kayaks and more

And so its back to work this week after our mini vacation from christmas and new years. Tons of net sales and family planning sessions in the works, so it should be a busy for SPH. On top of all the sessions, we are busy trying to settle everything up from last year and look forwards to this year. We spent the last week repainting the clinic with team kiwi- a group of ten or so kayakers- all friends and general awesome people from the NZed. Legends, as Hes would say. The clinic looks great, a new super upbeat shade of yellow, a new coat of red oxide trim and a shed/kitchen to match. As godfrey, one of the nurses put it "a new face for 2008".team kiwi in action : sophie, Brendan, LauraMe and Tara after a hard day at work Our first family planning clinic of the year was a huge success, with over a hundred people in attendance and a lot of interesting questions, sucj as, if a man takes the pill, will it prevent pregnancy? Namizi East, the village where we held the session was really pleased with it, and requested us to come back asap not only with nets, but to do a nutrition session, talking about the benefits of healthy eating, which foods provide which nutrients and portion sizes.. should be interesting. we will see how it goes, and if it actually happens.
As always, things are in flux here. Paul returned to Alaska on wednesday, we miss him already, and not only for the free medical advice, i swear. We have a new volunteer Jim, a professor of Micro biology at Purchase, NY- here for twi weeks. All of the kiwis left minus laura, we were all really sad to see them go and hope to be able to reuntite at somepoint in the future.
Due to the elections in Kenya, gas prices here rose out of control. Instead of the usual price of 25oo ush, fuel was costing between 7-10,000 ush. This meant that transportation costs exploded, with boda boda rides tripling in cost, and taxis becoming ridiculously overpriced, resulting in increased prices of nearly all goods. (econ 1o1 anybody?) Fortunatley, prices have stabalized, though the supply of gas is still limited and the border is still not allthe way open. The boda drivers have been desperate for work, so they have also started to lower prices in attempt to woo more mzungu customers. The other day i saw one person in kayak gear get swarmed by 7 boda drivers trying to run his shuttle. Insanity.
the dry season has definatley begun here- its been super hot and dry with no rain. The roads are dusty, and everything -even the trees is the same red as the dust. Karl, normally blonde, hopped off his last boda ride as a red head who looked like he had been working in acoal mine for 2 days.
I realize that Karl and Tara have become a huge part of our Uganda family, and i havent said much about them yet. They are both awesome poeple who ia m so glad that i have gotten to know. Karl has his own production company, epicocity projects, where he shoots, edits, sells and produces kayaking videos such as bigger than rodeo, amplify, and mission: epicocity. He is here in UG for a couple of reasons. one, working on footage for a new film, and two, a charity he is starting here in Bugajali along with Jamie, (the owner of Kayak the Nile, the local Kayak School). Basically, Karl contacted a ton of his sponsers, inclunding Astral, Wavesport, NRS, AT and Shred Ready, and got them, along with several individuals to donate a ridiculous amount of gear. Enough to fully outfit from boats to pfds to paddles to booties- ugandans who want to learn to kayak. The idea for a club like this has been in the works for awhile, but no one had the capital to make it happen- this is where karl came in. Buuilding off a huge base Jamie built by providing ugandans access to gear, along with help from Cam and John (owners of Adrift) with the import fees on the equipment, Karl basically self funded the start of the Ugandan Kayak Club. the idea is that instead of selling a boat to one ugandan, make boats and gear available to many ugnadans at a super low cost. Its impossible to explain what this means without detailing the kayak situation here. Basically, working as a safety boater for one of the rafting companies is the best paying job in this part of UG. What this means is that everyone wants to learn how to kayak, if not for the sport, then for the potential income. The problem is that most ugandans dont have access to gear. The ones who do- those who bought it off mzungus or kayakers who left boats and kit here- few have acomplete set of fully functional gear. It is not at all uncommon to see locals on the river in broken boats, with out skirts, without helmets or using broken paddles, paddles with one blade, homemade paddles, or paddles created by taping the pieces of two broken paddles together. Of the locals who do and dont kayak, the majority dont even know how to swim. Bizarre thought for me, having grown up on the water, and spent the large part of my working life in or on the water. Jamie is starting a big push and education program to teach ugandans how to swim, and also how to kayak as a part of the Ugandan kayak club. its super exciting to see this happening here, and i hope the results are good. The kick off party is tonite, where the rules of the game will be explained, so hopefully things will go well. i have to run to help set things up. for more info on karl or his project, check www.christmasforafrica.com or www.epicocity.comKarl on the special