Explanation

Hi everybody,

Sorry for the month-long posting hiatus. I went to Quebec to visit some family, and when I got back my computer broke. To make a long story short, we had to format the hard drive. Fortunately, I still haven't deleted all the Uganda photos from my camera, and I should be able to retrieve them. This is good, because there are still a few things I want to write about. I'll be back soon.

Take care,
Katelyn

Field Day

Tabiro, and it's neighbouring community Kikunu, were home to hundreds of children. We had originally planned to organize a few field days in Tabiro, but when we visited a church in Kikunu and saw number 14 on the list...

we thought we'd better organize one there too. (In case it's too small, the program says "14. Football. (Visitors Vs. Children))

Uganda is not a very easy place to be organized. Around fifty kids would show up to each field day. An hour later, there would be over two hundred. We originally tried organizing them into a few teams, but since more and more children of diverse ages kept arriving, it didn't really work. We still gave them the headscarves meant for that purpose, which many of them wore every day after that.

We tried explaining different games to them, but we discovered that, for the older kids, soccer was the sport of choice. In the background of this photo you can see one of the goal-posts. When the field isn't being used for soccer, cows graze on it and keep the grass short.

The little kids watched, or looked at the photos we took of them, or played with the parachute:
Can you make the balls go all the way around without switching direction or falling off?

Wisdom Teeth

Sorry for the dearth in posts - I had my wisdom teeth out on Tuesday, and have been grappling with the most terrific headache for the past 4 days. I'll be back - stay tuned.

Shake Hands with the Devil

Vultures infest Uganda's Makarere University. I learned that they used to be uncommon, but have been prevalent on the campus since the genocide in bordering Rwanda.

Though I already knew about the genocide, somehow seeing the vultures really drove it home. I couldn't help thinking that it could happen again so easily...

Since I got back, I've started reading Romeo Dallaire's Shake Hands with the Devil. It's a sobering read, but I feel like it's a neccesary one - such tragic events could easily have been prevented or, at the very least, made less harsh. I am so glad that General Dallaire has not remained quiet about what he calls "humanity's failure in Rwanda."

Roaming

One of the great things about Uganda is it is full of places to walk. The main road which travels between Kampala and Entebbe has communities dotted every 500 metres along it, except within the Lake Victoria National Park. In between each roadside community is a network of dirt roads, and multiple other communities.

Uganda is topographically similar to Kenya; the country is, for the most part, elevated, and there are plenty of hills that help make it more so. As it is, there are plenty of hills to climb, and on our first day there, we ascended one with a witchcraft shrine on the top.

Witchcraft is practiced by about 70% of Uganda's population. It is generally practiced in tandem with Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Islam, although some practice it exclusively.

Witch doctors still engage in child sacrifice and other abhorrent practices. Last year, so many children went missing that the government cracked down, but witchcraft is still legal. One night we saw on the news that the body of a 35-year-old man had been found in a witchcraft shrine. I don't usually criticize people of differing religious faith, but I find any religion that permits child sacrifice too much to bear.

Anyway, I digress. The other things we saw on the top of the hill were also interesting.

Not me, but the view. In all the pictures I took, it looks like a great plain. It is not; it's actually a pretty strenuous climb. Note the garbage fire to the left of my head: Ugandans don't have garbage collection facilities, at least in the country, and so most of them just burn their trash. As they don't have much, this isn't a huge problem. During the rainy season, there is little to no risk that any fire would spread. I'm not sure about the dry season, but I suspect that it is still safe because any forest fire would destroy the homes of at least a 100,000 people. Uganda is very densely populated.

This is a termite mound, with Jasen standing there for scale. They are massive.

This is a phone tower. Few, if any, Ugandans own landlines, but mobile phones are prevalent, and there are towers everywhere. The little hut next to it is for the security guards, and has "security" painted on it. The guards are seated at a table behind it.

Somebody wrote "stupid" in the grass. I was immediately reminded of the second grade, where my seatmate would write the same word on pieces of paper and dare me to tell on him. Apparently, somebody a little older than that still thinks it's funny!

What We Actually Did There I - Stitching Club

Now that I've talked about some of the cultural aspects of the trip, I should probably fill everybody in on what we were actually doing while we were there.

We were engaged in several projects, but the one that I enjoyed the most (and was likely the most useful in) was the stitching club.

