Blogs from Kampala, Central Region, Uganda, Africa - page 14

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Africa » Uganda » Central Region » Kampala June 17th 2010

A brief interlude into American politics. The title of this post comes from the painting on the wall of the Electoral Commission in central Uganda. I think I may leave my comments about the transparency of the electoral system here and the legitimacy of the election process (in short: not so legitimate) but as I drove by the Commission this morning it made me think of the current controversy in South Carolina. We were watching the Daily Show last night (from Monday - takes a while to download things here) and John Stewart spent quite a while talking about the mysterious rise of Alvin Greene to the Democratic Party’s nominee for the 2010 Senate Elections. I was reading up on it this morning and I am seriously baffled. While theories abound, my (of probably many other ... read more

Africa » Uganda » Central Region » Kampala June 17th 2010

I'm a couple days behind on this journal so I'll try to catch up as soon as I can. Also I experienced a lot in my first couple of days so my first entries will be a bit long. I will hopefully be posting photos as well. For those of you who don't know I am in Kampala, Uganda from June 17th until August 19th. I am working on a project through AIESEC called "swITch" where I am responsible for teaching high school students IT and then later evaluating their skills. The 16th of June I left for Uganda from Montreal. Viviane came with me to the airport which was very sweet of her and I'm very happy she did. Although you may not believe it, I was a bit nervous leaving for Uganda (thanks Mike). ... read more
Hostel View
Hostel View 2
Hostel View 3

Africa » Uganda » Central Region » Kampala June 17th 2010

Religion is a very large part of life in Uganda. It is everywhere you look - from bumper stickers that declare the above “Real Men Love Jesus” to ones that state that the driver is “Covered in the Blood of Jesus” (a little creepy in my opinion) to the people who stand on road meridians yelling out Bible verses in Luanda, religion is constantly in your face and unapologetic about it. According to the 2002 census, 41.9% of Ugandans identify as Roman Catholic , followed by 42% Protestant (Anglican 35.9%, Pentecostal 4.6%, Seventh Day Adventist 1.5%) with a minority of 12.1% identifying as Muslims. I am not at all saying that I am against religion, or the fact that the vast majority of people in the country practice organized religion. I do, however, find it very ... read more

Africa » Uganda » Central Region » Kampala June 10th 2010

So, not too much to report on this week, mostly because from Sunday to Wednesday I was laid up with a stomach bug (food poisoning?) (can you call it Montezuma's revenge if you are in Africa?) It really wasn't that bad, but I lost a bunch of weight over a short time span (a more defined jawline is a positive development of this occurrence,) and am still working up to the same level of robust activity that I am used to. So during that time span, I became very well acquainted with Nollywood films. What are Nollywood films? They are terribly dramatic love stories that play out very much like American soaps, and involve a lot of crying--crying from happiness, sadness, anger, or any other strong emotion. Almost all of them revolve around similar plot lines ... read more
The rooster next-door
The view from our roof
The tiny outdoor kitchen

Africa » Uganda » Central Region » Kampala June 9th 2010

Work is done and now i'm on holiday! The kids at school gave me a mini farewell, dancing and drumming for me and i was sad to leave the village. Having spent only 1 day in Kampala i'm really missing the quiet cool village life. The temperature in Kampala must be a good 5 degrees hotter than in the village which is not nice at night. The rainy season is pretty much over and so people in the village have started to harvest their coffee - drying it for 2 weeks in direct sunshine to bag up and take to be ground. People are also becoming conscious of water knowing it won't rain again for another few months. On the way out of the village we had a clear run - not a single pot hole. ... read more

Africa » Uganda » Central Region » Kampala June 8th 2010

I have been horrible at updating my blog, and for that I apologize to all my faithful readers (read: my mother). So back to it: Ahh yes, the Pearl of Africa. I love when countries/cities decide to give themselves awesome sounding nicknames. Especially when they don't really make sense. I'm not saying that Uganda is decidedly not the pearl of Africa, I just don't quite understand how it acquired such a lofty name. Wikipedia was of no help. Anybody on the interwebs know? Either way I am now in possession of a sweet key chain that proudly states the above. I went rafting in Jinja on Saturday on the Nile. It was a lot of fun, but I am now covered in bruises and may or may not have contracted this: from the water. We will ... read more

Africa » Uganda » Central Region » Kampala June 5th 2010

Today we had some of our first classes. It is quite fascinating to learn about the issues Africa faces from the perspective of well educated African professors. They have experienced the conflict, political despair, and trials of their countries first hand. No one understands it like they do. While many of the things they say echo the instruction I have received elsewhere, it is still gratifying to hear answers straight from the horses mouth. (I know that should be possessive, but all the keys on this internet cafe keyboard are screwed up as far as punctuation goes. I think the apostrophe is on the wrong key so please excuse grammatical errors.) Today got a bit too exciting at night for my liking. We chilled out for a while on a balcony bar overlooking a large intersection ... read more

Africa » Uganda » Central Region » Kampala June 4th 2010

Today we took our first excursion into the city to conduct some field research. We were split into pairs to do more research about different aspects of life in Uganda. Upon returning we had to brief the whole group on our experience. I was paired with a girl named Maya from Pensacola, FL who attends UF. She was placed on religion as a topic of inquiry because she is uneasy about the amount of religiosity in Uganda. Our homestay families will probably expect us to lead prayers and say grace among other things. Daniel, the academic director placed me on the topic because he thought I was religious. Even though I am anything but, I was glad to be assigned to the topic since it was obvious I would need to prepare too. We embarked into ... read more

Africa » Uganda » Central Region » Kampala June 4th 2010

Well here we are again, time has flown over the past couple of weeks and once again we find that it is time to write our blog. The past week has presented a couple of major challenges for us with two young kids from the streets needing dire help. While dealing with these cases we have both questioned ourselves and other people. Although it is hard not to be weighed down by what we have seen, it is also times like these that we see the compassion and humanity in other people. There are so many people here in Uganda, both African and foreigners, who are dedicated to helping these kids when no one else will. While we have been struggling with the fact that we can not help everyone, the thing that has kept us ... read more
Letter time
Study time
Some down time

Africa » Uganda » Central Region » Kampala June 2nd 2010

Flying for this long is difficult. It feels like you are just floating through time. I lose track of how much sleep I have had and how it compares to what I should typically be getting. This usually just reminds me how tired I should feel though. I left JFK at 11.20 am and arrived in Dubai at 8 am. I only slept for a few hours on the plane considering that I was seated next to a family with 4 children between the ages of 2 and 9. The parents were as poorly behaved as the kids too. I was seated in an exit row, but it didn't do me too much good for leg room. I had the window seat so my right arm had no where to go except wedged against the body ... read more




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