#3 - May 19th 2007

The rollercoaster…

What is it that they say about an idle mind? Perhaps I’m getting confused with some other saying, but what I say is that it is dangerous and leads to less-than-positive thoughts and feelings. Between a busy morning with the ‘Saturday Club’ and an interesting night in downtown Kampala, I had a lazy afternoon which allowed for all sorts of ponderings about why I am here, what I am or should be doing, what my future holds and how this trip is relevant to that, and so on and so forth. I think I underestimated how different this all would be from the life I was used to living in Victoria as a student. There, I was surrounded by friends, and my family was a short drive away. I had control over where I went and what I did, I knew how to get around the city, how to get help if I needed it, and could chose to be independent or reliant depending on my mood. It was easy to ‘get away from it all’ by going for a hike up Mt.Tolmie, or be in the midst of people by planning a big night on the town. Here in Uganda that world ceased to exist.

I realize I’ve only been here for three days but I am completely and utterly dependant on Natalie and Peter. I can barely leave the house without them. Although most people here speak some English, I have yet to decipher the thick Ugandan accent and constantly have to ask for people to repeat themselves. Secondly, I cannot seem to figure out the money thing (big surprise there, it involves math), both because I don’t know which coins are what amount, and I have no idea if I’m paying a reasonable about for things. Thirdly, you can’t just leave the hospital compound where I live and go for a leisurely walk. You exit the compound right onto a busy road with dozens of taxi cars, matatu vans and bodabodas wanting to give you a ride; you must know where to get off because its not like they announce your stop, and road signs are few and far between. Natalie and Peter know the city so well, its completely impressive…I have a lot to learn. I don’t know what the food written on the menus represent so Nat and Peter order for me, and because of the whole money issue I can’t yet get food from the corner stands by myself. Also, I’m not entirely sure how safe it would be for me to go walking around downtown by myself until I get my bearings and can navigate the city, the people, and the ‘economics’ better.

The uncomfortable feeling that settled within me today stemmed from a situation at the Saturday Club this morning. This club is for children ages 3-17 who are HIV positive, in hopes of allowing them to socialize in an environment where they won’t be stigmatized. There were about 30 kids there today; they colored, sang songs, and played on the playground at the hospital. These kids were all far more shy than the African Heart boys, and it took me about an hour to work up a rapport with a few of them, which I did by ‘lending’ them my camera. One of the oldest girls did a solo singing performance and I was totally blown away – amazingly she came up to me after and asked if I could video record her, which I did…hopefully I can place the video on youtube soon. Two things stuck me during my time with these kids. They were asked to draw pictures of how they felt about HIV, and while I was sitting there drawing flowers and trees (I never claimed to be an artist people…) they began drawing coffins and writing things like, “My mom and dad died from AIDS,” and “My sister and I are the only ones left.” I wanted to feel deeply saddened by this, but honestly I feel so far removed from their situation it is impossible for me to understand their experiences and my tears would do little to comfort them. Instead I complimented their meticulous artwork and printing and happily answered their questions about Canada and my family. I tried to give them something positive rather than focus on the negative that they live with everyday. There were some other Mazungus there who were snapping away with their cameras, not even taking a moment to talk to the kids, colour or play with them, or even get close to them. After awhile one of them pulled out a bag of beaded bracelets (only for the girls) and told the children to get in line. The woman then practically demanded that I take pictures of her giving the bracelets out, “because the people who made them needed proof.” I politely declined. She was snappy and demanding of the children and there was a complete lack of compassion or altruism. Thus, you can imagine that for the rest of the day I had a nagging voice in the back of my mind questioning my motivations for coming to Uganda, reminding me that there are right ways and wrong ways to go about ‘helping’ people and that I had better choose the former if I expect to complete this journey in a respectable, decent manner.

Peter’s dad took us to an Indian restaurant for dinner, and boy was it ever ‘ritzy’; moist towelettes before your dinner, your chair tucked in for you, two servers just for your table, the best service I’ve ever had, and quite possibly some of the best food. For those that don’t know, there is quite a large Indian population in Uganda (although former president Idi Amin attempted to curb that trend), and wow, the Ugandans sure knew how to present an Indian dish. Walking home was the…interesting…part of the evening. At least every third person you pass says, “Mazungu, how are you? How is Uganda?” and smiles and waves. No one begs or cat-calls, or yells at all really, although there are hundreds upon hundreds of people lining the streets, lying on blankets, some with very small children sitting with them. Two things got to me. Having spent three day with my very young cousin Lina in the Nederlands before I came to Uganda, I got used to caring for a tiny baby, and realized what a work-load they truly are. Lina was fed and changed several times a day, and although she barely ever fussed or cried, she was still a lot of work for her parents to handle. I saw a mother tonight, homeless with only a blanket under her, breastfeeding a tiny baby on the street. I have no concept of how she even gets through a day. This next thing that I saw may be hard to read. As we walked on past the mother and I tried to deal with that in my mind, we walked up to a small form on the corner of a busy intersection. It was a child no older than 10 months completely alone, eating from a pile of dirt. I couldn’t even react, complete shock. Natalie and Peter looked around for some sign of parents and after about 2 minutes a young boy of maybe seven came over and scooped up the child. A seven year old and a 10 month old, alone on the streets, orphaned or discarded, everyone passing them by without a second thought. How do you even begin to deal with that in your mind? I don’t think you can.

