummaged around to find the perfect new outfit. Well, not that they were really that discerning- it was mostly just an odd assortment of tops and bottoms that didn't really match.

Friday, July 18, 2003

As happens when the "end" of anything approaches, I begin to start getting impatient for whatever is next. I can almost count the days left in Uganda on my fingers now- 12 days.... Days that will mostly be filled with work and the last few things I want to do before I go- some shopping, getting my hair done, visiting the orphanage, going to dinner with friends. Walter is going home to Zimbabwe for a visit to his family next week, so I'll have to say a premature goodbye to him. Sad! But at least Hannah will be back from the UK next week and we'll be able to hang out. I missed that girl these last couple of weeks.

I've budgeted my remaining Ugandan shillings to the last cent. I really don't want to have to exchange any more money. I hope things don't end up costing more than I estimate!! I'm guessing it will cost about 30,000 shillings ($15) to have my hair done in dread locks, and then another 30,000 for the basket I want to buy.... I should start making a list of everything, instead of just organizing it in my head.

By the way, I'm reading "The Prince of Tides" right now, which is also an excellent book. This has been a summer of good readin' so far!

Thursday, July 17, 2003

The dirt sneaks into every pore, tinting my skin a rusty hue. One day it's the result of slogging through the heavy mud that apparently blankets every roadside in this country. The next day it comes from a more devious source: the seemingly innocuous air. The gentle summer breeze blowing in off the lake is, in reality, a fine cloud of dust winging its way across the country, in search of fertile resting grounds. I stand under the spray of the shower and watch rivulets of thick brown water run down my legs and pool around my feet. I thought I had a tan, but a little soap and water reveals that it's only a tan of the temporary sort. I call it getting a little Ugandan sun.

I begin to think that Mother Nature knew what she was doing by giving our African neighbors skin that cleverly hides the layers of dirt at the end of the day.

I'm confronting the fact that this is going to be a year of becoming a close acquaintance with the dirt of our planet- and that's not in a figurative sense. My shoes, which have already faded from blue to mottled gray, will undoubtedly be unrecognizable once I return to the manicured streets of suburban America. That is, if they make it that far.

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

On Saturday, after we went to the orphanage we went with Naheed to an Ismaili celebration at the mosque in Kampala(for those of you who don't know, Ismaili is a "branch" of Islam- it is quite widespread in East Africa. Many of the Indians here are Ismaili). It was some kind of special celebration for something that I never quite figured out. The funniest part was when a bunch of little kids in the community performed some dances- they were sooo cute. Some of these kids were about the same age as the orphans we had spent time with earlier that day. Amazing the difference that growing up in a happy family environment makes in a kid's confidence....

Random experience of the day: I ate my first "Ugandan eggroll"- it was a boiled egg wrapped in a layer of mashed potatoes. very strange.

Monday, July 14, 2003

A lot of people have been asking me about Bush's recent visit to Uganda, and the reaction over here. So here are my thoughts:

Reaction to Bush's trip... well, its certainly not anything monumental. I think most Ugandans don't really care and see it more as a publicity stunt and political maneuvre to advance his own personal agendas, and not anything special for Uganda. He was here for something like 6 hours, gave a speech, watched some people dance and sing for him... some people here love America and support Bush, but probably more think he's a bully and not really out for the good of the world. Most people associate him exclusively with the recent wars against terrorism, which they did not support. No one here supports terrorism of course, but they think going to war was totally unjustified. I've heard quite a few jokes about Bush going around certain circles here- for ex. there is a consensus among many Ugandan men that he's a bit of a sissy because he isn't taking advantage of Clintonesque presidential perks. There's a bit of a different approach to such "moral" issues over here! In fact, I've yet to meet a Ugandan who didn't like Clinton.

Well, that's about all I can say! His visit didn't exactly make waves- maybe more of a gentle lapping effect.
Dancing at Club Silk, a scant few hours of sleep, and we were up early Saturday morning. I had to go to work in the morning and try to get a couple of things accomplished-- unsuccessfully-- and then we met up with Naheed to go to Owino Market and do some shopping for the orphans. Naheed spent the last week in Kampala volunteering at an orphanage and at a local school. Actually, my friend Hannah arranged for Naheed to help out at the orphanage. When he first went to the orphanage he was so appalled by how destitute the children's lives were that he sent out a plea to friends and family back in Canada to donate what they could to make these children's lives just a little more comfortable. The generosity that flowed forth was astounding! Naheed collected quite a large some of money in just a couple of days, so we had to decide how to spend it- to decide what the children needed most.

There are 20 children, ranging in age from a few weeks old to around 5 years old, who live in a house with no electricity, no water, none of the simple things that we consider a "necessity" in our everyday lives. They have simple, wooden beds, but no mattresses. Scraps of chewed up and stained foam serve as a mattress, if anything at all. The whole house has a stagnant, slightly sour smell, no doubt from a thousand bed wettings and no effective means to exorcise the smell. Half the children sleep on the bare planks, with not even a sheet to cover them. They have no shoes. Most of them have no pants, although perhaps a threadbare, filthy shirt hangs from their thin shoulders. Probably 30% of the children have AIDS. They have no medicine.

