Deal's African Adventure

Heading home!

2009-06-03T12:07:00.004+03:00

It's hard to believe, but today is my last day in Kampala. It's been quite the ride for these past several months, and I'm sure it'll take some time to realize how much my time in Africa has really affected me. I'll save that for another time, though. I've got a few more errands to run around Kampala along with one final lunch with Dorothy (my original Ugandan mother) before heading home to finish packing and catch a ride with Kizito towards the airport.

To all (any?) who have been reading this over the past few months, thank you! I have really appreciated your comments, and it has been nice to know that people were keeping me in their thoughts and prayers during some of the more lonely times over here. Although I would like to think that I'll wrap up with a few more posts after I get back to the States, I won't deny that there's a chance this is my last one. If that is the case, thank you, once again! Make sure to look me up if you find yourself in Kansas City in the next couple years!

See you soon!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. Will try to get more pictures once I have high speed internet again!

A few friends met for one final dinner last night

You win some and you lose some

2009-06-01T21:07:00.002+03:00

The end is approaching quickly...I have only two days before I board that KLM flight heading towards Amsterdam to start my journey back home.

I wrapped up my last final exam this morning, and it was a great feeling to get that over and done with. Unfortunately, however, the thesis defense I was hoping would happen before I left appears that it will not. To make a long story short (and to save myself from expressing too much of my frustration with the situation), I was prepared to give the defense on Saturday (literally was standing in front of the panelists with my slideshow projected on the wall) when they informed me that I was not going to be allowed to present due to a technicality. At Makerere, the thesis should not be defended until all grades have been received and verification of all classes being completed is submitted. Obviously, I was not all too pleased with the situation, but I think we've found a compromise: I'll do a teleconference defense once all of the bureaucracy has been cleared (Makerere doesn't have capabilities for this, but some of the hotels in the city do).

However, to be fair, I have been able to cut through a good deal of the red tape up to this point, so I can't complain too much. Technically, I shouldn't have even started my research until after classes had finished. The fact that they even let me attempt to do this program in 9 months is a blessing in itself. So, as long as I can do this defense without having to drop a couple grand to fly back, I'll be okay with it. I will wait to finalize my opinions of Makerere until that is over and decided.

In more exciting events, I did my first hash today. No, it's not how it sounds. A "hash" is a event put on by the Hash House Harriers. It's a mix between a running club and a social club (they bill themselves as "a drinking club with a running problem") with active groups all over the world. I've been meaning to try it out for the past several months, and finally made time to do it tonight with a few friends from my office. It was a lot of fun, but ouch...I am out of shape!

My host family had a going away party for me on Saturday night. They told me that it was just going to be a "small event" for a few friends and family, but when I got home on Saturday, I found that they had rented a large tent along with tables and chairs....I should have known that there is no such thing as a "small event" here in Uganda! It was a incredibly kind act on their part, and a very fitting way to top off all of the kindness that they have shown to me during the previous several months. My camera battery is dead right now, but I'll hopefully add a picture or two from the event in the next day or so.

It does feel like it's an appropriate time to head out. Most of my closest friends over here took off in this last week (I've realized that the ex-pat crowd is somewhat seasonsal over here), and many of my major projects have either concluded or reached a point where I can let them go (or, in the case of the master's degree, hopefully finish from abroad). I'll take the next couple days to wrap up a few odds and ends, and then I'll be ready to get on the plane to come home!

Cheers!
Chris

Quick update

2009-05-24T15:37:00.002+03:00

Hey all!

Just a quick update on my progress over here:

I have completed all exams for one load of classes and am about to start my exams for my second load on Monday. I'll have three more exams and one project presentation and then will be done with classes in Uganda. The thesis is moving along; I "officially" submitted it on Friday and am still hoping I might be able to get in the defense before I leave...we'll see!

It's starting to feel like it's the right time to finalize everything. Many of my close friends over here are on similar timelines, and there have been several going-away events over the last couple weeks as people have finalized their work in Uganda and headed back to their home country.

I let myself get distracted from preparing for a final exam that I have tomorrow long enough to wrap up one post that is posted directly after this. I'll try to at least get some pictures from my adventures with the chimps this previous weekend up before I head home.

In the mean time, here is an article that was just included in the NY Times that gives a good description (better than I ever could) of the Nile rafting trip I did last September. The author of the article did a two-day trip (I just did one day), but beyond that we had pretty similar experiences. Well, I didn't have any topless MIT students in my raft...but other than that it was pretty similar :)

I've got 10 days remaining in the country. It's slightly surreal to try and wrap my mind around the past 9 months; I still can't believe that it's almost over!

Cheers!
Chris

The born-again experience

2009-05-24T14:34:00.008+03:00

Ugandan religion is dominated by Christianity; I think 85% of the population considers themselves to be a Christian. As in the US, there are many different “flavors” of Christianity over here. I have made my temporary church home with the Church of Uganda, a branch of the Anglican Church (same as Episcopalian or Church of England). As I have understood things, this is the largest denomination in the country. The services are fairly similar to what I was used to with Disciples of Christ or Methodist services in the States, just bump up the length to 90 minutes and add a little – okay, a lot – of clapping, singing, and ‘hallelujah’s.’

I changed things up a couple weeks ago, however. My host family’s security guard, Patrick, invited me to attend church with him. I inquired a little further and found out that he attended a relatively new church that was associated with the evangelical – or born-again – movement. He also mentioned that services usually lasted at least three hours…

I decided to give it a try. I’d heard that the born-again services were an experience, especially when coming from a traditional worship background. I had been meaning to at least try one born-again service while over here, and I figured this would be my best – and possibly last – chance to do so.

On Saturday I checked with Patrick to see when the service would start, and he said it started at 10:30. Having learned my lesson the hard way – numerous times – I immediately responded with “Patrick, is that Africa-time or the actual time when services start?” Patrick shrugged sheepishly and nodded in affirmation that 10:30 was, indeed, Africa time. I decided that I would leave my place a little before 11:00 the next morning to head to the service.

At 10:30 the next morning, while working in my room on another project, I got a phone call from Patrick explaining that the service was about to start and wondering if I was going to come. That might be the first time that anything has ever been earlier than expected over here. Either that, or it was Africa telling me just give up trying to control time.

I quickly got dressed and drove to the church, which ended up being located in the middle of a valley/gully that probably doesn’t fare too well during times of heavy rain. I had to park a couple hundred meters away, and then I walked through a couple fields before reaching the church.

The church, hidden within a field of cassava and maize

Ramshackle is the best word I can think of to describe the structure. The roof was made out of cheap sheet metal and 4” tree trunks provided almost the entire structure. The walls – and I use that term very loosely – were made of reeds strung together. The building was fairly impressive from a size perspective; it reminded me of a Morton building and, if I had to guess, I would throw out approximately 75 ft x 250 ft for dimensions.

A closer look at the reed walls

I walked in to see a woman dressed purely in white singing with a mic and leading the choir. As I would later find out, she was the pastor.

We made our way to our seats (as I should have expected, Patrick had saved two seats in the very front for us), and I settled in for what I was sure to be quite the experience. As I had expected, I was the only Muzungu in the room. I’m sure I got my fair share of stares as I made my way to my seat, but I’ve been over here long enough that I’ve grown accustomed to it and didn’t really notice.

The next 15-20 minutes were spent “singing.” Of course, there were no projectors or hymnals for showing the lyrics, and most of these songs were in Luganda anyway, so I just stood there and clapped along. Most of the congregants were completely absorbed in the activity, and left their seats entirely, walking/running around the large room while putting their whole body into the act of worship. Patrick was a little milder and was constantly making sure everything was okay with me. Although I tried to act nonchalant with the whole experience, I caught myself just staring, trying to take in everything going on around me, a couple too many times. I’m sure it was blatantly obvious that this was not my usual cup of tea for a worship service.

After awhile, the pastor handed over the microphone to another person who took the lead in singing, and the music switched over from up-tempo Christian gospel music to what sounded like a cross between hardcore rap and heavy metal. The new song leader then broke into a mixture of screaming/rapping, in Luganda of course. Again, I found myself staring around; it appeared that this was a completely normal experience for everyone else. I enquired with Patrick, who casually explained that it was a rap for Jesus. At this point, we were less than 30 minutes into the service, and I could only imagine what was yet to come.

Eventually, the group singing ended, and they transitioned to individual performances. It seemed like most of this was completely unscripted; people from the congregation would get up, take the microphone, and sing whatever came to them. Of course, it was in Luganda, so I had no idea what they were saying (if I only I had paid more attention in those classes last semester…). My favorite performance was by three teenagers - two boys and one girl - who gave a CD to the sound system coordinator (basically the DJ), and proceeded to lip sync & dance to some Christian rap some. This was the final performance, and it ended by members of the congregation coming up and giving donations to the three. I asked Patrick what the money was to be used for, and he said that it was for the kids to use as they pleased. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of that, but decided it would be better for my own mental health to not try and come up with a logical explanation for everything that I had – and was about to – see at this service.

The next aspect of the service was a sharing of blessings received during the past week. People got up and spoke about how God had influenced their lives; most of the stories included finding an unexpected source of money in some way, shape, or form. One that stuck out, however, was from a Congolese visitor, who gave thanks for the health of his mother. She had apparently been in a very severe car accident and was now recovering in the hospital. He had just come from the hospital where the doctors had told him that everything would be alright; she was just “coughing up a little blood.” Again, I looked around to see if anyone was as taken aback by that statement as I was, but apparently everyone else thought “coughing up a little blood” was a minor issue.

This continued for awhile, with plenty of shouts of “Hallelujah” and “Praise God” mixed in along with a few more songs scattered throughout. Eventually, it transitioned to preparation for the morning message, at which point the female pastor made her way back up to the stage. She definitely had a commanding presence; and it was obvious that she held a great deal of respect from the congregation.

The sermon delivery was an interesting approach. She gave the message in Luganda, since that was what most of the congregants understood. She then had an assistant who would immediately translate everything to English. I was impressed with the effectiveness of the setup; it gave the whole sermon an interesting rhythm as the two speakers bounced phrases back and forth. What added the most to the whole scene was the fact that the pastor moved back and forth on the stage throughout the duration of her sermon. Her assistant then mimicked her movements, but always a couple feet behind her. When she stopped, and jumped up and down to emphasize a point, he stopped and, jumping up and down, repeated the same statement in English, with the same vigor. At a couple points, the pastor turned to her assistant and they exchanged phrases while pointing/yelling at each other. If I would have just walked in at that moment, I would have sworn they were about to throw punches. As it was, they were just making a main point of the sermon.

The fiery sermon lasted for somewhere between 30-60 minutes. However, ADD still somehow managed to kick in after about 20 minutes, and I found myself staring around again, just trying to take in the whole experience. I would occasionally get brought back into the sermon when I would hear the phrase “I have a dream…” which, according to my count, was used at least four times.

Eventually, the pastor wrapped up the message. Understandably, she appeared physically drained as she made her way back to her seat while the congregation transitioned back to more singing. The songs went on for 10-15 minutes before the pastor once again took the stage. She then gave a request for tithes & offering, which was collected during more singing. I checked my watch at this point; I had been there for slightly over 2 ½ hours, and it seemed that things were wrapping up. In fact, the pastor started the next aspect of the service by saying how she wanted to make sure to “keep time” (Ugandan way of saying stay on schedule) this Sunday. I thought to myself that I might get out of there in under 3 hours. When will I ever learn…?

I thought I had seen about all there was to see with an evangelical service. Ha! At this point, the pastor started to explain how the church was going to be doing a special outreach service in the upcoming weeks, and they needed approximately $3,000 to pull it off. They would need all the help they could get from the congregation for this to be possible, and she wanted to know who would be willing to contribute.

As I sat there wondering how she would ever manage to get that amount of money, people started walking up to the front of the church. One by one, they pledged to give what they could to help with the program. The pledges ranged from over $100 to less than $10. It was a powerful experience to see people coming and giving the little they had for something in which they believed truly needed to be done.

The real interesting part came after people would make their vocal pledges. At this point, the pastor would stand over them (she was at the edge of the stage, elevated about 2 feet) and give them a blessing. This blessing changed depending on the individual. It would usually be a general blessing of good tidings to come. A few times, when it was a woman who had made the vocal pledge, the pastor would have her husband come and stand beside her. She would the place her hands on the woman’s stomach and bless her with a future child.

This whole process, however, was interrupted at one point by cries of agony coming from the building’s side entrance. I looked over to see the same Congolese man who had earlier shared the blessing of his mother’s “good health.” Unfortunately, the “coughing up blood” had been as ominous as I had feared, and his mother had just passed away. The man made his way up to the front of the room, where the pastor – who handled the situation very well, in my opinion – managed to calm him slightly before handing him some money and telling two of the other church members to go with him to the hospital so he could be with his deceased mother.

The pastor then transitioned back to the pledges. More people came up and more blessings were given, including promises of more children (which, with Uganda having one of the highest fertility rates in the world at 6.77 children/woman, actually will hinder the country’s development progress…but that’s a whole separate post in itself). I thought this whole process of handing out blessings – especially promises of future children – was a fairly bold move by the pastor, but it ended up being tame compared to what came next.

An old woman walked up to the stage and offered to give the little money she had for the outreach program. As the pastor went to place her hand on the woman’s head to bestow a blessing, she suddenly recoiled with a look of horror on her face. She then explained that the woman was possessed by some time for a demon. At this statement, the old woman just shook her in acknowledgement while staring at the floor. I then was able to experience my first (and probably last) exorcism. The pastor placed her hands forcefully on the woman’s shoulders and spoke quickly and forcefully (I didn’t catch exactly what she said), repeating the process over and over again as the old woman started to shake more and more violently. Eventually the old woman collapsed into the arms of a man standing behind, at which point the demon had apparently been driven out. I just sat there for the whole thing, watching the whole process with a mix of wonder and curiosity.

That served as the climax of the whole service. After it, the pledging process wrapped up. Although they didn’t get the necessary amount of money, they were able to raise much more than I had expected.

The rest of the service was fairly straight forward. At one point, all visitors were asked to come to the front of the stage, and I got to introduce myself to the congregation along with a quick summary of what I was doing in Uganda. I threw in a few of the Luganda phrases that I had learned over the months, which the congregation enjoyed. Beyond that, I’m pretty sure that my accent prevented them from coming anywhere close to understanding my English, but an interpreter translated the few sentences I said.

I made my way back to my seat, and continued playing with a couple kids who had slowly gathered the courage to approach the Muzungu throughout the service as everything wrapped up with a few more songs. When it all ended, I looked at my watch: 2:00.

Intense. That’s the best way I can describe the whole experience. I shared it with a few of my friends over here who had been to some of the more main-stream born-again church in Kampala, and I got the feeling that my experience was an extreme one. I wanted to get an experience, and did I ever…

It is probably fairly evident from this post, but I’m pretty skeptical of what I saw during this service. Looking at the experience from a Christian perspective, it was great to see such enthusiasm among the congregation. That enthusiasm can be extended to the Ugandan population in general. Never before have I been proselytized as often as here in Uganda, and it’s nice to see people so excited about their religion. However, there are some definite issues that I have observed with Christianity in Uganda. Sadly, the corruption that plagues the rest of the country is also rampant within the churches. Pastors of the largest churches are often the owners of extravagant homes and can frequently be seen driving their BMW or Lexus (or both) around the streets of Kampala. Too many people are willing to take anything they are told by a pastor at face value and accept it as 100% truth. As it is, pastors are some of the most powerful people in Ugandan culture, and not all of them preach the type of acceptance and understanding that I have always taken to be integral to Christianity as a whole. Like most other aspects of society in a culture where corruption has become entrenched, religion has to be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism.

But I digress... Instead of delving into a long discussion about what I see as the pros and cons of religion in Uganda, I think I will save us all and just wrap up the post at this point. Congrats to anyone who made it all the way through!

Cheers!
Chris

Sprint to the finish

2009-05-12T18:07:00.003+03:00

Sorry for the delay between posts - I've had the combination of a hectic schedule and frequent internet/electricity outages these last couple weeks. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately...) this will be a very brief post as well.

Nothing too crazy over here. Final exams are now under way - 1 down and 6 to go! On the side I'm trying to finalize my thesis; I submitted my first draft last week and am doing edits now. I think I can make out a light at the end of the tunnel with this whole process...!

I have two more exams this week before I take a little breather and head out for my final weekend trip. I'm heading over to far western Uganda to do a chimp-trekking trip with some friends. Here's the place we're staying: http://www.chimpsnest.com/ Looks like it's going to be a great trip!

Anyway, I hope all is well back in the States. Congrats to all of you new college graduates, and I'll see many of you in just a few weeks!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. I've got a couple other posts half written - I'll try to get them finished up in the next couple weeks before I head home in June.

New pictures...finally

2009-05-01T21:21:00.003+03:00

Happy Ugandan Labor Day!

Nothing real special about the day; it's a national holiday and pretty much the same thing that we have in the States. I celebrated by taking my car into my mechanic's shop for some minor servicing (it seems like most people still work on Labor Day here unless it's a government position), arranging a tour of a local "factory" (I use that term very loosely) that manufactures groundnut grinders that are supposedly affordable for the masses, and doing some writing on my thesis (although nowhere near as much as I should have...).

Anyway, this is just a quick note to let anyone interested know that I have finally updated my online photo-sharing site. No captions yet...sorry.

You can access the photos here.

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. If anyone knows of a Ugandan interested in buying a sweet 1995 Toyota Corsa, let me know. I've been told by several people that it's a chick car...and by "chick car" I mean a car that is made for women to drive. :)

You know you've been in Uganda a long time when…

2009-04-23T09:28:00.001+03:00

I recently received this fun email detailing life in Uganda. The crazy thing is that I find myself doing much of what is described in it. I have added a couple explanations in italics when necessary.

Not too much fun to write about from this last week…lots of hours in the office with classwork and research as everything is now in full swing. My big news: I finished up my experiment on Tuesday…now begins the stage of spending copious amounts of time staring at a computer screen as I analyze all of my data.

Cheers!
Chris

You know you’ve been in Uganda a long time when…

…when driving, you find yourself using your turn signals as means of communication....i.e. 'the road is too thin', 'don't overtake there is a BUS coming', 'No I'm NOT going to turn here', 'whoopee, we won the football game!'

…you no longer get annoyed when people lie to you and make promises they can't possibly keep

…seeing someone speeding towards you in the wrong lane seems completely normal

…Your phone rings and it is a wrong number and you can keep the Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello's going back and forth like a tennis match until eventually the caller realizes you are the wrong number and abruptly hangs up, after spending at least 2 minutes worth of airtime

…You find yourself pointing with your lips and saying "yes" by raising both eyebrows.

…You can masterfully employ a variety of "Eh!" and "Eh eh!" noises to convey a range of meanings

…You know "Come back tomorrow at 10:00 a.m." means whatever you're trying to get done is NEVER going to happen

…You start using the words "even" and "ever" in places you never would have ("Even me, I'm feeling hungry," or "I have ever done that")

…You start referring to people as "this one" or "that one"

…You know you've, what?, been in Uganda a long time....when you, what?, start each sentence as a question and proceed to, what?, answer it yourself.

…You've figured out the Ugandan difference between food and snacks

…someone asks you "How is there?" You reply "It is there...

…You willingly drive into oncoming traffic just to avoid the potholes

…A car isn't full unless it has at least 7 people in it

…you can speak Uganglish so well that - you talk with a Ugandan accent; use words like 'shocked,' 'fearing,' 'extend,' 'balance,' ''somehow,' 'even me,' and 'can you imagine' and 'are you sure?' far too often...

…someone "flashes" your phone you just flash them back and wait for them to flash you back and then you flash them back and then they flash you back and.... (It doesn’t cost anything to receive phone calls here, so people will often “flash” someone so their number pops up as a missed call and the other person then has to call them back and spend their airtime)

…you know the load shedding schedule by heart

…you keep a jerry can full of water around, just in case…

…you feel exposed without bars on your windows

…When you come back from being out of the country and conversations go as:
Them: "you have been lost!!" and your response: "I have been found!"
Them: "how is there?" and you: "there is fine!"
Them: "you have gone fat!!!" and you are lost for words because you have forgotten how frank Ugandans are

…You emphasize how you like something and they say: "Are you sure?"

…you are asked how you are and your response is: "Me I am fine, how are you?"

…someone calls out your name and your reply is: "I am the one!"

…you end the conversation with "ok please"

…your knees ache from squatting over a long drop 4 times a day as a result of a parasite living in your intestines

…it's 80 degrees outside and there are people wearing parkas ("jumpers"?) and stocking caps

…You ask for someone, and you know the answer "He's within" means everything from "He's within the building" to "He's within the city" or even "He's within the country".

….you refer to others as 'you people' and don't intend to be rude

…you start sentences with 'As for me, I ….'

…you stop using those little 'off' or 'up' bits of verbs. You pick people. And you drop them.

…you get 'Fine' as a reply to your 'hello'.

…'nownow' means sometime soon, possibly in the next day or two, whereas 'now' means anytime in the next month.

….'moving' becomes 'shifting' (but you move with people rather than hang out with them)

…you stand in a line and feel something is very wrong because it is orderly and the person behind you respects your personal space...

…"ok" punctuates, modifies, tags and answers almost every sentence.

…"Bambi", said with that humble look, becomes your standard expression of sympathy. (“Bambi” means “please” in Luganda)

…you use the term "just there" to mean on the other side of the city

…"first let me come" or "first wait" makes perfect sense to you

…at the end of a meeting, you expect people to say, "Ok Please" as opposed to goodbye or have a nice one.

