Friday, August 13, 2010

Finally home

After a long trip, I'm finally home. I had to fly through my least favorite airport, Atlanta, but in the end I made it to New Orleans safe and sound. Dad took me to get some seafood, which I've been missing terribly. I intend to post some more pictures of Kenya today so that everyone can see. It is really an amazing country. Now that I'm home I probably won't keep up with the blog too much. It is very much my preference to talk over the phone or in person! However, I will announce, that it has been placed on my heart to continue working in Uganda, and perhaps spread my work into Kenya. I have appreciated everyone's support so much, and I hope that you'll continue to stick with me and help me influence people's lives for the better.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I'm in Amsterdam

and the flight wasn't so bad, I'm more concerned about the next one to Atlanta.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

On my way

So today is my last day. We will be leaving shortly from Nakuru to go back to Nairobi, and I'll catch my plane from there. Hopefully there won't be any delays and they'll let me out of the country without any hassle. Soon I'll be talking with you over the phone! I'll let you know when I'm in Amsterdam. Shitufu! That's It!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Safari

Today was an awesome day. I saw giraffes and lions today. We saw all kinds of things. I hoped that I would be able to post the pictures, but I'm really tired and struggling to get things done. I will try to get it together in the morning. Much love.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

I'm in Kenya!

I thought that I wouldn't be able to post on the blog, but it turns out that I can. The house where I'm staying has WiFi. I was telling Bill that I pretty much forgot what that even was... Anyway, already some exciting things: We drove to Nakuru this morning which is east and slightly north of Nairobi. The car ride was actually great and our driver was safe. The city of Nairobi is quite nice, but I think that I didn't get to see the really rough parts. Nairobi is home to the largest slum in the world.

The trip itself was nice. We went through a landscape that was similar to a high altitude landscape in the US. Evergreen trees in particular. There are a couple of things that are different. Here they have carts drawn by donkeys. I've haven't been able to get a picture of one yet, but I'm hopeful.

Nakuru is located in the floor of the Rift Valley, and for a while we were driving along the escarpment and could look down into the valley and see volcanoes, craters, geysers, lakes, and the valley floor itself. I've already seen baboons, zebras, and gazelles. I've got some really good shots of the zebras and baboons. I could see flamingos from a distance in the lakes, so hopefully that is another thing that I will get to see up close. I've already bought some earrings made of flamingo feathers.

I've enjoyed talking to Bill a great deal and seeing him again. It's been about three years, and so much has happened in that time. As always, he is continuously encouraging of what I'm doing and has good insight into the difficulties I face and the challenge of the decisions that I'm trying to make.

All in all I'm so excited to be here. People are excited that the recent vote on the constitution has gone well and maybe that is why people seem so cheerful. I think it will benefit the average people a great deal. There has been a dispute over land that was acquired unfairly in the past, and I think it will resolve some of those issues. Along the way, we stopped at a mission clinic to drop off some medications, everything seemed fairly clean and well managed. There are so many similarities between Kenya and Uganda, but in a lot of ways Kenya seems to be a bit better off. It may be that I just haven't spent enough time here.

The landscape looks just like it does in the documentaries. I think tomorrow we will go to church and then go on a safari. I'm crossing my fingers for a giraffe and a lion. I keep hearing the Lion King theme song playing in my head while I pray. I think it adds flair.


P.S. I just heard someone say "hakuna matata".

Thursday, August 5, 2010

On the way to Kenya

Will be leaving soon and the last post for a while. Wish me luck. I'm supposed to be meeting bill at the airport. I'll be leaving on the 11th and back at the New Orleans airport on the 12th. Cheers!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Be on the look out

We'll be making one last post of pictures from last week and this week. We have actually done some pretty cool things in the past couple days. The weekend we have spent trying to catch up on writing, and making last minute visits with our friends. Yesterday we went to Owino market. We tried to take a video of the chaos. Pretty much everything that you could think to buy is in that place. Maybe like Walmart, but cramped and outside. Our friends Moses and Sonja took us there to meet Moses' mother who sells fruits and veggies. I bought some delicious spices to make tea with. As many of you know I'm a bit of a tea fanatic, and I'm continuously on the look out for different types of tea or something to add to it. Our friends also bought some fresh cinammon. I had never seen it before just plain. It looks like mulch. Something that I didn't expect here the first time that I came was the significant Indian minority in the country and the influence it has on the different things that are available. In this case quality spices. We often saw things that we did not recognize, but the people had difficulty telling us what it actually was. Look for a pictures with something hot pink, orange, and then yellow. We have no idea what kind of spices those are. It was funny that as we walked from place to place, sometimes we would get a whiff of something delicious like Mangos and then a whiff of something rank like warm and raw fish. We also bought some black currants to try. Not a big fan. It was good a first, but at the end was bitter in such a way that it felt like something had sucked dry all of the saliva in my mouth. Win some loose some I guess.

From there they took us to where Moses grew up and Sonja spent an internship. The area is called Mengo pronounced like Mango. It is one of the biggest and worst slums in Kampala. Going there was pretty rough, but it was different from my experience in other slums. I think maybe because it was in an industrial area. I cringed to see the kids walking around without shoes on, not knowing what sort of chemicals are on the ground. We visited the homes of a couple of students who are being supported through their organization. They also showed us where they practice. The kids themselves were very sweet. One was funny because he heard a man calling out to me, and he said “Ah, your too young for him.” I said, “I know, and he’s very old, yuck.” I think he’s in one of the videos from earlier in the summer.

Today I woke up with a rash on my stomach and in a couple of places on my limbs. I feel bad that we have spent a portion of Meagan’s last day at the doctor’s office. I think it might be the detergent that is irritating my skin. They gave me a shot that was the most painful thing that I’ve had in a while. Luckily Meagan was there with me. Afterwards we also went to the craft market. The Foundation is having a fundraiser on October 29th in Baton Rouge. Let me know if you’re interested in going. We have bought a few items from the craft market. I got a cool wooden bowl with wire handles, some baskets, greeting cards, some salad spoons, and earrings. one pair gold, one pair purple. I’m looking for a necklace, but I can’t find one that suits me. The proceeds from these items will go to our project so that we can continue our research next summer!

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Our last week…

Monday 7/26/10
We were pretty tired to day, so we spent most of the time at home and only went out for Thai food. Jude went with us, and he and Meagan had never had sticky rick with mango before. It was a pretty big hit between the two of them, especially Jude, who is a particularly picky eater.

Tuesday 7/27/10
Trying to wrap up the research and provide some initial recommendations to the foundation. We are having trouble because we had such a great weekend. I can’t stop talking to Meagan and reliving the fun. We are also trying to buy a few things to take home to friends and family. Last year I bought all of my Christmas presents here and I plan to use that strategy again.

Wednesday 7/28/10
Again trying to build a report, people who went with us to Jinja keep dropping by so that we can exchange pictures. We had our friends Sonja, Richard, and Moses over for dinner and then we intended to go bowling. We didn’t have luck with the bowling. We left late, then couldn’t find it, and then it was closed. Bummer. As a consolation we did find another restaurant that we had previously asked about and were told that it wasn’t there. They had bagels, so we each bought one for the morning. Cinnamon Raisin I been missing you!

Thursday 7/29/10
One more day of report writing. Pretty boring. Our friends are wanting to go out a bunch because they know that we will be leaving soon. I think everyone is starting to feel the crunch, but I’m starting to get worn out with socializing. That evening we did manage to get another egg roll. We dissected it and took pictures so that everyone at home can get an idea of what we are talking about and why we were so surprised the first time. It has become a running joke amongst our friends about how we made such a scene the first time that we had an egg roll.

Friday 7/30/10
We had a long a day at the foundation today. We introduced Moses to Echiba and Reverend so that he might be able to become more involved with the Foundation in one capacity or another. We also went over our initial recommendations. I think they went over ok. There were a couple of things that they weren’t aware of and many thing that they already knew. We got some Indian food quickly in a restaurant that was air conditioned. Weird. We went back to the foundation and got prepared for our meeting with all of the mentors.
The meeting went really smoothly, and we handed them back the results from the pilot tests. They seemed to be pleased with the results of the project. We also said our good byes. It was very sad, especially since was the second time that I’ve said goodbye and now I’ve come to know so many of the people personally.
We took a taxi with Mary home because she was going to a wedding reception in our area. It was nice to spend a little time with our African mother before we left. Finally, we stayed home for a night. People kept dropping by to say hello and chat with us. Eventually we were able to watch some Seinfeld and go to sleep. I’ve started reading Sherlock Holmes and it is really good.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Back from Jinja

We had a blast in Jinja for Meagan's birthday. I think the story is best told in pictures (follow the link like usual), and between Meagan and I we got some really amazing shots. We arrived on Friday night. Although it isn't that far from Kampala, it took us a while to get through the Friday afternoon traffic. The next morning, we went horseback riding at the Nile, then went to a set of falls call Bujagali Falls, We picnicked at the source of the Nile eating fresh Nile perch and fruits and veggies that we brought ourselves. Then we took a boat ride around on the river. We pretty much gave the Nile and Jinja a thorough work over. I was really pleased with the way everything turned out and I think that Meagan as well as everyone else enjoyed the birthday celebration.
On Sunday we stopped at another set of waterfalls that was not on the map, but one that only the local people knew about. It was a place where people who have traditional beliefs go to ask for blessings and relief from evils. We took a tour of the grounds and washed our feet in the stream. Hopefully we didn't pick up any bad juju along the way...but we made it back safely at least and are preparing for our last full week here in Kampala. It is an ominous feeling knowing that we will be leaving soon, and neither we nor our friends care to talk about it. It's hard to explain what it is that makes Uganda so enjoyable despite all of the strange and difficult things that we have to deal with. Meagan and I are already trying to think up ways that we can come back and spend some more time here.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Trip to Jinja

