Finally

We finally had a night without rain, I think the first in a week and a half. It was fantastic walking to the main road this morning without having to shake my feet around to get the clumps of mud off of them. I also managed to catch taxis fairly quickly and got to work within 45 minutes or so. Things just move more efficiently when it isn't raining.

I have a few more days of work (hopefully with some interviews) and then I write my paper next week and then the last week we just have presentations and preparations for going back to the U.S. I have a lot of work to do before then. Other than working from 8:30 to 5:00, not much else is going on.

Best Weekend Ever-Rafting on the Nile (and other stuff)

I had the most incredible weekend. But I should probably start where I left off and leave the best for last. I have been working at UDN for a few weeks now and I'm in a pretty comfortable routine. I go to work around 8:30 or so, leaving my house around 7:15 or 7:30. Once there, I just sit at my desk with my computer and read report after report. Last week, the executive director, Daisy, gave me a job-write an analysis of the Ugandan debt strategy-which I did and now I have to write a short report on the African Growth Opportunity Act between the U.S. and Africa, in addition to researching for my project. Everyone I have called to interview has told me to call back at another time which is slightly annoying but I'm sure some of them will follow through. I'm not entirely happy with the way my project is going and I was so excited to find a topic-international aid and trade in development with a focus on the agricultural sector-and now no one will talk to me but at least I have a bunch of reports to read on this topic. Anyway, now I have internet which is very distracting but nice becuase I don't have to go into town and spend money on it. The people I am working with a very friendly and have helped me a lot with finding information and just getting comfortable with this routine. However, I only keep it up through next week and then it's paper writing time. I can't believe I only have three and a half weeks left here. The time has especially flown by during practicum though some days in the office are really long.

So the weekend wasn’t so great at the beginning. On Friday, I went to work in the morning as usual and nothing was amiss. However, a few hours later, my officemates were talking about how bodas weren’t driving anyone anywhere. I assumed that they were just talking bodas not able to drive down some of the roads because of the rain. However, after lunch Patrick came into the office to talk to us about how the matatu (taxi) and boda drivers were on strike for some reason and there was no public transportation throughout Kampala. I was in Kamwokya, quite a distance away from home, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get from point a to point b. The funny thing was that this was happening just after I wrote an article for the Kenyon Collegian on the transportation system here.
(read it at: http://media.www.kenyoncollegian.com/media/storage/paper821/news/2008/04/10/Features/Notes.From.Abroad.Getting.Around.In.Uganda-3317503.shtml)
Anyway, drivers were burning tires and using sticks to prevent people from taking any public transportation. They were also blocking off roads, though it wasn’t so bad near where I was working. However, three people were shot and killed in a section of town that I used to pass through twice a day when I still lived in Kagoma. It was a little worrisome, but I figured things would turn out all right. I texted Martha to ask her what the best way of getting home would be and she said to leave the city as soon as I could and that private hire was the best way to get home. So I left the office about an hour and a half early. I only had 4,000 shillings to get home because someone had taken 10,000 shillings or so from my bag the night before while I walked to the taxi park in the dark, something I try to avoid but I was buying cheese at a more muzungu store. The receptionist, Esther, told me that it would probably cost between 7,000 and 10,000 shillings to get a private hire from Wandegeya to Lugala so I was a little worried that my money wouldn’t quite get me there, not to mention that I had to spend at least 500 shillings on internet on an urgent matter involving a summer internship. So I walked to Wandegeya which wasn’t too far away from Kamwokya and I knew the way well from taking the taxi there every day. I used internet for 20 minutes or so and then just started walking to see if I could find a private hire that takes a full ride, charging around 600 shillings each for a total of 3,000. Anyway, there were none of these types of private hires, only the excessively expensive ones for which I didn’t have the money to pay. So I just kept walking. By this time, the bodas were running but they were charging a lot of money, so I kept telling myself that I would keep walking first to the end of one road, then to the sign for Kasubi Tombs, then to Kasubi, then to the tombs at the top of the hill, and then I just figured I could walk all the way. I felt kind of like Forest Gump when he just starts running and just keeps running because he feels like it. So I just kept walking and the taxi drivers were all parked on the side of the road, watching people walk by and sometimes yelling comments to me about how I had to keep walking. Some of them were laughing, but I was really enjoying the walk. If it had been raining, it probably would have been unbearable but it was nice to get some exercise, walking up some of Kampala’s hills. It was a little scary when I saw some blockaded roads and people with sticks ensuring that no one would use public transportation, but there were so many other people walking with me that I felt pretty safe. Some of the scenery was pretty and I saw a lot more than I normally see from the taxi. Anyway, it took me around 2 hours of walking to make it all the way home, which isn’t so bad considering that it sometimes takes me an hour and fifteen minutes to go the same distance in a car. I should start walking at least part of the way to cut down on time and cost, but only if it isn’t raining or muddy which it pretty much always is lately. I got home and since I was so thirsty and sweaty from the walk, I bought an orange Fanta to reward myself with the money I had saved by not taking a boda. I got home and had to get ready for a party we were having for the people in Kampala as well as some other visitors. Almost everyone we invited came and we even had a few surprise visitors so it was great. I was surprised that so many people came because the transportation system was still a little sketchy, but most people got bodas or private hires to take them to our house. We all had a great time because for some of us, it was the first time we had seen each other for a while. For Tom, who has been in the mountains, it was the first time he had seen muzungus in a while. We ate cheese, drank wine and watched "Stomp the Yard" and just talked. Amy, the only other fellow Ohioan in the group, was stranded in Kampala because of the transport situation and she told me that a group was going rafting the next day so I decided to tag along with them.