The two other women on the trip and I taught embroidery to the local women, with the hope that it will become a cottage industry. The picture shows Mary (in blue), Cathy (in pink), with Gertrude and Florence. Gertrude and Florence were not from Tabiro, and walked over five kilometers to attend every meeting. Their work was phenomenal.

Every woman who came to the stitching club ended up selling her piece for a tidy sum of 50,000 shillings each. Though this is only about $25 CDN, it is a lot when Ugandan prices are taken into account. We hope there will be more to come, if anybody who reads this is interested in buying one!

A piece in progress.




Hard at work.

Across the Street

Across the street from Tabiro School stood a two-room shack. Aysha, the woman who inhabited it had three-day-old twins, as well as 4-6 other children, and a husband. Her mother lived with her too.

I took a photo of all her older children with some of her neighbours' children. Pauline, the one seated in the middle, is physically disabled; she has callouses on her knees from walking on them.Aysha asked if she could take a picture of me with Pauline and her other children because, "they love you." This photo was taken on my first day there, and remains one of my favourites.

Living Conditions I - Warning: Contains Pictures of Bathroom

Being in Uganda reminded me of being at camp. We were each assigned a bed with a bug-net, in one of the orphans' dorms. (The orphans were away staying with relatives during the school holidays.) The boys tookover one room and the girls used two. There was very little privacy.


In the back room, and behind the dorm there were "showers". These were actually small concrete rooms. If anybody needed to bathe, he would have to fill a jerry-can with water from the rain-reservoir, and lug it down to the dorm. If he (or she!) was lucky, he would be able to bathe with somebody else's leftover water, and then he wouldn't have to carry it. A full jerry-can weighed 50-60 pounds.

Besides the showers, we were also afforded a little privacy in the two bathroom stalls. However, the walls were thin, so any person who was embarrassed to let another person hear them pee was out of luck.

Most Ugandans use pit toilets, which range from simple holes in the ground to elabourately flushing toilet bowls that you simply have to squat over. These thrones were built especially for us, and boy did we appreciate them! From my few experiences with pit toilets, I can equivocally say that they are not for me. However, they did help me understand why Ugandan women wear skirts; they are extremely practical.

Now that you're sufficiently grossed out, I'll show you some food, starting with the grasshoppers:

This is a very typical meal. We dined on potatoes, rice, sweet potatoes (which are white in Uganda - there is one on my plate), pineapple, mango, watermelon, bananas, peas, stewed meat (usually beef), pasta, grasshoppers, and vegetables (carrots, green peppers, onions, avocados, tomatoes, cucumbers). In the mornings we were given eggs and chips (fries). One time we had maize, which you can see on my plate. It tastes like starchy corn.

Ugandan cooking contains a wide array of ingredients, but almost no spices.

In Tabiro, all cooking is done over coal or gas burners. There are no ovens, and there is limited refrigeration. To break up the culinary monotony, we baked some cakes in a frying pan we brought from Canada. They tasted like cakes.

Sorry

No post today - the computer where I've stored my pictures seems to have been requisitioned. Check again tomorrow or reread the back entries, and please comment so that at least I know somebody's reading this.

You are Welcome

After two hours of driving, we finally began to close in on Tabiro. Little did we know that the whole community had been alerted about our arrival. As soon as we turned off the main road, kids started waving at us and jumping up and down to get our attention. Though I knew Ugandan culture is less reserved than Canadian culture in matters of welcoming and hospitality, I was still incredibly overwhelmed by how happy they were to see us. We got out of the van in Tabiro to an audience of about 150 people, mostly children. As soon as we disembarked, the children reached out to grab our hands, and each time said, "You are welcome."

The adults and older children entertained us with a few traditional dances, and the welcome turned into a dance party that lasted about an hour. I didn't take photos or video, but I do have a video of a small welcome for one of our party that arrived late. I think it captures the spirit of Ugandan welcomes very well.



I felt conflicting emotions about being so adored by the children. On the one hand, it was a wonderful feeling to have so many people like me, but on the other I felt unworthy to be viewed as so...magical. Though I was glad that they were happy to see me, I almost preferred when I had to coax the few younger ones not to be afraid; it seemed like those children had a better idea of who I really was. This is not meant to be self-deprecating; I'm only saying that I'm uncomfortable when people view me as something I am not. Most of the Ugandans viewed the team as special and I struggled with that a lot while I was there.

