[This post will likely be longer, so I sorted into headings and you can peruse whatever interests you]
Kampala Backpackers
I woke up sometime around 7:30AM today (12:30 AM), making a lightning fast adjustment to the 7 hour time difference. Becky and I got up and puttered around the hostel for a couple hours, debating whether Hudson was going to pick us up today or tomorrow. The hostel is pretty nice. It has a great bar with a friendly set of bartenders/hostel workers/restaurant staff. The backpackers is currently characterized largely by a group of Brits with a handful of Irish (they are crawling all over the place), but it seems that a group of Asian students will be vying for the most popular country soon. In February, when the medical mission for Engeye comes through it will probably see American insurgents. The facilities are all right as far as backpackers go - there is one shower with a working hot and cold faucet. Actually, the shower felt incredible after 2 days without one (and we will now go awhile without a hot shower). Geckos on the ceiling do a good job of complimenting the tub under the leaking sink. The beds all have bednets, but there aren't really many mosquitoes to be seen. We paid roughly $2 USD for wireless for one day, but have not had to renew it for some reason...
Boda Bodas Fast, Safe, and Reliable
Hudson is the Engeye representative that is supposed to meet as at the Backpacker's on Thursday or Friday. The "or" was my fault as I incorrectly replaced the "31st" with "Friday" in e-mail correspondences. At around 10:30 or 11:00 AM we decided that he was coming tomorrow and ventured into Kampala to register with the US embassy. We walked down the road to catch a taxi and were asked if we would like a ride by two boda boda drivers (a boda boda is a motorcycle). One boda boda driver carefully placed a helmet over his head and the other one set it over the speedometer and tachometer. Becky and I covered our heads in lieu of a helmet. I, embarrassingly, seemed to cling on to my driver, slowly releasing my death grip as I watched Becky break out a book half way through the ride. These boda boda drivers did not have "smooth" in mind. We weaved in and out of traffic, cut people off, while discussing Obama and McCain. Becky never put down her book.
An Attack on the US Embassy?
Upon arriving to the US embassy a kind, private security guard welcomed us into the embassy with his M-16 (or other large, intimidating, automatic weapon). An unarmed security guard took our explosive water bottles and spy cameras as we made our way through security to the waiting room. A "senior guard" shooed away a couple kids from our seats (they had been seating there before us and despite our protests he kicked black kids to the back of the waiting room). After all, we were mzungus (white people). Americans. I don't think it was there, but I imagined scorn on the back of my neck as Becky and I waited for a consulate. As we waited, a Minnesotan man in charge of saving Africans described how thieves distracted his wife on the bus and grabbed her purse through the bus window. [My father lost his passport in Columbia in the '70s and blocked the bus doors until his passport was dropped onto the floor - my aunt thought they might kill him first]. While filling out the registration a siren came over the intercom and calmly asked us to take cover under a desk and avoid windows...never found out what happened with that...but I am here to write about it.
Introduction to Ugandan Cuisine
After registering at the embassy we walked across the street to a restaurant for lunch. We ordered matoke, vegetable stew, and some lemon cola. Matoke is a dish made of steamed plantains; we each received a massive portion of what must have been five plantains. The entire meal was 10,000 shillings ($6.32 USD). They were mostly tasteless and very filling. The stew was amazingly tasty and I noticed how the waiter/bartender/busboy opened the cola in front of us. It was clear that the reuse the bottles in Uganda - the labels are worn and they collect the bottles back for recucling. This practice continued to Ddegeya Village. We were the only ones in the restaurant, serenaded by mid to late '90s American pop love songs. The restaurant must have been able to seat 50 - it might have been more popular as a bar.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
We took the boda bodas back to the backpackers. We discovered this was a very expensive form of transportation. There are also the public busses or taxis, which are mini-vans that seat 19, and private hire taxis (like US taxis) that are only occupied by you. Taxis (buses) were about 1,000 shillings, boda bodas were 5,000 shillings, and private hires were about 10,000 shillings for roughly equal trips. They don't have the same kind of emissions controls in Uganda - fumes would collect in the valleys of Kampala as Becky and I coughed our way through, clinging to the back of the boda boda. In the city, we were surrounded by thousands of people on foot, especially near the market. It was somewhat overwhelming. I think travel by foot or bicycle are the main methods of transportation.
Tourists Navigating Kampala's User Friendly Transportation
In our one day traveling around Kampala we got into an accident and our boda boda driver got lost. A truck turned into our taxi. The conductor (the person who collects the fair) stayed with the car as the driver hopped out (leaving the car in the intersection), borrowed a boda boda and attempted to chase down the truck. The people in the taxi haggled with the conductor and paid half the fair. We walked up the hill, the rest of the way to the backpackers. Boda boda drivers also got lost, borrowed our maps, asked for directions from others, turned back to refuel, and eventually returned us to the backpackers [Taxis, according to Lonely Planet: East Africa often keep their vehicles with little fuel so that if they are stolen the thief cannot go far]. They then claimed not to have change (it was clear that they did have change). This was the second time that day we had been ripped off - we were overcharged for a towel, too. When the cashier at a Kobil station (a Mobil knockoff) returned the wrong change, I questioned him and he simply told me the prices (10,000 shillings higher than marked). Oh well.