I’m sorry if some of these stories seem difficult to read or seem familiar to things you’ve all heard before, I just think that it helps hearing it from someone you know, someone you can trust is telling you the real truth of the matter. I will tell the good and the bad and let you decide for yourself the problems and potential within Uganda. Although, that said, you will never truly understand until you come here. And even then, that may not even be enough.

~Nicole

May 18th 2007

Jambo! (Swahili for Hello!)

Today I got my first real taste of Kampala. Black fumes, street vendors, honking, four white people and what seemed like millions of Ugandans, languages I couldn’t understand, shouts of “American?” pronounced Amer-E-can, boda-boda’s and taxi vans coming within inches of each other, Ugandans weaving in and out of traffic barely being missed by the vehicles – pure chaos to a Canadian’s eyes, perfectly orchestrated by the Ugandans. The roads are clay-red and pot-holed, and it’s a fight to get up the street whist attempting not to hit other people or get hit by a passing car. Not only do cars come at you from a direction you don’t expect (British system remember) but because all the drivers are speed-demons they are passing on the wrong side. When you cross the road you basically take your life in your hands; if you get stuck between to Matatus and they get too close to squishing you, you have to bang on the side of the car. Lovely. Happened to me twice today.

The city was sticky and hot by mid-afternoon, I would guess 25 degrees with little wind. I came close to grabbing a pair of scissors and chopping off my hair, what was I thinking coming to Uganda with long locks, silly Mazungu (white person)! Most people smile and say Hi or Good Morning, everyone has curious eyes, as of course do I. Just as in any big city in Canada, you see all kinds of people, from the very poor, who lay on blankets on the street, selling old sun-bleached books, pens and bootlegged videos, to business people dressed in nice suits, briefcases in hand. Many women are dressed in beautiful African-patterned outfits, all have their hair and nails done and most wear heals.

Lots of stores sell bottled water, and you can easily hop into any bar and grab a nice cold Nile beer to cool yourself off. I was able to buy a cell phone today (absolutely everyone has one here), which cost me 90000 shillings, about $65 for a new Nokia.

Upon returning from downtown, we had a bit to eat before heading to meet the “African Hearts” boys. A typical meal from a restaurant includes rice with beans and chapati, which resembles a thin pancake, or fries and chicken drumsticks, or matoke (a banana-like paste) with groundnut sauce or goats meat. Corner stores carry more typical Western food, but not a very large variety. Street vendors have goat-kabobs, matoke, passionfruit, oranges and mangoes. Many people sell grasshopper, a yummy treat apparently. I’ll let you know once I’ve become brave enough to try it. So far I’ve enjoyed all the food, and wow is it ever cheap. A person could easily get by on $10/day and be quite satisfied.

Now for the best part of my day. Natalie, Peter and I walked to the place where the African Hearts boys stay. These boys, between the ages of 6-19, are all orphaned and live together under the care of a couple of young adults. I walked down a dirt road to where the boys were warming up their instruments (they have formed a brass band!), and immediately the boys started running up to shake my hand and introduce themselves to me, “Hello, nice to meet you, I am Moses, what is your name?!” It was unlike anything I’ve experienced. All these beautiful faces, all speaking perfect English with thick Ugandan accents, all wildly intelligent, sincere, and truly pleased to meet me. We’ve all heard the stories about the big brown eyes staring up at you, curious, perhaps a little shy, pulling at your shirt, instantly tugging at your heart, drugging up emotions – well, I was not emotional, shockingly. I was surprised. I will be completely honest although it may reveal my naiveté and show some hidden biases, but I could talk to these kids on a level I never imagined would be possible. Their English was fantastic (in many cases more proper than mine), their understanding of the world was expansive, and their familiarity with Western culture almost disturbing. I say disturbing because there are certain things I had hoped wouldn’t take root, such as pop-culture (they decided to call me Nicole Kidman, oh jeeze!).

