We had a great tip to southwestern Uganda - the countryside is so green! There are a ton of banana plantations, and the banana plants have these huge green leaves that wave slowly in the wind. In fact,they remind me of elephant ears; did the designer of the elephant take inspiration from the banana plant, or vice versa?
We trained in upcountry style: a small cement room with a cement post in the middle, mosquitoes flitting in and out, and people strewn throughout. As the day went on, plastic water bottles and their wrappers and tops littering the floor, the smell of very ripe bodies. Hole-in-the-floor toilets. But it worked: the young journalists are so excited to have "international" training, and they are bright, energetic people. After our session on election coverage - featuring "voter's voice" coverage rather than candidate's agendas, one reporter came up and positively gushed about how he wrote in one way "without thinking," but now "I am going to really do it!" Who could ask for more?
In our "compelling writing" session, a young woman freelancer (really a stringer) said she would write a feature about a dying river a different way after she saw the lead we had come up with for her story - and she was so excited to know she had the freedom to be creative with it and include actual people affected. Be still my heart.
At dinner at our rather sad hotel (but with admirable pretensions), we had a choice of three side dishes to add to our bony chicken: rice, chips (french fries), matoke (steamed bananas), fried potatoes, Irish (boiled potatoes), chapattis,or spaghetti. I was tempted to order, "Starch, please," but instead ordered rice and chapattis, the latter of which did not actually arrive. Oh, well, that's Uganda! Double rice is okay ... and I could nibble off Bill's chips.
We are happy to be back "home" at Salama after the 5-hour drive over bumpy roads, crammed into the back seat of a truck (a relatively comfy one, however) with computer bags, projectors, and flip charts keeping us company.
Salama promises the connection will be better tomorrow. Hope so, you will get photos then.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Fine furniture "store"
Today as we came home I took a picture of this furniture for sale along the side of the road. Want a four-poster bed? How about a dressing table? Big, fluffy chairs? Right here next to the boda-boda. They are made on the spot, by the way. I'm sure a little dust in the cushions adds to the value.Actually, Ugandans are wonderful woodworkers. Their carvings and inlays, and intricate designs are a tribute to their skill. Not that we can bring any of these pieces home!
Busy times
Sorry we have not been so great about the blog this week. We've been working, working, working. We're doing management training, recalling all our past mistakes and successes for new managers. (One woman came up after the session and said to me, "You can use this on your spouse too!)
There's been a lot going on here at our flat, the center of our universe for now. Last Saturday we had 11 people in here at one time or another, sometimes all at once. The Intel people who were helping out at Eric and Asia's foundation as volunteers all stopped by and that was fun. And the Jennifer, with her journalist guest, came by too. Jennifer wields a mean knife when chopping sugar cane in the kitchen!
And today we walked down to the Italian store/deli (where this Ugandan guy persists in speaking Italian to us, which is incomprehensible given our lack of Italian and his Ugandan accent. It is so funny when he says a cheerful, "Ciao" as we come in. Out of context!) Yes, there is an Italian community here, so we get a few benefits, like olive oil, parmesan and good pasta.
I can't upload photos right now; probably the most frustrating thing here is the Internet connection, especially in the evenings, which is when we want to use it, of course! Tomorrow a.m., I promise. (The next most frustrating thing is the pollution, but more on that later. Cough.)
There's been a lot going on here at our flat, the center of our universe for now. Last Saturday we had 11 people in here at one time or another, sometimes all at once. The Intel people who were helping out at Eric and Asia's foundation as volunteers all stopped by and that was fun. And the Jennifer, with her journalist guest, came by too. Jennifer wields a mean knife when chopping sugar cane in the kitchen!
And today we walked down to the Italian store/deli (where this Ugandan guy persists in speaking Italian to us, which is incomprehensible given our lack of Italian and his Ugandan accent. It is so funny when he says a cheerful, "Ciao" as we come in. Out of context!) Yes, there is an Italian community here, so we get a few benefits, like olive oil, parmesan and good pasta.
I can't upload photos right now; probably the most frustrating thing here is the Internet connection, especially in the evenings, which is when we want to use it, of course! Tomorrow a.m., I promise. (The next most frustrating thing is the pollution, but more on that later. Cough.)
Thursday, October 14, 2010
An event we probably will NOT attend
Our friend Asia tells us the boys involved are usually about 14, or as young as 10 "if they are ready." She saw this once, "and I have no desire to ever see it again." She did say the boys never flinched.
We usually want to attend cultural things in the pursuit of education, but I think we'll pass on this one.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Uh, what was that?
We were in a training session yesterday morning talking about compelling writing with a group of about 25 journalists. One of them went out to get something and came back saying the CEO of the newspaper was making a major announcement to the whole staff. We wondered if some big issue was at hand, until suddenly the CEO burst in on our session, then began to summarily chastise the group.
“You must stop destroying the toilets,” he said. “It is costing too much money!” He proceeded to say that people should stop standing on the toilet seats, and using the centerfold section of the paper as toilet paper. Reporters loudly responded that “outsiders” were coming in and messing up the seats, and sometimes there wasn’t TPin the stalls, etc.
