Summer In Thailand..now Uganda

Thailand

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Week 3

We were not able to change our train tickets to get back to Amsterdam, so we had to buy a new fare. We were told we had to go back to Germany to exchange the tickets that we did not use and I tried to call but so far no luck in getting them exchanged. We’ll have to try to get them refunded on our return trip through Frankfurt in August. We made it back to Amsterdam and to our hotel by the airport fairly easily, although we had to use a combination of train and busses to get there. We dropped of our bags at the hotel and went back into town on a bus. When we got off the bus, and we were trying to get oriented, we were approached by a very helpful man that offered to walk with us in the direction we were going since he lived that way. Veronica was convinced that he was hitting on me. Anyway, he gave us some insight on life in Amsterdam. He is American and has been living in Amsterdam for about 20 years. He says he loves it there as do most foreigners. He did say the wages are low and the taxes are high, but he feels that this is offset by the level of healthcare provided at no cost and the retirement and social security benefits. He pointed us in the right direction and wished us a good trip. Later we visited the red light district. My first impression as we walked towards the first of the brothels with women in the display was that they were mannequins, but no, they were real women in bathing suits or lingerie. The brothels were sprinkled between restaurants and bars and it seemed like anywhere else in the city, except here it was perfectly acceptable to purchase sex, or view it live. We walked through and continued back towards our bus stop, since it was late, and had a drink at a pub near the stop while we waited for our bus.
We were able to chat a while with Julia, from CBU, who is coordinating our participation in the Uganda MHIRT program. Maybe I’m still feeling a little desensitized. Despite all of Julia’s grim descriptions and warnings about how bad it will be in Uganda, it’s difficult to imagine right now as I sit in a hotel room, with all the luxuries one could ask for what it is going to be like in Uganda. I can say I don’t feel like I’m going to be surprised, although I’m cautious because sometimes emotions can catch you by surprise. I feel as I have seen suffering and dealt with death before. Days before I left for Thailand I was sitting in my living room getting things ready for my trip when I received a call from one of my cousins. He and I are like brothers. He called and asked if I could do him a favor and go to his mother’s house, my maternal aunt, so that I could be there when he called her to break the news to her that his brother, my cousin, had been shot in the head and was in critical condition. I took my sons, who I was spending some time with before I left, back to their mother and went to her house right away. After the initial shock, my aunt composed herself and I drove her to see her son in West Palm. I wanted her to at least see him, alive, one last time. I was with her through it until I had to leave to Thailand. He was 32 years old with a newborn, a 1 ½ year old, and a wife who doesn’t have full use of one arm. He died over an argument about less than $100. Death and suffering needs no valid, rational reasons.
