Reflections

This is my last entry from Uganda.
For an hour now, I’ve stared at these first seven words and find that I am at a loss for more words (all evidence to the contrary, right?). How can I sum up my experience in Uganda in a blog entry? The truth is – I can’t. But I don’t have to either. I can just write about the things I’ve learned since September and leave it at that.
Hmm…
That seems a daunting task as well as I know no one will read the entry if it’s too long. But then – this blog is really for me anyway, isn’t it?
I think I’ve learned more about myself in this trip than about Uganda. Living somewhere for 6 months does not make you an expert on a country. But living somewhere for six months far from friends and family in a completely different environment tests a person – and thus I am more knowledgeable about who I am and what I actually want out of life. I can safely say that is the biggest accomplishment of my adulthood.
Other things I have learned –
1. The world we live in is a complicated system, but it IS a system. In order to change the world, we have to operate within that system. We can try to rewrite the laws guiding it, but it will be a long and inefficient process. My vote is – we learn about as many cultures as possible, do what we can to fight any injustices and try to relate to people by being accepting of their unique beliefs and customs. In a globalized world, this is a great feat. The world is flat as Thomas Friedman says and it is changing every second of the day. Change is hard (and will be very hard on countries of power) but it can also bring great things. We must have the strength to accept these inevitabilities and do what we can to give shape to a future we can be proud of.
2. It is crucial that people who want to work in policy, international development, the State department, etc. live and study different cultures of the world. Reading books and watching the news…and much to my dismay, surfing bbc.com and aljazeera.net give only a small appreciation of a community’s daily existence. The media is often politically manipulated and even when it isn’t, the articles are short and incomplete. We must visit the people in the field and MOST IMPORTANTLY we must learn from them – not necessarily the other way around. My aunt Carol taught me that.
3. There are so many injustices in Africa that are needless and avoidable. Hunger, poor education, political/electoral corruption, genocide, water and sanitation issues, the spread of disease…I could go on and on…are issues that have solutions. The first step in ridding the world of these endemics is to understand why they’re there to begin with. We must care! Then we must act. It is not the responsibility of one country or two countries to fix global evils. It is the responsibility of the entire global community.
4. We must learn to try not to live beyond our means. In Uganda, this was an easier achievement than I thought. It will be exceedingly harder next week when I am back in the States. Conveniences are nice and it’s perfectly acceptable to enjoy them. Resources will not last forever though and we need to learn not to depend on them as much as we do. Those who have the resources need to help those most marginalized who have no access to basic daily necessities of food, water, and shelter.
I reread my entry and I’m not satisfied. There is much more I need to say. But there’s time and I need to let it go.
It’s 90 and sunny today in Kampala– not a cloud in the sky and a beautiful strong breeze. Webale nnyo, eyalama noi Uganda. Thanks for giving me the fire.

Baby Boom

Uganda’s population in 1911 was 2.5 million. At independence in 1962, the population was 8 million. By 2002 it was 24 million and now in 2008, the census estimates there are some 30 million Ugandans. According to Dr. Frank, Uganda not only has the largest population growth rate in Africa, but Uganda has the largest in the whole world (wikipedia says Uganda is #8 in the world – who knows?). Regardless, Uganda’s growth rate has become a contributing factor to its impoverished state. There are too few resources to feed the population, unemployment rates are really high, and schools and universities are far too crowded. While some countries promote family planning (Egypt for example has a rigorous family planning agenda promoted by the government), Ugandan culture allows polygamy and stigmatizes the use of contraceptives. It is quite common to find a man (Christian, Muslim, or other) who has more than one wife – my landlord for example.
Certainly some might argue that the influx of refugees into Uganda (recent numbers have gone up with the 10-15,000 refugees fleeing Kenyan violence) might have something to do with the population growth rate. Any effect refugees have on the numbers, however, is minimal.
Some argue that one of the most basic human rights of a woman is her ability to control her own reproductive choices. It’s not that simple in Uganda, however. Having babies at an early age (starting around 16), is often encouraged whether the girl is married or not. The World Heath Organization says in Uganda, 70% of women are mothers or pregnant before their 20s. Once married, a woman often has very little say in matters of sex. Not only does this have an effect on the birth rate, but the HIV and AIDS rate as well. Men often cheat on their wives and if they have more than one wife anyway, the chances of contracting HIV go up considerably. WHO also says 60% of people living with AIDS in Uganda are female and 80% of those women are faithful to their husbands.
If you’ve read any of my stories about my experiences working with AIDS affected and infected families in the Rakai and Sembabule districts, you know that a high AIDS prevalence rate can have a devastating effect on a district’s socio-economic potential.
There is no easy solution even though it seems the obvious recommendation would be to start family planning directives. The solutions to these problems, I fear, may not actually be feasible solutions – culturally anyway. Only 10% of Ugandans are tested for HIV. Behaviors are the hardest things to change.

