This past week our program took us on a trip to the east and then to the north of Uganda. Because I did not bring my computer with me I have been unable to write about these experiences as they have happened. For this I sincerely apologize to my adoring fans out there in cyberspace. At any rate the events of this trip are definitely worthy of mention and so I will recount the trip as best as possible from memory.
Before I begin recounting my trip, I should say something about my Sunday evening with Mama. This is yet another example of how she continues to amazing me. We were walking down to Kabalagala, the local commercial center, for a drink in the evening (electrical power is very sporadic in Uganda and so we frequently go out in the evening since there is nothing to do at home when the power goes out). On the walk to town we passed through a large field where Mama’s church is located. Mama directed me up to a small one room shack, and told me to stay outside since she had to attend to some business inside. Three men were sitting outside the building, one with a rifle at his feet. Mama grabbed one of the men to talk to and went inside. I awkwardly stood there until the man with the rifle directed me to sit where the man Mama had taken had been sitting. I sat down and tried without avail to initiate small talk with the two remaining men, whose English was limited at best. After several minutes Mama came back out and said we should go. At first we walked in silence and she offered no explanation for this strange happening. After several minutes, however, she said she was checking in on how the man and his family were doing, since she had been there after church this morning. She explained that she was walking home that morning and saw a crowd of people standing around the house. When she approached she learned that this was because this man’s wife had been throwing a fit, breaking belongings on the front porch and threatening to cut her children with a knife. Mama pushed her way through the crowd and tried to calm the woman down. However, as Mama described it, the woman was acting like a crazy person, and so forcibly disarmed the woman, restrained her and then tied her up so she was forced to calm down. Then Mama proceeded to sit the man and his wife down and discuss what the matter was. The woman was apparently upset that the man had made her and his second wife live in the same room. Mama explained to the man that this was unacceptable (apparently taking two wives is fine so long as you don’t force them to continually acknowledge each other), and explained to the woman that threatening to cut the children and destroying property was not an appropriate means of negotiation. She said what bothered her most about the whole thing is that there had been a crowd of people standing there doing nothing before she came. Now obviously I take this story with a grain of salt, as should you. However, I thought it interesting that she had gone the whole day without mentioning this to me or anyone else in the family, and that the only reason she had told me was because she felt she had to explain our detour.
Anyway, on to my trip to the north. After two excruciating days of lectures at Mulago hospital (the teaching hospital for Makereri University) on public health, Wednesday of last week we finally set out for Mbale. While leaving Kampala, we stopped at a Shop Rite (strangely enough the local supermarket chain bears the same name as the one in New Jersey though they are completely different companies) at a very rich, heavily Muzungu laden part of town in order to get snacks for the road. I was elected as the representative from my van to purchase the snacks. As we walked into this ritzy Ugandan Shop Rite we were overcome by an eerie feeling that this could have been a shopping center in the American southwest. The parking lot was not asphault but intricately designed brick, and as we walked into the shopping center we passed a café that could have easily been a local Starbucks. The food selection was nearly as plentiful as an American grocery store, and they had a selection that we have been completely unable to find in Uganda, including baguettes, produce, ritz (like) cracker, and (god help me) cheese (really good cheese too). For a country with such rich and ongoing tradition of pastoralism, it is amazing that there is absolutely no culture whatsoever of cheese. After we loaded up on snack food and returned form our short vacation to Arizona back to Uganda, we wasted no time in devouring all of our provisions for the five hour car ride ahead. We were so excited to have western food we didn’t bother to contain ourselves. Somewhere amid this feeding frenzy we all aquired some strange, western food induced, high. My fondest memory of this ride was being totally consumed in laughter for no apparent reason, looking around the van at the others all equally consumed and us all trying to stuff peanut butter sandwiches, ritz with cheese, or whatever we could, into our mouths in between gasps for air.
Eventually the food high wore off, as our bellies began to fill and our supply of provision ran out. We were then able to notice that the scenery had changed distinctly, and that we were no longer in Kampala. I cannot describe to you the joy I felt at being out of the city, and into the breathtakingly beautiful Ugandan countryside. We opened all the windows, let the wind blow in our hair, and enjoyed our first breath of truly fresh air in over a month. Outside of the cities, I have yet to find a landscape in Kampala that isn’t wonderful. The landscape here was thick lush, tropical forest, but as we neared Mbale this slowly segwayed into fertile savannah. After stopping for lunch (for which no one was terribly hungry) and a few more hours on the road, we finally arrived in Mbale.
