The VSO Gang @ Lweza	The trusty Lweza bus	Around Lweza
Around Lweza	Tam @ Lweza	Around Lweza
How Artsy!	Me and my Monkey	Tea Time. 10:30 am
Tammie the antamologist	My Language Class: Matt, Anna, me and Sylvia	Around Lweza
Around Lweza	Around Lweza	Coke is it!
First Aid Class. A mock accident.	First Aid	Me and my cheap new phone.
Web Site creation.	Around Lweza	Tammie and Vix

Sept 21

I had my first local beer today.  I had a Club.  It is a fairly weak lager but I quite enjoyed it to say the least.  So much so that I indulged in a few more.  The other popular beer seems to be the Nile Special but the after taste makes it a little unappealing.  Beer sure is expensive at the pubs here ;)  Works out to about 80 cents per beer…..and they come in bottles the size of pints.  We spent the afternoon down at a local pub called the Vic View, as in view of Lake Victoria.  That is a little bit of false advertising in my mind.  If you go around behind the building you can catch a glimpse of the lake.  I met the bartender.  Very nice. I told him we’d be seeing a lot of him over the next 2 weeks.  His face lit up and he said “Ohhhhhh very good.  I’ll have to go get more beer."  We also met the guard.  Most guards in Uganda have rifles.  Not this guy.  Bow and arrow.  Claimed he could got a dime from 100 yard away.  lol.

Sept. 23

Well, now I know why Jim from the VicView pub said he’d have to go get more beer.  They have a pretty small deep freeze where they keep the beer in the pub and we cleaned them out last night.  Looks like Jim will have to get more beer again.

The VSO Gang @ the Vic View	The VSO Gang @ the Vic View

Kampala

Kampala is absolutely crazy. I can’t really describe it but the real distinguishing features are the traffic and the crowds…..but mainly the traffic.  You have to have nerves of steel and no respect for your vehicle to survive around here.  There is no such thing as traffic lights or any right of way or rules or anything.  The only rule that seems to be in place is the biggest vehicle has the right of way.  Life expectancy is only in the low 40s here and I’d be surprised if at least some part of that didn’t have to do w/ traffic fatalities.  When Tammie wrote me from Kampala she said “Kampala is really just like any other city”.  Well, I’m not sure how many bottles of Waragi she had before writing that but it certainly is not like any other city.  There is fairly decent infrastructure in the banking area of the city and the government buildings are quite nice but this certainly has a third world flavor to it.  There are of course the typical market type areas selling anything from gutted pigs to cow hoofs.  Prices here are insanely low.  A lot of the volunteers have come here without money so they are essentially living as a Ugandan as they are making a Ugandan wage.  For me having had the opportunity to save a little bit will certainly be a nice luxury as your money can go really far here if you stay away from the really touristy things….which I’m sure I won’t. 

The craziest part of Kampala so far has been the taxi park where you catch a Matatu.  Matatus are essentially minivans and they are everywhere!.  It is the primary means of transportation for local and really anyone else who does not own a car....which seems to be everyone.  There is really little order in the taxi park as about 300 vehicles cram themselves into a parking lot.  How they manage to get out once they are loaded w/ people is really beyond me.  I think NASCAR rules apply and I think it is ok to nudge vehicles, motorbikes, people, out of the way in the interests of finding your way out of the park.  I believe that the matatus are supposed to be limited to 14 people but this is NOT regulated as I’ve seen them packed w/ as many as 26 once you get out of the Taxi park.  Livestock IS permitted on the Matatus so that certainly differs from public transit at home. 

Matatu Pic

All in all I think I will be happy in Kampala.  We've already found a couple good outdoor pubs (key to any happiness) and despite being initially freaked out I feel pretty safe here.  Getting in and out (mainly in) will be the most frustrating part as every single road leading into Kampala seems to meet at a single roundabout.  Traffic lights???  What are traffic lights.  I did see one but it certainly looked like it hadn’t been in use in years.

Sept 24

Well, I got to ride in my first Matatu w/ live chickens.  Two little girls got on w/ chickens w/ their feet tied together.  Considering the chickens were about 20 mins from being slaughtered they were remarkably calm the whole ride.  The little girls just sat their, chickens in hand, looking up at me and smiling occasionally saying “Hello mazungu”.

Ping Pong

I got to play some ping pong today.  Had a decent game against a guy headed to Kibale named Cory and then got I schooled by a Brit named Matt.  He was good…but beatable J.  Matt and his partner Anna  will be in Kampala and he is a big football fan so I reckon we will hook up to watch some of the European Championships.  The locals follow it closely.  I guess the British Premiership has really taken over in terms of popularity over any of the other Euro Leagues.  The Ugandan league is so riddled with corruption it's silly. Recently, a match ended 26-1 and an inquiry into Ugandan football was launched.  So far one player, a keeper, who was to testify has died mysteriously and a member of the inquiry panel has now also died mysteriously.  Pretty sad.  Yesterday every place in Kampala that had a TV was about 5 times over capacity to watch Man U play Arsenal.  We were in the front seat of a Matatu and the game was being called over the radio in the local language.  You could almost follow the game but not quite.  It sounds like the people calling the game have a few drinks while they are working cause they seem to have a great time and frequently break into laughter. It sounds something like this “boun. ni god, entall, masou, staig,……Michael Owen,…. OWEN…..OWEN!!!  A BOWWWE!!!!!!  ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha”  Quite entertaining.

Matt and Craig battling it out	...still battling	....and again

Adverting is interesting in Uganda.  While there are many billboards around they also use the sides of any of the buildings that are still standing and paint their advert on the front of the building.  You see everything from Color your world to the international giant Coca Cola.  Which by the way is amazing.  Is there anywhere in the world you can't buy a coke???

Infrastructure

It is sad how many half buildings there are.  Clearly a sign of a country still in the recovery process of a tumultuous past.  I can never tell if they are have built or half torn down.  I know that a lot of times a building get started and the money dries up so they never get finished.  But some of the places look like they have been decimated WW II style.  A lot of the buildings have steel rods sticking out of the roofs.  I guess they just don’t bother to size them for the height of the building and just let them stick out3-5 feet.  It gives the appearance that the top half of the building has just been ripped off and taken away.  Seems to make for a good place for people to dry their laundry I guess.

Locals

It is quite amusing how the locals really want to please you.  I've had a couple experiences where I go into a store and ask for something and they say "just a minute".  Then they run out of the store.  I'm thinking where did they go????  A minute later they come back with what I want, I pay and then leave a little confused. Well, I figured out that they don't have the product so they run across the street and buy it from their neighbor then run back and sell it to me.  Once after this happened I went across the street to check the price and there was no markup,  How do they make money???  I guess they just really don't want me to go to the neighbors store.

First Aid

We’re doing first aid training at Lweza.  The training has helped to highlight some of the things they look at differently here.  We learned how to deal w/ Lower Body  fractures and spinal fractures.  At the conclusion our instructor…a local doctor…says to us “You see, Spinal fractures you must be very very careful….not like lower body fractures where you can play around w/ the leg a bit…you can always cut off the leg and still be alive.”  I think they amputate a lot here because that was the solution to a large number of illnesses J

Sept 25

I lost to Mat again in ping pong.  Damn Brits!   Had a good chat w/ him about Zanzibar in Tanzania and he has me convinced to do my P.A.D.I certification there.  A little pricey but why not.  I love the ocean and I ain’t getting any younger.

P.D.A

Public displays of affection are very different here.  Men and women who are together do not touch in public.  Ever!!  Men and women who are friends often hold holds.  Two men who are friends  will walk around holding hands.  Or just stand and talk holding hands.  Needless to say the first time this happened to me I got a little spooked.  Also when you shake someone's hand they will often not let go for about 5 mins....so you just stand there talking...and  holding hands....and talking....and holding hands....and holding more.

Acceptance

It is funny how quickly you become adapted to things here and change you attitudes.  In our Culture Training sessions one of the guys who was teaching ( a Ugandan names Robert) was trying to explain how we needed to all be a little more laid back.  He was saying the us Mazungus are always in too much of a rush.  He said” If you need to work in a room and there are no chairs…do not worry!  The chairs will come!  And if they don’t?  Don’t worry!  You can sit on the floor.  Enjoy Uganda”.  It really is their attitude to just make do w/ whatever you have.  Even at the VSO office where they have a volleyball net and a really nice grounds.  Someone fetched the volleyball and brought it out and threw it to me.  I looked at it and thought to myself…you have GOT to be kidding me!  The things had less air than a rock.  But….that’s all they had, so before long we were having a nice competitive match w/ this limp volleyball.  And another thing here is that it’s not always a matter of “if you have money just buy another one”.  It’s quite hard to find a volleyball here.   You can’t just pop out and pick one up at the local sport mart.   The next day was even worse, the volleyball was lost so someone brought out the football (soccer ball).  Once again I said….”you have got to be kidding me”…but before long we had a decent volleyball game going w/ quite possibly the heaviest volleyball ever used.

VBall at Lweza

Makindye: Hospice Africa

I saw my place of employment today.  It is at Hospice Africa.  It is in a Kampala suburb.  It is on an enclosed and secured compound.  There are four buildings of modest size and the grounds are beautiful.  Nice grassy area and fantastic palm trees everywhere.  I got a tour on a Sunday which was nice because there were only a few people around.  By the looks of things they have about 15 computers in total with a fairly decent network setup.  They have many many tasks on their task list already for me and I am very excited about starting.  It looks like it will be a combination of a lot of things including sysadmin, database creation (looking forward to that one), pc support, and trying to come up w/ some sort of affordable redundancy for their network.  The last task will be a challenge because as with any NGO funding is a real problem for them.  So all in all it looks like a fantastic place to work….but time will tell.

We also got treated to a little slice of luxury on our trip.  Across the street from the compound is a place called The American Club.  It kinda looks like a dive from the outside but when you walk through that front gate it is like you stepped through a portal out of Africa and into a 5 star Cuban resort.  VERY nice.  We (me Tammie, Matt, and Anna) spent the afternoon drinking beer by the pool and taking in our escapism to the fullest.  I also had cheeseburger!!!!  You have no idea how good that tasted.  An instead of the fluorescent Top Up Sauce found most everywhere else.....Heinz Ketchup!!!!!   It's the little things like that that get you through.  Anyways, they have 2 tennis courts, a pool, a fantastic Banda, and a fairly sophisticated gym, volleyball, racquetball blah blah blah.  The prices are fair and I am really  thinking I will get a membership there.  It seems all the volunteers from hospice has one.  There is something about it that doesn’t quite site right w/ me though.  It is VERY posh and I’m a little worried about what it might say to the Ugandans I work w/.  Maybe I just hate the name American Club J . But there is something not cool about a members only club.  I’ll have to figure out if I think it is something I will want.  The idea of working out after work is very appealing.  I think I will try to eat at the local places if I join so I’m still putting money into the local economy and I may just use the facilities.  Like I said there is something that doesn’t totally sit right w/ me but then again….I'm not a local….I’m a westerner.  We’ll see how it plays out.

Makindye: My town	Makindye: Hospice is at the end of road	American Club
Pool at the Club	Tammie and Anna at the club	Hospice Africa Compound
Hospice Compound	Where my office will be

Sept 27

Finally beat Matt in ping pong today!!!  And the flood gates opened. I found a weakness in his game and exploited it all afternoon.  Quite satisfying really.  I only say this because I wasn't really enjoying having my ass kicked every single day I was here!

Slow Boat

The definition of the Slow Boat in the lonely planet is this "A place to sit, enjoy a beer, and watch the daily happenings of Kampala roll by". Well we managed to achieve just that.  After walking around Kampala for most of the morning we settled into the Slow Boat around 2 to catch the Liverpool – Charlton match.  I think they have a thing for underdogs here because the locals go crazy when ever the underdog team scores.  After a couple Club beers I got up the courage to try flying ants.  Peter had bought them from the market earlier.  I wouldn't say they were bad….but I certainly wouldn’t say they were good either.  The Slow boat has sort of become VSOs version of cheers.  It seems that at any point in the day you can wander by the slow boat for a beer and find someone you know there.  It is weird being there sometimes, not because often you are the only Muzungu but because of the way the staff treats you.  When the football matches are on there is usually a cover of about 1-2 thousand shillings.  There is also often a lineup yet they always wave us through and won't take money for cover.  The people probably most cable of paying are not made to.  A little odd.

After a long afternoon at the Slowboat Tammie and I decided we had gone far too long without a good pasta meal.  I usually don't go 24 hours without pasta so 1 week was far too long so we tracked down an Italian Restaurant on the other side of Kampala at a hotel called the Equatorial.  After hiking all the way there we found the restaurant to be closed....forever.  There was however a relatively cheap restaurant w/ a local band playing in the courtyard.  They did mostly African style music but they did a couple other tunes as well.  They did a particularly poor version of “God is watching us”, and I tell you if god was watching this he wouldn’t have been to happy w/ the way it sounded.  But we had a good cheese burger and it was pretty entertaining.  Crashed pretty hard when I got back home

Newspaper articles.

The local papers are a source of endless entertainment and seem to capture some of the craziness of this place.  For example, today I read a story about in a small village down south the town mayor had double booked the town hall for both the Born Again Christian Group and for the Mango, the Local Cell phone company, kick off party.  Instead of working things out between them they both moved their PA systems into the hall and tried to have their parties at the same time.  The Christian group was blaring Christian tunes liek "God Saves All" and the cell phone company blaring songs like “There is no beer in heaven”.  Needless to say a small brawl broke out and both parties fell apart.

I'm going to start to save clippings from the paper because they are a riot to read.  THe section in the New Vision called Crazy Crazy Kampala is priceless.

Sept 28

I think one of the things that is tough to get used to here is the fact that rules/laws seem to be a bit of a moving target.  You get to the point where you just have to laugh at it or you go crazy.  VSO helped us set up a Ugandan bank account and as with any other bank account they wanted a minimum deposit to set the account up.  The person two people in front of me was told 25,000 shillings.  Ok.  Then the person in front of me was made to pay 50,000 shillings.  OK.  When I got to the front I asked what the minimum was as I was a little confused.  She gave me a good look over and said “500,000 Shillings”.  I told her that the last two people were only made to deposit 25,000 and 50,000 respectively.  She looked me over again and said “500,000”.  Whatever.  I filled out the paper work but then forgot to give her my deposit and she ended up opening the account for me with no deposit at all.

Another somewhat entertaining example of this is when we played in a NGO vball bbq tourney at the OXFAM office.  This had the look of a very well organized tourney.  But I tell you….the fix was in right from the start :)  One point using your feet was allowed.  The next point it wasn’t.  One point using your head was allowed, the next it wasn’t.  The OXFAM team put their best player in power and left their from row in place the whole match.  But the best came on the final 3 deciding points for our match when the ball headed about 10 feet out, hit a tree and ricocheted on about 3 branches only to fall on our side.   Point!!!  Oh well.  They gave us free beer and I met some pretty funny locals.  They thought I played on the Canadian National Max Fun Team as I was wearing a max fun visor and tank top.

After the vball we decided to pass on heading back to the compound and we headed out for Ethiopian food.  I really think I have never tasted anything so good in my life!  Ugandan food has been fine and it is not too risky or out there but it is just really really bland.  A lot of rice and beans and Matoke (don't recommend it....sorry for any Ugandan that hears that) When I put the first bite of Ethiopian food in my mouth my taste buds went off.  We had a great meal and a few drinks with the grand total coming to about 6 bucks!  I spend that on my Mama Burger and Small Poutine at A&W!!  I certainly like how far your money goes here.

There is a little bar district just down the road from the Ethiopian restaurant.  The bars are SO close together that if there is any kind of a quiet part in your host bar’s music it is overpowered by the next bar.  It is a little odd to be in African and to hear Britney, Eminen, and Nickleback all blaring from competing bars at the same time.  Hearing rock music from home is rare but anything else is very very popular.  In the pub, one of the locals came up to me and said to me “give me your money and I’ll give you my cigarettes”.  I said, “sorry I don’t smoke”…and he said back to me “well then just give me your money”.  I thought "Of great, my first mugging and I have all my cash on me".  But after an awkward pause he started laughing and said “you’re funny muzungu. You’re most welcome in Uganda!”.  He introduced me to his friends and I told them my name.  They asked what my family name was.  When I told them it was Whitehead they literally hit the floor laughing.  Felt like grade 3 again.  Anyways, I tried a cool drink.  The Ugandans brew something called Waragi.  It is similar to a gin but you can get it undistilled and it will apparently make you blind.  In the bars you can buy a bottle of it.  When mixed w/ Krest it is quite good and certainly a really cheap way of having a couple cocktails. 

By the time we decided to head home we ended up having to pile 7 people into a Special Hire (this is your traditional North American taxi only the prices are fixed and are not metered).  We arrived so late that all the gates were locked and we feared that the dogs were already out.  We had heard a lot about the ferocity of these guard dogs so we were a little cautious w/ regards to jumping the fence….but it was after one in the morn and no one seemed to be responding to our calls so Matt and I jumped the fence.  Well within about 5 seconds the dogs were on us.  However, there was a little bit of false advertising in terms of the viciousness of the dogs as they playfully danced around Matt.  The guard heard the commotion finally and “escorted” us back to our rooms.

Champions!! (last year)	VSO vs Amnesty International	THe VSO team...and their fans
Tammie and Purnima	Craig and Tam at Vball Tourney	VBall action
Dinner at the Ethiopian village...SO GOOD!!	Dinner at the Ethiopian village	Drinks at "Punchlines"

Sept 29

Jinga (Source of the Nile)

Morning came far too early and a few members of the gang (ahem...Tammie) were a little under the weather.  All 26 of the group got rounded up and we headed to Jinja where we would see the source of the Nile and also get a good look at the class 5 rapids where we would be river rafting in the coming months.  The rapids at Bujagali falls were impressive.  I’d seen pictures but once again pictures don’t really cut it.  We also got to take a long boat and cruise around the area where Lake Victoria feeds the Nile.  The Nile was massive and flowing pretty good as well.  There were lots of local fisherman out making the daily catch.  Traveling in a group of 26 is a little trying sometimes and I’m glad when I’m set free in Uganda on my own I’ll be in a much smaller group.  It is absolutely nothing to do w/ this group.  I think that everyone might bet getting a little ancy to get to their placement by now.

At around 2 o'clock  VSO took us to the Jinja Nile which is a 4 star resort overlooking the Nile.  We had an absolutely amazing buffet lunch.  After that it was time for a swim, a beer in the swim up bar (just cause I could), and a much deserved nap. I’d been working far too hard.