We had to walk to a nearby school in order for the boys to perform and I instantly had two boys on either side of me holding my hands all the way there, apparently a typical Ugandan thing. Briian on my left is a sweet, soft-spoken 14 year-old who plays the trumpet, and the boy on my left is 19, plays the drums, and is ‘Mr.Slick’, a smooth-talker, extremely smart, already asking if I want to go clubbing (I thought he was 16, and far too much like my brother – Scott, you would have been instant friends!). The boys asked me so many questions; What is Canada like, how big is Victoria, are you religious, what denomination, what did you take in school, what do you want to be in the future, how long are you staying, what do your parents do, what are your siblings like, do you like boxing or play football, what is your favorite football team, and on and on. For two hours at the school we talked and laughed, sang Akon songs, they rubbed my arms and compared our skin, they put on an amazing performance and wowed us completely! Natalie and Peter recorded a demo CD for them and hopefully I’ll be able to send a copy to Canada shortly.

Must get going, talk to you all soon,

~Nicole

#1 – May 17th 2007

Wasuze otya! (Good morning!)

I’ve landed safe and sound after what seemed like quite a long journey! I left Amsterdam on the 16^th, had a very long delay in Nairobi, Kenya, finally landing in Entebbe, Uganda in the late afternoon on the 17^th. I’m quite thankful all the flying is over, I’m not such a huge fan of take-offs/landings (especially when the plane ‘hops’ upon touching the ground, which one inevitably did), nor do I enjoy plane food, mmm mushy, slimy ‘meat-like’ substances…Other than a bumpy landing in Entebbe, the only other interesting occurrence was my being seated next to the previous President of Makerere University! The premier university in Uganda, Makerere is very beautiful (Mr.Shwerer showed me pictures) and had partnerships with many universities in Canada. I have it on my list to visit the university and maybe try to make some contacts there.

Natalie, Peter, and two people from Mengo Hospital picked me up in a Matatu from Entebbe Airport, unfortunately they had to wait three hours because of delays, but as is often assumed, Africans are far more laid back than Westerners, and no one minded a bit. I’ve got to tell you, the driving in Uganda is an entirely different thing that what we refer to as ‘driving’ in Canada. In Victoria, we could probably say 50km/hr with very polite driving manners is fairly typical. Not so much here (small understatement). First off, you drive on the left side of the road, as Uganda was colonized by the British and you still find remnants of this colonization everywhere. Secondly, passing when there is a car coming directly at you is considered normal. There are no stop signs or stop lights, you just sneak in. Yup, just ram your way into traffic basically. Pure insanity is all I can think of to describe it. I couldn’t even watch out the front window. Interestingly, gas is roughly $1.60/lt and the gas stations are constantly out of gas. There are people walking everywhere, more than you can imagine, and also people on little motorized bikes called Boda-bodas, all competing for space on the road. So far as I can tell, the people are lowest on the scale of what to watch out for. The near-misses I’ve witnessed in my first day here is more than I’ve ever seen in Victoria.

Natalie and Peter have it arranged so the three of us are staying in a house together on the Mengo Hospital property in Kampala. If you are interested, Mengo Hospital is pinpointed on Google Earth, you can actually see our place! It is quite cozy, all cement and plain, but still homey; hard to describe, I’ll try to get some pictures. We all have our own separate bedrooms, all quite large, I feel rather spoiled! The bathroom is what you would imagine at a campground, no hot water either, but nothing I can’t get used to! I was completely spoiled in the Nederlands with my family, so now I must acclimatize to this.

To celebrate the first night of our adventure, the three of us as well as a Ugandan friend of Nat and Peters went out to ‘The Ethiopian Village’ downtown. We bargained with a ‘taxi’ driver to get down there, a 15 minute ride for $10 (or its equivalent in Ugandan shillings (1400sc=$1). The food was AMAZING!!! There was an Ethiopian band playing, with an amazing singer (Erin, sounded like that girl of that movie), and we ate with our fingers. After dinner we went to the taxi park to get home, and wow, more craziness. Again, not even a picture will do it justice. Just imagine 400 white vans, thousands of people, all crammed into a tiny park trying to maneuver around each other.

I have no idea what my future holds, what lies ahead – I can barely comprehend what has happened these last few days, and have not yet accepted the fact that I am in Uganda, in Africa, that this is actually happening. Thank you all for your well wishes and encouraging words, that is what has gotten me here, and what will get me through. I can see already that its going to be tough being away from my family, and friends, and that there will be a lot of challenges for me here. I am ready though, it is certainly time.

Talk to you all soon,

Nicole Nelson

ps – for those that are interested, Natalie and Peter’s grassroots organization that I am now working for has a website, www.partnershipsforopportunities.org, and Natalie recently added her photographs from Bwera, which are absolutely stunning.

Interesting tid-bit:

The Commonwealth Meeting is being held here in Uganda in November. The Queen will be visiting and thus they are pumping money into cleaning up the city, but only on the roads the Queen will drive on!! Everywhere along there roads during the day you see hundreds of young men with big axes breaking up dirt and digging ditches to make room for a new sewage system. Interestingly, there are still thousands of Acholi internally displaced people (refugees) in the North coping with the end of a 20 year civil war who see none of that money.