Meagan and I are going to Jinja with some friends for Meagan's birthday. Source of the Nile here we come! Plus we have planned a horseback riding trip with just the girls. Can't wait! Look forward to more posts on Sunday.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Pictures

More pictures are up. Check em out!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

A better update

Finally the internet is working more effectively and I can give a better update. Let me start upfront by saying that I'm not going to leave early. I understand that many of you are concerned about my safety, but both Meagan and I have decided that we are not in immediate danger. Although one American was killed and others were injured, the attacks were not directly specifically at foreigners but at the general public by a Somali terrorist group. We have been keeping in touch with the embassy and getting information from them. You also can get information from the embassy and the state department to see what they recommend. They each have a website and the information is readily available. Thanks for all of your concern and we are still exercising a level of caution as we being to go back to our daily routine and move about the city.
The atmosphere around here is getting back to normal. A lesson that seems to be difficult for me is that the world doesn't stop moving when people die, even if it is tragic. That doesn't mean that the event is insignificant, but life continues on all around. We don't know anyone who died directly, but our friends almost always knew someone. One lost an uncle and his car is stuck at the rugby club because the uncle borrowed the car. By now most of the dead have been buried.
We stayed at the compound for a day and a half, but have started to venture out keeping closer to home and for things that we need. The difficulty with not having internet is not being able to get decent information, and the newspaper and televised news is never that great. So ultimately we had to leave if we were going to get information. Plus our friends keep us updated and watch over us as always. In all honesty that is how we found out about what happened before it was ever on the news. As the game was ending one person got a text that there was an explosion, then another, then another, until everyone's phone around us was lighting up. We were out that evening watching the game at a small local bar not that far from the Rugby Club. After the game we went directly home, knowing that something was going on in the city, but felt safe in the compound. All night we could hear the sirens passing by as they took the dead and injured from the Rugby Club to Mulago Hospital. It wasn't until the next morning that we knew the explosions had been at the local rugby club and an Ethiopian restaurant in Kabalagala, a neighborhood south of downtown close to the American embassy.
So yes, it is sad and unsettling and atrocious that someone would do something like that, but out of principle I feel that it is important for me to stay and continue working. As Meagan and I have been talking about what happened and working through it in our own way, I think she made an excellent point in saying that because terrorist groups don't have the means to carry on an outright and upfront war with whomever they decide is their enemy, they resort to psychological warfare and preying on people's fear to get what they want. I refuse to allow anyone so cowardly as to attack innocent people enjoying the World Cup, which was intended to be a symbol of African unity and peacefulness to prey on and instill fear in me. That's how I feel about it, take it or leave it. See you all August 11th.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Just to let everyone know...

Meagan and I are aware of the attacks that happened in the city last night. I'm posting so that you know we are safe at home and were not effected by the attacks although I think it is safe to say that we are both a little rattled and uneasy about what is going on. We are struggling to get information about what happened since it occurred so late in the night and now it is still very early in the morning. I do know that one of the places, the rugby club is one that we have frequented. You may remember about Meagan and I running on a rugby field. That is the place where one of the bombs went off. So we are definitely blessed to have been somewhere else in the night watching the game. However, I hope you will keep those people who were effected in your prayers. I will keep everyone posted through the blog as soon as anything else happens.

World Cup Finals Tonight!

So I’m not sure when I updated last I think I have a whole week to cover…

There are a couple of things going on. We have been meeting with parents at schools where we intend to do case studies. We had meetings at three different schools this week, and that in itself was a lot of work, but surprisingly two of the three meetings went really well. Many of the parents are excited about the research we are doing, and also want to participate. We hired one of our friends to help us named Moses, which turned out to be a really smart move. He’s really good at what he does helping and translating. He understands our research with ease. He keeps time, and he loves children. You can tell that the children are equally excited about the research. Many of them are so smart and they continually impress me with their maturity of thought. I wonder sometimes if it isn’t because of the reality that most have to live in day in and day out. It forces you to grow up a bit faster.

We are still working on the IRB, baine of my existence, approval. Now we have the sister of Dr. Muhumuza, Beatrice helping us because she is a member of parliament. So it’s looking like its going to figurative take an act of parliament to push this thing through.

Of course we aren’t wasting any time. We are doing things that are helpful to the foundation. We got in all of our pilot tests and are working on getting them graded and entered into a data base. The results are actually quite exciting because they reflect some of the opinions that we developed based simply on our school observations. We call it triangulation, and it usually means that you are doing a good job.

Last Sunday we went to church with Mary, a supervisor at the foundation. She is the one that I described as Mary Poppins. We arrived at her house at nine. Then we arrived at church at ten and we were there for three hours. It seems that would be like a long time, but it actually was a lot of fun. I could get my sway and my clap on for the songs. I actually knew some of the songs as well. There were what seemed to me to be two sermons. One of them was entertaining because it was based on the world cup. We went home with her to have lunch and all of her children came to the house to have lunch with us. It was another hour and a half before lunch was ready, so again the photo albums came out and we had to look at endless pictures of almost the exact same thing.

When lunch was ready we ate as much as we possibly could, but it still wasn’t enough. I really thought I was going to be sick. By time we ate lunch, took pictures outside, ate some pineapple for dessert, it was coming to six in the evening. Can you believe? The whole day for just church and lunch. We were so full when we left that we walked a large portion of the way home so that we could sleep comfortably.

On Tuesday we were invited to dinner with Dr. Muhumuza’s mom, Rachel, and Andrew. Rachel has two children that were very cute, Hannah and a little boy called Tama, but that’s his nickname. I can’t remember his real name. He was super cute because he knew a few English words and would yell them out and then clap for himself. The meal was delicious and this time I seemed to be more successful at eating. She had stuffed a chicken with rice, peppers, onions, and tomatoes, that was fabulous. Again we didn’t eat enough to her liking. She also made a mini mat for the each of us in the style that they make traditional mats. It is on our table acting as a table runner right now. I told her that we were so grateful and that when we came back we would bring back something for her.

This weekend we have been doing the world cup thing. I have to say I’ll be glad when it’s over because I can’t get enough sleep between work and watching the games. But it’s unthinkable to miss the games, right? All in all we’re just trying to make the most of the time that we have left. It is amazing how fast the time has past. I really think that I would like to live here for an extended period of time, like a year or so. It seems like as soon as we have started to really get in the swing of things, we are having to leave. I think Meagan wishes that she could stay longer too. Part of it is that I love my job here so much. The people and children are so nice. All in all its just so enjoyable to be here despite all of the small difficulties that we have a long the way. Well, that’s enough sentiment for the moment. Will try my best to keep things updated in the remaining weeks.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Pictures!

Again, we have the pictures posted from last week in case you haven't notice. My birthday is included.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Weekend #6, which started on Wednesday

Wednesday 6/30

Today was really a great day. I already told about how I went swimming and laid out by the pool. I was excited that I had some semblance of a tan line.
Meagan and I went to get Thai food and the restaurant was so much fun. We were able to sit outside as the sun was setting. I enjoyed the peacefulness on the patio minus the sound of traffic and fumes. Because the restaurant was on a small road it gave a sense of detachment from the city that I thoroughly enjoyed. The service and the food was really good. I got them to make me the closest thing that I’ve had to cocktail since I’ve been here. They didn’t have any martini glasses, but mixed a martini with fresh passion fruit juice and rimmed the wine glass with sugar. I had the Pad Thai and ate it with chopsticks. I was pretty excited about the chopsticks.
When we left the restaurant we met up with a friend, but when I got there they had a surprise party waiting for me at the bar. I didn’t really realize what was going on until they brought out the cake and showed it to me. At first I was a little confused because the cake said “Happy Birthday Jinjer”, but was really happy when I realized it meant me. I actually enjoyed that the cake was misspelled. It encapsulates my experience and I felt like it was honestly how people think of me in African terms. Perhaps that is a bit of a romanticized way of looking at it, but I can’t help it. The person who bought me the cake, Jude, was upset that the bakers had misspelled the name especially since he had spelled it for them plainly. Cheers to Africa.
Everyone that we have met along the way came to the party. Many of them brought gifts, which was completely unnecessary. Among the things that I got was a carving of a gorilla, a Ugandan football team jersey with my name on it, music, a purse. Lots of great gifts. I’m still not sure how to thank everyone. I had gotten wind that people would be there to spend the birthday with me when I got there, but I was completely surprised at the elaborateness of the affair. It was truly a wonderful birthday.

Thursday 7/1
Meagan was nice enough to let me have one more day off, but unfortunately I couldn’t spend it lounging by the pool. The idea of it being July spurred me to start applying for jobs again, so that’s what I spent the majority of the day doing. I got three applications in, which is good. Hope things work out.