Just Say No

I wrote a blog entry 7 weeks ago that I never posted. I figured I’d let the news of “AFRICOM” sink in a little more before writing about it. It was a heated entry, I can tell you that much.
But today I opened the paper and started reading about President Bush’s scheduled trip to Rwanda early next week. The article mentioned that this was Bush’s last Presidential trip to Africa and that discussions with Rwandan politicians would focus on the peace talks, the interahamwe issue (those responsible for the genocide in 1994 who have since fled to Congo), and development. Apparently Rwanda and the U.S. are “presently strong allies.” There was a hint though that President Bush’s trip may have something to do with AFRICOM, the establishment of permanent US military bases in Sub-Saharan Africa to “enhance [our] efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa” and to promote the “goals of development, health, education, democracy and economic growth.”
AFRICOM is supposed to take off by September of 2008.
A realist, I say this is an effort to militarize Africa and expand US military involvement around the world. It’s America’s attempt to try to get a chunk of Africa’s precious resources before China can…and believe me, the Chinese are coming too…they’re no better. West Africa currently provides over 15% of its crude oil to the US. Diamonds are up there too.
Re-reading my old blog entry, I came across my rantings of how Bush was an idiot and all of his policy makers must have failed history class, etc. Peaceful ends do not come from violent means…duh! But I’m not so concerned about Bush or his policy makers anymore. 2008 is a new year and good policy changes are bound to happen. Aah…the optimist in me speaks up again.What does have me concerned is this inevitability that surrounds this neo-colonialism/neo-Cold War between the U.S. and China. Did we forget about US military involvement in Africa in the past? Have we forgotten the aftermath of European colonization and the heinous exploitation of the continent? More African problems than I can count are a direct cause of European, American, and Asian exploitation.
The thing is…this is not only bad for Africa. It’s also really bad for the U.S. Africa will become an even bigger breeding ground for anti-American terrorists and our soldiers’ bloody bodies will be dragged and mutilated across Africa’s soil, just like they were in the streets of Mogadishu 15 years ago. Uh, sorry…there I go again, the cynical historian speaks up again.
But we have to think about what all this will cost? In my opinion, it will result in the further destabilization of Africa, African civil wars blamed on corrupt US military involvement (where surely there will be a shockingly large sum of arms for resources trading falling into the hands of the ‘bad guys’), genocide (religious or otherwise), the loss of billions of dollars…and let’s not forget the terrorist breeding ground. If AFRICOM actually starts in September, Washington has failed at both coming up with an effective foreign policy in Africa and an effective agenda for national security. Yikes! You guys should have seen my original entry!

