Oli otya mikwano! Greetings from Uganda!
So this past week we were in the Eastern part of Uganda,
right near the border of Kenya which is marked by Mount Elgon. The first night
we stayed in a cool town called Mbale, which was fairly big and had an awesome
view of Mount Elgon on the horizon. During the day I went to an organization
called TASO which is the AIDS Support Organization for Uganda. It was a really
great experience which enhanced the knowledge I had previously gained regarding
HIV/AIDS while I was in Kenya. Unlike popular belief, or at least what I used
to think, people who have contracted HIV don’t become sick extremely quickly
and have to lose all physical ability and hope. The organization does an
awesome job of bringing in HIV positive clients and giving them anti-retroviral
medications that help offset the disease and keep them healthy. We got to talk
to the “drama group” who sing songs in communities and educate rural
populations, and all of them looked and acted extremely healthy despite having
the disease for many years. They told us that at first they had lost all hope,
but after coming to TASO they had learned about their options and that they
could take the medicines and keep themselves healthy to keep living normal,
healthy lives where they can work and live long lives. Also fascinating is the
organization helps pregnant HIV-positive women to give birth to negative
babies. I can’t remember exactly how that’s possible, but I think that’s the
greatest thing ever. So on to that night, we decided to hang out on the roof of
the hotel and look at the stars, and it was one of the greatest moments ever.
I’ve never seen the stars like that in my life, everything was clear enough
that you could see planets and the constellations. Also, you could see Mount
Elgon on the horizon so it was just amazingly beautiful.
The next day we left for a little town called Kapchorwa, an
hour farther east where we would stay for the rest of the week and with our
rural homestay families. The nights we weren’t with our homestay families we
stayed at this awesome little hotel place called Crow’s Nest. It reminded me so
much of summer camp, because all of the buildings (more like cabins) are on the
side of a mountain that overlooks Sipi Falls. We had about 5 people per room,
which 2 sets of bunk beds in each. For showering, you had to walk back up the
hill to this enclosure near the kitchen where the water came straight from the
springs. Every morning here we got to wake up to the sunrise over Sipi Falls,
and eat pancakes and eggs (hallelujah) while looking over the falls and the
mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous. At night there we’d hike past the hotel
cabins up to the top of the mountain and lay down and look at the stars. Again,
I’ve never been so amazed by the stars. You could see absolutely everything,
and the Milky Way was so so so visible and beautiful. The first afternoon there
we also did the hour long hike down to the base of Sipi Falls, and it’s
literally what paradise looks like. The area and the pool at the bottom were
just absolutely beautiful.
For the last four days of the trip we lived in a rural
homestay in pairs, and it was such a fun experience. Although I had expected to
live in the normal grass-thatched huts of the area, we were placed in a pretty
nice home. Our family, including Helen, Michael, and the nephew Immanuel, had
just recently upgraded in the last 3 months to a concrete home from their
previous house with mud walls. They were the greatest hosts ever, they were so
incredibly kind and generous with us and were constantly making sure we were
comfortable. When the dad found out we liked coffee he brought us home like six
jars of Mount Elgon locally-grown coffee, and then at the end gave us some
traditional gifts, including baskets and a beaded gourd. The first afternoon we
got there, we brought them a chicken and a rooster as a gift, and they were so
happy and grateful. Then Jason, my homestay partner, was messing around trying
to catch the chickens when Helen, the mom, was like “you catch that one there
and we will eat it tonight.” We thought she was kidding, but nope! When the
nephew got home a little later he helped Jason catch one then told us to come
over to watch. I really honestly just wanted to look away because of how much I
hate blood but Jason reminded me how much of a “once in a lifetime” experience
this was. So nonetheless I watched Immanuel pin its legs down and stand on them
then lean the chickens neck back and slice it open. The part that was the
grossest to watch was that it didn’t die immediately but still like squirmed
and moved even with the head cut off. So then we boiled the body and then got
to help pluck the feathers out (they come out easier when the skin is hot). A
few hours later, we had the freshest chicken I’ll probably ever have in my life…check
that off the bucket list.
So during the day in the homestay we were supposed to
conduct a research study of our own choice. Our parents paired Jason and I up
with a neighbor to be our translator and guide, and we decided to go with
coffee farming because it seemed a very big aspect of the rural area. I won’t
bore everyone with the details of that, but what was really cool was that we
happened to meet this awesome Ugandan guy named Wilson who is in charge of the
Kapchorwa Commercial Farmers Association that had just finished building this
enormous warehouse, partnered with World Food Programme and USAID. A family
contact got us the interview and we got to go twice to talk to him and walk
around the entire complex, and it was one of the coolest experiences of my
life. To simplify this to be somewhat interesting to readers, the association
built this enormous building and processing station so that local farmers can
raise their livelihoods and increase their agricultural productivity by selling
their maize, wheat, barley, and sorghum to the center where it’s then cleaned,
dried, and packaged. The cool thing then is that the association sells these
huge bags of grains back to the World Food Programme, who then uses them or
gives them out on their projects all over the world. For example, grains bought
from Kapchorwa grown by local farmers may be used in humanitarian assistance
feeding programs in Somalia, etc. Additionally, the association has a huge
contract with Uganda breweries, so the grains used for beer are sold to them.
Wilson pointed out that there’s obviously an endless demand for brewery grains,
so the local farmers have a huge opportunity to expand their farms and produce
greater yields of crops to raise their livelihoods and incomes. Being there was
a great opportunity, because the theme of this whole study abroad program is
development and I think institutions and systems like this are the key to
development in third world countries and beyond. Making use of practical
comparative advantages in order to give rural populations the opportunity to
make a profit and change their situation for themselves, versus outsiders
coming in and trying to change societies to be more Westernized is what I’m
becoming to think is a real, more appropriate solution to these development
issues.
