Advertisement
Published: February 21st 2009
Edit Blog Post
As I was writing this, there was music going on in the background. Every so often they have a group come and play drums and do some dancing. Its kind of cool. If I ever get bored or need a break, I can always just take a peak outside.
The group is actually pretty amazing. Many of them have HIV/AIDS, but they help so much to embody the mission and objectives that TASO wants to get across not only to those people who are living with HIV/AIDS but also to the rest of the world that you can live positively with HIV/AIDS. As most of you may know, getting HIV and then progressing to AIDS was almost certainly a death sentence before the advent of antiretroviral medicine. But not through that alone do they intend to accomplish and disseminate that message. Anyways, this entry is going to combine basically the last month starting with this…
I just moved to a different office a couple of days ago. The previous office they had set up for us was, for all intents and purposes, the printer room. Two desks, Valerie and I, and the PRINTER FOR THE ENTIRE FLOOR…yikes. Nonetheless I
was appreciative of their willingness to fix us up with some place to sit and work. However, they randomly decided to let us move to a new office and we even got a promotion (the title on the door says, “Deputy Director of Planning and Strategic Information,” but for some reason I don’t really think that we got promoted.)
Work has been difficult for me the last 2 or 3 weeks. While I have had meetings with people and done a little bit of writing, for the most part, my progress at work has been stilted. The main reason being is that my work covers three areas. If you want to know more specifics, you can ask me (because I’m just assuming that most people don’t really like it when I go into a long boring (well (and yes I am using parentheses within parentheses…and now I guess another parentheses within parentheses), I assume its boring) explanation about the different subject areas). For now, it will suffice to say that I am doing a project with management, so the HR Director is my supervisor in this. I am going a project with the AIDS Challenge Youth Club, so social
support services is the department for this one. And lastly I am doing a project with mapping and so I work under the supervision of the Planning and Strategic Information department. There, that wasn’t too bad was it. Anyways, being under three different supervisors makes it difficult to coordinate and accomplish my work. Suffice to say that I haven’t been able to make too much progress and it has really been frustrating. I think that things are turning around for me though. I have been able to have meetings with a couple of people recently.
One thing absolutely worth giving mention to very briefly is that I am going to play soccer today. Who would have thought that I could go an entire month of being in Africa without playing a daggum game of soccer? Okay, maybe everyone else could have thought it, but I certainly didn’t. I am really looking forward to playing…or getting embarrassed, whichever comes first.
I feel like we’ve been to a wedding every single weekend since being in Kampala. While its not true, many of our weekends have been filled with something of the like. Other than the one weekend we went to
Entebbe to check out the Botanical Garden and Wildlife Center, we’ve been here and attended 2 or 3 weddings or introductions. The introduction is a requirement for any and all weddings. This is where the dowry and other gifts are brought out. The more interesting thing about it is that there must be written parental blessing for anyone to get married. There ain’t no elopin here in Uganda. Regardless of your SES, this is still a requirement. The one we went to looked like it was very expensive (particularly the part were a big meal is provided…granted its mostly local food). It amazes me that you have to do that. That was part A of the Ugandan culture lesson. More to come.
We moved into a new place almost a month ago (don’t remember if I said anything about that). It was a really nice place in this part of town with some nice houses. It has been sort of a hassle to be out this way as the roads are pretty terrible (oh wait, that’s most of Kampala…no offense). If we are taking our own transportation we have to get a taxi and then jump on a boda
because no taxis come out this way. At the end of the day, its not all that bad. The guy we’re staying with has been sick basically since day one (day one that we moved in…but probably beforehand too). Anyways, he’s been trying to go to the hospital, but every time one of the 3 specialist doctors in his care team (I don’t know what you would call it…but just those who were going to take his case) is out of the country. They will not admit him if just one of the doctors is missing. So, they keep sending him away and he just sits at home with an IV drip going into his leg and taking some antibiotics. Sad deal.
We are moving into a new place, Lord willing, next weekend. It has been somewhat stressful and inconvenient living here so we found a place on the east side of town. We think it will be more convenient, but especially because we know to always arrange our own transport. It’s a really nice house too. Complete with hot water. Hoorrrraaaaayyyyyyy! It will also be cheaper, so that’s awesome.
I have found myself getting more impatient with how
things work in Uganda. First of all, and perhaps I’ve mentioned it, there is not a big press for keeping time. Meeting people never occurs on the time that I plan for it to. I think that the only thing that’s right is the day. Okay, I guess that I am exaggerating a bit, but its been hard for me. The taxis also don’t really run on a schedule. Granted, there are loads of them and it usually won’t be long before seeing one (if you ever go for a time without seeing one). What I’m talking about is the fact that the usually don’t leave until they are full. You would be crazy to get on a taxi if you are one of only a couple of people (unless it’s a really odd, non-busy hour of the day). The other day when I was on my way to church (slightly changing subjects…but still sort of on topic) I was going to get on a taxi when a guy ran in front of me and slammed the door shut. I picked up on the fact that he was from a different taxi and was making sure that his filled up
first. I stood there for a moment hoping that he would get out of my way. I quickly realized, though, that he was not moving until I got on his taxi even though he was blatantly blocking another taxi company from getting business. I unfortunately blurted out that they were really annoying or something to that effect. It just really got on my nerves.
Some last news. I do plan on traveling up to Jinja soon to do some work as well as to Gulu, but I don’t yet know when. I am looking forward to this opportunity. I am also trying to plan a personal trip to Zanzibar, but it will not happen for a while…
Advertisement
Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0315s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb