So i have officially moved back up to Bujagali- the past two months have seen a lot of packing and unpacking to be sure! From the banda i shared with morgan to rwanda, and sipi and back, to the guide banda at NRE, to another room in that banda because they were thatching the roof, to Town, and finally, back up here. I am now living in a little loft room at All Terrain Cafe, just across the street from the campsite. It is brutally hot during the day, but seeing as i am not usually there, it doesnt bother me. I have a double med (muzungatu) and another bed, for "spendovers" in the words of kristin luber, a table, a chair and a load of shelves. i even splurged and bought an electric kettle for wehn there is power. its perfect for what i need. It is certainly less stressful to be up here, and less of a pain to be hanging around both at night and during the day when im not working.
Annie is back, don't know if i specified before, and she has brought with her (along with instant oatmeal and green tea (food craveings) an addiction to the TV show Gossip Girl which i am all to happy to indulge her by watching as well. The show is based around a ficticious blog, "Gossip Girl" that details the lifes of manhattans elite, upper east side teenagers at posh private schools and their imperfect lives. (great trashy tv show, sometimes i drool over the clothes and the utter impracticality of the lifestyle- made both more and less evident by living here) What i mean by more and less evident is the lesiure lifestyle that i have mentioned previously. Annie and I always get a kick by refering to our "people"- the lady that does our laundry, or cleans our homes, our drivers, etc... Its not manhattans upper east side, but its not bad either. Then again, there is no place for Manolos and designer clothes out here, even though you can sometimes find them in the markets.
I was walking around Jinja yesterday, getting some things in the market and i was struck by how different this experiance has been to my last experiance in Africa, when i studdied abroad in Cameroon, west Africa. In Cameroon, i was shuttled around with a group of 14 other american students, of mixed race and origin, but all having a similar backround and experiance. Despite this buffer, and the protection of the program- staying in fancy hotels, getting special treatment- i cant help but feel that i did more then to fully "experiance" the place. Every experiance was new, and good or bad, it was discussed endlessly in class sessions, casual conversation, and class journals. Whats more is that we were living in host familys, forced into Cameroonian culture in a way that i have avoided here by living all the various places (mzungu compounds, of sorts) that i have. While i have made friends here, i havent interacted with the locals in the same way i imagined i had in Cameroon. Granted, Cameroon wasnt always sunshine. I had one hostfamily i couldn't stand- where my host father stole my cellphone, and put me under house arrest for my first weekend. Ah, memories.
Despite this, i cannot deny that i fully live in Uganda, that i have built a life here. I have a job, friends, a home- everything that my friends in the states have in their real world jobs. I am fully functioning here, running around the markets to buy a new handle for a broken toilet, or a metal chest, bargaining for prices while market shopping for new clothes that i really dont need. All these experiances are the same as those i had in CMR, yet feel so vastly different here. Maybe becuause i have gotten used to them, maybe because everything in CMR was conducted in french, which exotified the experiance. who knows.
At anyrate, things are going well, loving my new home though ive only spent one night there thus far, and i am excited to say that my friend Soapy (from North Country Rivers, the rafting company in maine i worked for) comes out to visit in two weeks.
more updates, and hopefully pictures to follow..
a
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
some pictures
Dildo Fun
Dance Train for Morgans Last Nite
Me looking for our Banda key after Rwanda
Me about to cut the lock on our Banda after i lost our key. Too bad Mitch had a spare, which i found out later.
View from Sipi River Lodge
Small child with hoe. Typical.
Me making friends.
quickie
Things have been outrageously busy here... we had almost 20 students for kayak school every day this week- quite a lot for a small company with only 4 guides... As it turned out, Jared, one of our main guides got malaria right at the start of the week and wasn't able to work the first few days, leaving us scrambling. Fortunately, Sam Ward (founder of Love It Live It) and Pringle were around to help us out, filling in for a few weeks.
We had a group of 9 Irish guys, some of whom had been out here before, and 5 scottish guys, two of which taught my friend Fraggle to paddle 14 years ago in scotland! There were also several others who were around here and there filling it out to make a super busy week. 5 norweigan guys just showed up as well for a three day course.. all good boaters, and ive had a lot of fun showing them the river. Ive been working with Ibra a bunch as well, and its always good to see how other people instruct, the spots they tend to stop on the river, etc... As a result, ive learned a lot this week as well, about the river and about coaching.
Im finding that i really do enjoy coaching, and i hope to continue doing it, and to hope improving. All in all, working out here really is an amazing opportunity.
My friend Soapy from North Country comes out in a few weeks, and im really excited to have the opportunity to show him the river, and to have a friend out here to paddle with in my spare time.
As much as i love living in a posh house with internet, tv, and my own bathroom, ive decided to move back up to bujagali area as it is much more convenient, and cheaper. I really do love living right on the water, so it will be a step down, but easier. Though, sitting on the couch right now with my friend megan, eating smoothies (fruit from the market, ice from jinja... and we have a blender!) and watching the devil wears prada,.. it is about as close to the states as you can get. Weird.
