Definitely a different sort of weekend...
I wrote before of my plans for this weekend, and unusually enough (for africa) they stayed the same. Mark and I boarded a bus that we thought was the 6 oclock bus in the bus park at 5:45 am. I was loving the amount of people on the bus right around six cuz it would mean i'd get a whole row to myself, at least for awhile. Sadly the bus didn't leave till 8:30 and we were left sitting on it till it completely filled, or for that matter overfilled. One thing i became painfully aware of this weekend, is the American idea of "personal space" has no meaning here. People pack into painfully close quarters in the effort to make more money, so needless to say the next charter bus i take anywhere i will be hardpressed to find a reason to complain about comfort. Because at lesat there won't be a guy in the aisle sitting next to me taking all my leg space, or some guy standing up in the aisle with his elbow in my face.
So we finally got to a small village outside Kasese called Kibarara. this place is about as "middle of nowhere" as you could possibly get. There is absolutely nothing there except for fields of dead maize stalks, matoke trees, and a house with a tin roof every few miles or so. We arrived there about 4 in the afternoon, or three hours late, and went to see Alan on the worksite. He is the construction manager for an irrigation project that eMi designed for Western Uganda Baptist Theological College, or as we affectionately call it, Wub-t-c. He'll be out there till the day before i leave and so it was good to see him once more before then. There isn't much to do out there besides read and talk, so we all did our fair share of both. Meals there were interesting to say the least. We paid 5,000 shillings a day for a big lunch and dinner. Each meal though, only men were at the table. For example, the first night we ate dinner at Foston's house (the director of teh college) with he and his son Padwin, His wife and daughters were in the kitchen the entire time and only came out to refill the water jug. Then i think they ate whatever it was that we did not eat.
On Saturday Mark and I were determined to climb one of the foothills in front of the mountains, which looked to be very close due to the sheer massiveness. It turned out to be a little further than we thought just to the foothills, and i have no idea how much further it was to the mountains. We started out at 10:00 and got back at 1:00.
Saturday night i was in for a surprise, my stomach started feeling a little weird right before we ate dinner, and then i coudlnt eat very much at all. Afterwards we were about to go to bed and i had to make a few trips to the toilet, i.e. a hole in the ground you squat over. Then eventually I had what looked like food poisoning. Let me tell you, nothing is more depressing than food poisoning (or at least the symptoms) with a squat toilet, it's not fun at all. [forgive me if this is too graphic but i thought it was awesome] So after trying to throw up for about half an hour i think our neighbours heard me and went to get Foston, the head pastor for the college. I was laying down fruitlessly as i had been most of the night because sleep was impossible, and he knocked on the door and asked if he could do anything. I told him all i could think of was to pray, so he came in i stood up and he put his hand on me and began to pray. Probably the instant he put his hand on me i could feel my stomach about to empty and promptly did so when he finished. I just thought that was an awesome blessing from the Lord because i needed to vomit badly. So, Foston, Ngungu, Storiko, and our neighbour Eric brought me medicine, Promethazine to stop vomiting, and Flegella which is apparently for worms. Still not really sure what i have, and i'm not totally well yet, but i'm getting better, and needless to say it was an interesting night.
We woke up at 4:30am to catch the bus to Kampala at 5:30. Man the bus was amazing, we get on and there was practically nobody there. So i ended up with a whole row to myself and sucessfully slept for about 5 hours there and didn't have any GI problems the entire way. Although i definitely wasn't and still am not feeling up to par physically. About two hours before we got back (the bus ride lasted about 8 hours) the bus stopped for a "short call", so naturally after being on the bus so long i had to go. I traversed aroudn a trashpile to do my business and on the way back was accosted by several men who wanted me to pay them for peeing in a no-urination area. One pointed to a sign that was not written in english except for "urineting" yea it wasn't even spelled right and wanted me to pay him since i did something wrong. I refused and kept walking but they tried to block my way. Finally at the entrance to the bus i told him, "look, i'm sorry forgive me!" and pushe dhim aside and boarded the bus, thankfully that was the end of that.
We reached Kampala at about 1 and walked to the taxi park then reached home around 130. I slept till 5 came to the office for dinner, didnt really eat and went home. Last night i slept from 8:30PM to 7:00AM needless to say i needed rest.
I guess this is me asking you guys to pray for health, and also saying, "mom dont' worry, if this persists i will go to the clinic, and if it's really bad the best hospital in Uganda is a five minute drive away."