Sign ENtering Bujagali Falls. Proposed Damn will wipe out falls.	Bujagali Falls	Tam at Bujagali Falls
Bujagali Falls	Bujagali Falls	Jinga Nile Resort. Steve, Rag, and Craig
Pool @ Jinja Nile Resort	View from the pool deck at Jinja Nile Resort	Tam @ Jinja Nile Resort
	Pool @ Jinja Nile Resort. Tammie, Rag, Matt and Anna	Pool @ Jinja Nile Resort
Just cause I could!	Pool @ Jinja Nile Resort	Sleepy Time. Someone had too many Clubs the night before!
Sour ce of the MightyNile	Boat ride around the source	Source of the Nile
Source of the Nile	Me @ Source of the Nile	Boat Trip
On small island where Lake Victoria feeds the Nile	The Gang on the boat

Language Lessons

One of the best parts of ICT (In Country Training) has been the language lessons.  Luganda is a fairly easy language as there are no really difficult sounds to make so it is simply a matter of learning the language.   By the end of training I should be able to make simple conversation.  I try it out on Jim, the bartender at the VicView.  He seems to get quite a kick out of it.  Matt has picked it up really quickly.

Oranges are green here.  Mango, the cook at Lweza, thought it was about the funniest thing he'd heard when he found out that oranges are actually orange in Canada.

VBall Frustrations (joking)

I can handle playing volleyball with a deflated ball, or with a soccer ball but the most frustrating part about playing volleyball with all these Europeans is they just can’t seem to smother the urge to kick the ball all the time :)  It has touched w/ their feet more than their hands I swear.  I guess it’s all the football in them but it is ridiculous.  When someone goes to fetch the ball after it goes out I reckon it takes about 3 times as long to get play going again because someone ends up booting the ball three times farther away than it originally started!  No wonder all the good players are from South America :)

Orphanage

Some of the VSO gang made friends with a Ugandan who runs an orphanage.  They persuaded him to have the kids come perform for the VSO group and he persuaded them to cough up a handful of money to the orphanage.  No one minded as the cause was good.  The group was good and they did about 3 songs w/ dancing for us.  After the show we got to bang on the drums ourselves for a while which was cool.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Tammie and I decided, after a long day shopping for my place to indulge ourselves in a movie.  I was also curious to see what a theatre in Africa was like. Well, almost to my disappointment the theatre was amazing.  It was stadium style w/ great sound and great picture.  The popcorn was not so great but I was quite impressed I could eat popcorn and watch a movie in Uganda.  We checked out Pirates of the Caribbean and I thought it was great.  The not so great part came at the end of the movie.  As the credits rolled up after the movie I thought to myself "Man I can't even remember where I parked".  As this is not a situation I am entirely unfamiliar w/ I didn't really think too much of it.  but then I thought, I can't even remember what parking lot I'm in....or what theatre we're at.  Then I hit me.  I didn't drive at all.....and I'm not in Vancouver at all....and I and NOT heading home to my nice apartment with a view of the mountains.  I'm in Africa!!!  I looked over at Tammie and could tell she was thinking the same thing.  The feeling was quite depressing really.  I had the rest of my night planned out.  I was going to go home and watch the sports highlights, eat some frozen pasta and then crash.  So it was like waking up from a crazy dream, only I was already awake.  Now, as i quickly realized, I was going to go home to a house with no water or electricity, crawl under my mosquito net...and sleep as long as I could until the first rooster woke me up.  I wouldn't say I was homesick...but there was certainly a feeling of longing.  On the way back to the taxi park we talked about home a lot and about what we did and didn't miss.

Smoking

Hardly anyone in Uganda smokes....except the Brits...and they all seem to smoke :)

Navy Pool game w/ matt and Anna

We went back to the club district in Moyenga again last night.  I introduced Matt and Anna to the navy pool game where you end up running around the table trying to "kill" the other players by putting their cue ball in any of the pockets.  In any other bar in any other country we would have been "removed" but not here.  We stopped ordering drinks about 2 hours before we left and as far as I could see the staff was dying to close the bar but we all ran around the table like crazy muzungu's for an extra 2 hours without paying for anything or really giving the staff any reason to indulge us.  I think they were entertained at the start but the circus had to get tiring eventually.  Oh well.

Hospice/Makindye

So I've finally moved into my place in Makindye.  Luckily for me, Michelle, another Hospice employee, has invited me to live w/ her instead of staying at the guest house at Hospice.  Michelle has been in Uganda for about 3 years.  She is a Brit and possibly the nicest person on the planet.  Our place is great.  It is big, it has power, water (only cold) and even has a view.  My room is huge! And the double bed is a nice change from the mini beds in Lweza.  The place is furnished and I really won't have to buy anything.  We also have a fridge!!  A nice luxury for VSO Volunteers.

Makindye is nice.  It is only about ten mins from Kampala city centre but feels a a lot further.  Is really just one road and is fairly quite.  There is a little market as well as a small general store and a pub owned by a muzungu from Arizona.  Our place is up a long hill that is a little sketchy to walk at night as the nearest street light is about 400 meters away.  The hill is certainly going to keep me in shape if I walk it 2 times a day.

Michelle employs 3 locals.  She only knows what 2 of them do.  Remember what I said about her being the nicest person in the world.  Other hospice workers have told me that my job over the next 3 months is to figure out what Joseph does. Michelle thinks he is the gardener but she is not sure.  She also employs George who is the night guard and Juliet.  Juliet....is an angle.  She does everything for us.  So does all the housework, the dishes, the laundry, the ironing (if you looked at my pants from the side you wouldn't see them they are so flat when she is done with them), the sweeping (if I walk across the kitchen my foot prints are swept up by the time I get back).  And Juliet makes us incredible fruit salad.  Having someone in this position is really hard to get used to as you feel like they are....well....your servant.  And coming to a strange place and having money and being white (everyone seems to assume you are very wealthy) this is very awkward at the start.  Your first impression might even be that this is borderline slave labor.  But I think that might be a little short sighted and in talking to many of the locals it is actually frowned upon to have the means to employ someone and to not....and this is really another sector of local employment.  Overtime you see it for what it is...a job for someone that might not have one should you not employ them.  I am not sure what will happen to Juliet when we leave as we both leave in March.  Hopefully someone else will move in and continue to employ her as she is great.  I had no idea the extent of the job she would do for us.  My first night I had left my room in a complete state of disarray....clothes all over the place books and cds on the floor and bed, which of course was not made up.  When I came home from work I was more than a little shocked to see the bed made, my cds and books nicely organized, all the clothes that were previously on the floor washed and ironed and hung in my closet.  Like I said she is an angel. 

Hospice is great.  I think I've lucked out w. my job.  The people are great and the network is something that I can certainly work w.  I've already heard stories of people (and these are very typical for volunteers in 3rd world countries) that have spent their first week of work staring at the wall in their office wondering what they are their for.  In some situations there is no power let alone computers to work on.  Not me, in the first day I had no less than three fires to put out.  I am certainly hoping I'm not going to be spending the bulk of my time troubleshooting pcs.  I'm much more interested in developing the infrastructure or database design but at least I'm busy.  Also, I have internet access (most days)....so I can catch up on my Canuck news!!

As great as Hospice is there are certainly going to be challenges.  I needed a XP cd the other day and it was missing. Once it was found the license key was missing. Once I got that I found out it was pirated and could put any service packs on. It quickly got infected with viruses and had to be rebuilt again.  I had to open up a machine the other day.  What are the chance s there is a screwdriver anywhere in the premises?? Slim to none.

Anyways, my job will mostly consist of PC troubleshooting, database design and implementation, and training of Harriet, the local IT employee.  Harriet seems to have done a nice job of their network so far and will be good to work with.

AIDS

There are many challenges facing a developing country such as Uganda.  In Uganda's case the biggest problem over the last 40 years has been maintaining peace, as there is no such thing as development during war.  The last decade has been relatively stable and now possibly the biggest challenge is the AIDS epidemic.  I knew this was a problem upon coming here but didn't really have a complete grasp of the social significance of the problem.  Uganda, to its credit, has made decent progress w regards to AIDS.  However the problem is still huge.  The trickle down effects of the disease is felt everywhere.  Often one or many parents die young resulting in child run households.  Needless to say these children never have the opportunity for proper education thereby limiting their potential at an early age.  Orphaned children are often taken in by family and neighbors stressing an already fragile economic situation.  The prevalence rate in Uganda has dropped significantly over the last 5 years however skeptics believe this is due to the fact that only pregnant women in the Kampala region are used for these statistics.  The is certainly a healthy AIDS awareness in Uganda but realistically there is no way of really knowing what the prevalence is in this country.

Cooking

VSO organized a major cook off where the volunteers make their first trip to the market...buy all the food and then cook for their prospective employers.  It was a great time but needless to say only about 3 employers showed up for the feast.  Would you?

The Gang	The Gang	Vix and James
Cory and Purnima	My Feast!! Vegatble Curry (the meat was too scary!)	Football w/ the kids

 

Oct 9th

Lake Bunyoni Trip

October 9th is Independence day in Uganda. 41 years since the British gave up their control of Uganda.  While independence from colonial rule is definitely regarded as a good thing the last 41 years have certainly not been a cake walk for Ugandans as they are still feeling the effects of the Idi Amin regime.  It is unfortunate how long it will take to rebuild after such destruction.  Tribal conflicts at the time of independence set the framework for an instable 40 years.

So, as a result of Independence day we turned it into a long long weekend and a group of VSOs had planned to head down south to Lake Bunyoni.  In the end it turned out to be just me that felt settled enough to make the trip down.  I took Friday off work to make it a 4 day weekend.  The plan was to spend one night in Tammie's 1 road town and then head to Lake Bunyoni in the morning.  So at the crack of dawn I headed for the bus park.  I was quickly corralled into a smaller bus, assured that this would be the quickest way to Ntungamo.  Well, that was the understatement of the century.  The trip should take about 4 hours.  It took me 9.  Buses here have no concept of a schedule.  The word doesn't exist.  They leave when the bus is full and not a moment sooner so I spent the first 90 minutes of my commute not commuting at all.....just sitting there.  We finally hit the road and about an hour into the trip the bus overheated.  Finally we got going and made our way to Mbarara.  As we pulled into Mbarara I checked out one of the big buses on the side of the road that was pulled over changes it's tires.  I thought to myself "well at least that's not my bus".  No sooner do I finish the thought than we pull over and what happens.  The bus gets jacked up and the drivers and almost everyone else in the town for that matter started working on the wheel well of this bus.  It took 2 hours in the sweltering heat for this to be fixed.  Oh well, the chairs will come!  The drivers kept looking at me and smiling and saying "Don't worry Muzungu. I am working hard for you" :)

Tammie's place was nice.  She has a little 3 bedroom house.  She has 2 more bedrooms than there are roads in her town.  It is a nice town but I felt the Muzungu craze even worse here as white people are even less frequent here.  I knew this and was prepared for the mobbing I got when getting off the bus and didn't really mind.  I think I am more suited to Kampala where there is more to do and more people to do it w/, but I have to say Tammie has a million dollar view of the rolling hills in southern Uganda.  We went out to a local "pub" if you could call it that.  As usual there were no women and no white people.  when we entered the building it was like one of those scenes in the movies where the record player  stops and everyone stares at you.  Luckily Tammie's boss was there so he welcomed us in and he promptly whipped me in ping pong.  At around 10 the place turned into a full fledged club.  Guys dance with guys here.  Sort of like girls go out and dance with girl at home.  So there was a club full of guys showing off to each other...with the only two women in the bar being Tammie and the waitress.

The next morning we were off to Kabale.  The number 1 reason to visit Kabale?  CHEEEEEEEESE!!!!!! I kilo of cheese for 7,000 (that is cheap!!!).  And....they have Macaroni and Cheese in a can at the store there.  I love Kabale!!   Other than that Kabale is "COLD".  Hah!  This is what all Ugandans tell me because it is in the mountains.  It is still sweltering.  The other distinguishing thing about Kablae is it is Ugandans version of Holland.   90% of the people there seem to be on Bikes.

Kabale Pic

It is a 15 minute special taxi to Lake Bunyoni through a very hilly region.  Camp Overland is the most popular place to stay and was quite cool.  This was luxury camping for about 2.50 per night.  We set up the tent beside the lake.  The rains have started so there is a sheltered area where you can set up but we decided to brave the storms.  Camp Overland has showers, boats, a restaurant bar, satellite, pool table and anything else you would need.  Luxury camping.

And....you can swim in the lakes.  The only reason you can swim in this lake is because there is a steep drop off and therefore no where for the snails to crawl. In Uganda the snails are the intermediary host of a parasite called bilharzia.  The snails live near the waters edge of most lakes and polute the lakes.  Most lakes you can still swim in the middle of the lake.  With Lake Bunyoni there is such a steep drop off that the snails cannot live on the shores and therefore you can swim.  You can also rent dugout canoes here.  DO NOT do this unless you are a patient person as for the first hour of paddling you will likely never be facing your destination.  "Keel" or "rudder" are not words that have been introduced here.

The lake is amazing and is surrounded by impressive hills with lush vegetation.  The water is refreshing and the price is right.  The only downside to Bunyoni (for me) is the distance from Kampala. There is also really no wildlife if that is what you are looking for.  We went for a long paddle on Saturday and found a pretty cool island on the lake.  The paddle there was tough as we were heading into the wind.  The way home was nice as the wind pretty much took us to our destination.  It was nice to get out of the craziness for a few days.

Bunyoni is very popular and we met lots of cool people and on Saturday night there was a good sized crowd around the satellite to watch England play Turkey.  David Beckham slipped on a penalty much to the delight of the commentators who could then talk of nothing else.  The weekend also marked the start of the World Cup of Rugby much to the delight of all the Aussies and Kiwis in the camp.

So after a completely refreshing weekend I headed for home confident that there was no way that the trip home would even be close to as bad as the trip down (a.k.a The Trip From Hell).  Well, next time I think that I will be sure to knock on wood.  This redefined horrible.  Once again the bus broke down and just about everything had to be replaced.  This caused me to miss the last bus out of Mbarara which left me with no other choice than to take a Matatu.  In the future I will sleep on the street before I make a 6 hour trip on a Matatu.  My butt has never been more sore and my back more twisted.  If there was a British Airways plane waiting in the taxi park upon my arrival in Kampala there is no way I wouldn't have been on it.  But....I went home....ate....and slept.....and of course felt much better about it all in the morning.

Bunyoni Pics

 

Bus Breakdown on the way down.	The view from Tammie's backyard	Tammie w/ her braids. 13 hours they took.
Little kids gett'n down outside Ntungamo club	Lake Bunyoni	Lake Bunyoni
Camp Overland. Luxury Camping	View from Banda Restaurant	Tent Areas
My new MEC tent	Dugout Canoe	Tamme chilling in the dugout
...and flip		more dugout canoe
This was fun to do w/ the timer	View from half built hotel	Tam on island
		Tam @ the hotel
Craig @ the Hotel	...and the breakdown on the way home.

Possession

Needless to say experiences change your perception on certain things.  One of the things that I think will be interesting to see after 6 months is what my perception of possession is.  Often people here do not have a lot of material possessions.  And as I came to Uganda with two suitcases, neither do I.  After spending a month traveling around by either foot or by Matatu you end up accepting that as the standard mode of transport.  I started thinking about home today and I was quite blown away that in another world I actually OWNED my own car.  It really sort of blew me away.  Not only that, I owned a motorbike too (and i thought that was pretty cool!!).  I'm sure people at home will read this and think "What's his point everyone owns cars" but when you're in an environment for a long time where no one owns vehicles it is quite bizarre to think that I am actually established enough somewhere else to own something like this.  I'm hoping a have a bit more respect for the way i spend my money at home...especially since I won't have any!  But my attitude used to be to spend freely wherever and whenever possible.  If I lost something (and I lost a lot of things) just buy another one.  That attitude seems more than a little stupid as I am literally watching EVERY dollar I spend here.  The money goes far...but not that far when you $5 a day.

Sickness/Sleep

So far I've managed to avoid getting sick in the way that most people get when they travel to a country like this but I certainly have a nasty head cold.  When you are tired and sick I think you are most likely to get homesick.  My head is so clogged I'm not sleeping and there really just isn't anything to do in the middle of the night except read. 

There are about 4 things that wake me up in the "morning".  First there is a local rooster who never learned proper rooster protocol.  You "cock-a-doodle-doo" in the morning! Sunrise! Not at 4am!  He then wakes up the dogs which go off from about 4:30 -5.  Shortly after the dogs seem to stop there is what I am assuming is a call to prayer ( I think there is a Mosque nearby).  And finally all the sane roosters get up around 6:30.  Can you say earplugs :)

October 18th

Music Festival

Tammie was in town again as she had a trip planned to Masindi (up north) with Pete and Jan.  Tammie, Brenda, Laura, Jenny (Laura and Jenny are two girls I met at the club and they are from San Fran), and I went to the Makindye "music festival".  It was the grand opening for the pub in town and a huge event was planned.  The festival, located in a huge parking lot, was packed with locals and it was a pretty good time but it is a stretch to call this a music festival.  They did have a couple guys who rapped over canned background music.  They were ok although I could understand a word.  Some of the other, and more entertaining acts inclusive "The Special Sisters".  A group of 4 scantily clad women (which is a rare scene in public in Uganda) would give it their all on stage in a fairly sexually charged performance.  Needless to say this pleased the largely male audience while amusing us thoroughly.  Another "band" that played was a lip sinking version of Boyz to Men.  They had choreographed moves and of course the fake microphone on for effects...or maybe people really thought they were singing.  Who knows?  A little dude named "Super 2000" also performed.  He was basically a circus freak that would twist his body in crazy positions and then stare at the crowd seductively :)  Very funny!  There was sort of a open stage at one point and about 3 guys dancing with each other and I decided to bet Tammie a HUGE sum of money she wouldn't get on stage and dance.  Not only did she get on stage but she tucked her shirt up doing her best "Special Sister" impression.  I should have known it was a fools bet.  The deal was that I had to pay her 500,000 shillings if she got on stage and I didn't.  So up I went.  The crowd loved it...although I wasn't under any illusions that the male dominated crowd was cheering for me.

Homesick

On Sunday afternoon after everyone was gone I got my first real feeling of homesickness.  I think it was brought on slightly by the book I was reading (The Smoke Jumper...I highly recommend it),  I started thinking about home and about Christmas and I think I got sad about the fact that I know I'm going to be sad at Christmas not being at Mt Washington w/ my family.  I'm sure I will be doing something cool and it will probably be more a case of Christmas not really happening for me this year as I can't see the Christmas spirit really taking over here.  I also knew that as I was reading my book there was a Canuck game on at home at that most likely everyone would be out watching it.  Anyways, I wouldn't say it was a depressing feeling.  It is ok I think to miss things as it might highlight the things that are important to you.