English

Just as a postscript, if are interested in getting really good idea of what English is like in Uganda, you can visit http://www.giantdogs.biz/ or the online version of the New Vision, Uganda's national newspaper.

Signs and Advertising II

Uganda's signs are not all this zany, but they are still very different from anything you might find in Canada.

These signs, which I saw while leaving the airport read:
The power to develop Uganda is in your hands.
Pay your taxes; set your country free.
Tax compliance: Key to Uganda's transformation

It wasn't difficult to figure out that the Ugandan government has a pretty hard time tracking its population. I quickly learned that the entire country is organized like a crazy urban sprawl, especially in the rural areas. Plus, a significant percentage of the people work exclusively, or mostly, under the table.

Uganda contained plenty of commercial advertising too.

One of the first things I noticed on the way to Tabiro was the way paint companies and mobile phone companies vied for the loyalty of the Ugandan people.

There were five or six mobile phone companies, and they all painted buildings: yellow for MTN and UTL, hot pink for Zain, etc. I've always thought of Canadian advertising as being obnoxious and in your face, but compared to the amount of advertising I saw during my first hour in Uganda, it now seems understated! Around fifty percent of the buildings on the main roads are painted, and billboards and signs inundate the streets. Ads are everywhere.

Signs and Advertising 1

At this point, my narrative will begin taking a slightly less chronological approach.

The first things I noticed about Uganda, besides the pervasive lush green colour and the heat, were the signs.

Uganda's national languages are English and Kiswahili, but its widely spoken languages are Luganda and Ankoli. As a result, most English-speaking Ugandans speak English only as a second language, and they have developed a rather peculiar dialect.

English in Uganda is as verbose as it can possibly be made. The simplest words are replaced with their most complicated alternatives, and a sign that could consist of three or four words in North America would have as many as possible in Uganda.

I took this photo at Makarere University.

Ugandan signs are also rife with spelling errors. I found Ugandan speech to be difficult to understand at first because of its dialectical nature. At one point, somebody said, "I require your assistance," and it took me two whole seconds to understand that they needed my help! The accent contributes to this problem as well.

I'll leave you with this sign: one of my favourites.

A Little Bit of Uganda

We left Dubai in the morning, and boarded another flight to Entebbe, via Ethiopia. Despite being 6 hours in length, the flight breezed by, and I even met a nice flight attendant from Malaysia. He was a trained engineer, but decided he didn't want to be an engineer after he completed his degree. He signed a 3-year contract with Air Emirates as a flight attendant, and when it was up he was planning to return to Malaysia and run a touring business. He was very extroverted, and probably would have been good at it.
This is the best picture I could get of Ethiopia, as Chip, who was sitting next to the window was asleep and I didn't want to wake him up. Ethiopia was beautiful in its own way - dry and arid with flat-topped trees, exactly like in The Lion King.

Anyway, after continuing our flight, we landed smoothly in Entebbe and exited the plane into brilliant sunshine and 25 degree heat. I donned my sunglasses and shed my sweater, ready for anything. Actually, I felt drained, but I was extremely happy to be exactly where I was.

Dominic, the headmaster of the school/orphanage where we were going met us in the parking lot. He was equipped with two taxis and two drivers to transport our luggage to Tabiro. He gave each member of the team a hug and, because we have met before, he said to me, "So, you are in Uganda now." I was so zonked, and all I could think of to say was, "Yes. Yes I am."

What could I say? I was.

Dubai

Our plane landed in Dubai, and I staggered off, eager to pick up my bag and my toothbrush.
Compared to the US, the security was laughable. Security was the only job I saw being done by native Emiratis, and there were usually three or four to a desk, talking and laughing and paying minimal attention to the x-ray image in front of them.

The airport was a magnificent, sinister building. We were flanked on either side by palm trees and Grecian pillars; nearly everything was white or silver. Though the ceilings were high, sound did not echo, and I felt like somebody had forcibly turned down my volume. A few Emiratis walked past us, stately in their white and black robes, but mostly we were surrounded by mute Europeans. Despite being with a group of 8 people, I felt ill at ease.


Each of the washrooms in the airport had an adjacent prayer room. Their locations were also indicated by signs. I did not enter the rooms because I'm not Muslim, but I did find it interesting that prayer could be viewed as so paramount to a culture that prayer rooms are deemed as necessary as washrooms.