The trip to Africa wasn’t too bad, but the long layover in Dubai was uncomfortable until recliner chairs became available in the middle of the night. The flights were smooth and the Emirates planes had personal entertainment screens to watch movies. We arrived in Entebbe a few hours before the others we were going to be meeting. We exchanged some Euros, ate, and got online briefly in an internet café while we waited. The exchange rate here is about 2300 Shillings to the US dollar. It seems like the US dollar goes a long way. A soda or water is about 1000 to 1500 Shillings. Dustin, Chris, Julisa, and Sierra arrived about 8pm and we recognized them easily since Julia had sent us pictures of them by email. Dustin recently completed his Master’s in Anthropology and is our site leader. Chris and Julisa are undergrads who are considering Anthropology. Sierra is also an undergrad studying Biology with plans for med school.
The drive from the airport to Kampala, the capital, where we are staying was about one hour. Our van driver recruited a few other drivers once we were loaded up to push start the van, since it seems that the starter was not working. The driving here is definitely different than in the US. Cars have the right of way, or so it seems, not pedestrians. We had, what I would consider, near misses on running over pedestrians about 3 times. The weather was a lot milder than I had expected and there was a nice breeze in the evening and it seemed to get cooler as we moved up in elevation towards Kampala.
I was a little concerned about where we are staying. The hotel is above a restaurant on the second floor and it’s in pretty bad disrepair. We have mosquito nets over the beds, since there are no screens in the windows. Overall, I feel a little icky about the bathroom and beds, but this is it for now until we leave for Pallisa in a few days. We walked a few blocks after we dropped our bags to get something to eat. There is a variety of foods served in the restaurants from burgers to traditional African foods. Yesterday Dustin, who has been here in Kampala before, took us all for a walk around town. We stopped in a little market not too far from the hotel and picked up some neat souvenirs, then continued to a café. After that we walked further to the mall, which is similar to malls in the US in terms of the products they sell. Last night Dustin took us to a central park area (Fendi’s) that incorporates a spa, restaurant, and club for some refreshments. On the way there is where we first encountered the street children that Julia had told us about. She told us to be very cautious about giving them any money or food because the other children could harm them to get it away from the one you gave it to. At first we came across a very small child, he looked no more than 1 year old, sitting in the middle of the sidewalk alone holding out his hand. After looking around we could see that there was a group of older kids in the dark on the median looking our way. It was very heart wrenching to see that, and you want to do something to help, but Dustin reinforced that it’s better not to. Later, when we came back through that area, they all came up to us begging also. After a few drinks at Fendi’s we took motorcycle taxis back to the hotel, which was interesting because we rode two, plus the driver per bike! Luckily it was late and there weren’t too many cars or people out and we made it back safe to the hotel in a few minutes.
We have to wait here in Kampala for the other site leader to arrive on June 8th, then Dustin, Chris, Veronica, and I will be leaving by car to Jinja and then Pallisa. Julisa and Sierra will be going with the other site leader to a different area. Our project in Pallisa is to do needs assessment of the area. There has not been one done before and there is little if any information about the demographics and needs of the community. There is an established clinic in the area where we plan to start, as they may have some valuable insight.
04/05/2010
Today we just hung out at the hotel, tried to catch up on some reading and journals, and organized some of our luggage better. We ate at the restaurant below the hotel and then came right back up.