Oct 24th

My First Mugging

Well, as far as muggings go I suppose my first one was pretty tame. We were on our way to a VSO gathering at the Indian restaurant in Kampala. I was sitting in the  back of a Matatu next to the window.  It was, as usual, quite warm out so I leaned my elbow on the open window ledge to my left.  My hand was still inside the vehicle when I felt it getting ripped towards the door.  It all happened pretty quickly and before eye I really knew what was going on I had been relieved of my watch.  Anna and Tammie who were in the back seat of me saw me jerk but didn't even really know what had happened.  As far as it being much of a loss, well it really wasn't.  It was a cheap watch and really not that big of a deal.  But being robbed, especially when something is physically taken off of you is a little more than just addressing what you have lost.  Fist of all it jaded me a little.  Prior to the incident I looked at just about everyone as a potential friend.  After it happened I found myself looking at locals a little differently.  This is not fair I know and it only lasted about 12 hours and I'm "back to normal" but I will certainly be taking a few more precautions in town.  The main thing that frustrates me is knowing that I'm a target because I look different.  I have gotten used to the stares and I have gotten used to strangers shouting things at you and I have gotten used to having to greet about a hundred people wherever I go but it is a little different when you have to walk around knowing you are a target for robbery just because of the way you look.  I'm thinking I need to take a lot more care in my neighborhood as I often walk around with my laptop in my bag.  In talking to Michelle she told me that last year she was mugged walking up the road to our place.  It is a long walk in the pitch black and would be a prime spot to jump someone...which is exactly what happened to Michelle.  She made it out with only a few bruises and kept her back,,,,but not cool.  I also know that everyone here knows where I live.. I got on a boda boda the other day and didn't even tell him where I lived and he dropped me off on my doorstep.  I do feel safe in this country but there is theft everywhere in the world.  In looking back at what happened I'm sort of mad at myself for not yelling or anything. However yelling may not of been the best idea either as Mob justice is alive and well in Uganda and thieves are publicly and violently brought to "justice".  Just last week someone was beaten and burned to death by a mob for stealing.   While I would have liked some form of "justice" watching a kid (for some reason I'm assuming it was a kid but I never really saw them) beaten by a crowd would not be what I had hoped for.  Anyways, I was certainly a little bitter afterwards but as far as muggings go I suppose this was as god as it gets.

While I'm briefly on the subject of the "downside of Uganda" I got some disturbing news  at the other day.  I had a particularly poor day at work thanks to some news from home and a PC from hell.  And at the end of the day I heard that a coworker's sister had died a couple days earlier.  This is not that uncommon as it seems almost every week someone at Hospice directly knows someone that has died,  But this story was particularly troubling.  Apparently she had a large sum of money at her place overnight to make a payment the next day.  It just so happened to be the guard's night off (???).  Her place was broken into and robbed.  She was tied up and beaten and then shot.  Having something like this happen to someone you know is a lot different than reading about it in the papers.  It is closer to home and you can put real faces to the situation.  My coworker seems to be dealing with it well enough on the outside.  I think his words were that "it was god's way".  I am glad for him that that is giving him some peace of mind and however he chooses to cope is great but I cannot accept that as an explanation for such things.

Celine

I remember back when Brian Adams was Canada's biggest export being fairly embarrassed about this.  Times have changed.  What I would give to have Brian make a comeback right now.  It might stop me from being blamed for Celine Dion every time a conversation turns to music.  It is unreal here.  You cannot go 3 hours without hearing her being blasted from a stereo somewhere.  They absolutely love her.  Brian where are you??!?!?!  Save us Canadians abroad.

What I do and Don't miss from Home

Do Miss

1. My Family
2. Friends...people that have known me for years and years.
3. My Motorbike.  The first thing I do when I get home is I will go for a ride.
4. Hockey. I can get my Canuck info on the web but I miss playing a lot.
5. My guitar and drums. If I could have done it again I would have packed my guitar
6. Anonymity.  Sometimes it is a little draining being the center of attention every time you go out.  Sometimes you just want to go for a walk without all the stares and children.
7. Sports Highlights. I never watched TV at home as I was never home.  I can't remember the last time I watched a TV show.  But I do miss watching the sports highlights before bed.  My one true downtime during the day.
8. Real music. No more Celine!!! Please!!!
9. Daily access to pasta and cheese. Oh I miss cheese and pasta!
10. The ocean.  For most of my life I've lived with some sort of a view of the ocean and I really miss that.
11. How quiet Vancouver can be at night.  I miss walking to False Creek at night.

Don't miss:

1. Being on call
2. The cold
3. Thinking about money, bills etc.
4. Thinking about my future....job, personal etc etc.
5. Khan telling me my hockey skills have diminished and that I'm Kirk Muller :)
6. The cost of food and beer in Van.  Actually the cost of everything.
7. My stupid schedule involving a dizzying array of work, social and sports.  When I come back I intend to take on less but do more with what I take on.
8. Static nature of social groups at home.  It has been great to meet new people from many different places.

The Aftermath of my "mugging"

Well, it is sad to say but since "My First Mugging" I've found I haven't enjoyed things at much.  Especially at night.  All that happened to me was my watch was ripped off my arm.  Yet I feel at times like I'm a living target.  The walk to my place has gotten a little more stressful as I seem to be looking over my shoulder every step of the way.  I can't imagine the paranoia that someone must walk around with if they have had a "real" crime performed against like a "real" mugging or anything like rape.  I imagine it takes a long time before you stop hearing footsteps behind you.  I'm sure in time I'll feel at home again.  One thing that has changed is that I have found myself buying a local paper from a kid on the street even if I have no interest in reading it....or buying some food from someone if I have no interest in eating.  I think it is because I want to support people that are trying to make their money by actually working.....not taking. I know the shillings that I drop in won't make a dent...but oh well.

Oct 26th

Tennis and Rugby

Tammie and I spent Saturday chilling at the American Club.  The pool is a savior from this heat.  Matt, Anna, Juan, and Raj all came over as well.  Matt and I started the England verse Canada series in tennis.  I think Matt is a bit of a natural athlete as he seems to be good at all sports.  Anyways, sad to say England took Canada 6-3 and 6-4.  Canada showed promise though and will certainly be back.

On Sunday I made my way to a expat pub called Just Kicking to watch the World Cup of Rugby.  The England fans were fanatical.  All the Canadians there cheered for Samoa which made it entertaining.  In the end the heavily favored England won.  I think the world cup goes on for another 4 weeks but won't really get interesting until it is down to Australia, New Zealand, England, and France.  After the game I had a nice visit w/ Vix at the BanCafe...the best coffee in Uganda I swear.

Oct 29th

Casino Night

Last night Juan, a fellow VSO and fellow Canadian, decided to hit the Kampala casino.  We have been talking about it for awhile but never seem to get there.  I can see why I don't go into town a lot during the week.  Still crazy!  Anyways, we decided to pool our money and win as a team and lose as a team.  We were going to stop after we lost 40, 000 each (about $20) or after we doubled our money or got bored.  The casino was nice.  Not big but nice and had better atmosphere than Casinos at home.  I wasn't quite Vegas but it was getting there.  Free drinks as well.  No one seems to play Blackjack here as there is only one table and it was completely free.  Well, things went poorly.  Juan and I went through 80,000 shillings in about 15 minutes.  The games went quick as there were only the two of us.  But the losses provoked some thought for me.  It is very odd here to figure out what context you think of your money in.  Whenever I buy something (here or at home) I think "OK, $30 that is x number of hours of work so that is or isn't worth it".  But it is hard to figure out if I think of money in the context of Vancouver or the context of Kampala.  If I think of it in terms of Vancouver then no big deal I lost $20...less than an hours work...whatever.  But if I think of it in terms of Kampala I just lost what some people make over two months....and I blew this in 10 minutes.  The amount of money we lost could keep a terminally ill AIDS or cancer patient on Morphine treatments for months ( I know this from Hospice).  If I want to feel less guilty I don't think of such things  and I go back to my happy bubble and think "that is just the way the world works I guess"...which I think is what a lot of people choose to do at home.  Just food for thought I guess but it is clear to me that the world is ass backwards and I am fully a part of it. 

At any rate, such thoughts were not with us at the time.  Even though we had lost a lot of money very quickly we were foolishly optimistic we could get it back.  I pitched my roulette strategy to Juan and he liked it.  It is a fairly reliable way to get your money back as long as you can bankroll yourself pretty good and you don't hit max bet trying.  So we got all our money back and then some.  We ended up being up 100,000 at one point and we were having a good time with the locals.  I got to play video poker....my favorite game from Vegas.  By the end of the night we were both up 40,000.  That is what I make in a week here and it can go very far so I was pleased.  The pooling of the money turned out to be a lot of fun because it created sort of a team environment.  It was a lot of fun.

November 3

My Travel Woes Continue

The plan for the weekend was to camp at Lake MBuro.  The attraction of Lake Mburo is that you can get extremely close to the wildlife in a quiet, pristine setting.  But....this meant travel....and for me in Uganda this meant trouble.  Brenda (fellow Canadian and VSO) and I headed for the bus park at about 1:30 on Friday where we tried to scout out the best bus to take.  The key to picking which bus you jump on is picking the one that looks the most full, and therefore the first one to leave.  We got on a bus that looked packed and we thought we hit the jackpot.  Anyways, once everyone that was either selling bread, watches, soda, underwear, or water got off the bus was less than 1/4 full.  Just my luck. We had already paid so we were stuck in the park for about 1.5 hours.  Oh well.  Eventually we hit the road and everything on the bus went smooth from there.  We got dropped off in Sanga and found Tammie, Pete and Jan waiting on a patio of a local pub....with about 10 little kids sitting on the ground around them staring at them.  Pete, Jan, and Tammie always seem to find ways to entertain themselves....they had a bet going to see what i would go for first...the beer or Tammie.  What do you think I chose?

Anyways, Pete let Tammie drive around the back roads.  I think the final count was 4 locals in the ditch...bikes and all.  She didn't hit them...they drove off the road as they looked in awe seeing a white WOMAN driving a motorized vehicle. 

So my travel curse continued.  We all got in Pete and Jan's vehicle to drive to the Lake MBuro National Park.  Pete and Jan have not had a flat in two years of driving in Uganda (which is nothing short of a miracle given the condition of the roads here) but 5 mins after putting me in the vehicle there goes the tire.  Anyways, despite the fact that tires cost a lot here, this put us in a troubling situation as the park gate closed at 7 and 7 was approaching fast.  We weren't quite as quick as the NASCAR pits but we were pretty darn good and we barely made the 7 deadline. 

......oh yeah, btw I chose the beer :)  Sorry bout that Tam :)

Lake MBuro

Lake MBuro was cool.  My first real touch with African wildlife.  We got to the lake at about 7:30.  It was dark when we put up our tents and not 10 meters away was a small pack of Warthogs and a Hippo grazing in the field. 

Hippos stay in the water during the day and come out to graze at night.  We pitched our tent right at the shores of the lake and all night you could hear the hippos coming out of the water and walking by the tent.  Hippos are quite dangerous and are responsible for quite a few human deaths each year in Uganda.  I think people would take them a little more serious if they didn't have those cute little Shrek-like ears.  Anyways, it sounded like a jungle outside our tent and I didn't sleep a whole lot....scared of being trampled to death.  But it was cool if not a little unsettling at times. 

We did a boat ride in the morning over the lake and saw the hippos, gators, eagles, buffalo and a whole lot of birds.  I love being on the water and still have dreams of owning my own boat.  I'd have it by now if the world hadn't figured out the the dot com craze was nothing but hot air!   

All the animals are out in the morning and just before dusk so we did a nature walk at 4 pm.  It was just Tammie and I as Pete and Jan opted for the bird walk and Brenda opted to chill out at the lake.  At Lake MBuro, one of 10 National Parks in Uganda, there are no predators which gives you the benefit of being able to do walking Safaris.  We saw hundreds of zebras, impala, and many other antelopes species.  The coolest part for me was seeing a family of baboons as they are a little more rare.  Our guide was good and informative... although he did seem to want to talk about Celine Dion as much as he did the wildlife :)  Turns out there used to be lions in the park but they became extinct due to poisoning.  Farmers would put poison in a cow carcass and the lions would eat it and die.  Eventually they were all gone.  Unfortunate.

MBuro is a very relaxing place.  There are no crowds and very relaxed nature tours.  The nights are spend with a deck of cards and a few bottles of Club.

We did a morning nature walk at 8.  It is pretty surreal to sit in the middle of the savannah plains with a herd of zebra off to your right, a herd of impala to your left, and a group of bitter buffalo in front of you with baboons hoping around from brush to brush.  It is kind of like you stepped onto the holodeck or something and dialed up AFRICA.  At home it is pretty cool to see a single deer and here I was surrounded by no less than a hundred wild animals.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's signs

In Canada, and probably to a greater extent in the States you can't seem to walk two feet without running into a sign.  Do this, don't do that.  Stand here...don't stand there.  No sitting...no standing.....no eating....no smoking.  I recall in one of the parks in B.C. ( I can't remember which) all the signs telling what to do and what not do.  A Grizzly looks like this and a Brown bear looks like this and if you see one do this".  I think partly the reason for all the signs is for your safety but I also think a large part must be for liability protection.  Anyways....such a concept hasn't caught on here.  There is no such thing as suing and safety is your own problem.  At Lake Mburo there isn't a single sign.  The lake has probably about 500 hippos in it and there isn't even a "No Swimming" sign at the campsite.  There are no Lions but a lot of the animals in the park DO kill and there is not a single piece of advice as to what you might not want to do while there.  Survival of the fittest literally I suppose.  Anyways by chance we ran into two VSOs (Lionel and Lydia) from Mbarara at the lake.  While we were on our nature walk (protected by the Celine Dion fan w/ an AK47) they decided to walk about the road from the lake to the head office where you book your walks and boat rides.  About 10 mins into their walk something caught their eye up ahead and they stopped to process what was in front of them.  By the time they realized it was a full grown male Buffalo the animal was already charging.  Lionel got out of the way but Lydia was not so lucky and was hit and she fell hard to the ground.  Amazingly  the Buffalo backed off after taking her down and stopped about 10 meters away.  The fact that it charged was not unusual but the fact it didn't finish her off WAS unusual.  The old males get kicked out of their herd by other  younger "dominant males".  Shortly after this they are often bitter and rejected and quite aggressive (sort of like rejected men).  We were told by our guide that if a Buffalo charged us in the savannah....and his gun "refused" (I love that...i always hear...."my computer is refusing")...that we should find the closest tree....and make sure we find a strong tree.  Anyways, it is hard to look at being charged by a buffalo as lucky but Lydia really is.  About ten minutes after this happened, unbeknownst to us at the time, Tammie and I finished our safari and started down the same path...and came across the same buffalo.  We briefly considered walking past it but i figured....no.  Tammie, in her infinite wisdom, decided she really wanted a good picture and starting clapping and yelling at the buffalo to try to get it up.  Tammie lives the "it will never happen to me" philosophy to the fullest.  "Get up!!  Getup !!" she starts shouting at the buffalo.  Had we known this buffalo had only minutes ago nearly killed our friend she might have have thought twice.  But it took me grabbing her and pulling her away to end the attempt at a photo shoot. 

Anyways....a simple sign that said "Watch out...the buffalo might kill you" would probably have been appreciated by Lydia.

Lake MBuro Pictures

Baby monkey @ breakfast. Brat!	Brenda and the pesky monkey	...more hippos
Hippos from boat	Lots up eagles up close	Finally caught one yawning
Bufalo on boat tour	Me and the Celine Dion fan	Craig and the Warthog
Tam in boat	Jan, Brenda, and Tammie in boat	Craig and Tam in boat
Crocodile	Sunset at Mburo. Brenda, Tammie, and Lydia	Sunset at lake
Buffalo on the Savanah. Morning Walk	Impala	Morning safari walk
Tam and our guide (and a curious zebra in the background)	Tam and Craig on hill top. Lake in background	That's about as close as you get...then they run.
Warthog family.	Not so lucky zebra on the plains.

Wayside

I just finished listening to Wayside's "Until Now..." EP.  I have to say I'm pretty proud of it and it brings back a lot of fond memories.  I think it was about 5 years ago now that we did that.  I know we were at UBC still.  Those were good times to be in a band.  No responsibilities or anything like that.  In fact I think I also had no money and had to borrow about $1000 from Hemmes because my student loans had run out.  Not that being in the band isn't fun today but it was a lot of fun when we were "young and naive".  I miss hearing about Chris and Hemmes' latest plan to conquer the world.  Time flies.  Anyways, I gave a copy of the cd to a Ugandan I work with and now he thinks I'm a full blown rockstar :)  Not that I need a cd for that.  I've been told i look like just about everything from a rock star to a pop singer to an actor to an British politician.  Olivia, a Ugandan coworker,  admitted to me yesterday that it was because "all you white people look the same to us".  In training our cultural trainer Robert asked by me if "I've ever seen the Chinese"?  I thought to myself....no....never :)  Then he says "They all look EXACTLY the same...have you not noticed this??"  LOL.  Very funny.

The Internet

OK it's time to sound like a geek...but the greatest invention of the 20th century has to be the internet.  Now I know it is really combination of about a thousand different inventions but regardless it still awes me especially as I sit here in Africa.  Despite the fact that I am on the other side of the world I still know EVERYTHING that is going on at home as it happens.  Very impressive.  Google is about the most impressive tool.  Anything you want you can get from Google.  Below I'm discovering that the Canucks signed Bertuzzi to a multi-year deal.  I hope they plan for the Cup parade to swing by Kampala.  This is the year!

 

November 6th

Contact lenses

At Lake Mburo they have a modest washroom facility with a sink and mirror outside.  I was putting my contacts in one morning and out of the corner of my eye caught the local grounds man staring at me with a confused look on his face.  We greeted each other and then after a bit of a pause he asked me “What are you putting in your eyes??!!??”  I told him they were essentially my glasses and that once they were in my eyes I could see and without them I was virtually blind.  He looked at me in disbelief and said “So you can’t see….and then you stick those in your eyes…and then you can see.  Hah you’re funny”.  Then he walks away.  Anyways, I thought about it and decided he was right.  That is pretty crazy that I stick little pieces of …I don’t really know????....in my eyes and then I can see clear as day. Amazing really!

Religion

Religion can sometimes be a touchy subject so I won't go too deep into it but it has a strong presence here so I think it deserves some mention.  Christianity is alive and well in Uganda with there being an equal number of Catholics and Protestants totaling about 70 percent of Uganda.  The rest of the country is split between a smaller Muslim population and also some who have indigenous beliefs.  Atheism is not really a well understood concept here. I was asked yesterday by Harriet what church I go to at home…..not if I got to church.   I briefly thought about joking that I went to the Church of the Vancouver Canucks 3 times a week but wisely thought better of it as it is something that they take very seriously here and I really don’t want to offend.  I decided to tell her that I didn’t go at all…and never have.  This seemed to either concern her or confuse her…I’m not sure which.  She asked why and I told her I wasn’t really sure but that to my knowledge I’d only been in a church about 5 times in my life….either for weddings or for tourism.  Luckily we didn’t really get into what I did and didn’t believe…and I suppose it is also an ongoing process for me to figure out what I do and don’t believe.  So I don’t want to lie about it to coworkers but I also don’t really want to offend by admitting I don’t believe exactly what they believe.  Although I’m not sure it would offend them as there are about 5 Muslims that work at Hospice and their beliefs seem to be respected.