The next morning, the taxi drivers in Lugala claimed that the taxis still weren’t taking passengers so we hired one out privately though he still told us it might be dangerous to drive into the city center. We went anyway, prepared to duck down if we saw any mobs, but we didn’t see any and there were even some taxis that were taking people normally. It appears as though our driver was lying to us or didn’t get the memo that the strike was over. So we took the taxi to the other side of town and caught a bus from there to Jinja. We met up with the rest of our group in Jinja and ate a nice breakfast before getting our lifejackets and helmets in preparation of rafting down the Nile. The rafting here is supposedly some of the best in the world with level 4 and 5 rapids, as well as some level 6 rapids which we wanted to go down but weren’t allowed. We drove to a point in the river and everyone split up into groups of seven people with one guide. My group was pretty great-it was four of us SIT students, one woman we met that day who was alone and two people from Purdue who had been staying in Kenya for a while. Our guide’s name was Alex/Muzungu and he was pretty great as well, probably the best guide there. So we got into a raft and got into the water and practiced a few things before heading out. I was the first to go into the water to practice getting back into the boat. We also practiced tipping as they assured us this would be happening to us throughout the course of the day. We were all really excited to get going which we did. The first rapid was level 4, which is the third most difficult. Our guide told us instructions like pedal forward, pedal hard, get down, etc. and in this case he told us to start pedaling backward midway through the first rapid which we later learned caused the flip that resulted. We were the first team to flip and the only team to flip on the first rapid. At first I was terrified of the thought of flipping over but it was actually pretty great and I managed to hold onto the raft throughout this time. We all got back in and prepared for the next rapid which was a level 5. Once again we flipped over and it was a little scarier because I didn’t grab a hold of the raft but I grabbed onto a kayak and they got me back to the raft. The next rapids was named Silverback and it was one of my favorites. It was a level five and was a long rapid and my group did really well on this one, making it down without flipping. We went right through the middle and up these huge waves. It was a good thing I didn’t fall out because there were whirlpools in this area and I probably would have freaked out if I was caught in one. Anyway, the next area was also pretty great with this waterfall we went down backward. Not everyone gets to go down the waterfall because you need to go just the right way and there has to be enough water for you to go down, so we were lucky. After that we had lunch on the Nile which was pineapple, glucose biscuits and water. It was nice just floating along. I also forgot that we had been swimming in the river along the way which was also quite fantastic. We haven’t been able to swim in most bodies of water due to the threat of bilharzia but the Nile is bilharzia free so we jumped off the raft into the river. After lunch we had some more great rapids. On one of them, Alex told one person to stand at the front of the raft while the rest of us went to the back in something known as the flying squirrel. We were the only raft to complete this maneuver that caused our raft to fly off of a wave at a ninety degree angle and the flying squirrel really did fly. We flipped of course and somewhere along the way I scraped my toe up a little. We passed some level six rapids that Alex joked we could do if we wanted and we were all ready to go down them but I think the company isn’t allowed to take people down the most difficult ones. Then we had a few more and then the last one which was optional because it was a little intense. My whole raft was up for it so we went and flipped on the first wave. They told us to swim to the side if we flipped over which most people did and I tried but I was in the middle of the river doing into the next part of the rapids with only my lifejacket holding me afloat. I saw huge waves coming towards me and saw that the raft was next to me with Alex holding on so I held on two and went down the next part trying to hang on. I lost hold a few times but managed to catch back up to the raft. It was fantastic and I’m glad I didn’t swim to the side like they told us to. Alex got the raft flipped back up and we picked up Amy who had also floated down the rapids and had caught a kayak. Then we got back to shore and hiked up to the vans that were taking us to the hostel we were staying at for the night. Overall, rafting was so great and I am so glad I went. It was terrifying at first and I really did think I was going to die a few times but all the scrapes and bruises I am finding all over my arms and legs are worth it and I can’t wait to go again. I was so surprised afterwards that I didn’t chicken out and refuse to go at the last minute. I just don’t feel like I can describe it very articulately so I apologize if the above sounds dumb but it was great. And then to finish off the experience, we all went to the hostel that the organization runs and just chilled out for the evening and into the next day. There was food waiting for us, including some great veggie burgers and we all sat back with nice, cold Nile Specials (Ugandan beer brand-the best one here, evidenced by the fact that I normally hate beer but actually wasn't too opposed to this kind) and drank it while looking out on the Nile (which we couldn't really see because it was dark) and listening to the Nile rush by. I called my parents standing outside by the Nile which was pretty cool. We watched the video that one guy had made of us rafting. There was lots of drunkeness going on (not on my part) so I talked to the guy who filmed us from a kayak and he said some really interesting things about the rapids at Murchison, where he is going next weekend. It was overall a really good time despite all of the random Ugandan/muzungu men hitting on me in their totally inebriated state. That night we slept in a dorm like room with 12 beds and I fell asleep to the sound of the Nile rushing below the hill we were on.

