Public transport & lack thereof

Kampala is a city of a few million people (I've heard figures ranging from 1.5 - 4 million, depending on how you count it), and as one would expect, you can't get everywhere on foot. Because of this, I have gotten to experience another aspect of Ugandan culture: public transit.

There are basically four forms of transportation in Kampala:

1. Walking (most common): A vast majority of the citizens of Kampala do not own cars, and since there is no charge for walking, it's the easiest way to go. Since I'm still as frugal as ever, I walk whenever possible. The downsides are that sidewalks are rare, so you're normally walking on the side of the street - balancing between getting too far into the road and falling into the open "ditches" used to carry away rainwater (and occasionally sewage).
   
2. 14-passenger "taxi": When you say taxi over here, people think you are talking about the mutatu - a cramped 14 passenger mini-bus. Since there is no public busing system here (although there are talks of starting one), mutatu's are the way to go. The big problem: they have no set times or stops and routes tend to be improvised. They also do not move until they are full, a lesson I learned the hard way as I sat waiting in one for 30 minutes before it moved. Not the most comfortable option, but definitely something to experience. And oh the smells! :)
3. Taxi-cab: Taxi's, as we commonly think of them, are in Kampala, but they're just a little more difficult to find. You don't hail a taxi; instead, you have to know where to find them sitting - normally outside of major hotels and shopping areas. The one bright side: the drivers are very friendly and want your business. I have two taxi-cab drivers' phone numbers now: Jimmy and Frank (or, according to his business card, Captain Yankee).
4. Boda-boda: Picture the child of a motorcycle & moped, and you have got a boda-boda. These things are everywhere in Kampala. Unfortunately, they are anything but safe; I read a newspaper article that said 6 out of 10 hospital entries are due to boda-boda accidents. This is because the boda-boda drivers somehow are instilled with the belief that they can fit their bike into spaces that they physically shouldn't be able to navigate. And, somehow, they often manage to do just that as they skirt around the other cars and mutatu's that are stuck in traffic. They are fun to take, but only after haggling with the driver to get rid of the special "white-person tax" and then explaining that I won't pay him unless he drives slowly & safely. Still, I try to avoid using these unless they're my only option.

Moving around the city is definitely a test of patience (actually, just living in Africa is a test of patience for anyone used to US time standards). Traffic on the main streets is, more often than not, slowly creeping along due to a traffic jam (just called "the jam" over here). Because of the congestion, drivers are very aggressive over here too, so public transit is always an experience. And, since Uganda was a British protectorate, they drive on the opposite side of the road here...I still have to remind myself to look the opposite way before crossing any street.

The city is also in a very hilly region. It was originally built on seven hills (apparently some call Kampala the Rome of Africa...but that's a little bit of a stretch). This, among other reasons, has led to a city layout that is anything but the traditional grid layout that most of us are accustomed to. This is another lesson I learned the hard way when I thought I would walk a different route home one day. The bright side: I learned a new area of Kampala. The downside: it took me an hour to get back to my starting point and then walk my normal route home.

Finally, Kampala, in addition to being very hilly, has an altitude of about 4000 feet. Combine this with a 1.5 mile walk, uphill, to campus each morning, and I am one sweaty muzungu (local term for white person) by the time I get to campus each day! At least this will give me good grounds to exaggerate the story into a 5 mile walk, uphill both ways, by the time I have kids & grandkids :)

Cheers!
Chris



Pic: A woman rides on a boda-boda as the driver navigates between two mutatu's

Procrastination pays off???

I will admit that when I came to Africa, I wasn't too excited about my prospects for programs of graduate study at Makerere. I came with the understanding that I had been accepted into three programs: Construction Project Management, Economic Policy & Management, and International Relations & Diplomatic Studies. The issue was that I have only one academic year of study and, of course, most Masters programs take two years. Construction Project Management was a one year postgraduate diploma program, but I really wasn't that interested in it. Part of the problem was that my options were fairly limited when I was searching for programs of study from the US: the Makerere website was down about half of the time, and I think the university faculty and staff were on strike most of the time when it was working. Obviously, information was limited. So, I decided to put it off until I arrived at the university.

When I got to the registrar's office I discovered (after patiently waiting for them to literally dig through a huge pile of admission letters) that I had in fact not been admitted to the Economic Policy program because I didn't have any economics background. Granted, that does make sense, but this, naturally, was the program I was leaning towards pursuing. So, with my options limited to Diplomatic Studies or Construction Management, I decided to go exploring to see what I could find.

I remembered hearing about a new master's program in renewable energy, so I asked around and eventually was able to get in touch with the professor who was starting it. It turns out that the program focuses on how renewable energy can be used to developed Third World countries: which, ironically enough, is the exact type of program I wanted to pursue when I originally started looking for areas of study. I met with the professor in charge of the program, and, conveniently enough, he agreed to let me in!

