Friday, August 28

It figures. I am off restriction today and can go to the internet cafe if I want to, but NOW the internet is working from home... Such is life.

Im leaving this morning and heading to Entebbe. I must go to the old taxi park in Kampala to find a taxi to Entebbe. With this in mind, I am totally prepared for the thieves and muggers. I have money in everyplace from my backpack to my underwear to my sleeves. Dont want to lose everything Ive got before I reach Entebbe.

Hotels in Entebbe are incredibly expensive ($153 to $179) for Africa. It must be because it is right on Lake Victoria and therefore a tourist resort. I have better things to do with money and will therefore look for a guest house for tonight. I plan to visit the American non profit in Entebbe that manufactures solar panels. I am hoping there is some sort of business that we could to do piggyback off of what they are doing. (Solar light assembly?). Then I will hotfoot it to do all of the touristy things, short of taking a boat to Ssese. No time for that now. But I will definitely go check out some of Uganda's big animals and hit the botanic gardens that rim the lakeshore.

Off now...

August 26

I am getting internet in 15 second increments and then it turns off. I am going to try to get this blog posted. Tomorrow I am no longer restricted and can get on taxis, buses, go to internet cafes, etc., and wont be dependent on this nearly worthless internet set up at home. I may leave early in the morning to go to Entebbe. I want to see if I can get a tour of the solar panel plant, want to go to the botanical gardens, and if there is time I will go to Ssese Island. Will spend at least one night over there depending on how long it takes to see want I want to see.

Just now I was sitting on my bed with the computer on my lap, and a chicken strolled in. Not wanting to get up, I threw paper at it. The chicken just kept snooping around. I told it to get out. It went under my bed. I finally looked under my bed and yelled “GET OUT! GET OUT!” The chicken ran toward out the door, just in time to meet Isaac who was running in. He heard me yelling at the chicken and was afraid I had an intruder. It was funny, but I will be more careful not to alarm him.

I just got back from taking Alice back to the clinic. The malaria is better. The bronchitis remains, so we got more packets of pills and cough medicine. Cost me 10,000ush this time (a bit under $5). I can’t imagine seeing a US doctor, being treated, and receiving prescriptions for under $5. On the other hand, I think you probably get what you pay for here.

Ugandan herbalists or holistic practitioners (the new name for witch doctors who have changed their moniker since the recent high profile human sacrifices in the news) cost more, depending on the problem. Witchdoctors can cure bad marriages, money problems, ear infections…anything that ails you. They purport the ability to make you rich too. In order to get rich one must supply a human body part—most often a head—thus the prolific child trafficking from Rwanda into Uganda, and from one part of Uganda to another. Enough of that sad subject.

P.S. Do chickens eat lizards? If so, I may let the next visiting chicken move in. I am tired of being surprised by lizards on my walls, on my mosquito net, in my luggage if I don’t keep it closed. I wonder if they sell lizard sprayJ

August 25, 2009

WONDERFUL NEWS

Isaac was supposed to go to Gulu today but didn’t because the Minister holding the concept paper for the Hope Center asked him to come to Kampala today instead. When Isaac arrived he was shocked to be ushered directly into the office of President Museveni’s PPS (Personal Private Secretary). There he was asked to organize a conference of youth service groups in Mukono District. She said if he did this, our concept paper and proposal would definitely be approved. (We were already told it was approved but, hey! if the President wants to throw a blessing on it, that’s cool.) I asked if that meant we got the entire 5 acres or still only one, .but he said he was too shocked to ask. Either way, it is now a sure thing!!! The conference will be in 3 weeks so my last two will be helping to pull the conference together, and we will get land, courtesy of President Museveni. Isaac and I were recently discussing the need to start a coalition of Ugandan youth organizations and this would be the perfect time to do that as well. Killing two birds with one stone…

* * *

I know it is August 25 because George told me I needed to start keeping track of the dates so that I didn’t miss my flight homeJ I am doing as told.

I listened to Alice cough and hack all night last night. She’s been looking puny for a few days. When I asked if she was sick, she said no. When I asked why she was coughing she said, “because I don’t feel well”. Her English and my Luganda continue to be problematic. She sounded and looked terrible, so I took her to a medical clinic. This clinic falls somewhere between the first one and the second one I went to, in terms of size and professionalism. The first one I went to still takes the cake in the filth department. Viola came with us to translate.