Friday 7/2
Today was my day to go out in the field. A dropped by the Foundation to see if the mentor had brought back any of the surveys that we sent out with them. We’ve gotten a few back, we took the time to grade the ones that we had. The results are pretty promising. At least we are getting a feel for what the children know and it is confirming some of our suspicions about the things that they don’t know.
I also stopped by the clinic to for a few errands. Dr. Grace, Dr. Muhumuza’s sister is also getting on board trying to help us with the IRB issue. I told her that we would welcome any and all help.
We shared the cake with Grace and Annette. I think they were really excited about it. I told them that I didn’t want to eat all of the cake myself and get fat, and they remarked that since they were women and not a girl like me, they would eat as much as they pleased. I had them laughing for some time.
That night we went to see a band called Afrigo. They are the oldest band in Uganda, and were playing during the Idi Amin era. That’s certainly something. They were an excellent band and had dancers who would do the traditional dances for the Buganda people (the local tribe in Kampala). They were amazing the way that they could move their hips. I can’t every figure out how women can move their hips, but not their shoulders when they dance. We also watched the Uraguay/Ghana game, which was a spectacular game even though everyone was upset that Ghana lost. They were the last African team left in the tournament. Oh well, life goes on.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Happy Birtday to Me

Wednesday 6/30/10

Today is my birthday, and it has been very pleasant so far. I decided to buy a swim suit and go swimming at the fancy pants club where I had the incident with the vice president last year. I really enjoyed laying out by the pool and reading. I took a dip and swam a few laps, but the pool was cold!

Meagan has gone out to do a few things with the foundation.

We finally posted the pictures from last week. Most them are of the parents meeting that we went to. For those of you who attend or have attended parents meetings, you'll probably find them pretty interesting. We also posted a really cool video of the children singing for us and the parents.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Fifth Weekend

I forgot some other things that happened over the weekend. Friday we went out with our friend to watch more football. It's getting really exciting now that it's coming to the end of the tournament and the stakes are high. We went to watch at the rugby club, which was kind of cool. We ran around on the field afterward and I think we embarrassed our friends a little bit. Two white girls running and doing cartwheels.

I'm not going to talk about the U.S./Ghana game

Yesterday I went with our friends Sonja and Moses to watch the Germany/England game, since I needed a new team to cheer for. It was a lot of fun because we went to a restaurant that was German. I always like being in places where everyone is going for the same team. And they won big, which made it even better. We have decided to ask Moses to help us with our research project some. I think it will be a good fit. I'm not sure if I already said or in case you forgot, but Moses and Sonja run an organization that sponsors young kids from the slum to play football and go to school. In case anyone who plays soccer is interested, they could use some sponsors. Their team of slum kids is actually really good. They always beat everyone.

Lastly, my birthday is coming up soon. Meagan is telling everyone, and I'm not used to all of the attention surrounding it. I think it will be fun though, we are going to try to make a rum cake, which will be an adventure. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm not sure what I'm going to do on Wednesday, since that is the actual day of my birthday. We are talking about trying to go and get Thai food. Last year I treated myself to a massage, but I don't know if that's what I want. Got any ideas?

Getting behind on the posts

Sorry everyone, I'm starting to get lax on the posting. Not much of interest has happened. At least I don't think so. We spent the week preparing for Friday since we had a parents meeting to gather consent and a meeting with all of the mentors on Friday. When we went to the school, we were really surprised that when we walked up and they had decorated the school with streamers and fresh flowers. The meeting with the parents itself went really well and the response from the parents was extremely positive overall. Many of them also volunteered for interviews. I'm not sure how we are going to squeeze it all in.

At the mentors meeting, we asked the mentors to pilot a survey for us. I'm not sure how it's going to go, but it's one of those things that has to be addressed. Currently the foundation doesn't really track how much knowledge the children are acquiring over time, so of course to demonstrate whether or not the children are learning, a simple survey is necessary to test their knowledge. It should be really simple, but we didn't get a lot of encouragement on it from the administration, and in my mind I'm thinking "Hmmmmm, I wonder why that is."

Meagan is really spear heading the whole survey which is exciting. Now that we have spent a significant amount of time her, she is really taking charge of the different parts of the project that she enjoys. It's nice to have an equal partner in this thing again to take some of the burden off of my shoulders.

That's sort of a tangent, but anyway, when she was explaining how to administer the survey, all I could think of was an image of a dandelion and us blowing on the seeds to watch them float away. All we can do is hope that it works, and if it doesn't, adjust it until it does. It's amazing how much we make this up as we go along, and it's not that we aren't prepared or that the outcomes aren't quality outcomes, I"m just proud of us for being flexible enough to finesse quality outcomes out of some seriously precarious situations. Such is the nature of research, and we're getting really good at it. Cheers!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Finally I can tell you what happened

Our trip. I have tried to include all of the important parts. Looking back now it was a long trip and I still think that I’m trying to get over it. Now some of the pictures may make more sense.

Thursday 6/17/10
Today was the day that we left for Hoima. Many of our friends were worried about us traveling around. I told them I would call them if we were in jail and needed help, but they didn’t think that was very funny. We took a coach bus to Hoima, which was about three hours away. It was hot and cramped, and the guy next to meet kept leaning over to read my paper. The landscape slowly became more hilly and as very charming dotted with banana trees and corn fields. We travel with two of Dr. Muhumuza’s siblings: Andrew and another that I had not met yet called Rachel. They were both very excited to go to Hoima and spend time with their father who resides there.
We almost missed our stop because we all fell asleep. We were all sitting so close together that we were propped up and didn’t have any trouble sleeping upright. Their father came to meet up with us, actually, at an organization called the Meeting Point. The coincidence was not intentional. The Meeting Point is an organization for people with HIV to engage in self help activities. It was a good fit for SAS and Meeting Point to work together since they are looking for sources of income for people who are HIV positive and SAS attempts to recruit people who are HIV positive. At the Meeting Point we got to meet many of the new mentors who had been recruited into SAS. It was really amazing how they were all very comfortable admitting that they were HIV positive and citing it as motivation to become part of SAS. The stigma surrounding HIV here in Uganda seems to be a bit different than that in the United States, but it is often difficult to put my finger exactly what those differences are or why those differences might exist.
The mentors were very eager for us to come and visit their schools. We ended up visiting five schools in a day and half, which by Ugandan standards is a great deal of work. That afternoon we walked to two of the schools. They were both interesting in their own right. I noticed that many of the children were not wearing shoes at any of the schools that we went to, but after thinking about it for a while, I realized that since the area is so much cleaner than it is in Kampala, it probably doesn’t matter that much.
By the time we visit both schools, roughly 5:30 pm we were both starving and realized that arrangements had not been made for us to have a place to sleep. That made for a relatively nasty combination. We stayed with the father, but felt bad for imposing on such short notice. He also took us to get something to eat. We each got fish, but it started to rain heavily and we were sitting under an awning. I didn’t realize that in this part of Uganda it is actually the rainy season, unlike in Kampala where it is actually the dry season. So anyway, as soon as they brought us fish, which turned out to be an entire fish with eye balls and everything, the power went out. We were left to attempt to eat a whole fish in the darkness. Eventually I gave up and started using my fingers because it was too difficult to maneuver my fork around the bones in the darkness. That is how most Ugandans eat anyway.
On a tangent, I find myself becoming detached from the need to use utensils to eat. Not that I will have any problem switching back when I get to the US, but now that I’m used to eating with my hands, it feels so much more normal where as utensils seem rather superfluous.
Coming back to the story, Mr. Tibagwa the father had two cars to bring us home in. One of them was a 1960 Toyota Crown. It is truly amazing that he has been able to hold onto something like that through gaining independence as a country, and three coups over the past fifty years. We settled in for the night at his home. It was modest but plenty comfortable.

Friday 6/11/10
The next morning we met Mr. Tibagwa’s wife, Jannette. She was very nice and very old. She ran a nursery school behind their house. She wanted us to come and see it, and the little children were just so cute. They were arranging colored bottle caps over numbers and letters.
We had a great breakfast minus one issue. We each had a boiled egg, but when I cracked mine open, there was a chicken inside. =? I tried to cover it back up, but it was so stinky. I didn’t know what to do with it. Luckily Janette took it from me and gave me a fresh plate and a fresh egg, and everything was cool. We had freshly roasted peanuts that were delicious, with fresh tea and milk. Of course the milk was boiled first. Here they make tea mostly with milk rather than water. I think it’s pretty good, but I can only drink so much because it’s so heavy. We put butter on our bread and then smashed the peanuts into the bread. Tasted just like toast and peanut butter.
We piled back in the car and rode back to the Meeting Point. Mr. Tibagwa didn’t come with us, so we said our goodbyes to everyone in the home. I told him that we kiss our elders goodbye in America, and so I kissed him once on each cheek and he thought that was pretty funny. I also said goodbye to Janette in the same way. At the Meeting Point, we met with a reporter who is interested in writing an article on the Foundation. I hope it works out well. From there we walked to three more schools. Each one was interesting in it’s own right, but repeated we heard that the Foundation was doing good work and that parents and teachers also wanted to get involved with the Foundation.
We walked a good ways this day and by the time that we got back to the Meeting Point, I was ready for a shower and to rest a while. We got a hotel room where we had gotten food the night before, but luckily this time we didn’t have any problem with the power. The hotel room was simple but comfortable. I don’t think that either of us cared that much at that point. We watched part of the American game on the TV. I was so excited that it was at least a draw.
That evening we met up with our friends, Richard, Sonja, and Moses who were going to be traveling with us up to Bulisa. Richard was from the town of Bulisa right on Lake Albert. We hung out long enough to have a beer and watch the next game. Sonja is an interesting person. She is German and came to Uganda to take an internship for a couple of months, but ended up deciding to stay. She’s now been in the country for over a year.
I was really tired by the end of the day and ready to go to bed. I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep.