The next morning, I slept in a bit and then got up and just went up to the main building. It started raining a lot and continued raining off and on throughout the day. I took a shower in an outdoor shower facing the Nile River which had a nice view but was a really cold shower. Then I ate a rolex with avocado, tomatoes and cabbage for breakfast which was really tasty. We all just kind of hung out for a while at the lodge-like area until the Jinja people left and there was Tom and me and the one woman we met the day before on the raft. The bus back to Kampala didn't come until 5:00 or so which was slightly inconvenient but it was a free ride back into town. I got pretty bored waiting around for it, especially becuase for once in my life I didn't have a book with me to read. I would have loved reading on the comfy couches in the place but too bad. We eventually got on the bus and had an uneventful trip back to Kampala after which I headed home. And thus ends my great weekend.

Not much has happened since then. One of my roommates got pretty sick and we thought he had malaria, but it was just an infection. And I have a cold, but it's not too bad. And it's been raining every day in the morning which makes the trek into work especially more annoying down the extremely muddy dirt road. Oh well. Uganda wouldn't be Uganda without the rainy season. I hope everyone is doing well wherever you are and happy spring!

Practicum

Never mind about not having a practicum. A short while after I published the last post, the UDN called me and I now have an organization to work with. I will start working there tomorrow so things are looking up. Back to the weekend, I spent Saturday just hanging out. We still don't have DSTV in the house but we bought some American shows on dvd so we just watch those. It's crazy how much I feel like I'm back in the US when I'm in the house. That ends pretty much as soon as I leave and see the hills. It has also started raining a lot and my sandals get ridiculously muddy. I tracked so much mud into the Resource Center on Saturday, it was disgusting. In my defense, I tried to wipe off my feet, but the mud gets into all of the little cracks on the bottom of my shoes.