There are couple big changes with this program – one of the biggest being that the professor doesn't think classes will start until around September 15^th (compared to the August 25^th date I was expecting). That's because this program is jointly operated by multiple universities: Makerere, Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Addis Abbaba (Ethiopia), and some university in Norway. To fill the next weeks, the plan is for me to start doing some research and reading. The bright side is that he said I should still be able to make it home for the Jorgensen-Connolly wedding on December 13 & Christmas.

One other slight change with this program: it is technically supposed to be a two year program. However, the professor said if I wanted to, I could try to fit all of the classes - and some of my thesis preparation - into my one year here. Actually, to quote him, he said, "If you are mad [crazy] enough, you might just be able to fit all classes into one year...if you are crazy." So (I'm sure this will come as no surprise to most of you), I'm going to try fitting this program into one year. We'll see how it goes!

Now it is just up to me to navigate academia bureaucracy to get all of the required signatures. And, believe it or not, it's actually more of a chore over here than at ISU! To get one signature, I actually had to find my way to a professor's house :) However, once I get all of that taken care of, I will officially be pursuing a Masters of Science in Renewable Energy - pretty cool, isn't it!


Pic (nothing to do with the post): I love my mosquito net!

Children of the Swamp

Pic: No caption needed here...

I’ve always been a big believer in the importance of a quality education. Children who receive a quality education have so many more options and opportunities in life. I’ve had to amend that belief slightly after my first couple weeks in Africa: more important than a quality education is just having some sort education at all. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for far too many children in today’s developing countries. Uganda has less than 50% of children (worse than I had originally guessed) graduate from primary school (about the same as getting through 6th grade in the States). In fact, 16% of Ugandan children never enroll in any schooling. And, the scary thought is that Uganda is well ahead of some of its other African counterparts. Depressing to think about, isn’t it! If a country is going to develop, it needs educated citizens to fuel that development.

So why are so many African children not receiving an education? There are many reasons, including children having to skip school because of sickness (malaria is one of the biggest culprits), work (subsistence farmers are often dependent on children for labor), or not being able to afford it (all Ugandan children have the right to receive an education, but it is not free). If students miss too much school, they can’t pass tests, and they fail out. Teachers are overloaded as it is, so they don’t have time to help students catch up.

I had heard of all of these reasons before, but one reason caught me off guard: some children have to miss school because they are spending their days sitting in lowland swamps! I was astonished to find out that children sit under makeshift shelters that are built in the middle of rice fields placed in the swamps with the sole purpose of chasing away birds that come to steal the rice seeds. I had noticed the ramshackle shelters in the swamps before, but never thought much of them. A development worker explained that some of the poorest families in Uganda receive rice handouts from the government. This rice is what helps these families survive, but it’s not enough to allow them to get out of the grasp of poverty. So, the children of some of the poorest families in Uganda are stuck in a cycle where they have to skip school in order to protect the food that allows for their survival, but in skipping school they destroy most opportunities that would allow them to break out of poverty. So how do we solve it? One approach that I have been able to witness working is the route that VEDCO & SRL have taken: empower farmers through sustainable agriculture. Change is possible and is slowly happening, but there is still a long way to go. More help & resources are needed to really raise African from the grips of poverty.

Back in Kampala

Pic: Posing at the source of the Nile


Well, my beginning travels are finished and now it's about time to get started with classes. These last 10 days definitely have been a perfect introduction to Uganda, though. I'm now at Makerere University, in the process of setting up my studies for the next year. Registration has been an interesting process, to say the least. Picture ISU enrollment processes, but add about 10,000 students and then remove computers and any semblance of organization, and you've got a general idea (maybe I should just start a filing cabinet business over here). Also, apparently students here just go to classes for a couple weeks to see what they're like and then register after that. Well, when in Rome...

I'll try to recap the highlights of what I've seen and done over the past two weeks in not too many words, but beware, this will probably be a pretty long post!

Lake Mburo National Park - August 11 & 12:
Like I mentioned in my past posts, this was the sight-seeing aspect of the trip. We (the ISU delegation was kind enough to "adopt" me) spent two nights in luxury tents (set up on wooden decks with solar-powered lights and a bathroom, shower, and sink - running water was improvised very nicely). I went on a guided driving tour of the area and a boat tour; both were very impressive with lots of wildlife (mainly hippos, zebra, impala, Ankole cattle, and a huge crocodile). Our group sat down for one afternoon and had a great discussion about development in Africa and all that we were about to see with the ISU Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (SRL) program - very interesting stuff! This was also the setting for the start of what will surely be a 10-month long battle between African food and my stomach. Winner of round one: African food. Thank you to Rich Bundy, for supplying the much-needed Imodium. Besides the digestive issues, awesome two days!

