The Uganda Experience
The first differences I noticed about Uganda was the humidity and the colours. Ethiopia’s colours were more contrasted since any bright colours popped out against the flat brown landscape of many locations. Here, everything was bright and rich, the greens were alive and the earth was deep read. Everything had its colour and created a stunning palette of warmth. The temperature was about the same at 27 degrees but as you all have heard before, its not the heat, its the humidity.
I was told to sit in the front seat since I was the tallest and instinctively walked to the right side of the green Land Rover to discover a steering wheel. Interesting, must be British system here. It was strange to drive on the wrong side of the road and to not have the steering wheel where it should be. My host greeted me and we decided to go to Lake Victoria (the second largest lake and the source of the Nile) to take some photos. The scenery was beautiful and we captured a few nice birdshots before dusk. Traditional Uganda meals would have to wait until tomorrow I was told as we headed out to a French restaurant. The local beer was refreshing and the meal filled my grumbling belly just nicely. I had a chance to talk with my host for a bit, take a refreshing shower, and to get more familiar with the hosts and my new surroundings. Around 11pm I went off to my room and now I am typing in the days events. It’s nice to be caught up on some entries.
May 2
Wow, it’s hot here. Well, I guess not just hot, but humid. I am sitting at a outdoor patio drinking a Bell (local beer) and looking at the full moon. My host is in a Rotary meeting and I introduced myself to the club of about 84 members and a handful of guests then he suggested I take a break and wait at the patio. Good idea. The night air is so refreshing and there is a great breeze that keeps any mosquitoes away. From here I can see Lake Victoria except the city is so incredibly dark at night that nothing shimmers on the lakes surface. You really realize that in North America the lights are always on. In Africa it is dark at night, even in the cities.
Our schedule is a lot more casual here, which is a nice contrast from the busy agenda the past 11 days. We have a few days to ourselves to explore any sights we want to see. Today we drove around to get aquatinted with the city and get our bearings. The city is busy and traffic flows similar to Ethiopia. Here there are a lot more bicycles and motorcycles… even motorcycle taxis. They seem to have their own rules weaving in and out of traffic, driving on sidewalks and cutting through any shortcut imaginable. Some wore helmets and others drove with their wife and kids. I couldn’t imagine trying to get a drivers license in Africa. I am vaguely starting to understand their rules for the road. We visited the National Uganda Museum and learned the history and traditions of the country. There was a band that played traditional music on ancient instruments including a string guitar of sorts, a wooden xylophone and a few drums. Women tied animal furs around their waste and danced to the rhythms, their upper bodies didn’t move – it was all in their legs and hips.
We performed a lunch presentation to one of the many local Rotary clubs. This meeting was outdoors on a covered patio and we weren’t sure if we could setup our projector to display on a white wall. The sun was bright but we setup anyways and the images looked good considering the conditions. We had to compete with some passing traffic and the occasional car alarm but the presentation was a big success. We had a taste of come local cuisine including a dish of bananas that are wrapped in leaves. It was tasty and a bit dry, more like a potato than a banana but still good. I think the other eats were more Asian with sweet and sour meats but I could be wrong.
I had learned last night that Ugandans have a special term for a father (Salongo) or mother (Nalongo) of twins, so I included that in my presentation and they all clapped. It is common to have twins and considered something very special. In the afternoon we visited the tombs of former kings. They were buried in their homes which were elaborate structures made of straw or bamboo like materials. I was amazed that they had lasted so long being assumably fragile materials. The king at the time had 84 wives and over 100 kids. Each wife lived in a hut surrounding his home. We had to take off our shoes and sit cross-legged as our guide told us of the stories from their culture.
Afterwards we took the time to run some errands, get some batteries and phone cards etc. and had a milkshake to try to cool down. It’s amazing how the temperature can be about the same as Ethiopia but the humidity changes everything. I feel like I am covered in saran-wrap and the showers are very refreshing. We split up with our hosts for the night and now I am here at the Rotary meeting. I’m not sure what we are doing for dinner tonight but my host keeps asking if I have tried local foods so I am certain he is planning something tonight.