Hudson
At the backpackers we met Hudson, an extremely friendly Ugandan who has been an excellent teacher, friend, and guide. Hudson is thin, friendly, patient, and very proficient in English. He helped us get in a public taxi for the first time and guided us through Kampala, again, where we would exchange money and buy stamps. We walked past tiny, tiny children that had been sent out to beg for money. They did not actively ask us for money. Instead, they simply sat at crowded street corners holding their arms up. It looked like a commercial from the Christian Children's Fund. We hurried past the children winding through alleys that Becky and I would have avoided. I didn't see a single white person in Kampala, besides the few at the Kampala Backpackers. I don't know if Becky and I would have been able to figure out the bus system in Kampala without Hudson's help - there are no easy-to-follow signs and pictures like in major cities in Australia and the US (although most signs, ads, and information is in English).
Interesting Introduction to Uganda and Deep Economy
When Hudson dropped us off back at the backpackers he wrote down a few phrases in Luganda (the predominant local language). I had a coke and began Deep Economy by Bill McKibben as Becky read The Fountainhead. I remember thinking that the introduction to my book was especially striking giving my setting. The book begins:
For most of human history, the two birds More and Better roosted on the same branch. You could toss one stone and hope to hit them both, That's why the centuries since Adam Smith have been devoted to the dogged pursuit of maximum economic production. The idea that individuals, pursuing their own individual interests in a market society, make one another richer and the idea that increasing efficiency, usually increasing scale, is the key to increasing wealth has indisputably produce More. It has built the unprecedented prosperity and ease that distinguish the lives of most people reading this book [I looked around the backpacker's bar at this point and silently agreed]. It is no wonder and no accident that they dominate our politics, our outlook, even our personalities.
But the distinguishing feature of our moment is this: Better has flown a dew trees over to make her nest. That changes everything. Now, if you've got a the stone of your own life, or your own society, gripped in your hand, you have to choose between them. It's more or better.
I headed to bed that night at around 8:30 closing the mosquito net behind me. Tomorrow we go to Ddegeya, Uganda.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Into Uganda
Our trip to Uganda was pretty uneventful, which I appreciated. The flights were all on time or early and there were no problems with the visas, passports, or boarding passes. One quirk when checking into Uganda was that they gave me 90 days before I have to check into Masaka to get my visa renewed and they gave Becky just 30 days. Very weird. I thought that once you pay $200 for a 12 month, multiple entry VISA you can roam around, enter, and leave as you please. Not the case I guess. And apparently Becky is the greater threat of the two of us as they are keeping her on a shorter leash (Personally, I think it has to do with her penmanship on the arrival card - abysmal). The Entebbe Airport was small and pretty easy to get through - hardly the setting for a heroic hostage rescue - Hollywood will have to choose a different airport if they ever make a movie of the 1976 Air France hijacking.
[For those of you who have never read my posts before, I can be sarcastic at times; Becky's handwriting was lovely.]
I think we were also shortchanged somewhat on the exchange rate (1550 Ugandan Shillings for 1 USD). John Kalule warned us that we needed to haggle with the exchange rate and that Hudson would help us, but we had to pay the taxi driver and the hostel. To give you an idea of what a dollar buys (even at this relatively poor exchange rate) we bought wireless internet for $1.94, our backpacker stay for both of us is $16.13, and our hour ride to Kampala in a large van was $35.48 with a $3.23 tip. Way better than Australia.
The driving style is nuts. Two lane blacktop with no shoulders and well dressed pedestrians lining either side of the road (occasionally darting across the road unpredictably). We were driving on the left (Uganda was a British Colony) and every couple of minutes the driver would bolt out into the right lane and pass a car he deemed too slow. Didn't matter if we were going up a hill, coming around a blind turn, or if there was oncoming traffic. Becky seemed to not even notice. I, on the other hand, had been informed time and time again by Dave that if I were to get into any trouble in Uganda, statistically, it would be in a car accident in Kampala. The picture shows kind of what it looked like, except it was night. Lots of small shops, health clinics, and well dressed pedestrians were walking around.
So at this point I am most curious about the light-dark phenomenon. Apparently it gets dark here at around 7:30 every night, but the sun doesn't rise extra early. I don't understand this to the point that I almost don't believe it. We are on the equator. I can understand that it is cooler because we are raised up in altitude, but I don't get the shortened day thing. Hopefully my uncle Kevin will read this and resolve this or maybe I will consult the all-knowing Physics Professor Chad Orzel (via Bilal).