On Sunday, I had a few religious experiences. I went to a Baha'i service just to see what it was like. It was pretty interesting. The singing was acapella and it was really beautiful. I got really sleepy during the service, probably becuase it was so relaxing with the breeze blowing through the open doors and the birds making noise in the background. I didn't really understand what was going on, but there were people reading things in other languages (French, Luganda). It seemed like quite a muzungu haven, though there were people there of all different types of backgrounds. The temple itself is gorgeous and has all this green space around it. I'm not interested in converting, but I am interested in picnicing on their lawn. After the service, I went to the mosque in Kampala that Gaddafi opened last week. I went on Saturday with some friends but we weren't allowed in becuase we didn't have head scarves but the guard assured us that they would provide head scarves for us if we came back the next day. As we were leaving, a man caught up to us and introduced himself as the guy who does the morning and afternoon call to prayer, Mahmoud (spelling is probably wrong). We returned on Sunday to find that there were no head scarves waiting for us, but Mahmoud met us at the entrance and took us around the outside. It's a really beautiful mosque and it's really new so it's quite clean. It's on a hill that overlooks much of Kampala so we got some great views. We took off our shoes to go up to the main part and just walked around. The architecture is beautiful. We didn't look around for too long becuase our guide had to do the afternoon call to prayer at 1:00 so we left. As we were walking down the street we heard him chanting/singing over the other sounds of the city which was really cool. I went home early and prepared for some interviews I had today, only one of which has happened so far.

This morning I headed into the city and met with a woman from an organization that deals with trade. We had a great conversation about trade and development and I may have found a focus for my project in examining trade vs. aid for development, or maybe the aid for trade program. I met another guy and got more contacts which will probably be helpful after I start my work with the Uganda Debt Network as an intern tomorrow. I don't know what I'll be doing but it should be interesting. Then this afternoon, I was supposed to meet with a member of Parliament about transparency and accountability in the government, but he's busy, which is understandable, and I will probably have the chance to talk to him at another time. Meanwhile, I'm just enjoying some free time becuase this is probably the last day that I'll have this time off. Anyway, I hope things are going well for everyone. I will try to keep this updated but things are going to probably be getting pretty crazy.

I'm still alive

It's another long one, sorry about that. But here goes.

Looking I forgot to mention last time that the last day of in-depth module was really fun. My group went to a few schools to learn about public health regarding how it affects children. We first went to a high school and walked around with the headmaster to see the library, computer lab, some classrooms, labs, kitchen and the clinic. In the clinic we learned that the nurse had been administering quinine incorrectly with the risk that children would develop necrosis (dying tissue) but Sister Harriet corrected this. I could tell that this school was fairly well-funded because it actually had a lab and it had enough facilities for the classes. It also had a computer lab with at least fifteen computers. When we were there, many of the kids were making powerpoint presentations. I think it was a private school so that’s probably why it seemed so well funded. After that school we went to a primary/nursery school. Again, the headmaster showed us around which was nice. We saw a bunch of classrooms. In one, SH told us to look at the kids’ feet to see how many weren’t wearing shoes, which was slightly uncomfortable because she said it in front of all of the kids. It was true that at least five kids out of thirty or so were not wearing shoes but she probably should have been more tactful about telling us some of the kids were poorer than others. We also saw the kitchen facilities and dorms where some kids lived, some of them because they are orphans and others because their parents are too poor to support them. The nursery school kids had just gotten out from their class so they came and mobbed us. One girl was fixated by my hair. I tried talking to her but the teacher told me she was from Rwanda and she didn’t understand the English, Luganda or French I used with her so I’m guessing she was either really shy or speaks Kirwanda. A lot of the kids also kept touching my upper arms, I guess because they liked my light skin. It was a little strange but they were all so cute. We went to see the nursery school classrooms and all of the kids came with us. They all claimed a muzungu and fought over us. I had three kids who claimed me as their muzungu. They loved being twirled and they tried hanging off of my arms but they were a little too heavy for that. I love the kids. I wish I had some in my family. Anyway, that was the last day of in-depth public health. We didn’t really learn too much about public health but we had fun with the kids.

