The Last Weeks

So I have been home for a few weeks now but I still have this last blog entry of some of my final weeks in Uganda. Some of this was written before I got home and some since I’ve been back. Its long but it’s the last one!

Murchison Falls…Hippos, Wart Hogs and Giraffes…Oh My!

The weekend before Thanksgiving I went to Murchison Falls…The whole trip was AWA (Africa Wins Again)…

So the people that I was staying with in Lira said they would drop me off their because its hard to get to with public transportation. So the trip took a little over 2hours to get to the gate to the park. Then at the gate I had to pay a whole lot of money (because I’m not Ugandan)

Then we drove for another hour and a half in the park and I saw animals like antelope and wart hogs and…Giraffes! Which were my favorite.

So we finally get to the end (on the Nile). The park is divided by the Nile and there is a ferry that runs on the hour. I was on the side of the park were there was this place to stay called the Paraa lodge. This was the place that people had suggested as a place to stay. I should also mention that my friends and I hadn’t arranged for a place to stay for the night. So the first place I went was the Paraa lodge. Driving up to it you can tell it was a nice place…And for 133 US dollars a night per person it better be.

There was no way I was going to stay at Paraa Lodge. Across the river was a place called the Red Chili or Red Pepper…it was supposed to be cheaper. It was about 1:30 and I had to wait till 2 for the ferry. In the area with the ferry there are baboons. A lot of them. They climbed onto our car and they actually went into someone else’s car.

At 2, instead of the ferry I get on another boat that is like a 3 hour boat ride to the falls. It was good. I saw so many hippos and a herd of elephants and crocodiles. The three hour ride was actually 4 so at 6 I get off the boat on the Red Chili/Pepper side and walked 10minutes to the place only to find out its booked, they don’t even have a tent to rent. So now the only option I have left for my friends and I stay is a student center that costs the equivalent of $5 per person…but it’s on the other side of the river.

So I walk back down to catch the ferry. On the walk 3 warthogs popped out from the bush and were right next to me. I think my heart might have stopped beating as I just stared at them trying to figure out what to do…I kept walking. Turns out wart hogs are nice; I was told that people in that area actually have them come in their homes.

I get to the ferry landing at about 6:30 and find out the last ferry is at 7. My friends still haven’t gotten there, they are coming in on the Red Chili/Pepper side. So basically if they get there after 7 they don’t have anywhere to stay for the night and will be sleeping with the hippos.

After many attempts I finally get a hold of them at 6:45 and tell them they have to show up in the next 15mins. They say that they don’t think its possible and I should stall.

Oh and I should also mention that while I’m waiting for the ferry people are telling me that the walk to the student center is about 20minutes, and I would be walking in the dark by myself. This would be ok except there are wild animals out at night too…especially elephants and they aren’t nice elephants…they attack people. Needless to say I wasn’t looking forward to that walk.

At 6:50ish the ferry is getting ready to leave. Of course this would be the one time in Uganda that something would happen on time…let alone early. So I begin begging them to wait. I even offer to bribe them. Eventually they say they will wait till 7:05. And at 7:03 my friends show up!!!

We also were able to get a ride to the student center…so no elephant attacks.

The next morning I was hungry because I hadn’t eaten in 24hours. So while my friends were taking the boat ride I went to the Paraa lodge and paid 25,000 shillings for breakfast (that’s expensive but I was hungry) and it was a full buffet and I had a cheese omelet and Bacon!!!! So it was worth it.

I hung out with the baboons for the rest of the morning until my ride came to pick me up.

IDP Camps

On the way to the falls we drove through some towns were people were still living in displacement camps…or “protected villages” I’m not sure why they were still staying there because in many parts of Northern Uganda where the security situation has improved the IDPs have returned to their home villages. I have heard of places where IDPs stay at the camps because in some ways life is easier. They are still poor but have become dependent on humanitarian assistance and if they move back out to the villages they won’t have that humanitarian assistance. But they will still be poor and in many cases can lack the start-up capital to begin to farm or generate other forms of income.