…your stories always have an "eh?" to make sure the people are listening

…you say SORRY! when someone hurts themselves through no fault of yours

…you call white people "muzungu" and forget that you yourself are white....

…you go to a restaurant and order something off the menu and the waiter/waitress looks you right in the eye and says "We don't have that one

…walking by a uniformed officer carrying an assault rifle is completely normal

…Clothes becomes a two-syllable word. Clo - thes.

…You know the man asking for Lose actually refers to Rose. And when someone says "let's play" you should stay seated. (in Luganda, there is no letter “r” and native speakers learning English often confuse/switch “l” and “r”)

…you don't get confused even though the person you're talking to keeps mixing up 'he' and 'she' in the same sentence talking about the same person.

…you are reluctant to let go of a new, CLEAN 1000 shilling note.

…your home does not have an address.

…your handshakes last an entire conversation

…next to a public phone at the bottom of the call cost there is a charge for beeping

…marriage proposals become a normal and almost expected thing from strangers.

…you have time to grab lunch while the bank teller cashes your check.

…you stop noticing how ugly marabou storks actually are

…you think the taxi you're about to enter is too full but the conductor will squeeze you in and let you sit where he was sitting but then he will be standing over you with his bad body odor.

…You have 9 x 10,000UGX bills and you wrap the 10th one around it and put it in your wallet.

…being given a "push" has nothing to do with "push and shove", but being escorted to your car after a visit....

…You lie on the phone that you are about to arrive for a meeting…yet you've not yet left you're home

…people walk into your house and you say "You are all most welcome!"

…you are making a verbal list and trail off saying "what, what.."

…you start calling inanimate objects "stubborn" when they don't work well

…you always use your big notes despite the fact that you have the exact change.

…umbrellas are not for rain but for the sunshine

…you think "eh" in a high pitch tone is the correct way to respond when a boda drivers price suggestion is too high.

…You have constant power supply at your house for a week and you are confused. You begin to think that UMEME is not correctly doing its work: supplying darkness instead
of light.

Africa time at its finest

2009-04-17T08:06:00.012+03:00

Almost exactly 8 months ago, I first walked onto the Makerere Campus and began the process of finding a program of study, registering, and attempting to earn a degree from my time over here.

Several times last semester, after having gone through the archaic registration process, I attempted to get my student ID card. Each time, I was met with the same response: “not ready yet, try again in a few weeks.” I eventually gave up on getting the card last semester and decided I would just get it when I came back for my spring semester.

At the end of last week, just before the 4 day Easter Holiday, I again went through the steps of completing an outdated registration process. Here are the highlights of the process (I’ve probably forgotten a step or two along the way):

1. Fill out two hard copies of desired class schedule form
2. Obtain proof of payment
3. Obtain proof of receipt of payment
4. Make photocopies of everything
5. Take two copies of everything to Registrar
6. After “verification” by Registrar (pretty sure they never actually looked at mine), have class schedule form signed
7. Take form to different room in Registrar
8. Obtain slip showing completion of registration
9. Take slip to Faculty of Technology Registrar for signature
10. Make photocopies of completed registration slip
11. Return one photocopy to Faculty of Technology Registrar
12. Guard original copy of registration slip with my life

I remember complaining about the registration process at Iowa State a time or two...if I had only known then what I know now!

At the end of this process, I received instructions to wait for two days before going to get my student ID. On Wednesday of this week, I decided to try my luck. The result:

“Not ready yet, try again in a few weeks.”

Maybe they’ll have my student ID card ready by the time I leave in 7 weeks, but I’m not going to hold my breath!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. I was telling this story - half joking/half venting - to a colleague over here and he reminded me that sometimes we need to keep everything in perspective and directed me to a webpage with these satellite images of the world at night (I've highlighted where I am on the second map):

Face to face with corruption (Part I)

2009-04-13T12:02:00.004+03:00

Sign located at the tourist trap near the equator

Ask most Ugandans (or anyone living in Uganda for that matter) what the country’s greatest problem is and the most common response you’ll get is definitely corruption. As in many African countries, corruption permeates throughout society in Uganda. In fact, the country had the dubious honor of being declared the third most corrupt country in the world by Transparency Internation in 2001 (although in recent years it has improved - click here for the 2008 survey of 180 countries).

I managed to avoid any direct confrontation during my first few months in the country. Of course I still heard about bribes having to be paid, money disappearing within government, grades being bought at campus, etc. but I never actually was confronted with a situation where that was expected of me.

I haven’t been so lucky in the last few months. There have been two instances – beyond the usual "Muzungu price" and other "bonuses" that accompany my skin color – where I have been directly in a situation where I bribe was requested. I wish I could say that I was able to refuse paying the bribe both times and set the proper example, but that unfortunately isn’t the case.

The first instance happened in very early March, about a week before Tracy was to arrive. I had spent most of the day running errands to prepare for my experiments, which included spending copious amounts of time sitting in traffic that day. As a side note, I am thoroughly convinced that the "traffic police" over here actually slow traffic down more than they help it, especially when they consider themselves to be above the programmed logic of traffic stop lights. I remember that this was a day where I sat in my for 25 minutes without moving an inch as a police traffic cop "controlled" one of the main Kampala intersections. And by "controlled" I mean "let all other lanes of traffic flow smoothly while mysteriously letting traffic backup in one direction."

By the time I finally made it through the intersection, I was fairly agitated at the world in general (I have realized that wasting time - especially when stuck in poorly controlled traffic – is probably my single biggest pet peeve). I was running late but had one quick stop in the city center to pick up some luggage (another side note: luggage here in Uganda is ridiculously cheap…unfortunately, it’s quality is a bit reflective of that, so the 3 piece set I purchased will probably fall apart at the first real test of durability) before I was to head back to campus.

I found a parking spot - or what I believed to be a parking spot – jumped out of my car, and jogged the 2 blocks to the luggage store. After successfully bartering the luggage owner down to my price (which was probably still a rip-off, but I was happy with it) I took off, which gigantic suitcase in hand, speed walking back to my car.

When I got there, I found a big blue piece of paper stuck on my windshield. It said something along the lines of "Warning of past-due parking fees: Please present this paper at parking authority to clear fines or risk having car [immobilized]." Apparently, I had some parking fines which were unmet, which made zero sense to me since I had always paid parking costs upfront. Before I had much time to think about it, however, the nearby parking attendant had come up to me.

I immediately asked him to explain how I could have gotten the notice if I had always paid my fees, and he proceeded to tell me that I owed between 20,000-30,000 Ugandan Shillings (about $10-20) in parking fees, which was considerable knowing that each hour of parking costs $0.20. He also mentioned that I was parked illegally at that moment.

Normally, in a situation like this, I’m pretty level-headed and try to work through it. On this day, however, I was in no mood to deal with this and bluntly explained to the parking attendant that there was no way that was correct. I also asked him to explain how I was parked illegally if I was parked exactly like the other cars in front and behind of me and within the white outline on the road. He proceeded to show me a master list that did in fact list my license plate as having unpaid fees (which could have dated back to before I purchased the car) and told me that all of the cars in the area were parked illegally.

He further explained how I technically should have had my car wheels bracketed (the attendants basically lock your car in place with a large metal bracket around one wheel) but he had convinced them not to do so as he had seen that I was in a hurry.

Realizing that this guy wouldn’t be able to do much for me at that point, I opted to just leave the situation and figure it out later. I told him that I would take the paper to the parking authority and figure it out that way. He seemed to agree and then stepped back as I opened my door to get in a drive away.

At this point, the parking attendant loudly cleared his throat to regain my attention, looked at me, and then said "Sir, now for my lunch money."

I stopped, stood back up, and asked him to make sure I had heard him correctly. He repeated the phrase again.

After I registered what he was asking for, I incredulously asked why I should pay him anything. To this he explained how he had gone out of his way to prevent my car from being bracketed. At this point, I had had enough, and I launched into a mini lecture about how this was what was wrong with Uganda and partly why the country was stuck in the underdeveloped world, blah blah blah. Should I have done that? Probably not, but it didn’t matter either way because the guy wasn’t paying attention to what I was saying; he just wanted his bribe.

After stepping off of my soapbox I then asked what would happen if I didn’t pay him. I could tell he was a little taken aback by this question, and he didn't have any response beyond "Nothing."

Upon hearing this, I sat down in my car, wished the man a good day, and drove away. Winner of round one with African corruption: Chris.

While driving back toward campus, I came up with the following scenario to explain what had happened:

Parking attendant sees Muzungu park and get out of his car in an obvious hurry
Parking attendant checks master list to see if car is listed as having unpaid fees...bingo!
Parking attendant sets warning note on car and continues checking other vehicles, but keeping a close watch on Muzugu's car.
When Muzungu returns, parking attendant approaches to help "resolve the situation" quickly so Muzugu can be on his way
Makes up a story about how there is 20,000-30,000 in unpaid fines (my guess is that even 400 Shillings - $0.20 - in unpaid tickets showed up on that list) and how the car should have been bracketed
Claims that parking was done illegally, which is commonly the case in Kampala since nobody knows what is legal or illegal due to the markings being so poor
Muzungu calls attendant's bluff and he can't back it up

Is that what actually happened? I'll never know, but I haven't had any further problems (not yet at least) with parking since then.

That was my first brush with corruption on a very small scale. In a later post I'll explain a slightly larger run-in with corruption.

Hope everyone had a very happy Easter!

Cheers!
Chris

Ugandanisms

2009-04-13T10:41:00.004+03:00

I realized in December one of the difficulties of coming home (and Tracy can now attest to this as well): no one understands the language idiosyncrasies that I have picked up while living over here. While my friends and I over here throw a little Ugandan “slang” into our every day talk for a few laughs, I just get random stares when I inadvertently do the same back in the United States.

Ugandans definitely have their own format of English. It evolved from British English back when Uganda was a British protectorate (1862-1962) and has taken a style of its own.

So, if you ever hear me utter any of the follow random phrases, now you’ll know why:

Muzungu: My unofficial name over here; from what I understand, it is Swahili for “white person” and is used throughout East Africa. It is not a derogatory term and is used by everyone – from young kids up to elders – to refer mainly to people of European decent. However, it can also be extended to anyone who is lighter skinned than Africans, such as Latinos and Asians
Nedda!: Simply means “No!” in Luganda, but much more fun to say – this was Tracy’s favorite phrase while over here
Fine!: One of the most commonly heard words here; usually said with a very strong emphasis on the first half of the word (especially when said by kids) which I think makes it more fun to say. There apparently is an unwritten rule that “fine” is basically the only answer that can be given to the question “How are you?” or “How is the day?” Slight variations include “very fine” and “not so fine.” I think I'll try to bring supa-fine into the Ugandan context.
Sorry…sorry…sorry: Ugandans tend to “apologize” for everything, whether it is in their own control or not. Case in point: I was at a meeting the other day and a chair got knocked over. Almost simultaneously about half of the meeting participants said “oooo, sorry…”
Yes please: Ugandans tend to throw the word “please” into phrases much more than Americans, including in situations that don’t make any sense to us. For example, if I say someone’s name in an effort to get their attention, they’ll usually answer with “yes please.” The irony here is that Ugandans don’t use “please” in the context familiar to us very often. In fact, I’ve made some of my classmates repeat questions of me using the word please (picture a parent emphasizing to their child how to be polite in conversation) when they seemed to be demanding things of me rather than requesting. :)
Okay please: Similar to “yes please” above, “please” gets thrown on the end of “okay” in every-day Ugandan English. For example, I tell a person to have a nice day and they reply with “okay please.”
“What?” as a point of emphasis: Ugandans – especially Ugandan lecturers at Makerere – will sometimes interrupt their sentences with “what” as a way to emphasize a point (although sometimes I think it is just used as a filler as well). For example: “The fan is used for the what? The drying of the feedstock.” Or, “We will meet at the what? The stadium.” At first, I thought this was an actual question, and a couple times I did answer what I believed to be the question, which actually threw off the speaker a little. Only later did I realize it is used almost entirely in a rhetorical sense.
“You are welcome” before “thank you”: This is what Tracy noticed first when she got here. Ugandans are generally very welcoming people, and when you first meet someone it is very common for them to say “You are welcome!” to which we would respond “thank you…?”
Eyebrow raise & “mmmmm”: This one took me awhile to adjust to, but it’s simply a way of answering “yes” to a question. The first few times a Ugandan responded to a question by raising his/her eyebrows and giving a small “mmm,” I thought they were just blowing me off. It took me awhile to realize it was actually them giving a positive response to my question. It’s still a little off-setting when someone does this, but I’ve gotten used to it and occasionally find myself doing it as well. However, it’s a very dry way of responding to a question and I have realized I only do it when I’m annoyed with someone. So, if I do this to you, well, sorry…sorry…sorry.
Responses to a simple hello: Basically all Ugandans speak a native tribal language outside of English. When you get outside of Kampala, many people know very limited English, if any at all. This makes for some interesting conversations, especially with people who have just a little grasp on English. The most obvious difference is how people will respond to a simple “hello.” Instead of a “hi” or “hello” in return, they’ll usually say “fine.” I eventually realized that this is because in Luganda (the main tribal language in the Kampala area) and most other related tribal languages (all of those that are Bantu-based, I believe), there actually is no translation for “hello.” Instead, it is customary to greet someone with the question “how are you.” So any conversation starter is assumed to be this, and the only response they know is “fine.” Another lost-in-translation occurrence is little kids that will often come running up to me shouting “Bye, Muzungu, bye!” I originally thought it was them mispronouncing “hi,” but I figured out that wasn’t the case. I’m still not sure why this is said, maybe I’ll figure it out in the next 7 weeks…
Short Call: A Ugandan way of saying I’m going to the bathroom for a #1
Long Call: A Ugandan way of saying I’m going to the bathroom for a #2

That's all I can think of for now - I may add some more in the future if they come to me.

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. It has nothing to do with this post, but since it's Easter time, here are a few pictures of the church I attend:

St. John's Church of Kawuku - an Anglican church about 10 minutes' walk from my home

A look at the inside of church at the end of a normal service (two weeks before Easter)

The children from the church-run school performed two weeks before Easter

Baptisms occurred the Monday after Easter. I attended for part of the ceremony (I opted not to stay for all 30-40 children) to see what it was like: they're sprinklers, not dunkers :)

Small world

2009-03-28T17:10:00.003+03:00

My last few days have been spent coming and going from a conference that is in town regarding efficient stove design for the developing world and methods of reducing indoor air pollution (one of the world’s leading causes of deaths - WHO info). There were some people at the conference who were big into biochar and it was a good opportunity for networking (not to mention that it was also held at probably the nicest resort in the entire country).

Many of the people in the office where I’ve been working/studying also attended the conference. One of which (Dr. Da Silva – the coordinator for the renewable energy master’s program), was able to line up one of the conference attendees to come and speak to all of the renewable energy students about appropriate stove design (sounds like a pretty boring topic, but actually very interesting…at least for me).

The presentation was this morning, and before arriving all I knew was the presenter's topic and that she was from the States. We arrived on campus at the same time and struck up a conversation. She was originally from Minnesota, her name was Nordica (a Minnesotan name if I’ve ever heard one…), and she was now based in Oregon with her company. When I mentioned I was from Iowa, she included that she had gone to school there. As it turned out, not only was she an Iowa Stater, but she also had graduated in mechanical engineering! She just had about 8 years on me, but we were still able to share some stories about professors and classes back in Ames.

I have been hoping that one of these days I’ll see some random person wearing an Iowa State shirt (old shirts from the US are shipped over here in bulk and then sold cheaply in the markets here…you see all sorts of random shirts that one wouldn’t expect to find in the middle of Africa). Beyond the people working with CSRL, I never thought I’d run into an actual alum over here, let alone one from the same department. Guess it really is a small world!

Cheers!
Chris

Nordica (second from the right) being introduced by Dr. Da Silva (far right) before her presentation to the renewable energy students in our classroom

"Tell me about prom."

2009-03-28T16:38:00.005+03:00

My experiment is moving along. I have moved on past the bioenergy production aspect of it and am now into the agricultural portion. For 60 days, I am conducting a greenhouse experiment (well, actually four experiments at the same time) using corn plants to compare the affects of different types of biochar that I have created for use as soil amendments. One experiment compares the relative effects of gasifier-produced biochar vs. the effects of kiln-produced biochar while the other just compares different types of kiln-produced biochar. Anyway, that’s the boring, nerdy update that also serves as the backdrop for this story:

I have to water my plants every other day and yesterday, as I was going to the greenhouse to start the process of weighing and watering all of my plants (something that usually takes 1-2 hours), I had a random Ugandan come up to me and start a conversation. This was by no means unique in itself; I obviously stick out a little over here, and that causes me to draw a little more attention then the regular person walking down the street. Still, the people who usually approach me for no apparent reason are also the ones who usually want to get something from me (that usually being money) so this usually puts me on the immediate defensive.

Approximately half of my total pots in the greenhouse. Picture taken on Wednesday, March 25. Seeds were planted on March 7...plants grow very fast over here!

I decided to entertain this guy, however, and we struck up a conversation. His name was Ronnie, and he was a third-year undergraduate student in the Faculty of Agriculture. He had seen me around quite a bit recently in the building and was curious about my work. We ended up speaking for the entire time I was doing my watering, and he seemed to be a legitimately good guy. Granted, he did ask me once how he could get a scholarship to study in the US, but it was definitely more of an inquisition into the process rather than a plea for money directly from me.

During the 90 minutes we talked, we covered several different topics, progressing from studies to research to comparisons of our native countries. The highlight however, came after we had been working in silence for about 5 minutes (as I was watering, Ronnie spontaneously started to help me by picking out a few of the weeds that had just sprouted out of the soil). Out of nowhere, Ronnie turned to me and said, “Tell me about prom.”

I stopped my watering and turned to see if he was serious, which he definitely was. The concept of “prom” is nonexistent in Uganda, and I knew that meant he had seen something about it on TV or on a movie. I asked him if he had seen American Pie, the stereotypical prom movie that came to mind right away. Luckily, he said he hadn’t, so his stereotype of prom at least wasn’t based on that. As it turned out, he had seen a couple different shows and movies, most of which I had never heard of (the only one that struck a bell was One Tree Hill, which I think it a television series, right?), that were based on prom in the U.S. He had taken what he had seen (most of which were the ridiculously ritzy proms where people spend thousands of dollars on dresses and entertainment for the night) and assumed that was the experience for all American teenagers. Ah, Hollywood, how you distort people’s perceptions of us!

Ronnie and I spent the next 20 minutes or so discussing how America is a very diverse country and how everything that is seen on TV is by no means indicative of the average life of an American. He knew that, but I don’t think he understood the extent of it. Yes, I explained, that there were some proms like he had seen on TV in places like Los Angeles and New York, but in Iowa and many other places around the country, most of them are quite a bit more conservative.

From how I understood it, this would be a pretty tame version of the prom that Ronnie had pictured

We somehow then veered off into talking about general life in the US, and Ronnie asked me where I came from. I explained how I was from the central part of the country (the only landmark many Ugandans know that is off the coasts is Chicago) and grew up on a farm. Ronnie was surprised by that; he thought that all of the US was filled with cities or developments. It really hit him when I explained that the United States was over 100 times larger than Uganda in terms of land mass (just a guess, after checking I found out we’re actually only 40 times bigger), yet only have ten times as many people. He had never picture a United States with corn as far as the eye could see, so I explained Iowa to him (romanticizing it a little bit probably, but I’m allowed to be biased).

Although most Ugandans don’t assume everything they see in the movies is real life in the US, there definitely is a lack of understanding of how diverse our country is. People picture it as full of big cities and fancy cars and seem to forget about the rest. I try to explain that there is much more than that, but – beyond the 10 or so Rotary presentations I have given so far – there isn’t too much I will be able to do about it. Oh well, such is the price we pay for being the entertainment hub of the world!

Cheers!
Chris

Where to start...?

2009-03-22T20:50:00.004+03:00

As expected, Tracy’s visit flew by far too quickly. However, I’m happy to report that her trip over here lived up to the high expectations and then some.

We have plenty of stories to share, so I’m not very sure where to start. And, additionally, classes seemed to have finally started to pick up: I’ve got my first test of the semester on Tuesday so I’ve some quality hours of good old-fashioned cramming ahead of me these next couple days.

I’ll give the brief overview – with pictures, of course - and then hopefully pick out a few stories to share in a later post.

I’m also trying to pester Tracy into putting together a post for this blog where she shares her reactions to 10 days in Africa. If you will see her any time in the near future, feel free to provide a little additional peer pressure!

Sunday, March 8:
Picked up Tracy at the airport in Entebbe at 9:00 pm; enjoyed hearing her initial reactions to traffic in Uganda during the hour drive back to Kizito’s. Came home to a late supper that had been prepared by Nora (the new maid/nanny at Kizito’s house), and Tracy got to experience the blandness that is traditional Ugandan fare. She was a trooper and put most of it down. Mother Nature welcomed Tracy to Uganda with a continuation of the abnormally hot weather (so much for the early start of the rainy season that I mentioned in a previous post) which prevented a good night's sleep (I really need to break down and get a fan) even though Tracy’s 36 hours of travel and my mad rush the previous weeks to get experiments to a stopping point had us both plenty tired.

Day 1 – Visiting the pen pals in Kamuli (Monday, March 9)
Got up fairly early the next day – thanks in part to the random rooster that has been at Kizito’s house for the last couple months. This rooster has decided that its favorite place to crow is just outside of my window…every day I get more excited for when it finally is made into a meal! We then jumped in my car and made the drive to Kamuli where Tracy was able to meet all of the Ugandan pen pals. Both school visits were great – we got to deliver another round of letters and a few other items from Tracy’s kids (the highlight: soccer balls), and we were greeted with a song & performance by each set of students. Enjoyed the quiet in Kamuli that night…but had the serenity interrupted by a battle between my stomach and African food. Unanimous winner: African food.