These are a few of my favorite things

When my sister Liza and I were little girls, our favorite movie was The Sound of Music. Maria Von Trapp sings about her favorite things: “Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, silver white winters that melt into spring, these are a few of my favorite things.” I called my sister when they showed the movie’s 40th anniversary on ABC a few years ago. It’s so nice to remember (and even better to re-experience) the little joys of our past.
I have two and a half weeks left in Africa. I am a mixed bag of emotions. I’m so excited to return to the States and start the next leg of my adult life, but I am also really going to miss Uganda. Work lately has been great, I’ve made incredible Ugandan and ex-pat friends, and I have had some of the most amazing experiences anyone could ask for.
There is no chance that I will forget the people I’ve met and the experiences I have had. They have become a part of myself. But I’m worried I’ll forget the little things that I experienced here. I won’t be able to turn on ABC’s annual showing of The Sounds of Uganda to remind me of some of my favorite things.
So here are a few things/sounds I want to remember (favorite or not):
1. Waking up at 5:30 a.m. almost every morning because the mosque down the street is calling the Muslims to prayer for their first of five offerings of salah. I actually have grown to love the sounds of the mosque.
2. Negotiating prices - that goes something like this: [boda driver]: “Muzungu, we go?” [me] “Muyenga, how much?” [boda] “10,000.” [me] “This guy will take me for less. Sabo, 5,000?” [boda] “No no no, come back. I’ll take you for 7,000.” [me] “I’ll pay you 7,000 if you go slowly and get me there without knocking my legs on any cars. Otherwise you get 5,000.” [boda] “Ok, we go.”
3. The back of almost every honking mutatu painted with one of four things: 1. God is almighty, 2. Allah Akbar, 3. Go Arsenal, or 4. Man U is #1. Religion and soccer are always on the hearts and minds of Ugandans.
4. Hearing “safe journey” when I leave my compound each morning and hearing “welcome back” when I come home each night – followed of course by my daily 20-minute conversation with George.
5. Boiling water to do dishes, laundry, etc.
6. When I’m in the field and the sun goes down, there are no lights in the town. Inevitably though, someone will turn on a generator. Does he turn on a light? No. He blares Juliana (famous Ugandan singer) from his radio.
7. Listening to myself laugh as I attempt to speak French to Congolese vendors.
8. When you go to a restaurant, you don’t ask to see the menu, you ask what they have today. This is usually followed by, “posho, beans, rice, matoke, fried beef, and chapatti.”
9. Watching and listening to the Gaba Road bats “chirp” each morning on my way to work.
10. Hearing what Karen and I call the “Bourne Identity sirens” 50 times a day in the weeks leading up to CHOGM.
These things may sound silly, but hearing them and experiencing them have become a big part of my life in Uganda. I don’t want to forget them. Maybe one day I will even experience them again.

Samantha Power at Boston's Night To Save Darfur

Samantha Power has been my hero since 2002. I met her at a UVA special series lecture on the Rwandan genocide. She has inspired almost everything I have done in the past 6 years - personally and professionally. She was my most frequently used reference in my undergraduate thesis and I shaped an entire unit in my African history class around her book. When I got an email from her last winter advising me to move to Africa, I did. She's beautiful and brilliant and IS the most amazing scholar of issues of genocide. She was also appointed by Barak Obama to be his campaign foreign policy adviser. I can not think of a better person for the job and Obama, hands down, gets my vote because of it. Please take a look at this video and see why this woman has shaped who I have become. I share her reactions and analysis of pretty much everything. If I accomplish a billionth of what this woman has done to raise awareness and advocate for an end to global injustices, I will have accomplished everything I have set out to do.

