I am completely surrounded by people. I like people, but it is increasingly difficult to get anything done when your house is full of conversations all day long. I have not written a blog in days owing to the fact that the internet in our house has not been working and we have been in lectures from morning until evening. The lectures have been fantastic. The best of the year. Our lecturers have come from very diverse and interesting backgrounds. The director of the East African Standby Force, the coordinator of the Multi-Country Demobilization, Disarmament and Reintegration program, the head of the World Food Programme for Uganda and other interesting Ugandans with varied perspectives on development and conflict.
One of the most interesting lecturers is our instructor, Phil Lancaster, who currently resides in Victoria. He has been in some of the most interesting war zones and situations on the continent. One of the gems of the week was the statement that “the DDR challenge is one of massive unemployment”. When rebels give up their arms and prepare to go back to their communities we must look at their return primarily as a problem of unemployment and respond accordingly. Otherwise it is very easy for men and boys to return to arms.
We have also been busy preparing ourselves for our field visit this week. Most teams left this morning due to the distances to be traveled, but our team is not going far. We will be traveling to the District of Kayunga, which is primarily an agricultural district that has been neglected by international assistance (or so we think). We will leave tomorrow afternoon and will spend Monday making courtesy calls to local officials and making contacts in the main city. The rest of the week we will be traveling in pairs, one Mak U student and one Canadian, interviewing people in order to accomplish the task before us.
The aim of the Kayunga District field visit is to assess international cooperation in development and peacebuilding programs/projects and how they align with national development objectives and the Millennium Development Goals in order to identify gaps in assistance.
This will be accomplished by reviewing the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of international programs under the themes of social services, livelihood development, land issues and peacebuilding.
I have been blessed with wonderful teammates, both Canadian and Ugandan, and as I am looking at livelihoods and land conflict I should get my agricultural fix. The area is known for vanilla and passion fruit among other crops and fish, so I have my little seed bags ready for collection.
I have learned a lot this past week, both about development and conflict, as well as about myself. I am still not sure how well suited I am to life in a large city, in as much as I do not naturally enjoy its conveniences. I have been eating my meals at the local open-air market, buying chapatti, avocado and tomato. The last two evenings I went out with classmates and ate at expat restaurants. Though the food was delicious, probably the best Indian food I have ever dined on, I could just as easily eat out once a year as once a month or week as the case may be. My three lovely room mates and I made our way home while the rest of the gang went to visit Kampala’s night club scene.
All but three people from our group are heading out to field sites other than Kampala so in order to keep our suite at the University and have a place to store our belongings, rather than dragging them around the country with us, our place has become storage central. Everyone has agreed to pay a share of the room fee to balance out the costs, so it works out well for everyone. Now that everyone has come and gone I am looking forward to a day of quiet, just me and the room full of mosquitoes at present. I will eventually wander out to find an internet cafe and a bite to eat. Today is my mental day which means no taxis, no people, no fancy dining and no one to look after but myself. Rediscovering the introvert within me has made me realize how much I need this every once in a while.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Welcome to Makerere
Saturday afternoon I made my way over to Makerere University with the help of Jeff and found my new 'dorm room' for the week. I am staying with three other women from my program in a two room apartment. It is a very functional place with a small kitchen, living area and two rooms with two single beds in each. We also have internet via an ethernet cable so your computer must be plugged into the cable. This posed a small problem for four blogging/facebooking/student researchers so we reached out to our IT hero for help.
Darren, via skype, hurray for Darren and skype, helped me configure my computer into an ad hoc wireless internet server. All that means is that while my computer is plugged into the internet everyone else gets a wireless signal off of me. It was genius for us non-techies and has given us our own little internet cafe. We are thinking of selling the password to our cohort friends who didn't rent rooms with internet...
Yesterday afternoon we went on a walk of town, eventually finding our way to Garden City, no not Victoria, but the mall I visited with Christine last Thursday. I ate falafel for lunch in the food court. It was absolutely ridiculous. The East African experience is so vastly different from West Africa I am boggled how people can make generalisations about the African continent.
We weren't the brightest people choosing to walk in the heat of the day and I did not use enough sunscreen but it isn't the first time. I spent the evening visiting with students from our cohort as they arrived on campus and enjoyed the last hours of freedom before classes and our project here starts.