Back to Kampala - August 13:
We made the 5ish hour drive back to Kampala in decent time. Driving in Uganda is always interesting, because rules of the road are more like a set of guidelines. The cars are all over the road because they have to swerve to avoid the huge potholes that have developed from a combination of mother nature and lack of maintenance. Somehow we always make it to the final destination, but it's always an interesting journey. We got back into town just in time to make it to a lunch with the administration from Makerere University and its College of Agriculture. I lucked out here - not too many incoming students get to sit down with the 1st Deputy Vice Chancellor before starting graduate study!

Kamuli District- August 14-18:
The Kamuli District is about 3-5 hours (depending entirely on the size of the traffic jam) northeast of Kampala and is the site of ISU's work with its SRL program. This is where all of the ISU students who have participated in the Service Learning program have been based. It is very rural, with most of its inhabitants surviving by subsistence farming, and was definitely my favorite part of Uganda so far.

Day 1 - Thursday, August 14:
We arrived in time to eat lunch with the VEDCO (Volunteer Efforts for Development Concerns) staff. This is the NGO (nongovernmental organization) that the SRL program has paired with in its rural development work. The staff were all great and although being very young (almost all seemed to be in the 25-35 age range) had some amazing experiences. For example, one of the nutritionists, Benin, has already had 3 children in the community named after him, because he has saved the lives of their older siblings through advising proper nutrition regimens!

After lunch, we got to go watch a borehole (water well) being dug. This is huge for a community here because it allows for a reliable source of clean water. It was being dug right beside a rural school, so many of the kids were there. This was my first experience with the children here, and I love them! I found out one thing very quickly: they love to have their picture taken! Well, to put it more precisely, they love to see their pictures on the digital camera display screens :)

Day 2 - Friday, August 15:
The day began with the commissioning of another borehole that had previously been dug. Our group got there and was greeted by several of the residents who promptly seated us and then performed a traditional dance in celebration: I think Africans must have double-jointed hips :)

The rest of the day was spent visiting farmers in the area who had worked with SRL. These individuals had been visited by ISU delegations in years past, and were being visited again to allow for a better understanding of the SRL program's effects. Even though this was the first time that I had seen these families, the gains that they had made during the past years were still plainly evident. It was quite the experience to hear these farmers tell how the SRL & VEDCO program (which uses a bottom-up education/extension-oriented approach) had helped them go from not having enough to even feed their own families to having food security and being able to even start saving money from their earnings. Keep in mind that this change only took a couple years to occur!

That night, we were able to meet the Makerere University students who were also working on the Service Learning project in conjunction with the ISU students who traveled to Uganda earlier this month. They were a great group, and it was even better for me because I now know at least a few other students at Makerere!

Day 3 - Saturday, August 16:
This day centered around a visit to one of the most successful farmers of the program: Rose Mbiiru. Two years ago, Rose was one of the most successful farmer in the SRL/VEDCO program. However, after a devastating flood, she lost almost everything. Not deterred, she started over, and when we visited, she was able to show the 1000+ banana trees she had planted and the other initiatives she had started. Within just a couple years, she had rebuilt her farm - with the help of some micro-finance loans - to the point where she could afford to send 5 of her children to boarding school. Incredible!

That same day, we were able to see the other side of the spectrum when we stopped by a farm where we met a mother, child, and grandmother. The child was obviously very malnourished, and our guides explained that this was an emergency case (normally VEDCO sits down with the farmers to set up the partnerships - this is to preserve the sustainability of the program). However, in extreme cases, sustainability is ignored, and relief is provided. This child was found just a few days earlier by one of the VEDCO volunteers, and its new nutrition program had already been put in place. It was too early to see any effects, but we were all very hopeful that the program would be successful and the child would live. Probably the most disheartening thing that we saw, however, was the demeanor of the mother. This child was her third, and the first two had shown the exact same signs and died soon after. After going through that, she had all but lost the will to hope that her child would make it.

Day 4 - Sunday, August 17:
Up to this point, we had spent the entire trip visiting and seeing the work of SRL. This day was a little different: we got to do some service work of our own! We spent most of the morning and afternoon painting (bright orange) part of the primary school at Namasagali. This part of the school had lost its roof in a severe storm a few years ago, and some ISU students and Iowa Rotary clubs were able to raise the money to replace it. This section of the school hadn't been used since losing the roof, so it was definitely in need of a fresh coat of paint!
We also saw the "mushroom house." A project of one of the Makerere Students where he and a few other literally build a structure from the ground-up that they are now using to grow mushrooms in order to sell at a market. Very impressive!

Day 5 - Monday, August 18:
Back to Kampala! We got up early and all headed back to Kampala. When we arrived, we had a few hours to unpack and eat lunch before meeting with the VEDCO Board of Directors. This was then followed by a dinner and social time afterward where I was able to say goodbye and thanks to everyone from the ISU delegation for letting me go along with their travels. I could not have asked for a better introduction to Uganda!