May 3
Today was our first vocational day in Uganda. We split into two teams and the girls went to tour a school for mentally challenged students since Shari is an ESL teacher and Rajah works with physically and mentally challenged people. Keith, Marty and I went to tour a TV station and a NGO since we are all in media. We started with WBS the largest station in Kampala and took a tour of the facilities. Keith is a producer and worked for years teaching television production at Niagara College so he was happy to discuss the details of working environments. Uganda is a country of free speech and its evident in the media.
We had some time before lunch so we stopped at an art gallery that was part of a marketplace. A Rotarian ran it and he showed us all the work he creates as well as some other artists he represents. Other artists and vendors had booths and I managed to find my share of things to bring home including something for Kelly. Ya, I know you’re reading this We had a great outdoor lunch with a few Rotarians and enjoyed some local foods including matooke (a mashed banana like mashed potatoes) purple and white yams, Irish potatoes and kalo (a thick brown blob made of millet) as well as fish and vegetables – and the incredible fresh fruit.
We spent a very interesting afternoon with Straight Talk – an NGO that talks about teen issues including sexual health, HIV and lifestyle. They started with a teen based newspaper insert and evolved to Youth Talk, Parent Talk, Tree Talk and Farm talk to include teachers, parents and the environment. Their main two outlets are the newspapers and a radio program and their messages are delivered in 12 languages today. The NGO was extremely well organized and included about 40 employees and a handful of volunteers. They are in a sunny building with gardens and outdoor spaces for reflection. We returned to our hosts and they had planned to take me to a disco but could tell I was too tired and just wanted a quite night. We went to a large Indian restaurant for a typically late dinner (8:30) and talked for a while on the patio exchanging cultural differences. You learn a lot about a country when you travel there but it’s amazing how much you learn about your own country too.
May 4
We meet again at the hotel and I hop on the wifi and check my emails, for a mere $4,000. Sounds like a lot but its really just about $2.50 or so.
We all go on a group vocational exchange to visit a hospital. This is the only hospital in Africa that is dedicated only to HIV/AIDS patients. We have an impressive tour of the facilities and meet many of the staff. There are a lot of patients, maybe 100, waiting in the lobby to be seen for testing or treatment. There is even a daycare type facility for kids under 5 for their treatments as well. At the end of the tour we buy some crafts from some of the patients who have opened a shop to help support themselves while they receive treatment.
We grab a quick lunch at a chinese restaurant and reflect on our visit this morning. In the afternoon we split up into teams again. The girls visit a school and the guys meet the Chief Officer at UPHOLD – a NGO that distributes funds to support health, lifestyle and HIV organizations.
He told us of the challenges they face with distributing funds and how some organizations are able to achieve so much with the funds and others end up folding up after a few years. He was very open and honest and we appreciated all the information he shared with us.
You may be wondering what these NGO’s have to do with my vocation as a graphic designer. Not much really… My career is not really that common here. Design is really more desktop publishing performed by the printers (or IT companies for web). They don’t really have design shops here. I saw one place while driving yesterday that was literally a booth on the side of the street. A small 8×8 box, sort of looked like a shed, with one computer and a chair. The sign said Stationery and Print Design Here. It made me chuckle, I wish I could have taken a photo of it. Since there are not a lot of companies to pair up with I am spending my time grouped with Marty and Keith since they are both in media in one way or another. Marty works with the media for his health promotion and Keith had produced a lot of TV back in the day. I have a big interest in meeting NGO’s as well so it’s still a good fit for us each to visit the firms.
We are done early today and chill back in the lobby for an hour or two and wait for our hosts. I was thinking about what my host was telling me when he shared stories about African tribes, clans and traditions. He told me that everyone has a totem, a figure from the animal world that they are connected with. Each individual cannot each the animal that is their totem, it makes them sick. That makes me laugh since Kelly is lactose intolerant so that means her totem is a cow.
I was fortunate to live in an area that usually has electricity. And if it does go out, they just start the generator. Keith on the other hand has not been so fortunate. He has been with his host for 4 nights now and each night there has been no power so he stumbles around with a flashlight or plays cards by candlelight.