Morgan has posted tons of photos on facebook for those of you on facebook, so check them out, and for those not i will do my best to put some on the blog asap.
cheers!
We had a group of 9 Irish guys, some of whom had been out here before, and 5 scottish guys, two of which taught my friend Fraggle to paddle 14 years ago in scotland! There were also several others who were around here and there filling it out to make a super busy week. 5 norweigan guys just showed up as well for a three day course.. all good boaters, and ive had a lot of fun showing them the river. Ive been working with Ibra a bunch as well, and its always good to see how other people instruct, the spots they tend to stop on the river, etc... As a result, ive learned a lot this week as well, about the river and about coaching.
Im finding that i really do enjoy coaching, and i hope to continue doing it, and to hope improving. All in all, working out here really is an amazing opportunity.
My friend Soapy from North Country comes out in a few weeks, and im really excited to have the opportunity to show him the river, and to have a friend out here to paddle with in my spare time.
As much as i love living in a posh house with internet, tv, and my own bathroom, ive decided to move back up to bujagali area as it is much more convenient, and cheaper. I really do love living right on the water, so it will be a step down, but easier. Though, sitting on the couch right now with my friend megan, eating smoothies (fruit from the market, ice from jinja... and we have a blender!) and watching the devil wears prada,.. it is about as close to the states as you can get. Weird.
Morgan has posted tons of photos on facebook for those of you on facebook, so check them out, and for those not i will do my best to put some on the blog asap.
cheers!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
TOO HORNY!
is the title of an article in the Ugandan Paper/tabloid "The Red Pepper". I thought it was to funny not to share with you all.. and so you get a glimpse at the quality of ugandan news.
"Too Horny" 'Give Artificial Whoppers to Our Girls in Schools' By Nathan Ngobi in Busia
The amazing sleaze from Busia is that the Women's Council has asked the Government to provide 'manmade whoppers' to all school going girls so that they can use them to quench their sex urge. The women said the girls can use the dildos during different times when their sex appetite rises up to avoid HIV and escaping from schools with men for sex during school time. This was revealed by Buteba Sub-county women council boss, only identified as Margaret.
"We want Government to provide our sex active girls with those 'things' so as to avoid the deadly HIV", Margaret told a gathering during a workshop on HIV/AIDS among young girls organized by the national Womens Council at Busia Community Hall recently. She said that if the Government supplied dildos to girls in schools, this would reduce the chances of girls going out with men and catching HIV. She said the system would consider the age and the size of the breasts before giving the girls the soft whopper.
She added that during their days, parents used to give them egg plants to use at school whenever the sex urge arose. "One could go to the birthroom and plave the egg plant in her Kandahar and the sex urge would go away," she said adding that: "but the eggplants used to rot and since this is a modern world, the Government would give our girls manmade soft whoppers depending on the size of the children." Marvelous, this is! Maggie had earlier asked a health worker, Wanyama, if there were some scientific drugs that would be used by human beings to stop or reduce sex appetite so they could give them to school going girls. According to Maggie, the dildoes would assist girls not to run up and down looking for horny men to shaft them. She pointed out that condoms and abstinenve are not enough for these kids.
The workshop was officially opened by Busia LC5 boss Patrick Wedakule, who said that it would be expensive for the Government to manufacture artificial whoppers for all sizes of girls in schools.
Yes... i kid you not. There is the article, word for word. Granted, the Red Pepper is a notoriously trashy newspaper/magazine, akin to the tabloids with composite pictures of woman gives birth to batboy, but still. I think the article raises a lot of interesting questions, esp. after all the family planning work i was doing, and talking with a friend who does similar things with an NGO in kampala.
certainly, "Margaret" has a radical idea. the questions you have to askb though, are many. Will giving dildos to school age girls really satisfy/supress their sex urges? or will it encourage them, and give the many who are at this point embarrased by these urges, the will or the desire to act on them? Using Dildos as a means of preventing the spread of HIV is an interesting proposition. As to the eggplant claim, i havent gotten much response from ugandans other than the all knowning "mmm" with head and chin lift, or laughter. I am also curious what this would been for the percieved "virginity" of these girls, though i am not certain how important that is in ugandan culture.. there are a great many single mothers in Bujagali alone, how typical a village this is, with regard to the transitory nature of many of the workers and visitors (raft guides) i am not sure. I do know from personal experiance, that, 9 times out of ten, raucous laughter occured anytime i removed the soft power dildo from its bag, and that with school children especially, there was avid fascination, opposed to the older crowd, where fascination combined with disgust. I remember one particular session held outside an elementary school where all the kids crowded around during their recess. The kids were fascinated, not only by the dildo, but by the posters and the information on the human reproductive systems. Surely it is better to give these kids a proper sexual education, something sorely lacking in ugandan school itineraries, than to just hand the girls dildos. Are they going to hand lotion or lube to the male students to encourage them to masturbate, instead of having intercourse as well? Perhaps the problem with girls running off for sex lies not only with the girls themselves, but also with the school system, where oftentimes, authority is lax. Students are often milling around the school yards, and teachers are seldom found in the classrooms, but instead, smoking or eating in the teachers lounge. This is beacuse oftentimes, the Government lacks themoney to pay the teachers salaries, so why should they do anywork? They show up, they leave, but not much seems to go on inbetween. Perhaps this system needs revamping before the manufacture of "manmade soft whoppers" is to take place.