So at Hospice we pray A LOT!  I have decided to follow along just to not offend anyone and plus I am somewhat curious.  We have Morning Prayer at 8:30 every morning.  It always starts with a song….and I kind of like this part.  There is always a drum and shakers and you name it.  Plus these people have been singing every day since birth so it sounds pretty good.  My favorite song is “This is the day that the lord has made” and I will request it on my last day.  It is always in my head afterwards and it is the only one I know the words to….but I don’t sing along as much as Grace tries to get me to.  I did play the shaker one day though and will hopefully get to try the drum soon.  We then move to a reading from The Bible.  Then someone does a free lance….speech I guess you would call it….offering thanks to God and requesting guidance for our day and blessings for all our patients.  After that everyone says….I think it is The Lord’s Prayer but don’t know…..“Our father, who art in heaven….”.  This part always makes me uncomfortable and occasionally creeps me out a bit to be honest because everyone is chanting together and I sit there in the middle looking at my feet.  The fact of the matter is regardless of what I believe I just don’t know the words.

We also pray at the start and end of every meeting which is hard to get used to.  Yesterday we asked for guidance in developing our new web site and that our new server would be blessed.  Like I said…this is VERY different for me.  I'm more used to shouting obscenities at computer equipment that blessing them....although we’ll see how this server does as nothing else here seems to work longer than a few days so we’ll see if it works out for the new server.  Anyways, I know it is not cool that I start all my meetings at work off without a prayer but I figure it would be even more un-cool if I botched a prayer or put some kind of pseudo prayer together.  I usually wait and see if anyone else will catch on that I'm probably not going to do it and take over but no one does so I just start into the meeting. No one seems to mind and actually my meetings seem to go over very well as there is something resembling order to them.  So far no one has asked me to do the prayer at Morning Prayer either.  I figure it is a matter of time though and I should figure out what I’m going to do in advance rather than come up with it on the spot when there are 40 people keenly awaiting my prayer.  I figure if I'm put on the spot I can't really say no...but I'm not sure.  I'll have to figure it out.

Anyways, like I said Christianity is alive and well here.  Most people have some sort of screen saver about Jesus or they will have their desktops set up with some sort of religious backdrop.  There are pictures of Jesus everywhere (and one of George Bush in the education room....still can't figure that one out).  But I’m a little confused as to how the Christian model fits in with a lot of the other things going on here….things like many men having multiple wives.  I'm pretty sure there is something in the Tem Commandments about that.  The fact is I will probably never really know what the local views on that are but I would love to talk to a local about it but I think I will not.  I am just curious but I think if I questioned these things it would come off as aggressive or critical and that is not what my intentions would be.  To each their own in my opinion, but I would just be curious how it they see these things all lining up for them. (and btw obviously not EVERY man has multiple wives…I just understand that this is VERY common here).

As for Hospice and the people that work here, I am happy for them that they all have something, religion, that they can use to make sense of things.  Every single day here you work either directly or indirectly with death….so I think this is important to have something….so I respect them for that and respect what they believe and to be honest I am enjoying the experience of being exposed to such things regardless of what my beliefs may be.

VSO Conference

I'm heading to Mbarara this weekend (4 days) for the VSO Conference.  They used to hold it at the Jinga Nile (which is a wee slice of paradise) but have downgraded significantly.  I'm not really looking forward to the sessions but at least I'll see all the other volunteers and Canada will have a chance for redemption against England in the Ugandan Tennis Tourney.

November 12th

VSO Conference

Well, much to my surprise the VSO conference was quite good.  The reason I was surprised is that it was only 4 weeks ago that I completed training w/ VSO and it looked like many of the topics were going to be repeated.  Yawn!!!  It is a conference for all volunteers in Uganda and was attended by about 70 people.  Instead of the workshops being geared at educating they seemed more geared at debating VSOs approach to development which ended up spawning some good debates on what development is and why we are here.  No volunteers should kid themselves into thinking that they are just here to help a developing nation.   Everyone, if the are honest with themselves, should admit that they are here as much for themselves and what they will get out of this as for what they are giving…..but….I do believe that in order to take something like this on you do need to have the desire to help.  So there where many good debates on how we, as volunteers, can best help.

The hotel was not bad at all.  Sure, it was no Jinga Nile….but it did have a decent pool and a cool outside bar with pool table and the works.  The rooms were probably the area where they skimped on the budget the most but they were still pleasant.  We even had a TV in our room.  How odd this seemed!!   When we turned it on there was a feature on Vancouver on TV.  Very weird to be watching Vancouver on the TV while here in Uganda.  I almost saw my apartment!  What a beautiful city though.  You have no idea really until you have been away from it for awhile.  It looked SO CLEAN!

Anyways, where they saved money on the rooms they splurged on the sound system for the outside bar.  I have never heard music that loud…..and this was in my room at 3am!  Ugandans party the sun comes up, literally.  But Jainey, the conference coordinator had to shut them down at 3.  My room was 4 stories up on the far side of the building and it was literally shaking. 

Saturday night was the big night out for the VSO gang and it was a big one.  Too many funny stories to tell…and many I just shouldn’t.  The 1^st International Pool tourney was classic though purely due to the enthusiastic (and somewhat inebriated fans).  There were 16 entries into the tourney and about 20 enthusiastic fans.  I made it through the first round when my Philippine opponent scratched but from then on in a cleaned up all the way to the finals.  By the time the finals came in round 5 it was just me and Raj.  We took great delight in gloating that it was an All Canadian final.  There were big bets on the game and the crowd was rowdy.  Raj and I both had 2 shots on the 8 until Raj finished me off.  Oh well.  Next time.   We then moved on to a huge game of “Suicide”…the name given to the Navy game we play with the pool table.  Once again….this was a big hit.  We capped the night floating in the pool watching the lunar eclipse.  Not too often you get to do that!

So all in all the weekend was a success socially and professionally.

What am I trying to achieve as a VSO volunteer?

When “volunteering” in a 3^rd world country you have to be very careful what you are doing and that you keep focused on why you are doing it?  There is great potential, if I do not do this, to do more damage than good here.  For example if I build up their IT infrastructure….build databases…. and web sites and thereby convince them to give up their paper system they will become reliant on the IT network I have pushed on them.  Then if I leave without properly ensuring that there is knowledge transfer and that the project is sustainable then they are in trouble the first time the database goes south.  There are no more paper records and no one that can recover the database and they are worse off than before I came.

I also do not want to become a corporate missionary, preaching that my way is the way it should be just because that is the way it is done at home.  There are so many things that are different here that some of those things from home are not applicable.  So it is a very touchy subject.  Also, there ARE trained people in Uganda in many fields.  So if I come over here just with the role of being what I think of as a “service provider”…..basically fixing computers when they break, developing databases on my own, and being more focused on the services I can provide then I am coming dangerously close to taking a job from a Ugandan….which in the big picture also hurts.  This becomes a little tricky because many Uganda organizations and members of management do see the volunteers as free labor and an opportunity to free themselves up for other ways to make money on the side.  I am lucky that I do not have this problem at Hospice.

The fact of the matter is that there ARE things here that need to change in order for there to be more efficiency and to have the little money here put to better use.  Uganda’s government has made a strong push for the government to decentralize and for districts to be more in control of their own destiny.  One result of this however is that there have been many people with limited management skills or experience pushed into newly created district management roles.  The result in many cases has been a lack of efficiency…even with the limited money that is available.

You also have to remember that motivation for change in the workplace might be different here.  At home, my basic needs are met about 30 times over with the kind of money I made and support I had.  Once these needs are met you have the privilege of looking for more from life.  Things like “personal satisfaction” in your job.  Hah!!!  That seems so funny right now that people leave well paying jobs at home because they are not personally satisfied.  Hey, I did it.  What a luxury that is to have.  The kind of jobs people work here to make about a dollar a day is shocking.  Somehow I don’t think they are personally satisfied with their “careers”.  So the point is just that when people still are primarily concerned with ways to meet and expand upon their basic needs their motivation for putting great changes into their workplace may be limited, unless there is direct financial benefit for them.  Once again I have not really encountered this problem at Hospice but in listening to the stories of other VSO volunteers this seems to be an issue.

November 17th

Rafting the Nile

In thinking back……I can recall being charged by a bull on my grandparents’ farm in '86 and I can recall getting thrashed violently by the surf on Oahu in '90. I can recall cliff jumping off Goat’s Bluff at Nanaimo River in '92 and I recall my first white water kayaking experience in '95.   But I seriously cannot recall anything that frightened me as much as rafting the Nile.

We got picked up at 7:30am in Kampala by a bus to take us to Bujagali Falls, the put in point for rafting the Nile.  There were 16 in our group which was a tremendous turnout.  The drive to the Nile is beautiful and we spent most of it going over possible Christmas plans with Tammie, Vix and Juan.

The company we were rafting was called Equator.  They seemed pretty credible and pretty safe and as a bonus half the guides were Canadian.  I think we damaged a lot of peoples perception of just how big Canada is.  You know the joke about “Oh you’re from Canada eh, do you know John?”.  Well, it turns out....they did know John and a lot of others.  The guide new a lot of people I had worked with and played hockey with.  Small world.

The first scare on the river came on the second rapids.  Bujagali Falls was the first rapid and I thought after we cruised over it….”that wasn’t too bad….maybe my mom wouldn’t mind this after all”.  Well, things changed and the second rapid was probably the worst section of the trip for me.  We were all given the plan by the guide.  Paddle like hell and when he yells get down get off the rails of the raft and hold on tight to the safety rope.   The last time I went rafting was at Whistler in March.  The waves we hit on that trip were like ripples in a bathtub compared to this.  Approaching the major section of the rapids, there was about 5 seconds of average sized waves before the big one.  It was imperative that we hit the big one square.  The river surges a lot and you can hit a wave like this at a good time or at a bad time.  We hit it at a REALLY bad time.   Matt and I were in shotgun so we had the best look at it.  All I can say is HUGE.  The boat hit it head on and we started to climb up the wave.  I heard the guide yell get down but for the most part it was too late.  I managed to get 1 hand on the safety rope before we were completely inverted.  The boat hung jackknifed for a second and stalled on the wave while nearly everyone further back in the boat ended up in the water. Looking back towards the water I could just see the pink helmets bobbing and thrashing below before I lost my grip.  I’m not sure who I landed on in the water but I hit them hard.  I fought my way to the surface to get a breath but just as my head emerged the boat, which was predominantly in the air before, crashed down on my head an pushed me under.  We were already looking at about 3 or 4 seconds since I had taken a breath so panic time was approaching fast.  Anyone that has ever surfed knows how disorienting it can to be thrashed around by a wave.  You lose all concept of which way is up and which way is down and the longer you are under the more you panic.   The added trouble for me was I was already out of air and was trapped underneath the boat.  No matter which way I swam I couldn’t get out from underneath it.  It didn’t help that Raj and Anna were trapped as well and we were impeding each others progress.  Just when I got that REALLY panicky feeling my head popped up and the boat was gone.  My eyes and lips breached the surface just long enough for me to get a quick breath and for me to open my eyes long enough to see the boat come crashing down on my head again.  This time I knew which way I was heading and which way the river was heading though.  We were taught to always stay with the boat….probably because it makes it easier on the guide….but I thought to myself “enough of this” and I got my foot on the side of the boat and pushed myself as hard as I could and swam as far away as possible.  From here on in I was ok (relatively speaking).  Air was still a bit of an issue as the rapids do overwhelm you but for the most part it was just a matter of riding it out.  At this point I was more worried about what happened to Tammie as there was no sight of her.   

The good thing about the Nile is that almost all the rapids empty out into a huge pool.  When the boat and all the bodies emptied into the pool I made my way back to the boat.  Tammie, Juan, and Anna had all made it back before me.  Tammie was holding onto the side of the boat.  She had a good portion of the river in her lungs and a bigger portion in her tummy but all things considered she was ok. Anna looked like she had seen a ghost and Juan looked like he was in shock and when I looked at his knee I knew why.  Three huge gashes just below the knee cap.  That is nothing but really unlucky as the Nile is a deep deep river and rocks are usually not an issue.  Once back in the boat Juan was bleeding profusely all over the place and we all figured his day was over.  He asked to be stichted up quickly so he wouldn't miss the next set of rapids.  Good Canadian Kid!!!!   Anyways we all recovered….except Juan who really did require immediate medical attention and was pulled from the river.  We had a nice long float down the Nile while the Juan situation was being sorted out and we had time to recover…and share our glory stories.  But as I floated down the river reflecting on the violence I thought to myself.  “Nope, Mom won’t be trying that out!” 

The next coolest part of the river was when the guide played a little game with us that they apparently play with all groups.  He said….”you are going to have to trust me”….and after what happened just 10 minutes before I’m surprised we did.  But he told us to close our eyes….and paddle hard.  He would tell us when to open them.  So we did.  Try walking around a room with your eyes close while someone else tells you to go forward….to the left….to the right….and see who vulnerable you feel.  Now try to imagining going down the Nile in a raft under the same situation.  As usual we started hitting some small rapids but this time you could feel them rather than see them.  And then I could hear him shout “OPEN YOUR EYES”.  My eyes popped open…and it took a second to process what was in front of us.  We had just started to climb another HUGE wave.  As we climbed it I thought of the wave in The Perfect Storm as we seemed to climb and climb up the face.  We were pretty much inverted as we hit this wave but surprisingly, we hit it perfectly and cruised over the top.  Very cool feeling.

The upside to rafting the Nile includes the following:

Rafting the Nile	Rafting the Nile	Rafting the Nile
Rafting the Nile	Rafting the Nile

November 20

Time Flies

It has been exactly 2 months in Uganda for me.  Time sure flies.  No regrets.....yet :)

Learning Cultural Differences.

While I am aware of some of the more obvious cultural differences between Uganda and Canada there are probably about ten times as many that I am not aware of.  It scares me how many times I have probably offended people here unbeknownst to me.  Today I learned that walking and eating is a total faux pas here.  So for example….if you pick some food somewhere and you eat it on the go…on your walk or something….that is VERY rude.  It is considered uncleanly or something.  I have been doing this for over a month and just learned it today.  Makes a little more sense why I was openly scoffed at in Kampala while walking down the road eating my Hot Loaf samosa (incidentally there is NOTHING better than a Hot Loaf samosa!!!).  At least I don't think I have done it too much at work.  I can only imagine how many other things I have done to offend people.  I’m sure they cut me a little slack being a Muzungu.  But it made me think about the term “common sense”.   I think people often think that it is “common sense” that will help people act “normally”.  Well, there is really no such thing as “Common sense” as what is common to one group is NOT for another.   At home it seems like common sense for me not to sit and eat while I’m in a rush to get somewhere….it is certainly not the case here.

Another cultural norm here is that there is no such thing at all as personal space.  Robert put it best.  “What is this thing you people call personal space.  Do you own it?  Can you buy it?  I hope you packed some with you because you can certainly not get it in Uganda”.  He has a great way of putting things.  But it is true.  There is no such thing.  People are VERY touchy and often in your face and always hugging and walking with arms around each other etc etc.  I’ve never hugged so many guys!  If at home a guy walked up to a girl and put his arm around her and said “Hello how is your day?” I can only imagine what she would say to her friends as he walked away.  “That guy is SO slimy!  I wish he’d just keep his hands to himself!!” 

Here is a good example of personal space in Uganda.  Check out Tammie's hairdressers.  Could they be touching her any more :)

Ntungamo

I am off for a wild and crazy week in southern metropolis of Ntungamo.  No power, no running water, no swimming pool, and certainly no internet!  Tammie and I have arranged a work exchange with our two organizations. I will be heading there for a week to work on their network and sometime in January she will be heading to Kampala for a week to train Harriet on her and Pete's training database.  As well as it being a good chance for the two of us to see each other and experience a different work environments it should benefit both of our placements a lot as well.

Personally I am a little worried about Tammie's "facilities" as they are considerably more primitive than mine.  Should be interesting.  We plan to head to Lake Bunyoni (which means Kabale which means CHEEEEEEEEESE!!!!) the following weekend which should be cool.  We will try camping on the island this time.  It is SO relaxing there.  Nothing to do but windsurf, read a book, and sip your beer.  See y'all in a week.

December 4th

My Trip To NTungamo

By far the best bus ride yet in Uganda...except for the fact that I had to sit beside the largest man in Uganda.  Ugandans typically are not that big.  If I am in a crowd I am often one of the tallest.  But when I saw this man step on the bus i thought to myself "Oh please no".  But sure enough he walked down the aisle and plopped himself right next to me...pinning me against the glass.  I will leave Uganda with a lot of great pictures but I won't ever get the really good ones....and this would have been a REALLY good one.  I was so squished that my shoulder blades were almost touching and I could hardly breath.  In order for me to lean forward I had to wiggle myself out of the submission hold he had me in.  Oh well.  About 2 hours in he fell asleep and rocked forward and my lungs were once again allowed to operate at full capacity.

One of the cool things about the tiny town of Ntungamo is there is almost no city lights so the stars are brilliant.  I always notice this when I am at Mt Washington but I think they are even more brilliant here.  I really know nothing about constellations so I just look aimlessly.  But it is so dark in Ntungamo that when I woke up in the middle of the night on my first night, and I seriously couldn't tell if my eyes were open or not!  I had no idea where i was or what i was doing there. 

Tammie's washroom facilities are quite primitive. They are about 20 feet from the house. One door to the shower room and one door to the toilet.  The toilet is a good ol' long drop.....basically a small hole cut out from the cement dropping into a DEEP pit.  The shower room is EXACTLY the same with no hole.  On my first night at Tammie's I woke up in the middle of the night and stumbled outside to go to the washroom.  Being slightly disoriented and confused I opened the door and looked down at the cement floor, scratched my head and thought "Damn...what am I supposed to do now....someone cemented over the hole."   I was about 5 seconds from shrugging it off and peeing on the floor when i woke up enough to figure out I was in the shower room.  Ooops. 

To actually have a shower you have to fill up a huge plastic bag and hang it from the roof.  It has a valve to release the water onto you.  On the special days we heated the water up to have a warm shower.  Those was only for special days though.   On the not so special days I would tend to abstain from showering because it was just too unpleasant.

So everything in Ntungamo is very primitive but not altogether unappealing.  It is certainly a "back to basics" kind of place.  At one point I looked outside at Tammie scrubbing the laundry in a wash bucket and hanging them over the clothesline while I was lugging around Jeri cans from the well for the dishes and I couldn't help but wonder if this was some Ugandan version of Little House on the Prairie.  

