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So, I arrived in Entebbe at the airport on Friday night, and since my plane touched down, I have had a great time. Saturday and Sunday, I got to know my host family, which is wonderful, and I was shown around Kampala. I am living with Lillian and Stonia who are about 30 years old, and have a one-year-old daughter named Michelle. I work with Lillian at Advocates Colition for Development and Environment (ACODE) and so my travel to and from work is easy--I just ride with her. Michelle is getting used to having me around, and we are bonding over our awkward dancing skills and our ability to make funny faces at each other. I am also living with Jane, who takes care of Michelle, and is 17, and Martin, who is a relative of Stonia's and is 15. Jane and I have a hard time communicating with each other, because she speaks about 5 words of English and I speak about 5 words of Luganda, but we smile at each other a lot. Martin, on the other hand, has become my friend over the past week, and we have gone all over Kampala together. He is teaching me slowly but surely where everything is and how to use the taxi system. I have another friend that I made named Patrick who has been working on the house that I am staying in. He is 16 and is from an extremely poor family--he has been working all week, about 10 to 11 hours a day putting tile in and re-grouting floors. He gets paid about $2.25 a day, and a lot of that goes to feeding his family. He took me to visit his mom and sister, and it seems as if he has a loving family. All of the kids go back to school today and so I bought Patrick some school supplies and paid his school fee ($5 for the term, not much to us, but two days of hard labor for him) because he wasn't going to be able to afford it.
Work is going well, and I have reviewed a Memorandum of Understanding for the Civil Society Coalition on Oil in Uganda, and am currently editing an Evaluation of Forest Concessions in Uganda. More exciting than that, however, is that last week I got to travel to Eastern Uganda and see the villages there while working on a Local Governance Monitoring Project. I learned a lot about the government system of Uganda, and also got to see a lot of places that are well off the beaten path. (4-wheel drive was needed in many of the areas.) I met a lot of people, but most memorable were the children, who tended to group around me, too afraid to approach me directly but too curious to stop staring. I generally introduced myself to them as best I could, and then they would all say "How are you muzungu?" which means, "how are you, white person?" It is a phrase that even those who have had very little schooling are familiar with. One little girl, who was about 8 years old, was obviously curious about the color of my skin, and when I reached out my hand to shake hers, she screamed and ran away. Her mom laughed, and said that the girl was afraid of me because I looked different--I guess she had never seen a white person before.
Anyway, life is great here, Kampala is bustling and beautiful, Lake Victoria is gorgeous, and I am building lots of new relationships with people. The next 7 weeks are sure to be amazing.
PS I will post some pictures soon!
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Carol Mulhall
non-member comment
Wonderful report.
Evan, This report is wonderful. I am so delighted that you are having a great experience in Kampala. The people you have met are interesting to read about. You are the best reporter and I know the people you are meeting are happy and impressed to meet you. Thank you for sending the blog. Love to my sweet cousin, Carol.