Presenting one of the soccer balls to the Namasagali students

The students following us as we left after our visit to Namasagali

Day 2 – Return to Kampala/Tracy show-and-tell day (Tuesday, March 10)
Left Kamuli in the morning and stopped by the Source of the Nile and Bujagali Falls on the way back to Kampala. Went into the office where I introduced Tracy to my co-workers and we were able to do a quick email check. Attended a meeting of my host Rotary Club where I introduced Tracy, and then went to an Ethiopian restaurant for Tracy’s final introduction of the day: my close crew of friends. Thought my stomach was doing better by that time, but Ethiopian food must have set it over the top…another battle that night, and another loss for Chris’s stomach :)

Day 3 – Murchison Falls (Wednesday, March 11)
Got up early to leave for a trip to Murchison Falls in north-central Uganda. 6 hour drive (welcome to Kampala traffic, Tracy) and then arrived at the falls. Murchison Falls is where the entire Nile is squeezed through a 6 meter gap between a couple rock faces…incredible.

Can you see us standing on the right side of the picture?

Day 4 – Ugandan safari & boat ride on the Nile (Thursday, March 12)
Got up at sunrise for a game drive (the area just north of the falls is a savannah and one of the best spots in Uganda for wildlife). In the late afternoon jumped on a boat for a two hour ride that took us up the Nile to the base of the falls. Had an incredible time with some amazing views. Ended the day having seen numerous animals including the following: baboons, monkeys, giraffes, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, antelope, gazelles, water buffalo, and – the highlight – a lion.

The highlight of our safari

Posing with our friend, the baboon

Stopping for a picture during our boat ride up the Nile

Day 5 – Rhino park & back to Kampala (Friday, March 13)
Left the base camp at Murchison in the morning and stopped for a few hours at the Ziwa Rhino reserve where we saw 3 pregnant white rhinos being reintroduced to Uganda (all of Uganda’s rhino population was wiped out during Idi Amin’s era in the 1970s when societal regulations basically ceased to exist). Returned to Kampala and took Tracy to a traditional Ugandan “pork joint”…a tasty way that Ugandans do roast pork.

Posing with the rhinos in the background

Day 6 – Kampala…souvenirs, pool, & friends (Saturday, March 14)
Slept in for the first time since Tracy had gotten to Uganda and then took a walk to Lake Victoria (only about 1 km from Kizito’s house). Went into town and walked around the city center to show Tracy some of the chaos that is Kampala (highlighted by a brief visit to the taxi park) while doing a little souvenir shopping. Met up with a few friends for lunch & some more souvenir shopping before heading to Glen’s apartment (a doctor from Canada & good friend of mine over here) to enjoy his pool. Met up with friends for an early dinner at a favorite Chinese restaurant and then went home to pack for our trip the next day.

Day 7 – GIZA!!! (Sunday, March 15)
Woke up at 1:00 am for a drive to Entebbe in order to arrive in plenty of time for our 4:30 am flight…to Cairo, Egypt! Arrived in Cairo at 8:00 am, had a driver from our hostel waiting for us (first time I’ve ever had anyone holding a sign for me at an airport). Went to our hostel, dropped off our bags, and headed straight to the pyramids! Had a personal tour guide for the day (more affordable than you would think!) who was incredible. Saw the Step Pyramid at Saqqara (first pyramid every built…4700 years ago) then went to an authentic carpet manufacturing site (not as affordable as you would think…) before heading to the main attraction: the Pyramids at Giza. Opted to do a tour-by-camel of the pyramids (again, not as affordable as you would think…but so worth it!) for two hours and got some incredible pictures. Can’t really describe it in words. After finishing at Giza went to a perfume/fragrance/oil manufacturing site (good thing Tracy was with me, or I probably would have gotten suckered into buying stuff I really didn’t need) and a store where paintings were done on paper made from papyrus. Went back to the hostel for a quick change of clothes before heading to the riverside for a dinner cruise on the Nile. Got home around 10:00 pm about ready to fall asleep while standing…what a day!!!

A camel ride...what a way to see the pyramids! (notice our 9 year old guide trying to get out of the photo)

Trying to put it into perspective

So cool...

Cliche, we know...

Day 8 – Cairo (Monday, March 16)
City tour of Cairo. Started with a morning at the Egyptian Museum. Incredible. Got to see the artifacts from King Tut’s tomb and then see dozens of ancient mummies face-to-face. Tracy and I can now say we have met Ramses the Great! Afternoon was filled with visits to the Coptic Christian area of Cairo (highlighted by a stop at a location where the holy family supposedly stayed during their flight from the holy land during King Herod’s rule…fascinating!), the Citadel, and the Khan al-Khalili (famous Cairo bazaar). Wandered around the shop area for awhile and enjoyed some Egyptian tea & coffee before heading back to the hostel. Went out searching for a falafel restaurant for dinner, and found a very nice one…in fact, nice enough enough that Jimmy Carter had eaten there before. Still, reasonable prices and very delicious.

Visiting the Hanging Church in Coptic Cairo

Day 9 – Cairo (Tuesday, March 17)
Another day in Cairo. Walked around the city for awhile in the morning and then went back to the bazaar area. However, the hectic schedule was starting to wear on both Tracy and I at this point. We got tired of the vendors pretty quick this time (they are much more aggressive than what I was used to in Uganda) and didn’t do much shopping. Visited a few other areas, with my favorite being climbing one of the tallest minarets (the tall towers on mosques that are used for announcing the call-to-prayer 5 times daily). Back to the airport for our 10:00 flight to Entebbe.

Day 10 – Kampala & departure (Wednesday, March 18)
Arrived in Entebbe at 3:45 am. Went back to Kizito’s and crashed there for a couple hours. Woke up and did some preliminary packing before heading into Kampala. Tracy decided to try having a dress & skirt tailor-made in a day (a few of my friends have gotten dresses or skirts made that they’ve really enjoyed…and they thought it should be able to get done in a day). Picked out fabric & design (more of her picking out things and me smiling & nodding) and then went back to the office for a quick check on internet to see what had happened in the world over the past week. Then off to the craft market where Tracy had a list of souvenirs she was planning on checking off (okay…I had a few things I wanted to get too). Wrapped up the shopping and went back to check on skirt & dress. They were later than promised (as expected). Tracy did get to test-fit her skirt, which they adjusted and she was very happy with. The dress, on the other hand, was not as close to being done. We ended up pushing time a little more than either of us wanted, so we just took the dress without Tracy doing a test-fit in order to finish packing and head to the airport. She quickly put it on before packing it away…swing and a miss. However, she has some ideas for how she might salvage it. If nothing else, it was a lot of fabric for a good price. Took off for the airport around 8:00 pm, and I dropped her off and said my final goodbyes (after some hassle from the airport police…but I’ll save that story for another time).

Overall, an incredible trip. Definitely no regrets on either of our parts!

Now my vacation from work/classes is over and it’s back to work. I spent the first few days after Tracy left catching up on emails and research. I’ve got my head above water again and now I’m ready for the sprint to the finish. Only about 10 weeks until I fly back to the States…let’s see what I can get done in that time!

Cheers!
Chris

t-minus 6 hours...

2009-03-08T15:02:00.001+03:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, the last few weeks have been very hectic in trying to wrap up everything before Tracy gets here…which is now only about 6 hours away!!!

I, naturally, am very excited for her visit, and we’ve got a pretty packed schedule for the 10 days that she’ll be here.

Here’s the quick overview:

Sunday, March 8: Arrive in Entebbe
Monday – Tuesday: Visit the pen pals in Kamuli
Wednesday – Friday: Trip to Murchison Falls to see the Nile & do a Ugandan safari
Saturday: Day in Kampala
Sunday – Tuesday: Cairo, Egypt! We’ll see the pyramids, Alexandria, Egytian Museum, and plenty of other Egyptian attractions!
Wednesday: Kampala/Entebbe & flight home

We're trying to fit in quite a bit, but we figure we should make the most of our time while we're over here...…hopefully it will all work out!

Wish us luck with the travels, and plan on hearing back from me in a week or so with a fun re-cap!

Cheers!
Chris

Playing with fire

2009-03-08T14:56:00.002+03:00

I’ve been back for nearly seven weeks now, and I’m getting into something of a routine again. However, it’s a little different than I had expected. This semester was supposed to be my crazy-busy academics semester, with two loads of classes, thesis research, and thesis writing. Thus far, that hasn’t really been the case.

The Master’s of Renewable Energy program actually starts in February, so when I came in August I was jumping into a program during the second semester. These next few months I will be doing the first semester classes with the new incoming group of students while also doing the third semester of specialization courses (bioenergy for me) with the students from last semester.

I have one load of classes that has started…to some degree. The first semester courses began on February 2, but I am only taking 4 out of 5 of them since I knocked out one last semester. The third semester courses (a total of three courses) were originally going to be taught by visiting Norwegian professors in blocks of two weeks. However, it now looks like that won’t work for their schedules, so we are scrambling to find African professors (one might come up from Dar Es Salaam) to teach those courses. In other words, classes are not yet taking much time.

That leaves me with research, which, actually, has been taking up the majority of my time since coming back. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, my research revolves around the use of biochar as a soil amendment. Biochar is basically charcoal that is mixed with soil for agricultural purposes. The last few weeks have been spent making several different types of char which will then be compared in a greenhouse experiment.

The last two weeks have been especially hectic, which accounts for the lack of recent blog posts. The reason – Tracy arrives today and I needed to get all of my experiments to a point where I can leave them for 10 days…because the last thing I’m going to make her do is come here and watch me do research! The good news: I managed to get everything done that I needed to do! I'm now free to take a few days away from experiments and the university.

I’ve included a few pictures from the last couple weeks to try and show what I've been up to.

As I look toward the next three months, I will need to complete all seven classes, obtain my experimental data, and write my thesis in order to finish the program. Will it happen? Hopefully! The biggest challenge will be battling the bureaucracy at Makerere to make this process go faster than it’s supposed to…something that rarely (if ever) happens over here. Wish me luck!!!

Cheers!
Chris

Taking a picture as I use my charcoal kiln to make char out of groundnut (peanut) shells

Peaking into my kiln during the char-making process

The Makerere Faculty of Technology technicians...I would have been lost without these guys! The gasifier that we used for experiments is in the background.

The gasifier takes biomass and turns into a gas that can be burned. Since our unit is just an experimental one, we burn off the gas immediately at exit. This is the sign of a successful run...always something I enjoyed seeing!

The charcoal had to be ground to pass a sieve for my use. Naturally, the grinding has to be done by hand over here...these are the results

Return to Kamuli & meeting the pen pals

2009-02-21T17:39:00.010+03:00

Last weekend I was finally able to return to the Kamuli District in east-central Uganda, the base for Iowa State’s CSRL program. Sadly, I had not been to Kamuli since I visited back in August with the ISU delegation. In fact, this trip marked my first time driving outside of Kampala with my car; in other words, my first Ugandan road-trip!

Kamuli Town is the center of government for Kamuli District – think of it like a state capital…but much smaller. Official statistics (not sure how “official” they actually are) place Kamuli at having just over 20,000 inhabitants. The vast majority of people in the district still live rurally, and there isn’t too much going on in the city beyond a couple small supermarkets, random stores, and lots of boda-bodas.

Location of Kamuli

A line of shops in Kamuli town

Coming with me were Justin List & Mitra Miri, two of my best friends over here who have offered to help me with the mosquito nets project. When we set off early Friday morning, I was a little apprehensive about how my car would take the trip. I have traveled to most parts of Uganda, and there definitely are some roads that my little car would not be able to handle. But I had checked with Kizito beforehand, and he said it would be fine.

The ride over there turned out to be no problem. We didn’t have to deal with much traffic since we were going against the flow, and we made it to Kamuli in about three hours, about an hour ahead of schedule! We were happy to find that the road there had recently been redone, and we felt like royalty driving on the relatively obstruction-free path.

The primary reason for the trip was to continue work on the mosquito nets project. Before getting to work, however, we made a stop at the VEDCO guest house, our lodging for the one night in Kamuli. There, I was able to catch up with Dorothy, my self-proclaimed Ugandan mother with whom I stayed for my first month in the country. She had recently moved to Kamuli from Kampala due to the vast majority of her work being based there. We then spent the afternoon in meetings with Benon (the VEDCO nutritionist who is the organization’s coordinator for this program) and some district government officials.

The highlight of the trip came late in the afternoon when we were able to visit the schools at Namasagali and Nakanyonyi. These are the schools that are paired with Tracy’s 6th graders in a pen pal exchange, and they will also be the recipients of the mosquito nets. We first went to Nakanyonyi, the closer of the two schools, where most of the school’s 50 pen pals were waiting for us. They had recently received their first two letters from the Iowa students along with several boxes of school supplies, and they were happy for our visit. The three of us got to address the group of students briefly and then I excused myself to run to my car and bring back one more gift for the kids: a new soccer ball from the Gilbert students! The Nakanyonyi students loved it! We then tried to excuse ourselves to head to the next school in time, but the teacher insisted that we stay for at least one performance from the students. We agreed and were treated to a very nice song before we had to say our goodbyes.

Justin (back left), Mitra (front left), the pen pal teacher/coordinator (far left), the pen pals, and I pose for a picture with the new soccer ball.

Nakanyonyi students performing a song for us

We arrived at the Namasagali school a little bit later than hoped and caught the students as they were lining up to be dismissed for the weekend. The teachers asked us to speak to the students so each of us said a very brief hello and encouraged the kids to keep studying. We then watched them quickly scatter as their teachers let them go for the weekend; anticipation for a weekend of freedom is something that definitely is constant across our cultures!

A few of the pen pal students were still around, and we were able to see them receive their letters and school supplies. They were very excited, and even more excited when I presented them with their own soccer ball from the Gilbert students! We got a few pictures, a short tour of the different projects at the school, and I was able to see the finished product of the school rooms that I had helped paint back in August…they looked really nice!

The Namasagali students were very excited about their soccer ball

One of the pen pals poses with his letters from a Gilbert student and his new pen/pencils in his shirt pocket

By that time, the four of us (Benon had been going around with us as our guide) were pretty beat. We piled back in my car, made a quick stop in Namasagali town to admire the view of the Nile, and then drove back to Kamuli where we had a very tasty Ugandan meal waiting for us at the guest house (the price included full board). Benon took off to head back to his home and the three of us spent a relaxing night in the guest house sharing stories and catching up on some reading. I should point out that a significant portion of the stories we shared involved food in some facet…apparently we were all craving some good American eats!

The next morning was filled with a planning session and a visit to a local farmer who had a biogas digestor installed by some ISU Engineers for a Sustainable World volunteers. He gave us a quick tour of the operation and then I passed on a message from some of the ESW students back in the States regarding new methods for operation. After that, it was time for a quick lunch before hopping back in the car to head back to Kampala.

The drive back was a little more eventful. To say that Ugandan drivers are aggressive would be a definite understatement. Twice I had to take my car completely off of the road since an oncoming driver was taking up my entire lane. With my small car, I don’t take any chances messing with the big trucks on the Ugandan roads!

We made a short pit stop about 50 km outside of Kampala at the Mabira Forest, a 300 square kilometer stretch of undisturbed rainforest. Well, “undisturbed” might be a stretch since a significant portion of the forest was cut down in the 1970s while Idi Amin was in power. Either way, it’s a very beautiful area that I had driven through several times and had been meaning to explore.

I had read about trails in the forest, but had no idea where to go to find them. I opted to just follow signs to a forest lodge, and we ended up finding a place with gorgeous - and correspondingly costly - accommodations. We only had a few hours, so we found a guide who led us on a 30 minute walk through the forest. He had been working there for well over 10 years, and it was obvious that he had lost his enthusiasm for the job a ways back. Still, we saw a few cool things like monkeys jumping through the forest canopy and a green mamba snake. It was definitely worth the stop, and it would be a nice place for just a day-trip in the future…we’ll see!

The view through the canopy of Mabira

The rest of the trip back to Kampala was uneventful (not necessarily a bad thing when driving). That day was actually Valentine’s Day (which, strangely enough, seemed to be a pretty big deal in Kampala). Almost all of my friends already had plans for the night, which left Justin and me on our own. We opted to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a man-date of our own. We tried a new steak restaurant for dinner (some of the best food I've had yet!) and then caught a movie. Uganda still has a very socially conservative culture, so the two of us got quite a few interesting stares/reactions from people throughout the night! Oh well…it was worth it for that steak! :)

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. Update on the mosquito nets program: we recently were able to set up online donation capabilities. Feel free to check it out at http://www.srl.ag.iastate.edu/gift/

Catching up...crazy times in Rwanda

2009-02-08T16:03:00.006+03:00

I fell way behind on posting last November during my last couple weeks of classes. I had a couple weekend trips during that time – one to Rwanda and one to the Ssese Islands. Here’s a recount of my trip to Rwanda. Be forewarned: this will be a long one…

Last September, I took part in a Makerere-sponsored trip to Kenya for graduate students. It was the most unorganized thing I had ever been a part of…at the time. A month or so later, I found out that there was a similar trip being organized to go to Rwanda. Letting my frugal side outweigh my common sense, I opted to go along again. I had a good idea of what I was getting into, and didn’t think the planning could be any worse than the trip to Kenya. Ha! That’s the last time I will ever question someone’s ability to under-plan over here!

The official reason for the trip was the same as that for Kenya: an academic conference about graduate study in East Africa. We were going to spend 3 days there – 1 1/2 at the national university in Butare and 1 1/2 in the capital, Kigali. Like the Kenya trip, I really wasn’t interested in the academic conference, I just wanted to see Rwanda!

My first indication of how the trip would play out came before we had even left. A day prior to departure, I got a call from the trip coordinator saying that he had switched the departure time to 3:00 AM on Thursday morning, October 30, leaving from some random place in Kampala. Apparently, he was trying to time our arrival for something…I never figured out what that was though.

I got to the meeting point a little before 3:00, and everyone else arrived soon after. Amazingly, we were on our way within 30 minutes of the scheduled departure time! I think that was the only thing that happened according to schedule the entire trip. :)

The ride over was fairly uneventful. Once the sun came up, I gained an appreciation for western Uganda. The flat East African plateau turns to rolling hills, which develop into the foothills for the Rwenzori Mountains, which form much of Uganda’s western border. Beautiful.

My first real shock came when we crossed the border into Rwanda. I had been told to expect a different feeling entirely from that of Uganda, and that’s exactly what I found. Less than 15 years ago, Rwanda was the site of one of humanity’s most horrific genocides. The gains the country has made since that time are incredible. Unlike Uganda, where garbage is littered everywhere and many laws are blatantly ignored, Rwanda seems orderly and clean. In fact, our bus got searched when we crossed the border for any polyurethane bags, which are illegal in Rwanda. As we drove into Rwanda, the differences were striking. First of all, the countryside itself, with its alternating mountains and valleys, is gorgeous. And, unlike Uganda, there is no trash piled up to distract from nature. Additionally, the roads are well maintained (no more huge potholes!) and drivers aren’t as crazy. In fact, boda-boda drivers are, by law, required to wear helmets and provide a helmet for their passenger, which all of them (at least that I saw) did. Rwanda really did feel like a breath of fresh air from the chaos that I had grown accustomed to in Kampala.

Still, Rwanda definitely is not perfect. It has the highest population density in all Africa, with most of the population engaged in subsistence farming. The per capita income is only $900, almost 20% less than that of Uganda. Development is still reeling from the 1994 genocide and poverty levels are higher now than before the genocide. But the country definitely deserves commendation for its turn-around since having its entire infrastructure decimated, and international aid is starting to flow into the country in support of this effective development.

As we continued driving through the country, it became apparent that the group coordinator, who told all of us that he had made the trip a few weeks ago, either had not actually come before or just remembered nothing from the trip. After hearing him say “only 10 more minutes” numerous times during the final 3 hours of trip, we finally arrived at our lodging, about 2 hours later than expected. After a basic meal we had the rest of the evening (about 2 hours) to ourselves. Most of us retired to our rooms early to crash from the long journey. I fell asleep still trying to understand the logic behind leaving at 3:00 am…

The next morning was the conference. Naturally, our group arrived 30 minutes after the scheduled start time. But, of course, the conference hadn’t actually started. In fact, it appeared like nobody there knew what we were talking about when we asked about an academic conference. I hung around for awhile, then, knowing that if/when the conference ever did start, we would be covering the exact same topics I had sat through in Kenya, decided to make better use of my time. I, along with Ryan Schuette, another Rotary Scholar in Uganda, quietly exited out of the building, grabbed a couple bodas, and took off to see the city of Butare. I had done my research before the trip and knew that there was a well-acclaimed national museum in the town. The two of us headed there and spent the next couple hours reading all about the history of Rwanda. The museum was very well done, and, in my opinion, a much better use of our time!

At that time, we decided we should get back to the conference before it became too obvious that we were completely MIA. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a little more difficult getting back than it had been getting to the museum. The main culprit: language barrier - Rwanda is officially a French-speaking nation. Although many of its residents speak English, most of the drivers do not. I wasn’t too worried since I knew how to direct my driver back to the university. The problem was Ryan…great guy, but lousy sense of direction. He knew some broken French, so he tried to use that in talking with the boda driver. The driver’s response: blank stare. No luck there. So, after explaining the directions to Ryan and drawing him a map, he was confident he could get back. Off he went, and, after taking a few minutes to get myself a driver and haggle him down to the right cost, I was following behind. When I got to the site of the conference, Ryan was nowhere to be found. Great, I thought, I lost one of the Rotary Scholars! Luckily, I found Ryan, about ½ a mile away with no real idea of where he was, but happily taking some pictures of a memorial from the genocide.

