Chickens, Baboons, Paul Kagame and more

Written November 18

This past week or so I’ve started thinking about how my time is Uganda is starting to come to a close and to be completely honest as excited as I am to eat cheese, sleep with all of my pillows and of course see my friends and family again I am not excited to leave Uganda.

I really do like my life here. I was talking about it with some friends the other day (on the one month before we leave mark) who feel the same way as me. We have created a life here and if you had told us in the beginning that we wouldn’t want to leave I don’t think any one would have believed you. However, now I have a routine, friends, a job (sort of), a family and different obligations. I even have my own comfort food here…matooke with sauce preferably. It’s a nice life and it’s an easy life. But when I say easy I don’t exactly mean easy because it seems sometimes even the simplest errand like going to the post office takes advance planning, but it’s easy in some other kind of way.

Anyway that’s just what I’ve been thinking about lately but here are some tidbits from the past week or so…or just random things that I remembered that I don’t think I’ve written about yet…

What do Baboons and Soldiers have in common?

On my trips back and forth from Kampala once you to a certain point in the North you can start seeing baboons on the side of the road.

They are completely normal. People don’t really get excited about them at all. How can you not like a place where baboons here can be only as exciting as seeing a rabbit or something back home?

So living in Lira and travelling to the different villages around it I’ve also gotten used to seeing soldiers. The other day we drove by these military checkpoints and drove by a military barracks. But seeing Ugandan soldiers here is slightly scary not like when you see military personal in the US, here they are really intimidating and I don’t so much trust them.

But anyway that’s what Baboons and Soldiers have in common…I’m not used to seeing them.

Signs

I’ve noticed this throughout my time here but it has become abundantly obvious in Lira, that just about everywhere you go you see a sign for some sort of development organization or when driving through the villages you come to place where the roads meet and you see signs pointing to different development organizations projects. Even on some aid cars you see paid for by the Government of Japan or this building was donated by USAID.

In one sense it’s exciting to see all the organizations that are coming and working for development but in another sense its kind of like WOW there are a lot of organizations here. I don’t know enough to say much or make judgments but it makes me wonder some things like how much do organizations coordinate their activities? What is this doing to people living in poverty seeing all these signs of people who have come to develop them? Why do the people still seem to be so poor?

But mostly it makes me wonder why the signs are necessary? Let me say again I haven’t talked to anybody about them so there could be a perfectly legitimate reason why they are around but it seems to me that its just organizations flaunting what they have done to some extent. And also it kind of serves as a sign to the poor that the need these organizations to develop them, that without the help of others they can’t escape poverty.

I think that in order for poverty to be eradicated people living in poverty need to become self-reliant they need to develop themselves. I am also of t he opinion that the international community through government and NGOs should play a role in helping to facilitate but the balance between self-reliance and international participation is something I’m trying to figure out. But I don’t think all the signs help, but maybe I’m just reading too much into it. It is exciting to be in a place where so many people are working towards the same goal, whether you agree with their exact methods or not.

Maybe the funniest old man ever, somehow

So with the organization I’ve been working with I’ve taken various trips out to the field to see the projects that they are helping people with (ps they don’t have signs really at all that I’ve noticed).

The other day I went with to help some beneficiaries move wood from one place to another (with a pickup truck) to build a market place.

While I was in one this community the people there loved getting their picture taken with my camera and then seeing the picture afterwards…this wasn’t really anything new. After taking a couple of individual or small group shots I went to take a picture of the whole group gathered. And this old man, whose picture I have already taken, starts dancing this traditional dance and singing. But it was this crazy active dance like nothing I had seen before and it seemed as if he was going to charge towards me at the end. Thankfully he didn’t and I got a couple of funny pictures of him and all the people gathered had a really good laugh.

Starry Starry Night

When I was in Sudan I remember each night I spent in Renk town I would spend time looking at the stars. In Renk there was no electricity or other things to block the stars so you could see all of them. And there are so many and they are so bright. And it was in gazing at the stars that I had time to think and reflect on the day.

Thinking about how we can see those same stars in America but they aren’t as brilliant or as abundant because of all the lights and smog and whatever else. And I began thinking that maybe sometimes that’s how we see Africa. We can’t get the whole picture most times because our mind is caught up in other things whether you want to call it materialism or the way our culture values certain ideals over others. America’s picture of Africa is distorted and sometimes it is hard to see how bright it can shine.