Bill and I stood there, kind of taken off task, so to speak. This CEO is a Big Man in Uganda, very sophisticated and in charge. He huffed out, shaking his head and acknowledging, “For the CEO to have to make an announcement like this …”
Later, I asked a couple of women what this was about. “People do not trust communal toilets,” one said. So apparently they’d rather stand on them, as if in a hole-in-the-ground latrine, instead of sitting down. And the centerfold of the paper? Well, when in need …
Having seen latrines, and having seen some communal toilets here – it’s a toss up. But I am not exactly sitting down these days … And Bill says standing on the seats isn't all that bad.
“You must stop destroying the toilets,” he said. “It is costing too much money!” He proceeded to say that people should stop standing on the toilet seats, and using the centerfold section of the paper as toilet paper. Reporters loudly responded that “outsiders” were coming in and messing up the seats, and sometimes there wasn’t TPin the stalls, etc.
Bill and I stood there, kind of taken off task, so to speak. This CEO is a Big Man in Uganda, very sophisticated and in charge. He huffed out, shaking his head and acknowledging, “For the CEO to have to make an announcement like this …”
Later, I asked a couple of women what this was about. “People do not trust communal toilets,” one said. So apparently they’d rather stand on them, as if in a hole-in-the-ground latrine, instead of sitting down. And the centerfold of the paper? Well, when in need …
Having seen latrines, and having seen some communal toilets here – it’s a toss up. But I am not exactly sitting down these days … And Bill says standing on the seats isn't all that bad.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Back behind the wheel
We’re in luck and can borrow one of son Eric’s Maendeleo Foundation RAV4s for a little while, which means that WE have the adventure of navigating those potholes Theresa wrote about.
It’s fun to be driving in Kampala again, even though it does make you hold your breath at times. Barbara, the top editor at New Vision, assures us the potholes will disappear before long -- because the election is coming up, after all. But they are everywhere now, and there’s nothing even approaching linear driving.
Forget about lanes. Forget about the roadway itself. Everyone picks their own sinuous paths up over the curb onto the dirt sidewalks, into the opposite lane, in makeshift detours to avoid having your car disappear into the bowels of the earth. You regularly head directly at an oncoming vehicle, only to have both turn a bit at the last second and pass, the outside mirrors nearly brushing.
It is pothole choreography: bicycles, boda-boda motorcycles, container trucks, cars, and taxi vans all somehow wind in, around, and nearly through each other. The crawling speed these conditions demand must explain why nobody actually seems to hit anyone else.
The both horrifying and entertaining nature of driving here is just one more of the counterintuitive reasons that, as Theresa said, it is fun to be back. And it continues to surprise us when people welcome us back as friends – not just the people at our apartment, or even the market vendors in our neighborhood, but even the woman in the wine store in the expat neighborhood near the U.S. embassy where we went today to stock up (and to visit the only good meat store in Kampala). She remembered us from three years ago, and was glad to see us again.
That’s true too of the drivers for New Vision, who have always been great friends and provided us a window into a world of ordinary Ugandans. The other day as I was walking up the stairs to the office, I noticed our driver had taken my hand and was holding it loosely as we went along. It’s a relatively common thing here, for men to hold hands in a friendly way; I took it as another form of what people keep saying to us: You are back. You are welcome.
It’s fun to be driving in Kampala again, even though it does make you hold your breath at times. Barbara, the top editor at New Vision, assures us the potholes will disappear before long -- because the election is coming up, after all. But they are everywhere now, and there’s nothing even approaching linear driving.
Forget about lanes. Forget about the roadway itself. Everyone picks their own sinuous paths up over the curb onto the dirt sidewalks, into the opposite lane, in makeshift detours to avoid having your car disappear into the bowels of the earth. You regularly head directly at an oncoming vehicle, only to have both turn a bit at the last second and pass, the outside mirrors nearly brushing.
It is pothole choreography: bicycles, boda-boda motorcycles, container trucks, cars, and taxi vans all somehow wind in, around, and nearly through each other. The crawling speed these conditions demand must explain why nobody actually seems to hit anyone else.
The both horrifying and entertaining nature of driving here is just one more of the counterintuitive reasons that, as Theresa said, it is fun to be back. And it continues to surprise us when people welcome us back as friends – not just the people at our apartment, or even the market vendors in our neighborhood, but even the woman in the wine store in the expat neighborhood near the U.S. embassy where we went today to stock up (and to visit the only good meat store in Kampala). She remembered us from three years ago, and was glad to see us again.
That’s true too of the drivers for New Vision, who have always been great friends and provided us a window into a world of ordinary Ugandans. The other day as I was walking up the stairs to the office, I noticed our driver had taken my hand and was holding it loosely as we went along. It’s a relatively common thing here, for men to hold hands in a friendly way; I took it as another form of what people keep saying to us: You are back. You are welcome.
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