Saturday 6/19/10
We woke up pretty early so that we could get an equally early start to Bulisa. We got on a taxi, but had to wait for more people to get on, then pick up a set of tires, and then pick up one more person. Minus all that we were wizzing down the road pretty quickly. It was a dirt road the whole way and extremely scary given the speed that the driver was pushing the taxi. It took us about two and half hours at full capacity to get to the edge of the Rift Valley. When you could finally look out over the valley from the edge it was striking. You could see Lake Albert as well. But we only had a short time to admire the view before we were fearfully focused on coming down into the valley safely. And once we hit the bottom at least ten more people got in the taxi with us. Meagan gave a head count of 25 people including children and some fish. They were all going to Bulisa. Luckily it was only like another hour like that. Along the way we saw lots and lots of baboons, and I was trying to explain to the student next to me what a cactus was. The valley is semi arid, so it was filled with a variety of plants suited for dry weather, including cacti.
I was crazy thankful to make it to town. We were practically spilling out. We went to visit Richard’s family. I already knew one of his uncles because he works with the Foundation as a mentor. He was also visiting at the time. The grandmother was very picturesque in her traditional clothes, cropped grey hair, skin leathery from the sun, sitting on the porch giving advice and direction to people as they passed by. It was like even though her legs were tired, her arms and hands hadn’t lost their enthusiasm for giving orders.
We ate a brief lunch of rice and chicken broth. Sonja and Moses were vegetarian and Richard didn’t understand why they couldn’t eat chicken. Everyone was anxious to get to the park. Time quickly gets eaten up with family. We piled in the car that offered to give us a ride. Getting into the park was extremely frustrating. They charged us a ridiculous amount of money according to Ugandan standards. I felt bad because it was so obvious that normal Ugandans wouldn’t be able to enjoy a park like this. It reminded me of that series about the American park system and how America is unique in that parks are readily available to the public.
We got to the hostel and they didn’t have any rooms. My heart just sunk. Our driver had left us. Tensions were running high. The person running the desk directed us to some people who taking a river tour so we sort of pushed our way into the car with them. I don’t think they minded so much because they offered us some ginger snaps. I think they were Danish or Dutch. We also tagged along on the boat, but it wasn’t a private tour, so I think the people funning the tours were happy because we filled the extra seats and made them more money.
The tour itself was wonderful. We were able to relax and not worry about our troubles for a while. The wildlife and the water falls were beautiful, which I will leave the pictures to describe.
Getting back was another fiasco. When we got back to Richard’s families house, I think we were ready to call it quits for the night and have something to eat. We went through the same issue of chicken not being meat again. I was so hungry I didn’t care. I ate a lot. No utensils. We slept down the road in some huts that were made out of clay with grass thatched roves. It was actually pretty comfortable and I was excited to really be doing what anthropologists do.

Sunday 6/20/10
We woke up to the sound of goats. In the middle of the night a drunk guy came in and was looking for a place to sleep. Richard directed him to another place, but I was in such a deep sleep it was like a dream until he told me about it until the next morning. We got ready that morning and played with Richard’s little cousins. They would just sit and watch us write. Eventually we started drawing pictures for them, and then gave them pens and notebooks so that they could draw some pictures for us.
We decided instead of trying to go back to the park, we would walk to Lake Albert and try to put our feet in the water. It was a long walk, but it wasn’t hot yet. When we got there we saw the crested cranes and went to the fishing village. It was right out of a movie. The people were too shy to come and talk to us. They just stared. The Lake itself was just as beautiful up close as it was from far away. You could see the shores of the Congo across the lake. I loved the tons of periwinkle shells all along the ground.
We walked back and by this time it was pretty hot. I was thankful to get back to the village and rest under a tree in the shade. Some of the people came and started talking to us. One of them wanted to give Meagan a cow so that we would take him out drinking. Luckily we escaped the situation by going to get some lunch. At luch time we got to try a new food called calow, which is a sticky substance made out of millet. It didn’t taste like anything, but the texture of it was so interesting that I couldn’t stop eating it. We also had some fresh fish that was pretty good.
Then I couldn’t find my money to pay, I had left it at the house. Even then it took me a while to find it, and even though I was sure that it hadn’t been stolen I was getting really upset really quickly. Meagan found it for me. As soon as we packed up our things, the taxi arrived. We really didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, but we couldn’t miss the taxi because we weren’t sure when it would come again that day. This time we took a different route back to Kampala. Along the way the driver ran out of gas in the middle of a sugar cane field. He said that someone had stolen his gas. I was worried that we weren’t going to make it back to Kampala that day. Luckily someone walked back to the previous village to get a jerry can full of gas. Meagan had to volunteer a water bottle which became a funnel. Luckily we made it to the town where we had to make our connection with only a few minutes to spare.
We took another large bus back to Kampala, but right as we were coming to the city we had to get off early. We were stuck in a jam and I had to go to the bathroom so badly. Once we got off I had to go so bad that I used the men’s room on accident. Luckily no one saw me. Our friend Jude came and picked us up and dropped us off at home so that we wouldn’t have to find another sort of transport to get to the city. We crashed when we got home.

Monday 6/21/10 Tuesday 6/22/10
Not much happened on these days except that we tried grasshoppers, which tasted like soft shell crabs so we ate them with ketchup and called it a day. We can actually get Heinz ketchup here but the writing is all in Arabic. Pretty cool. The other thing that happened is that we went out with some friends to watch the world cup. Afterwards we tried to get something to eat. We stopped by a roadside stand, and I order what I thought was a Chinese egg roll, but instead I pulled something that looked and felt like a fried soft ball. Turns out that a Ugandan egg roll is a whole boiled egg rolled up in mashed potatoes and then deep fried. I think we embarrassed our friends a little because we couldn’t stop laughing and they couldn’t understand why we were laughing in the first place.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Pictures!

We have posted some pictures from our trip. Use the same link as before. There are some really great ones in there. Enjoy!

Hippos

Just wanted to let everyone know that we arrived safely back home in Kampala although we had many adventures along the way. I will give a more thorough recounting later when I have had time to write it all up myself, but on a short note thanks so much for the prayers. I can tell because I saw so many hippos and tons of other wildlife too! Miss everyone.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Bout to Leave

I thought that I was going to have more time to give a full update, but it just isn't possible. Of course the day before we are trying to leave town, everyone wants something out of us. We left the house this morning at 10:30 and didn't get back until 8:30. Makes for a long day. Now we're frantically trying to get cleaned up, pack, and monitor the South Africa/Uraguay game. Can't get behind on what's happening. Will let you know how it goes on Sunday or Monday when we get back. Wish us luck and include hippo sightings in your prayers.

Cheers!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Third Weekend

Saturday 6/12/10

Had a blast watching the World Cup. We went to a place where they projected the game onto a wall between two giant palms. It’s exciting to be in Africa while everyone is experiencing something new. It’s the first time that the World Cup has ever been held in Africa and people are pretty excited about it. Mostly it’s a man’s sport, so a lot of the men in the city are being let off work early during the week to watch the games and no one seems upset about it. Everyone expects it. We were two of very few women watching the games.
After the game they also took us to a bachelor party. I think they could tell that the idea made us uncomfortable, but they kept insisting that it was different from American Bachelor parties. We got there we were surprised to see the entire family of the groom, and friends of the family all dancing and getting down. It’s funny to see even the fat old men dance to the rap music.
We went to watch the US play today. We went with Jude and his cousin Derrick to Entebee to have a “change of scenery” as they said. The game went all right, but afterwards we went to the beach to see Lake Victoria up close. It was a lot of fun and the water was nice and warm. I couldn’t see the color of it so hopefully it wasn’t neon green or something like that. I had to fuss as Derrick because he was driving like a crazy person down the road.

Sunday 6/13/10

Not much going on, just catching up. We had a guest over, who was supposed to arrive sometime after lunch, but didn’t show up till 8:30 at night. Then we gave them something to eat, but it had cashews in it, which they had never had before and didn’t like. =) all smiles.

Monday 6/14/10
Today we actually got finished early, and that never happens. I didn’t even know what we should do. We are planning a trip to Hoima at the end of the week and then will continue to Mysinde to see the Nile. I’m so excited because I think that we will get to see the Muhumuza’s parents again and stay with them. Another friend will meet us in Hoima and then travel with us to Mysinde because his family is from there and he knows the area. There is a park that surrounds the falls and the Nile, There is also supposed to be hippos and crocodiles, elephants and buffalo, etc. Hippos here I come!

P.S. We have posted the pictures from week three. It is the same like that is posted, but when you arrive at picasa, there should be another folder. Cheers!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Wednesday 6/9/10

Woke up this morning feeling a tremendous amount better. We went to the coffee shop to have lunch and see Joan. We had an interesting conversation with her because her ex husband’s parents had died recently and they had kept her children with then in the village to go to school, so they were very involved. She attended the funeral was showing us pictures from the funeral. We asked her about how people were buried, and it sounded pretty normal until she said that it was a bad omen for people who hung themselves. People would just dig a hole underneath, cut the body down, let the body fall directly in the hole, and cover the body as it lay. No one would touch the body at all. A little melancholy but interesting.
Stopped at the market to buy a fake red Juicy Couture purse. I’m pretty excited, mostly because it’s red. We went home afterwards because my body just isn’t up to par yet.