Yes We Can

Boys will be boys - bad boys, bad boys

(Written on Sunday) Max picked me up this afternoon from Bubbles, the Irish bar in Kololo that lures its customers with free wireless internet. It was a 15-minute commute back to Muyenga and the conversation was anything but dull. “You’re 25? Wait, you’ll be 26 in April? You must get married right away and have kids! Even if you don’t get married, you need to start having kids soon or it will be too late.” Well gee, thanks Max.
One thing that bugs me bout Uganda is the men! Ok, so that’s more than one thing. Anyway, gender issues in Uganda (and most likely many/all African countries) are a serious problem – at least to an outsider’s standards. Most of the time, Ugandans, men and women alike, are surprised when I bring up an issue of gender stratification. It’s like it didn’t occur to them that it could be any other way.
There are lots of double standards. Max even said, “Why are you going to concentrate on a career? Women shouldn’t have careers. Having a family is what a woman needs to concentrate on.”
It’s true, at some point, I do want to settle down and have kids…actually I want lots of kids…but if it happens, it happens. Max suggests I go look for a good-for-right-now kind of guy. He wants me barefoot and pregnant by the fourth of July. I’m not so sure about that.
Oh the double standards...
On weekends I typically walk to Tank Hill Parade, a great Italian market, and load up on food for the week. I fill my backpack and carry one or two 5-liter jugs of water back to my apartment. This load can get very heavy. I sweat while doing it, sure. I could get a boda or a taxi, but let’s face it; we all know how cheap I am. If I can walk somewhere, I will. The young man who packs up my groceries at the check-out counter always smiles when he sees me…not really because he likes me, but because he finds it really amusing that a woman (or perhaps it’s also because I’m a muzungu woman) carries two ten-pound jugs of water 15 minutes back to her house. I tell ya, these double standards are turning me into a feminist! Plus, we all know how competitive I am and if someone insinuates that I can’t do something, I find no greater joy than proving that person wrong!
Men seem to have different standards for themselves. Many Ugandan men think they can have their proverbial cake and eat it too.
In any case, Ugandan females encourage this gender specific society by accepting their roles without fuss. Still, there are so many practices of Ugandan men that are simply unacceptable. Example #1: the electrician who lives in my compound doesn’t actually live in my compound. Despite the fact that he sleeps over at the maid’s apartment every night, he happens to be married. And believe me – they are not at all subtle. Example #2: my 50-year-old friend Joseph who is also married with 7 children frequents the Kabalagala bars on the weekends. No, he doesn’t just go shoot pool with his other 50-year-old friends, he goes dancing with the ladies – 16-25 year old ladies! When I asked if he would ever take his wife to the clubs, he laughed at me and said, “Of course not. I wouldn’t want someone touching my wife. It’s not a place for a woman like that.”
Mmm hmm…
Don’t even get me started on the inappropriate catcalls, hissing noises, and gestures I receive on a daily basis. Actually, that’s not entirely true…but I don’t pretend to flatter myself either. Most people in my neighborhood recognize me now and the harassment has faded to a bearable level. But in no way would you see a female acting that way.
I have three and a half more weeks in Uganda. I do not pretend that women and men are equal in the U.S. but I am looking forward to returning to a country where standards are not so…well, double…and a place where 25 year olds don’t have to be pregnant with their 4th child.
P.S. No woman has ever told me I have to settle down and have kids already.

Who’s the heavyweight champ?