We caught the last session of the conference and then joined everyone for an afternoon social event. No one seemed to have noticed that we were gone, probably because they were having a hard enough time staying awake themselves during the conference! The social event was great because of the food; I had forgotten how much I enjoyed cheese, which Rwanda, unlike Uganda, uses frequently!

We then boarded the bus to head back to Kigali, which we had passed through on our way to the conference. We were on a fairly strict timeline since we were due to be at the Ugandan embassy for dinner that night. We stopped at a couple locations on the way back, and still managed to get lost for awhile, which, of course, made us late in getting to the embassy. However, we did eventually arrive there, and spent the rest of the evening eating more delicious Rwandan food and speaking with the Ugandan Ambassador to Rwanda. It was a very interesting night, because I got to hear the Ugandans’ impressions of Rwanda. There was basically unanimous consent that Rwanda was doing something right that Uganda was missing, and a very constructive conversation about what they could do to change that. Encouraging to hear!

As the night wound down, we boarded back on the bus and exited the embassy en route to our lodging for the night. That is where the little planning that had been done for the trip ended. We found out that we actually had no lodging for that night. Well, the coordinator said he had reserved rooms, but since we arrived late in Kigali they had been given away. He had been working through much of the meal trying to find rooms. He had found enough rooms for about half of our group, or nearly everyone in our group if we agreed to pair up. Ryan and I agreed to split a room and got dropped off at the first of several locations where the coordinator had found a room or two. Several in the group took one look at the rooms and refused to stay in them. I looked in a room, and it was definitely the sketchiest place I had ever been. Still, it had a mosquito net (or at least most of a net), so Ryan and I said we could handle it in an effort to reduce the confusion.

The next morning came and, after speaking with the coordinator, I found out that there was no set rendezvous point or time. He assured me that I had a couple hours’ time before anything would happen. I had no doubt that that was a true statement, so I set off to explore Kigali by myself for awhile. I found a boda driver and basically paid him to be my chauffeur for the next couple hours. We visited the Hotel des Mille Collines, the hotel documented in the movie Hotel Rwanda where the owner saved over a thousand lives by sheltering them during the genocide; the American Embassy; and a few other random locations in the city. Again, I was blown away by how much order Kigali seemed to have when compared to Kampala.

I eventually returned to the hotel and, as I had expected, found that nothing had yet happened to organize the group. The next couple hours were spent driving around the city, picking everyone up. I really wanted to get the group together so we could get to the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre, the official memorial for those who died during the genocide. To my dismay, I found out that organizing a group of Ugandans was quite a sizeable task! Eventually, after plenty of prodding, everyone was on the bus. We then had an extended “discussion” about what everyone in the group wanted to do. After some compromising, we finally agreed to do a short stop for breakfast before moving on the memorial centre.

When we did finally arrive at the memorial, I was filled with a weird combination of excitement/dread concerning what I was about to see. Before I had decided to come to Rwanda, I knew next to nothing about the genocide. I remembered that there was a conflict in the '90’s that had caused a refugee crisis and a movie (that I had never seen) had been made about it. Beyond that, I didn’t know the difference between a Tutsi (the people targeted in the genocide) and a tsetse (a fly that carries African sleeping sickness). After deciding to go to Rwanda, I had done a little reading about the genocide, but I was still pretty ignorant about the whole thing.

The memorial visit started with visiting the mass gravesite of over 250,000 who had been killed in the genocide, a suitable beginning for what I was about to see. I spent the next four hours wandering through the rooms, reading about the atrocities that had occurred in 1994 and wandering how I had never heard about this event where more than 800,000 people were slaughtered for no reason at all…during my lifetime. Appropriately, the final room of the memorial was dedicated to the children who perished, with short biographies of several children that listed their favorites (food, game, activity, etc.), the last photo that had been taken of them, and their method of execution. “Bone-chilling” is the only real way to describe it.

The experience wasn’t a happy one by any means, but it was definitely worth the trip to get there.

Once every emerged from the memorial centre, most of them being visibly shaken by what they had just seen, we made our way back to the bus. This is where things got interesting.

Before we started on our way back to Kampala, our trip coordinator informed us we were going to have a group meeting to discuss some “issues.” As he went on to explain, we had run out of money, and didn’t have enough to purchase enough fuel to get us back to Kampala. You can picture how that went over with the group. At this point, chaos ensued, with lots of accusations and complaining. After awhile, I tried to speak up to offer some suggestions on what we could do to get home, which involved people pitching in a few extra shillings each and covering our own meals. This is the point, as I was doing a quick accounting of expenditures to try and figure out where everything had gone, where I found out that Ryan and I (the only two white people on the trip) had been charged 20 percent more than everyone else.

As you can imagine, I wasn’t very happy about this, but that wasn’t the time to dwell on that fact. Eventually, after the group lapsed back into chaos/borderline anarchy a couple more times, we got everyone to agree on a plan, and we set off for Kampala.

We drove across the remainder of Rwanda with no real problems. That doesn’t say much, though, since the country is smaller than Massachusetts. Once we crossed the border back into Uganda, several people commented how nice it was to be home, opened the bus windows, and tossed garbage onto the roadside. So much for my hope of this group taking steps to make Uganda operate more like Rwanda…

We stopped in Kabale a short distance later for dinner. As we were eating, the idea of staying there that night was discussed. By that point, I was more than ready for the trip to be over, so I was a strong opponent to the idea, as was Ryan. However, we were apparently the only two who felt that way. We consented to democratic rule and went with the group’s decision. However, after speaking with the bus driver, who explained the dangers of driving at night in Uganda, I agreed that the idea wasn’t that bad.

And, this gave us an opportunity to do a short trip to Lake Bunyonyi, which was less than 10 miles from Kabale. I had heard a few good things about the area, and I was interested in seeing it. We all got back on the bus and made it over the hills to the lake just as the sun was starting to set. The views were absolutely stunning. The lake is completely surrounded by hills (and, although fairly small, is rumored to be the second deepest lake in Africa) and, as it appeared before us on our descent, I was blown away by the views…definitely the most beautiful place I had yet seen in Uganda!

We spent the next couple hours going between three different resorts/campsites and taking in the beauty. I quickly admitted that I was wrong about wanting to continue on to Kampala; seeing Lake Bunyonyi was worth the extra night!

We eventually returned to Kabale, and several of the people decided they were going to go out that night. I was in a better mood by that point but definitely was not looking for a crazy night, and I went back to my room and crashed. The next morning, after a couple hours spent pulling everyone out of bed and threatening to leave people behind, we were on the road within an hour of our scheduled departure…I was fairly pleased with that.

The trip started off well, but issues came up again once we reached Mbarara, about halfway to Kampala. At this point, the coordinator informed us that we were completely out of money. He got creative at this point, though, and instead of asking everyone to contribute a little more, he decided to turn the bus into a glorified mutatu. So, we started picking up people along the side of the road who were looking for a ride to Kampala. The money we charged them went to buying fuel.

It wasn’t a bad idea, except for the fact that our bus was already full. After picking up about 5 people, the people on the bus started complaining…fairly vocally…about space issues (which was the first time I’d ever heard people complain about personal space in Africa). At this point, chaos returned. The coordinator got frustrated and told everyone that we had picked up to get out of the bus. But then the people riding the bus realized this meant they were going to have to pay more, and they decided to let the newcomers stay.

I had lucked out and gotten the very front seat, across from the driver, for the whole trip. It was nice because I had a little extra room, and even had a seat belt to myself. However, the only thing that separated me from oncoming traffic was the full-length windshield, so if we ended up getting into a collision, well, I opted not to think about that scenario. By this point in the trip, I had quit offering suggestions and was just sitting in the front trying to imagine if there was possibly anything else that could go wrong. I was also trying to document everything that was happening, because I knew I couldn’t think up a story this good!

Eventually the chaos calmed and we continued on our way. After a few more hours of listening to the same cassette tape of sappy love songs over…and over…and over (I now know every word to the song “Hero” by Enrique Igelsias), we arrived at the outskirts of Kampala. I let out a sigh of relief, believing the end to be near. Just as I did that, the bus shuddered and came to a halt, and, of all locations, while we were going up a hill. I looked at the bus driver who just shrugged and said “out of fuel.”

Of course, this happened right in the middle of typically crazy traffic in Kampala, so we spent the next 15 minutes diverting traffic in order to let the bus roll back down the hill. Luckily, there was a gas station not too far away. We let the bus roll as far as it would go, then we got several of us to team up and push it the rest of they way.

The problem with a diesel engine that runs out of fuel is that you can’t just put more fuel in the tank and start it up. Oh no, that would be far too easy. Instead, you have to bleed the air out of the lines and then prime the engine until fuel is coming into all cylinders. We spent the next hour waiting as the driver got the bus up and going again.

Finally, we were back on our way, and we eventually arrived back at Makerere University. Approximately 16 hours later than originally scheduled, beating the previous mark of 12 hours from my Kenya trip.

In summary, all I can say…TIA :)

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. I posted a few pictures from this trip on my “Staying busy…” Nov. 13 post. Also, as I was writing this out, I remembered that Ryan had taken a few pictures of us pushing the bus. Hopefully I’ll get those from him and get them posted here in the next couple days.

The Rwandan countryside. Just across the Uganda border, the valleys are filled with tea plantations.

A few local children came up to our bus when we pulled over for a pit stop

What? Boda-boda drivers with helmets? Weird...

Much of Rwanda's development is fueled by labor groups composed of convicted felons from the genocide. They're easy to pick out with their bright-colored uniforms

The Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre

What dry season???

2009-02-08T13:04:00.004+03:00

January is generally considered to be Uganda’s driest month, with rain only coming every great once in awhile. February has a little more rain and March is then usually considered to be the start of the rainy season. At least, that’s how it’s been almost every year before this. January started off the normal way: very hot & dry. However, since I arrived on January 20, it has rained every day except for one, with the rain usually coming in a short burst of 30ish minutes.

All Ugandans that I have asked about this have said that they have never seen anything like it. Just add it to the list of weird weather going on all over the world!

This departure from the usual weather pattern gets very interesting when you look at agriculture over here. Uganda is able to have two growing season each year, coordinating with wet & dry seasons. Usually January is a harvest time and planting starts in March with the rains. However, with the abnormal rains this year, it sounds like farmers may start planting their crops earlier. Agricultural advisory organizations, such as VEDCO, are considering pushing for planting to get started. If the rains hold up, that should work out alright. However, no on really knows if the rains will continue straight through the typical rainy season or if things will stop earlier. Let’s hope that the rains do hold out, because irrigation systems are anything but common for most of the farmers here!

Not too much else going on for me right now. Classes “started” (on paper) last week. Actually, to my surprise, we did have one of the eight scheduled lectures. Hopefully they’ll get going this upcoming week. Beyond that, I’m chugging along with research and the mosquito nets project.

Schools around the country (primary through university) started last Monday (Feb. 2nd) so two of the kids from my host family – Charity & Innocent – went back to boarding school. The two others, Peter & Patience, will start in the next couple weeks. They both had major tests in November: Peter finished his 4 years of O-Level Secondary School and was testing to get into a good A-Level school while Patience finished her 7th (and final) year of primary school and took the PLE’s (Primary Level Examination) to determine which O-Level school she could attend. Their results came back within the last couple weeks and they both did well. Peter will start boarding school again while Patience will continue as a day school student so she can be home at night to help with Gloria, the 9 month-old baby.

Before Charity & Innocent returned to school, we took a “family photo,” which I have included below.

Cheers!
Chris

From left to right: Me, Charity, Innocent, Peter, Patience, Agnes, Gloria, & Kizito. A few of the weird faces are accounted by Margaret, the cook/maid who took the picture, not giving an indication of when she was pressing the capture button...either that or they just didn't want to take a picture with me! :)

Gloria and I. She liked me when I first came in September, but by December she had changed her mind and decided the random white guy was scary. Now she usually ends up crying whenever I hold her. We got this picture just before the tears started :)

Mosquito nets for Kamuli

2009-02-02T09:49:00.005+03:00

One of the aspects of my Rotary scholarship that I enjoy most is its incorporation of a service component. It’s a great way to take an incredible experience and add even more to it. I’ve been able to participate in a few rewarding service projects up to this point, like volunteering as a teacher at a local high school, painting a school in Kamuli, and pouring cement for a school in the Ssese Islands, and I've really enjoyed doing all of these things. However, since I came over in August I’ve been trying to find something a little bigger that could continue to make an impact on people’s lives after I leave. Something more…sustainable.

I’m happy to say that I’ve found what I was looking for. The idea came after discussions with my VEDCO contact at the Namasagali and Nakanyonyi Primary Schools, the schools that are participating in the pen pal exchange with Tracy’s 6th grade students in Gilbert. Tracy’s students wanted to collect some school supplies to send over, so I was asking what was most needed. Instead of being told pens or paper like I expected, I was informed that these kids needed mosquito nets more than anything else.

This statement prompted a little research, and I soon found out that only about 25 percent of the students at these schools had access to mosquito nets, which meant that nearly 1100 students out of 1400 had zero protection against malaria.

So what’s the big deal with mosquito nets? Since there currently is no vaccine for malaria, insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) are basically the only preventative measure that people here have against malaria (there are prophylactics that can be taken to reduce the chances of getting malaria, but they are expensive and take a toll on the liver if used for too long). When used properly, ITNs can reduce the spread of malaria by 90 percent.

Malaria is a major issue for students at these schools. If not treated properly (which requires money for medicine), the protozoa are never killed and the malaria becomes a recurrent illness. The recurrences cause multiple absences from school, which can often lead a child to fall so far behind that he/she must drop out. In the worst case scenarios, malaria can kill. In fact, malaria kills over 1,000,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa every year, with the vast majority of them being young children. That works out to being approximately one death every 30 seconds.

Obviously, something needs to be done to help with this problem. That’s where this idea comes in…

In a nutshell, I’m working to create a sustainable source of mosquito nets for these two schools through the ISU Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL). Funds will be collected that will go to the ISU Foundation and start what will be a mosquito nets endowment. The principal will remain intact while the interest will be used to subsidize the price of approximately 150 mosquito nets each year, enough to cover all new, incoming students at the schools who would not have access to nets otherwise.

The net price will be subsidized to 1,000 Ugandan shillings (about $.60) from the original price of 10,000 shillings (about $6.00). This will hopefully avoid the stigma that can sometimes accompany handouts in a developing world context. I won't go into a long, drawn out explanation for why this is; basically handouts tend to remove any inherent value that an item might have had and can create a reliance that can ultimately does more harm than good.

This whole program will cost about $25,000. It sounds like a lot up front, but when all is said and done, this program will provide access to mosquito nets for all students at these two primary schools, thereby increasing their ability to attend school, get an education, and hopefully have a better chance at breaking out of the poverty trap into which they were born. And it is a sustainable program; once the money is raised, this program will have funds to operate in perpetuity. The great thing about doing this through ISU is that it will be introduced into a system that works, with people on the ground that have proven success in development work. And the coolest thing about going through CSRL is that this program will move with the organization. So twenty or thirty years down the road, when Kamuli is no longer in need of development assistance (which should be the case if the program works), this nets program will move with the entire CSRL program to another area in the world that does need development assistance.

I’ll admit right away that it is by no means my own personal creation. I’ve had plenty of help along the way, with numerous people at ISU and here in Uganda offering advice along the way. Without assistance from Rich Bundy at the ISU Foundation, Dr. David Acker with CSRL, and Benon Musasizi with VEDCO, this thing never would have come together. And I also owe thanks to Mitra Miri, another Rotary scholar in Uganda, who is going to Kamuli with me next weekend to help with a baseline study for getting a little more information about the current situation.

The main source of funding for this project is intended to be Rotary clubs, but – here’s the kicker – anyone can easily give to it! So, yes, I will admit that this is, in a way, a selfless plug for this project. But it’s a good project, so hopefully you won’t hold that against me!

The fund is already set up with the ISU Foundation, so giving to the program is as easy as writing a check to the ISU Foundation with “CSRL Mosquito Nets Project” in the memo line and sending it to the following address:

Iowa State University Foundation
2505 University Boulevard
P.O. Box 2230
Ames, IA 50010-2230

There’s also an online donation page set up for CSRL at http://www.srl.ag.iastate.edu/gift/. The option for giving to the mosquito nets project should be appearing on it very soon. And all donations are tax deductible!

Every little bit helps and, if we do run into the "problem" of raising more money than expected, we can just expand the program to include more at-risk individuals like pregnant women and younger children.

If you are interested in learning more about this project, just ask. I can send you plenty more information about its setup, accountability features, etc.

That’s all for now. Thanks for making it through my shameless plug!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. Here are a few of the pictures of the kids from Kamuli that would benefit from this program. These were taken when I was visiting the schools last August with the ISU delgation.

A young girl with her younger sibling came to watch us while we were painting at Namasagali

The kids were waiting when we drove up to Nakanyonyi

Nakanyonyi students who had shown up to see the borehole (water well) that had been donated by CSRL being drilled for their school

The return of Pelé…not quite

2009-02-02T09:43:00.002+03:00

My time home in December/January helped me to realize how quickly my time in Uganda is actually going. It gave me an opportunity to think about what I had done and seen and also what I still wanted to do and see before my work over here wraps up in early June.

One disappointment from my first four months in Uganda was my lack of interaction with locals through sports. I love to play sports and I came over here expecting to play all of the time. However, when I came back in December, the closest thing I had done to group sports was running the Kampala half marathon with a few friends.

I decided to change that when I came back for the second half of my time in Uganda. I had received an invitation from Dr. Da Silva, the coordinator of the renewable energy master’s program, to play sports with a group of students that he mentors. This last Sunday I took him up on the invite for the first time, and met a group of students/professionals ranging in age from 23-30 who were going to play football (soccer).

When it comes to sports, soccer is the undisputed king over here. Kids grow up playing the sport. I had played soccer a little while growing up, but since Jefferson didn’t have a high school program the last time I had played soccer competitively was in 8th grade. In other words, I hadn’t played for about a decade. This, obviously, didn’t bode well for me.

Once everyone arrived (as usual, people showed up about 30-60 minutes after the intended start time) there were eight of us, and we played four on four with small nets and no goalkeeper.

There wasn’t too much exciting for most of the game, basically me just running around chasing people who were much better than me. I did manage to have a classic “me moment” though. While defending the ball, the dribbler went one way and I went the other to try and steal and…crunch! His forehead met the upper part of my nose, and his forehead will win that battle every time. I was off on the sidelines for about 15 minutes trying to stop the bleeding and to tell if I had broken my nose or not. Looking at it the day after, I’m still not sure, but I don’t think it’s broken. I really can’t tell that much of a difference actually…but that’s probably because I had a big nose to start with!

I eventually got back on the field and played with everyone until the game ended at 7:00 with sundown. I was the only non-Ugandan, and definitely the least skilled, but I don’t think I made too much of a fool of myself. At least, I received an invite to come back next week…but maybe that’s because watching me on the field makes them feel better about their own skills!

Cheers!
Chris

This is not what I looked like...

Sipi Falls…gorgeous!

2009-01-27T17:22:00.004+03:00

Living in Kampala can wear on a person. Granted, there are some great things about the city, including being close to friends & colleagues, enjoying numerous things to do, having opportunities to help, etc. But 48 hours after arriving back, I had already experienced several of the frustrations that can come with major cities in the underdeveloped world and was looking forward to getting out into the rural areas of the country again. Luckily, Justin List, a good friend of mine over here (originally from Chicago), told me about a trip to Sipi Falls in eastern Uganda and invited me to come along. Since I had only been back in the country for 48 hours at that point, I didn’t have too much planned for the weekend. I rearranged the one meeting I had scheduled and decided on Friday afternoon to go along for the ride.

We left Saturday morning at 8:30 on the Post Bus. Apparently the Ugandan postal service realized they could make a little extra money by using old charter buses to haul people and mail around the country. Although the bus makes frequent stops, it is a very cheap - and fairly clean - way to travel around the country.

Location of Sipi Falls in relation to Kampala

After about 7 ½ hours, we arrived in Mbale, the major city in eastern Uganda, where we were to meet Sarah (a friend from Wisconsin) who had gone ahead of us a few days earlier. There was a 15 minute window when we were out of the Post Bus and waiting for our friend with the next vehicle to continue on our way to Sipi Falls. Naturally, during this window is when it started to rain.

Supposedly January is the peak of dry season in Uganda, but apparently Mother Nature missed the memo this year. Since I came back on January 21, it has rained almost every day. Most of the storms had been drizzle and light rain up to this point. Not this one.

It started with a light rain, and Justin, Sheena (a friend from Cincinnati), and I moved under a few small trees for added protection as I opened up my umbrella. In hindsight, we should have paid more attention to all of the Ugandans across the street that had moved under a building overhang that provided sturdier shelter. After a couple minutes, the rain picked up. We debated whether we should cross the street to the building, but decided that Sarah would be there soon enough with the vehicle and that we could just wait. Bad choice. The rain continued to get stronger…and stronger…until we were in the middle of a torrential downpour. Then the winds picked up, which made it seem like it was raining horizontally and, to top it all off, it started to hail. For what seemed like 20-30 minutes (but was probably only about 5 minutes in reality), the three of us huddled together, using our two umbrellas to protect us from the hail as we battled to keep the wind from ripping them apart. Then, as quickly as it started, the rain stopped, and we were left standing there, absolutely drenched.