Thursday 6/10/10

For the life of me, I could not get out of bed this morning. Meagan had to come and wake me up because Mary wanted us to meet her an hour earlier for a school observation. The observation itself went really well. We went to a school that used an integrated learning model for children with learning disabilities. The classroom was mixed with two regular children for every disabled child in the classroom. The classes were very small, and everyone worked under the philosophy that everyone had something to learn from each other. The idea really appealed to me, using school purposely to teach compassion for people who are different by learning to work together. It is so different from the American model, which is often critiqued for segregating “special ed” students because they never learn how to integrate into normal society and people never learn how to interact with people how have special needs.
The mentor was really good with the children. He told me that he had been walking seven miles each day to work with the children in this part of Kampala. Mary had us over to her house after the observation. We had a fantastic time and stayed for the remainder of the afternoon. My favorite part was probably watching her make juice by hand and listening to her tell stories about her children and her late husband. Later her son stopped by to meet us, named Julius. He seemed to be pretty nice.
For lunch we had most of the typical dishes, with the addition of posho and pumpkin. Posho is something like grits, but with a lot less water. I ate until I felt like I was going to pop, but still not to the satisfaction of Mary. She commented that I didn’t eat enough, and Meagan, jumping to my aid, said that I ate more at home. I also said that I wasn’t thin after all, and Mary agreed, saying that I had “big legs” (smile).
After lunch we drank the delicious juice that she had made herself and looked at pictures of her family. We sat and looked at pictures for at least two hours and had every picture explained to us in detail. I didn’t think that we were ever going to get out of there. They sent us home with some chilies, a papaya, and on the street the bought each of us what is called a rolex. Clearly it is not a watch, but something comparable to a breakfast burrito. In the evenings vendors stand by the road side and make fresh chapatti, which is an type of Indian bread that is flat and round and dense by cooking them on a hot flat skillet. Then they crack two eggs, mix them with onions and tomatoes. And pour it on the skillet to make like an omelet. The man who was doing it was very good, he could use his knife to both cut things and as a spatula. Then they place the chapati on top, lifted and flipped the whole thing and then wrapped it over on itself. Then you ate it just like that. We waited till we got home to eat them, and even though we weren’t hungry we each ate the whole thing. I feel like I’ve eaten enough for three days.

Friday 6/11/10

Spent the whole day trying to catch up on writing. Grace is here and I almost can’t stand it because she pecks at me continuously. Looking forward to tonight, we are meeting some friends to watch the next world cup game. We have been watching the opening ceremonies and the Mexico/South African game as we have been working. Think it’s going to be a blast!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Feeling Better

Just to let everyone know, I'm feeling much better. Although I'm a medical anthropologist and love the traditional stuff, when it comes down to it, I'm not going to snub my nose at some good old fashioned antibiotics. Both the nose and the stomach are better. Kinda cool to be killing two infectious birds with one stone. Not something we really consider in medical anthropology.

First Observation

Monday 6/7/10
I thought that I would be feeling better today, but I don’t. I’m worried that I might have a sinus infection. I was sure that I was going to be feeling better today. Anyway, we decided that instead of going to the clinic and then the foundation we would go to the foundation and then the clinic, thus giving me another hour of sleep.
At the foundation we had a very long meeting with Rev Obed. We told him about our research registration predicament, and it made him extremely upset. I was actually a little surprise about how adamant he was about finding out why it is taking so long and helping us along in the process. I was glad that I found someone else to deal with the secretaries so that I don’t have to anymore. The meeting went well, and afterwards we went to the SAS clinic.
We happened to meet Dr. Muhumuza’s father, which was actually a little intimidating because he’s lived through so much turmoil and managed to raise so many successful children. He turned out to be really funny and charming. He would start to talk about his different children, at about the fifth one he would get distracted and loose track of what he was talking about and start another conversation. I suppose remembering five out of ten is pretty good. I was able to give him the razor blades that I brought from the U.S. I accidentally broke the dispenser in CVS trying to get them out, but I think it was worth it. He said a blessing over us as he left. It was very sweet of him. I then took a nap, wrote a little and went to sleep. My cold is still bothering me and I seem to be acquiring an intestinal issue on top of it. P.S. it was my mom’s birthday today

Tuesday 6/8/10
Woke up in the night with a killer sinus headache and nausea on top. So I’m not feeling better today. I took some cold medicine and felt better for a while. Meagan got up and we made a heavier than usual breakfast because I knew that we wouldn’t be back to the house till pretty late in the afternoon. We left in time to make it across the city in an hour and a half, and we actually made it on time. We met with the supervisor, Mary, to do our first observation at a school. Mary is really cute in a grandmother sort of way. Today in particular she was reminding me of Mary Poppins because she had on a stiff dress and a large bag, and she used an umbrella like a parasol for shade while we were walking. The only thing she was missing was the hat.
Doing the observation was a lot of fun, and has been the best part of the week so far. We caused a huge commotion when we showed up with our whitness. The children were very smart and asked a lot of good questions. Towards the end though, the cold medicine was starting to wear off, and I was glad that we didn’t go to two schools like we had originally planned. On the way home, Mary helped us bargain for a pineapple. The mentor as well, was exceptionally sweet. We asked her why she decided to be a mentor, she said because she had a “sympathetic heart”. Also because she was HIV positive it was something she wanted to join in.
I knew I was going to get fussed at when we got back by Grace for going out, and she didn’t fail me. She also wouldn’t let me have any juice because she said it wasn’t good to drink cold things when you had the flu. She also fussed at me because we spend so much time walking and breathing in dust and that is why I was sick. I decided to start taking antibiotics. Between the nose and the stomach, I’m really having a difficult time, and I’m pretty sure that I’m grossing Meagan out. Fortunately tomorrow is another public holiday, so we don’t have to go anywhere. I’m not sure I would be able to anyway. However, I’m optimistic that I will start feeling better tomorrow.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Second Weekend

Thursday 6/3/10
Today was a public holiday, Martyr’s Day. So there wasn’t much to be done because nothing was open.

Friday 6/4/10
Went to catch up with another friend. She has been managing a health club. She was the one who took me to the market last summer to buy clothes. Hopefully we will get to go again this time. Grace made her Thai chicken for us today. It was soo good, just as good as I remember it from last time. It rained again today. It seems to be raining a lot more than last summer. I took Meagan to this BBQ restaurant today. It is funny because we have been having this ongoing conversation of exactly was gristle means. I thought it was the stuff left in the pan after you fry something. She thinks of it as the occasional rubbery piece that you get when you bite into a piece of meat. Anyway, she doesn’t like it, so I wasn’t sure how this adventure was going to go. The BBQ is different from what we think of as smoked meat with sauce. The bring out piece of meat that has been roasted on skewers with salt and this hot chili paste. I love it and think that it’s great, especially because you eat with your fingers and they bring sides of tomatoes, avocados, bananas, ect. So she didn’t like it too much.
From there we went to another place that I knew about where you could get fast food, burgers, milkshakes, pizza, etc. We had better luck while we were there ordering a pizza. I’m pretty sure that pizza has been my saving grace on several occasions since I have been coming here. It is just so nice to be able to order something, and you know approximately of what it is going to taste like, but since pizza is pretty versatile, it tastes good no matter what you put on it (for the most part).
From there we went out with some of our friends for the night. Ugandans really like to stay out late, so they we pretty surprised when we wanted to go home around one or so.

Saturday 6/5/10
Feel like I’m coming down with a cold. I spent a lot of time sleeping today and hanging around the house. Meagan wanted to go to a movie, so we made plans to go see “Sex and the City” at the shopping mall here. I really like how the shopping mall is arranged. It is an open air mall, but it gives you the feeling that it is enclosed because it has several floors and ramps to get from one floor to the next. It just has several points where windows would normally be, but are just left open. There was a lot of white people there too. I still can’t find anything in my size in the stores.
We went to the food court to get some food. I had never been to a food court here before. I should have known that it wasn’t going to be like what I expected. Immediately we were bombarded by restaurants that would have people standing out front trying to get us to take a look at their menu, i.e. trying to sell their food to us. They had a lot of ethnic food, but out of curiosity we went to the Lebanese restaurant because Meagan has a Lebanese heritage. We took and ordered the hummus, and it was actually really good, with fabulous pita bread. Ugandans aren’t really particular about their bread. I think that they eat bread that to me is almost stale. They don’t think the softness is important. So it was a pleasant surprise to have pita bread that was actually soft and malleable. We bought some to take home with us =).
We went to the movie next. A friend met us to see it. The line at the ticket booth was a free frall, like all other kinds of lines. I had to push my way to the front. When we went in the theater they screened us for weapons. The guard felt my purse and told me that I had a lot of “gadgets” in there. They didn’t look it it. They might have found my pocket knife and mace, but I suppose I couldn’t only do so much with that anyway. The theater was air conditioned! Weird. By now I’m accustomed to not having it. I was cold through most of the movie, but Meagan somehow managed to fit a sweater in her bag. I didn’t care for the movie that much. People were talking through the whole thing anyway, and our friend Jude kept answering his phone in the middle of the movie. Cell phone etiquette is one of my things, and it’s hard to set it aside. We always talk in anthropology about cultural relativism, which is the idea that you can’t pass judgment on other culture’s customs because those customs are the result of different historical processes and value systems. So I can tolerate all kinds of customs in Uganda, like polygamy and traditional healers, and all of the beliefs that people have surrounding HIV and AIDS that would bother most Americans, but I just can’t set aside the cell phone etiquette.
Our friend Jude took us home. He tends to pay for us a lot, which makes me uncomfortable at times, but when I buy something for him, like the movie ticket. It clearly makes him uncomfortable. Not sure what to do, might have to come to a compromise somewhere along the way. He really looks after us though. He wanted us to go out again that night, but we were both wiped out, and my throat was getting worse along with my mood. So he took us home. I think though his friends were disappointed when we went home. They seem to think that we are a lot of fun.