on the other hand, you have to credit margaret to an innovate approach to tackling a larger problem, that of HIV/AIDS. however, i still stand by the idea that education, not masturbation, will do a better job of preventing the spread of the disease.
"Too Horny" 'Give Artificial Whoppers to Our Girls in Schools' By Nathan Ngobi in Busia
The amazing sleaze from Busia is that the Women's Council has asked the Government to provide 'manmade whoppers' to all school going girls so that they can use them to quench their sex urge. The women said the girls can use the dildos during different times when their sex appetite rises up to avoid HIV and escaping from schools with men for sex during school time. This was revealed by Buteba Sub-county women council boss, only identified as Margaret.
"We want Government to provide our sex active girls with those 'things' so as to avoid the deadly HIV", Margaret told a gathering during a workshop on HIV/AIDS among young girls organized by the national Womens Council at Busia Community Hall recently. She said that if the Government supplied dildos to girls in schools, this would reduce the chances of girls going out with men and catching HIV. She said the system would consider the age and the size of the breasts before giving the girls the soft whopper.
She added that during their days, parents used to give them egg plants to use at school whenever the sex urge arose. "One could go to the birthroom and plave the egg plant in her Kandahar and the sex urge would go away," she said adding that: "but the eggplants used to rot and since this is a modern world, the Government would give our girls manmade soft whoppers depending on the size of the children." Marvelous, this is! Maggie had earlier asked a health worker, Wanyama, if there were some scientific drugs that would be used by human beings to stop or reduce sex appetite so they could give them to school going girls. According to Maggie, the dildoes would assist girls not to run up and down looking for horny men to shaft them. She pointed out that condoms and abstinenve are not enough for these kids.
The workshop was officially opened by Busia LC5 boss Patrick Wedakule, who said that it would be expensive for the Government to manufacture artificial whoppers for all sizes of girls in schools.
Yes... i kid you not. There is the article, word for word. Granted, the Red Pepper is a notoriously trashy newspaper/magazine, akin to the tabloids with composite pictures of woman gives birth to batboy, but still. I think the article raises a lot of interesting questions, esp. after all the family planning work i was doing, and talking with a friend who does similar things with an NGO in kampala.
certainly, "Margaret" has a radical idea. the questions you have to askb though, are many. Will giving dildos to school age girls really satisfy/supress their sex urges? or will it encourage them, and give the many who are at this point embarrased by these urges, the will or the desire to act on them? Using Dildos as a means of preventing the spread of HIV is an interesting proposition. As to the eggplant claim, i havent gotten much response from ugandans other than the all knowning "mmm" with head and chin lift, or laughter. I am also curious what this would been for the percieved "virginity" of these girls, though i am not certain how important that is in ugandan culture.. there are a great many single mothers in Bujagali alone, how typical a village this is, with regard to the transitory nature of many of the workers and visitors (raft guides) i am not sure. I do know from personal experiance, that, 9 times out of ten, raucous laughter occured anytime i removed the soft power dildo from its bag, and that with school children especially, there was avid fascination, opposed to the older crowd, where fascination combined with disgust. I remember one particular session held outside an elementary school where all the kids crowded around during their recess. The kids were fascinated, not only by the dildo, but by the posters and the information on the human reproductive systems. Surely it is better to give these kids a proper sexual education, something sorely lacking in ugandan school itineraries, than to just hand the girls dildos. Are they going to hand lotion or lube to the male students to encourage them to masturbate, instead of having intercourse as well? Perhaps the problem with girls running off for sex lies not only with the girls themselves, but also with the school system, where oftentimes, authority is lax. Students are often milling around the school yards, and teachers are seldom found in the classrooms, but instead, smoking or eating in the teachers lounge. This is beacuse oftentimes, the Government lacks themoney to pay the teachers salaries, so why should they do anywork? They show up, they leave, but not much seems to go on inbetween. Perhaps this system needs revamping before the manufacture of "manmade soft whoppers" is to take place.
on the other hand, you have to credit margaret to an innovate approach to tackling a larger problem, that of HIV/AIDS. however, i still stand by the idea that education, not masturbation, will do a better job of preventing the spread of the disease.
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