This is actually where the organization that I was working with comes in but that’s not what I wanted to talk about. I’m not sure if I ever mentioned what the IDP camps look like in Northern Uganda but basically they are huts, like you would find in the village but all the families stay very close together so there is no chance to have land to grow things to make money. And the living conditions in these camps are very poor, bad sanitation, poor health, malnutrition, security issues…the whole thing.

I guess the point that I am trying to make though is that as I was driving through these camps on my way to Murchison to go on safari, be a tourist and spend a lot of money I felt like a complete tool. These camps were so close to the park and the thought that people just drive through all the time in their land rovers makes me a little sick. Actually now that I think about it a little the part of the park that I entered on is less popular because there aren’t as many people coming from the north…so many of the people going on these safaris have no idea that just a kilometer away are these displaced people living in extreme poverty.

Thanksgiving in Uganda

I was in Lira for Thanksgiving. And other than my advisor telling me that we needed to get a turkey (which we didn’t) and asking me about what people did for thanksgiving I could have spent the whole day without even knowing what day it was.

I was asked at one point by my advisor what I was thankful for and I told him I didn’t know. But as I was doing different visits in the field I did think about it.

I’m thankful for the knowledge that I have. Not that I am particularly intelligent but that isn’t quite what I mean. I have a basic education. I can read. I can write. But more importantly I know how to think critically and analyze my situation. And when there is something I don’t know I know where to go to get the answers.

What I have discovered in Lira, is that part of what keeps the poor, poor is that they don’t have this knowledge. They can often know what it is they don’t know or what they want to know but they don’t know how to get that information. There are a variety of reasons why including at times the inability to read and poverty itself forcing them to focus on surviving rather than searching for answers. And I think this is a reason why they are trapped in poverty

Intro Ceremony

I got back to Kampala from Lira on the last Friday of November because I had to go to an introduction ceremony that Saturday. So basically the jist of an introduction ceremony if you don’t know is that it is the groom’s family meeting the bride’s family for the first time. The bride’s family basically accepts the offer of marriage and the groom’s family gives the bride’s family a lot of gifts and people are really happy etc…

So I was there with the groom’s family. I went with my home-stay brother (I think the groom was his cousin) And I had to wear a traditional Ugandan dress…I could tell you the name of it but I have no idea how to spell it…but when the pictures are posted you should check it out online…but its long and has puffy shoulders. Mine was two long and because I am a clutz and didn’t know how to fix it, the dress kept getting longer. This was also the first time I wore nice dress shoes the whole time I was there…good thing I packed them.

So anyway the groom’s family processed in to where some of the members of the brides family were waiting…and I processed with them…it was a little awkward cause I kinda stood out. I sat in the back of the grooms tent so I couldn’t see all that much and I wasn’t next to my brother so I didn’t really have anyone to translate for me (Everything was in Luganda)…At one point all the women started kneeling…except me because I didn’t know what was happening and the woman next to me starts pulling me down and telling me I have to kneel or else the family won’t allow the marriage…really!?

So then the groom’s family leaves to go get gifts…and I am told to go with. Little by little my brother and a cousin start to fill me in…I’m helping to carry in gifts (me: no problem) a little later my brother says you have to carry it in on your hear ( me: Seriously!? I can’t do that)…a little later I’m told when I take it in I have to kneel with the basket on my head and present it to the bride’s family ( me: Ok…but I’m pretty sure I’ll fall in the process of kneeling or won’t be able to get up again…do you know how long this dress is and that I keep tripping in it when I walk normally…!?) My brother gave me a basket full of tomatoes…which I put on my head…it was heavy but he promised he had given me one of the lighter ones.

So I struggled to carry the basket in one hand on the basket the other holding up my dress so I don’t trip and spell tomatoes everywhere. I successfully got to the brides family and kneeled no problem. But as soon as the basket was removed from my head I could tell that the top of my head felt a little funny and wet. Turns out that my basket was so full of tomatoes that the ones on the bottom got squashed and leaked tomato juice on my head. Awesome…so I got to smell like tomatoes for the rest of the day.