There are four wonderful women who work at the orphanage. These women live the same desperate lives as the children, but they give what little they can. The orphanage is entirely funded by a local man, who rents the house for them and provides basic necessities.

So what to buy for these orphans? They needed so much, where to even start? We decided to go out and buy mattresses, blankets, and sheets for all 20 children and the 4 women who took care of them.

When looking for anything, Owino Market is the place to go. So we wound our way through the labyrinth of stalls, past scheming hawkers pushing their wares in our direction, until we found our way to the "bedding" section of the market. As in much of the world, shopping in Uganda can be quite a process- for lack of a better word. It takes skill and perseverence to arrive at a reasonable price without aborting the deal mid-bargain, and walking away grumbling beneath one's breath. After some time, involving much charm and pleading with our new "friends," we managed to procure three hefty bags filled with sheets and blankets. We added to this a couple of bags of toys and coloring books, and we were on our way.

Arriving at the gates of the orphanage, conscious of our rather awkward role as unexpected, but much needed, Santa Clauses, we deposited our gifts in the front room of the house. The women, thanking us profusely and smilingly so happily, made me feel gratified, yet at the same time more aware of the yawning schism stretching between the poor and the rich of this world than ever before. In the States, I would never by any stretch of the imagination consider myself rich. But compared with these children, I live like royalty. And how much of my material world is really necessary to my happiness? Realistically, very little. It is enough to have a warm place to lay my head, food to keep me from going hungry, a little intellectual stimulation... Just imagine, there are so many people in the world that don't even have these very, very basic comforts. And, in some ways, these kids are the lucky ones. At least they have a roof over their heads, instead of having to wander the streets at night...

So we left the blankets and headed back out to find some mattresses. There was a mattress shop down by the Old Taxi Park that was able to fill our demands, and a young man who worked there even loaded the mattresses into his truck and gave us a lift back up to the orphanage (riding high on top of the mattresses in the back of the truck, I got quite a few shocked looks from passers-by. Apparently, seeing a white woman riding as such is akin to seeing a monkey driving a motorbike).

This time we stayed at the orphanage to play with the children. Those children are some of the most beautiful and well-behaved children I have ever seen! They never cry and always wait patiently for their turn to participate in the activity of the moment. They always listen and obey when anyone tells them to do something. I think the child in them never had the chance to really see the light of the world. Instead, it is the wisdom of a person who has seen and suffered much that shines through their eyes and echoes in their unnatural silence. Even the 6 week-old baby, when nestled in my arms, stared mutely up at me through vague, yet simulataneously all-knowing, eyes.

You can tell that they crave human touch and loving. The favorite game was "pick me up and put me down." Each child waits patiently for his turn to be lifted high off the ground in your arms, and put down 5 seconds later. I think they could play this game all day long if given the chance. Their faces light up with uncontained glea and gurgling laughter bounces off the walls. You should have seen when LaRuan introduced them to piggy back rides! Running around the garden, with three tiny little bodies at a time hanging off his back, they squealed with joy and clamored for more...

We will go back next week. Naheed left some of the donation money with us, so we'll be able to find some clothes for the children, and in doing so, hopefully be able to help fill a few more of their basic needs. Besides, I want to give what time I can to bring a few more smiles to their faces.

Thursday, July 10, 2003

Have I mentioned that my boogers are black? I wonder what color that would make my lungs... The only other time this ever happened to me was in Manila. I don't think the pollution in Kampala is nearly as bad as Manila, but still, it can get overwhelming at times. I wonder why I didn't notice it so much in Bangkok, or say Cairo, which are supposedly much worse than here?

Last night was fun. We went out to the one and only Thai restaurant in town, and then to a bar that has live jazz music on Wednesdays. I've never seen so many mezungus (the oft-used phrase meaning "white person") in one place here in Uganda! It was a bit overwhelming actually. It makes me appreciate even more the fact that I am having a unique experience living with a Ugandan family.

Wednesday, July 09, 2003

It's so dark right now that it feels like night. I sit at my computer in the small rooftop library, waiting expectantly for the heavy stillness to break, and the rain to come pouring from the clouds.... the lights flicker, fighting against blackout, and there it is- the soft patter of raindrops on the tin roof becomes a heavy roar. The roof takes the sound and sends it reverberating through the entire building. The everyday droan of the workplace is drowned out in the river coming down from the sky. I can't help but take my eyes from the computer screen and stare out at the smear of watercolored landscape over the roof.

Tuesday, July 08, 2003

The power's out again. typical. At least we have a generator that will last for a short while. Hopefully the power will be back before it all dies. I want to be super productive today- progress with the paper and get things finalized with the 2004 brochure that I'm working on. Not much exciting to report- just boring work stuff.

Monday, July 07, 2003

Another weekend, another adventure. That was not meant to sound banal, but rather, a statement of life at the moment. Although for some reason today I have been in one of those boredom funks. Don't ask me why. I just got back from a fabulous weekend in Rwanda.

When I first got here I sat down and made a list of all the places I would like to visit during my weekends in Uganda. Thus far, I have managed to visit most of the places on that list: Sipi Falls, Jinja, Ssese Islands, and now, Kigali.