Most of the weekend we spent chilling out and going for hikes in the local hills.

Working in Ntungamo

Working in Ntungamo is considerably different than working at Hospice in Kampala.  The District Office, where Tammie, Pete, and Jan all work. is a nice building located on the top of a hill.  The building has a 360 panorama view of the surrounding hills.  In terms of a work environment I'm not sure it gets much more beautiful than this.  I think working at Hospice is not the norm as I work predominantly with women.  The Ntungamo district offices are 90% male with the only females being secretaries .  This in itself is quite different.  One thing I noticed is in general , and of course there are exceptions, but in general the men seem much more jovial in Uganda.  Anyways, I definitely noticed this in Tammie's office. 

While I think that some of the people working in the district were educated in Europe, for the most part they are still pretty fascinated with modern technology.  We took pictures of a lot of the staff with the digital camera and then put the pictures on their desktops.  Complete hysterics.  To them this was about the coolest thing ever. "I am in the room and then I am on the screen!  Ahhh! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!"

The Muzungu craze is strong in Ntungamo as there are only 3 white people in the whole town....but it was even more of a site I think to see a new Muzungu doing physical labor.  Part of my job in Ntungamo was to network the district office and that included running the cables through the building so I spent a good part of one day being on top of a ladder with a small crowd below staring up at me.   I think I was a disappointment to everyone though because I was asked about 10 times "Ahh you are a good man, you are bringing us the internet?!".  Uh, no sorry.  What a letdown.

The Great Rains of Ntungamo

As I've mentioned before the weather here can turn on a dime.  And when it rains look out.  Tammie and I had been talking for days about finally making the walk in the hills behind her house to the Cell tower.  So Thursday after work we headed straight out.  We took a couple cold Club's to have at the top.  As we sat and drank our beer overlooking the hills to the west I was thinking the weather wasn't too bad.  You would have to be pretty stupid to have a rain cloud sneak up on you right?!?!.  Well, I've never been flanked by a storm before but this came out of nowhere and came hard from behind us.  We immediately started heading back but within about 3 minutes we were soaked to the bone.  This was not particularly a big deal.  The big deal was that we had to walk through a little village to get back to Tammie's house.  Tammie was wearing some light brown pants and a very light cotton top.  Once the rain got to her there wasn't a whole lot to be left up to the imagination as the clothes stuck to her like glue.  Trying to hide the black bra and underwear were completely hopeless.    We tried as hard as we could to "fluff" the clothes up a bit but it really was hopeless as well.  By the time we walked through the one-street village the rain had stopped EVERYONE was back on the streets.  Keep in mind this is an area of the country where wearing sleeveless shirts is a little risky for a women.  So....we put on quite a show as we paraded through.  Everyone thought we are crazy anyways for walking in the hills when we didn't have to  but this put us over the top.  They didn't even try to hide their laughter at Tammie's predicament as the whole town was in complete hysterics.  It was probably the longest 40 meter walk of my life.  If we ever turned around to look behind us we would find about 5 Ugandan men trying to get a closer look at Tammie's butt :) 

Toilet on left, shower on right	Tammie's House	Overlooking Ntungamo. Saturday Hike
Mmmmm Matoke. Saturday Hike	Overlooking Ntungamo. Saturday Hike	Tammie the Super Model
Resting in the Hills	Tammie, Pete, and Jan. Sunday Hike.	Sunday's Hike up "Fig Tree Hill"
Over Looking Valley from Ridge	Mr. Cow	Tammie, Pete, Jan....and cows
How close can I get?	Resting at the Summit	The destination....Fig Tree Hill
Climbing Fig Tree	The Summit	Resting in the Fig Tree
Better tie ur goat up to something other than grass sir	Post downpour	Wiring Ntungamo District
Wiring Ntungamo District	Wiring Ntungamo District	Ntungamo Staff
Ntungamo Staff

Trip to Kisizi (The Middle of Nowhere)

On Monday Pete and Jan took us to Kisizi, which is literally in the middle of nowhere.  I had whiplash by the time we got there from the pot hole infested road.  Tomas, a dutch VSO (and my tennis partner at the VSO conference), works there and he has set up a little satellite internet cafe there.  The town is down the longest bumpiest road in Uganda and you really wonders if you are going to hit the edge of the earth.  It is a quaint little town but quite beautiful.  It is interesting to see what the different placements what what each volunteer does and doesn't have.  It seems that if you live in or near Kampala you have a lot of amenities, you are lose to many more people, but what you give up in the city is the peaceful feeling that you get in the middle of nowhere.  I'm not sure I could do 2 years in a place like Kisizi but it sure had some appeal with it's slow pace and gorgeous waterfall right in the middle of town.  Tomas has become pretty fluent in the local language which is very impressive considering even English isn't his first language.

Kisizi Waterfall	Tammie approaching the falls	Kisizi Waterfall
Bridge over Kisizi "River"	Craig and Tomas	Jan Pete Tomas Tam
Craig and Tam at falls

Bushara Island

Well it would be too good to be true to think I would have a completely flawless travel experience in the Southwest.  On the way to Lake Bunyoni my phone slipped out of my pocket while riding on a Matatu.  Talk about bad luck.  There were about 5 places where this could have gone better....but no!!!  It slid to the front of the vehicle.  Nobody, including me noticed until it started ringing.  When it was spotted near the sliding door...but did the conductor pick it up.  Of course not.  He opened the door and the phone popped out of the vehicle, bounced back underneath just in time to get run over by the back wheel of the bus.  Bye bye little yellow phone.

Last time we were at Lake Bunyoni I thought that it couldn't get any better than staying at Camp Overland.  Well, Bushara Island beat this by a country mile.  The campgrounds essentially cover the whole island but everything is well spaced out for privacy.  The tenting is very cheap but we went for the luxury tents.  And these were luxury.  Private bathroom, shower and very nice comfortable beds under a solid roof over our heads which was good because it rained for most of the weekend and it was COLD.  Most of the luxury tents are nicely secluded and you have a fantastic view of the lake...which solidified my desires to never live away from water again.

There are certain things in life that you tend to forget how much you appreciate until you are doing them again....and on Bushara we got to hang out by a campfire every night.  I rediscovered that there aren't too many things I like doing more than this.  The only thing missing was Deas and Mac with the guitars. 

Bushara also had a pretty good (I think???) telescope for us to use.  I've never looked at the moon through a telescope but it is pretty cool.   The big disappointment of the weekend was looking at Mars through the Telescope.  Mars looks like a dot in the sky without the telescope.  Mars also looks like a dot in the sky through the telescope.

Since it rained for most of the day we spent our time learning how to play the Ugandan "game".  We don't know what it is called but it amused us for quite a few hours.  The sun finally came out, and when it finally comes out it is hot hot hot....and the swimming was great.  So bizarre to think that at home right now it is below 10 degrees, people have started skiing, and I imagine the X-Mas craze is in full force....and here I am floating in a lake like it is the middle of July.  You certainly have "The Bad Days" here, but on days like this life sure isn't too tough. 

Roberto and Rebecca

All of a sudden my stolen watch looks pretty miniscule :)  In terms of "Bad Days" Roberto and Rebecca, a Spanish couple, have had about 60 of them.  They bought a vehicle in Kampala which promptly broke down.  They then got ripped off in Mbarara buying old car parts (that they were told were new) and suffered another major breakdown, resulting in a VERY expensive trip to Kampala and a brand new motor to the tune of about 1 million shillings.  After all this they finally made it back to their home only to find it had been robbed while they were away.  If all this wasn't bad enough their placement has been a bit of a botch job and they are expected to do a 40 minute commute which is not acceptable.  We were told to be prepared for things not to be what we expected here but this seems extreme.  Anyways, I have a lot of respect for the way they have handled it.  They're still wearing smiles and seem to have a great attitude which I'm not sure I would have.  The straw that broke the Camel's back came on Saturday night for Roberto though.  Tammie had ordered the Chowder for lunch an received a huge hearty bowl of soup.  When Roberto received his for dinner it came in a tiny little saucer.  Roberto tolerated losing a million shillings on his car but was NOT going to tolerate this....much to our amusement.  "That's it" he says. "I'm complaining.  This is not a bowl!!! This is a...a..a...this is NOT a bowl!!!"  Quite funny to finally see it all get to him.  I guess if he was going to get anything out of this country it was going to be his chowder.  Too funny.

Tammie had a good weekend but spent a good part of it upset that our reservations got botched.  I'm surprised that this surprised her in the least.  These are the basics of living in Uganda:

Greenbull Tent. The nicest on the island	Cisticola Tent. Also nice!	Rebecca, Juan, and Roberto playing "the game"
Tam (and Juan)	Juan taking a nap	Craig and the game
Star gazing around the fire

World AIDS Days

Monday was World AIDS Day in ....well the world I guess.  But the importance of such a day is most likely felt more in Africa than anywhere else in the world.  In fact it seems that North America has become rather complacent with regards to AIDS and the threat of AIDS.  You can notice this even in the marketing of condoms now.  When the AIDS scare first broke out about 15 years ago (I think???) in North America condoms were marketed for safety prevention but now it seems that the predominant marketing technique is pleasure and who's brand is best at delivering this.  Kind of says something in my mind.

Anyways, there was a big outdoor festival downtown that we (Juan, Vix, and I) went to.  There was lots of live music and speeches aimed at creating AIDS awareness....but as the night went on it turned into more of an old fashioned party.  Maybe this kind of thing would happen in Montreal or Toronto but certainly not in "No Fun 'couver".

Most of the music was quite good.  There was no Ugandan (c)rap.  I really detest the style of rap music here but the jazzy funk music is fantastic with all the bongos and drums.  The most hilarious act of the night was this guy with a voice like Barry White.  The lyrics of his song, were out of this world.  The message was pure, and it was a somber message but he could use some work on his artistic side because I couldn't help being amused at the direct nature of them.  Here is a sample:

Pre Xmas IT Meeting in Kampala	Post IT Meeting drinks @ Punchlines	Ntungamo Wedding
Ntungamo Rwandan Reception	Bushara Island.	The goal: Throw Tam in the water.
Tam on the Bushara Dock	Old School shower	Cory...talking to God?
Me, Cory and Vix enjoying Cory's dance moves	Chill'n out. Was hotter than it looks :)	Crater Bay
Pool game @ Camp Overland	Pool game...Mgahinga volcano in background	Bungalows @ Crater Bay
Crater Bay dock	Breakfast routine @ Crater Bay	Can't decide if morning swim is good idea yet
...more Crater Bay	Tam and Liz	Great Form!!!!!
Dugouts...Tam, Cory, Greg and Neil	Christmas Eve sillyness	Xmas Eve sing along....no stereo
Me Tam, Liz, Vix and Neil	Gang @ hilltop	View from hilltop restaurant
Chill'n on the dock	...and more chill'n

New Year’s Eve: A night to forget…..

New Year’s’ Eve always has the potential to be one of those high expectations low delivery kind of nights.  Everyone tries to make the perfect plans to have the best night ever and it always ends up not quite living up to its billing.  This year was supposed to be different.  It was supposed to be memorable as we were to all get together and head out to the Speke Resort on the shores of Lake Victoria to watch the Shaggy concert and fireworks over the lake.  My first and probably only New Years in Africa.  It ended up being memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Tammie and I started the night playing pool at the Sheraton.  It sounds snobby when you tell people that you hang out at the Sheraton but it really does have about the only good pool table in the city.  We met a couple Ugandans who were very cool.  Young guys who were into music and looking to see their friend perform that evening.  They invited us back to the Sheraton later on when there would be fireworks and an outdoor concert.  We told them we’d talk to our friends and see. Had we known what was to come we would have just stayed there playing pool as it was probably the highlight of the night.

But we headed off and met everyone for dinner at around 7.  Over dinner the Shaggy plans fell apart.  Everyone was kind of in different moods and wanted different things. In the end we decided on the outdoor party at the Sheraton simply because it would be the easiest.  I had a good time but to be honest the event itself was nothing you can’t find on any Friday night in Kampala.  At around 1 am we hooked up with the locals we had met and decided to try checking out a couple bars which were still going off.  The streets were still alive with people and you had the feeling for the most part that the party in Kampala was just getting started.  The first bar we tried was packed and there was no way we were getting through the chaotic lineup.  So we decided to check out a place about 15 minutes away called the Rock Garden.  As we started to walk there it started to pour…..and this is where the night got interesting.

Foolishly, Tammie and I decided to split from the group and get on a Boda Boda (motorbike taxi) because we were getting absolutely drenched.  We both got on the back of one bike and started off.  As we cruised down Kampala road ducking in and out of traffic it suddenly dawned on me how ridiculously stupid we were to be on that bike on New Years.  From then, everything happened in slow motion…at first.  I saw a girl in a hot pink dress from about 30 metres away kind of stumbling down the sidewalk with a small group…and I could almost see it happening then. As we got closer she suddenly veered out onto the street.  “We’re going over!!” I yelled to Tammie and right then the Boda driver locked up the brakes hard and we went over hard.  Tammie and I got thrown away from the bike and slid along the wet pavement.  The driver and the bike hit the girl ahead.  Tammie and I were hardly down for a second after the slide as we both jumped up in shock….also worried about what other vehicles might be coming from behind.  There was lots of shouting between the driver and the people on the sidewalk and it was pouring rain and we were both in a little bit of shock but unhurt for the most part….and for some reason in the confusion, shock, and general desire to get out of the situation….we got back on the bike!  

The driver just started to accelerate when they descended upon me.  I felt the first hand on my watch again. Then one around my belt and one in each of my pockets.  This did NOT happen in slow motion and happened in a fraction of a second and it was clearly coordinated.  I’m not sure how many people were in on it but there were at least 6 hands.  I could just feel the grabs and could not tell if they got anything.  As soon as I felt the hand on my wrist I thrashed pretty violently and as I turned I grabbed one of the guy’s arms.  The Boda driver wanted no part of this and he accelerated and the guy slipped away from me and ran.  I think to a certain extent some of my frustration here has been brewing slowly for a while.  Like a bottle of coke that you shake and shake and shake and then BOOM…..it pops.  Before I had time to think I was on my feet after the guy screaming at him while the boda driver took off in the opposite direction with Tam still on the back.  I was still unsure if he had anything but he was running for a reason I figured…..so I continued the chase up the street in the pouring rain.  And what I didn’t realize until later is the guy was literally running for his life.  I was about 2 feet from the guy and then BOOM he was side swiped by 2 other guys who pinned him up against the fence.  The mob formed quickly.  As fast as I could I checked my pockets and my wallet was still there and at the time that was good enough for me.   I yelled some profanities at the guy about “If you ever try that again” blah blah blah and told him to get the hell out of there.  The mob was getting angry now and I had to keep yelling “It’s ok it’s ok it’s over”.  A member of the mob gave the guy I was chasing a good shove into the fence and told him to get out of here….so the guy ran again.   And of course…..like me the first time….as an instinctual reaction….EVERYONE chased.  I was running and screaming at everyone to let him go as I could see a violent scene erupting.  As I franticly ran along with the crowd I caught one guy out of the corner of my eye run into the middle of the street and stop.  Out of his trench coat he pulled out a huge rifle.....stopped and took aim.  “Holy %*&$!!!   DON”T SHOOOOOOT!!!!”  I screamed over and over as I sprinted to the guard.  I got there in time and sprinter disappeared into the darkness.

Needless to say we were a bit rattled.  From the accident to the mugging to the mob chase almost ending in a shootout, it took me a bit to unwind.   I really have no idea what I would have done if the guy had pulled the trigger but I’m sure I would have felt very responsible.  In the end we weren’t hurt and they only got about 35,000 out of my pocket……. but it was a hell of a 3 minutes.

Back at the Rock Garden we tried to chill out an relax.  “You see”, said our Ugandan friend, “this is why you should never split from the group”.   Yes.  I shall not make that mistake again.

February 9th

I can't believe it has been over a month since I posted anything.  It's certainly not that life has been boring.  Quite the opposite really.  And there have been some good things that have happened to me and some very bad.  So....here goes for anyone still reading :)

*(&*$*‘n Charles!!

If you are ever making a trip to the SSese Isalnds and you have the misfortune of ending up on a boat with a captain named Charles….throw him overboard and navigate on your own.  Never has a Ugandan been so close to being murdered by 6 Muzungus….unbeknownst to him.  By the time we reached the shores of Kalangala on the Ssese Islands there wasn’t much people were saying other than “%^&#@^ ing Charles!”

The SSese islands are a group of about 45 islands in the middle of Lake Victoria.  Lake Victoria is the second biggest lake in the world and feels more like the ocean that a lake.  On the trip over Cory and I got nostalgic for being on our respective Canadian coasts.  East for him and West for me.  I also spent a good potion of the time convincing him and Vix to move to Van. 

The boats you take are about 6 feet wide and about 45 feet long.  They offer VERY little in the ways of seating or comfort and ABSOLUTELY nothing in terms of safety.  Basically we conceded that if anything happened it was all over.   People who end up in boating accidents on Lake Vic rarely survive because of it’s size…it’s roughness and its; currents. 

We caught the “3” o'clock boat from the shores of Entebbe and not to our surprise at all we didn’t leave until 4:45.  The starting point for the boat journey is a port just outside Entebbe and is used to ship supplies and people out the SSess Isalnds as well as other places around the Lake.  Most of the boats get loaded to the brim with matoke, fish , ice, beer etc etc.  We were quoted that the trip would take us 2.5 hours which would get us in at about 7…allowing for ½ an hour to find our “beach resort” before dark.  About 2 hours into the trip you literally could barely see land in any direction at all and we knew we were in a bit of trouble.  When I turned around to look at the back of the boat I found Charles peeing off the side of the boat with about 7 empty beer bottles at his feet I knew we were in trouble.  I’ll admit we did get a fantastic sunset from the middle of Lake Vic but no one had eaten and everyone….save Cory and I who were just happy to be out on the water again…was starting to get more than a little testy when the sun set and we were no where near our island.  We made stop after stop on various islands where Charles would disappear….presumably to have another drink with a buddy or 2.    For some reason every time we stopped on an island the locals who would come out to greet our boat would always request that we “Leave one Muzungu behind!!”  What exactly did they want to do with the one we left behind J   Cannibalism was not mentioned in the Lonely Planet.

After a long journey and many threats on Charles’ life we pulled into “port” at about 10:30.  4 hours late and 3 hours after dark.  Once again there was no dock so we had to get carried to shore by the locals….but not before everyone did a thorough scan of the reeds with the flashlight for crocs which are a legitimate concern.