At 8:00 PM we boarded a shuttle. While the inside of the airport had been air conditioned, once we stepped outside, we were bowled over by a wave of 32 degree heat.

Because we had a long layover in Dubai, Air Emirates paid for our hotel and for our food, and I am happy to report that the food was excellent. The other guys on the trip went to the mall to see the ski hill and then to see the seven-star hotel, though I stayed to eat dinner and sleep.


In the morning, after eating some more delicious food, we boarded the shuttle again. This time we got to see what Dubai looks like during the day.

Though Dubai is a magnificient piece of engineering, I cannot say I enjoyed being there. It was partly because I read this article before I arrived, and I found it disconcerting to know how much of the luxury I was enjoying was the result of exploitation. Though the food was excellent, I was glad to leave.

The Long and Arduous Flight

The journey from Halifax to Entebbe is a long one at the best of times. Our route took us to New York, where we landed in JFK. JFK boasted an impressive array of airline loyalty, as well as an impressive array of terminals
This picture is taken from the train that links them all. The green plane is part of Aer Lingus, an Irish airline. The flight attendants for Aer Lingus wore green; I thought that was cool.



From New York, we boarded a plane to Dubai. It was the A380 airbus, which is a very large and very nice plane.

It was nice even in coach: they provided us with cool washcloths, a tooth brush and toiletries, and (mostly) delectable food. In front of each passenger there was a television screen, which boasted an incredible selection of movies and games. You could even see a video from the front and the bottom of the plane, so that people who weren't close to a window could still enjoy watching the ground. Each seat came equipped with a phone and, though it was $5 US a minute to phone people on the ground, it was possible to call between seats for free.

Coach was so nice that I couldn't even imagine what Executive and Saudi-Sheikh class were like, but when I came home I looked it up here.

Unfortunately, even the deluxe feeling of the plane could not really make up for the fact that we had to stay in it for twelve hours, and it was a difficult flight. I dozed off about halfway through, but about four hours before the end of the flight I began feeling nauseous in my sleep. To make a long story short, I ended up puking for the last few hours of the flight, and arrived in Dubai feeling disgusting. The flight attendants were very nice and very helpful, but nothing really beats being sick at home.

From the Beginning

The day before we were supposed to leave, our neighbourhood was set on fire. For those of you who don't know, I live in an area that had only been recently developed, and it is bordered by acres of forest. A few years ago, hurricane Juan took down a lot of trees, and I guess it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.

Murphy's law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and 12 hours before we left, I believed it. At its closest point, the fire was less than a kilometer away, so my family and I all had evacuation bags packed, just in case. We went to bed hoping the fire wouldn't head toward us, because they had stopped fighting it for the night.

By the time I woke in the morning, the fire had moved further away, and it looked like things were going to be alright, for us at least. Then, about an hour before we were supposed to leave for the airport, we got a call telling us that Uganda was barring entry to citizens of "swine-flu infected areas". Since there had been cases in Nova Scotia, my Dad and I became concerned that we would fly all the way to Uganda only to be turned away at the border. Quickly, one of the women on our trip arranged for her husband, an infectious disease doctor, to write us an official letter saying that we were swine-flu free. We hoped they didn't ask, but if they did, we hoped it would be good enough.

Once we got to the airport, we were joined by a few more members of the team. We went through the gate without a hitch, passed through a hallway with nifty colour-changing lights, and sat, and waited. We ended up sitting there for a while, because our flight was two hours delayed. We didn't have access to internet, and had no way of knowing what was happening with the fire.

Finally, our plane was ready for boarding. As we were preparing for takeoff, it began to rain. We took off, no longer really concerned about the fire because, in Halifax, rain lasts the whole day.

We were on our way.

I'm back.

Hi everybody,

I made it back in one piece. However, on my last day there, I managed to contract food poisoning, so I think today I will just focus on swallowing my rather appetizing looking drug cocktail, drinking cups of herbal tea, and lying in bed. I'm really excited to write about this trip, so this is a bit disappointing for me. Sorry! Make sure you check back in a couple days.

Katelyn

Hi Everybody

This blog is lying dormant for a while, as I'm still in the fundraising stage, and have not actually embarked. I leave May 1st, and should return three weeks later. The blog will become active after that.

Thank you all for your support.
Katelyn