The Ugandans across the street thoroughly enjoyed the show, and I can’t blame them. I’m sure the three of us looked ridiculous during the whole episode and we all agreed that there wasn’t much else could do besides laugh at ourselves along with them. About five minutes later, Sarah pulled up in the taxi, and couldn’t help but laugh too, since she had taken the wiser route and sought shelter when the storm came. As we drove through Mbale, we saw that it had been a fairly serious storm. A couple roofs had been blown off of buildings (one landed on a car), and some plastic calling booths had been blown over.

Thankfully, the rest of the weekend went up from there. We arrived at the Crow’s Nest, a nice budget-level lodge in Sipi Falls, about an hour later and were greeted by some absolutely stunning views. The next two days at Sipi Falls were highlighted by a breathtaking 5 hour hike that took us to three separate waterfalls, with drops ranging from 78 to 100 meters; through several banana and coffee fields; and up and down a few valleys. Additionally, we spent both evenings on a peak near the Crow’s Nest where we watched the sun set over the plateau below us. The rest of the time was filled with the four of us catching up, meeting a 5th friend who came on the second day, a little reading/research, and relaxing in general.

On Monday we checked out and went back to Mbale and then further south to Tororo, where the 5th one of us, Patrick (a med student from UCSF), was based. We checked out his worksite during the day, ate some delicious roasted pork that evening, and then crashed at his place that night. Nothing too crazy that day besides an interesting mutatu ride from Mbale to Tororo where I was sandwiched in the back seat between the side of the van and a woman very publicly breast-feeding her child (a common occurrence over here). My backpack was in the very back of the vehicle so I kept turning my head to make sure the door didn’t fly open and let it fall out (the door, naturally, was tied closed using only a piece of twine). I realized when the ride was almost over that it probably looked like I was constantly looking at the woman…hopefully she knew what I was actually looking at! Oops!

Today we got up early and jumped on a bus headed back toward Kampala. This one was a little bit quicker than the Post Bus and, for the first time since I came to Uganda, had seat belts for us to wear…a very welcome addition for the travels! I arrived back in Kampala a little before noon and then went straight to the office instead of taking a couple hours to make my way home and back into town again. My backpacking/hiking clothes are a little departure from my usual slacks and dress shirt, but I think the others in the office understood!

Now it’s time to get back to work. My classes supposedly start next Monday (I’m not going to hold my breath), and I just got some more equipment for my research. Here we go with another Makerere semester!

Cheers!
-Chris

P.S. I've included a couple pictures from the weekend here, but couldn't fit all of them. I've posted all of my shots from the weekend on my Picasa sharing site - http://picasaweb.google.com/cwdeal/SipiFalls#

Not a bad view to start off the morning

Posing with one of the smaller falls

The base of the main falls...more shades of green than I had ever seen before!

Enjoying the sunset with Justin & Sheena

Boda-boda's were originally bicycle taxis, and a few of the bicycle variety are still around Ugandan cities. The four of us (Justin, Sheena, and me in this picture) decided to take the "greener" route while we were in Tororo...and give the drivers quite a workout!

Home for the holidays

2009-01-19T21:30:00.004+03:00

I know it’s cliché, but I’ll say it anyway; there really is no place like home for the holidays. I just finished up a fantastic 5 week stint back in Iowa and am now sitting in the Newark airport, in the middle of a seven hour layover, thinking about the past few weeks as I head back to Kampala.

When I left Uganda back on December 10, I was definitely looking forward to a break. The frustrations from dealing with a lack of infrastructure, trying to make progress in a society where development often barely inches along, and being so far from home had accumulated over my first 4 months in the country, and I was ready for some time off. The vacation gave me some good time to reflect on my first few months in the country and to think about what I want to accomplish in the upcoming months. As I now look forward to my return, I feel recharged and ready for classes and work to resume.

As I reflect on the past five weeks, I feel like I was able to make some good progress on a few of my projects while also spending some quality time with friends and family. However, before I get into that, there is one other item I should probably cover first…

I was originally scheduled to fly back to Uganda on January 5. However, during my last week of final exams in December, I found out that the next semester wouldn’t be starting until early February. I decided to prolong my stay in the States by a couple weeks, but I opted to not share that information with anyone other than my parents. I kept the flight change a secret because I saw a perfect opportunity to use it in the coordination of a surprise for Tracy. So, with a little help from her family and my parents, I faked leaving on January 5 (I know, a little cruel, but the ends justified the means). Two days later, with a little more help from family and some friends (thank you again, Matt Schutt & Carole Custer!), I surprised Tracy with a scheme that involved having Schutt pick her up from school, chauffeur her around Ames, and ultimately bring her to the Campanile where I surprised her, with ring in hand (the full story is a little more complex; shoot me an email if you’d like all of the details). Thankfully, that was enough for her to forgive me for pretending to leave the country, and she said yes! So, I am now returning to Uganda as an engaged man!

That, obviously, was the highlight of my return home. However, I did manage to make some progress on a few other projects. I am trying to bring together a few Rotary clubs to start a mosquito nets project for the Kamuli schools that I visited back in August, and I spent a good amount of time with meetings, presentations, and putting together proposals for that project. Beyond that, I was able to visit Tracy’s classroom a couple times and talk to her students about life in Uganda and their pen pals in Kamuli. I also did some work on my thesis research and took care of some of the boring things that had to get done while I was in the country (taxes, doctor’s appointments, dentist, background checks for teaching, etc.). I was able to see many friends at the Jorgensen-Connolly wedding and have a lot of fun at family Christmas get-togethers. And my mom managed to get me to re-gain any weight that I had lost while in Africa, and then some. Overall, it was a fantastic trip home!

Now I head back to work in Uganda. I’ll have a couple weeks before classes technically start (and probably a couple more weeks after that before professors actually start teaching) that I’ll use for catching up on research and re-adjusting to life in Uganda. I’ve got a lot to cover, and I know that my 5 months are going to fly by, so I better get started right away!

Anyway, I’ll end there with my vacation update. I still have five hours before my flight leaves for Amsterdam, so maybe I’ll put together another post or two about some fun stories that I didn’t get around to covering in December.

Cheers!
Chris

Returning to the car after the big surprise. I had been standing outside for 30 minutes at this point and could no longer feel fingers or toes...still happy though! :)

I flew out of Eppley Airfield in Omaha at 6:45 am today, so I had my parents drop me off the night before and slept in the airport. Here's my makeshift bed that was good for nearly 5 hours of sleep.

Final Exams

2008-11-30T19:33:00.004+03:00

It's probably getting old reading an apology at the beginning of each of my posts for such a lengthy delay, so I'll say it one more time - I'm sorry! - and from hereon out we'll just assume that it is implied whenever there are long delays (which I can almost guarantee will continue to occur). Thanks though to those who called me out for taking so long to get another post up...it worked! :)

I am in the middle of finals over here. Instead of having everything condensed into one week, they are spread out over a couple weeks. It's nice in some regards and a pain in others. The biggest hassle actually hasn't been the studying but instead has been getting all of the projects and everything completed. Thankfully, I've enjoyed the work I've been doing, and have actually been able to make some real use of some of the projects. For example, last Friday morning I gave a presentation to a World Bank employee about speeding up a lagging rural electrification project. Granted, I think he had already reached every conclusion that I offered, but it was still a cool experience.

I had one final exam last Wednesday, have three this week, and then have two more during the week after. My last exam will be on Wednesday, December 10 - the same day when I fly out to come home for the Jorgensen-Connolly wedding & spend Christmas with the family. To say that I am excited to get home and see everyone would be an understatement! Besides, it just doesn't feel like Christmas season with 90º weather outside!

Although school work has been more demanding these last few weeks, I still have had some very cool experiences over the last few days. I'll give a quick summary:

Thanksgiving - I have gotten to know several other ex-pats in the area, and we organized a group of 25 of us to do our own Thanksgiving. The actual meal was at the home of the USAID Director for Uganda, an absolutely gorgeous place in a very nice part of Kampala. We had pretty much the entire Thanksgiving spread - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and even pumpkin pie! The food was delicious and a welcome break from the Uganda food that I have been eating nearly every day over here! It was a very cool experience since most of us were experiencing our first Thanksgiving away from family, so we adopted each other. It wasn't a home Thanksgiving, but it was about as close as I could get!

Marriage "Introduction" - In Uganda there is another step in the marriage process that is not included in our culture. After the engagement and a few weeks before the actual wedding, there is an official introduction of the families. I was invited to attend one of these introductions by one of my host Rotarians, whose niece was getting married. The event started at 1:30 with lunch. We sat down around 2:30 and didn't get up until about 7:30 - 5 hours of sitting...ugh! It was very interesting though. Basically, the entire ceremony is an opportunity for the groom's family to give gifts to the bride's family (who organize the event). The gifts were numerous and ranged from gallons of cooking oil to a live cow and goat. Both families were definitely in the upper tier of society, and it was interesting to see how traditional things like livestock were still included in the gift giving process. Overall, a great cultural experience, but not sure I'd like to sit through another one any time soon!

Bahai Temple - Instead of going to my normal church this morning I instead went to the Bahai Temple with a few friends. Bahai is a faith that is something of a mixture between Christianity, Islam, and Hindu with several other influences. Kampala has one of eight temples in the world, and the only temple in Africa. Services are open to anyone so we decided to check it out. After getting lost while driving there (why do I keep trusting the maps over here...?) and taking a detour through a few interesting parts of Kampala, we finally arrived at a gorgeous building. The service consisted of readings from the Bible, the Qu'ran, and from some of the writings of the Bahai founder. Different, but very nice to see religions from around the world combined in a constructive manner rather than what we're seeing in other parts of the world right now!

Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now. Not sure if I'll get another post before I leave. If you don't hear from me before the 10th, hopefully I'll see most of you back in Iowa in the upcoming weeks!

Cheers!
Chris

Staying busy...

2008-11-13T19:07:00.007+03:00

I realized that I have hinted at what is keeping me busy over here, but have never actually written about how I have been spending the majority of my time. Here is a summary of my projects/activities now that I’ve gotten into something of a routine:

Classes: I am currently taking six classes, all associated with some aspect of renewable energy: (1) Other Forms of Renewable Energy, (2) Entrepreneurship Development, (3) Project Management, (4) Energy Policy & Planning, (5) Optimizing Energy Systems, and (6) Solar Energy. Although the lectures have continued to be intermittent (overall, I would guess that professors have showed up for about 60% of the scheduled lectures), the 14 of us in the program have been busy over the last few weeks with several projects, papers, and tests. The lectures themselves have been fairly pointless, usually being directly from PowerPoint slides or out of a book, but the overall program has required a lot of self-taught learning. And the nice thing is that all of the topics are right up my alley, so I find all of this material to be interesting. It took awhile, but I finally feel like a student again!

Research: After consulting with a few advisers at Iowa State, I have narrowed down my topic for thesis research to biochar. Without going into a lot of technical jargon and putting everyone to sleep, biochar is the byproduct from extreme heating of biomass (through gasification, pyrolysis, or charcoal production). It has been shown to be a very effective soil amendment for increasing soil fertility and crop production. It also has the ability to capture carbon and store it for hundreds to thousands of years, making it a “carbon-negative” technology and potential source for climate change mitigation efforts. I’m specifically looking at the biochar produced from gasification of biomass crops from the humid tropics. In a nutshell, it’s a cool way to combine my interests in engineering and agriculture. I am still in the process of finishing my thesis proposal (something that has taken much longer than expected), but should hopefully be able to start with experiments in the next month or so.

Teaching: For the past 6 weeks, I have been volunteering as a secondary school teacher at a local school. I have been teaching chemistry and math to A-Level students (upper high school level), and have been loving it! I had a little drama when I originally tried to find a school where I could volunteer (have been meaning to write an entry about it but that’s never happened – long story short: a school founder tried to use me, the token white guy, primarily as a recruitment tool for more fee-paying students…add to that the fact that the school was over an hour away from Makerere and I decided that option would not be in my best interests). After some help from a contact at Makerere, I found the school where I have spent the last 6 weeks. It is located near a slum area of Kampala and is designed to give access to kids who normally wouldn’t be able to go to A-Level school. The students are starting their exams next week, so I gave my last lesson yesterday. They then have their long break until the end of January (their academic year matches up with the calendar year). Sadly, I might not be able to come back and teach next semester since I’ll be juggling two loads of classes and research. We shall see….

“Consulting”: I have helped out with a couple rural energy programs. I wrote about one of them awhile ago – using sunflower seed oil to power a generator that will supply energy for an off-grid trading center. The other was a jatropha project in a district just north of Kampala (I think I might have mentioned that one also). They have been very interesting projects, but both of them have basically ground to a halt due to organizational issues within the implementation groups. Frustrating…

Coordinating Pen Pals: Tracy came up with the idea to have her students pair up with students here in Uganda and do a pen pals exchange. I’ve been helping to get the logistics figured out with the Ugandan school, and the first set of letters should be arriving any day now from the U.S.! Tracy and her students are also gathering school supplies to send over to the school here in Uganda (it’s a rural school where the students literally have nothing more than a pen and paper). Plans are in the works to try to add a more sizeable fundraising project, but I need to see how things play out with some background research first…

Language Lessons: I have been taking lessons in Luganda (the main tribal language spoken in Kampala and surrounding areas) since early September. I am part of a group of 8 students – 7 girls from Norway and myself – that meets for 4-6 hours each week. The class has been very interesting since it incorporates many cultural aspects. Unfortunately, I haven’t put in the study time outside of class that I should have. I can converse in basic Luganda…but only if I have my class notes right in front of me!

Church: I found a church within walking distance of my home where I have been going almost every week. It’s part of the Church of Uganda (Anglican) and has a “traditional” style of worship service, but traditional is definitely a relative term. The services here are still much livelier than the different “contemporary” services I’ve been to in Iowa. I was actually singing in the choir for awhile but had to cut that out when classes picked up. Strangely, none of the other choir members seemed too heartbroken when I stopped coming to practices!

Travels: Whenever it works out with my schedule, I am trying to get out of Kampala and see the region. The travels have been great – it’s nice to get away from the chaos that is Kampala every once in awhile! My recent trip to Rwanda was the most unorganized things I have been involved with – but the country was still amazing! Eventually I will get a post written about it… Besides Rwanda, I have spent time in Kenya, Kamuli District, Entebbe, Kabale (far western Uganda), along with a few other day trips. Tomorrow I leave for a weekend in the Ssese Islands, the chain of 81 islands in Lake Victoria. I’m going with a Rotary group and will be helping to pour cement for a local school located on the islands. We’ll also be checking out a recently installed “bio-latrine” that uses the human waste produced by the school to produce energy for cooking and lighting. The Ssese Islands are supposed to be gorgeous, so it should be quite the weekend!

Friends/“Family”: I’ve met some awesome people over here through classes, volunteering, random connections, and sheer chance. I will usually spend a night or two each week out in Kampala with friends trying a new restaurant or sharing our weekly adventures. Beyond that, I see my “host family” most days, although it’s usually pretty short since I get home late from school and am out the door early in the morning.

Anyway, that’s the cliff notes version of my life over here. Add to that the “fun” challenges that pop up with daily life (i.e. my hard drive crashing earlier this week), and it keeps me pretty busy. I’m trying to fit as much in as I can since I’m already done with three of the nine months that I’ll be in the country!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. Without sticking my foot too far in my mouth, I want to clarify my last post a bit. As I read over the post, I realized that it came off with an obvious bias, which I did not mean to do. I am actually very moderate when it comes to politics, and I definitely want to avoid the potentially polarizing effect that political discourse can have – especially in this blog. The political atmosphere is naturally much different here in Eastern Africa than in the Midwest, which was reflected in my writing. So, that being said, yes, I am excited for the future, but I – like many of you – have my reservations also. The message I meant to convey was one of optimism, believing that we will need a positive approach to solve the issues we are currently facing, but knowing that we need to employ relative caution as we move forward with some of the changes that will inevitably come.

Pic: Football (soccer) match of Uganda vs. Benin (Uganda won 3-1)

Pic: Admiring the western Ugandan landscape

Pic: Lake Bunyonyi = gorgeous

U.S. Politics: An East African Perspective

2008-11-05T10:01:00.004+03:00

I am sitting in class right now, battling to stay awake after staying up all night watching the U.S. election coverage.

It has been a very unique experience getting to witness this election from Africa. From the day I arrived back in August, I have been consistently impressed with Africans' knowledge of - and desire to discuss - American politics. Numerous times I have been asked to explain the electoral college or have found myself discussing topics such as which swing states mattered most and what each side was doing to try to win those states. Africans inherently have an interest in American politics since we supply so much aid to the continent, and the interest in this year's election was significantly magnified with our current standing in world affairs and Obama's ancestral ties to the continent. Of course, Africans had a strong preference for Obama. I would guess that I met a total of 5-10 Africans who supported McCain/Palin during the past three months. I think that I discussed American politics more often over here than I ever did while living in the U.S. (although I think I would have been frequently discussing politics no matter my location during the past few months).

The only frustration I have with African views on American politics is how some assume that Obama's heritage will directly affect them. I have heard several comments from Kenyan Luo's (Obama's father's tribe) who believe that Obama winning the presidency shows that their tribe is superior or that Kenya and Africa in general will now become a primary recipient of American aid and partnership. These views are by no means the sentiment of all Africans, but there are several individuals who have expressed them. It's frustrating to see tribal conflicts and selfish desires get brought into this election, especially when we know that the focus of the administration will be first to fix the problems within our country. If - and hopefully when - that is accomplished, it is still foolish for Africans to assume that they are going to get any special favors just because of Obama's heritage.

I spent the previous 10 hours sitting with several other Americans and ex-pats at a bar in Kampala that we had rented out for the night. We had CNN on the entire time and watched as the votes accumulated - using snacks and unlimited coffee to keep our eyes open during to slow hours at the beginning. There was a definite air of excitement as we experienced history being made, and it culminated with the excellent speeches from both candidates. As everything wrapped up, almost all of the individuals who were present and not of American citizenship commented on how impressed they were with American patriotism. Ugandans especially were impressed with our elections. Here in Uganda nationalism is still often overshadowed by tribalism; people consider themselves to be members of their tribes before being Ugandans (it would be like me considering myself an Iowan before an American). Also, many Africans found it hard to believe that I had full confidence in our elections proceding with no hints of corruption or rigging (disregarding hanging chads, soggy ballots, etc.); that is something that is rarely experienced over here. Knowing all of that, I had a powerful sense of patriotism as I walked out of the bar.

Although I am happy I was able to experience this interesting perspective on American politics, I am jealous of those in the United States right now. It's a very exciting time for our country; it sounds cliche, but even as I walk around today, I feel like the world has shifted. No matter whether you are liberal or conservative, we know that the world is going to go through some significant changes in the upcoming months and years, and it's exciting to think about the possibilities. There seems to be an optimism spreading among many Americans about the future that we haven't seen for several years, yet it is coupled with an understanding of the tremendous challenges we face as a nation. It's an exciting time to be an American!

Cheers!
Chris

Pic: The beginning. We stayed like this for almost the entire night, except that the beers changed to coffees approximately 5 hours after this picture was taken :)

Pic: It took awhile for those first results to come in...

Nile craziness!

2008-10-29T10:34:00.006+03:00

My weekends are usually limited since I have class scheduled every Saturday from 9-11 am. Granted, the professor has only shown up for two of these classes, but I still try to be around in the off chance that he does come.

This previous Saturday was a slight deviation from the normal trend; the professor still didn’t come for lecture, but this time he at least told us class was cancelled beforehand. This worked out perfectly for me as I had some friends who had invited me to go rafting down the Nile with them that Saturday. I called them Friday evening when I heard my class was cancelled and found out that there was still room for me to join. Letting my sense of adventure drown out the usual caution that I have followed since coming to Africa, I said that I was game for some whitewater rafting down the Nile.

I have done several of these crazy extreme sports in the past – things like skydiving, cliff-jumping, hang-gliding, etc. – and always loved the experience. However, I had not planned on doing something like this when I came to Africa. This was mainly because I knew the safety situation is much different here from places like Australia where I’ve done this stuff before. However, after being here for a few months and knowing several people who went on these rafting trips with no problems, I decided it was definitely worth the slight risk for the experience.

We left Kampala early Saturday morning on a bus supplied by the rafting company – Nile River Explorers – headed towards Jinja, the source of the Nile. When we arrived at the NRE base camp, I felt like I was back in Australia. The company was started by Aussies and definitely had the hostel/backpacker feel to it. The fact that 90% of the people there were white, something I hadn’t experienced since leaving Iowa, also added to the feeling of being in a completely different place. We quickly signed our lives away, which entailed NRE mentioning that there was a terms of agreement form somewhere, no one bothering to look at it, and then everyone signing some random sheet of paper. Things definitely are different when there isn’t a looming threat of litigation like there is in the U.S. or Australia!

After a quick breakfast, we got our safety equipment (a beat up helmet and life jacket) and jumped on a truck headed toward the shove off point. We formed groups of seven, left all of our belongings on the truck (after being warned that anything not attached to us would eventually end up in the Mediterranean), and were on the large, red inflatable rafts within a fairly short amount of time.

Our boat guide was a local named Peter. If I had to guess when I first saw him, I would have said he was probably 15 years old. As it turned out, after questioning him a few hours later, he was 23 years old. At least, that’s the age he told us…I’m still not convinced. He had been doing this for several years and had a very unique sense of humor. The first thing he said to us: “We are very safe company…haven’t lost anyone for several days now.”