Tonight we had some pizza and we were going to see some live music but my host was called away for some family matters. I was relieved to be honest with you. I would have enjoyed the night and I love listening to live music but I was thankful to have a night to myself too. I talked with the families helpers, one of them who dreamed of being an artist one day. We shared our sketches with each other and talked about the differences in education in our countries. I took care of some housekeeping issues and had planned to go to bed early but next thing you know its midnight. One night I will get more than 6 or 7 hours of sleep… although I keep thinking I can sleep when I am back home. Now is the time to experience everything possible.
May 5
Ah, the weekend. Marty’s host has invited us to attend a traditional Ugandan wedding. We didn’t have to meet until 10am but there is no such thing as sleeping in with all the noises outside. We got off to a really late start but eventually were on the road deep into the jungle to this country wedding location. The drive there was long since the roads were so bad and we had a lot of rain that night so the puddles and mud slowed us down. Good thing he had a new 4×4. On the way we stop for some fresh fruit at a roadside stand. Here you can find the best mango and pineapple imaginable. We have some African tea (hot milk with a tea bag or loose grounds that you just scoop into your cup) and some local boys run over to us selling their goods.
Anyone want some grasshoppers? Willing to try anything (once) we buy a few bags of the insects. They have been cooked and coated in something like butter. Their legs have been removed but the heads and eyes are still intact. They actually tasted kind of like French fries except they had a hollow crunch sound when you bite down on their heads. They were really good actually, but after about a dozen or so I decide to stop since I didn’t know how my body would handle them. Everyone tried them although it took some convincing for a few, especially Rajah who did manage to stomach one – if we took the eyes out first.
We checked into our hotel to get changed and freshen up. My host had bought me a tunic to wear which is essential a long white dress but when I checked it seemed that everyone at the wedding would be wearing suits so I opted out. Good thing too since the only person wearing a tunic was the father of the bride. We ate typical Ugandan foods, drank luke-warm beer and sat under the tents watching the ceremony. It turns out they were already married and this ceremony was considered the meeting of the two families. Traditional songs were sung, a dowery of 10 cattle were given to the brides family, and several gourds filled with drinks and perfumes were presented. After some more food the DJ played some tunes and we danced under the stars all night. We met several interesting people and learned some new moves too.
May 6
I wake to the sound of someone loudly sweeping outside the door. I rollover to see that I am not alone in bed. Oh ya, Marty and I had shared a room and this time there was only one queen bed. I had fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow last night so it really didn’t make a difference anyways. We had talked about haircuts and I had packed my shaver just in case we had time. I plugged it in the outlet but the current was way too high and the shaver screamed in my hand. Guess there will be no haircut today. We had a small breakfast that was incredibly slow to appear and headed back to Kampala.
On the way we bought more fresh fruit and stopped at the equator for some photos. There is a marker beside the road and a few stands surrounding them. There are also three large yellow funnels. One just a few steps north of the equator, one right on it, and one to the south. Each has a bucket of water underneath. You pour the water in the first funnel and it drains down the hole clockwise. The second drains counter-clockwise, and the third sitting right on the equator does not swirl but drains straight down. How cool is that! Obviously proof this was the equator.
When we arrive back in Kampala my host takes Shari and I to the Uganda Wildlife Centre to see native animal species. The others were just too exhausted and wanted to go home and rest. We did too but wanted to see some wildlife and figured it would be worth the trip. We hiked around the reserve and photographed a few animals including rhino, zebra, hyena, antelope and several birds. It was a beautiful location and a perfect day to walk around but we dragged our tired feet as the tour guide talked about the animals. I have gotten into the habit of closing my eyes and imagining trading places with Kelly for a few minutes each day. Wishing she could be with me and see what I am seeing and experience the trip as well and allowing me to see what she is seeing as she plays with the kids at the park, gives them a bath or reads them stories before bed.
