Welcome To My Blog!

Hey There Everyone!

Welcome to my blog, so named for the excellent Ugandan radio station found at www.connectuganda.com. My dad got me into it before I left and I found it an appropriate name for what I’m doing over here in my new home.

So as to avoid rewriting what took so much time and mental effort, I’m going to copy and paste my first email as my first post (which was very long, I just realized!). So, if you haven’t read it, now would be a good time. If you have, feel free to reread. Hopefully I’ll be able to post regularly but I have several challenges such as: (1) the slow internet that I have already complained about, (2) it is incredibly difficult to absorb, process, reflect, and communicate everything that has happened in such a short time-frame, and (3) balancing time – hey, I’ve got a job to do after all! I didn’t come here on vacation! Anyway, here is my first email:

Dear Fam & Friends,

How are you all? Wonderful, I hope! Though difficult to compose, I hope you all enjoy my first mass email in which I hope to share a piece of my life here in Uganda with you. My difficulties in sending this mainly involve the internet here, which is amazingly slow. It’s pretty shocking, actually. What’s more, Chantal (my housemate here in Kampala, the capitol) says that the office recently upgraded. I can’t imagine what it used to be like! Anyway, I’m going to write a bit about my trip so far. So much has happened that it feels a bit overwhelming to try and wrap my head around it all, but Uganda is truly an amazing space so I hope I succeed in giving you a window into life here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my trip, I will give a short background of why I am here and what I am doing. I am participating in a program through my school called the International Development Internship Program. It is a one-year program where students take an international development course in the fall, participate in a field practicum in the winter, and take another course in the spring. For the practicum, students are paired with NGOs (mostly Catholic Relief Services, but some are with others like CARE) in developing countries and intern with them for 8-10 weeks. Students are sent to Africa, Asia, and South America. I am interning for CRS here in Uganda. My job is to get to know the majority of the programs that the office runs (things like microfinance, water sanitization, AIDS care, and others) and write up “project briefs,” which are one-page summaries similar to brochures. Currently I am in Kampala, but will soon travel to Fort Portal (in the west) where I will be stationed. After three weeks I will come back to Kampala to meet with program directors who are stationed here. Then, I will travel to Gulu to learn about the agricultural programs before I head back to Fort Portal for the remainder of my stay. Now, let me tell you about my time here so far…

I arrived in Entebbe at night and had no problems finding my driver (who was holding a little CRS sign, which didn’t have my name on it, but I was excited to have a person with a sign nonetheless). I’m a bit surprised at how easily I found him considering how many people where at the airport. This, actually, was one of my first observations here: there are so many people! Though I didn’t have a problem finding my driver, I did have a problem with was the driving! They drive so fast here! There are tons of cars, people, and boda bodas (motorcycle taxis). It makes me nervous because you almost hit people all the time. Pedestrians have no rights (which I think is something you have to experience to believe because I knew that but didn’t understand until I was walking on the side of the road the other day). The cars assume that pedestrians will move out of the way… Very different from Seattle! Also, the roads are too narrow for the amount of traffic. Cars will drive straight at each other because they know to swerve at the last minute.

The roads are narrow and bumpy in places with many structures all along the road that are very close to it. No matter what time of day or night, it seems, people will be in and around the structures, which are adorned with lights of many different colors. When we finally got to Chantal’s house (which took about 30 min.), I was relived to say the least.

Chantal is a fellow here at CRS and is an Iranian-American from California. She’s calm and considerate and has an amazing energy. I’m incredibly fortunate to have her to introduce me to my new home. The house is very nice, too. I have my own bedroom and bathroom. The shower has no water pressure…. It’s kind of like standing under a weak hose. But at least I have a shower (and, as Mary says, it's nice to be reminded that I'm living in Africa ... there are probably far better examples, though)! I’ve taken lots of pictures so I can send them out or post them somehow later. Around the house there is a big wall that stretches around the entire “compound.” We have a guard that watches the gate, Edirissa, but it is safer than that makes it sound. On the note of beauty and security, the compound has beautiful gardens and trees and the walls have some sort of ivy growing all over them. My first morning, I was appreciating the beauty of the walls when my eyes found the top and saw razor wire all along it! Talk about a contrast between the beautiful and ugly! But that is very common here and I would rather have it than not!