Then on Sunday we headed out to eastern Uganda, first to Mbale. Mbale was a really beautiful town with some nice hills/mountains in the background and trees and flowers planted along the roads. We had the day off once we got there so I went walking toward the hills just for some exercise and fresh air. It was nice to breathe air without diesel fumes or dust. That night we played capture the flag in the dark at our hotel which was really fun. The lights went out at one point which was really cool because it was pitch black and the stars were incredible. Unfortunately, the power came back after ten minutes or so and a few of us went to star-gaze and it just wasn’t that great with electricity. The next day I went to Children Restoration Outreach, a program that works to get streetkids into school and into jobs. We met a 15-year-old girl who ran away from home because her family was trying to marry her off and she just wanted to finish school. We also met a former streetkid who is currently attending Makerere to study social work so that he can help streetkids in the future which was pretty great. After lunch, we headed off to Sipi and Kapchorwa. We hiked to the bottom of Sipi Falls which was pretty cool. Once we made it to the bottom some of the group decided to go swimming and I was tempted but it’s probably better that I didn’t because now there’s a chance they got bilharzia. The waterfall was pretty cool. It wasn’t nearly as powerful or as awe-inspiring as Murchison, but it was still pretty nice. That night, Clueless was on DSTV so it was nice to pretend that we were back in America for a little while. On Tuesday I visited some caves and saw another waterfall, this time from the top down. Once again, the stars were amazing.

Then came the rural homestay in Busia district, right on the border with Kenya. My family consisted of a man, one of his wives, and ten of his children. The compound consisted of a bunch of mud huts with grass roofing while the family’s main house was brick with tin roofing with many holes. The room I shared with my partner Ashley had one bed with mosquito netting as well as a table and two chairs. The main house had a table, some wooden couches without a bottom in some parts, a storage room where they put some chickens at night and put some dishes (not sure how sanitary that combination is) and another room. Then there was a chicken coop (the kids kept going in and then would come out scratching and watching fleas or some bug jumping around on the ground-I didn’t go near that building), more housing for the kids, and more storage. There was also a really nice open shower that consisted of three short walls and no ceiling and a rock bottom. I wouldn’t mind showering there all the time. And then the pit which was fairly spacious but full of bugs of all kinds. On the first night I saw maybe twenty cockroaches while on the second night there was a mouse in the ceiling. During the day, there were flies and bees all over the place. Within the first hour of our being there, two of the kids had puked in the yard and more than the ten children of the family had congregated in the compound to meet the muzungus. They were all dancing around and put sparkly stickers on their faces and arms. Whenever I brought the camera out they would pose and then run and grab at the camera to see their pictures. They also liked doing this weird dance that was kind of like the Russian dance where you kick both legs out to their respective sides. It was pretty interesting. We also taught them how to play hopscotch which they really liked. The first night Ashley gave them books and crayons and they enjoyed drawing, an activity they continued in the dirt outside with sticks the following few days. Some of the older girls knew English and could read a little and write their names but most of the kids only knew the local language, KiSenya (or something like that, it was pretty close to Luganda). The three older girls went to school during the day and then would come home and help around the house, doing some cooking and cleaning and watching the kids. I don’t know when they would find time for homework. The mother also worked pretty much all day long without any breaks. She was always feeding the one-month old or gathering sticks for firewood or collecting water from the protected spring. The day never ended for her.