Here was my view from the shower stall on saturday night before the sun went down.
This is a shot from the top of the "foothill" which was more like a mountain itself, it was probably another 5 or 10 miles to the mountains themselves.
Here is me, dead on the bus...
Pic from the cornfields of the sunset over the mountains...
UT, eat your heart out...
check this out, this article was found on http://www.newvision.co.ug
Thus sad to say, and i can't articulate this as well as James can, but the invisible children campaign is alot of wasted energy. I mean don't get me wrong, they are all well meaning, but I get an email this morning talking about the invisible children global tour 2007, and i'm thinking, "why are they still focusing their efforts toward a problem that is/is being taken care of?" Right now there are 30 IC college student staffers in Uganda and about 30 more on the way, and James points out, "for about $2,000 round trip times 60 people, that's about $60,000 and couldn't that go to accomplishing something more than 60 well meaning, albeit ignorant college students can accomplish?" So, all i'm saying is, and i am guilty this too, before a bunch of college students, or anyone for that matter jumps head long into a cause like this, it woudl do well if they researched it a bit. Couldn't these kids willing to spend all that money work on problems at home? or at the very least on problems in places where they actually exist and where the government isn't actively trying to fix it? If you don't believe me check it out : www.newvision.co.ug
Ok now i'm looking at the IC website and wondering what the people that are over here or are coming will be doing, turns out IC has no idea either:
So basically they want you to come, spend way too much money on a plane ticket and be there for fourteen days to accomplish what, absolutely nothing, not to mention they are taking volunteers for programs which either don't exist or they haven't figured out what to let the people do while they are here.
Or maybe really what needs to happen to inspire the millions of cause-less 18+ kids in america, is for someone else to come along with a well edited, entertaining, documentary that is readily available and in dvd format...
(sorry for they cynicism, some frustrations needed to be vented)
So we finally got to a small village outside Kasese called Kibarara. this place is about as "middle of nowhere" as you could possibly get. There is absolutely nothing there except for fields of dead maize stalks, matoke trees, and a house with a tin roof every few miles or so. We arrived there about 4 in the afternoon, or three hours late, and went to see Alan on the worksite. He is the construction manager for an irrigation project that eMi designed for Western Uganda Baptist Theological College, or as we affectionately call it, Wub-t-c. He'll be out there till the day before i leave and so it was good to see him once more before then. There isn't much to do out there besides read and talk, so we all did our fair share of both. Meals there were interesting to say the least. We paid 5,000 shillings a day for a big lunch and dinner. Each meal though, only men were at the table. For example, the first night we ate dinner at Foston's house (the director of teh college) with he and his son Padwin, His wife and daughters were in the kitchen the entire time and only came out to refill the water jug. Then i think they ate whatever it was that we did not eat.
On Saturday Mark and I were determined to climb one of the foothills in front of the mountains, which looked to be very close due to the sheer massiveness. It turned out to be a little further than we thought just to the foothills, and i have no idea how much further it was to the mountains. We started out at 10:00 and got back at 1:00.
Saturday night i was in for a surprise, my stomach started feeling a little weird right before we ate dinner, and then i coudlnt eat very much at all. Afterwards we were about to go to bed and i had to make a few trips to the toilet, i.e. a hole in the ground you squat over. Then eventually I had what looked like food poisoning. Let me tell you, nothing is more depressing than food poisoning (or at least the symptoms) with a squat toilet, it's not fun at all. [forgive me if this is too graphic but i thought it was awesome] So after trying to throw up for about half an hour i think our neighbours heard me and went to get Foston, the head pastor for the college. I was laying down fruitlessly as i had been most of the night because sleep was impossible, and he knocked on the door and asked if he could do anything. I told him all i could think of was to pray, so he came in i stood up and he put his hand on me and began to pray. Probably the instant he put his hand on me i could feel my stomach about to empty and promptly did so when he finished. I just thought that was an awesome blessing from the Lord because i needed to vomit badly. So, Foston, Ngungu, Storiko, and our neighbour Eric brought me medicine, Promethazine to stop vomiting, and Flegella which is apparently for worms. Still not really sure what i have, and i'm not totally well yet, but i'm getting better, and needless to say it was an interesting night.