Sunday 6/6/10
The cold is better today. Staying in was a good idea. I’ve just been writing and sleeping through most of the day. I know that tomorrow will be busy, so trying to relax and enjoy the down time. I realized that we can even download music on the internet =).

Pictures!

Meagan has uploaded some pictures from our first two weeks here. Here is the link, http://picasaweb.google.com/114343566893152925273/UgandaWeek12010?feat=directlink But I will also post the link on the right had side of the blog for future use.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Round Two and Three

Monday 5/31/10
I woke up tense because I knew that I would have to see the secretary at the UNCST again. First we stopped at the hospital to meet with Dr. Bagenda. Meeting him was actually very nice. He is always so helpful to us and has a good sense of humor. I think at some point we will go have dinner with him and his family. He married an American physician and have a daughter that’s 21 months. He always introduces me to interesting people. This time was the person who was the principle investigator for the Rakai project, which is a major HIV surveillance project that began because this is the area of Uganda where HIV originally emerged. He was one of the first doctors to distinguish HIV as a unique collection of symptoms, i.e. he is one of the people to first recognize HIV. How cool is that?
We talked for a long time, and Meagan was anxious to get down to the UNCST as well. It was funny because as we walked out of the building she said, “We’re taking a boda!” And I laughed because they frighten her so much, but given our time frame we really needed to get there. We did take a boda, and sat down with the secretary for round two. Some of our paperwork was wrong, so we had to fill it out again, and then I was so relieved because we had finally gotten it all together, and then I asked how long it was going to take to process the paperwork, and she said SIX WEEKS. I was so upset, I could barely speak. So I went outside and called Dr. Bagenda right away. He had the same reaction, but tried to encourage us and offering to call the different people that he knew who might could help. We found a place to have lunch. We mostly sat in silence because I was still too angry to speak. And the we proceeded to walk the rest of the way home.

Tuesday 6/1/10
This morning we went directly to purchase an internet modem. The thing is so cool. It works anywhere, and on any computer that you plug it into. You just pay by the month. It makes me wish that we had something like that in the U.S. Grace and Anette came today. Grace cooked lunch for us and it was delicious. She also made some fresh juice. While we were eating it started to rain and then hail. I was mostly impressed that the power stayed on the whole time. We got a call from Dr. Bagenda that was encouraging, he said that the paperwork at the UNCST was already processed and that it would be sent to the president’s office, which was four weeks at the most. Lastly he told us to go by the UNCST again and meet the person who was helping us (round three).
David came by in the evening. David, you might recall, was the student who had been sneaking into school because he couldn’t pay his school fees, and mom and I decided that we would give him the additional money that he needed to finish school. He sat for his exams and did very well. I think he did better than most students that passed. He said that 40% of the students didn’t even pass their exams. What a bummer. Now he is in the process of applying for college. He wants to go to the one in Kampala, Makerere is the name of it.

Wednesday 6/2/10
Meagan got an email from someone at the University of Memphis saying that they would like to do a write up on our project for the Memphis magazine. It was pretty exciting to get some good news. I assumed that they would just want Meagan in it since she is a current student, but they said that they were also interested in alumni, so I’ll get to be in it too. Generally things are starting to look on the up and up.
We went to see the lady, Leah, who had helped us. It wasn’t the one we had been talking to all this time, but their desks were adjacent. We tried to be as polite as possible, but even still she had the attitude of “why are you here again”. Turns out she needed a few things from us anyway, so it was good that we dropped by. That means four more weeks at the most, so it seems that things are becoming a little more manageable. I wish that I could come back in the middle of the year and do some more observations.
From there we had our Wednesday pizza lunch. Always relaxing. The restaurant is really nice because it is all open air, but completely shaded by all kinds of different plants. It makes it really nice and cool. It also blocks out the sound of the street, so it is quiet and relaxing. The only thing is that they play really bad soft jazz. We had another person ask us for our number so that when they got to America, we could help them get a job. I it s so interesting how we don’t even think about how easy it is for us to move to another place to visit or to work if we want to, and it is so difficult for so many people. I know it is important to control the inflow of people, so that the system isn’t overwhelmed, but it makes me appreciate my privileged position.
We had a good meeting at the Foundation. Things are starting to move in the direction. The biggest thing is that we are working with children and that requires parental consent. And they won’t let us send the forms home with the children. So we have to gather the parents together. If we pull it off it will be quite an accomplishment and make the information we gather very uncommon.
When we came home we happened so see the lady Rose, who is our neighbor. Turns out that she is Eritrean, not Ethiopian. I was so embarrassed upon the discovery. Anyway she invited us in, and it turns out that she and her family we just sitting down to dinner. I was so excited to eat with them. They eat very similar to Ethiopians with the njara (njaara?) that looks like a giant spongy crepe. They had cooked chicken that had a thick spicy sauce with it and they just dumped the whole thing in the middle of the njara. We also got served a portion of cooked vegetables on our portion of the giant plate. It was so fun to eat with our hand and pinch some of the bread and then grab some of the chicken. They kept telling us that we weren’t eating enough, but I felt like we had already eaten so much. They asked us a lot of questions about what we have been doing, and America. Rose has a daughter that speaks fantastic English and is extremely social, so we answered a lot of questions from her. They gave us lots of compliments on our hair since it was so much lighter than theirs. Rose’s husband works for the UN in Liberia, but she lives here in Uganda with her daughter, two sisters, and brother. We spoke with all of them on different topics. We were having a lot of fun. The really cute white dog belongs to them, named Dede.
After dinner we had coffee. Rose showed me how she makes it from the raw bean. She showed me how she roasts the beans in a ban over the gas stove. When they are ready you are supposed to bring them out and let people smell the beans. The guests are then supposed to waft the steam coming from the beans and remark at how delicious they smell. So we smelled the beans and they really did smell so good. Then she let them cool and ground them using a modern coffee grinder. Boiled water. Added the grinds. They put the coffee in a special pot that looked something like a gourd that was carved for pouring and sat in a round basket. In the end of the spout she put this confetti looking stuff that was supposed to filter out the remaining grounds that didn’t fall to the bottom. The coffee was super strong, but delicious. I could only have two cups. We drank out of these really small cups that look like what you drink sake out of or sometime green tea. Just a little bigger. After two cups I was already wired.
We graciously thanked them for the coffee and then went to another social engagement with some friends that we hadn’t had a chance to catch up with yet. We ended up doing so much more than we had originally planned for the day.

Thursday 6/3/10

Not much going on, just trying to catch up on the writing and start getting prepared to start doing observations in schools. I can’t wait to work with the children.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Yay we have Internet at the house!