This morning is the first day of classes and I have that nervous feeling in my stomach. We have heard that the original plans for the next three weeks have been changed so none of us are too sure what to expect.
The past couple of days I have learned that foreign countries with foreign languages are definitely more fun than countries that speak English. I find that it is easier to connect with people in markets and on the street when you are speaking a different language. It makes the whole experience more challenging too. I am a borderline extrovert. Having spent two days in an estrogen packed apartment I am feeling the need for a little me space but again, this is part of the challenge.
Darren is my hero!
Darren, via skype, hurray for Darren and skype, helped me configure my computer into an ad hoc wireless internet server. All that means is that while my computer is plugged into the internet everyone else gets a wireless signal off of me. It was genius for us non-techies and has given us our own little internet cafe. We are thinking of selling the password to our cohort friends who didn't rent rooms with internet...
Yesterday afternoon we went on a walk of town, eventually finding our way to Garden City, no not Victoria, but the mall I visited with Christine last Thursday. I ate falafel for lunch in the food court. It was absolutely ridiculous. The East African experience is so vastly different from West Africa I am boggled how people can make generalisations about the African continent.
We weren't the brightest people choosing to walk in the heat of the day and I did not use enough sunscreen but it isn't the first time. I spent the evening visiting with students from our cohort as they arrived on campus and enjoyed the last hours of freedom before classes and our project here starts.
This morning is the first day of classes and I have that nervous feeling in my stomach. We have heard that the original plans for the next three weeks have been changed so none of us are too sure what to expect.
The past couple of days I have learned that foreign countries with foreign languages are definitely more fun than countries that speak English. I find that it is easier to connect with people in markets and on the street when you are speaking a different language. It makes the whole experience more challenging too. I am a borderline extrovert. Having spent two days in an estrogen packed apartment I am feeling the need for a little me space but again, this is part of the challenge.
Darren is my hero!
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Kampala
It is a breezy overcast morning here in Kampala, Uganda and rainy season seems to have officially kicked off. I arrived Wednesday after a long three days of airports, plane rides and layovers and have been staying in the home of Jeff and Christine, NSI missionaries here in Kampala.
I was immediately struck by the orderliness of Kampala compared to Yaoundé and how similar Kampala is to Nairobi, though Nairobi has much more of the international city feel with high rises and such. I went shopping with Christine Thursday and was able to access a bank machine, buy a SIM card for my phone and purchase groceries and very reasonable prices. Uganda has a very productive dairy and produces delicious yogurt and milk. I certainly won’t go hungry while I am here. Food here has a heavy East Indian influence owing to their large population in the country, especially before the Amin era. This may also help to explain the over abundance of Jackfruit trees. Just as common as mango trees, every plot and wild space has multiple jackfruit trees growing and the fruits can be found for sale all over the place. I have yet to try one but I am told they are quite low in latex. This is definitely on my list of things to do. I will also have to pocket some seeds for Roy.
The expatriate community is very large here compared to CAR (about 3500) though relatively small compared to Kenya (about 30,000). I attended a bible study Wednesday night with expats who are involved in missions, business and even security operations in Somalia. There is instant community here though I think this would also make it difficult to meet and make friends with Ugandans depending on the job you do here. Kampala has all the perks of the US including dinner parties,pilates classes, golf and coffee shops. It is a completely different lifestyle than that of our little community in CAR.
Living in a large city like Kampala or Nairobi as a development worker, missionary, business person, etc, is certainly a lifestyle choice. It is expensive but less so than London or New York and the climate is much better! All of the houses are gated in with guard dogs and razor wire and I feel trapped behind walls that don’t let you see out or others see in but I suppose this is the point really. My first reaction is that I could live in a place such as this though it wouldn’t be my preference and I think I would enjoy it about as much as I would enjoy living in Toronto or Dallas or LA, which isn’t very much. I am definitely more comfortable and at home in small towns, where things are more open, people come and go and you can walk to the stores and markets. I suppose any of the towns in CAR would serve me well, even perhaps Bangui. What I have discovered about myself n these few days so far is that I would love to visit the big city on occasion, but I am definitely cut out for more rural situations. I think this also satisfies my desire to learn and rely on a second language and to be challenged to find kindred spirits among the local people (which can be a real challenge).