I spent my first day in the house napping, unpacking and reading. 

Even though I was very tired, I could only sleep for about 6 hours the first two nights! The next day (Friday) I went in to the office.

The office in Kampala is relatively nice and bigger than I expected. I toured the (three) buildings and met more people than I can remember. There will only be about 8 in the office in Fort Portal. A lady (whose name I cannot remember) helped me through some orientation materials. She had a beautiful gold ring that formed two cheetah heads over the top of her finger, which faced each other and were each biting opposite sides of a small ring. She spoke very softly. Actually, most people speak more softly than I am used to in the States so I have to consciously turn my voice down a few notches. They also have a very beautiful accent that I love listening to, but have a hard time following. Between being at the office and with the Italians, I’m constantly asking people to repeat themselves!

I was set up on one of the computers in a room with two other people. All of the computers here are large and mismatched and have a layer of red dust on them (well, everything has a layer of red dust on it). The room where I sat has a balcony where we all drink tea around 10 a.m. It has a view of part of Kampala, which is much more beautiful than I imagined. There are many hills covered in all sorts of trees and red tile roofs everywhere. It was a nice view to sit by and do my work. After I finished my orientation materials, I met with my boss, Hilary O’Connor, who is originally from Ireland, went to lunch with the country representative, Jack, then went home because I was feeling sick.

Staying in Kampala has been many things, entertaining being a primary one of them. On Saturday I tagged along on Chantal’s weekly shopping expedition with her landlords: Lella and Kiko (actually spelled Chico, but Kiko is how it sounds and I'm too lazy to change all of them right now), who are Italian. Lella is warm and laughs a lot in between complaining about her color shampoo and seeking out pretty necklaces (which Kiko says she has about 100 of). She also has a habit of yelling at Kiko while he is driving, sometimes in English, sometimes in Italian, sometimes in Swahili. Kiko is more quiet but has a heavy accent (like Lella) and all I can do is laugh lightly and nod. We went to a few stores (grocery and target-esque), then the mall (four stories! Can you believe it? Apparently you won’t find one like that except in Nairobi or South Africa), then an Italian market. Every Saturday, around the time between the mall and market (about 5 o’clock) Kiko starts to sing. I didn’t know the songs but they were very nice. Kiko is also fond of calling everything “taka taka” or “taca taca,” which means junk. He and Lella went to a dinner party the other night at a big fancy house. Lella showed us the pictures of the dinner and people on the porch and the pretty piano. Kiko said that it was too big and was just filled with a bunch of taca taca (which he emphasized by throwing his hands up in the air….while driving…in Uganda)!

One of the more interesting aspects of going out with the Italians was driving through Kampala. Never have I seen such a drastic difference between the rich and poor areas. We drove past the area where diplomats live, with large houses surrounded by tall walls and streets with trees arching over them from both sides. We passed a beautiful golf course and the president’s landing strip. I couldn’t help but think back to walking through the area near my office with my boss, where we passed tiny shacks built on a sloping dirt hill where children played in a ditch or a vacant lot next to goats eating trash. The children were happy, smiling and waving and practicing their English on us. Seeing them made me feel pride in the work of organizations like CRS that work to change bad situations. I can’t wait to begin my work and see more wonderful changes taking place. Perhaps next time I write I will have some interesting stories from the field! Until then, take care and write to me if you have a chance.

-KC

PS Let me know if there is anyone who would like to be added to my email list. I’m sure I haven’t included everyone! And feel free to forward this to any friends or family that would like to read it.

Also, here is a link to Chantal’s pictures. You will be able to see my house, the office in Kampala, and our guard. Enjoy!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=ldz4dpt.apgkn30x&x=0&y=p2nt24

Finally, I met with Nuwa (an artist here that I know through my Aunt Martha). He travels to Wisconsin to teach some classes each year. His studio was amazing! It's in what I can only describe as a village of artists and studios. Unfortunately, most of his work wasn't there because it is at an exposition at the university. Anyway, he is wonderful and I'm excited to see him again and maybe buy some gifts for people back home! (Here, he's showing me the picture that he just took of me!)