5/30/10
We did so many things today it is hard to know where to begin. We made a point to make coffee this morning with the coffee we bought from the coffee shop. I was excited because I ran of the coffee that I brought back in December, so I hadn’t had any since then. It was as good as I expected it to be, and really cheered me up. Meagan had two cups.
From there we left to go to town. Our friend Richard invited us to a party that was being thrown by some friends of his that run a nonprofit that sponsors children to play soccer. The party was for the team because they had a good season and won all of their tournaments. On the taxi someone starting talking to Meagan. They asked her if she voted for Obama. Lots of people have been asking us about Obama. They like him because of his Kenyan heritage. They always want to know if we voted for him.
Once we got into town we walked to a hotel that I was pretty sure would have a business center. We stopped for the bathroom. I went just fine, but Meagan got suck in the bathroom stall because the door wouldn’t unlock. She kept turning the key, but the lock wouldn’t turn. Finally just as things were starting to get panicky it unlocked. It was a good thing too. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get her out of there if she was truly stuck, and I’m sure that being in that little stall would be horrible. It is like another room, not like the kind that you can just crawl out from underneath the divider.
We walked to the place we were going to meet Richard. From there we went to the old taxi park to take a taxi. You many remember from my description last year what the taxi park looks like. If not you can look at the pictures. It is just an open space where they squeeze as many taxis as possible for people to travel in and out of town from the “suburbs”. Some how everyone has the locations memorized of where each taxi is in the park that is going to be traveling to the different locations. We also passed by a lot of vendors who are trying to sell us all kinds of trinkets and candy. At times it was sort of difficult to keep up with Richard who could weave through the crowd so easily. He often asks about what things are like in America. It is surprisingly difficult to describe. He’ll ask something like, “do you have potholes in America? Do you have dirt roads like this in America?”
And the answer is always yes and no. Yes we have dirt roads and potholes, but not in the middle of the city. Unless maybe you are in New Orleans where the roads are horrible anyway because the water table is so high. There are dirt roads but you have to get out in the rural parts a bit before you see one. I try to explain that we also get bad sink holes like the one at the end of our drive way that Mrs. Freddie drove into, and several family members have stepped in. So the answer is yes, but it is different in situation and extent. Difficult to communicate.
We took a taxi out of the city. It was nice to get out of the city for a while. Once we got to our stop we had to take a boda to the top of one of the hills close by. At the top of the hill they had leveled out part of one side into a soccer field. There the boys team that we were supporting was playing a match. Although in Uganda they call it a pitch. We met some of Richards friends. They were all very nice. One of them was a young German woman. She had to have been around Meagan and I’s age. She had come for three months originally and decided to stay. She had now been there for fourteen months. It was really interesting to meet someone who had really gone native. She lived and worked like most other Ugandans.
While we were watching we had some sugar cane. It was nice to have as a snack although it makes your hands filthy and sticky as the juice runs out of the stalk all over everything. Meagan had a big time with it. I was lucky in that I’ve had sugar cane before, although Ugandans just peel off the bark with their teeth. I definitely had trouble with that, but the men that were standing around were laughing at Meagan when she was trying to bite it. I could only get through two joints of it before I got tired of it. Richard was so efficient - it was amazing. He made short work of his and the rest of Meagan’s. I passed mine off to someone else.
The boys ended up winning the match. They didn’t seem to be surprised about their victory. One even said that he was tired of winning. At this point they were very shy and didn’t want to talk to us very much. From there we walked down the hill to the village. It was a beautiful view to be able to look out over the rolling hills. All along the hill you can see where people have been planting their crops. They were trying to tell us the different kinds of plants, but I could remember some of them. I remembered how they grew their tubers in small mounds that they had built up so that when they went to harvest them, they would be easy to recover. I always thought that was clever. We also saw all of the common garden items closer to the house.
To get to the houses we had to weave through all kinds of houses and gardens along a little dirt foot path. You would have to know exactly where you were going to know how to get there. I like that there are no fences that keep people from walking through. Nobody worries about stealing. Everyone has a garden and so it isn’t necessary to worry about stealing because everyone has the same stuff. The only thing that might cause trouble is if someone’s livestock got into another’s garden. When we got to the house it was a simple small house. The woman, Sonja, and her Ugandan boyfriend, Moses lived there together. It was a two room concrete house. They had electricity but no running water. Minimal material items. A rack for clothes, a set of shelves in the front room for cooking materials, and a bed on the floor with a mosquito net. However, they did have a few things that indicated modernity. They had a satellite TV, a DVD player, and an ipod to listen to music. Although I suppose that none of those things would be useable if the power went out, as it does on occasion.
Along the way we made a new friend named Roger. He was one of the coaches of the boy’s team. He was asking us many of the typical questions. Where were we from, what state, how long had we been in Uganda, etc. They were going to prepare a meal for the boys and he was in charge of the rice and he showed it to us. He had cooked the rice in an enormous pot with onions. He called it “pilawo”. I told him that we had something similar called rice pilaf. We agreed that I would try his cooking and he would try mine and we would decide who’s was better. After trying it, I think it would be a pretty tight race. He also started us on a vocabulary of Luganda words.
Anyway, Ugandans eat enormous meals because they tend to eat only one meal a day. Hopefully we will have some pictures up soon so that you can see. Meagan and I had to share one plate. In addition to rice we had potatoes, and cooked vegetables. Even between the two of us we couldn’t finish it.
I didn’t realize that everyone was going to eat with their hands until Richard happened to offer us a fork. Richard himself used a fork. Either way I was ok. I would have eaten with my fingers. There wasn’t anything that was too messy, although I’m not sure how people would eat matoke with peanut sauce with their fingers. It would be like trying to eat mashed potatoes and gravy with your fingers. Not even any bread to soak up the juice. Anyhow the meal was great, and everyone ate their fill. Afterwards the boys got up and stretched their stomachs because they were so full. Even some of the neighbors came by to get a plate. It was funny because they didn’t ask, they just took, and they brought their plates with them. It seemed like a common occurrence, so no one in the group thought anything about it.
The boys left for the dance party while the adult cleaned up. They wanted us to watch a documentary about Ida Amin. So we sat and watched while they cleaned. I felt sort of bad about it, but the documentary itself was very interesting. It isn’t that different from the movie The Last King of Scotland, but less graphic. The guy who plays him in the movie is just like he was in real life. We didn’t get to watch the whole thing because they wanted to join the boys at the dance party. By this time it was dark so we all walked with a flashlight as our guide.
When we got to the party we danced and danced. All of the people thought that we were so funny. The music was in Luganda, but it had a good rhythm to it. The boys themselves could dance so well. We had so much fun, and I was glad that we went. I was reminded of why I liked coming here so much in the first place. I could write a lot more about the night, but I can’t be spending all of my time blogging. You’ll have to look at the pictures when we get them up to get an idea of what it was like.

P.S. I’m not always sure what to write about so feel free to post questions. Also thanks for all of the posts and keeping me updated on what is happening in the U.S. We now have an Internet modem, so we will be able to communicate a lot more effectively now.

Catching up

Friday 5/28/10
I’m looking forward to having a relaxing weekend of reading and writing and drinking coffee. Today we went to the supermarket (again) and the Foundation. At the supermarket we got a blender, which Grace has been requesting for the second summer now to make juice. I’m hoping that we will be able to make smoothies too.
We went to the Foundation to use their printer, and realized that they had wireless internet as well. So that was a bonus. At the very least we can go there to use the internet until we get something at home. And all of the equipment works properly for the most part. Rev. Obed’s computer is a bit slow. I was trying to educate him about things he can do to speed up the processing, like removing files from his desk top, and it sort of reminded me of being a home. We laughed because he said that he always got his son, Michael, to be close by to help him when he had problems. Sounded familiar.
So although it is frustrating to me to get all of this paper work sorted out, things seem to be looking better and moving forward. Monday will be our next attempt to turn in paper work, and again take up the ongoing feud that I have with secretaries in Uganda.
We walked all the way back to the apartment from the foundation. When we were measuring it out on the map it only said that it was two miles, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t write. The map also says that things are at locations where they aren’t. So I’m approximating between three and four miles. What I like about walking on this particular road, is that there are many schools in the area. The children walk along the side walk to go home in the afternoon. They are very cute in their uniforms walking home. Sometimes there are siblings together and the older with hold the younger’s hand. In fact Meagan got a picture of this type of pair while we were walking behind them. Hopefully soon we will be able to post pictures so that you can see for yourself.
We were pretty hot and sweaty when we got home. It is the type of hot where you just can’t eat until you cool off after a while even though you haven’t eaten very much that whole day. Today we are attempting to make banana bread for the first time. As I’m typing I can smell it in the oven. Hopefully it will be a success…

Saturday 5/29/10
We put out some roach poison today. Hopefully the poison will work. I felt like we were trying to protect ourselves from vampires by putting out lines of this powder that they can’t cross. We picked up a taxi and went to our old haunt, 1000 Cups of Coffee to see Joan, read, and have some coffee. She was very happy to see us when we arrived, and she helped Meagan order a drink so that she wouldn’t end up with another cold curer like she did the last time. We mostly ended up talking with people while we were at the shop rather than doing any reading. First we spoke with one of Joan’s regular customers who was a landscaper. Ugandans are very much entrepreneurs. He was telling me how he wanted to start exporting hides to Italy to be made into leather and then having the leather shipped back to be manufactured into different products to sell on the Ugandan market. We also spoke with two women who were alumni of the College of Charleston. They were leading missions for medical students and nurses in a town in the north western part of the country called Mysinde. They were working for a non-profit out of Charleston, so I asked them if they knew if there were any job openings. =). It will definitely be something that I follow up with eventually. I also took the time to talk with the owner of the coffee shop. I remember him from the last time. He was asking about the book I was reading, and coffee, and the different types of customers that he gets. I think that we will try to do the coffee tour again because it was so much fun when I did it last year.
After we were all hopped up on caffeine from delicious coffee, we walked across the street to the market so that Meagan could see the different crafts and things that they had. I knew that we weren’t going to make it out there without buying something, so I bought a pair of earrings and Meagan also go some paper beads. I also found a store that had fake designer bags. They claim that they are real, but I don’t believe it because they are only selling them for like 30-45 dollars. But… they are nice leather bags, so I think that at some point I’ll get one anyway.
We walked home and stopped along the way to pick up something that we could use for chips. We choose pita bread and we ended up buying some fresh goat cheese in the process. Our plan was to make pita chips for guacamole and use whole pitas for pizza crusts. I made a simple guacamole with just lemon, onion, salt, and tomatoes, and Meagan said that it was the best guacamole that she’d ever had. The avocados were perfect.
All in all today was a really nice day. I knew that I needed a day to relax and unwind after the long week, and do something for fun.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Sorry Everyone, i can't get the computer to read my flash, so an update will have to wait until Tuesday.

