HI WORLD
This is the first chance I’ve had more than a few minutes on a computer, so time to update. It’s my 6th day in Uganda, and lots has happened! Here’s a little recap…
First day (29th) was MAYHEM. I arrived at around 9am and was collected from the airport by Leslie, our wonderful Canadian coordinator and director of The Real Uganda. She has lived here for several years, and she, in one word, is RAD. As we were driving along getting acquainted and bonding over our mutual vulgar Canadian humour, we saw tons of Ugandans running in the opposite direction to which we were driving. I had been told by numerous sources that Ugandans simply do not run, so it was a tad unnerving to say the least. As we continued to drive in insane traffic, many Ugandans kept calling at us “Mzungus (foreigners)! Don’t go that way!” – we could not turn around since there was a meridian in the middle of the road. Leslie handed me a hankie, and I got my first anti-tear gas lesson. Sweet. So after an hour of trying to maneuver our way in a convoy through fires, tear gas and military police, we found ourselves at a heavily guarded Western-owned hotel where we immediately ordered a glass of wine – it was then, when we were safe, that Leslie told me what the real threats we had faced were – basically we could have ended up with no car, no luggage, no passports, no money. We were very lucky, and our hearts went out to those who were not as fortunate as us – a few people died, many more were injured, and about 300 were arrested in the riots.
These riots went down because Besigye, the main opposition leader here, was arrested, tear gassed and brutally attacked on the 28th in relation to his “Walk to Work” protests. In the past few months, prices of fuel have skyrocketed, along with food inflation rising from 6% to 29%. Ugandans are understandably upset at the sudden increase in the cost of living, and when Besigye, who has a HUGE following here, was arrested simply for publicly declaring that he would rather walk to work than pay for fuel, people got really pissed. Let me just clarify this before I begin to project a distorted image of the people here – Ugandans are very peaceful people, and they do not want this to happen. They have been living in a country ruled by President Musevini since 1986, and his actions rarely reflect the wants and needs of the people. The only way left to draw attention to their cause is to riot, which is unfortunately met with limited positive responses from the government, and results in the bloody suppression of Ugandan resistance. Every Ugandan I have met in the past few days have been overwhelmingly welcoming and kind, and open about how they want things to change but don’t know how to do so with such a corrupt government.
To calm some nerves (hi mom and dad), these protests are primarily in Kampala (I am 2 hrs away, just outside of Mukono), and when they are in Mukano, they stay on Jinja Road (the main street), and only happen on Mondays and Thursdays. After hiding out for the afternoon near Kampala, Leslie and I decided to drive back to Entebbe instead of continuing onto Mukono – we hung out at a backpackers hostel near the airport and waited for Kelsey and Liz to arrive. It was so good to see my amazing friends after a stressful day. The next morning (Sat the 30th), we all drove to Mukono and got the grand tour. The Real Uganda has a guest house in Mukono where volunteers from all of the placements can come and hang out on weekends, so we got to meet some cool people from around the world – Scott, an Australian gap year student, Eliza, a Canadian gap year student, and Stacey, a teacher from Alaska. All awesome people with some insight into life as a Mzungu in Uganda. Walking around Mukono, we were met with smiles and very warm receptions. Leslie took us to all the key places (supermarket, internet cafe, bank, etc.), then left us to wander around and explore. While Liz took a nap, Kelsey and I went out to explore the market – got caught in the rain and were offered shelter by pretty much everyone around us (people here are so friggin nice!), then we ended up in a bar (naturally) called Ballistic, where we met a wonderful woman named Brenda. She gave us the low down on politics, and pretty much everything else we needed to know, and we realized that we have met our first Ugandan girlfriend – right after I finish this entry, we’re going to visit her! Awesome lady.We were all really tired, so we passed out early after a day full of mental and physical stimulation as we adjusted to our new surroundings.
On Sunday we packed up and left the guest house to move to our village, about 15 minutes outside of Mukano. We are living at a school called Johnson Mkosi Memorial Primary School, in a guest house called Boston House, which is attached to a house owned by a man named Dennis and his wonderful family. This place is unreal. Moses, our “go-to” guy and supervisor, is a 25 year-old business student with so much ambition and drive, and really amped on implementing positive change through agriculture in his community. He’s hilarious, and in the past few days, he has really become a good friend. On our first night, he introduced us to some street food called “Rolex” – best thing I have ever tasted, and only 2500 shillings (1 US dollar). Through our first experience with local street food, we really got a glimpse into the gender roles here, as if you are traveling around town with a man, he does everything – orders food, pays, and takes charge of every aspect of life outside the home. If we try to order something while we are accompanied by a man, it makes him look bad, implying that he does not take care of us properly. So we just smile and greet everyone, allowing Moses to take care of everything and we will slip him some cash for whatever he purchases afterward. It is also assumed that if a man is walking with multiple women that they are all his wives (it is very common here for a man to have multiple wives, so us traveling with Moses must make him look pretty badass – 3 Mzungu wives!
We also learned another interesting traditional Ugandan custom – it is considered very rude to not finish your meal. So we were faced with a dilemma at every meal – we received HUGE pots full of all different types of food (all fantastic and organic) and not enough appetite to eat it all. After 3 meals of stuffing our faces and forcing smiles and conversation throughout, Liz and I went to talk to Agnus (Dennis’ wife and our phenomenal cook), and kindly told her that we love and appreciate the food, but we don’t need that much! We’re on great terms with our new family already (a little first aid on their 14 year-old daughter, Lillian, goes a long way and warrants a lot of respect; this respect definitely goes both ways). Dennis and Agnus also have a 3 year-old daughter named Peace, an 8 year-old son named Junior, and a 12-year old daughter who we have not yet met – she is away with relatives. We love these kids, and I will write more about them when I have time. Everyone here goes out of their way to make us feel welcome here and it totally works – we feel at home already.
Going to end this post now, and write another one about the farming (the reason I’m here, duh!)
wakawakaafrica 