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.

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

The Beauty of CAR

Last summer I received an e-mail from a gentleman in Poland. After reading our blog he wrote about his desire to travel there. He had a keen interest in the CAR and had a lot of questions about traveling logistics and safety. This spring, after many e-mails back and forth, he wrote to say that he had had a wonderful time in CAR and can see why the people and place is firmly rooted in our hearts. While I may have a knack for writing, my new Polish friend has the wonderful gift of photography. I just viewed his on-line gallery of photos and was compelled to share the link with you. It is well worth the 10 or 15 minutes it takes to view them all.

He travelled all the same paths we have and I recognize many of the Ba'aka women in his pictures from Bayanga. His route from Kentzou to Gamboula (our home town) up to Berberati, through Nola and on to Bayanga is one that we are very familiar with and it brought a smile to my face to see how other people view the places that I love.

You can find his gallery at: http://joasia.blogs.com/photos/republika_srodkowej_afryk/index.html

Enjoy the adventure.

The Global Village

I have been doing a tremendous amount of reading for my courses and wanted to share an interesting article with you.

But first...a quick update. I have purchased my tickets and will be leaving for Uganda April 13. I will be spending three weeks in Uganda participating in a consulting exercise which is the capstone/final project of my Masters degree. Following Uganda I will be flying across the Continent to Cameroon where I will hopefully meet up with Darren. We will make our way to CAR where I plan on conducting my thesis research on the nutrition garden. Darren will stay for three weeks and I will stay until the end of June. I have tons to do before then and just sent visa application number one away today. I am feeling swamped and always have that feeling like I should be reading something.

So, the following story has been copied from the UN Millennium Development Goals document "Freedom from Want" found at http://www.un.org/millennium/sg/report/ch2.pdf

I am sure you have heard similar stories in the past. This one distills the world's six billion people to one thousand and gives you a glimpse of how conflict arises out of poverty and as a result of poverty. I hope it helps you in understanding how conflict and food security are linked and why I, as an agriculturalist, am studying human security and peacebuilding.

"Some 150 of the inhabitants live in an affluent area of the village, about 780 in poorer districts. Another 70 or so live in a neighbourhood that is in transition. The average income per person is $6,000 a year, and there are more middle income families than in the past. But just 200 people dispose of 86 per cent of all the wealth, while nearly half of the villagers are eking out an existence on less than $2 per day. Men outnumber women by a small margin, but women make up a majority of those who live in poverty. Adult literacy has been increasing. Still, some 220 villagers— two thirds of them women—are illiterate. Of the 390 inhabitants under 20 years of age, three fourths live in the poorer districts, and many are looking desperately for jobs that do not exist. Fewer than 60 people own a computer and only 24 have access to the Internet. More than half have never made or received a telephone call.

Life expectancy in the affluent district is nearly 78 years, in the poorer areas 64 years—and in the very poorest neighbourhoods a mere 52 years. Each marks an improvement over previous generations, but why do the poorest lag so far behind? Because in their neighbourhoods there is a far higher incidence of infectious diseases and malnutrition, combined with an acute lack of access to safe water, sanitation, health care, adequate housing, education and work. There is no predictable way to keep the peace in this village. Some districts are relatively safe while others are wracked by organized violence.

The village has suffered a growing number of weather-related natural disasters in recent years, including unexpected and severe storms, as well as sudden swings from floods to droughts, while the average temperature is perceptibly warmer. More and more evidence suggests that there is a connection between these two trends, and that warming is related to the kind of fuel, and the quantities of it, that the people and businesses are using. Carbon emissions, the major cause of warming, have quadrupled in the last 50 years. The village’s water table is falling precipitously, and the livelihood of one sixth of the inhabitants is threatened by soil degradation in the surrounding countryside.

Who among us would not wonder how long a village in this state can survive without taking steps to ensure that all its inhabitants can live free from hunger and safe from violence, drinking clean water, breathing clean air, and knowing that their children will have real chances in life? That is the question we have to face in our real world of 6 billion inhabitants."

All wrapped up in cuteness

This is our pretty little puppy (well, she is almost four) Koko. In a moment of weakness we brought her home from Central Africa two years ago and she is capturing hearts all over the place. She is a very mixed breed but some where in there is a bit of Basenje since she has a curly tail and no bark. Yes, no bark. We love her for it too!

The Bosses, December 2008

 

An Update

A long time gone

I have time to write a quick note to say that we are alive, well, slightly overworked and a little bit cold. All in all, we are very well, though we miss our friends around the globe dearly and are especially missing you since it is now two years since we left CAR and one year since we left Florida. I don’t think I will ever know a time when I am not leaving someone loved behind.

Darren has finished classes for the semester and has two exams to write before Christmas. He loves his studies and every week sees more and more how he is being equipped for our eventual return overseas. He is picking up lots of hours at the hospital as well as weekend work at MEC. He returns to school in January and is set to graduate in May 2010 along with me.

I continue to work at MEC (Mountain Equipment Coop) in the cycling department while continuing with my online studies. I have completed nine courses so far and have three more to go before I start my year of thesis work. Time has been flying by. We are hoping that next year, when I am finished classes, we will have a little more time to enjoy the beautiful West Coast. For now, we catch ourselves gazing out the window as we long to be outside but papers and assignments keep us chained to our computers. But this we know will also pass...

Spring will be another busy time as I prepare for field work and Darren balances five computer science courses and work at the hospital. I will be leaving for Uganda in mid-April along with the rest of my class for a three week practical course assessing human security in various regions of Uganda. I have gained a lot of knew knowledge in the field of food security and am so thankful that I have been able to take this time out for valuable studies. Following my time in Uganda I will hopefully be meeting up with Darren in Cameroon for a trip to Gamboula, CAR where I hope to start my thesis work. I will either be looking at food security in the Congo or in CAR and will let you know the details as they firm up. We hope Darren will be able to spend at least two weeks in CAR getting reacquainted with friends and helping fix all the computer problems he can in those few weeks. I will stay in CAR until the end of June and return to North America in July to complete research and start the endless task of writing. It is a good thing I love writing.

It is threatening to snow today which makes it feel a lot more like Christmas. Things will be very simple for us as Darren is working straight through Christmas, including the 25^th, at the hospital so it will be very quiet around the house.

As for CAR, the nutrition garden continues to serve the community and outlying areas, as well as a large number of Fulani refugees from the violence up north. The agroforestry program was closed down this September and 10 employees were laid off due to funding shortages from a combination of factors including the truck accident this summer. Eloi, our chauffeur and my dear brother, will be in court this Monday (most likely) and we will see what the outcome will be. Please pray for all parties involved, for an end to government corruption and for a fair trial. Also, as I write this, CAR is involved in an all inclusive political dialogue in an effort to end the violence in the northern regions of the country. Insecurity in the country has affected one quarter of the population and has led to awful levels of infant/child/mother mortality, hunger and rape. I have been studying the situation in more and more detail as part of my studies and it is heartbreaking. I am more convinced than ever to continue my studies and return to CAR as soon as possible.

To follow the situation in CAR go to http://hdptcar.net

Blessings and Peace be on you,

Ange