Ginger

Friday, May 28, 2010

Starting to get the ball rolling

Wednesday 5/26/10

Today has been a busy day. I had to make myself get out of bed because I’m still not adjusted to the time difference. I’ve been waking up in the night about the time of dinner in America, and can’t go back to sleep. Grace came today to cook for us, and she made some traditional Ugandan food: Matoke, which is the green bananas boiled and mashed, peanut sauce, cabbage and greens, pineapple, tomatoes and avocados. It was all delicious and it was fun to watch Meagan experience it for the first time. We also had fresh tangerine juice, which was amazing. The food is so good here. Lastly we stopped by my favorite pizza place today and got a pizza with pineapple and ham. Delicious. Enough about the food, we also worked today.
Most of the time was spent trying to print and send emails, and get all of the correct forms to the appropriate office to get our approval to do research. Of course we had all of the wrong items, and didn’t make enough copies, and I’m supposed to have four copies of my passport photo instead of two. We also got lost trying to find the office. I think deep down I knew that this was going to be a first attempt, but I’m still adjusting to the pace of things, and am anxious to get moving forward.
Our meeting at the Foundation balanced out our filing experience. The people we met last summer welcomed us warmly, and it was enjoyable to talk with them again. Rev wasn’t there but we met with some of the new employees that they have hired. It seems that the program has made a lot of improvements, many of which are based on the recommendations from last summer. That makes me feel very good, and is a compliment to our work.
I was happy to get home after the long day. We took a boda home this time, which is a motorcycle that you can hire to take you around instead of riding a taxi. Meagan was definitely afraid but game for the experience. She has been really good about trying new things. When we got to the house Grace had cooked a big meal for us to last several days. It is nice that we won’t have to cook tomorrow. She cooked some fresh beans for us, which is one of my favorites, for tomorrow. We finally got a really good pineapple.
After dinner Dr. Muhumuza’s brother, Andrew came by for a while. It was nice to catch up with him. Tomorrow we will see another one of the friends that I made last summer. =) Starting to have fun and relax.

Thursday 5/27/10
I thought that I would wake up earlier today, but I had no such luck. It was almost noon when I got out of bed. I think Meagan was also frustrated that she wasn’t able to get out of bed. She is an early bird like me. I finished up my writing from the day before. We ate a quick breakfast/lunch and then headed out.
Today we went to get some more passport photos made. When they took the pictures I felt like they were glamour shots. They had me pose and everything. We went to the post office and the bookstore. The book store had a lot of books about Obama since his father is Kenya. Actually a lot of shops and restaurants are named after him.
I forgot that you really have to demand attention from people if you want any kind of service. People don’t assume that you want something from them even though you are standing there. When we went to the post office the lady was chatting with a friend and only paused briefly to answer our questions. Same thing with the other woman who was selling the maps. People are just very social and are continuously in conversation. It is something that I’m not used to, but maybe it would be nice to have a job where your friend could stop by and chat with you while you weren’t doing your work.
While we were waiting for our friend to get off work, we sat down in the park. A group of young were trying to take pictures of us without us noticing. I think they were embarrassed when we did see, and then took pictures of them. Our friend also spotted us in the park from a distance like a bad Where’s Waldo. There were probably a hundred other people (but no white people). I am constantly reminded of how different I am, but things are slowly becoming more and more comfortable again.
It was dark by the time that we got home. It is difficult to walk on the dirt road at night. There are only a few lights. You sort of have to walk like you might be stepping into a dip so that you are ready when you actually do.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

First Couple of Days

Sunday 5/23

We finally made it to Kampala after a long journey. I spent a lot of the time sleeping. I guess this time around I’m a little more relaxed because I could sleep on the plane. On the plane ride from Detroit to Amsterdam, I requested a glass of wine with dinner and the flight attendant asked me how old I was. Irritating. We arrived in Entebee a little late because we were delayed in Amsterdam, but it didn’t take as long as I thought it would to get our visas and our bags. They weren’t checking us for swine flu this time, and I made sure that I got a stamp on my passport. All of our bags made the trip safely.
It didn’t take us very long to find Rev Obed, who drove us from Entebee to Kampala. Meagan was pretty tired at this point, and so was I. I realized how tired I was when I was standing on the wrong side of the van, trying to figure out how to open the passenger door when there was no door at all. Many things were just how I remembered them. People are still driving just as crazy and the roads are so congested, continuously choked and slowed by people getting in and out of taxis, people trying to peddle small items while you are stopped, cars that are stalled, etc. The temperature outside was very comfortable with a light breeze. By this time it was pretty dark and you could see the different lights across the small towns that we passed.
Rev brought us directly to the compound, and we are staying in exactly the same place as we did last time. Grace, the lady who cooked and cleaned for us two days a week last summer had sent one of her nieces to wait up and prepare a meal for us. I felt much better after having a shower and eating a little something. The niece’s name is Janette, and she didn’t hang around for too long.
I went right to sleep, but had trouble sleeping all the night through. Grace came to check on us early in the morning. She looked really good and she said that her new baby was doing well. I also spoke with the grounds keeper who we had made friends with last summer named Gerald. He was always very kind to us. Since I was awake I began to unpack, but I didn’t get very far before I fell asleep again. It seems like I didn’t have this much trouble adjusting to the time change last time. I didn’t wake up again until 2:30 or so in the afternoon. I woke up Meagan so that we could begin to adjust to the time difference. We were both still groggy when we left the house.
We walked into town, one because we didn’t have any money, and two because I thought it would be a little bit easier for Meagan instead of riding in the taxis. I think walking down the side of the road with the way that people drive was a little unsettling to Meagan. However, it was nice to look at everything with fresh eyes. There were some new buildings that I didn’t remember. My favorite coffee house is gone =( I dumped as much information on Meagan as possible with the hopes that some of it would stick. I know it will take some time for her to learn all of the different areas in the city.
A funny aside, as we were leaving I showed her how we go in and out of the gate, and then close the door behind by reaching through the peep hole to close the latch. She was a little unsure about having to reach through, which was funny because we came back later and she tried to unlock the door. As she was feeling around for the latch, the guard came up from behind the gate to open the door and grabbed her hand. She screamed and jerked her hand out. We all laughed.
Anyway while we were walking the 3-4 miles into town, we stopped in the coffee shop where my friend Joan used to work. She wasn’t working that day, but was supposed to be in the next day. I’m looking forward to getting in touch with her again. We continued to the exchange bureau and got our money. Then we stopped at the internet cafĂ©. We will be limited for a little while on our internet usage until we get our modem back. It seemed to be faster than how I remember it. Meagan’s wasn’t working at all which was frustrating to her. I think she was anxious to get in touch with her mom, but we got it all worked out.
From there we went to another coffee shop that was closer by. I was starting to get really tired, so we some drinks and some fruit. Meagan ordered this drink that turned out to be terrible. It was ginger tea with a lot of lemon in it, so it was super sour and made your face contort when you drank it. Later the waitress explained that it was supposed to be for people who have colds, which makes sense because it was pretty potent stuff. I took the safe route and ordered a latte, which was delicious, so I shared it with Meagan while they made her another drink. They could tell we didn’t like the tea. The fruit was fantastic. Meagan said it was like she never had a banana before that day. I agreed that they were excellent, and they make you frustrated at what they try to pass off as bananas in the US.
We also had watermelon, pineapple, papaya (which they call pawpaw), apples, mangos, tangerines, lemons, and passion fruit. The pineapple and papaya was really good too. I had never had passion fruit before, and it was pretty weird. It has a hard rind which you crack open. On the inside it is sort of slimy with crunchy seeds. Although it tasted good, the texture was too weird for me to handle. Meagan didn’t really like it either.
I decided that we would take a taxi back toward our part of town. We had to stop along the grocery store along the way. Crossing the street to get to a taxi stop is always a little precarious, and Meagan always waited for me to step out into traffic first. It feels a little funny being the leader, although I know it is necessary for the time being. Most of the time I wait for a Ugandan person to step out first anyway. In the taxi is was packed. There was a little boy and a mom sitting next to Meagan who kept smiling at her. He was really cute.
When we went to the grocery store, we picked up some of the things that we will be needing, and carried them back to the apartment. I can tell that I’m out of shape because I was getting tired carrying the water. Towards the end of last summer I could carry a pretty heavy load without getting tired. We lost two eggs out of twelve in the transport, which I thought was pretty good given that they just put them all in a plastic bag with the rest of the items.
We put everything away and Meagan took a shower. The power went out just as she got out. My lovely headlamp was perfect for the occasion and Meagan got to use her too. I’m sure we looked pretty funny walking around the house. We had to cook dinner without electricity, which was fine since the stove is a gas stove. It took a couple tries to get it lit. We finally ate an avocado, which I have been looking forward to for some time now. It was very good. Then we sat down to write some.
Then we had a roach incident. Meagan went to use the bathroom and there were two big ones in the bathroom. We managed to kill them both with a lot of screaming, and spraying of bug spray. At least I know that when I sleep under my mosquito net it keeps out bigger things too. The power came back on shortly after that which was good so I didn’t have to be afraid of the shadows that my headlamp was casting and thinking that they were roaches. The bats were also out last night, but I actually like the bats because I know they are eating the mosquitoes. There seem to be a lot of them.

Tuesday 5/25
I slept a little better, but I was still having lots of dreams. One of my friends from last summer called at 8:00 in the morning and I could hear the phone ringing in my dreams. He said that he was sorry for calling so early, but he just couldn’t wait. It feels good to know that people are excited that I am back in town, and I think that they are really going to like Meagan too. I also know that I’m going to have to do a lot of explaining as to why Dustin is not here, which I will have to deal with as it comes. I’m trying to be professional.
I woke up a little earlier today, 12:00, so hopefully by tomorrow I will be waking up at a more reasonable hour to begin my day. Meagan got up right away when I got up. I love her enthusiasm. I’ve been making lots of phone calls, trying to catch up with people. I feel like we have so much to do, and it will require everyone’s cooperation to pull it off.

Monday, May 24, 2010

We're Here!

We finally made it to Kampala after much traveling. Many things are exactly the same, and a few things are new in different. We are staying in the same exact place as last time, which is really nice. Meagan is pretty tired, but really positive for the first day. I have posted the link to her blog, but let me know if it isn't working. I wasn't able to test it. We don't have internet at home so not much time to talk. Will post more very soon.

Cheers!