Within the first few minutes, I could tell this trip was going to be quite a bit different from previous whitewater rafting I had done. Unlike past trips, where the guides usually manage to keep everyone in the boat the entire time (disregard the time I fell out in the Class IV rapids in Australia…), all of the guides had us jump out into the Nile right away so we could practice getting the boat flipped over in case it got turned upside down in rapids. In hindsight, it was a good thing we got that practice!

The rafting was scheduled to go for the entire day, with a total of 12 rapids – 4 of them being Class V. I was interested in what “Class V” actually meant, so I looked up the qualifications. The description seems spot-on to me:

Class V - Expert
· extremely long and/or violent rapids, often containing large, unavoidable obstacles, holes, steep banks, and turbulent water
· very fast currents with powerful whirlpools and boiling back eddies
· rescue is often difficult for experts
· advance scouting may be difficult

We made it through the first handful of rapids with few problems. We definitely got soaked, and it was exciting, but nothing too intense. However, we got a feeling that something was in store as we approached the second set of Class V rapids, Silverback (all of the rapids have fun names like the Dead Dutchman, Washing Machine, and – my favorite – the Bad Place). The company leader, an Aussie whom we could tell had been rafting for some time, said something to Peter about taking Silverback like he had the day before. It was not until later that we found out Peter’s raft had flipped in Silverback the day before...

As we approached each set of rapids, Peter would give us a run-down on what the rapids were like and what to do in case we would fall out or the raft would flip over (i.e. hold on to the rope, swim to the eddy currents on the left, etc.). As Peter explained, Silverback was the longest stretch of rapids we would do in the day, something like 40 meters. It had 4 large drops, all diagonal to each other. If we fell out, we were to try to hold on to the rope on the side of the raft (emphasis on the word “try”) and, if unable to do that, just enjoy the ride through the rapids, because there wouldn’t be much else we could do!

We could tell that Silverback was definitely a big set of rapids as we approached; the roar of the water was much louder than the previous rapids. I was one of the front paddlers, so I had a great view of the first drop. I remember Peter yelling the usual “Get down! Hold on!” and then we were in the rapids. We got through the first drop fine, but the second drop was our undoing. Before any of us knew what happened, the raft was upside down and we were in the rapids. I opened my mouth to yell but just got a big gulp of Nile River instead. Then I just saw bubbling water until I was back up for a brief second…long enough to see myself collide with a couple other members of my raft who were also getting tossed around like pin balls. The next time I came up I tried to get a breath of air, but to my dismay realized that I couldn’t breathe deeply; I had gotten the wind knocked out of me when we hit that second drop. I was then pulled back under and spent what seemed like an eternity (but was probably just a handful of seconds) being tossed around the remainder of Silverback. When I reached the end of the intense rapids, I found several of the safety kayakers waiting to pick up me and the other members of my raft. I grabbed onto one of them and caught my breath as I looked back at the rapids that had just owned me. What a ride!

Our team eventually got back together, flipped the raft back over, and continued on our way, comparing stories about each of our individual rides through Silverback. We were the only raft out of the seven in total that flipped over in Silverback, and I am all but sure that Peter had something to do with that. However, it definitely made for a more memorable experience!

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. There were some more huge rapids, but once you fall out in a Class V, it’s tough to match that rush. Several other rafts flipped over, but we managed to stay upright the rest of the day. I think that was due, in large part, to a few team members who made it clear to Peter that they were not interested in going back into the river.

In addition to the intense rapids, the Nile also has some gorgeous calm areas. In one of these areas, as our team was nonchalantly paddling through the afternoon, we noticed something moving along the bank. After a minute, we realized that it was a croc! We now understood why the guides had explained that there was to be no swimming in that part of the river!

After nearly 8 hours and 30 kilometers on the river, we made it through the final set of rapids, got our rafts out of the water, and climbed aboard the trucks to head back to the campsite for the victory celebration – a fantastic barbeque. What a day!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. I will be out of contact for the next few days – I leave tonight for a three day academic conference in Rwanda. It will be similar to the conference I attended in Kenya – the subject will probably be boring; I’m just interested in seeing Rwanda!

Pic: None of us had cameras so we didn’t get any pictures of us on the rapids. This, however, is a picture from the Nile River Explorers website. It looks accurate to me…

Pic: Take this picture (from Australia) and flip the boat - and everyone in it - over and you've got an idea of what it was like :)

A little reflecting...

2008-10-19T18:01:00.006+03:00

I have been lucky enough to have done quite a bit of travel thus far in my life, but up to this point all of my travels have been relatively short trips. This is now my 11th week in Africa, which makes this the longest amount of time I have ever spent away from home. Knowing that, I thought this would be a good time to do a little reflecting. Here are a few random things that came to mind…

I have been unbelievably blessed in my life. I knew this before I came to Africa (it’s one of the reasons I chose to come here), but living here really has driven this point home. There are billions of people living in this world with unsafe water conditions, little or no health care, and inadequate opportunities to receive an education. Why was I part of the lucky minority born in a developed country into a family that could give me everything that I needed? It’s a tough question, and I’ll spare everyone from launching into a novel where I try to find the answer!

It just takes a little to make a difference. There is so much wrong in this world that it can be overbearing. Africa especially seems to shoulder a disproportionate load of misfortunes – wars, dictators, famine, genocide, malaria, AIDS…the list could go on for quite awhile. What frustrates me about this, however, is that people have a tendency to be so put off by the problems that they overlook the opportunities. And it really doesn’t take much to capitalize on these opportunities. For example, some students in the Gilbert School District are going to be doing some fundraising to bring school supplies and mosquito nets to students in rural Uganda. It doesn’t seem like much to donate $7 for a mosquito net, but that net could make the difference in whether a child is healthy enough to receive an education or not.

We are more alike than different. Whether we live in a congested developing city like Kampala, a mud hut in rural Uganda, small town Iowa, or a major metropolitan city, we all share certain common desires. We want to our families to be healthy; we want to live without fear; we want a dependable income that will supply those basic needs and provide a comfortable existence; etc. The settings in which we find ourselves can be vastly different, but when it comes down to it, it really isn’t that hard to relate to one another.

Nine months is going to go by quicker than I can imagine. I have been here for over 10 weeks – that’s nearly 2 ½ months already. In other words, I am already ¼ of the way done with my time in Africa! It’s going by quickly, and the remaining time is also going to fly by. It has definitely been frustrating at times, especially with all of the logistics that I have had to go through upfront. However, I’m starting to see some payoffs, and that’s very encouraging. I just hope I can make the rest of my time here be worthwhile!

Ironically, the same week that marked the longest stretch of time I had spent away from home also held one of the events that I most wanted to be home to attend: Fall Festival. As one might expect, I had to battle with some homesickness during the past week. However, I had some help from family and friends in dealing with it. Tracy and my parents gave me updates about Fall Festival late each day (for anyone who didn’t make it out – it was a gorgeous weekend and probably our best festival yet!), and I got some very nice emails from several people.

Still, homesickness is a part of this experience and is part of the inherent challenge of living in Africa for an extended period of time. I have heard the first few weeks in a foreign country described as the honeymoon period, where everything is new and fascinating. Every task is a new adventure (especially in a country like Uganda). As time goes by, however, the tasks/adventures become more routine. And after awhile, the excitement of living in a totally new place starts to fade. This is when the challenge really sets in – it becomes a little harder to laugh off the traffic jams, internet malfunctions, electricity outages, etc each time. That’s the point I’ve reached. I find myself getting more and more frustrated when I want to try to accomplish something but am stopped by breakdowns and inefficiencies.

So what am I doing about it? I’m trying to work the system as best as I can! Case in point: I am in the process of buying a car (crazy, I know)! My host family was looking to sell their car, so it actually worked out perfectly. I will keep the car for the rest of my time over here and then sell it right before I leave. The car is a Toyota Corsa (picture a Toyota Corsica and shrink it a little). It’s small and gets pretty good gas mileage (that was a requirement for me since gas costs the equivalent of $7-$8/gallon over here) which should make it easy to sell off when I’m ready to leave.

I have been driving the car for nearly a week now, and I can already tell that it will be worth the investment! Now I don't have to worry about navigating the taxi park at night and have much more independence to go where I need to go, when I need to go there. Driving, however, definitely is an experience over here. First of all, everything is reversed for me since they drive on the left side of the road here. I’m getting used to it, but it still feels weird to have to look up and left to check my rear-view mirror. Also, the turning signal is on the other side of the steering wheel, so I will frequently turn on my windshield wipers instead of signaling to turn. Secondly, I am convinced that 95% of the drivers over here have never had any type of driving lesson. If they have, they immediately threw out whatever they learned when the lesson was finished. The rule of the road here is every man for himself. Coming from small-town Iowa, this is about the exact opposite of what I know. To say that my first couple times on the road were stressful would be more than an understatement! However, like I said, I’m slowly getting it figured out. My strategy is to just drive like a grandma and bring back the concept of “defensive driving” that my dad taught me back when I was 14!

Anyway, time to get back to my other projects.

Cheers!
Chris

Pic: Sure I know what I'm doing...

Pic: He likes the car too

Grilled cheese & Toby Keith

2008-10-11T12:52:00.005+03:00

One of my favorite parts of traveling is getting to experience new cultures. I find it fascinating how certain aspects of life – food, traditional values, work philosophy, social roles etc. – can have such a variety. One of the great parts of being an Ambassadorial Scholar is that not only do I get to experience new cultures, but I am also expected to share my own culture.

One of these sharing moments occurred a few weeks ago, when I decided I would bring American food to Kizito’s kids. Kizito, his wife – Agnes, and their baby daughter – Gloria, were all gone to Norway for a conference, so it was just the other four kids, Lillian, and me in the house for about a week. I got the idea to try cooking for the kids as a fun way to show them a little bit about America.

My meal of choice: grilled cheese. I picked this because (1) it is difficult to mess up, (2) it is a food that basically every American eats and enjoys, and (3) the supplies would be relatively easy to find. I would have rather grilled for the kids, but as you can imagine, the choice of meat is a little limited over here (Ugandan pork just really doesn’t compare with a good Iowa chop) and no one really grills (at least, not like we're used to) in the first place.

After deciding on the meal, I accompanied Charity and Lillian to the open-air market. Cheese, however, is not a popular item for Ugandans, so it was nowhere to be found at the market. Next stop: Uchumi Supermarket (picture a smaller version of Super Target with a full grocery selection). They had a big block of cheddar in their deli, so I ordered 20 thin slices without paying attention to the price. Big mistake. Since cheese is a rarity over here, it costs much more. The wrapped package of cheese they handed me came with a price tag of nearly 20,000 Ugandan schillings – about $12.50!

When we got home after shopping I made sure Lillian knew I was planning on cooking a little bit for dinner that night. She still was going to make the traditional Ugandan meal for the night since I didn’t have enough for a full meal for everyone. About 4 hours before our meal was going to occur, Lillian started preparing her food. As crazy as it sounds to us, this is common in Uganda. The food that Lillian and Agnes make each night takes 4-5 hours to prepare. Although the family has a stove and burners, the vast majority of cooking is actually done outside of the kitchen. I think part of this is because it reflects the traditional means of cooking, but the main reason is because charcoal is so much cheaper than gas. They have several small cooking “pits” outside of the house where they boil water for rice, potatoes, beans, pasta, and whatever else is going to be eaten that night. Knowing that, I was not surprised at Lillian’s surprised (and slightly worried) reaction after she asked me how long I would need to prepare my food and I replied with “15 minutes.”

When the time came, I found all the necessary supplies, fired up the propane (I used a propane tank with an attached burner), and started the “cooking.” The bread that I had to use was a little different, but it worked. Overall, the meal turned out well (see the pictures below), and all of the kids seemed to really enjoy the meal. Well, except Charity, who informed me (after I had made the sandwiches) that she couldn’t eat anything that included butter. Oops! And, believe it or not, these kids had never seen or heard of grilled cheese sandwiches!

For those who know me, they will attest that my cooking skills are limited at best (which is why I chose to prepare grilled cheese). I apologize to all of you talented cooks out there, because there are probably 5 Ugandans who now think that Americans have no idea how to cook! :)

Another fun cultural sharing experience came when I was riding on the bus to Nairobi. I was going through the usual small-talk subjects with the person sitting next to me (What do you do? Where are you from? etc.), and we eventually got to the subject of music. He informed me that he enjoyed American country music. Side note: although it definitely is not the most popular American music in Uganda (sadly, that is probably a toss up between rap and hip-hop/R&B), country music has many more fans than I expected. Also being a fan of country music, I got out my iPod and gave him one of the earphones. I then played through the songs that I had with me. His favorite: “Whiskey for my Men” by Toby Keith.

Among other things, I have introduced Africans to grilled cheese and Toby Keith. I would say that makes me a successful ambassador of American culture, right? :)

Cheers!
Chris

Pic: One plate took 4 hours of preparation, the other: 15 minutes. Can you guess which is which?

Pic: 'Is this what all Americans eat?'

Sorry for the delay...

2008-10-07T17:06:00.003+03:00

I want to post a quick message to apologize for the delay between entries, and to let anyone interested know that I haven't been eaten by lions or succumb to ebola. The last couple weeks have seen things really pick up over here. I am now having all of my classes (well, almost all of them) and a few of my side projects are starting to come together. In addition to that, there is one class left from last semester (solar energy) where the students still haven't taken the final exam. So they've agreed to let me try to sit for that exam too...which means a fair amount of cramming will be necessary in the upcoming weeks.

On top of all of that however, is the fact that internet access has been severely limited for over a week now, with all of Makerere University having no connection. The reason (and I swear I'm not making this up) - the university hadn't paid its bill for several months and had its internet service - to all 33,000+ students and thousands of faculty members - cut by the provider. What can I do beyond laugh at that (and make brief 30 minute internet stops at a local coffee shop)? :)

Hope the fall is going well for everyone!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. For everyone in the central Iowa area, don't forget that this weekend is Fall Festival at Deal's Orchard! If you are able, make up for my absence by attending. Hopefully that way I won't be disbanded from the Deal family for missing it! :)

Taxi ride to remember

2008-09-30T10:06:00.002+03:00

I have gotten over my phobia of the taxi park after dark. Well, let me clarify that: I am now alright with going into the taxi park after dark assuming I’m not carrying anything too valuable on me. The main reason for this change is because I have been staying late in Kampala more frequently (every day this last week) for Rotary meetings and other events. Since taking the mutatu costs about 1/15 of a normal taxi cab rate, I’ve shifted over to primarily using the mutatu’s to get home.

The benefit of riding mutatu’s (besides the fact that they’re dirt cheap) is that I get to encounter much more of the culture. This, as I found out this last Saturday, can produce some very memorable experiences.

I was in the city late on Saturday for a Rotaract chartering celebration. It was a very fun event, and I enjoyed getting to know some members from my sponsor club – The Rotary Club of Kololo – a little better. I will save the details of the celebration and of my positive experiences with Rotary in general for another post though.

I left the celebration around 10:30 pm and walked with a couple Ugandans to the taxi park where I boarded a mutatu headed toward my home. While sitting there waiting (the mutatu’s don’t leave until they are full), I got my first clue that this was going to be an interesting ride when an older man threw a huge burlap sack of something (my guess is cassava) down next to my feet. He then climbed in, gave me a disgruntled look and sat down next to me on my left.

The man talked to himself for awhile until the taxi started to move. He then started to speak up, talking to no one in general most of the time but occasionally speaking directly to the person sitting on my right.

It quickly became blatantly obvious that he was talking about me. He was speaking in Luganda – the local tribal dialect around Kampala – so I couldn’t make out most of what he was saying. However, the numerous times he used the word “muzungu” gave the meaning away clearly. And, even if I hadn’t caught that, the finger-pointing that started soon after removed all doubt.

As he continued on with his rant, I noticed that he was holding a clear plastic bag filled with liquid (think of a Capri-Sun package, only clear). This was a bag full of Uganda’s local spirit: waragi gin. This potent drink is commonly sold in these small plastic bags for people who want to “drink on the go.” Alcoholism is a very serious problem in Uganda, and these bags of waragi gin, with their very cheap price tag, cater exactly to this crowd.

The old, drunk man continued, picking up some momentum as he went. For my part, I decided to just completely ignore him and pretend like I had no idea what he was saying. However, after 4 weeks of Luganda lessons (and several words that are the same in Luganda as in English), I was able to pick up on the gist of his schpeel: he assumed that I was a student in Uganda, probably doing some type of study on the poor in the country. He talked about me being rich and how my country can afford to through around $700 billion. In general, he was bitter at the hands we had each been dealt in life.

By this time, he was getting a rise out of several people in the taxi. Numerous times people would laugh after something he said. All I chose to do was just sit there, shaking my head, with something of a smirk on my face. I was actually coming up with a “master plan” while the guy kept talking. I decided I wouldn’t say a word until it was my turn to get off the mutatu. Then I would turn to everyone, say good bye, and wish them all a good night, in Luganda, hoping that they would realize then that I knew what they were saying.

This plan was slightly interrupted when the man tapped me on the shoulder and asked me “What does it feel like to be closer to God because of your skin?” He followed that up with “If I cut you, do you bleed?” implying that whites aren’t even mortal.

Obviously, I wasn’t ready for two questions like that. I stumbled through some response trying to say I really wasn’t that different from everyone else on the taxi, but failed to express myself well. It didn’t really matter because he had already gone back to ranting in Luganda before I was even done speaking.

We eventually reached my stop. I got out and went ahead with the Luganda goodbye and good wishes for everyone in the taxi. I didn’t notice any real response from the people, which probably meant I said it wrong or my accent made me too difficult to understand. Swing and a miss…

The feeling I had on the mutatu is a hard one to describe. I wouldn’t say it was humiliating, but it definitely was agitating to be called out like that. Part of me wanted to come right back at the guy and explain to him that I was in the country trying to help and that he should maybe try doing something productive with his life. However, I thankfully restrained myself, opting to not let a drunk provoke me.

After I got off the mutatu and thought more about it, however, it really hit home how much truth was in what the man had said. Chances are that during his life he had seen and experienced countless hardships and tragedies: lost friends and family to diseases like AIDS and malaria, poverty, hunger, homelessness, war, genocide, etc. If I had lived through all of that, and still was relying on a burlap sack of tubers to get me through the next day, I’d be bitter towards people who were born into a world where they would experience few, if any, of the same hardships. Of course, alcohol and publicly making a show of someone aren’t the right ways to go about dealing with problems in life, but I can definitely understand why he was frustrated.

As uncomfortable as the experience was, part of me is happy that it happened. There definitely is an underlying tension among some people towards those in developed countries who, like me, have been blessed to have everything they ever need (and then some) provided. I just hope that the future generations of Ugandans will decide to do something more productive than resorting to waragi gin to fix the problem!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. I feel like I need to add a disclaimer to this post: This occurrence was an isolated incident, so please don’t let it give a negative impression of Ugandans. The vast majority of Ugandans have been incredibly welcoming to me; this was just a unique experience I wanted to share.

Pic: Old Taxi Park in all its glory. The taxis I catch actually can’t be seen here; there is an “annex” that was recently added a couple blocks away – I go there to catch a mutatu headed toward my home.

First week of "lectures"

2008-09-25T07:44:00.004+03:00

First off, sorry to all of those frequent readers (I’m assuming this group is composed solely by my mom) for such a long time between posts. This last week has been especially bad for writing due to a combination of electricity issues, internet crashes, and numerous small projects. Hopefully I’ll catch up a little in the upcoming few weeks!

My classes officially began last Monday (Sep 15); I reported to campus, not knowing what classes I was supposed to take or when they would be held and was pleasantly surprised to find that a class schedule had been posted. My first class was scheduled for 10:00 that day, but when I arrived for that class, there was only one other student there, who informed me that the professor and everyone else probably wouldn’t be coming. This, as I would find out, appropriately foreshadowed the upcoming days.

I was supposed to have two classes the next day, but I had been given the opportunity to spend the day in the Luwero District – about 50 miles north of Kampala – where a jatropha project was being implemented by VEDCO. Jatropha is a plant that is known for its ability to grow rapidly and in arid areas. The most exciting aspect about jatropha is that the oil obtained by pressing the seeds can be used directly in a diesel engine. There are definitely some technical issues that still need to be resolved with the plant – especially finding a way to increase plant yield and make harvesting more efficient – but jatropha has potential to make a huge impact in biofuels in the upcoming years, especially in developing countries. Anyway, I’m getting away from the theme of this post; I will probably do another post in the future about jatropha and some of the other energy projects with which I’m helping. The Tuesday jatropha visit was very interesting, but highlighted some of the challenges of implementing a jatropha project.

I came back to campus early on Wednesday so I could make it to my 8:00 lecture on time. Instead, I found the same student in the classroom, who informed me that we probably wouldn’t have classes that day, we hadn’t had any classes the day before, and we probably wouldn’t have any classes for the rest of the week. All I could do was laugh and think to myself, ‘TIA…’

I was back to the office on Thursday to work on setting up some of my research, and to double-check on the scheduled lectures. Once again, it was just me and the same classmate, Petros from Ethiopia, sitting in the classroom. Petros, however, informed me that we would be having a lecture the next day. This was going to be a special lecture given by a visiting from Norway (not from a professor who was supposed to be teaching one of our courses).

On Friday, September 19, nearly one month after I had first anticipated starting classes, I had my first lecture at Makerere University. It was an improvised/off-the-cuff lecture since the professor’s laptop was out of commission with 200+ viruses, and it covered several random topics, mainly revolving around the use of hydroelectricity in Norway. Let the studies begin! …maybe.