There was also a point where the mc for groom’s side was talking about all the gifts (in luganda) and everyone started pointing at me and telling me to stand up…apparently the mc had been talking about me and they wanted the brides side to see who I was. Apparently the MC had been talking about how they wanted the bride’s family to accept the offer of marriage so much that they even brought a muzungu from America…

The rest of the ceremony was cool and then afterwards there was a party at my home-stay family’s hotel.

Paper writing

I spent the last week in Kampala working on the huge final paper about my independent study time (my work with RALNUC) so of course I spent a good deal of that time procrastinating and going shopping. I did finish the paper it was 38 pages of not very good writing.

Farewell Party

The night before we left for Jinja we had a farewell party with all the host families and to also celebrate SIT Uganda’s 10^th anniversary. It was fun.

I don’t know if I had mentioned this earlier but most of my home-stay siblings were home from school and during my last week in Kampala it had been fun living with them and getting to know them…anyway they were at the party as well as my host-mom and my other brother and sister who had been home the whole time.

There was food, cake, boring speeches and dancing so fun times. My family also gave me a going away present…it was these straw placemats and a table runner…its hard to explain but it was nice and also like the table setting they had in their home.

The Resort on the Nile

My last week in Uganda was spent at Kingfisher Resort on the Nile near Jinja town. It was beautiful, had really good food and there was a pool that we were allowed to swim in.

Unfortunately we were stuck in presentations most of the time…but we did get some time to swim and the last day we got to spend the whole day out by the pool but still getting lectures.

Marching in Jinja

On our last day in Jinja we had a march through Jinja town as way of celebrating SIT Uganda’s 10^th anniversary…I think. I should mention that in Uganda the have marches or parades like all the time especially in Kampala so it wasn’t so strange that we were having one.

We had a band and were marching with Mama Jane’s orphanage (a place one of the students in my program had worked with). I was rally unexcited for this march…I would have rather spent my last day swimming in the pool.

I ended up having a really good time. I walked with some of the kids from the orphanage and then some of the street kids joined us and I was dancing with them.

The End

We were in Kampala for our last weekend and were flying out that Sunday night. I spent the weekend hanging out with some friends and on Saturday night a whole bunch of us went out…it was a lot of fun. On Sunday I went to my home-stay families home for lunch…

We had an 8hourish flight to Amsterdam where I watched Mama Mia…a very good airplane movie…this was followed by an 8hour layover in Amsterdam’s freezing cold airport. At the airport it was so weird going around to all the shops and seeing all the CDs or DVDs or the different foods at the various restaurants. I thought long and hard about what to get to eat…partially because this was my first chance to have good cheese (and other things of course) since I had left and secondly because everything was so much more money than I was used to it costing that I wasn’t sure if I was willing to spend it.

I got a hot ham and cheese croissant…it was a good choice.

Then we had an 8hourish flight to New York. The in-flight movie was Wall-E…not a good airplane movie. I was really excited when we got into to New York to turn my cell phone on again and call folks and makes texts saying I was back in the USA…but my phone decided it didn’t want to turn on (yay for my phone never working!)

Eventually I was back home in Chicago…and it was cold.

Back in the States

So I have been home for a few weeks now. I’ve had Christmas, and New Years…gone to Colorado…eaten more cheese and sweets and other things than I could have imagined and shoveled more times in only one week than I think I shoveled the entirety of last winter…

I guess this is the part of my blog where I sum up my experiences or talk about how weird it is to be back in the US but how good it was to see friends and family again and how I’m going to carry with me everything I learned and so on…and a lot of that’s true but at this point I’m not sure I have all that much to say.

I had a great time and I already miss matooke (who woulda thought!?) and I know I learned a lot but I’m still processing everything. I wish I could write more but I really don’t know what to so I’m going to say goodbye for now until my next trip to Uganda or someplace else and hopefully its sooner rather than later