Malwa!

Lisandro is a Peace Corps volunteer that I got in touch with through a mutual friend. He is fabulously lucky to be living in a picturesque little village in the eastern mountains of Uganda--it's true, even without water and electricity I consider him lucky! After our Thanksgiving weekend I followed him home to get a glimpse in the life a first month Peace Corps Volunteer. He's working as a health educator, but has a lot of freedom to do basically whatever work he desires, related to his assignment or not. He has encountered the problem that everyone living and/or working in Uganda faces nearly everyday: corruption. I've heard some say that the corruption in Uganda is the worst in all of Africa. I've had few conversations where it hasn't come up. Everyone suffers from it--in the government, the schools, the NGOs, the churches, the justice system, even among friends, few aspects of life are not impaired by it. Everyone knows it's happening, but few (if anyone) do anything to stop it. This is the main complaint I hear from people about President Museveni, that he's done nothing to curb the corruption. It's a huge constraint on the economics of the country, it under-powers many well meaning organizations, and it creates a general atmosphere of mistrust and helplessness. When I've asked locals how they think the problem can be solved, they all say there needs to be a change of government.

Museveni has been in power over 20 years, he came into power through a coup and made many promises as an interim government working towards a democracy. There have been three elections since he's led the country, but there are many who feel they were far from free and fair. I don't believe that you can consider a country a democracy when there has never been a peaceful transfer of power, the ruling government changes laws and even the constitution in order to retain power, and essentially throws any opposition into jail. So while many citizens in Uganda feel a change of governing leadership is necessary, few have confidence that they can make it happen. The activist in me screams that you have to stand up for what you want, protest, write letters, sign petitions, boycott! But people don't want to stir up any trouble or violence (recent history has created a great deal of fear towards acting against the government), they don't want to go to jail, so they accept the status quo and just go on with their life.

Apparently Ugandans like to talk politics while they drink, so I had a long talk at a birthday party (over Malwa, a local millet based brew, which frankly looks like disgusting sludge, but actually isn't that bad) with a young man who was put in jail for working for the opposition during the last election. It scared him sufficiently that he stopped working for the party and voted for Museveni. He felt that the only way to make anything happen was war, and he didn't want that, so what could he do? I told him about Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, Gandhi and the independence movement, Nepal's protests to oust their king, and Burma's recent protests against their government. He seemed intrigued and encouraged.

The fact is that many of the people here feel helpless to change things. They're riddled with handouts from NGO's and manipulated by the government until they're convinced there's not much they can do for themselves. They even respect the medical opinion of a white man who's not a doctor (despite their mistrust of the west) over that of a local nurse. (Lisandro and I encountered this at a visit to a health center--the people were worried about giving their children vaccines. In the past western pharmaceuticals came and tested drugs in Africa, often to the detriment of their well-being, so this is a legitimate concern. We assured them that they were getting the same vaccines that we ourselves had as babies.* There was also a rumour that Americans thought Africans were having too many babies, so we were giving them these "vaccines" to strelize them. We pointed out that since these vaccines started being used in Uganda 20 years ago the birth rate has gone up!) I have long felt that empowerment is the key to creating positive changes--for the individual as well as the nation--and everything I see here tells me that's precisely what's missing. The question is how to organize the masses, educate them, and give them confidence to stand as a community to peacefully demand an accountable and democratic government. I feel I need many more Malwa induced discussions before I find that answer!

*You may remember that I posted a blog questioning the use of the flu vaccine a while back. I want to point out that while my concerns about many vaccines are still firmly in place, that doesn't mean I'm against vaccination on the whole--these babies need to be getting the polio, hepatitis, diptheria, tetanus, diptheria, etc, because the fact is that some of them are getting these diseases before they are even old enough to get the vaccine. The situation is desperate and the people working to make sure these children get the vaccines they need to survive deserve our praise.

Thanksgiving?

I had a totally unexpected and totally American Thanksgiving last weekend! Back on November 22, the official Thanksgiving day, I didn't even remember that it was Thanksgiving! My Australian friend reminded me in the evening after we had spent the day at the Uganda Museum getting a little taste of the many different local tribal cultures. After wishing me a happy Thanksgiving she asked "What's that holiday all about anyway?" It was very amusing. Anyway, the following week I got in touch with Lisandro, a friend of a friend back home, who's a Peace Corps volunteer in eastern Uganda. He invited me to their belated Thanksgiving bash, and I was happy to get out of Kampala and meet some more people--I got way more than I expected!