To cap off the first week (and every week thereafter for this semester), I had a lecture scheduled for 9:00 am on Saturday. The professor, naturally, didn’t show, but I came to campus and did some work just in case. Average for the first week of lectures: 1 out of 8 = .125, with the 1 coming from a pinch hitter (can you tell I miss baseball?).

So you’re probably wondering why lecturers/professors don’t come to class, right? Good question. I don’t know the exact reasons, but here are a few of the things that I’ve gathered:

What I experienced was by no means an isolated event; it seems that the first few weeks of classes rarely happen. Beyond that it is just as likely for lecturers to skip class as it is for students
Lecturers/professors at Makerere (and Africa in general) get paid a lower relative wage than those in the U.S. This means that many of them have jobs beyond their work at the university, typically some type of consulting.
Funding in general is lacking at Makerere. Many of the buildings have deteriorated due to inadequate upkeep. There are some pockets of investment that are impressive, but overall, there is much to be done to improve Makerere. And dilapidated buildings & technology naturally have more problems that slow things down even more (i.e. electricity and internet issues that I’ve been dealing with every day).
To say that things are unorganized over here would be the understatement of the century. For example, I don’t think our Monday lecturers even knew they were supposed to give a lesson on the first day of classes because the class schedule came out so late.
My program is still very new (this is the first time these courses have ever been taught), so there are plenty of logistical problems that are being ironed out as we go.

Makerere is touted as the Harvard (or Oxford) of Africa. That may be stretching it, but for all of its shortcomings, the people at the university have been very impressive. There definitely are some top-notch professors here and some programs that are very well known. Although my program didn’t get off on the right foot, I’m still optimistic that it will turn out to be a very rewarding experience. Everyone I’ve talked to has only had good things to say about it, and since the program is funded by a Norwegian University and coordinated with two other universities in Addis Abbaba and Dar Es Salaam, it can bypass many of the problems that can hamper other Makerere programs. And, honestly, I didn’t choose Africa for a host country due to the academic rigor I might receive. I still consider myself lucky for finding this program in the first place!

Cheers!
Chris

Pic: The new Faculty of Technology building. Looks pretty nice doesn’t it? It should be finished just in time for me to miss getting to have any classes in it :)

Pic: This is where I get to hang out every day…let’s call in “homely”

Spoiled

2008-09-18T15:22:00.001+03:00

At the beginning of September, I moved in with my host family. I had purposely chosen to have a temporary residence when I first arrived in the country in order to give myself some time to find a good fit for a host family. That decision, in hindsight, worked out very well for me.

I met Henry Kizito Musoke (goes by Kizito) while traveling with the ISU delegation during my first 10 days in the country. He serves as the Executive Director for VEDCO, the NGO with which ISU is closely associated in Uganda. When he heard that I was looking for a host family, he explained that he had an open “guest quarters” at his house and invited me over to look at it.

The arrangement turned out to be exactly what I was hoping to find – even better, actually. I wanted to live with a Ugandan family to experience a little more of the culture than I would get if I lived by myself in an apartment or campus housing. Kizito and his wife, Agnes, have 5 kids, ranging from 17 years old to 4 months old, so I definitely get to experience Ugandan family life. And Agnes is originally from Kenya, which adds even a little bit more to the cultural experience. I get to regularly eat Ugandan meals and we frequently discuss current events in Uganda and the world.

This, like I said, was exactly what I wanted to find. However, on top of this, Kizito’s “guest quarters” is actually a detached guest house, with a bedroom, a study room, a storage room, a bathroom, and a “kitchen” (sink with several cupboards). It’s like I have my own small house, and I am still welcome to come into the main house at any time in order to watch satellite TV or get food. I am served breakfast every day (or given it to-go if we’re in a hurry) and am served dinner whenever I am home during the family’s dinner time (ranges from 8:30-10:00 PM), which averages out to about 5 times a week. I will say that with what they’re giving me, I am being a charged a very unreasonable rate…unreasonable because I think it is far too little! However, Kizito insists that I only pay for food and electricity since they have it written into their mortgage/lease that they will not rent out the property to anyone. Yes, it’s safe to say that I am spoiled over here.

The only real downside is that Kizito lives about 13 km outside of Kampala. This is nice since it’s much calmer with less people and less traffic (and I don’t inhale ridiculous amounts of car exhaust when running). The problem is that it takes anywhere from 20 minutes to 90 minutes to go to or from the city, depending on the size of the traffic jam.

In the mornings I catch a ride into town with Kizito and Agnes, or, if I need to get into town earlier, I ride with the driver that they hire to take their second-youngest daughter, Patience, to day-school. Three of the other kids – Peter, Innocence, and Charity – all just went back to boarding school (boarding school is very common for children over here). That leaves Gloria, the baby, who stays home with “the other Agnes,” who works as a nanny/maid/cook. The other residents are Lillian, whom Kizito also employs as maid/cook, and Sam, the security guard who is on duty from sunset to sunrise. (Cultural note: I know it sounds like Kizito must be rich with the nanny, maid, driver, and security guard, but remember that labor is much cheaper in Uganda than in the U.S. It is very common for “middle-class” (using the term loosely) Ugandan households to employee a maid/cook and security guard. Kizito and his family are well-off, but by no means live in excess.)

Getting home can be slightly tricky. Sometimes I’m able to coordinate with Kizito or with Godfrey, the driver that picks up Patience after school. When that doesn’t work out, I will take a mutatu home if it is still light out (I’m still not comfortable wandering around the taxi park after dark). However, since it always gets dark a little after 7:00 here, I usually end up having to take a special-hire taxi home instead. Taxi drivers are very willing to give out their phone numbers here, and I have two of them – Jimmy or Frank – who I can usually rely on to get me home. It’s a little pricey since it is so far outside of the main city, but I figure my situation is more than worth the price of a couple taxi rides each week!

I am also learning what it’s like to live without internet access 24/7, since Kizito doesn’t want to spend the money to get internet in his home (they’re building a new home and plan to move within the next year or two). It’s actually a good experience; it makes me find other projects to work on at night and ends up being just one less distraction for me. I can also use it as an excuse when it takes me a few days to update this blog! :)

Cheers!
Chris

Day Trip to Entebbe

2008-09-15T11:02:00.004+03:00

On Saturday a few friends asked me if I would be up for a day trip to Entebbe the next day. Not having any definite plans, and always up for a spontaneous adventure, I said that I was game.

Entebbe is the “seaside” city for Kampala, located on Lake Victoria about 30 miles south of the Kampala. It is the site of Uganda’s international airport, but I did not get to see much of the city since it was dark when I arrived. Even though it is much smaller than Kampala, it has an interesting history and did serve as the capital for a few years while Uganda was a British protectorate.

So yesterday (Sunday) morning I met up with two other Midwesterners that I have randomly linked up with while over here – Justin from Chicago (one of Tyler Strom’s older brother’s best friends) and Sarah from Wisconsin – and we hopped on a mutatu en route to Entebbe. The ride there wasn’t bad at all. The mutatu was full but there was plenty of airflow and no significant traffic jam, and it only took about 50 minutes to make the 30 mile journey. Definitely worth the $1.50 cost!

Our first stop was at a government mapping & surveying office. Supposedly they have very nice maps of Uganda, but being Sunday it was, of course, closed. I’ll have to check back next time I’m in Entebbe. The three of us then moved on to the Entebbe Botanical Garden, a beautiful park established in 1902. We saw plenty of native plants and animals (the vervet monkeys were definitely the highlight) and some interesting nonnative vegetation (who knew that cinnamon and nutmeg were both trees???). Add to that some gorgeous views of the lake and it was well worth our time.

We next went on a scavenger hunt trying to find a Lao restaurant that was mentioned in my Lonely Planet book (they made a specific differentiation between Lao and Thai, so we were interested). After walking for 45 minutes and covering most of the town, we decided that the place didn’t exist. I’m learning that all Ugandan maps showing locations of restaurants/hotels/attractions actually just give a general idea of the location, since this is the third time I’ve ended up wandering aimlessly with a group in search of a restaurant while following what we believed to be a credible map. We eventually settled on fish & chips at a local restaurant, along with a couple bottles of water to quench the thirst after the trek.

The second major stop of the day was the Uganda Wildlife Education Center, an animal orphanage established as a sanctuary for animals that wouldn’t be able to fend for themselves in the wild. The $10 admission fee was a little steep but definitely worth it when I got to have a free-ranging vervet monkey come up to me and start “petting” my leg. In addition to that, I got to see the lions, rhinos, chimps, monkeys, crocodiles, snakes, zebras, and several types of birds that were all housed in the park. We capped off the day with a few refreshments at a lake-side restaurant (although the lake is big enough that it feels like it’s ocean-side) before hopping back on another mutatu back to Kampala.

I was very impressed with Entebbe. It's a very attractive city that offers a much-needed break from the pollution and congestion that plagues Kampala. The entire trip lasted about 12 hours and cost a little under $25 – not a bad day at all!

Cheers!
Chris

Note: A few people pointed out a grammatical error from my last post: "brakes" should have been "breaks." Although the bus was in a dilapidated state, it did still have functioning brakes! Thanks for catching that!

Pic: Supposedly some of the old Tarzan movies were filmed in the Entebbe Botanical Garden...

Kenyan Highlights

2008-09-12T11:18:00.003+03:00

I have returned from my trip to Kenya safe & sound, but definitely ready for a good night's rest! Before I head to crash though, I'll try to recount a few of the fun stories for everyone...

The main purpose of the trip was for an academic conference held jointly between Makerere University and Kenyatta University, with the meetings being held about 30 miles outside of Nairobi at the Kenyatta campus. The conference was based on improving postgraduate research in East Africa and was apparently the first time an international conference like this had been held in East Africa, at least to any of the planners' knowledge.

It was interesting to see some of the fanfare that went along with this "historic conference" (Africans, I am beginning to learn, love rhetoric). And as the conference played out it became apparent that in addition to the event itself, the planning for a trip like this had little historical precedent either, with several glitches popping up along the way.

The trip began with the Makerere delegation - about 35 individuals in total - climbing onto an old charter bus owned by the university and embarking on what I thought was to be a 12 hour drive to Nairobi. My seat, as fate would have it, was probably the worst in the bus. I was in the second to last row, with two people sitting on a bench that I believe was built with 12-year-olds in mind. Twelve hours into the ride, after being launched into the air several times from the numerous potholes in the road, we were still not close to Nairobi and I was having an optimism/pessism battle in my head. The optimistic side kept saying that it was great that I was getting to experience a truly "African" bus ride while the pessimistic side kept looking across the aisle at the student stretched out, asleep, over 3 open seats and asking "Why...?"

We eventually arrived in Nairobi, only to realize that Kenyatta University was another 30 minutes beyond there. We stopped for a short breakfast and then continued on to the KU of East Africa. We got to KU at approximately 1:00 pm, nearly 24 hours after starting our journey and with everyone having a minimal amount of sleep due to the jarring from the ride. Apparently, the exhaustian wasn't evident to our host, as he promptly started us on a walking tour of the campus (which, by the way, did look very nice). A few of the more vocal members of our group eventually convinced our host that we needed to get to our hotel to rest, so we hopped back on the bus and drove another 30 minutes to the hotel that the KU host committee had arranged for us.

I was given my room key and opened the door to find...actually it would be easier to describe what I did not find: toilet seat, secure room lock, shower stall (the faucet was almost directly over the toilet...so at least the water would go down some drain) and - most troubling - mosquito net. There was one thing that I did find: a strong smell of urine. After taking a few pictures (to be posted later) and laughing at my situation, since that was all that really occurred to me as options at that point, I went out to see the other delegates' room situation. Apparently it wasn't any better, as many of the others had already packed their bags and were refusing to stay in the hotel. My desire to not be high maintenance was outweighed by my desire to have a mosquito net, and I decided to pack up my bags too.

Luckily, after a little searching, our group was able to find a couple hotels fairly close to the location that were much nicer, and we all got a room where, after a quick meal, we promptly crashed for the night.

The next two days were the actual conference. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, it was an interesting topic, but I was more interested in just getting to Kenya, so I'll glaze over the conference proceedings. A couple interesting parts:
(1) Group introductions: We were asked to give our name, university, and degree program along with - and this was new cultural experience for me - our relationship status and religion. There were some very interesting answers given, including "married but looking for a second wife" (joking), "not married but with 8 children" (not joking...), and, my favorite, "single and ready to mingle" (definitely serious). Being asked to include our religion underscores the importance that religion still plays in society over here, but also showed a great deal of tolerance, as about 5-10% of the conference attendees were muslims and no one thought anything of it.
(2) Round two between African food & drink and my digestive system: this time the Immodium wasn't strong enough so I busted out the prescription-strength Xifaxan. We'll call this round a draw...

The third day was spent walking around Nairobi, after a bit of a slow start. We were told "the bus leaves the hotel at 9:00 AM sharp, with or without you." Translation: "the bus driver will show up around 9:30 and then we'll spend the next two hours trying to wire money so we can afford to buy gas."

Nairobi has a much different feel than that of Kampala; it feels like a major international city. There were times when I was walking around and it would really seem like I was in London or any other large European city. And although its crime tendencies precede it (Nairobi is commonly refered to as "Nairobbery"), no one in our group had any problems with theft.

We finally boarded the bus at 4:00 PM to head back to Kampala. Although I still got to enjoy a sound jarring from sitting in the back of the bus, I was able to have a sizeable increase in leg room, which helped substantially. We did still have a few interesting adventures on the way home, including finding ourselves on a road headed to Tanzania instead of Uganda, arriving at the Ugandan border at 1:30 AM only to realize that the customs agent was MIA until 4:00 AM, and driving a little too far down a road that had not yet been completed. When all was said and done, we arrived back in Kampala at 9:00 AM today (Friday) safe and sound (which is a testament to our driver, who drove the entire distance without any breaks!), approximately 13 hours later than originally scheduled in the itinerary.

As I read through this post, it comes off like the trip was just one thing going wrong after another. Although there were a few issues, I need to include that overall, the trip went very well and I'm happy that I went. I got to know some more very fun Makerere students and also got to see some absolutely gorgeous areas of Kenya as we drove through the country (one of the only places in the world where zebras range freely along the highways). True, there were a few problems along the way, but they are already just becoming more fun stories to share! And with that, I'm off to catch up on some sleep!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. Please cheer extra loud for the 'Clones for me this weekend as I probably won't be able to get live play-by-play!

Being a minority

2008-09-04T16:47:00.008+03:00

It’s an interesting feeling, that of being a minority. And it’s something that I wish everyone could experience at least once in their lives. If nothing else, it would make for a world that was a little more understanding and tolerant.

As I walk around Kampala, I stick out. Badly. On average, out of the hundreds of people I see each day, probably 3-5 of them are not black. The ratio is even lower when I’m in the rural areas of Uganda.

Being the minority automatically means that I get a little more attention – normally through a second glance – than everyone else on the streets. The reactions that I get from these second glances vary widely. Some – the children mostly – are curious and excited. Oftentimes children will just stand there and wave, hoping for a smile or some sign of recognition from the strange person walking down the street. Adults, on the other hand, have a wide range of responses. Indifference. Anger. Curiosity. A shrewd confidence (mainly boda boda drivers trying to rip me off). Occasionally even mocking. Mostly, though, it’s just friendly curiosity.

It has taken me awhile to realize this, however, because immediately upon entering Kampala I went into my big city mindset, assuming that everyone was trying to take advantage of me. It’s my defense mechanism so I don’t get ripped off – too badly – by drivers or retailers and so I hopefully can avoid getting pick-pocketed. However, as I have become more comfortable over here, I have reverted to some of my Midwestern tendencies. I’m happy I did, because it has allowed me to find out that a simple smile and “hello” works just as well over here as it did when walking around the streets of small-town Iowa.

I think the most interesting reactions I get are from the older children, teenagers who are still forming their opinions about foreigners and the outside world. Sometimes it’s easy to tell that they’ve been influenced by parents or elders, and they have the same negative reactions as some of the older faces I see. Most of the time, though, our eyes will meet and they will have no reaction, instead waiting to judge my reaction. At first, as part of my defensive mindset, I would just continue walking. But, I’ve realized that a smile and hello works just as well for a 15 year old as a 50 year old. They are just as curious as anyone else, wondering what this Muzungu is doing walking through the streets of Kampala.

The irony is that in Africa, as the minority, I am assumed to be rich. This, of course, is the opposite of the United States where minorities in small towns are stereotyped as criminals or homeless. In both situations, the common assumption is almost always incorrect.

At a surface level, I am strikingly different from everyone here. My skin is pale. I burn…easily. I grew up with everything I ever needed and then some. But, when you go a little deeper, there isn’t that much of a difference. We all want to live without fear. We all want a secure future. We all want the best for our families. The list goes on. Sure, there are cultural differences, but overall, we’re much more alike than we are different. It just takes a little role reversal to realize how true that statement really is.

Cheers!
Chris

(Side note: Sorry for the double-post in the same day. I've actually had this one written for awhile - I've just been unable to get it posted until now)

Pic: A few friends in Kamuli pose for a picture

A little progress...

2008-09-04T16:39:00.007+03:00

It has now been four weeks since I left the United States. It’s taken a little bit, but I’m finally starting to see some progress with my work over here. Not much, but it’s definitely a start.

The past two weeks have, in large part, been setting up the logistics of living in Africa for 10 months. I have arranged health care, visited the American embassy, begun the process of transferring programs at Makerere (the end is hopefully near), enrolled in Luganda (the local tribal language) lessons, started some research in my master’s program, explored Kampala, and completed countless other small tasks.

The tasks, almost without exception, all have taken longer than I expected. I’ll give one example: getting keys to my office at the Faculty of Technology (I call it “my” office, but I really share it with about 8 others). To have them made, I was told that I should borrow a set of keys and take them to a key-maker. However, when I asked Nelson, a friend in the office, where the closest key-maker was, he informed me that I should go to downtown Kampala to be safer. If I had the keys cut close to the office, there would be a chance that the craftsman would make an extra key, follow me back, and then come back later and break into the office. Believe it or not, this is not something that frequently occurs in the middle of Iowa, and that thought had not crossed my mind. Nelson was kind enough to accompany me downtown since he knew a very good key-maker (side question: is the profession called key-maker or locksmith?). Nelson wasn’t getting much done in the office since it was Wednesday, which appears to be the day that power is cut off to Makerere! So, he and I jumped into a matatu and slowly made our way through Kampala traffic to the other side of town. We were dropped off by the matatu and navigated our way through the jam, eventually coming to a store that appeared to be a supplier of equipment for hair salons with a random key-cutter in the back. Of course, the craftsman was not in the store, so they called him and he said he would be back “soon.” Twenty minutes later (actually quicker than I had expected), he arrived. We gave the keys (10 in total) to be copied and then spent the next 90 minutes sitting in booster chairs talking. After the keys were cut and a price was negotiated, we made our way to the taxi park (picture about 250 matatus crammed into an area smaller than a football field) and navigated the chaos to find one that would take us back to campus. When I got back to the office, I found out 7/10 keys worked. Round-trip time: 3 hours. Successful trip!

Living here just takes a slight change of mindset. Things will take longer to get accomplished, but you learn to make use of that time. I usually have a book or notepad with me. In the case of getting the keys made, I got to talk with Nelson for 90 minutes and learn all about his childhood, which was fascinating. He grew up in Uganda during the late 70’s and early 80’s, a time when Uganda was anything but stable. His job - as a child - was to run to wherever he heard gunfire and apprehend the shooter. He learned how to handle everything from a handgun to anti-aircraft missiles. His job now: Lecturer on climate change mitigation & adaptation. If we hadn’t had 90 minutes to talk – or if he hadn’t been kind enough to take me to the store – I probably never would have learned all of that.

Still, it is frustrating to be in Africa and see so much that I could do to help yet be tied up with figuring out logistics. So, it was a relief when I finally got into some project work with my office (the Center for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation). Here’s a very condensed version of my first project:

My task: Design a business structure for a rural community using oil from sunflower seeds to power an electricity generator.
The main concept: Much of Uganda is not connected to the electricity grid (95% of the population, I believe). The community for this project is located in an area where many farmers raise dairy cattle and grow sunflower seeds. Farmers will be encouraged to increase sunflower seed production and use the oil to power a generator. This generator will supply power for a milk collection center, businesses, and homes. The milk collection center will then allow the community to sell milk to larger markets that were previously inaccessible.
The problem: How to set up business interactions between all stakeholders so that the money is funneled to those who deserve it and not into the pockets of corrupt managers and officials.
The potential solution: Use a nonprofit structure with an unpaid Board of Directors, selected by farmers’ cooperatives, that makes the major decisions. Use set term lengths to prevent consolidation of power, and let the board members’ inherent interest in success drive costs down and profits up.
The next step: Arrange a workshop with the town where a business structure will be created with everyone’s collective input (local ownership is key), using this general model as a guide.

Like I said, it’s a start. And, my fellow engineers will be excited to know that I dusted off some flow-charting skills from freshman year to help visualize the setup.

I have a couple more days in Kampala before I take off for Nairobi, Kenya, for an academic conference. Supposedly, the conference is supposed to help all participants to be successful as graduate students. I think it will be good information to hear, and it will be great to meet all of the other participants, but to be honest, I’m more excited about getting to see Nairobi!

Cheers!
Chris

Pic: Marcy and I painting at Namasagali

TIA

2008-09-01T11:34:00.007+03:00

Over the last few weeks, I have run into a commonly used phrase among ex-pats and other foreigners in Africa with increasing frequency. That phrase: TIA. It means “This Is Africa” and embodies the ‘we’re not in Kansas anymore’ mindset.