On the way back from the East we got to stop at the source
of the Nile in Jinja, and although not what I expected, was still a really cool
experience. I also got to take a picture with my Terrible Towel, so that was
great.
As for now, this week is our last week in Kampala doing
regular classes and being together as a group. Starting Monday, we all go out
on our own for our practicum periods where we can do internships, research
projects, or both. I’ve decided on a mixture of the two, but it will really
just evolve based on what I’m able to do and find out where I’m at. I finally
got confirmation this morning that I have an internship, and I’m going to be
based in Gulu in the North working on and studying the impact of the PRDP
policy on the area. PRDP is basically the umbrella policy that the national
government created in October 2007 to help with the post-conflict societies of
the North and also bring its development levels up to those of the South (where
Kampala is). So yes for all you KONY 2012 viewers, that’s the region and
subject I’m going to be working in and researching. Like the video states, the
LRA is now out of Uganda but there is still a lot of work to be done. So I’ll
be following the implementation of this PRDP policy and trying to find where
the biggest gaps and failures by the national government are. Additionally, I
hope to look into the effects of these actions on the local populations, mainly
the Acholi people.
On March 21st we had Norbert Mao come and talk to
us at school, which was an AMAZING experience. He is the head of the Democratic
Party here in Uganda, and he ran in the 2011 elections. For clarification,
elections are so ridiculously fake here, it doesn’t matter who’s running or
popular, Museveni’s still going to rig all of it and win by a huge margin.
Anyways….it was obviously super awesome to have him come and talk to us, and I
was so impressed by everything he said. He was a parliament member earlier in
his career representing the Gulu District, which is the area I’ll be based in
for practicum and one of the epicenters of where Kony and the LRA used to
terrorize. So he filled us in on the background of the conflict, the situation
today, and his impression of Invisible Children and the Kony video. It was
really great to hear his views on these topics because he’s clearly an expert,
making his opinions valid and reliable. It was really interesting to learn that
the LRA wasn’t the only guilty side in the decades of war. After Museveni’s
bush war to come to power in 1986, his army was responsible for many deaths
from forcing people into refugee camps and using force to control the volatile
north. This put a new perspective on it, because Museveni wants to frame the
LRA as the only guilty side of the civil war, but he himself was guilty at
times as well. As for KONY 2012, he said that the people in the North are
generally happy that their story has been told. He pointed out that no it’s not
the full story, but we are happy that now the world knows and is educating themselves
about it. He said he had been keeping up with all of the criticisms and to
respond to all of the criticisms that the video frames the conflict like its
still raging in Uganda, he said that there was a “clear graphic explaining that
the LRA had moved out and were now in Central Africa.” I also got chills when
he brought up Jason Russell, the guy who made it, because he had nothing
negative to say about him and said “I think Jason has the most important human
characteristic: compassion.” From a personal standpoint, I think that is so
important to remember when looking at the whole KONY 2012 campaign, because no
the campaign and organization isn’t perfect, but their mission and goals are so
noble and like Mao said, purely compassionate. Equally awesome that he said was
the fact that no Invisible Children’s spending and budgeting isn’t perfect, but
neither is every other NGO or government sector. He said “if you’re going to
hold them to those high standards, you need to do it with everyone else too.”
This is such a true point, because yeah their spending isn’t entirely going to
projects on the ground, but check the UN, WFP, Medecins sans Frontieres, Red
Cross, etc, etc and you’ll find the exact same issues, if not worse.
So in general news it’s an awesome time to be in Uganda. It’s
so politically active and crazy right now, so there’s so many things constantly
going on. Besides the Kony video and the international attention towards it,
there’s been instability with Museveni and national politics. There has been
riots pretty much daily the past two weeks, and here it doesn’t matter what you’re
rioting about the police use tear gas and rubber bullets to stop them. So we
get calls periodically telling us to avoid certain parts of town, and everyday
on the news there’s all this uproar over the latest riot and how the police
beat someone in the streets. Pretty crazy. Also, opposition parliament members
started the petition to get Museveni’s impeachment brought up in Parliament and
that’s caused so much tension and uproar. It won’t happen yet because too many
people are scared of Museveni and what he would do if they turned on him, but
the fact that 53 members have signed it so far and are bringing it up is a good
sign towards political change and challenging accountability and transparency
in the government. So I guess Museveni got nervous this week about all this
challenging of his authority, so on Tuesday the main opposition leader Besigye
got arrested and the city went nuts. He’s on house arrest right now, and it’s
caused all these other issues. We went to Parliament on Thursday (wow, casual)
and we couldn’t meet with one of the guys because he was in an emergency
meeting regarding the opposition being arrested and the riots with it. It just
felt crazy to be in the middle of this going on. Then we got to sit in on the
afternoon session of Parliament and it was AWESOME. They even introduced us
from the balcony and we got to bow to the members. The NRM (Museveni’s party)
sits on one side and all of the opposition sits on the other side, making it an
interesting dynamic. Also a casual sidenote, Museveni’s wife, The First Lady,
was there so we were just sitting 100 meters above her, no big deal.
On a side note, severely missing my heels and friends during
March Madness. This is probably the worst part of this semester to miss, but I’m
trying to manage wakng up at 2 am to watch the games. As for now, tomorrow I
get to go to an engagement party with my homestay family for my last day with
them. It’s a HUGE production here where the girl introduces her fiancée to her
family for the first time (yes first), so it’s a surprise and it’s a huge deal.
My mom made me a traditional dress too so look forward to those pics. Then
Monday I head to Gulu with some friends to start practicum time!! I’m really
excited to start researching and living in a new area, but I am sad to say bye
to people in Kampala for awhile. Hopefully I’ll update soon from Gulu!
xoxo
Jessamy
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