Anyway, during our rural homestay we were to briefly research a specific issues and we picked education. The first full day our father took us to a few places, beginning with the home of a blind man and his family. His son, Moses, had to drop out of secondary school because although the government pays for the first two years, fees after then were too much for his family. He hopes to be a doctor and work in the community where he is living, but for now he has to help his father break stones and his mother with the farming. Our next stop was the level-III health center. There were no patients there when we got there because it was lunchtime so a nurse had time to tell us a little about what was going on. The center was clearly underfunded-it lacked beds, bedding, medicines, and other basic necessities that are essential in adequate medical care. Afterwards we went to the seat of the local government of the sub-county of Busitema. We met a few people there including the sub-county chief. They talked about decentralization which we had already had a lecture about but they shed light onto the lack of funding due to a tax the government abolished a few years ago promising to make it up with direct revenue, which never happened. Then we met a volunteer for the only legally operating NGO in Busitema, World Vision, who explained how the organization is working to promote grassroots development in the area. There used to be a bunch of NGOs in this rural area but because of funding cuts many of them have pulled out though this is clearly a very poor area lacking many services. Anyway, World Vision has a bunch of programs and they go directly to the community to learn what they want and how they want it to be provided which is pretty cool. They have a sponsorship program for some local kids to get them in school though it doesn’t help the problem with quality of education. We discussed this issue with the headmaster of the Busitema primary school. The headmaster explained that enrollment cubed with the government passed the Universal Primary Education initiative about ten years ago. UPE pays for kids to go to school though it doesn’t pay for food, uniforms and other scholastic materials (books, paper, pens) so many kids still have a hard time paying for school. This school was clearly improving as test scores are rising and less kids are failing despite the rising enrollment, but they still lack a reliable electricity source, safe dorms for girls, a water source nearby, and many other things. I wondered how we had talked to all of these people so easily and I think it may be because our host father was the local chairperson for the community. Anyway, we headed back to the house for lunch after a quick stop at our host father’s other house to meet his other wife and a few of their kids. It was interesting to see that some of the kids in this household were visibly malnourished while the ones in the household in which I was staying all looked well-fed. It was also interesting to note that later in the day the other wife came over and it looked like she was friends with my host mother and the kids all played together most days. Family dynamics were pretty interesting and it would have been cool to look a little further into it if I had had more time. The rest of this day we hung around the house a bit and played with the kids. We walked to the protected springs with the parade of kids with us. They’re building a borehole for the community which is great because it will provide a clean source of water that is accessible to my host family and a few others but is somewhat far from other people’s homes. The stars that night were incredible. There is no electricity in the area so we only had our kerosene lamps to detract from the night sky.

The next day we went around with Moses, the boy from yesterday, to a bunch of homes to talk with people. We would interview them informally for a little and then would leave them with a piece of soap as a sort of payment. In the morning we only talked to men because the women present just didn’t talk but that afternoon we talked to some women whose husbands weren’t around. However, the women still didn’t talk very much. One of the women, though, told us about this business she has selling pineapple. Somehow she had gotten some pineapple seeds and planted them and is now one of the only sources in the market for pineapple. It’s in high demand and she sells them from her house which is pretty cool. Also this day, my host sisters didn’t go to school and we learned that it is because when it rains the roads become impassable and they have to walk several kilometers to get to the school so when it rains or when it might rain, they stay home from school. This was pretty sad to hear because the rainy season is just now starting so they will likely be missing a lot of school in the months to come. It just shows how much education intersects with things like infrastructure and health. I just finished reading “The White Man’s Burden” by William Easterly as a followup to “The End of Poverty” by Jeffrey Sachs and this is one area where Easterly disagrees with Sachs in that programs shouldn’t be overly ambitious and try to improve everything at once but should specialize when Sachs calls for a general improvement in everything. I am somewhat torn because I can see where specialization would work better and would get the job done more efficiently but also, if you don’t improve the infrastructure, improvements in education won’t really help the kids who have to stay home because the roads are impassable.

That night we stuck around the house again. It really started raining at one point so a bunch of kids came into the hut with us and we just watched the rain and the sunset. Later, after Ashley and I ate dinner in our hut (they served us there, not sure why), we watched the rest of the family eat dinner. It was cool to watch the mother doling out servings to the kids. There were about ten to twelve small bowls on the ground into which she would put a piece of meat (coming from the meat that we didn’t eat) and some watery sauce that would be for the posho. The kids took posho from a communal bowl that they picked large chunks from. They would all share a cup of water for a drink. It was such a cool process to watch. I kind of felt like I was in a movie watching it this night and the night before. Also this night, we gave the rest of the toys I had brought to the kids and one of the boys fell asleep on the ground holding one of the stuffed animals which was adorable. I love the kids here. Also this last night my host father asked us some questions. He didn’t understand why our families in the US would pay for our education but not demand a bride price when their daughters get married. We tried to explain that our parents just want us to be happy but he thought that they should get something out of raising us well. He also thought that poverty only existed in Africa and we tried to explain the relative poverty in the US and he didn’t understand why we send help abroad when we have poor people at home that we should help first, which was a pretty interesting and valid thought. I don’t think he understood the difference between the types of poverty though.