However when you are out in what most would consider to be the middle of no where or bufu Africa but what others would call home you can see the stars and how bright they are. I was reminded of this during my rural home-stay in the village and just the other night when I was driving back from the field. It is in these places that Africa can truly shine. Where you see its beauty in the people and in the way they live. But more importantly where you can see its hope and promise in the people’s struggle to improve their livelihoods. Not because they are trying to decrease the number of people living on less than a dollar a day, or the number of children who die before the age of 5. Not because they are trying to root out corruption in the government and not because women all over the world are treated unfairly and are among the worlds most vulnerable. The work to improve because it’s their life. Their home. Their community.

Its in seeing these people that you can understand the beauty and value of each star and how they can come together to form a beautiful sky.

Or maybe I’m just starring at the stars too much but they are so beautiful here.

Why did the Chicken cross the Road?

So this joke always seemed weird to me. It’s so random. Chickens crossing roads and all. And honestly who cares if the chicken crosses the road or not.

Well after driving around and spending sometime in Uganda I understand the question. Chickens cross the road all the time. People let their chickens run free. And when you are driving in the villages they cross the road…a lot. I find this annoying because the car, which is already driving on difficult roads, has to come to a complete stop to avoid hitting the chicken that crossing the road. Well once it sees the car it flees the road.

I even noticed in the Sunday paper the other day that there was a section called “Why did the Chicken Cross the Road?” and it had answers by various politicians that created answers based on relevant political issues.

So now I think I understand the origins of the question. Unfortunately I still don’t know why.

Paul Kagame

I was out in the field, in Aloi Sub-County to be exact and I was talking with the person I was with about President Museveni and his army when he was fighting for power in 1986 as a rebel/guerilla army.

In his army was a commander (or some ranking position) named Paul Kagame. Paul Kagame was a Rwandan refugee (Tutsi) who grew up in Uganda. He was in charge of a base and the other day I drove by it.

Paul Kagame later went on to lead the RPF in fighting the genocidaire in Rwanda in 1994 and is now the current president of Rwanda. His army as well as himself or kind of controversial and its interesting to hear Ugandan opinions of him but I will say that it was cool to see where he sort of got his start.

Partying with my host parents…

The weekend of November 15 I went back to Kampala again to visit for various reasons. That Saturday night I left town to go home with my home-stay mum, her sister and friend. They parked to go to the hotel. So it turns out there was a graduation party going on for these two women that were family friends from the village.

I of course show up in basketball shorts and a t-shirt. Luckily I had jeans and a nice shirt in my backpack.

So I go to join my host mum et al who are off in a corner away from the party and am told to go sit with my host dad who is at the party. So I do. And in less than 20 seconds (and I’m not exaggerating) I have a beer in hand, a beer waiting and a plastic cup of wine.

I’m hanging out with some of my father’s friends and it’s become obvious that there is a muzungu at the party and the camera guy comes over to start taking my picture. Then one of the girls whose party this is comes over to introduce herself to me. I of course feel a little bad for crashing the party but she seemed really happy I was there and introduced me to whom I think were her parents. Then I proceed to dance with her in the center of the party where there are maybe 5 other people dancing. Spotlight on me, camera rolling. Yah there was a camera.

She then gave me a push back (escorted me) to my host dad et al. Where I took a couple of quick drinks from beer number 1, and was given a plastic cup of something else which I took a sip of and I think it was whisky.

Next thing you know this really drunk man comes and asks me to dance so again I found myself in the center dancing. And the camera decided to film me again. So I’m dancing with these two drunk guys now who keep looking at me and saying Obama. It was totally harmless just a really awkward funny time. Things continued like that for a bit, sitting only to get pulled up again to dance with the camera coming and taking my picture at of course probably the most un-photogenic times.

And for those that are wondering about my line of alcohol…I finished beer 1 and started on beer two and while I was still taking my first sip beer number 3 appeared. So I quickly realized I needed to start passing of my drinks when no one was looking. Host dad took my wine, some man took my maybe whisky and I started handing the beer to my host mum et al. By some miracle I only managed to drink 1 and a half beers.

Oh and as for the two guys that were dancing with me that loved Obama…the asked for my number. So I gave them a number. At the end of t he party they came and talked to me while I was standing with my host mum. She had a questionable, worried; who are these drunk men look on her face. The 2 guys promised to each call me in the morning. So when they walked away I turned to my host-mum and said “They aren’t calling me in the morning” To which she replied, “No they seemed serious. They’ll call.” And I said “Well they will call someone in the morning but its not going to be me!”

It was a good night!