Rocky VI was a great movie. I didn’t even need to see Rocky I, II, III, IV, or V to understand what was going on! No, in all seriousness, I really liked the movie. I’m a Rocky fan and might have to have a Rocky movie marathon when I get back to the States and can see them without having to buy any more pirated videos from the guy on the street corner.
Rocky VI inspired this blog entry. Without going into much detail, Rocky VI is a movie about an old retired boxer (Rocky) who comes out of retirement to go against the heavyweight champion, Mason Dixon in an exhibition event in Vegas. The media instigated the fight by showing a computer-generated version of how former champ Rocky (now in his 50s) would do against the current heavyweight champ (barely 30 years old). The DVD stopped working during the training of Rocky (damn pirated videos), but I did get to see the end. I’m probably not spoiling the movie for you all to tell you that Rocky did an incredible job and the ending left audiences amazed and proud of Rocky’s persistence and heart! Although Dixon technically won the fight, Rocky won the hearts of everyone watching the event.
So then it occurred to me how interesting it might be to compare Idi Amin with Yoweri Museveni. Of the two, who would be the heavyweight champ…and by heavyweight champ I mean the worst dictator. Like Rocky, Idi Amin has an incredibly strong reputation. On the street, at the subway stop, and in restaurants Rocky was recognized and he would pose with his fist clenched at the jaw of his adoring fan waiting for the picture to snap. Idi Amin is in all the history books as being the most brutal dictator in Uganda’s history. They call his rule the reign of terror. “In the 8 years of his rule, 300,000 Ugandans lost their lives, often in horrific ways: bludgeoned to death with sledgehammers and iron bars or tortured to death in prisons and police stations all across the country,” says one book.
The same book goes on to say that when Museveni took power in 1986, it was a time for rebuilding. “Despite Museveni’s Marxist leanings, he has proved to be pragmatic since taking control.” Pragmatic? – I’ll say!
If someone ever counted the deaths of Ugandans at the hand of Museveni, I would wager that the number would far surpass that of Amin’s legacy. Why do I think this? Every Ugandan I have talked to has told me this is true. At the start of Museveni’s reign, he issued an ethnic cleansing just as his predecessors did. Tribalism is a huge problem in Uganda and when one leader of a tribe stages a coup and becomes president, all the members of the tribe of the former leader are captured and taken to prison and often killed. This is what happened to my guard and good friend George, except George lived to tell me about it. At the age of 8, when Museveni took power, George and his entire family – his entire village in fact – were taken to prison because of their tribe. Before his eyes, his father was tortured, his mother was raped and the 2-day old baby brother of his best friend was killed.
There are many stories like this – but not only that, Museveni has been in power now for 22 years, almost three times that of “former heavyweight champ” Amin. Museveni has allowed his country to endure a brutal civil war for over 20 years that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. He is wildly unpopular in Uganda despite all the photos of him hanging in the hall of every government building, hotel, grocery store, and shop. Guess why they’re there? If anyone is suspected of opposition to the regime it could mean trouble! Sound familiar? Anyone see Last King of Scotland?
So why don’t we hear about Museveni and this present “reign of terror?” I suppose if countries like the U.S. acknowledged the Ugandan civil war and the brutal regime of Museveni, they might feel obliged to do something about it. That would not be in the interest of America. It’s Uganda’s problem. And in most ways, I agree. It would be a risky move for the U.S. to acknowledge Museveni as being the heavyweight champ. Very risky indeed!
But kids, here’s a message for you: don’t always believe what you read in history books! Question everything!
So the real question is: Who’s the greatest heavyweight champ? Who will leave the bigger legacy? Amin or Museveni? Only time will tell.

It’s the dry season, people!

So for the past 9 days, it has done nothing but rain. The months of December, January, and February are known as the first dry season of the year (or the last depending on how you look at it). The pleasantly comfortable climate of Uganda turns brutally hot. Boreholes run dry, crops don’t grow, people stop wearing clothes, and people die of heat. In the U.S. when Colorado is under feet of snow, Uganda is under inches of dry dust.
So the past week and a half has been incredibly rare. Actually, people are starting to think that it’s a new season already. They scratch their heads wondering how January and February passed so quickly. “Well, I guess it’s March,” they say. This is truly an exception to the rule of climate regularity in this part of the world.
Uganda has two “main” newspapers: The Daily Monitor and The New Vision. If I want to get the news, I go online. Although I enjoy reading the paper during my lunch break, the stories in there are mostly for entertainment value. It’s a rare occurrence when an entire article will be factually accurate as well as properly punctuated and spelled-checked. Regardless, I read an article in both papers last week explaining to people that in fact, it was still January and it was still the dry season. Remarkably, people didn’t believe them. Logically, they responded to the newspaper articles in the opinion section by saying they didn’t understand why the papers would be lying since clearly it had done nothing but rain for 9 straight days. It must be the next rainy season!
Global warming, anyone?