During this homestay, I got to ride a motorcycle for the first time which was incredible. I think I’ll have to buy one in the future. I rode along on a dirt road on the back and just took in the scenery. You can sense so much more in the open air and it was just a great feeling to be driving around rural Uganda on the back of a boda. The last day we rode back into town on a motorcycle with our host father. It was about a half-an-hour long ride and we saw so many people. Everyone would wave to us as we passed and when I was comfortable enough to stop hanging onto the boda I would wave back. I wish I could always travel like this. In town, I walked almost to the border with Kenya but had to stop at the customs yard because I didn’t have my passport (it’s processing somewhere in the Ugandan government) but I rode on the back of a bike to the hotel where we were having lunch that day. It was nice getting back together with everyone and hearing their stories. We had the first malaria victim of the group with one more to follow a few days later. I’m still healthy and taking my medicine and using a bednet every night so I should be fine. After lunch, we all went to Miriam’s (the great assistant we have here) family’s house where we were staying for the night. We had an amazing dinner of all the Ugandan food cooked so that it was better than normal (chapatti, matooke, posho, rice, beans, cabbage, etc.) and then just hung out that night. I played an uno-like game with some Ugandans and went to a dance party where all these Ugandans were standing around watching us muzungus try to dance. It was a little awkward but some of the kids and adults eventually joined in. It was a pretty fun night. The next morning, they followed up the best dinner with the best breakfast and we had lots of pineapple, mango, banana, omelet, bread with butter, etc. I wouldn’t mind going back to eat there every once in a while. We said good-bye to rural Uganda and hello to Kampala that afternoon. It wasn’t great being back in the city but at least everything is more familiar in Kampala.

Monday morning wasn’t very fun. The taxi conductor flat out lied to me and told me the taxi was going to Kampala Road when it was really going to Old Kampala and the New Taxi Park. So I was shoved out of the taxi at the end of the line and had no idea where I was. Luckily I had some landmarks (the mosque, the taxi park) to guide me and I eventually found my way to the Resource Center. I also had Luganda that morning for the first time in two weeks and it was brutal. I didn’t remember anything but neither did anyone else. It wasn’t a great idea to have two weeks of no Luganda before the week of the ACTFL test. Later that day, I tried getting into touch with the organization I’m hoping to work with for my practicum but learned that they lost my application so on Tuesday, I got on a taxi to a part of town I have never been to before and then took a boda to the organization. I felt pretty good about getting there on my own, especially because I was so worried that I would get lost on my way. We had a free day because we were supposed to go to Parliament as a group but parliament wasn’t in session. I went home early and just did some work. The door to my room was open while I was using the computer and a mouse just ran in and scampered about for ten minutes. It was a little strange. It definitely made me glad that I wear sandals around the house (at my family’s insistence-I don’t have the tough feet that they have and the cold floor might make me sick, at least they claim that’s the reason I had a cold a few weeks ago). Wednesday was a pretty busy day. I went house and apartment-hunting for post-homestay Kampala time. Our guide for the house was about an hour late picking us up which turned out fine because on our way to the house, we had to walk to the New Taxi Park to catch a taxi to Kasubi. As we were walking down the street the Resource Center is on, the police stopped traffic, which was really nice for us because we could easily cross the roads. A motorcade started driving through with lots of fancy cars, guys holding really huge guns, and a car where we saw Muammar Gaddafi, president of Libya, being driven to the mosque in Old Kampala that he built. He was in town for the beginning of the week to open the mosque and we got to see a brief glance of him. Later in the day he passed the RC again going the opposite way. That night we went out to a fancy muzungu restaurant for Amy’s 21^st birthday which was a lot of fun. I split an elephant pizza with Amy and it was delicious. Then Thursday we prepared a little more for the Luganda exams. My taxi completely broke down on the way home-something fell from the bottom and started dragging. I thought the tire had fallen off but luckily it was something a little less minor, but I did have a brief moment of slight terror. I caught another taxi heading up to Kagoma which also broke down but luckily made it. On my walk home, some mouse bolted in front of my and slammed into the wall of the ditch by the street. I am now convinced that I am getting bubonic plague from these crazy rats I keep running into. Then Friday was the ACTFL test which I think went okay. My tester asked me questions I had never heard before and wanted me to talk about public health in Luganda though I, or anyone for that matter, don’t have the vocabulary for. She also asked me what I was studying in college in the US which led to a discussion that I study Spanish. She then asked me how to say “Wasuze otyanno” in Spanish which really scrambled my brains for the rest of the test. I couldn’t help thinking a lot in Spanish during Luganda classes and it really started popping up in my brain after that. I really don’t know what score I’m expecting but I’m hoping above novice-low. Because it was Good Friday, a lot of things were closed so I headed home early. My somewhat creepy brother was home from boarding school and my host cousin was watching a bunch of American movies. Shortly after I sat down to watch one with him, he switched it to the Tenacious D movie which was a little awkward to watch with my family. It continues to amaze me how much of American culture has spread here and how much people love it.