Could things go worse???  Of course they could.  When we got to the beach resort it was like a ghost town and looked like no one had been there for about 3 months.  No one expect the guard dogs who descended upon me once I was around back.  Animals are treated so poorly here that all you have to do is raise your arm and they cower away so it was certainly not a problem.  After about ½ an hour of debating what to do someone mysteriously appeared out of the dark.  Where did they come from….how long have they been there.  Anyways, didn’t matter they opened the kitchen….the pool table….and the bar for us and they cooked us the most amazing tilapia and sauce I have ever had….so I suppose all is well that ends well.

The islands, as with almost every thing else in Uganda, were incredible.  The locals have their own language and they are amazingly welcoming.  The islands were completely untouched by the years of civil war and have a really nice feel to them.  Uganda is really a place of unparalleled beauty as I have mentioned before.  We spent the days really doing nothing except beaching and being lazy.   I had my nightly chat by the fire with whoever was willing to stay up until ungodly hours with me.  I reckon we will all have to take the drugs for Bilharzia as we were none too careful about going in the water and there were snail shells everywhere.  I hear it is a harmless 6 day dose of pills you take to cure the infections. 

Matt and I renewed our table tennis rivalry.  I’m glad I edge him out in table tennis (by a hair) because he has turned into an unbeatable pool shark which is starting to get more than a little annoying….although not as annoying as it seems it is getting for all the lady friends who no longer need to ask “Where are Craig and Matt??” whenever there is a pool table around.  I think pool is a pretty amazing pastime as it must be played EVERYWHERE in the world….although no one plays the same rules.   Playing by different rules at home will be weird….and so will not having to cover your hand in baby powder so the sweaty part of your hand doesn’t prevent the cue from sliding smoothly.  I always leave the bars here smelling of a sweet combination of baby powder and smoke. 

There is a cute little village that we strolled through on the island.  All mud huts and very “African”.   Before long I felt like the Pied Piper.  About 14 kids following me around in awe….touching me whenever they could.  I let each of them try on my sunglasses and they all freaked out.  Very cute.  The kids are amazing.  They are just oozing of innocence.  We also wandered into a little mud hut and drank some local distilled banana liquor.  YUCK!!!!!!  I am really surprised I didn’t get sick.  Horrible horrible stuff! It was warm and chunky.  Everyone drinks out of one big bucket on the ground and shares a long “straw” made out of some sort of reed.  They got quite a kick out of the look on my face when I swallowed this stuff.

At any rate, it was nice weekend as Vix, Cory, Matt and Anna are my closest friends of the people I have met in Uganda so it was great to get away with them.   You honestly never feel like you would ever want to leave in times like that.  It was amazing to get out on the water again as well.  We all fantasized about us all getting a boat when they come out to Vancouver.  It is nice to dream….but it is also very sad to think that in all reality I will never see these people again when I leave Uganda.

All the best pics are on Cory's camera but these are the best I got....

Port in Entebbe	Best seat on the boat	Me and Anna before the trip
Ssese Isalnds Beach	...more beach'n	...more beach'n
Vix, Cory and Anna	Vix on boat	Cory and Matt
Silly stick game.	Vball on Ssese. We won a botle of Red label	War Ships on Lake
Ssese Sunset	Ssese Sunset

 

Hospice

For the first time I am having some real work frustrations.  I have been extremely lucky to have gone 5 months before my first frustrations.  In fact most VSOs have tuned work out to some extent at this point.  Many failed placements etc etc.  But up until now everything has been great for me.  Harriet has been fantastic to work with and I reckoned it would all finish that way.  But Harriet has not been able to dedicate as much time to IT these days as she is filling in for someone on leave (btw they get a HUGE amount of leave here).  So I am left to run around and troubleshoot PC’s which is not why I am here.  I’m not supposed to be gap filling….I am essentially supposed to be training for a sustainable future.  

Al’s Bar

I never thought I would describe a small, smoky, expensive prostitute infested bar as paradise but I simply must when it comes to Al’s Bar.  Everything in life is about timing I figure so it was most likely the timing of my first trip to Al’s bar more than the bar itself but I hadn’t heard what I considered good music in a long long time  The plan was for a quick drink and a couple games of pool and then off to bed as it WAS a worknight.  But then it started….Bruce Springsteen, then Bryan Adams, then Whitesnake, then the Stones, the Beatles, then Nickleback!!!!  Under “normal” circumstances this would not be such a big deal but this is a rock and roll starved country so you cannot believe the excitement for me.   There was more air guitar than an 80s throwback party and we certainly perpetuated the stereotype that white people can’t dance.   And for better or for worse now when ever anyone hears Summer of 69 I get the text messages.  “Hey Rocker!  It’s your song”.  Sweet.

We went to Al’s again for Cory’s birthday and relived the glory.  It did not disappoint.  I think it is mainly Vix, Cory, and myself that like the bar but we have a good enough time to suck anyone in.  Liz is dating this Ugandan who I taught to dance like a white man (his term).  He asked her the other day  “How is that crazy guy??”   Nice.  All it took was a little Bryan Adams and Nickleback.  Good Canadian kids!!

Getting Taken Advantage Of

I think it must be basic human nature to not want to be taken advantage of.  I see it all the time here.  I see VSO’s, who really do have a lot of money relatively speaking, and arguing intensely over 100 shillings….which is the equivalent of 5 cents.  But it gets really intense and people end up shouting and storming off if they know that the Ugandan price is 400 shillings and then driver is trying to charge 500.  So it is clearly NOT about the money because the money is really negligible….it is about not wanting to be taken advantage of.  I started to hypothesize about if it was the same thing for rich athletes that are offered a contract for 5 million dollars a year but they are holding out because they think they deserve 5.5 million.  Does the extra half million really make a difference??  I reckon they are just holding out because they think they are worth that much to the team and Joe Bloe from Colorado is getting paid 6 so I deserve 5.5.  Who knows….but sometimes I get a real kick out of watching the arguments here.  Matt always has the best lines.  “Look, we’re all sensible people here….let’s have some sensible prices!”.  But it does get tiring sometimes.  You argue all the way down and they eventually say that is their lowest price so you pretend to walk away and they call you back and then you start over.  Sometimes I just pay what they are asking to save on effort. 

When was the last time you were run over by an SUV?

I think the statistics say that 80% of all injuries to VSO volunteers are vehicle related….and as I was doing a fair amount of traveling I figured I would likely fall into this 80% and if I was to be hurt here it would most likely be in some kind of vehicle accident.  However, I did think that I would have the benefit of being in a vehicle myself…..and as I walked away from my motorbike accident unscathed I thought maybe I would be ok.   I guess not.

We started our night at a place called JD’s.  Raj, a fellow Canadian has befriended the people at JD’s and has really become family as they are all of Indian heritage.  It was a buddy of his’ birthday so after dinner the EXPENSIVE liquor came out and so did the Indian dance music, shawls, and headgear.  We all danced along to Indian music for over an hour with the owners of the restaurant.  It was an absolutely hilarious site to see a bunch of muzungus dressed up in Indian gear.  I was like Halloween.  At the end of it all the birthday boy absolutely insisted that he treated us ALL to dinner and a night out.  There was no saying no to this offer….to pay him back we told him we would take him to our favorite bar J

We then made the predictable transfer to Al’s bar at about 2.  After a few hours and a great time at Al’s bar it was time to go.  While Anna the negotiator argued over the price of a taxi home I sat back and watched in the parking lot and was casually leaning on this massive SUV when suddenly the vehicle fired up and sped off.  I got clipped by the rear view mirror and knocked to the ground.  I scrambled as good as I could but the back wheel got me and drove right over my back leg.  I had some good pain killers in me from the free liquor but this REALLY hurt.  I lay on the ground like I had been shot for a second or two.  In fact I cannot tell you in any accurate detail how much it hurts to be run over.  Matt saw the whole thing and say he can’t believe my leg wasn’t shattered.  Before I knew it some Ugandan life saver had me on his shoulders and was running down the road with me.  Where he was taking me??????  Even in my state of pain I found this slightly comical.   I really don’t know…..but I finally persuaded him to put me down.   Matt recovered my hat which he said was spit out by the back wheel and is completely mangled.  Considering my hat was on my head I’m feeling pretty lucky it wasn’t my head under the wheel.

My ankle and my knee are pretty bad but I’m pretty sure nothing is broken.  My ankle is the size of a golf ball and I need to use whoever is closest as a human crutch.  No more tennis for awhile unfortunately.  I will probably get it checked out this week.  There is a football tourney in 2 weeks and I REALLY hope it is better for that.

Rich Friends

About 3 months ago, while playing "Suicide" at Club Obligato we met this guy named Kalan.  He is a rich banker and works in Kampala.  He is Iranian and is quite an entertaining guy with a pretty colorful personality.  To make a long story short he has a massive crush on Vix and because of that likes to wine and dine her and her friends.  But to be honest I think he is also just a REALLY nice guy who likes to show people a good time.  This weekend he took us all out on his boat on Lake Vic and took us to a members only private island is the SSese's.  The place was amazing but also amazingly expensive.  Clearly us VSO volunteers could not ever get near a place like that without knowing someone like Kalan.  Was a great day though chilling on the boat and getting whipped across the lake in the tube.  At the end of it I had decided I didn't necessarily need to be rich myself....but it sure would be nice to have a few rich friends all my life :)

Private Beach Resort	Matt, Vix, and Kalan	The Pink Palace
Vix, Anna, and Matt....it's a hard knock life...for us	Vix and Anna	Matt, Kalan,, Kalan's buddy, Vix, Anna on South facing beach
View from the water	Vix	The trip home.... :(

 

You Shall Extend!

“You shall extend”.  That is what every Ugandan says to you when you say you will be here for 6 months only.

I made a promise to myself 6 months ago that I would be home in time for the NHL playoffs as, without watching a single hockey game this year, I KNOW that this is the Canucks’ year.  It is starting to look like that will not happen….and I may not make it back for hockey season at all.  Life seems to always take strange twists and it has been a hectic 2 weeks but I am now thinking of extending my placement or possibly getting a “real” job here.  To put it simply….I am not ready to leave.  Things will change….the people I am close to will leave eventually….I will finally have enough of it….and in time I will be ready to go home….but that hasn’t happened yet.  I’ve learned a lot through good and bad experiences and to be honest…….the reasons for me wanting to stay are not that deep…..it is just too much fun here.

It now feels like home.  My house feels like it is my home.  My friends here seem like friends I have known for years….my job like the job I have worked for years.  It is strange.  I was checking out some pictures from my brother’s website and I saw my old place at 11^th and Birch back in Vancouver.  Eerie because it reminded me what I am going back to…and what I left behind and it all seems like this fantasy world.  I saw some of my “stuff” in the background and I was blown away that I actually own “stuff”.  I haven’t been keeping in touch as well with people from home over the last month and I think for the most part people have sort of forgotten about me so I don’t really know the daily goings on anymore….and this also probably causes me to lose touch with the social side of Vancouver as well.

But speaking of a fantasy world….I got to watch about 10 minutes of hockey highlights a couple days ago.  I watched with complete fascination thinking to myself “I can actually do that…..I think”.  I was really in awe of everything….how they skated…how they controlled the puck…everything.  Everyone around me thought I was a freak….giggling and laughing at some of the highlight reel goals.  Amazing sport though.  I really miss it.  But the longer I am here in Africa the easier it gets to stay.  I think what I have realized is that it is about the people not necessarily the place….and I mean my VSO friends.  If I hadn’t made the friendships I have made none of this would have worked out well.  It would have been a great great place to see but 6 months alone would have been enough for me….and despite the fact that Tammie is here I spent 80% of my time in Kampala without her…. So 6 months alone would not have gone well.  And there were times early on when I was down right miserable.  But like I said it is about seeing and doing new things….meeting new people.  You will not enjoy all the things you do…..and you will not actually like all the people you meet…but it is the process that makes it good.

But as I have been here for 5 months nothing shocks me anymore.  Everything I used to stare at in awe just seems to float by me now.  I am really looking forward to my parents coming in 2 weeks so I can see it again through a newcomer’s eyes.  See what their first impressions are as it will remind me of what mine were.

So to make a long story short I think I will extend my African trip.  I might head down to South Africa because I am craving some surfing…  Vix’s brother just moved there and she seems to think we would get along well so that is a possibility….or I might get a job…..or I might stay at Hospice for a couple days a week and work for free and just tour East Africa.  Who knows?  I guess when I decided to leave Van to come here I was able to do it because I knew that I could come back to Van in 8 months and nothing would have changed.  I would go to the same places with the same people on the same nights.  And I believe that that will still be the case.  But when I choose to leave Uganda I know it is a door that is closed forever….goodbye to the people and goodbye to the place.  So basically I do not feel I’m quite done here yet.

March 9th

1^st Annual Walicami Cup

If you have ever spent anytime in a 3^rd world country it doesn’t take you long to figure out why football is the most popular sport in the world.  All you need, literally is a ball….and often you don’t even need that.  Wherever you go in this country you see kids playing football in the most bizarre circumstances.  Very rarely do they even have a proper pitch and even less often do they have proper boots.  But as long as they have a ball they get a game going.  In fact many times they don’t even have a ball but rather a rolled up piece of tape or some other make shift ball.  I have seen 1 proper pitch in the whole country.  Everything else is sloped like a golf green and the ground is patchy and bumpy making it seem near impossible to control the ball.  At any rate, maybe the only thing bigger than Jesus in Uganda is football.

I had hoped to get involved in some sort of football before I left and luckily for me Matt organized a full fledged tournament to promote his NGO.  Top prize for the tourney was a brand new goat J   My hat goes off to Matt for this event.  It is damn near impossible to organize anything in this country but tournament was impressive.  16 teams, 4 pools, with the top two teams from each pool going on to the quarters, semis and finals.  VSO entered a Muzungu team.  We had predications from the locals that we would lose each game by at least 10-0.  And watching the teams warm up that looked like a possibility.  Some of the teams play in the Division 1 league which is basically 1 step down from the equivalent of the English Premiership.  These guys were no David Beckham but in Matt’s assessment a few of them could definitely challenge for a spot on an English roster.  They could dance with the ball!  The event drew a huge crowd and as usual apart from me, Matt and James, they were all Ugandan.  As usual ALL eyes were on the white kids!  We actually had people yelling “Muzungu Muzungu Muzungu” at us while we were playing.  They also seemed overly amused anytime we did anything slightly awkward…..which was all the time.  But the proof was in the pudding that a well organized defensive squad can outshine a talented, skill oriented club any day.  We only scored 1 goal in our 3 Pool games but we ended up with a record of 1 win 2 draws with zero goals against…..enough to get us to the quarter finals.  It was like an 80s movie because the crowd was literally laughing at us when we first took the pitch….but after we went through the pool games I had Ugandans coming up to me and saying “Muzungu muzungu you play well. You play well.”.  The dream ended quickly in the quarters as we played a team with a full kit.   Not only did they look great but they were skilled.   They were a Div 1 team and they smoked us 5-0.  But to make us feel better they did end up winning the whole thing in a shootout.  I will never forget the pandemonium when their striker potted the final goal in the shootout.  Hundreds of people stormed the field running around hugging and screaming and carrying the team around on their shoulders.  Kids danced and screamed completely unaware of what was going on.  All I could do was sit there and laugh….and watch my wallet J   It was a cool “African” experience.

My Parents Trip-Kampala

My parents arrived at around 11:30 at night….and predictably I was late to pick them up.  I could just imagine what they were thinking….”He may have changed as a result of this trip but some things will never change…our mature, punctual 29 year old”.  They actually got kicked out of the airport as it was closing but luckily I got there as they were shutting down.  I kinda forgot that my parents are very well traveled as I pictured my mom outside the airport in tears wondering if she was going to get murdered.  Obviously all the Ugandans there looked after them.   It was great to see them.  It was probably the longest I have ever gone without seeing my parents.

I had hoped that they would arrive during the day so that I could see their first reactions to everything in Africa as we drove from Entebbe to my place but alas it was too dark and the city has gone to sleep for the most part.  When I finally did hear what their reactions were to Africa it was neat to see the things I just accepted as being normal now.

We spent 2 days in Kampala before we started our tour of the Southwest….the most beautiful place in Uganda in my mind.  Victoria kindly took them on a tour of her placement, Reach Out, in the morning.  It was good for them to interact with the locals and see what a successful NGO and AIDS project looks like.  Vix’s placement has well regarded as an example of how a successful NGO should be implemented.  Many start out with noble intentions but inefficiency limits their effectiveness.  Vix also managed to give them a tour of a local school where we completely disrupted the whole school’s classes by the presence of white people.  We got to hear the teacher say to the class “Good morning class” and they would respond “Good morning to you teacher”.  Now I know why all these little kids run up to me and yell “Good morning to you teacher”.  It’s all they know how to say!

 It was a great tour and great for them to meet some of my friends to put faces to names….and as always Vix was loved by all the people we met.   But the tour was also a good insight into what was really happening in the country.  Most of the people they met were HIV positive and as much as I have talked about how fun and beautiful the country is there are some very very dark things going on here that you shouldn’t forget….and I had hoped they could see all sides of the country.

We did the usual tour of the Southwest including Lake Mburo, and Lake Bunyoni.  Both were as beautiful as ever.  Lake Bunyoni is hands down my favorite place in Uganda and will probably always remind me of Tammie as we had some great times there…..definitely my best in Uganda  My parents were predictably skeptical of the sleeping situation at Lake MBuro.  I woke up at around 3 am and went outside the tent to use the washroom and could see a HUGE Hippo pretty much eating off the base of their tent!  Hippos kill more humans than any other animal in Eastern Africa.  No one slept much that night.

 

My Parents Trip-Gorillas Tracking

I never thought I‘d be much for wildlife watching but there is certainly something cool about seeing wildlife in the wild.  I had never planned on doing the gorillas.  It costs about 200$ US which is what I make in 2 months here.  But a while back I got pressured by Tammie and my parents to join them so I gave in a got a permit.

The experience was well worth the money.  Even before the tracking started the trip into Kisoro was amazing. The hills looked like they had a grade of about 75 degrees and yet they were COVERED in farmland.  It was absolutely beautiful.  We stayed in a community campground that night right at the park gate which needed more than a little tender loving care.  But never mind….we slept…a little.  It was COLD!!!! 

The Mgahinga is a national park that is at the foothills of three volcanoes.  The top of one of the volcanoes stands at the border of Uganda, Tanzania, and Congo.

We started tracking gorillas at about 8 am….and the tracking was half the fun.  There had been a massacre by the LRA in Lira the day before.  200 people murdered in a camp for the displaced.  On a side note how can a country the size of Uganda not put an end to this!!  I refuse to believe much effort is being put into it as it just seems to have gone on far too long.  As a result of the massacre….we were escorted by about 8 armed guards instead of the usual 2.  We were led through the jungle by a machete wielding guide who sliced his way through vines, bamboo, and all sorts of foliage.   Basically, tracking the gorillas is not as tough as I thought.  We thought we would purely be tracking them old school based on scent, debris and other natural factors…..this was until our guide pulled out his mobile GPS device J   In all seriousness the GPS gets us to where they slept the night before.  From there on in it is pure old school tracking.  But before you got close to seeing the gorillas you got a good feel for how big and powerful they are from the damage they create to the jungle as they stroll through it.  You also get a feel for how much they eat from how much crap they leave behind!!