Tomorrow we travel to Jinja for a few days. I’m not sure if there will be internet access but you’ll be able to know if you see some new posts up after today. My 4gig memory card is almost full so I download the pics to make backups. So far I have about 5 gigs of photos, roughly 1400 shots so far (not including the ones I go through and delete each night) all shot in RAW and waiting for me to sort through and post them. I pack my things and sip a hot tea while typing this message and chasing the occasional mosquito that buzzes by. I’ll recharge my laptop, setup the mosquito net and hop in bed. All right, that’s it. I am determined to go to bed the same day that I wake up for a change. My eyes are heavy. Its time to sleep, and only 11:00. Could this be the night? Good night.
May 7
Today we travel to Jinja, a smaller town of about 200,000 people an hour or two outside of Kampala. Its great to drive away from the hustle of the big city. Only a few minutes outside of town and the air is already cleaner and no more motorcycles or heavy traffic jams. I flip on my iPod and feel the warm, clean country air brushing across my face from the open windows. We pass sugarcane and banana plantations. Families wave as we pass by and kids chase our truck yelling “Muzungo! Muzungo!” which affectionately means, “white man”. In Uganda, most whites are here to help make a difference and the people are very welcoming. There are a lot more foreigners here and everything is almost exclusively in English.
We are welcomed by the local Rotary club and they scoot us off to see their first project. We are shown a school and hospital project, which seems to have the potential of the Project Mercy we toured in Ethiopia. One of the biggest features is the fresh water well they have dug with a large storage container high in the air. The sun is hot as we walk around the acres of school grounds. I wish I had my hat or sun block with me but I had left them in the truck (I pay for it later with a burn on my neck). We all scurry under the shade at each stop and learn of their brick making techniques that use much less mortar and are designed to interlock saving a lot of materials. They are as red as the earth we are standing on. 2 students had just made 45 of them and they were lying out in the hot sun hardening. We grab some lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Nile where our fresh Tapia (?) was caught then head out to see the next project. We are running behind schedule when our host tells me that “Africans have the time, Muzungo have the watch”.
We see one of the 240 wells that has been built to allow clean, fresh water provided to the villagers. The operation seems so simple and effective. It has had a huge impact on the lives of the villagers from the quality of the water, to the ease of collecting and the time saved. Usually its the girls of the family that must travel sometimes long distances up and down the countryside to collect the water before the are allowed to go to school in the morning. Then they do the same again after class.
Our next stop is at a school for the blind. Ugandan students are on holidays for a few weeks so the schools are quiet but a few that want to continue their learning or that are orphans living in the compounds share their lives with us. We pass out some more school supplies, crayons and balls. Marty teaches the seeing students how to play frisbee while I give a cute 1 year old child some toys my kids had chosen from their own toys for me pass out.
Tonight Marty and I are paired up again but this time in separate rooms at a B&B owned by a Rotarian. The area is just beautiful, so clean and bright. We sit out on the porch and talk with others staying over. We meet Ken, another Rotarian who has just landed from the States on a 2 month project to build and supply 30, 000 cooking stoves to villagers. He is traveling north to educate them how to build their own and to distribute the ones they have already built. The stoves are incredible since they can be make cheaply with local materials, require half the amount of firewood to cook on and create 75% less smoke than the traditional open fires they currently cook on.
I take a refreshing hot shower (probably the best I have had in weeks) and enjoy some more Tapia with chips. This time the fish is whole, scales, head and all, served on our plate. It was very meaty and fresh – some of the best fish I had ever tasted so I didn’t mind having it for a second time today. I have a mellow night and go to bed at 10 pm wanting to get a good sleep knowing it is never quiet in the mornings I find its best to try and sleep as early as possible and work on my blog at around 5:30 or 6am when the roosters and workers start making their noise.
May 8
We have another vocational day and this time the club president takes me to his work – a textile factory. I wasn’t entirely sure why I was going there but I’m always open to learning new things and I know graphic design is not a popular business in this country. We tour the acres of factory and see them taking raw organic cotton and synthetic materials to thread to weaving to printing to the final products. Its an interesting process and I think we walked about 5km touring all of the areas and seeing some of the 1500 workers.