That weekend I spent most of Saturday, all day Sunday, and most of Monday with my family. On Sunday, I was inside all day because it rained pretty much from morning until night. My family didn’t go to church because, as my sister told me, Easter is a day when even pagans pray-a little strange. So I just sat in my room for a while reading “Atlas Shrugged” which I really got into. My parents eventually came in with some popcorn and told me that they thought I was lonely so I went and talked with them for a while. They were watching some really bad tv-some dance show and Apprentice Africa, a terrible take-off of a terrible American show to begin with. So I was bored out of my mind and I just wanted to read my book but I had to watch bad tv. However, my dad did say something that entertained me-“Salt is a medicine for the snow”-when we were talking about Ohio’s weather. And my mom told me I made her laugh which I do seem to do a lot. Then on Monday I bought some movies to watch, including one dvd with seven movies, and gave it to my family and they of course picked the worst movies on the dvd including “Delta Farce” and “Who’s your Caddy” which were painful to watch. Later on we watched “Constantine” and started “The Saint.” Overall, I feel like I wasted most of my last days with my family. I bought some chick flicks to watch with my sister because she asked me to but she wasn’t even home the last two days. Oh well.

Then on Tuesday I moved out of my homestay and into the house I am sharing with Maya and Emelie. We found a really nice house about 30 minutes from the city center by taxi and a 15-minute walk. It has two bedrooms, a bathroom with a real shower (and hot water) and a flush toilet, a kitchen, a living room with a tv and dvd player. The people who own it also gave us dishes to use so we’re pretty much set. We are supposed to have DSTV, which means American tv channels, but that doesn’t work at the moment. I guess no NCAA tournament for now. Hopefully we will be able to get it soon. Anyway, we cooked veggies last night and watched a movie. It’s so nice to eat and shower when I want to and not have to sit and talk if I don’t want to. We also have some couches so it’s nice to just sit and read for a while. It only costs about $5 which is way under our budget of $15 so it’s a great deal. Practicum wise, I’ve tried calling the offices of where I want to work all day today because they were supposed to call me yesterday and let me know if I can work with them but never did. Now I just need to keep trying them out. Ideally, this would have been resolved last week if my application hadn’t gone missing somewhere along the way. I still haven't heard back from them though they told me I would know for sure by today, but I guess I can just do an ISP project without an organization. I have two interviews scheduled for Monday so things should start to fall into place. One interview is even with a member of the Ugandan Parliament. I'm still not sure how I want to focus the project but I know I want to do something with international aid and transparency/accountability issues.

I’m really impressed with how far I’ve come since I got here over two months ago. I don’t mind using the pit and I’ve learned to ignore the cockroaches and mice I occasionally find in my room and elsewhere. I’ve been eating more adventurous foods which for me has meant raw veggies and ice cream (by risky I mean possibly illness-provoking since I’m so paranoid). Talking about food, I could go for some chesse nan now from Ponnus, an Indian/Lebanese restaurant near the RC I have been frequenting lately. They also have pretty good pizza which I’ve had a bit of in the past week. I also found some good ice cream with some people which is a nice treat once in a while-3 scoops for a little under a dollar.

Anyway, overall I am doing well. Hopefully things will start to get busy soon. I hope everyone is doing well wherever they are. Happy belated Easter!

Still here

Hey. I'm still alive here in Uganda. We had our eastern excursion and rural homestay last week and it was pretty great. I love getting out of the city which is making me slightly anxious about spending six weeks in Kampala for my practicum, but I'm sure I'll make it as long as I can get out of the city every weekend. A few of us are going to try to get a house so we'll see how that goes. I'll add a full update soon when I have more time. This week is crazy finalizing things for practicum which begins next Tuesday after the Easter holiday. I hope everyone is doing well. Siiba/sula bulungi.