05/05/2010
I made it up in time to have breakfast at the hotel, which is included in the price of the room. It was pretty good and consisted of eggs, toast, fruit, coffee, and tea. We had plans to meet with Paul, Dustin’s contact from his previous study in Kampala, at 12pm. His family had offered to make food for us. Time is a little slower here and Paul arrived about 2pm. We would soon experience why. We walked a few minutes to the central “taxi” area, where you catch little Toyota vans that carry about 15 passengers to just about anywhere in and around Kampala. The vans are crowded in an open area in between buildings in such a way that it is difficult to make your way through them by foot. My first thought as we made our way deeper into the area was if we find the right one to where we are going, how will the driver get out? We found the right one after working our way to about the center of the area, took a seat in the van, and waited about 20 minutes while enough people filled the van. The driver then started to move up slowly and somehow we eventually made it out to a main street. There is no schedule. The van goes when, if, it fills up. We made it to Paul’s Family’s home a little past 3pm. His immediate and extended family had all come to welcome us and to eat with us. There were nearly 20 people besides our group. Paul’s grandmother, brothers, aunts, cousins, and some of the neighbors that are like family were all there. The family had prepared a feast for us that consisted of goat, chicken (cooked a few different ways), fish, matooke, rice, pumpkin, beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, bitter tomatoes, g-nut sauce, and some millet dough preparation which I didn’t catch the name of yet. It was all very delicious and fresh. Well, most of the food. The millet dough, which we’re told is a staple where we are going, was quite bland and the texture was gritty. There is no western style kitchen in the house. The food is all cooked on open flame in the yard and some in banana leaves. Communication was limited, but we learned a little about Paul’s family and everyone was very happy to have us. After dinner, we walked as a group with Paul and few of his brothers and friends to the top of the hill above his home which has a clear view towards Kampala. On the way up they pointed out land which belongs to the family on which they plant. There were different kinds of fruit, corn and cassava from what I could tell. We encountered a lot of children out playing in the roads. Most without shoes and playing in the dirt with whatever they had found to entertain themselves. We took some pictures at the top and then walked back down to Paul’s house to say goodbye. Paul walked us down, about a 15 minute walk, the hill to catch a van back into town. On the way down we walked through what you might say were other people’s yards, but from what Dustin was saying, it’s quite common and neighborly to do so. The children were quite to see us and some of them tagged along for the walk.
We got together later in the evening with Janessa and Ciara, to have dinner. Dustin and Chris were still sleeping. We walked towards a coffee shop that we remembered, but it was closed when we arrived, so we ate at an Indian restaurant across the street. It was all vegetarian and I was initially reluctant, but I thought I would give it a try. I ordered a salted lime soda which I thought would be like soda. It turned out to be very salty and it looked like it had pepper and spices in it as well. I couldn’t drink it. I found out later from the others, that when I ordered it the waitress raised her eyebrows and open her eyes widely when I ordered it. No one told me. The rest of the meal was very delicious. I ordered chat puri, which are bite sized crispy bead shells filled with beans and a sweet and spicy sauce, topped with cheese.
As we finished dinner, we received a message from Dustin. He asked if we wanted to get a drink. We all came back to the hotel. Ciara was a little tired, so she stayed, but everyone else got ready and we went to a bar about 20 minutes away by foot. It was a little slow when we arrived, but Dustin explained, that the night life starts very late and sometimes extends to 7 to 8 am here. Dustin explained a little bit about the social interaction between men and women, which was pretty confusing. Men and women dance only with their own gender and there is little direct interaction. There are “progressive” Ugandans that interact more directly as westerner do, but that is fairly recent. We left there by taxi and headed to a place called Fat Boys, which was pretty much like a western night club. They played a mix of English and Ugandan pop music and they had a full bar. Here too we saw some of the cultural nuances and same gender groups dancing together, but there were more couples dancing together. We met up with another of Dustin’s friends there and his group of friends. I had already had 4 beers when we arrived and the beer here comes in large bottles and I found out that the brand I was drinking has a high alcohol percentage. We were having a good time dancing and as good host they continued to bring beers and drinks, sometimes before we had finished the previous drink. At one point two of the group we were with pulled one guy aside and others in the group said they saw them hit him. We found out later that he had tried to pickpocket Dustin. We have seen this type of mob justice on a few other occasions, while walking around town. It happens sometimes that when police catch up with criminals, they may just slap them on the wrist, since they have already been beaten through mob justice. I was not as lucky to notice someone picking my pocket, and I lost a phone that I had been holding for Veronica. We left there and I had too much to drink and I was felt sick as soon as we sat in the car. I was sick, out of the window before we pulled out of the parking lot, but I was conscious enough to remember that the driver wanted to demonstrate the sex trade and on the way back to the hotel, he stopped to talk to some prostitutes that were on a corner, not too far from where our hotel is. They seemed to know that we were not customers and didn’t pay him much mind. We made it back to the hotel and I slept in.
The next day, I slept until about midday and then we went to eat lunch. I came back to the hotel and slept some more. Later in the evening we went out for dinner and then we went to a concert that Janessa wanted to attend, since it was her 21st birthday. The closer we walked towards the stadium, the more dangerous our surroundings felt. As we approached the gates, what seemed like scalpers huddled around us offering different prices for admission. We squeezed through the crowd and into the outer gates to an open area and there was another gate further ahead, with a very dark entry through an opening in the concrete wall. We finally paid for admission, once we were inside and then, we seemed to be safer, but still, I think that we were probably the only mzungos (term for foreigner) among at least fifty thousand Ugandans. We worked our way over to the beer stands where we met some new friends that were happy to show us some new dances and explain a little about the performers and music. The music was all in Ugandan, but sounded much like pop, rap, and R&B. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. We walked back the way we came and the area seemed a little less intimidating, either because there were less people, or we had been that way before.

No comments:

Post a Comment