They told me of the challenges they have since there are few forests for making pulp it all has to be imported and they don’t have the infrastructure to support transporting things to Mombassa. Uganda is land locked and must travel through other countries to import and export their goods. The government seems to put no effort towards improving the infrastructure and it’s a real bottleneck here. It may take goods a few days to get to the port but then up to 60 days to get to Uganda. I mentioned that the clothes I was wearing were organic cotton and this is becoming more available back home and they told me that they do produce their own cotton here and its all organic since they cannot afford the pesticides anyways. Cool.
I asked them if their country had ever considered growing hemp and at first they seemed uncomfortable until I told them about how we can grow it without THC so there is no value to it as a drug. Instead of taking 20 years or more to grow a forest suitable for harvest they could grow hemp and with their year round growing season and fertile soil they could grow several crops a year and use the hemp for textiles and paper. I also told them about a project I did for a friend where I designed shirts for lung cancer awareness and we printed on hemp and bamboo t-shirts. I wonder if anything will come of the idea.
We also tour a printing area with a few offset presses – very similar to what we have back home. I finally get a chance to meet the IT manager and we talk about web design for a while and he shows me to the design room. The factory owners and managers are mostly from India and their web design is done there but the textile and print design is done in a small studio beside the factory. Here there are 2 textile designers and 2 graphic designers working on various projects. They work on Macs that are somewhat current with CS1 and wacom tablets. I was happy to see something familiar. We talked about the challenges of designing for their audience and how the messaging has to be so simple and clear since literacy and education is generally low. Visuals play a strong part of what they create and I could tell they would love to work on projects with more creative freedom.
We took a break for lunch and since the senior staff is primarily Indian their staff room was all vegetarian Indian cuisine. It was great to have something different to eat for a change. The afternoon was pretty casual as I checked out some more local produce, spice and handicraft markets. Then I had a few hours to chill in the afternoon so I just relaxed and updated my journal. We met with the Rotaract team and enjoyed some fellowship with them in their patio and talked for a few hours before retuning home around 10:30pm. I looked forward to another relaxing evening. Ahhh…..
May 9
Today is a day to play tourist and see what Jinja has to offer. On our way to our first sight we make a stop at a Rotary project funded from a club in Alberta. This project was very interesting as it was a typical country school and our Rotarian guide told us it was solar powered and air-conditioned. I was skeptical since I had not felt any air conditioning since we arrived in Africa. When we got to the school he was right in some ways… The school walls were made with sticks and packed mud but you could practically see through the entire school. This was the air conditioning he referred to and the solar component was just that the school was practically outdoors and there was no electricity or running water here.
What was interesting was the new bathrooms. 5 stalls each for the boy and 5 for the girls. They were concrete with roofs and doors and stood out contrasted against the stick school. The school has 300 students and apparently there is a high drop out rate for girls when they turn around 12 or 13. The standard bathrooms were not private at all and when a young girl hit puberty there were no private facilities and they would be teased by their other classmates. So they would either miss a week of school each month or just drop out. So the project was to build private bathrooms to keep the girls in school.
We continued on to our first tourist stop of the day, Bugilui (or something like that) falls where the river Nile flows strong and the water pounds against the rocks. I couldn’t believe how hot it was today. You would sweat just sitting in the shade. The water looked tempting… It’s a popular place for white water rafting and bungee jumping but Marty and I were the only ones interested in going for a run so it didn’t happen. We watched some of the local boys body surf down the river before hiking back up to the trucks.
We went into town and enjoyed another great meal and I ordered Indian again – chicken tiki masala. It was delicious. While the others wrapped up their lunch Marty and I ducked out for a haircut. I had brought my clippers with me but every-time I plugged them in they vibrated out of my hand, the current was funky with them for some odd reason. So we sat down in an old barbershop run by one of the Rotarians friends and enjoyed a very thorough cut and felt pampered by the washing and cleaning techniques. We paid our $2.50 and met up with the rest of the group for a boat ride on the Nile. Shari was feeling ill and decided to stay back and rest while we took our journey up the Nile. We started right at the mouth of the Nile where it is formed from Lake Victoria. There are 2 Niles, the White Nile known for its white rapids, and the Blue Nile. We journey around with a few Labrador dogs onboard for company and photograph crocodiles, lizards, monkeys and numerous different birds. It was a relaxing afternoon. On our way out we paid homage at a statue for Ghandi whose ashes were spread at the mouth of the Nile.