I’ll never forget my first sighting.  About 8 feet in front of me as I came through a heavy patch of bamboo all I could see was the whole forest shaking.  It looked a scene from Jurassic park.  I thought, either that is a bull dozer shaking the trees like that or this thing is huge.  I took 3 more steps around the bush and there right in front of me was a HUGE Silver back.  Like I said I never really thought I was too taken with seeing wildlife but this was something else.  I froze in my tracks somewhat in shock at the size of this creature.  It was just sitting there eating bamboo when he slowly and casually turned and looked at me.  He gave me this dreary look that sort of said “What the hell you looking at Muzungu”.  It was pretty amazing.  You get to spend 1 hour with the gorillas max.  We got to see the babies play and one playfully hanging on the vines about 2 feet from my face.  I’ll admit I was actually scared at this point. 

Everyone really enjoyed the experience…and Tammie….who is an animal freak was on cloud 9.  For anyone thinking about doing it you will not regret it….and as you sit there in front of the Silverback you will not think about the money.

My Parents Trip-Queen Elizabeth Park

After the gorillas it was on to Queen Elizabeth park….and Mweya Safari Lodge.  All I can say about Mweya is wow.  As soon as I got back to kampala I told all my friends who were thinking about skipping it that they absolutely can’t.  The view from the pool there is just too good to be true.  It looks out over the Kazinga Channel which links Lake Albert and Lake George.  You can sit on the edge of the pool and look out across the channel and watch Buffalo, Hippos, crocs, Kob and any other wildlife that wanders down to the water for a drink.  Of course you certainly pay for this beauty.  70$ US a night.  Too much for a volunteer but it was worth hitting the savings account for this. If you are ever in Uganda do not leave without visiting this place.

The only animal left on my “To See” list was a lion. And we lucked out with 2 prides.  Mothers and cubs!  And although this may seem very sadistic….i was pretty thrilled when we almost saw a lioness make a kill on two Kobs that had locked their horns.  My heart was pounding as it chased them down.  It was like watching Discovery Channel live….but (un)luckily the Kobs broke free.  I felt a little odd having fully wanted to see full on blood and guts on the savannah L

But in general I was really taken with QE and liked it far better than Murchison….mainly because the park hadn’t been torched!  It was basically exactly what you picture if you are asked to close your eyes are picture an African savannah.

Mom, Dad, and Vix at market lunch	Mom in bus park	Mom & Dad in bus park chaos
Dad left alone to deal w/ Taxi	Dad in Kampala bus park	1/2 in the Northen and 1/2 in the Southern
The most ridiculous tent ever.A 1/2 Man tent!	MBuro Fishing village	Leaving Mburo fish village
MBuro boat trip	MBuro EARLY morning game walk	Me and my friends
Kisoro hills and volcano	Tracking gorillas	Gorillas...about the best pic I could get
Kisoro hills	Tracking gorillas with my armed buddies	Classic Ugandan Mud Hut
QE Main Gate!	Begging baboon	Nicest pool in the world I reckon!
Ahh the Mweya pool	Ahh the Mweya pool	Elephants
It's a hard knock life....for us!	Mmmmm...pig!	Great elephant shot!
QE savanah	QE plains

 

Tammie

This is about as personal as I want to get on this log…but it certainly deserves a note at the least. I dropped Tammie at the airport this morning.  She is moving onto Kelowna where she has always wanted to live as she has a potential job offer there….and I am happy for her that she gets the opportunity to do that.  Saying goodbye to anyone is never easy but saying goodbye to someone like Tammie was especially tough.  We likely will not be on contact at all for quite some time.  As we were coworkers for many years there have not been many days over the last 6 years that we have not spoken or seen each other….and I have always cherished her friendship and her spirit.  So it will certainly be an adjustment living without it.  I wish her all the best and look forward to talking to her when I return about how strange Canada and Canadians are J.  I have faith she will land on her feet in Canada....just as she always does.  But I will still miss her

Tennis

New Racquet….same result….Matt kicked my ass again.  In fact I don’t think I’ve won a set yet. Match 1 (6-2,6-4) Match 2 (6-4, 7-6) and Match3  (6-2,6-4).  It’s getting tiring really.  I don’t think I have EVER lost at something so consistently.  Getting run over by the SUV has not helped my game much as in most sports when I am outmatched in talent I can make up for it elsewhere….but no longer.  I have revamped my stroke and will unveil it on Friday!  At least I have fought my way back in the pool world and we are now head to head again.  This coming Friday night offers the best in Kampala recreation: 5:00-7:00 tennis match….Canada verse England; 8:00-12:00 Dinner and pool at JD’s; 1:00am-??????Al’s Bar!   Don’t worry Canada….I’ll pick up the slack.

Have I Changed?

When we were on our trip down south my dad asked us “How do you think you have changed as a result of this experience?”.  That is a tough question as change is usually gradual and hard to detect, especially in yourself.  I reckon I will go home and not many people will think I have changed at all….but I do feel different.  In many ways I am the same though.  I still like the things I liked before, and I still like the same kind of people I liked before.  Maybe I am a little less vain….but I was never that vain to begin with….or maybe I’m a little less materialistic….but I was never that materialistic to begin with…or maybe I am more tolerant….but I always felt pretty tolerant.  After thinking about it I decided that if I had changed at all it is in the way my eyes have been opened in terms of possibilities, choice, and change.  I used to think the only place in the world I could be happy was Vancouver….doing exactly what I was doing…with all the people I was doing it with.  I have certainly gone through periods of being unhappy in Van but I was always scared to make any changes…..personal or professional essentially because I was more focused on what I would lose than what I would gain from making a change….and basically fear kept me where I was.  I am no longer scared to make changes if I think it is time.  I think change keeps things fresh and makes you feel less trapped….if that is what you have been feeling.  You will always lose things…that is life….people come and people go…situations come and then go….the thing is that you stand to gain so much more than you have lost.  And it can be as simple as finding a new hobby or as huge as moving to Africa.  I have always said there are no choices you can make that you can’t go back on….aside from having kids.  Have children is the one thing I believe you can never go back on.  And you need to be SURE about this as you are no longer accountable to only yourself.  And so for me personally I won’t ever make that decision unless I am SURE I can be the type of father my dad was to me….and the bar was set pretty high.  So I think a decision like that is still a ways off J  So I will be curious to see if anyone else thinks I have changed….but I doubt they will.  Chris will still think I’m irresponsible, Khan will still think I am Kirk Muller, no one will trust me to not lose my wallet or my keys on any given night, and most people will still think I am their best bet for a late night and a good party….but I guess the important thing is....I do feel different.

 

March 24

Marco Polo

This is what Marco Polo means to most history buffs:

Marco Polo (1254-1324), is probably the most famous Westerner traveler and he excelled all other travelers in his determination, his writing, and his influence. His journey through Asia lasted 24 years. He reached further than any of his predecessors, beyond Mongolia to China. He traveled the whole of China and returned to tell the tale, which became the greatest travelogue.

This is what Marco Polo means to me:

AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have started to work 2 days a week for Hospice (without any pay as far as I can see).  With the the rest of the week I am going to help out at other placements and also spend a lot of my time studying for a Windows 2003 certification.  What better place to study than by the side of the pool right?!?  Hell no!  Every day at about 1:30 about 8 little Muzungu brats roll and and start playing the most ridiculous game every.  Marco Polo.  For 2 straight hours one kid yells MARCO!!!!!! and then the other 9 yell POLOOOOOOO!!!!!!  And then they repeat.   Looks like I will have to find a new place to study.

The Expat Lifestyle

I have started working 2 days a week as my official 6 month placement is finished.  I am sticking around to wrap up a couple projects and then ????   My plan was to finally get the time to do some studying for my Windows 2003 certification during the rest of the week which I planned to do beside the pool.  Seems like a pretty peaceful place to study and a solid plan.  And I think it would be if it weren't for the invention of the stupidest game ever....Marco Polo!!!!  Everyday about 15 little muzungu brats crowd the pool and start playing this game where one kid shouts "Marco"...and then 10 kids reply "Polo" and then they repeat that for about 2 hours.  Try reading a chapter on NAT Traversal while this is going on around you!!  I think I need a new game plan.

Well, I guess I got the ball rolling with regards to my coming home.  I finally sent out a few resumes.  I think I was putting it off because in the back of my mind I was thinking if I don’t get a job at home then I don’t have to go home J  The appeal of coming back to Van has faded a little I’ll admit.  Sounds silly but part of this is the fact that the Canucks chances of making it past the first round have dampened my desire to return home as I had always looked forward to watching a long playoff run in the Spring.  I guess I was actually born in Calgary so I could cheer for them.  At any rate there seem to be a few jobs out there in Van….but unfortunately there are more than a few unemployed IT people!   So I think basically I will stay in Uganda until I get a few bites and then I will return.  In the meantime Matt and I are living out expat lifestyle to the fullest.  We have given ourselves 1 week of indulging until we return to sensible volunteer behavior.  But in the meantime this is our schedule:

Boat Trip to Hairy Lemon	Corr in the falls	Corr and Vix in the falls
Corr and Vix in the falls	Matt, drinking a Nile in the Nile	The river outside our banda

Rwanda

Tomorrow morning I head off for Rwanda.  Despite all my adventures in Uganda I am not kidding myself into thinking I am well traveled....I have got Uganda down....and would feel comfortable anywhere in this country.... but heading into a country like Rwanda will be a whole new ball game I think.  See you all in a week!

May 9th...My First post in Too Long

I have been writing a bit here and there I just have not been online long enough to upload anything

The “Rwanda Trip”

Over the past few months there have been many many plans being kicked around in terms of traveling the area but nothing ever seemed to get sorted.  2 months ago I was supposed to end up in Zanzibar….then Spain….then Vancouver so needless to say things have changed a little for me.  But finally we actually got a trip planned and I was nothing short of amazed when we hit the road for Rwanda.  It was just Cory, Vix and I as others had to work and Matt and Anna had relatives in town.  We started out the trip by heading to Lake Bunyoni for a couple of nights.  I have said goodbye to Lake Bunyoni about 4 times now and always seem to make it back.  The circumstances were considerably different this time and it was all a little strange to be honest but I still really enjoyed it.  How can you not at this place.  We are all a little tight for money so we crammed 3 people into a tent which was an adventure.  We spent 2 days at the Lake before heading to the Rwandan border….and I accepted that this was goodbye to Lake Bunyoni.

Crossing the border was an experience.  It certainly was nothing like at home.  Immigration consisted of 1 small building and one small gate….like they use in parkades at home.  It only took about an hour but I am a little glad that I wasn’t alone as there were no clear directions as to what to do and where to go.  There was about a 50 metre no mans land where you get hassled to change money into Rwandan franks at decent rates 

The first thing I noticed in Rwanda?  We started driving on the ”right” side of the road.  Felt good J   The scenery was similar to the southwest of Uganda and was very picturesque.  Very hilly. Very green, and very beautiful.  Upon driving into the Capital, Kigali, I figured we must be in a smaller town….but nope.  The trip had ended.  Kiglai is not big!  But the first thing you notice is it is clean and organized compared to Kampala.  Kampala really is a bit of a dump I decided.  Even the taxi park in Kigali had order…..curbs and signs!  What a novelty!  

Basically after 30 minutes of being in the city I knew that I would swap it for Kampala in a second.  It was beautiful, and clean, and a much slower pace.  The only issue was the language barrier.  To be honest Kampala drives me nuts and I don’t head into town a whole lot during the day just because it is such a nut house.  I love the amenities but I could do without the craziness.

First thing we needed was a meal so we stopped at a nearby diner.  We were greeted with “Bonjour monsieur, comma ca va?”  Uhhhhhhhhhhh.  Come ci Come ca??????   Crap….I wish I had studied a little harder in grade 11.  But it actually amazed me at how much French was still stuffed inside my brain.  I could ask for things and I could order things.  It certainly helped to have Cory who’s French was amazing ( I found out later that just before he came he took an advanced French course).    But it was fun and made me want to learn another language.  I reckon I am going to try to make a decent attempt at learning Spanish as there are many places that I would like to see where I could use it…..although after rereading a lot of my journal….I think my first goal is to learn the English lanuage a little better J

We went out for a top notch meal that night….and paid for it.  Rwnada is not cheap.  After the genocide a guilty international community dumped a lot of money into the country and due to the overwhelming number of NGOs and donor money everything is a little pricey.  But we ate an all you can eat fondu and drank what seemed to be all you can drink red wine.  But as the bill sadly told us….we certainly had to pay for each and every bottle.

The next day in Rwanda was an interesting one and full of great contrast.  The hotel we were staying at was not the cheapest in town but had an incredible view of the hills that make up Kigali.  It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed a nice sleep in followed by a long breakfast on the terrace.  Basically it was one of those mornings where you wake up whistling a tune for no apparent reason, and you have that “Life is beautiful” feeling.

We had planned to hit the newest memorial commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda.  We got a cab over to the memorial and snapped a photo of the three of us outside.  All smiles and looking forward to an educational afternoon.  The next 2 hours were a step in a whole new direction….and the educational turned rather emotional

I knew a fair amount about the genocide as I had done some research before we headed down on our trip.  But what I knew was mainly factual and it all looked a little different on paper than it did inside the memorial surrounded by physically and emotionally scarred Rwandans.  The basic facts are that…..in April 1994, while I watched the Vancouver Canucks begin their historic run to the Stanley Cup final (where they beat eliminated Calgary and Toronto in overtime!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)….an airplane carrying the Rwandan and Burundi president was shot down by a surface to air missile.  This kicked off a horrific 3 months of killing.  In fact there was a large lead up to the genocide but the “Final Solution” was launched on April 6th 1994.  Within 3 months more than 1,000,000 Rwandans were killed and many many more in exile.  If you quickly do the math that is 10,000 people a day.  The streets of Rwanda were literally rivers of blood….and I had the unpleasant opportunity to see many explicit videos of the violence.  The international community never recognized this as genocide….even though the countries largest radio station broadcasted messages of hate 24 hours a day encourage all to hunt down and kill their Tutsi neighbors and rid Rwanda of the problem for once and for all.  There are many theories as to why the UN and more importantly the US never stepped in….and in fact made massive attempts to step out asap as soon as things turned bad.  It was certainly not because they were not aware of the situation as many reports of genocidal activity have surfaced.  Some believe that it is directly due to the disaster that happened in Somalia (Black Hawk Down) and the resulting change in US policy that no US soldier would enter an environment that would not directly benefit the US.  Others believe it had to do with the difficulty with which the US could quickly put troops and in Rwanda and many simply believe that it was nothing short of racism…and had it been happening in a white nation everything would be different.  I suppose a combination of all three (and more) might explain it.  Everyone including the US has accepted since that they messed up….in a bad way.  Clinton mad a speech in Rwanda that has become known as “The Clinton Apology”.   And since the genocide ended there have been many attempts, mainly funded by a guilty International Community to rebuild the country and encourage it’s refugees to return home.

The memorial was incredible….disturbing, chilling, and very moving.  The first half was mainly historical….and it broke down many decades of events leading up to 1994.  Certainly the actions of the French and Belgians (who colonized Rwanda) set the stage.  After the historical section it got gruesome as it got more personal and intimate.  There were many many personal stories from the genocide.  Stories of people living in fear, families torn apart.  ***** EXCERPT  And the death numbers alone do not tell the horrors.  Many women were held, tied up, and systematically raped by thousands of men. Thousands!!!  The memorial had rooms full of skulls and bones…with horrific and very obvious bullets holes and machete wounds.  It was not a war….it was an all out killing spree as young old, male and female were all targeted.  Death lists were created, road blocks were set up, and anyone not complying was also considered an enemy….and executed in the streets.  10,000 a day. I still can’t comprehend that many bodies.  You find yourself asking over and over again “How can this happen???”  I suppose the scary thing is….in the absolute wrong circumstance maybe we are all be capable of it.

The memorial had only been open for 24 hours and was very crowded with young and old Rwandans.  It is believed that almost no one in Rwanda went untouched by the genocide….either being connected to a victim, a villain, or a collaborator.  I suppose I can’t comprehend in the slightest what it must be like to see 1,000,000 of your people die and almost certainly seeing at least 1 member of your family….if not many or all members of you family. And I suppose I hopefully never will.  There were video clips of people talking about trying to move on and they were talking about they cannot move on until they can forgive….but they do not even know who to forgive.  But if someone came to them and said “I murdered your family…..your wife, and your four children…..and this is why I did it.  We murdered them with machetes…..and I am sorry….I am very sorry.”  The people were talking about how they would and could forgive if someone came to them like this.  With tears swelling in my eyes I thought to myself “if someone came to me and said they used a machete to murder my wife, my parents, and my children, there is no &^%*’ing way they would make it out of that room”.  But maybe when you have been surrounded by violence for so long you realize that the solution is not more violence….and the only way for it to stop it is quite simply to stop.    I really don’t know and like I said I hopefully never will know.  But as I walked through the memorial I noticed many of the Rwandans walking through, completely emotionally distraught, had scars all over their body….no doubt related to what was going on.  The stories of how some people escaped murder, with their hunters literally beating down there doors with machete in hand were absolutely chilling.  Literally, at the time the genocide was in full motion, and people were being bludgeoned to death, I was at Tree’s apartment in Vancouver, completely heart broken that Nathan Lafayyette hit the post with 2 minutes remaining in Game 7, thereby losing the Stanley Cup to the New York Rangers.  That was as bad as it would get for me that spring.   I thought about this as I left the memorial….I didn’t feel guilty about this….just very very lucky.

Our taxi driver was waiting for us outside the memorial.  I think it took about 3 hours before any of us spoke again.  I suppose there was nothing to say.  The happy picture we took outside the memorial seemed like years ago.  I thought about home a lot….about people from home.  Thought about all the crazy wars that are still raging on in Africa and in the world and wondered what the point was.  I would far from call it an enjoyable experience….but it was certainly a memorable afternoon.

Lake Kivu

We spent the rest of our time back in a more familiar type of environment.  We went to western Rwanda to Lake Kivu….which has a reputation for being one of Africa’s nicest inland lakes and beaches.  It did not disappoint….although the weather did.  The beaches were great and it was true….for a Lake Beach they had incredible white sand.  We had drinks and played cards on tables near the shores.  It was pretty relaxing part of the trip.  One night I went down to the Lake by myself and watched a remarkable thunderstorm across the lake in the Congo.  I could have stayed there all night and watched but remembered I was 20 mins from the Congo border and in a country were stability had not quite made it’s way.  Plus I could hear people in the bushes fidgeting around,  so I got a little freaked out and headed back to the hotel.  I missed the secure feeling I had in Uganda.