Once the doc was assured that I could pay him 20,000 Ush (about $9.25) he gave her two shots and three different packets of pills. They tried injecting something directly into the vein in her hand but he said she was so dehydrated that it was too difficult. He gave her the third injection in her butt instead. So…Viola and I walked her home and then went back out to get Alice water, juice, and milk to take one of the prescriptions with. I take her back on Thursday for follow up. Diagnosis: malaria with secondary bronchitis.

Paul left this morning for Gulu to work in the displacement camps. He took boxes and boxes of clothing we (BoHU) collected from local churches and well-wishers. Yesterday we met with Robert Larubi, executive director of Youth Vision Uganda, an NGO in Gulu. His organization has a wide variety of programs for people living in the camps but Paul will be working with 13 of the boys who were previously child solders. These 13 refuse to speak. Robert explained that when these children are recovered, or escape on their own, the family and community often refuse to take them back. They are viewed as criminals/killers, even though some of these kids were kidnapped and forced into being child soldiers by the LRA as young as 5 years old. Anyway, Paul and Robert left for Gulu together this morning. Without moi. Dammit.

Robert’s group does community sensitization sessions where there is a formal apology from the recovered children and the community “forgives” them and takes them back. Still, when the parents are angry they may sometimes point fingers at the children and remind them of their sad histories, (“What else can I expect of a murderer” kind of thing), or other children often taunt them. The boys that Paul will be working with refuse to speak, whether from trauma, mental illness, fear, guilt, no one knows. I was truly tempted to push the envelope and go even tho I have a few more days of not being allowed in buses, taxis, etc., but Robert said that the sanitation and disease in the displacement camps can make even the healthiest people ill. There are also some security issues which we already knew about. . .So…I am home pouting over my bad luck. I told Robert I would be back in Uganda at some point and will come and work with him at that time.

Robert, like most Ugandans from northern regions, is tall and skinny. Their bones are long, their faces are long, their teeth are long, they are very dark skinned, and all are naturally very thin. If I have said this earlier, forgive me. In the western regions of Uganda the facial features of the people are more like Rwandans—slightly Middle Eastern looking and fair skinned. Here in the Ugandan south, the people tend to be round. The vision is one of roundness--round heads, round muscles, round bodies. Not fat, but round as if they are built from a series of balls starting from their round heads and ending with round feet. People here are also very, very dark skinned. I look at people on the roads and can almost imagine where in Uganda they come from, or their background.

The other day we traveled to Scovia’s village to meet her father, grandparents, aunt, and bunches of siblings and cousins. Her grandfather came from Rwanda and the entire family looks like him…Rwandan. We went to three family homes on the land and spent the entire afternoon there and had a wonderful time. Her aunt (Scovia and Viola’s aunt Margaret) made us tea, and I had to laugh because Margaret and Viola sound and look like twins. The family are farmers so we toured the avocados, mangos, jack fruit, potatos, etc. Viola’s father died of AIDS when she was 4, and her mother died of AIDS when she was 12. After her mother’s death, Margaret took Viola and her five siblings in to live with her and her five children. Until yesterday Viola had never mentioned that she had been orphaned at a young age, nursed her mother, took care of her brothers, etc. all at age 11 and 12.

As we readied to leave, Scovia’s father and Viola’s aunt put everyone in a circle holding hands for a prayer. I had expected a prayer. Nope. Margaret started singing and chanting in Luganda, Scovia’s father joined in, everyone started swaying, and Paul, Katie and I did our best to stay on our feet and not do something stupid.

Paul moved into my space yesterday because he is nearly out of money. He has changed his flight home to September 3^rd. The neighbors who saw him move in here are likely talking… He jokingly suggested last night that we do each other’s hair and nails. He has a LOT of stuff, including his huge drum and his guitar, clothing, bed, etc. We are packed in here to the hilt. But since he will be gone for the next 7 days it doesn’t really matter. I will in fact miss him between the time he leaves for England and I leave for home. He has been great fun and good company in the evenings. I feel the same about Katie. I hope we can keep in touch since we all hope to return at some point.

Isaac came in this morning and said he needed my gum. I looked for chewing gum and wondered why he needed it. He said “No, your GUM”. I checked my teeth. After some back-and-forth, it turned out that he needed my green duct tape to seal the boxes of clothing Paul was taking to Gulu. I could write a small book on the funny misunderstandings we have had between all of us, including among the Muzungus. Paul’s Scottish/British slang and my American slang, occasionally mixed with Katie’s lip reading, have also caused occasional confusion. In the end, it all works.