And that brings us up to today. Congrats if you're still reading, and sorry again for the long post! Hopefully, I'll have more consistent internet access from now on and not need to have a marathon catch-up session like this again.

Anyway, enough writing for me - I need to go take care of a couple more tasks on campus before heading back to Dorothy's to change for dinner: I'm meeting Rich and Dr. Mazur one last time before they fly out tomorrow.

Thanks for all of the emails/comments that you have all sent - I love hearing from all of you!

Cheers!
Chris

P.S. There may be a couple small changes to this post in the next couple days. I didn't have my notes with me to check on exact days and numbers, so this was all written from memory. And, as most of you know, my short-term memory is not the steel trap that I often claim it to be :)

Quick check-in

Another quick post here.

We got back in from the tent camp just fine. It was an amazing few days in the western part of the country. No lion sightings (I was wrong - they aren't in that park) apparently we were in the wrong area) but we did see plenty of zebras, hippos, impala (think gazelles), and a huge crocodile - very cool. We came back to Kampala and had a meeting at the Makerere University campus and then had a dinner with the Executive Director of VEDCO - the NGO that the SRL program works with.

Now it is 9:00 am Thursday morning and we are about to leave for 5 days in Kamuli - the same area where many ISU students have lived and worked. Should be an incredible time.

Will check back in with more stories (and pictures) later.

Cheers!
Chris


Pic: 23 years old and still as immature as ever...here I am "straddling" the equator :)

I'm here!

I have arrived safely in Uganda! It is now my third full day and I am busy trying to take as much in as I possibly can. Internet access is somewhat limited (and always a test of patience), but hopefully once I start classes that will change.

Sorry to anyone who checked the blog earlier only to find no posts - I've had an interesting time trying to get the email out to everyone and get a post updated. Hopefully things will smooth out as I continue my time over here.

I will give a very brief update of the past few days (I only have a few minutes right now) and then add more later:

Friday, August 8:
Arrived in Entebbe after two 8 hour flights (Detroit to Amsterdam & Amsterdam to Entebbe). Found all of my luggage and got through customs without a hitch - I win that round, Africa. I better not brag just yet, since I'll have to do that a few more times before the 10 months is over.
I'm currently traveling with the Iowa State delegation - Rich Bundy, the Sukup family, and the Kolschowskys - who are here to observe how that ISU Sustainable Rural Livelihoods program has come along in the last year. It's very nice to have traveling partners - especially when they've been to Africa numerous times before.
Got into Kampala from Entebbe after about an hour drive. The road wasn't too bad - apparently it had been improved this last year when the CHOGM conference was held here (can't remember what it stands for right now). Caught my first glimpse of Ugandan living conditions: about on par with what I had been told to expect. Dropped the ISU delegation off at their hotel in Kampala and I went on to Dorothy Masinde's house where I will be staying for the time being. Dorothy is a Kenyan woman who was hired by ISU to coordinate it's work with the NGO VEDCO and is amazing. She has already adopted me as her newest child :)
When we got to her house, I picked her mind about a few important things (doctor, malaria, cell phone, money exchange, etc.) and then she helped me set up my mosquito net and I crawled into bed for my first night in Uganda (will post a picture later). Not as tired as I thought I would be, but definitely ready for sleeping in a bed rather than a airplane seat with a recline angle of <10º.

Saturday, August 9
Jet lag hasn't been too bad. Woke up for about an hour at 5:00 am, then fell back asleep until 7:30ish. That's been the story every morning since. Started the day by going to Garden City - the main shopping mall (picture a 1980's American mall). Exchanged money and bought a better map of Kampala (which doesn't really make that much sense since no one knows the names of roads anyway). Wandered around the mall and got my cell phone (will post the number later). Came back to the hotel with the ISU delegation and spent the afternoon there before we all went to Khana Khazana - a fantastic Indian restaurant. Back to Dorothy's & my mosquito net for bed.

Sunday, August 10
Went with Rich & the Sukups for my first African church experience. It was nothing like I expected. Instead of being 3+ hours and lots of upbeat music, it was 45 minutes long and split between Latin & Lugandan. Also had to sit outside since the inside was packed. Interesting experience, to say the least. The afternoon was spent visiting the tombs of the Bugandan kings (one of Uganda's 56 native tribes) and then we met up with some Makerere University students and went to a dance/dinner performance called Ndere. Lasted 4 hours (yes, I did nod off for a bit), but was awesome overall.

Alright - we're off to the Mburu nature reserve for a couple days of staying in a "luxury tent resort." Not exactly sure what that is, but have heard that lions might be involved in some way.

Will post more in a few days when we're back.

Cheers!
Chris