On the 4 hour matatu (a.k.a. taxi, which is the local public transport) ride to Mbale through a few other towns and lots of dust over bumpy roads, I saw some hilarious signs that I just have to share:
"Nice Peaceful Butchery"
"Uganda Martyrs College"
"God's Will Shop"
(the musings are endless!)
Then after another 2 hour matatu ride up into the mountains to Chiholo, I arrived at the "Mizungu Guest House." It was actually just the home of another Peace Corps Volunteer, but because it's unusually large for a PCV house (4 bedrooms!) and it was filled with foreigners (or mizungus), everyone jokes that it's the Mizungu Guest House.

After being introduced to a dozen people (all PCV's) I was pleasantly surprised to learn we would be having not only turkey for dinner, but also mashed sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, corn bread, fruit salad and pumpkin pie! Everyone was busily helping with the preperations, luckily I had just missed the turkey slaughter, but was in time to catch a few photos of the cleaning and cutting. It had to be chopped into smaller pieces becuase it wouldn't fit into the pot to be fried otherwise. I can't say that I was much help with the cooking, but I will say this was one of the most fabulous Thanksgiving dinners I've ever had. Rene worked some magic injecting the turkey with spices and then frying it--I've never had tastier turkey! Sharing such a delicious meal with a crowd of new friends (by candlelight, no less!), was a wonderful treat. We all stuffed ourselves and then sat around chatting under the stars (which are incredible in the mountains with NO light pollution).










The next day a few of us decided to work off all those extra holiday pounds by climbing a mountain. I did not know what I was getting myself into! Lisandro pointed to a peak not too far in the distance and said "that's Mt. Nusu, let's go there" so we did. We were told by some locals after several inquiries that if we follwed the road it would go around to the back of hte mountain and then up. We decided to take a more direct route, so we veered off the road, down a hill, across a stream, and then up. And we kept going up, very steeply up, for the next 2.5 hours or so. I'm so out of shape, and even though I started out determined to make it to the top, I began to wonder if our eager party could make it. We ended up connecting ot another path, which led through people's little plots of crops and passed thier homes. We stopped to say hello and ask if the path led to the top--I'm sure that most of them were completely perplexed why this group of mizungus was asking about a path to the top of the mountain. I don't think hiking is common past-time among the locals. When we were running low on water they provided some for us--which we were certain wasn't treated but we drank anyway, as far as I know no one got sick, pretty amazing. Close to the top a man decided he would guide us, which was very generous, especially considering what we encountered towards the top. After Fred (our guide) joined us, I noticed that slowly other younger boys were also following us, pangas (machetes) in hand. I figured they all had nothing better to do on a sunday afternoon so why not amuse themselves at how winded these mizungus were on our mountain. Seriously these boys were running around and jumping from rocks (all the while with panga in hand) like it was nothing, and all of us could barely breathe! At this point we couldn't even climb for more than 5 minutes without stopping for a breather. Then all the panga weilding members of the party ran to the front and I quickly learned why they come along. The path was no more, instead we were in a jungle of overgrown bushes and grasses, and our guides were cutting a path with their pangas. Pushing our way through the undergrowth we finally reached our pointy peak and the view was amazing. I passed my camera to one of our guides and he hastily snapped a few shots, one of which managed to get all of us in it. After basking in the glory of our feat, we decided we had better head back down, to my dread! It didn't take long for my thighs to start shaking with each step, man was it painful! Our glorious reward at the bottom was a dip in the stream. The water was freezing and possibly pathogenic, but it felt so damn good! Luckily we made it home before the rain began, becuase it would have been nothing more than sliding down the mud and rocks on my butt if we were on that mountain in the rain. 5 days later my legs finally aren't screaming in pain with every movement, and I'm ready to take on another mountain!

EBOLA KILLS 16

This was the headline I spotted as I jumped into a Matatu headed into town. If you've read "The Hot Zone" fear ran through your veins as it did mine when you saw that title. Apparently the outbreak started in August in a district in the west (on the border with DR Congo) but was only identified (via samples sent to be tested in the US) yesterday. The numbers in the article seem conflicting to me (you may be able to read it at http://www.newvision.co.ug/), but there are something like 51 people infected. The WHO (World Health Organization, not the band!) is involved to contain it, and it's a good distance away from Kamapala (and I'm headed further east this weekend anyway), but it was a striking headline and definately something I'll be paying attention to. My internet time is about to run out, so I'll just leave you with that frightening news, haha! I had the brilliant idea of typing up blogs on my laptop at home and then transferring them to my blog as I've found a few places with a wireless connection, but as of yet that hasn't worked out too well. So at some point you'll be innundated with postdated blogs. Oh! Another shocking read in the paper today was a letter to the editor about how colonialism was a positive thing for Africa! This was not somethign I ever expected to hear from an African. Personally I think his arguements about the introduction of the english language and that curious people "deserve colonies" both severly underestimate the African people and seem erronious. Anyway, I found it shocking. But like I said, internet time running out, so more thoughts later!