RwandaTrip: Home???

I wanted to hike one of the volcanoes near the Rwandan Ugandan border and as beautiful as it was in the Rwandan town of Rweerere we decided to head back across the border into Kisoro on the Ugandan side and do a hike over the border.  I cannot tell you how good it felt to be back in Uganda.  We got to the Sky Blue in Kisoro and sat down on the patio for a cold Club.  We all just kind of sat there and all at once said :”It’s good to be home”.  Home????   Interesting.   I thought home was a long long ways away across the Atlantic.  But it made me realize…..I LOVE UGANDA.  I love Ugandans. There IS a difference and the people are great.  Vix flagged someone down to get some info on our hike and not only did they stop but they set up EVERYTHING for us….making phone calls and setting us up with whatever and whoever we needed.  This is so typical of Ugandans.  As Winston Churchill said….it is the Pearl of Africa.

RwandaTrip: Mt Muhuvura

Cory had already hiked Mt Muhuvura and wisely declined a second trip to the summit.  There are 3 options for volcano hikes….and foolishly we picked the highest…..which was no doubt some kind of ego thing.  The summit was an elevation of 4200 metres.  We got picked up at the hotel at 5:45 am and taken to base camp.  By the time dawn broke we had started hiking….and as we would fine out 12 hours later…we were lucky we started that early.  You cross 4 different vegetation areas on the hike….from where the park used to be farm land, into the jungle at the base of the volcano…and then into the alpine regions.  I am far from a plant lover but even I found ti interesting how quickly everything changed.  Our guide was named Jofreey and he was a character…and had pretty good banter with Vix the whole way up.  I trotted my way up rather quietly.  The climb was immediately tough and reminded me of the pains of doing the Grouse Grind…..only I could do the Grouse grind in 45 mins…..and then catch a Tram down.   This took me 5 hours to the top!!   Vix had troubles with blisters 30 minutes in which made for a rather excruciating trip to the summit.   But she was quite a trooper.  The view was still clear about half way up.  Simply amazing.  I managed to get some good snaps but it didn’t really capture it.  Pretty much the whole way to the summit we were in good spirits……joking the whole way with the guides….who actually remember when Cory’s group made the trip….and he took great joy in taking the piss out of a few of the weaker ones.  Once at the summit it was nothing short of heart breaking that it clouded over and rained.  We were 4200 metres up and allegedly you could see all across Uganda on a clear day……I could hardly see the small crater lake it was so cloudy.  But we had moments of sun and it cleared a little and to be honest it was more about the accomplishment than anything else.  Plus I got to hold an AK 47!!!  They are heavy!!  Needless to say they wouldn’t let me shoot it L   I think that was the last time I would feel joy for about 6 hours.  

The trip down was hell…..and there is no other way to describe it.  I remember being in pain for the XY weekend hike with the guys at home but that was a cake walk compared to this.  My knees were gone almost instantly.  I got “ill”….and let me tell you being ill on the side of a 45 degree volcanoes is no easy task…..Vix’s arthritis kicked in huge and all the blisters broke and it started to piss down rain.  We slide down half the mountain on our ass as I lost my footing left right and center…..trying to focusing on not losing my innards!  When I looked up at the Volcano the next morning I couldn’t believe it took us longer to get down than up.   We made it back to our vehicle well after dark….and only made it there because of the generosity of one of the guides who walked an extra 30 minutes in the dark with us.  I’ve never seen a more pathetic site than Vix walking out of the final trail.  If I didn’t think she would hit me with her cane I would have taken a priceless video as she aged about 40 years on the way down.  By the time we sat down in our truck in was all laughter and the pain started to fade….but I know one thing for sure…..I will never ever ever in my life climb that volcano again.  It took a few days until I walked like a 29 year old not a 59 year again…..but in a strange way it was worth it and I’m glad I did it……but I will never do it again.

RwandaTrip: The Trip Home

The next day was nothing but a long bus ride across Uganda.  Probably my last.  I said goodbye to the southwest….I said goodbye to Ntungamo, which to be honest was very sad...and luckily I had sunglasses on.  I said goodbye to Kabale, the home of my cheese, goodbye to Mbarara and Masaka and enjoyed the trip back to Kampala.

The trip was great….and Vix and Cory are great.  Being on the road for 7 days can be trying….especially in Uganda and Rwanda….and we all got on beautifully. 

Homeward Bound

Well, my flights are booked and I’m coming home.  May 28^th I fly out.  Now that it is confirmed I have mixed feelings about it.  In a way I am quit excited….mainly to see people again.  I don’t miss the city as much as I thought….even though I keep trying to convince anyone and everyone it is the greatest city on the planet.  There are certain things from home I am starting to miss more and more….but at that same time there are certain things I am becoming more and more sure I don’t miss.  I asked a friend of mine the other day if she was let down by anyone at home in terms of keeping in touch....and she said no...but she was surprised and happy and who she did keep in touch with.  Basically for me I kept in great touch with my family the whole time....just online....and had great communication with Chris and Khan....and I will always be grateful for that.  I certainly missed a lot at home....but when you are in touch with everyone it certainly helps.  In all reality everyone from home has been great and I'm pretty lucky that way.   Lucky that there is such a thing called the Internet.  But things are wrapping up in Uganda.  Cory is out of here shortly….Matt and Anna will follow after them…..and Vix is increasingly wrapped up in family visits and work and will eventually leave as well.  My work is pretty much complete and I have more and more time on my hands.  There are others still around that I am close enough with but I think it is time to come home.  Every time I start to get worried about it I remind myself that I’m signed up for a hockey team, a softball team, and inevitably a summer vball team….and that will make it ok J  But with no job and not a lot to come home to I feel like I’m starting all over again.  I had a nightmare the other night that I was 29 and forced to go back to grade 8 when I got home.  I was bigger than all the other kids (obviously) and I could hardly fit in my desk.  And even though I had done it all before everyone was better at French than me.  But on a humorous note I kicked ass in gym class J  When I woke up and realized I was still in Africa I was greatly relieved.

It is a weird life here.  In a way I live like a king but in a way I live in what would be considered almost poverty at home.  It will be nice to come home after a long day and not wonder if I will have running water that night or not….or power.  It will be nice to be able to have a warm shower at home…..or even a shower at all.  And at home my life won't be in danger every time I am on the road.  But it will also be different to have to do my own laundry and dishes L   If I could push my flights back right now to be honest I think I would stay another month.  By then I’d be a great tennis player J    

Ahhh Malaria....I guess it was a matter of time

For the most part I have not been ill here.  I’ve had my little bouts of it but nothing compared to some.  But on Saturday morning I woke up and I swear I have never wanted to die more.  I was sweating buckets yet could not keep warm no matter how many layers I had on.  My body felt like I had been better all over with a baseball bat and my head ripped like nothing I’ve ever felt.  Many people recommended I get to the doctors but I literally did not think I would make it.  Finally after 2 days of this and after I finally got nauseous in the morning and I asked Michelle to help me get to the doctors.  She was a savior as I really don’t think I could have made it on my own.  I had clearly left it too long.  At this point I could hardly see things were getting so fuzzy and therefore could hardly walk a straight line.  What a pathetic site I must have been hobbling into the lobby!  Of course I had to sit for 30 mins in the waiting room before being seen and I nearly passed out 3 times.  And gave all the Ugandans a good look at what a REALLY sick muzungu looks like.  But it was like watching the picture on a television slowly fade out…and my head would get lower and lower until someone kicked the TV and the picture restored momentarily.  Once I was tested the verdict was official.  Malaria!!!!! Sweeet.  Another fantastic experience in Uganda. In addition to that I had some bad infection as my white blood cell count was high.   My malaria lasted the best part of a week.  And even after that you are so weak you can hardly do anything.  Even now my strength has not fully returned and I seem to wake up everyday with a headache.  I’ve lost a lot of weight and any muscle I had been putting on in the weeks before.  If you ever want to get depressed get malaria in Africa.  There is simply nothing for you to do as you spend 24 hours a day awake yet not really alive.  And no matter how long you look at them the walls never really get anymore interesting.  The upside?  I’m never allowed to give blood now.  Sweet.  Didn’t like that anyways but felt guilty that I never did.  Anyways…..my advice to you is….if you enter a malarial area…..take your pills.   It is well worth it..

Ssisa Shooting Club

I have been wanting to make a trip to the club for a long time and for one reason or another never made it.  Everyone was organizing a big get together at the lake on Saturday but I had mapped out all my weekends and this would be my last chance to make it to the club so in un-Craig fashion I went against the flow and went to the club.  Vix joined me and on our backroad journey there I was pretty sure we had made the wrong decision as we were totally lost and there did not seem to be anything resembling a club anywhere at all.  But we persevered and found it…and once at the club I was certainly satisfied.  Wow!!!  We met the owner right away.  What a character.  Rich business man who had left Uganda just before the Amin years but returned to live the high life I guess.  We chatted with him for hours about Uganda and about his plans for the area.  The club is situated on top of a huge hill and it over looks Lake Victoria.  Had I known the view was so good from his club I never would have climbed that stupid volcanoe!!  I would have just come to the club…shot some clays…and had a beer.  Unfortunately the reason I wanted to go to the club was to do clay shooting….something I’ve never tried….but they had trouble getting the clays in from Italy and were totally out.  He did however offer to let us try firing a couple of the guns in “the barracks”.  This place did sort of look like an Al queda training grounds which was creepy….but sort of cool.  We shot inside a long narrow structure made from sand bags with a nice target at the end of the tunnel.  He had two guns for us to try.  One was a 9mm pistol.  This gun was heavy.  It was a semi automatic and looked EXACTLY like what you see in the movies and apparently the pistol used by almost all special forces.  To be honest it is a little scary to hold a gun if you never have before….thinking with this little thing I could kill everyone on this room before they even could react.  Hmmm  I wonder why it is a bad idea to allow civilians to carry guns (Hello U.S.A.!?!?!?!).  I was pretty nervous before firing and certainly did not have a steady hand.  I think I hit the target 2 of 3 times and pelted the sand bags once.  Vix did the same.  The pistol had a huge kickback which shocked me.  The next gun we tried was a nice looking rifle.  This took 357 magnum bullets.  These are big and scary and can apparently take down large animals.  Dirty Harry, go-ahead-make-my-day type bullets!  The rifle was cool because it had a nice aiming system and I was a little more steady with it. No recoil either.  I had two bullets in the second ring….apparently quite good?!?!  All in all quite fun.  I doubt I would ever get into shooting at targets but I bet the clay pigeon shooting can be quite addictive.  I will be very curious to see how this guy is doing in 2 years.  He plans for a golf driving range….and ATV course and a whole lot more.  Both he and his wife were fantastic and I swear the wanted to adopt us.  I hope he does well.  He is not going to advertise as it seems they don’t need the money.  They just want word of mouth business and good people to come by.  To be honest….there is not a lot to do right in Kampala apart from eat and drink well….so there is quite a market there for activity based entertainment.   And we got back in time to catch the end of the gathering at the lake J

Goodbye to Al’s

It was Cory’s last night in Kampala so we figured it was inevitable that we would end up at Al’s.  It is an open air bar which is sweet apart from the fact that it was pouring rain.   No worries….we danced in the rain all night long.   Even though I have 4 more weeks in Uganda I reckon it will be my last trip to Al’s. I have the DJ in my back pocket and he will play anything for me but they are changing their format and going more local…..i’m not sure why to be honest.  They have a unique thing going there.  But I will miss Al’s terribly.  Where else will they play Bon Jovi, Nickleback, Bruce, Michael Jackson, and every cheesy 80’s tune you want (including that Toto song “I count the rains down in Africa!!!”).  Even though I have a month left here I am already starting the “that’s my last time at that place” stuff.  But my last night at Al’s was a classic…and all I could ask for.

Goodbye to friends….

So far there have been 3 goodbye’s for me.  First Juan, then Tammie….then Cory.  All were tough for different reasons.  It’s only 2 days until Matt and Anna head back to the motherland.  And in terms of people I’m close to it is just Vix, who is luckily staying well past me….so I won’t be left alone here.   But I reckon it is the people you meet make the experience…..at least for a social person like me.   The country is beautiful…..and the life I lead is pretty incredible….but it would be nothing without the friends.  It will be tough to see Matt and Anna go…..I have no one to play tennis against J  But in all seriousness they are pretty unique and pretty great to hang out with.  But the count down is on.  And after they go the remaining weeks here will be different….but maybe good as they will start to make me look forward to coming home a little more.  I have a wicked trip to Zanzibar planned but a still trying to convince anyone and everyone it is worth emptying their bank account for.  I'm not sure i want to do it alone.  And once I come back it is a mere 5 days until I get reacquainted with Mr. British Airways. 

Hospice....My Job

I finally have the closure I was looking for with work.  I have basically been working for free for them for a long time now….for the hopes that I can get some personal feeling of accomplishment.  I would say at least 50% of VSO volunteers leave feeling a lack of accomplishment with their placements.  I  would say 99% leave with a personal sense of accomplishment.  But finally I have it….I have successfully handed over the databases….and both the web sites I have done, to be honest, are incredible.  So finally I am done with work here….and can say I did some good.  The whole process has been really eye opening to how hard development can be.  People that have either a guilty conscience or a charitable nature will often donate money to this or that charity but I have seen first hand how donor money is pissed away through ineptness and corruption….so basically money alone will not solve the many problems here in Africa….but I suppose there is not hope without the money…..but it will take a long long long time.  That is not to say that all projects are failures and that I discourage supporting charities in any way….I just see it being a little more complex than the adds that say “for 25 cents a day you could support a child”.  I would like to see this in action and I would love to be proved wrong but I reckon it is a lot more complicated than that.

Why do I ride these things?

I got knocked off another motorbike the other day.  We got hit pretty hard on the right side by a car that came out of nowhere….we swerved hard one way then hard the other.  I went flying off the back and luckily had my backpack on….and landed on my back….completely unscathed.  My nine lives are nearly up ……and it’s time to get on my own bike again.

Sipi Falls

Blah Blah Blah….Uganda is beautiful…..it is starting to sound like a broken record but once again was blown away with our trip to Sipi Falls.  Maybe I was just happy to be out of bed…..and free of malaria…..but I think it was more than that.   When I arrived it was absolutely pouring….and this “rainy season” that I have heard about has finally hit I think.  The power was out and really….what is there to do in that situation.  Matt and Anna had the solution and were well into their second bottle of Waragi (I think there are some budget constraints there because I would have never thought I would see Matt and Anna drinking Waragi). 

After a lovely sleep in we did a great hike to the base of the falls.  I snapped about 300 pictures….of which 259 all look the same.   But the place was just amazing and as I thought about 300 times before….I wish my friends from Canada could see this….because when I describe it, it won’t mean a thing. 

We had dinner at a pretty posh place….but for basically 5$ US we had a great 3 course meal directly overlooking the falls.  I thought about if I was at Niagra what I would be paying for that meal.  As usual the service at our place, The Crow’s Nest, was appalling.  The place was locked up by 8….but Matt pretty much beat down the door and demanded “services”.  We made a feeble attempt at a fire with a big pile of coals and sat up until the wee hours.  I think what I will miss is the conversation here.  And I think there are always great conversations because you are always somewhere new….which prompts new topics….I think.  But, over the weekend,  I probably spent about 24 hours talking with Matt, Ann, and Vix….and I never once was bored with it.  I hope I don’t get bored at home. 

As usual the trip home was crap.  I got half at seat, at best, and my back KILLED that whole time home.  I started to day dream about my car and my motorbike and the fact that in the very near future I would never sit on a Matatu again….and for better or for worse I got sad.

The final match is coming….and I’m not looking strong

I got whipped today.  Absolutely whipped.  6-0 and 6-3.  We are both getting pretty damn good at tennis…..unfortunately we are improving at the same rate….and Matt started out better than me….so he still whips me.  Tomorrow I have the final match….a 5 setter.  I reckon I don’t have a chance in hell…..but then again I didn’t think the Calgary Flames had a chance against the Detroit Red Wings……but I just read they are on to the conference finals.  Wish me luck….I REALLY need it. 

Canada Prevails!!!!!!!!!

My game plan was perfect…..play Matt after his going away party!  TO be honest I reckon there were about 4 times as many unforced errors in this match than winners…..but in the end Canada prevailed.  I feel bad for Matt after whipping me for 3 months and then losing on the final day…..but for some reason I knew it would go this way.  It was good stuff and I hope I can convince someone at home to play with me!

Heartbreaking Story

For various reasons I have to keep this story relatively anonymous.  A friend of mine here in Uganda was approached by a client at her NGO the other day with a problem with her youngest daughter…who is 13 years old.   On the way home from scouts…while walking through the industrial area of Kampala she was lured into a car….taken to a vacant parking lot…and raped by the driver of the car.  13 years old!?!

Not knowing what to do the mother of the girl contacted my friend and asked for help.  The first thing they did was go to the police station.  In order to file a rape report they had to pay for the forms….and also pay for the follow up examination.  Talk about negative incentive to report rape.  This lady literally cannot afford to pay for these things and every shilling counts.   And then…within 12 hours of her daughter being raped she was told by the police that she could not be present when any of the forms were being filled out and the examination was performed.   Apparently the state of the police station was appalling….and the empathy from the officers even worse.  Of course nothing will be done to pursue the culprit…although…the guy (the rapist) had the audacity to give the girl his phone number?!?!?!  He was probably loaded and she was to frightened to scream so he thought this may be a regular thing.  Who knows?!?!  If indeed it is a real number most Ugandans believe the police will contact him only to extort money from him and will not follow up on the crime itself at all.

I spent the afternoon with this little girl the other day….and it is really a heartbreaking case.  She is a complete angel.  Very smart, very energetic, and very very sweet.  If, when with her, my thoughts drifted to what happened, I got very angry.  Not only will she have to recover from the trauma of being raped at such a young age….the reality is that she is at very high risk of contracting HIV from the culprit.  And get this….she has been set up with a counselor.  The counselor told her if she prays hard enough to god she will not get HIV.  Come on!!  And…”Never cry.  It will only hurt you”.  I guess things are different here.  Anyways, she took us to her house in her village.  Wow.  It was made out of tin sheets.  It had one room with a couch and a bunch of blankets on the floor where I assume she slept.  Yet still still offered us every piece of food in her house and Sugarcane from her garden.

What is wrong with people that makes them perform such acts?  Rape is bad enough but a 13 year old girl.  At least at home there is a judicial system that while not perfect at least gives a chance at vindication.  There is nothing here.  Very horrible and very sad.

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This site was last updated 05/13/04