We woke up at 4:30am to catch the bus to Kampala at 5:30. Man the bus was amazing, we get on and there was practically nobody there. So i ended up with a whole row to myself and sucessfully slept for about 5 hours there and didn't have any GI problems the entire way. Although i definitely wasn't and still am not feeling up to par physically. About two hours before we got back (the bus ride lasted about 8 hours) the bus stopped for a "short call", so naturally after being on the bus so long i had to go. I traversed aroudn a trashpile to do my business and on the way back was accosted by several men who wanted me to pay them for peeing in a no-urination area. One pointed to a sign that was not written in english except for "urineting" yea it wasn't even spelled right and wanted me to pay him since i did something wrong. I refused and kept walking but they tried to block my way. Finally at the entrance to the bus i told him, "look, i'm sorry forgive me!" and pushe dhim aside and boarded the bus, thankfully that was the end of that.
We reached Kampala at about 1 and walked to the taxi park then reached home around 130. I slept till 5 came to the office for dinner, didnt really eat and went home. Last night i slept from 8:30PM to 7:00AM needless to say i needed rest.
I guess this is me asking you guys to pray for health, and also saying, "mom dont' worry, if this persists i will go to the clinic, and if it's really bad the best hospital in Uganda is a five minute drive away."
Here was my view from the shower stall on saturday night before the sun went down.
This is a shot from the top of the "foothill" which was more like a mountain itself, it was probably another 5 or 10 miles to the mountains themselves.
Here is me, dead on the bus...
Pic from the cornfields of the sunset over the mountains...
UT, eat your heart out...
check this out, this article was found on http://www.newvision.co.ug
Night trekkers fewer Sunday, 16th July, 2006
E-mail article Print article By Chris Ocowun
NUMBERS of night commuting children in Kitgum district have reduced, according to a head count report by UNICEF and other agencies.
The report says as a result, six night commuters’ centres have been closed.
Kitgum RDC Nahaman Ojwee on Thursday said the number of night commuters reduced from over 20,000 in 2002-2003 when there were regular attacks by the LRA rebels in the suburbs of Kitgum town to only 5,164 because the rebels have not attacked the town in three month.
The RDC and the LC5 chairman, John Komakech, said by August, all night commuter centres shall be closed.
“We want to sensitise the parents and the rest of the community around Kitgum town so that they can be prepared to receive their children home, instead of moving every evening to town and yet there is no major security problem now.
“However, partners will continue to give whatever assistance they want to give the children at their homes,” Komakech said.
He said there were cases of prostitution at the night commuters’ cenres, including rape and defilement. He said parents were not even bothered to follow their children to the centres.
“Dismantling of the centres shall be part of the return of IDPs to their homes,” he said. Ojwee said some of the partners were against the idea of closing down the centres because they were reaping from them.
He said such violated the children’s right to parental care.
Thus sad to say, and i can't articulate this as well as James can, but the invisible children campaign is alot of wasted energy. I mean don't get me wrong, they are all well meaning, but I get an email this morning talking about the invisible children global tour 2007, and i'm thinking, "why are they still focusing their efforts toward a problem that is/is being taken care of?" Right now there are 30 IC college student staffers in Uganda and about 30 more on the way, and James points out, "for about $2,000 round trip times 60 people, that's about $60,000 and couldn't that go to accomplishing something more than 60 well meaning, albeit ignorant college students can accomplish?" So, all i'm saying is, and i am guilty this too, before a bunch of college students, or anyone for that matter jumps head long into a cause like this, it woudl do well if they researched it a bit. Couldn't these kids willing to spend all that money work on problems at home? or at the very least on problems in places where they actually exist and where the government isn't actively trying to fix it? If you don't believe me check it out : www.newvision.co.ug
Ok now i'm looking at the IC website and wondering what the people that are over here or are coming will be doing, turns out IC has no idea either:
Volunteer in Uganda
Timeline: Future.
Unpaid.
Although all of our programs are, and need to be run by Ugandans, we are going to need more and more volunteers to go to Uganda and help implement many of our future programs on the ground. These volunteers must be there for a minimum of 14 days. A basic description of your work on the ground is not available yet, because we are still developing these programs and creating partnerships to be able to most effectively use people’s time and talent once they are in Uganda.
So basically they want you to come, spend way too much money on a plane ticket and be there for fourteen days to accomplish what, absolutely nothing, not to mention they are taking volunteers for programs which either don't exist or they haven't figured out what to let the people do while they are here.
Or maybe really what needs to happen to inspire the millions of cause-less 18+ kids in america, is for someone else to come along with a well edited, entertaining, documentary that is readily available and in dvd format...
(sorry for they cynicism, some frustrations needed to be vented)
posted by Kercho at 5:57 PM
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