I am so thankful that there are metropolitan-like people,such as Jeff and Christine, who choose to live and enjoy city life in places like Kampala. They and their two boys have a lovely and welcoming home. Christine raises chickens which she slaughters and sells to the expat community and is just starting to raise meat rabbits as well. We need her to come to Gamboula so we can raise our own big fat meat birds as well!
I am heading over to Makerere University today to settle into the guest house and do some pre-reading for the start of classes on Monday. I am very nervous about this residency, as nervous as I was on the first day of classes. We are undertaking a very big project during our three weeks (details to come) and I feel unprepared and totally out of my comfort zone. I suppose it wouldn't be a learning exercise if I knew exactly what I was I doing though, so I guess I am in the right place.
I was immediately struck by the orderliness of Kampala compared to Yaoundé and how similar Kampala is to Nairobi, though Nairobi has much more of the international city feel with high rises and such. I went shopping with Christine Thursday and was able to access a bank machine, buy a SIM card for my phone and purchase groceries and very reasonable prices. Uganda has a very productive dairy and produces delicious yogurt and milk. I certainly won’t go hungry while I am here. Food here has a heavy East Indian influence owing to their large population in the country, especially before the Amin era. This may also help to explain the over abundance of Jackfruit trees. Just as common as mango trees, every plot and wild space has multiple jackfruit trees growing and the fruits can be found for sale all over the place. I have yet to try one but I am told they are quite low in latex. This is definitely on my list of things to do. I will also have to pocket some seeds for Roy.
The expatriate community is very large here compared to CAR (about 3500) though relatively small compared to Kenya (about 30,000). I attended a bible study Wednesday night with expats who are involved in missions, business and even security operations in Somalia. There is instant community here though I think this would also make it difficult to meet and make friends with Ugandans depending on the job you do here. Kampala has all the perks of the US including dinner parties,pilates classes, golf and coffee shops. It is a completely different lifestyle than that of our little community in CAR.
Living in a large city like Kampala or Nairobi as a development worker, missionary, business person, etc, is certainly a lifestyle choice. It is expensive but less so than London or New York and the climate is much better! All of the houses are gated in with guard dogs and razor wire and I feel trapped behind walls that don’t let you see out or others see in but I suppose this is the point really. My first reaction is that I could live in a place such as this though it wouldn’t be my preference and I think I would enjoy it about as much as I would enjoy living in Toronto or Dallas or LA, which isn’t very much. I am definitely more comfortable and at home in small towns, where things are more open, people come and go and you can walk to the stores and markets. I suppose any of the towns in CAR would serve me well, even perhaps Bangui. What I have discovered about myself n these few days so far is that I would love to visit the big city on occasion, but I am definitely cut out for more rural situations. I think this also satisfies my desire to learn and rely on a second language and to be challenged to find kindred spirits among the local people (which can be a real challenge).
I am so thankful that there are metropolitan-like people,such as Jeff and Christine, who choose to live and enjoy city life in places like Kampala. They and their two boys have a lovely and welcoming home. Christine raises chickens which she slaughters and sells to the expat community and is just starting to raise meat rabbits as well. We need her to come to Gamboula so we can raise our own big fat meat birds as well!
I am heading over to Makerere University today to settle into the guest house and do some pre-reading for the start of classes on Monday. I am very nervous about this residency, as nervous as I was on the first day of classes. We are undertaking a very big project during our three weeks (details to come) and I feel unprepared and totally out of my comfort zone. I suppose it wouldn't be a learning exercise if I knew exactly what I was I doing though, so I guess I am in the right place.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Au Revoir
I am off to the airport in ten minutes. My first stop (after several connecting stops) is Kampala, Uganda on Wednesday. I will be attending my last class with RRU along with 19 classmates. We will be assessing Uganda's progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. On May 8 I will fly to Gamboula and be reunited with my friends and family. I will stay until the end of June and will be looking at the progress of the nutrition garden, helping launch the new Agriculture Resource Centre and collecting data for my thesis project.
Along the way I WILL be blogging so stay tuned to hear about my "spoiled for normal" life. (Spoiled for Normal is life lived outside the box, in case you were wondering).
Think about Darren when I am gone. Write him, phone him, feed him. I will miss him as always.
Angela
Along the way I WILL be blogging so stay tuned to hear about my "spoiled for normal" life. (Spoiled for Normal is life lived outside the box, in case you were wondering).
Think about Darren when I am gone. Write him, phone him, feed him. I will miss him as always.
Angela
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