Here are a few fun examples:

I have been planning on updating this blog for several days now, however during the middle of the week, the internet in the office where I work stopped functioning. This happens frequently, with the internet normally magically returning a few hours later. This time, however, we weren’t so lucky. It’s still out. TIA

Since I’m used to the internet going out in my usual office, I have scoped out several other labs on campus where I can get online. On Wednesday I went to these other labs only to realize that electricity was out all over campus. No computers at all. TIA

I usually carry my laptop to and from campus with the idea that I’ll get some work done at home. I occasionally even follow through with that thought. Last week, however, when I arrived at home I was greeted with a propane lamp; the electricity wasn’t working. Again, this is common for electricity to go out different sections of Kampala, especially at night (I’ll give a nerdy explanation of this in a later posting), but this time it was special…the electricity was only out in the house where I stayed. The reason: the jimmy-rigged main feeder electricity wires were burning up (more in depth explanation at the bottom of this message). TIA

As you can see, electricity is not incredibly reliable over here. This is true for both the frequency of it working and the actual quality of electricity supplied. As you can imagine, I’m fairly paranoid of my laptop getting zapped by an electricity surge, so I brought my travel surge protector from home. However, the instant that I plugged the surge protector in for the first time, there was a huge flash/spark followed by an immediate blackout and smell of burnt plastic in my room. The reason: my surge protector was only designed for 60 Hz electricity. They run 50 Hz over here, which meant that I fried the inner circuitry and got to buy a replacement that would work on the electricity here. TIA

The shower that I use in the mornings has a lever that toggles a valve between flow for the faucet and flow for the showerhead. That lever broke two days ago – when I was about to jump in the shower after a run. I was drenched in sweat, so skipping the shower wasn’t an option. Instead, I get to just splash myself with water from the faucet. TIA

These are a handful of the fun moments I’ve had, and I’m sure that there are plenty more to come! It actually isn’t as bad as it sounds though. If anything, it makes me appreciate all that we can take for granted in a developed country. Being flexible definitely is a key trait while living here, and accepting that there will be plenty of fun stories (although they may not be that much fun the moment they happen) to share.

Well, the electricity is flickering right now - which means it's time for me to go!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. I'm finally starting to get some pictures posted. You can find them at http://picasaweb.google.com/cwdeal

P. P.S. Electricity explanation for you fellow nerds out there: The main electricity feeder into the house is fused before it reaches the breaker panel. These fuses are all located on the exterior of houses and had recently all been stolen. As a quick fix, someone had taken a leftover cable and just short-circuited the fuse by connecting the two leads where the fuse was supposed to go. Two problems: (1) the main connection into the house had been partially severed during all of this and (2) the wire used for short-circuiting wasn't quite big enough to handle the current being drawn. TIA :)

Pic: Sunset over the Nile

Public transport & lack thereof

2008-08-27T08:29:00.006+03:00

Kampala is a city of a few million people (I've heard figures ranging from 1.5 - 4 million, depending on how you count it), and as one would expect, you can't get everywhere on foot. Because of this, I have gotten to experience another aspect of Ugandan culture: public transit.

There are basically four forms of transportation in Kampala:

Walking (most common): A vast majority of the citizens of Kampala do not own cars, and since there is no charge for walking, it's the easiest way to go. Since I'm still as frugal as ever, I walk whenever possible. The downsides are that sidewalks are rare, so you're normally walking on the side of the street - balancing between getting too far into the road and falling into the open "ditches" used to carry away rainwater (and occasionally sewage).
14-passenger "taxi": When you say taxi over here, people think you are talking about the mutatu - a cramped 14 passenger mini-bus. Since there is no public busing system here (although there are talks of starting one), mutatu's are the way to go. The big problem: they have no set times or stops and routes tend to be improvised. They also do not move until they are full, a lesson I learned the hard way as I sat waiting in one for 30 minutes before it moved. Not the most comfortable option, but definitely something to experience. And oh the smells! :)
Taxi-cab: Taxi's, as we commonly think of them, are in Kampala, but they're just a little more difficult to find. You don't hail a taxi; instead, you have to know where to find them sitting - normally outside of major hotels and shopping areas. The one bright side: the drivers are very friendly and want your business. I have two taxi-cab drivers' phone numbers now: Jimmy and Frank (or, according to his business card, Captain Yankee).
Boda-boda: Picture the child of a motorcycle & moped, and you have got a boda-boda. These things are everywhere in Kampala. Unfortunately, they are anything but safe; I read a newspaper article that said 6 out of 10 hospital entries are due to boda-boda accidents. This is because the boda-boda drivers somehow are instilled with the belief that they can fit their bike into spaces that they physically shouldn't be able to navigate. And, somehow, they often manage to do just that as they skirt around the other cars and mutatu's that are stuck in traffic. They are fun to take, but only after haggling with the driver to get rid of the special "white-person tax" and then explaining that I won't pay him unless he drives slowly & safely. Still, I try to avoid using these unless they're my only option.

Moving around the city is definitely a test of patience (actually, just living in Africa is a test of patience for anyone used to US time standards). Traffic on the main streets is, more often than not, slowly creeping along due to a traffic jam (just called "the jam" over here). Because of the congestion, drivers are very aggressive over here too, so public transit is always an experience. And, since Uganda was a British protectorate, they drive on the opposite side of the road here...I still have to remind myself to look the opposite way before crossing any street.

The city is also in a very hilly region. It was originally built on seven hills (apparently some call Kampala the Rome of Africa...but that's a little bit of a stretch). This, among other reasons, has led to a city layout that is anything but the traditional grid layout that most of us are accustomed to. This is another lesson I learned the hard way when I thought I would walk a different route home one day. The bright side: I learned a new area of Kampala. The downside: it took me an hour to get back to my starting point and then walk my normal route home.

Finally, Kampala, in addition to being very hilly, has an altitude of about 4000 feet. Combine this with a 1.5 mile walk, uphill, to campus each morning, and I am one sweaty muzungu (local term for white person) by the time I get to campus each day! At least this will give me good grounds to exaggerate the story into a 5 mile walk, uphill both ways, by the time I have kids & grandkids :)

Cheers!
Chris

Pic: A woman rides on a boda-boda as the driver navigates between two mutatu's

Procrastination pays off???

2008-08-24T16:50:00.010+03:00

I will admit that when I came to Africa, I wasn't too excited about my prospects for programs of graduate study at Makerere. I came with the understanding that I had been accepted into three programs: Construction Project Management, Economic Policy & Management, and International Relations & Diplomatic Studies. The issue was that I have only one academic year of study and, of course, most Masters programs take two years. Construction Project Management was a one year postgraduate diploma program, but I really wasn't that interested in it. Part of the problem was that my options were fairly limited when I was searching for programs of study from the US: the Makerere website was down about half of the time, and I think the university faculty and staff were on strike most of the time when it was working. Obviously, information was limited. So, I decided to put it off until I arrived at the university.

When I got to the registrar's office I discovered (after patiently waiting for them to literally dig through a huge pile of admission letters) that I had in fact not been admitted to the Economic Policy program because I didn't have any economics background. Granted, that does make sense, but this, naturally, was the program I was leaning towards pursuing. So, with my options limited to Diplomatic Studies or Construction Management, I decided to go exploring to see what I could find.

I remembered hearing about a new master's program in renewable energy, so I asked around and eventually was able to get in touch with the professor who was starting it. It turns out that the program focuses on how renewable energy can be used to developed Third World countries: which, ironically enough, is the exact type of program I wanted to pursue when I originally started looking for areas of study. I met with the professor in charge of the program, and, conveniently enough, he agreed to let me in!

There are couple big changes with this program – one of the biggest being that the professor doesn't think classes will start until around September 15^th (compared to the August 25^th date I was expecting). That's because this program is jointly operated by multiple universities: Makerere, Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Addis Abbaba (Ethiopia), and some university in Norway. To fill the next weeks, the plan is for me to start doing some research and reading. The bright side is that he said I should still be able to make it home for the Jorgensen-Connolly wedding on December 13 & Christmas.

One other slight change with this program: it is technically supposed to be a two year program. However, the professor said if I wanted to, I could try to fit all of the classes - and some of my thesis preparation - into my one year here. Actually, to quote him, he said, "If you are mad [crazy] enough, you might just be able to fit all classes into one year...if you are crazy." So (I'm sure this will come as no surprise to most of you), I'm going to try fitting this program into one year. We'll see how it goes!

Now it is just up to me to navigate academia bureaucracy to get all of the required signatures. And, believe it or not, it's actually more of a chore over here than at ISU! To get one signature, I actually had to find my way to a professor's house :) However, once I get all of that taken care of, I will officially be pursuing a Masters of Science in Renewable Energy - pretty cool, isn't it!

Pic (nothing to do with the post): I love my mosquito net!

Children of the Swamp

2008-08-21T13:39:00.004+03:00

Pic: No caption needed here...

I’ve always been a big believer in the importance of a quality education. Children who receive a quality education have so many more options and opportunities in life. I’ve had to amend that belief slightly after my first couple weeks in Africa: more important than a quality education is just having some sort education at all. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for far too many children in today’s developing countries. Uganda has less than 50% of children (worse than I had originally guessed) graduate from primary school (about the same as getting through 6th grade in the States). In fact, 16% of Ugandan children never enroll in any schooling. And, the scary thought is that Uganda is well ahead of some of its other African counterparts. Depressing to think about, isn’t it! If a country is going to develop, it needs educated citizens to fuel that development.

So why are so many African children not receiving an education? There are many reasons, including children having to skip school because of sickness (malaria is one of the biggest culprits), work (subsistence farmers are often dependent on children for labor), or not being able to afford it (all Ugandan children have the right to receive an education, but it is not free). If students miss too much school, they can’t pass tests, and they fail out. Teachers are overloaded as it is, so they don’t have time to help students catch up.

I had heard of all of these reasons before, but one reason caught me off guard: some children have to miss school because they are spending their days sitting in lowland swamps! I was astonished to find out that children sit under makeshift shelters that are built in the middle of rice fields placed in the swamps with the sole purpose of chasing away birds that come to steal the rice seeds. I had noticed the ramshackle shelters in the swamps before, but never thought much of them. A development worker explained that some of the poorest families in Uganda receive rice handouts from the government. This rice is what helps these families survive, but it’s not enough to allow them to get out of the grasp of poverty. So, the children of some of the poorest families in Uganda are stuck in a cycle where they have to skip school in order to protect the food that allows for their survival, but in skipping school they destroy most opportunities that would allow them to break out of poverty. So how do we solve it? One approach that I have been able to witness working is the route that VEDCO & SRL have taken: empower farmers through sustainable agriculture. Change is possible and is slowly happening, but there is still a long way to go. More help & resources are needed to really raise African from the grips of poverty.

Back in Kampala

2008-08-19T15:20:00.005+03:00

Pic: Posing at the source of the Nile

Well, my beginning travels are finished and now it's about time to get started with classes. These last 10 days definitely have been a perfect introduction to Uganda, though. I'm now at Makerere University, in the process of setting up my studies for the next year. Registration has been an interesting process, to say the least. Picture ISU enrollment processes, but add about 10,000 students and then remove computers and any semblance of organization, and you've got a general idea (maybe I should just start a filing cabinet business over here). Also, apparently students here just go to classes for a couple weeks to see what they're like and then register after that. Well, when in Rome...

I'll try to recap the highlights of what I've seen and done over the past two weeks in not too many words, but beware, this will probably be a pretty long post!

Lake Mburo National Park - August 11 & 12:
Like I mentioned in my past posts, this was the sight-seeing aspect of the trip. We (the ISU delegation was kind enough to "adopt" me) spent two nights in luxury tents (set up on wooden decks with solar-powered lights and a bathroom, shower, and sink - running water was improvised very nicely). I went on a guided driving tour of the area and a boat tour; both were very impressive with lots of wildlife (mainly hippos, zebra, impala, Ankole cattle, and a huge crocodile). Our group sat down for one afternoon and had a great discussion about development in Africa and all that we were about to see with the ISU Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (SRL) program - very interesting stuff! This was also the setting for the start of what will surely be a 10-month long battle between African food and my stomach. Winner of round one: African food. Thank you to Rich Bundy, for supplying the much-needed Imodium. Besides the digestive issues, awesome two days!

Back to Kampala - August 13:
We made the 5ish hour drive back to Kampala in decent time. Driving in Uganda is always interesting, because rules of the road are more like a set of guidelines. The cars are all over the road because they have to swerve to avoid the huge potholes that have developed from a combination of mother nature and lack of maintenance. Somehow we always make it to the final destination, but it's always an interesting journey. We got back into town just in time to make it to a lunch with the administration from Makerere University and its College of Agriculture. I lucked out here - not too many incoming students get to sit down with the 1st Deputy Vice Chancellor before starting graduate study!

Kamuli District- August 14-18:
The Kamuli District is about 3-5 hours (depending entirely on the size of the traffic jam) northeast of Kampala and is the site of ISU's work with its SRL program. This is where all of the ISU students who have participated in the Service Learning program have been based. It is very rural, with most of its inhabitants surviving by subsistence farming, and was definitely my favorite part of Uganda so far.

Day 1 - Thursday, August 14:
We arrived in time to eat lunch with the VEDCO (Volunteer Efforts for Development Concerns) staff. This is the NGO (nongovernmental organization) that the SRL program has paired with in its rural development work. The staff were all great and although being very young (almost all seemed to be in the 25-35 age range) had some amazing experiences. For example, one of the nutritionists, Benin, has already had 3 children in the community named after him, because he has saved the lives of their older siblings through advising proper nutrition regimens!

After lunch, we got to go watch a borehole (water well) being dug. This is huge for a community here because it allows for a reliable source of clean water. It was being dug right beside a rural school, so many of the kids were there. This was my first experience with the children here, and I love them! I found out one thing very quickly: they love to have their picture taken! Well, to put it more precisely, they love to see their pictures on the digital camera display screens :)

Day 2 - Friday, August 15:
The day began with the commissioning of another borehole that had previously been dug. Our group got there and was greeted by several of the residents who promptly seated us and then performed a traditional dance in celebration: I think Africans must have double-jointed hips :)

The rest of the day was spent visiting farmers in the area who had worked with SRL. These individuals had been visited by ISU delegations in years past, and were being visited again to allow for a better understanding of the SRL program's effects. Even though this was the first time that I had seen these families, the gains that they had made during the past years were still plainly evident. It was quite the experience to hear these farmers tell how the SRL & VEDCO program (which uses a bottom-up education/extension-oriented approach) had helped them go from not having enough to even feed their own families to having food security and being able to even start saving money from their earnings. Keep in mind that this change only took a couple years to occur!

That night, we were able to meet the Makerere University students who were also working on the Service Learning project in conjunction with the ISU students who traveled to Uganda earlier this month. They were a great group, and it was even better for me because I now know at least a few other students at Makerere!

Day 3 - Saturday, August 16:
This day centered around a visit to one of the most successful farmers of the program: Rose Mbiiru. Two years ago, Rose was one of the most successful farmer in the SRL/VEDCO program. However, after a devastating flood, she lost almost everything. Not deterred, she started over, and when we visited, she was able to show the 1000+ banana trees she had planted and the other initiatives she had started. Within just a couple years, she had rebuilt her farm - with the help of some micro-finance loans - to the point where she could afford to send 5 of her children to boarding school. Incredible!

That same day, we were able to see the other side of the spectrum when we stopped by a farm where we met a mother, child, and grandmother. The child was obviously very malnourished, and our guides explained that this was an emergency case (normally VEDCO sits down with the farmers to set up the partnerships - this is to preserve the sustainability of the program). However, in extreme cases, sustainability is ignored, and relief is provided. This child was found just a few days earlier by one of the VEDCO volunteers, and its new nutrition program had already been put in place. It was too early to see any effects, but we were all very hopeful that the program would be successful and the child would live. Probably the most disheartening thing that we saw, however, was the demeanor of the mother. This child was her third, and the first two had shown the exact same signs and died soon after. After going through that, she had all but lost the will to hope that her child would make it.

Day 4 - Sunday, August 17:
Up to this point, we had spent the entire trip visiting and seeing the work of SRL. This day was a little different: we got to do some service work of our own! We spent most of the morning and afternoon painting (bright orange) part of the primary school at Namasagali. This part of the school had lost its roof in a severe storm a few years ago, and some ISU students and Iowa Rotary clubs were able to raise the money to replace it. This section of the school hadn't been used since losing the roof, so it was definitely in need of a fresh coat of paint!
We also saw the "mushroom house." A project of one of the Makerere Students where he and a few other literally build a structure from the ground-up that they are now using to grow mushrooms in order to sell at a market. Very impressive!

Day 5 - Monday, August 18:
Back to Kampala! We got up early and all headed back to Kampala. When we arrived, we had a few hours to unpack and eat lunch before meeting with the VEDCO Board of Directors. This was then followed by a dinner and social time afterward where I was able to say goodbye and thanks to everyone from the ISU delegation for letting me go along with their travels. I could not have asked for a better introduction to Uganda!

And that brings us up to today. Congrats if you're still reading, and sorry again for the long post! Hopefully, I'll have more consistent internet access from now on and not need to have a marathon catch-up session like this again.

Anyway, enough writing for me - I need to go take care of a couple more tasks on campus before heading back to Dorothy's to change for dinner: I'm meeting Rich and Dr. Mazur one last time before they fly out tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the emails/comments that you have all sent - I love hearing from all of you!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. There may be a couple small changes to this post in the next couple days. I didn't have my notes with me to check on exact days and numbers, so this was all written from memory. And, as most of you know, my short-term memory is not the steel trap that I often claim it to be :)

Quick check-in

2008-08-14T08:50:00.005+03:00

Another quick post here.

We got back in from the tent camp just fine. It was an amazing few days in the western part of the country. No lion sightings (I was wrong - they aren't in that park) apparently we were in the wrong area) but we did see plenty of zebras, hippos, impala (think gazelles), and a huge crocodile - very cool. We came back to Kampala and had a meeting at the Makerere University campus and then had a dinner with the Executive Director of VEDCO - the NGO that the SRL program works with.

Now it is 9:00 am Thursday morning and we are about to leave for 5 days in Kamuli - the same area where many ISU students have lived and worked. Should be an incredible time.

Will check back in with more stories (and pictures) later.

Cheers!
Chris

Pic: 23 years old and still as immature as ever...here I am "straddling" the equator :)

I'm here!

2008-08-10T16:29:00.002+03:00

I have arrived safely in Uganda! It is now my third full day and I am busy trying to take as much in as I possibly can. Internet access is somewhat limited (and always a test of patience), but hopefully once I start classes that will change.

Sorry to anyone who checked the blog earlier only to find no posts - I've had an interesting time trying to get the email out to everyone and get a post updated. Hopefully things will smooth out as I continue my time over here.

I will give a very brief update of the past few days (I only have a few minutes right now) and then add more later:

Friday, August 8:
Arrived in Entebbe after two 8 hour flights (Detroit to Amsterdam & Amsterdam to Entebbe). Found all of my luggage and got through customs without a hitch - I win that round, Africa. I better not brag just yet, since I'll have to do that a few more times before the 10 months is over.
I'm currently traveling with the Iowa State delegation - Rich Bundy, the Sukup family, and the Kolschowskys - who are here to observe how that ISU Sustainable Rural Livelihoods program has come along in the last year. It's very nice to have traveling partners - especially when they've been to Africa numerous times before.
Got into Kampala from Entebbe after about an hour drive. The road wasn't too bad - apparently it had been improved this last year when the CHOGM conference was held here (can't remember what it stands for right now). Caught my first glimpse of Ugandan living conditions: about on par with what I had been told to expect. Dropped the ISU delegation off at their hotel in Kampala and I went on to Dorothy Masinde's house where I will be staying for the time being. Dorothy is a Kenyan woman who was hired by ISU to coordinate it's work with the NGO VEDCO and is amazing. She has already adopted me as her newest child :)
When we got to her house, I picked her mind about a few important things (doctor, malaria, cell phone, money exchange, etc.) and then she helped me set up my mosquito net and I crawled into bed for my first night in Uganda (will post a picture later). Not as tired as I thought I would be, but definitely ready for sleeping in a bed rather than a airplane seat with a recline angle of <10º.

Saturday, August 9
Jet lag hasn't been too bad. Woke up for about an hour at 5:00 am, then fell back asleep until 7:30ish. That's been the story every morning since. Started the day by going to Garden City - the main shopping mall (picture a 1980's American mall). Exchanged money and bought a better map of Kampala (which doesn't really make that much sense since no one knows the names of roads anyway). Wandered around the mall and got my cell phone (will post the number later). Came back to the hotel with the ISU delegation and spent the afternoon there before we all went to Khana Khazana - a fantastic Indian restaurant. Back to Dorothy's & my mosquito net for bed.

Sunday, August 10
Went with Rich & the Sukups for my first African church experience. It was nothing like I expected. Instead of being 3+ hours and lots of upbeat music, it was 45 minutes long and split between Latin & Lugandan. Also had to sit outside since the inside was packed. Interesting experience, to say the least. The afternoon was spent visiting the tombs of the Bugandan kings (one of Uganda's 56 native tribes) and then we met up with some Makerere University students and went to a dance/dinner performance called Ndere. Lasted 4 hours (yes, I did nod off for a bit), but was awesome overall.

Alright - we're off to the Mburu nature reserve for a couple days of staying in a "luxury tent resort." Not exactly sure what that is, but have heard that lions might be involved in some way.

Will post more in a few days when we're back.

Cheers!
Chris