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 :)