Over the past year I have spent countless hours reflecting on my past experiences in Uganda, fulfilling my current obligations to our ongoing evaluation of the SAS program, and anticipating the new challenges and surprises that I will inevitably encounter as I spend my third summer in Uganda. At this point, it really does feel like a three part trilogy. For those friends and family who have been keeping up with me for the past two summers, hopefully you will share my excitement in seeing the people with whom I have built lasting relationships such as Grace who is our mother/housekeeper, Mary (who is also our mother) and her three children, Rev Obed at SAS, Dr. Bagenda. at the University, and Joan from the coffee shop. I'm sure that there will also be a new cast of characters to introduce.
I can already introduce one, Nicole Smith, who has decided to come with us for the summer as a member of our research team. She is the one on the left and Meagan is on the right in the picture. Nicole and I began our Master's degree at Memphis in the same year, and she was one of my very best friends while I was there. This past school year she has started a PhD in Medical Anthropology at the University of Kentucky and survived. She is interested in humanitarian aid and disaster relief in Africa, so we offered to have her come along with us to see what it is like. Meagan has also transitioned this year as she has successfully completed her Master's at Memphis in Medical Anthropology and has recently been accepted to a doctoral program in the Department of Public Health at Louisiana State University. She is moving down to New Orleans as I type. I have also spent the year in transition. I have decided to matriculate this September at Oregon State University in the Department of Public Health in their doctoral program (p.s. I'm looking for a place to live in or around Corvallis, OR if anyone has any real estate they need to rent). All in all I am enthusiastic about our research team, and I feel extremely privileged to be working with such a talented group of ladies who are also close friends.
Meagan and I have had a successful year working with SAS in the U.S. We have raised all of the funds to cover our trip through numerous and generous donations. If you are one of those people, thank you. Meagan and I also participated in a larger fundraiser for the SAS Foundation that has allowed the foundation to expand to several new locations in Uganda, particularly in Northern Uganda, which has experienced unrest for decades for political reasons. Being caught in between Sudan and Congo lends itself to turmoil. You might be familiar with the organization Invisible Children that has been working in this area to rehabilitate child soldiers escaping from the Lord's Resistance Army or LRA. It has rates of HIV as high as 10% of the population, some of the highest rates in the country. Let me go ahead and prepare you by saying that we are planning to travel to this area. It will be a new experience for all three of us. I am already looking to it with some trepidation. Every year, I have had an experience where I have come away a different person. In the summer of 2009, it was interviewing a 20 yr old prostitute in the poorest slum of Uganda. I was 23 at the time. In the summer of 2010, it was the bombing at the Rugby Club in Kampala the night of World Cup Final. A place where we frequented, but not on that night. I acclimate to the poverty in Uganda, but I never grow accustomed to the suffering that I see around me while I travel. I do not know this for sure, but I suspect that the suffering in Northern Uganda is more that any that I have been exposed to at this point. If you pray, start saying your prayers for this event, if you meditate, focus on this area, and if you don't do either of these things, just send me your best juju. Luckily, I'll have Meagan and Nicole. The three of us have already been through so much together that I have no doubts about our abilities to support each other in this particular experience and throughout the entire summer.
We will be leaving Thursday, May 19th. Feel free to call me in between now and then. We will be staying in Amsterdam for a week before continuing to Uganda. Trying to take advantage of the fact that we are passing through Europe, and this will probably be the last time for a while. We are planning to meet up with our German friend Sonja while we are there. You might remember her from last summer as the lady who started a non-profit soccer team for children in the slums of Kampala. We will be in Uganda from May 26th to July 21, and make it back to the States on July 22nd. Of course, I will be keeping up with the blog all through that time. I encourage you to leave me posts. It is always nice to be reminded of home and people who care about me. Also, feel free to ask me as many questions as you like, with the disclaimer that you have to be prepared for the answers. I will answer any and all questions.
For now I will leave and get back to organizing myself and this trip. Have a lot to go in the next week and a half. Much love.
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ReplyDeleteI would very much like to meet with you while you are in Kampala on how SMS can be used to get more information from the case workers and people both as a research tool and as a way of disseminating information.