Land of the Free

Trying to follow American politics while you’re living 8,000 miles away is not as hard as you would think. Candidates these days all have websites. In fact, Obama has a facebook page. Debates are quickly cast on YouTube and news sites like abc.com are interactive. You can easily download any rally and even post your own comments to websites. Technology is grand.
As Super Tuesday rapidly approaches (Feb 5th), I felt the need to put my two cents in about an issue that is getting much attention. Guantanamo Bay, Cuba first entered my vocabulary the same hour that “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth” did. For many years Guantanamo Bay only made sense to me in the context of the 1992 film A Few Good Men. After all, I was only 10.
Not so anymore.
The meaning of Guantanamo Bay has changed. Or has it? In the movie, a young American (fictitious) marine was killed using a torture tactic and the murder was covered up by the U.S. military. Granted, this story was completely made up and I highly doubt Rob Reiner was intentionally trying to make a prediction about future heinous crimes that would shame “Gitmo,” but regardless, it shed light into one of America’s contradictions.
Gitmo has become the target of international attention, and rightly so, in my humble opinion. Just a few weeks ago, it had its 6th anniversary as a military prison under the leadership of the Joint Task Force. Gitmo holds people accused of being terrorists as well as those no longer considered suspects who are being held pending relocation elsewhere. The U.S. has set international standards and has practically written international laws on systems of justice, human rights, and ethics…well maybe not ethics…but you get the picture. Forgetting international law, the practices of Gitmo clearly go against our very own Constitution. Let’s take a look at the words of our forefathers, shall we? Everyone knows the 14th Amendment talks about due process of law, so let’s skip that one. How about the 6th Amendment that says, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury…” By no means do I consider myself a strict constitutionalist, but I am a fan of the American Constitution. Clearly the Constitution protects the citizens of the United States, but what about the violators of laws? What about the inhabitants of Gitmo? The people locked up in the cells in Cuba may be some of the scummiest criminals on the face of the earth. They may be terrorist, murderers, or homicidal psycho-maniacs. But America has to put its justice system to work. 40% of the detainees have not had hearings. Is there no international law for human rights? Is there no military justice system in place to deal with such situations? It’s not justice if justice doesn’t have a chance to take its course (did I make that up or did I hear that somewhere?).
Here in Uganda, it’s a different story. The police, the army, and ordinary civilians take the law into their hands on a daily basis. People who are suspected of a crime are beaten, tortured, or even killed. How does anyone feel safe? Someone can just accuse you of something and that may be it for you.
When I was attacked back in September and my mother’s necklace was ripped from my neck, my boda driver David thought he saw who the perpetrator was. The incident was so upsetting to me, I wanted to go after the guy and beat him up (does anyone remember my fantasy of turning into a female Chuck Norris?). That was my initial reaction. But I didn’t see who the guy was. David went after a guy in a white shirt and confronted him. Although David was pretty sure this guy was the guy who attacked me, the necklace was not on his person. Maybe he passed it off, maybe it was hidden in his underwear, maybe he even swallowed the thing. When a crowd had assembled, everyone turned to me and said, “Lady, is this the guy?” If I had said yes the man would have been beaten right then and there. No more questions – because a muzungu said he was guilty. Instead, I said, “I don’t know” and walked away. Sure, I was miserable and heartbroken for losing something that was so valuable to me (and potentially not that valuable to him), but it would have been a lot worse had I said, ”Yes, he’s the guy.”
Uganda is not the United States. Sure Uganda has a court system but it’s not used properly and the rights in the Ugandan Constitution (if there even is one – honestly I don’t know) are not protected by the government. The government does little to protect its citizens from the LRA, Karamojong, HIV, and poverty. You think it’s going to protect the rights of the accused?
Although our current government leaders satisfy less than 30% of recently polled Americans, the United States is still a pretty great place to live. One of the greatest things about the United States is the fact that its people are protected by a system…a government of the people, by the people, and for the people – Thanks Lincoln!
Unfortunately in the last few years I have grown acutely more aware of the contradictions of America. I will never forget what one of my professors told me: “Every empire collapses if it does not correct its contradictions.” Terrorist attacks and recent market crashes have me worried about the United States. But nothing has me more worried about the future of the United States than our hypocrisy with regards to international law, foreign affairs, and universal human rights. We wrote the book on this stuff! We must practice what we preach.