Uganda #6

Don't send Stanley after me quite yet...

Apparently, it has been a few weeks since I last sent out an email. I've been getting the "Are you still okay?" type of emails. Have no fear, I'm still alive. I was pretty sick at the beginning of the month, but I didn't even almost die. I just languished for a few days.

Uganda #5 came out at the beginning of July, but I haven't really told anyone what I have been doing all month here. It's been busy, fun, and interesting.

You've all heard the story of how David Livingstone was lost in Africa and most of the world figured he was dead until Henry Stanley went looking for him. It all culminated with the famous line "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Well, on July 1, I was at the American Recreation Association for a picnic put on by the US Embassy (I know, it was Canada Day, but the Canadian Consulate hadn't planned anything). I'm standing there talking to one of the other eMi guys and a former teacher at Heritage International School when a girl walks up to me and asks, "Are you James D---?" Jean was in Uganda for a few weeks and been told to look for me in Uganda by Wilma, a woman who goes to my church at home. Wilma's daughter goes to the church of Jean's brother in New Jersey. So in a country slightly smaller than the state of Oregon with 28,195,174 people, Jean finds me.

This past weekend, I traveled to Hoima, which is about a three hour drive from Kampala. It was a great weekend and I had a blast touring the Anglican diocese there. I traveled with Reverend George Hope who knows many people from the Pittsburgh area, especially at Christ Church at Grove Farm in Sewickley. I had heard a lot about what was happening in the Bunyoro-Kitara Diocese and wanted to see the projects that were going on there. On Thursday, I traveled to Uganda Christian University to meet Hope. I attended the opening convocation for their new students there and met with one of the former education secretaries of the diocese who has been working with me and some others in the USA to get some new textbooks for their schools in the diocese. We traveled to Hoima on Thursday afternoon, delayed by a flat tire and half a dozen police checkpoints that require you to exit the taxi with your luggage. You are then patted down and your bag is searched. About a week ago, there was an armed robbery on Hoima Road and the security has really been stepped up. I remember reading the headline for the robbery, but I didn't read the article. I was wondering why we had so many road blocks and then Hope filled me in on why the security was so tight. There was a taxi stopped on the road coming from Hoima to Kampala. Two armed men told all sixteen people inside the vehicle to strip naked and leave all their clothes and belongings inside the vehicle. Then the gunmen hopped in the taxi and left all the naked people on the side of the road.

On Friday, I attended devotions led by Bishop Kyamanywa and then met with him. I also got to meet Thad Cox, an expat who is living in the diocese. He started a computer school for the diocese and now is a liaison between the diocese and the USA and also oversees some of the building projects. I toured the cathedral there, saw the carpentry shops, the goat meat project, and the Mustard Seed Babies Home. This orphanage really has become a home for the almost 50 children that stay there. It was such a nice place to visit and the kids were a ton of fun to play with.

Saturday morning, Hope and I went out Wambabya Coffee Farm. Driving out to Wambabya was incredibly beautiful. The road we took was through a James Finlay tea plantation and it was gorgeous. The diocese has planted about 50 acres of coffee in Wambabya and sells it in the USA to raise money for the diocese and their social programs. You can by this coffee through Christ Church at Grove Farm. How many people can say that they have been to the farm where their coffee is raised? I also had the chance to ride out to the village where Hope's mother lives. She was very happy that a muzungu had written out to visit her. We had a very nice visit before having lunch at Hope's house. It was wonderful to meet his family and see his place. So after bouncing about 80 km on the back of a motor bike and spending way too many hours packed into a vehicle overloaded with too many people and too much baggage, I returned to Kampala.

It's sad to think that I only have a few weeks left in Uganda. I'm looking forward to being home, but I also think it will be difficult to leave this place. It's full of joy and it is full of frustration. It's an unbelievable paradox.

The days are filled with AutoCAD now. I moved to the office compound about a week ago, so I can now be the ultimate workaholic since my commute has been reduced to a flight of stairs. We really put together an aggressive schedule, but I'm still fairly confident that it's all going to get done before I (and the other interns) leave.

Other Interesting Tidbits and Facts:
- Last night, I set a personal record. In a Toyota Hiace taxi with seats for 15, I was one of 22 adults and 1 baby. Now, I've been up to 20 or 21 before but usually with small children and babies. This was quite the feat. They even had four across in the front seat which is almost never done.
- There are three types of passion fruit in Uganda. In Hoima, there is one about the size of tennis ball and about the same color. It's sweet and tart and is good for juice.
- You know the goat on a stick that I like so much? Locals call it "typhoid on a stick". Good thing I was vaccinated.
- I went to the International Hospital here with an infection that was causing my lymph nodes to swell up painfully. As the doctor was writing me a prescription for an antibiotic he nonchalantly mentioned that I might want to get an HIV test since swollen lymph nodes might be a symptom of that. Then he added that I might have that "disease that guys your age get from kissing girls". I asked if he meant mono and he said, "Yes, that's the one." I ended up just having some type of infection that the antibiotics cleared up.
- A visit to the International Hospital of Kampala only costs 64000 UGX, including antibiotics.
- The highest and lowest points in Uganda are only about 140 km apart.
- I stood in the middle of twenty bee hives and didn't get stung.
- Pineapples don't grow on trees. They grow on spiky little shrubberies.
- More children are dying every day in the DRC right now than in Uganda, Sudan, or anywhere else. But all you hear about is Darfur and "Invisible Children". In fact, more children under the age of 5 die in the DRC every year than in China, with a population 23 times the size. Altogether, UNICEF estimates that 1200 people die every day in the DRC from violence, half of those being kids.
- It costs less than $900 for a semester for a semester at Ugandan Christian University, all fees included. Almost no one in Uganda can afford it.
- Coffee is 55% of Uganda's exports.
- Tapioca is made from cassava.
- Uganda is the largest consumer of alcohol per capita in the world.
- Economic aid to Uganda from the rest of the world is about $1 billion. About $200 million is from the USA.

I have posted quite a few more pictures since Uganda #5:
Album #1: http://gcc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004084&l=95213&id=69100021
Album #2: http://gcc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004301&l=1ea1f&id=6910002

Emails are most welcome. I'd love to hear from you