finishing up february

Not too much going on here in bujagali. We got a new volunteer in, a guy named matt (from Idaho, went to yale) who will be here for 6 months or so... ive been keeping busy trying to catch up on follow-up data (entering tons of questionaires into the computer ) before jessie gets back from her jaunt to the states. My parents are comming out on monday (wow!) so lots of prep work for that.. i have to say im a little nervous, but super excited to get them out here. We'll do a little paddling, a little saving the world, and a trip up to murchison falls, a massive waterfall and national park up in northern uganda. its supposed to be absolutley beautiful and i can't wait to go up and see it.

On a personal note: i've had a lot of old friends and acquantainces pop back into my life recently. My program director Andre Guy from when i went abroad in Cameroon is currently in Sudan, and i have a catch up date to meet with him here in Uganda in march, which is really exciting. A couple kids (kayakers) from Canada that i have met on various paddling trips have also just showed up at the Lemon- funny what a small world it is. The last time i saw one of these kids was after a great day of boating on the gatineau river (which resulted in a swim by me- and subsequent "bootie beer" which was filmed by john gannon and others) - and i left this kid passed out on our hotel room floor. The Dirty Dozen crew kids should all remember this night, and that trip. great times. Its funny how things seem to catch up with you when you dont expect it.

After reading over my last post, and an email response i got, i realize that a lot of what i said about colonialism, or neo-colonialism came out suprisingly negative, which wasn't really my intention. There are a lot of good things about being here, clearly- as the rest of my blog posts show- but there is something disconcerting about the position in which we live. I tagged along to a rafting trip yesterday to help out a friend, and one of the customers goes.. "oh this is a bit weird, isn't it? these women washing their clothes as we are about to put our rafts in the water"
The volunteers here (and there are a lot of them) often get teased.. "how was savng the world today? " And we joke about a,omgst ourselves to be sure.. saving the world, one net or one condom at a time.. and as much as you poke fun, or as much as you have to wonder how much "good" you are actually doing.. you have to just go with the flow- and take everything as it comes. I wonder a lot what is going to happen to the generation of kids growing up in the village now, the kids who have grown up surrounded by white tourists, the ones who aren't in school, and run around saying.. mzungu i love you! how are you mzungu? what is your name? Mzungu. give me sweetie! Give me t-shirt! - and how their experiance will be different than their parents.
oh well.. off to save the world again.. one properly used condom at a time.

also.. put some new pics on flickr, so check them out.

busy busy

things have been super busy around here- and ive been a bit lazy for sure. hope you enjoy the latest digression from me..

i had the funniest thing happen to me yesterday. somehow, in the last month, all of the village kids have learned my name, so anytime i walk anywhere, i here "anna" "jambo! Anna!" its pretty entertaining, but can be a bit unnerving at times. At any rate, i was walking home from the clinic yesterday morning when two kids who are often hanging around, joseph and michael, grabbed my hands, not unusal, and said .. "Anna! Come! Home!" and then they kidnapped me, walked me down the village paths and brought me to their home, where i met their mother. after an awkward exchange, (i speak really limited lusoga, her english wasnt incredible) , - and in the typical style of ugandan hospitality, as soon as she saw me coming, she brings out a bench for me to sit on. i was glad to see that she sat next to me on the bench, instead of on the ground, as is what normally happens at follow-ups. After we greeted eachother in english and lusoga, we sat, kind of not talking for a while, at which point she dissapears into the house. i sat for a little while, and then said.. okay.. tugolole (to go back) and we started to leave, when she came out of the house, handed joseph a sack, and sent us on our way. once we got to thecampsite, i said bye to the kids, and joseph hands me the sack, containing a papaya and an avocado. Sometimes the little moments are the ones that are the most incredible. Ugandan hospitality is often remarked upon, and it is easy to see why.

ive been busy restrcturing the family planning, and after two weeks in charge, morgan and i were glad to welcome annie back. heres a funny little pic from tara, of me instructing the UKC in the family planning session we did on how to use a female condom, or femydom. (note.. they are bizarre! i had never seen

one before uganda, and i was slightly scared by them at first) I get a suprising number of questions about them though, and they are being re-introduced here . as of april 2008, the gv't aims to give out 100,000 to health clinics and pharmacys to be distributed. we will see how it works.

happy valentines day!

colonialsm, past and present

the longer you are here, and the more people you meet, the more you realize exactly how small the white population in uganda is, or at least how small it can feel. Everyone knows everyone, or at least knows of everyone. Its that old kevin bacon game- 6 degrees of separatio nor whatnot. Even the people only here for a short while are often connected in unexpected ways- though the incestous world of kayaking and raft guiding is no help for sure. (there are only so many rivers ).