We made reservations for the bus to Kigali for 6am Friday morning. It was one of your typical coaches that you can find anywhere in the States- although a bit more cramped. Luckily, we had the front row, so we were riding in style:) Lots of leg room, and a splendid view of the blurring landscape as we flew past. As Naheed pointed out, this bus ride was like a huge road trippin group of young Ugandans. Imagine 50 or so people crammed onto a bus that is BLASTING Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera over the loudspeakers for hours on end. Not to mention Celine Dion. Why, oh why, must she be so popular in Uganda?

After a bit of a tussle at the border- LaRuan's visa to Uganda was all screwy for some reason, and they didn't want to let him leave- we arrived in Kigali around 2pm. Surprisingly, John Bosco, a guy who was a participant at one of the ILI-Uganda training courses, was there to meet us. This guy, JB, was nice, but he did spend a little too much time trying to convert us... Half the people I meet in Africa seem to be Born Again Christians. This can range from the general Christian church-going nice person, to the obsessive trying-to-preach-to-everyone type. It gets a bit tiring. I guess I'm just not very tolerant of people trying to force their religion onto others.

So we didn't actually do much on Friday in Kigali. JB walked us around town a bit, but there was nothing to do because it was a holiday and the place was dead. We were turned away by some nuns at the mission when we sought a room (aren't nuns supposed to be nice and charitable to poor backpackers?) Actually, I have a strong suspicion that JB said something rather offensive to the nuns- he's a bit righteous in his religious beliefs. Well, things turned out better anyway because we found a small, and very reasonable hotel. I even got the "ladies discount" for sharing a room with a male. ha ha. Actually, LaRuan and Walter had to pay more because they were two males sharing a room- of course, we dubbed it the "gay tax."

Visiting Rwanda gave me a chance to dust off my rusty French skills. I didn't do too bad actually- although my vocab has definitely disintegrated. I also found some of the Rwandans quite difficult to understand because they seemed to merge the local language into French at times. It's not nearly as "sexy" as the French spoken in other areas of the world...

On Saturday we went to Butare, a city in the south, close to the border with Burundi. There, we were able to visit the National Museum and buy some really cool crafts at the boutique. Rwanda, on the whole, was a lot more expensive than Uganda, but these crafts- wood carvings, baskets, etc- were way less expensive than anything you'd find in Uganda. Kind of strange actually. The other reason we went to Butare was because LaRuan thought there was a massacre site that could be visited. Maybe there was, but we definitely didn't see it... It's a bit of a morbid thing to do while travelling, but I really think it is worthwhile to visit such sites in order to learn about the horrors of humanity, and not to repeat them (I know, I'm idealistic) in the future...

We ended the weekend in Rwanda by visiting New Cadillac- "the" nightclub in Kigali. Now, most of you know that I'm not really that big on going dancing all the time, but it is soooo fun here! Africans really know how to dance- or more exactly, to shake their asses. It's amazing really- it's almost like they can isolate only those muscles and disconnect it from the rest of their bodies. All of the music videos, Tv, the media... every music video must have at least ten or so close-ups of some ass shaking. In fact, the really popular show here- "Big Brother Africa"- actually features a "shower hour" where the people on the show are featured taking showers. Can you imagine if they showed that on Big Brother UK?!

Thursday, July 03, 2003

I've got ants in my pants. Literally. I keep feeling little itchy bites. Just when I think I've killed them all, another one attacks. This is the second time in my life I've had this lovely experience. I must have stepped on an ant hill on the side of the road somewhere... Of late I've had a lot of contact with little, red ants. For example, the morning we woke up at the beach on Ssese Islands, the whole beach was swarming with ants. Of course, we were determined to go swimming, and ran yelping past the ants into the lake.

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

Work is out of control. Deadlines and more deadlines. No time to work on my gender report. Will I be able to get it done???

I am taking a "break" from work by leaving by the very-early hour of 6pm tonight to meet friends and go bowling. Hmm, it'll be time to remember how much I suck at bowling. I think in order to be good at bowling people need to be weird bowling freaks who join leagues and go everyday. No offense to anyone out there who's in a bowling league...

Went to an Ethiopian place for dinner last night. Ethiopian food is so good. I think I could eat it everyday. My fave foods are probably: 1) Thai, 2) Indian, 3) Greek, 4) Japanese, 5) Ethiopian, 6) American Southwest, 7) "real" Italian, 8) Middle Eastern (Lebanese, Egyptian), 9) Swiss, 10) Vietnamese.... If something really good is not on the list, it's probably because I haven't had it yet! Spanish, Moroccan, and Chinese rank high, but probably not the top ten. Ugandan food isn't that great- pretty bland and boring on the whole. I do like the fried grasshoppers though. I've revised my description of them a bit- now I think they taste more like shrimpy popcorn. Oh, so anyway, the reason that I mentioned our Ethiopian dinner last night is because Mama Maria has arranged for the cook from the restaurant to come to her place next weekend and teach us all to cook Ethiopian! I'm excited- it's so fun to learn to cook different ethnic cuisines:)