The plan from here is to wait for the arrival of Hudson who will escort us to the Engeye Health Clinic on Friday. We tried to register with the US Embassy electronically, but for some reason I couldn't get on the website. We may take a trip tomorrow, since we have the day to explore.
The hostel is pretty nice. There are no mosquitoes to be seen and we are on Malaria prophylaxis, but there are bed nets to be super extra safe. Okay, off to catch up on sleep.
[For those of you who have never read my posts before, I can be sarcastic at times; Becky's handwriting was lovely.]
I think we were also shortchanged somewhat on the exchange rate (1550 Ugandan Shillings for 1 USD). John Kalule warned us that we needed to haggle with the exchange rate and that Hudson would help us, but we had to pay the taxi driver and the hostel. To give you an idea of what a dollar buys (even at this relatively poor exchange rate) we bought wireless internet for $1.94, our backpacker stay for both of us is $16.13, and our hour ride to Kampala in a large van was $35.48 with a $3.23 tip. Way better than Australia.
The driving style is nuts. Two lane blacktop with no shoulders and well dressed pedestrians lining either side of the road (occasionally darting across the road unpredictably). We were driving on the left (Uganda was a British Colony) and every couple of minutes the driver would bolt out into the right lane and pass a car he deemed too slow. Didn't matter if we were going up a hill, coming around a blind turn, or if there was oncoming traffic. Becky seemed to not even notice. I, on the other hand, had been informed time and time again by Dave that if I were to get into any trouble in Uganda, statistically, it would be in a car accident in Kampala. The picture shows kind of what it looked like, except it was night. Lots of small shops, health clinics, and well dressed pedestrians were walking around.
So at this point I am most curious about the light-dark phenomenon. Apparently it gets dark here at around 7:30 every night, but the sun doesn't rise extra early. I don't understand this to the point that I almost don't believe it. We are on the equator. I can understand that it is cooler because we are raised up in altitude, but I don't get the shortened day thing. Hopefully my uncle Kevin will read this and resolve this or maybe I will consult the all-knowing Physics Professor Chad Orzel (via Bilal).
The plan from here is to wait for the arrival of Hudson who will escort us to the Engeye Health Clinic on Friday. We tried to register with the US Embassy electronically, but for some reason I couldn't get on the website. We may take a trip tomorrow, since we have the day to explore.
The hostel is pretty nice. There are no mosquitoes to be seen and we are on Malaria prophylaxis, but there are bed nets to be super extra safe. Okay, off to catch up on sleep.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Now Boarding Northwest Flight 38
The equator runs across the southern half of Uganda, relegating the Nile to the northern hemisphere. Sometime on Friday August 1, 2008 Becky and I will be crossing this imaginary line on our way to the Enegeye Health Clinic in the village of Ddegeya. The forecast calls for cloudy skies with a high of 80 degrees Fahrenheit (~27oC). This is typical; perusing the climatology shows that the average monthly high ranges from 77o to 82o (the low ranges from 61o to 64o). There are two seasons - rainy and dry (rainy season has about double the amount of rain in the rainiest New York month and dry has about four-fifths the rain as the driest month in New York).
View Larger Map
Our trip past the equator takes us from Boston-Logan International Airport to Amsterdam onto Entebbe Airport. We leave in 19 hours for a trip that takes about 18 hours. We will arrive in Entebbe at 8:15 PM (1:15 PM in New York). I think I am set. I've spent weeks sending frantic e-mails to Stephanie, the founder of Engeye and super-med-student-from-Portland, Misty, one of the heads of the clinic, John, who manages the clinic in Uganda, Dean McEvoy at Union College, and Becky (along with a network of other people connected to the clinic who are helping make this trip possible). We've coordinated everything from how to get water and food, what to wear in the clinic, internet, travel arrangements, tips, packing advice, etc. Hopefully, we will make it easier for the next set of Engeye-bound-Union-graduates by providing our budgets and packing lists.
Some of the goodbyes were tough as I took a road trip from Tyrone, PA (Grandma) to Orchard Park, NY (Mom, Dad, and brothers) to Geneva, NY (Emma) to Schenectady (Union) to Boston, MA (Bilal, Dave and Varun) to Narragansett, RI (family reunion) to Worcester, MA (Bob). Tonight I am at Dave's before Becky picks me up tomorrow afternoon for our departure. My bags are all packed up - one bag full of clothes, books and personal effects, the other stocked with sciency things, OTC medications, and arts and crafts fun. The sciency stuff was largely supplied by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Union College as Professor Maleki and Professor Amanuel gladly cleaned off dusty stockroom shelves giving me mirrors, lenses, magnets, kits, tubes, spectrometers, and other gizmos, gadgets, and doohickeys. Hopefully some useful science can be imparted to the students in Uganda as a result. At the very least thay make great toys and distractions from the English classes Becky and I will likely assist with.