Living in the bubble of NRE- which tends to be the mzungu (white) spot/bar of choice- only exaggerates the small mzungu community feel. Its funny how you start to pick out certain spots such as particular restuarants,supermarkets , internet cafes, etc- that are prime mzungu locales. its almost impossible to go these without seeing someone you know. i went to kampala the other week, and ran into half the population of jinja town. apparently, 5 years ago, you would be hard pressed to find mzungus in jinja. then, a large number of missionaries came, and now, they are every where, the tourists, the raft guides, the overlanders, the missionaries, etc..

In college, i was fascinated by colonialism. The act, the ideology behind it- how it happened, etc. i wrote numerous papers on the subject, looking at it from different points of view- the perk of being a french/international studies major, and just generally indecisive. i wrote about the politics behind it, the mindset, how it was perpetuated by photography, advertising, and numerous other things. at any rate, ive realized that in order to understand how colonialism happened, or the attitude behind it, all you really need to do is come and be a tourist, or come and live in africa- esp. here on the nile.

Karl and tara got gifted two nights at the nile porch, the luxurious half of NrE., where i live, by Taras uncle mark who came to stay. The bandas there are great, simple , but with everything you could need, plus a hammock and an incredible view. little bonus note; im sure this helped when karl proposed to tara on their last nite here. she said yes. super exciting!!!!

right. sitting in karl and taras hammock, drink in hand, it was so easy to see how colonialism happened, and existed, exists stiill. This country is absolutley beautiful . who wouldnt come here and not want to stay, claim it as their own? all it needs is a little more infastructure, maybe an improved road here, some running water in this spot- the climate is greate, accomidating people, ... to understand the colonist mindest, seriously, come and stay in uganda. its no wonder the rampant corruption on both sides, the battles that ensued for ownership of this country and this continent. Uganda in particular seems home to whites who come here to vacation, or for whatever reason, and never seem to leave. Maybe because they cant pay their bar tabs, maybe because they love it. hard to know. even so, it seems as though a signifigant portion of the white population in uganda is here for the long haul. Watching the movies Blood Diamond and Catch a Fire, you get a reall good perspective on what it is to be white in africa, or worse, to have been born white in africa. for better or worse, it becomes these peoples (and my) home.

living within a tourist base such as nre it often feels like colonialism, neo colonialsme is still ongoing. one of the goals of my original watson was to see how and if the tourism industry acts as a form of neo colonialism. the answer, thus far is yes, it does. nre is almost completely staffed by ugandans, yet owned, run and overseen by mzungus from various parts of the world. these mzungu managers hangout, talk, etc, mostly amoung themselves, and within the confines of the property, rarely venturing outside except for maybe a luxury meal or a fishing trip. These people fully live in uganda- but in their own version of uganda, which wil lmost likely never be experianced by the majority of the ugandan population. but then, its easy to critizse. how different is this than the class struggle in america and all the rest of the world. no matter where you are, htere is most likely a small minority population with the majority o f the wealth and or power.

even so, it is somewhat disconcering to look out of one side and see the beautiful nile river, and then to look at the other side and see a chainlink/barbed wire fence behind which lives a n african family in their mud hut, with naked children.. worse is that nre funcitons on tourism, mostly from overland trucks- that safari tour their way through africa, as annie so aptly put it one day, turnign africa into a living amusment park/zoo. for the most part, the overlanders come here to party, reinforcing nre's repuatation as a safge, party locale for whites.

to see the two differnt worlds, existing side by side without much interationc makes it all to easy to understand colonialism, and makes me wonder waht part of it i play in my everyday life here.