We head back to freshen up before another successful presentation to the Jinja club. Rajah also gets a surprise birthday cake and about 60 people stand to sing Happy Birthday to her. Afterwards we stop for a last birthday drink for Rajah and our host enjoys his favorite drink that we didn’t feel up to trying… Guniess and Gin. To each their own I suppose.
May 10&11
Nothing much to report actually, it was pretty much just a travel day back to Kampala yesterday. We arrived early in the afternoon and just enjoyed a quiet lunch and a few hours on the internet. In the evening I just played some cards with my hosts and went to bed early. Its good to have rest days. Today we are just chilling in Kampala. Completing arrangements for the trip and packing for the weekend.
have a free weekend ahead of us to do as we please and a few of us have decided to go on a safari! Keith, Marty and I will be heading out early Saturday morning and driving about 5 hours to Murchison Falls. We have to take a ferry across the Nile and we will be in the mountains for a few days. On Sunday we will take a boat ride to see hippos and other wildlife and in the evening we will do a ground safari and look for other game. I can’t wait.
May 12
Yesterday was a simple day. Book and pay for our trip and just chill in Kampala for the afternoon. My friend Tony took me to the Ugandan independent film festival where they show free films made by locals. The place was packed and hot but the movies were interesting. The quality was…er… unique… but it was an interesting cultural experience.
On the way home last night my host asked me if I ever cook back home. I admitted I often do and enjoy it. He was surprised since most African men do not do any cooking or chores as the women and children or the hired help usually does them. He suddenly pulled over into a grocery store and said “well, you can cook for us tonight!”. All right, I thought this would be fun. I had to quickly think of what to make with the limited and different ingredients available. I wanted to make a light sausage goats cheese pasta but no sausage or goats cheese. Plenty of goats, but no cheese. All right, with the pressure on to decide on the spot I just grabbed some pasta, lots of fresh vegetables and herbs and breads. When we arrived at the house he told his two cooks that I was going to cook tonight but that they had to learn what I made so he could have it again. They were very excited to do something new and kept laughing just because there was a man (and a muzungo to boot!) cooking in their kitchen. They helped me wash and slice the tomatoes, red onions, garlic, red and green peppers, mushrooms, broccoli (which they had never tried before) and I boiled the rigatoni and started browning the beef with the spices. We added all the ingredients and toasted the buns. I showed them how to make some breschetta with the fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, oil and rosemary. We served the food and topped it all off with Parmesan cheese. Voila!
The girls were so excited and one of them (who only speaks Luganda) said she gets to go to Canada tonight! They were allowed to eat with us which was a rare treat for them and they ate rather quickly and quietly. Everyone enjoyed the meal (or so they said) and were making me blush with all the compliments. It was fun and I was told I would have to do it again before I leave. We’ll see I said. Now this morning I am packed and waiting at a hotel to be picked up by the safari driver. Its a long drive but should be a good day.
May 13 - end
We spent the next few days on safari and enjoying all the nature that Africa has to offer. We finished off with one last presentation at the Speke resort, which was a highlight.
Now it was time to go home. I had such mixed feelings having experienced such extremes in such a short time. All I knew was I didn’t want this experience to end up in a journal I just took out and read every few years – I needed it to be more. To help shape and guide me on the rest of my life’s journey.
And is has. Since this experience I have reconnected with the ladies at the HIV hospital and set up a fair trade project to support their crafts, raised tens of thousands of dollars in fundraising which was used to build 10 water projects at schools, run toy drives for kids in orphanages and I returned 3 years later with Kelly to see our friend Joseph and visit the schools that had the water projects completed. And, that’s just the beginning.