Entebbe, Uganda Climatology
Besides the frantic e-mails I read a couple of books this summer - Ishmael, State of the World 2008, Mountains Beyond Mountains and Omnivore's Dilemma. It struck me how interconnected these set of books are, documenting a culture of greed and consumption, which in turn will end up hurting us in the long run and the rest of the world almost immediately. I also re-watched Why We Fight and Dave sent me Life + Debt to watch. After inspiration from these books and documentaries, I made sure to get my absentee ballot in order before I left. This is an important election year.
One comment that struck me as I was gearing up to go was that the world was on pause for me. It seemed like a good characterization. I am incredibly privileged to leave for Uganda with the autonomy to do most any project that can help and then simply return to the United States and resume where I left off - figuring out graduate schools and figuring out what to do in the summertime. Not only am I lucky to leave and have a once in a lifetime experience, but I am also lucky enough to come back to the security of life in the United States (discussed in Lara's Minerva Fellows blog).
I think that is enough for now. I feel calm, collected, excited and ready for this trip. I was lucky enough to see a great number of friends and relatives this last weekend (thank you everyone - especially Kevin and Barb for taking my car and Dave and Eileen for putting me up and getting me back to Massachusetts). Goodbyes can be tough, but I will be back relatively quickly (259 days) with an incredible experience that will undoubtedly change my perspective and outlook.
Happy Birthday Becky. What a day to leave on a great adventure.
View Larger Map
Our trip past the equator takes us from Boston-Logan International Airport to Amsterdam onto Entebbe Airport. We leave in 19 hours for a trip that takes about 18 hours. We will arrive in Entebbe at 8:15 PM (1:15 PM in New York). I think I am set. I've spent weeks sending frantic e-mails to Stephanie, the founder of Engeye and super-med-student-from-Portland, Misty, one of the heads of the clinic, John, who manages the clinic in Uganda, Dean McEvoy at Union College, and Becky (along with a network of other people connected to the clinic who are helping make this trip possible). We've coordinated everything from how to get water and food, what to wear in the clinic, internet, travel arrangements, tips, packing advice, etc. Hopefully, we will make it easier for the next set of Engeye-bound-Union-graduates by providing our budgets and packing lists.
Some of the goodbyes were tough as I took a road trip from Tyrone, PA (Grandma) to Orchard Park, NY (Mom, Dad, and brothers) to Geneva, NY (Emma) to Schenectady (Union) to Boston, MA (Bilal, Dave and Varun) to Narragansett, RI (family reunion) to Worcester, MA (Bob). Tonight I am at Dave's before Becky picks me up tomorrow afternoon for our departure. My bags are all packed up - one bag full of clothes, books and personal effects, the other stocked with sciency things, OTC medications, and arts and crafts fun. The sciency stuff was largely supplied by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Union College as Professor Maleki and Professor Amanuel gladly cleaned off dusty stockroom shelves giving me mirrors, lenses, magnets, kits, tubes, spectrometers, and other gizmos, gadgets, and doohickeys. Hopefully some useful science can be imparted to the students in Uganda as a result. At the very least thay make great toys and distractions from the English classes Becky and I will likely assist with.
Besides the frantic e-mails I read a couple of books this summer - Ishmael, State of the World 2008, Mountains Beyond Mountains and Omnivore's Dilemma. It struck me how interconnected these set of books are, documenting a culture of greed and consumption, which in turn will end up hurting us in the long run and the rest of the world almost immediately. I also re-watched Why We Fight and Dave sent me Life + Debt to watch. After inspiration from these books and documentaries, I made sure to get my absentee ballot in order before I left. This is an important election year.
One comment that struck me as I was gearing up to go was that the world was on pause for me. It seemed like a good characterization. I am incredibly privileged to leave for Uganda with the autonomy to do most any project that can help and then simply return to the United States and resume where I left off - figuring out graduate schools and figuring out what to do in the summertime. Not only am I lucky to leave and have a once in a lifetime experience, but I am also lucky enough to come back to the security of life in the United States (discussed in Lara's Minerva Fellows blog).
I think that is enough for now. I feel calm, collected, excited and ready for this trip. I was lucky enough to see a great number of friends and relatives this last weekend (thank you everyone - especially Kevin and Barb for taking my car and Dave and Eileen for putting me up and getting me back to Massachusetts). Goodbyes can be tough, but I will be back relatively quickly (259 days) with an incredible experience that will undoubtedly change my perspective and outlook.
Happy Birthday Becky. What a day to leave on a great adventure.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
