Notes from Africa (Uganda January 22, 2008)

A glimpse of Kampala, Uganda.

Makerere and Harvard colleagues.

Children enjoying their school vacation.

Apparently bouncing and behaving hair is important everywhere!

A glimpse of Kampala.
Views of town life on the outskirts of the Kampala.

January 22, 2008

it's hard to imagine we're on the same planet since the NE is experiencing sub zero weather. it's warm but not hot in uganda (maybe 75 -80 degrees) -- very tropical. pam says it feels like barbados circa 1970. but the colors and the smells are very different.

the earth is a rich red color. the trees are dark dark green (and everywhere there is something growing. interestingly it's not as overgrown/land of the giants as in hawaii (where you can probably get a stone to bud). the air often smells burnt. many live without indoor cooking facilities and have outdoor cook fires enclosed in a hut made with with hand-made red dirt bricks, sticks for framing and mud. socio-economic status can be revealed by the roof -- those with grass thatched are lowest on the rung, tin a few steps up, brick even higher.

these structures as you can imagine are not permanent. there are collapsed huts everywhere returning from whence they came -- to the earth. but because the materials are easily accesible, families simply rebuild. i'm trying hard not to judge. fundamentally we share the same core values: we pray for the health and well being of our families and we want to live a purposeful life.

fires are also constantly going in the rural areas. the farmers burn the land to clear it for sowing:-( leeching the land of it's sustainability for short term gain. who's to say i wouldn't do the same if i had many hungry mouths to feed and no money to buy it. the average woman bears 6.9 children. uganda has the fastest growing population on the planet. there's no such thing as birth control here and in non christian families men can have up to 4 wives.

kerosene is a popular transport fuel so it always smells like kerosene in the urban areas (also almost nobody uses deodorant:-( i'm stealing a few moments to be alone with my thoughts. our group is meeting for dinner at 7 pm. even though i am eternally grateful for this experience i want to be alone and quiet. i pulled one of our hosts aside to insist that he schedule some time for shopping today. he agreed to 30 minutes at the end of the day before our dinner meeting so far our days begin at 8 am and end at 11 pm.

the place we shopped today was a craft market where there were 25 or so booths of things of variable quality. i'm not convinced i couldn't have found most of the things on the streets of NYC (for quadruple the price). i was hoping to find a beaded watch band that i saw one of the scientists wearing (no luck!). it was difficult to fully appreciate the wares given the short time alloted (but i made do). now i'm acting out by not showing up for dinner on-time:-)

today i met with my couterparts at makerere university. i was truly impressed with them particularly since i've been warned again and again how incompetent "the administration" is. they are career administrators like myself wondering mostly how to make a dollar out of fifty cents (and how to gain the cooperation of their faculty -- sound familiar?). i gave them a few ideas on how to stretch their resources and how to streamline. they seemed truly grateful. after our break out session we returned to the larger group. my colleague presented a summary of our discussion in an eloquent, energized and cogent way. again, i was impressed.

there were two scientific break out groups who presented their findings too. i was bored stiff! am hopeful something with come of it. this ends our uganda trip. tomorrow we're tanzania bound. our flight leaves at 5 am:-/