Mbale is a small town (a large town by Ugandan standards, but effectively a strip of highway along the road), that is about twenty miles from the Kenyan boarder, it lies in the shadow of the awe inspiring Mt. Elgon (sounds like something from Lord of the Rings right?) which lies on the Uganda-Kenya boarder. Our time in Mbale was spent almost entirely at the TASO district headquarters. TASO is a Ugandan organization that works to fight AIDS. They provide free testing services, offer prevention education, safe sex education, and provide anti-retro-viral drugs, to those infected, as well as counseling for the infected and their families. They are funded largely by American aid under PEPFAR. Walking into TASO was a sullen experience, as we walked through lines of people all sitting and nervously awaiting their HIV test results. After a brief lecture on exactly what TASO does, we were taken to see a drama group designed by the organization. Drama groups are an effective tool used exhaustively throughout Africa to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS, and numerous other health threats. The drama groups go around to various communities performing songs and sketches intended to be both entertaining and educational. At first I admit that I thought this method was rather patronizing, childish, and probably ineffective, but upon further consideration, I realize that they serve the same purpose as those patronizing, childish educational movies we watched in health class. While even as a child I could tell that those movies were straight up corny, they were usually more entertaining than normal health class, and they definitely helped their message to stick. For this reason I firmly believe that these drama groups are essential in health education in Africa and are an extremely effective way to pass along information, and raise general awareness (which is great because it gets people asking questions). This particular group was composed of men and women who are HIV positive, and who TASO has employed while treating. The beauty of these people struggle is overwhelming. They have devoted themselves to ensuring that others don’t fall prey to HIV as they have. Their lives have been devastated by this frighteningly prolific monster of an infection, and yet they come in everyday, put on bright smiles, and sing upbeat songs about how with education and preventative steps people needn’t live in fear of contracting HIV.
The following day we watched as this group performed at a local secondary school so that we could see how they performed with a typical audience. In beginning the school had the feeling of any of the countless high school assemblies I have attended in my life. The children were largely uninterested in what was to be presented, and were simply elated to have a break from the everyday routine of afternoon classes. Our group sat next to some students, one of whom I struck up a conversation with. I told him that we were with TASO. He laughed a little, and then asked in a polite but lightly mocking way, if that meant that we were all positive (apparently TASO is best known for their policy of employing infected people who they treat). Just for purposes of witty rebuttal, another group member asked if he was infect, when he responded in the negative we asked him if he knew because he had been tested. He said he feared getting tested (in Ugandan English people aren’t afraid of things, they fear them). We asked him why and he responded because he “liked to play around”. In short, this school desperately needed some sort of HIV/AIDS education. Anyway, as the assembly began to progress, the students remained relatively disinterested and carefree. Slowly, however, the mood of the assembly grew more serious, culminating in a personal story from on of the drama group as to how they contracted HIV. As with all stories concerning this disease, it was heart-wrenching, and since this particular story involved a young girl struggling to pay school fees meeting up with a sugar daddy (common term in East Africa for an older man who provides for younger women in return for sex) it struck very close to home for many of the students. After the testimony, the group returned and sang more songs. Muna, our driver and dear friend, had us all get up and go dance with the group completely on a whim. I could tell that seeing a bunch of University students getting so into the program also helped make the students take the presentation more seriously. When it came time for the Q&A section of the program, so many students submitted questions that they had to cut the program short. This is the only part of the program I found discouraging. We were able to read some of the questions that went unanswered, and some were from fearful students asking how they could get tested for HIV (a service TASO offers for free). I sincerely hope that TASO provided some alternate means to address these questions after we had left. That said everything else about the organization was extremely encouraging, and it was amazing to see how effective the drama groups were in raising peoples interest about HIV/AIDS.
The next day was Saturday, and so we had a break from our heavy regiment of educational programming, and went to visit Sipi falls. Sipi falls is located in a mountainous region of Eastern Uganda that, like all other natural landscape in Uganda is absolutely breathtaking. The landscape reminds me slightly of a more luscious, African version of the Rockies in Colorado. There are actually three falls to Sipi falls all located a good distance apart, which can only be accessed by covering gruelingly mountainous terrain. Needless to say I had an absolute field day. The falls themselves were amazing, and unlike natural monuments in America, you are free to climb all over these falls, and we did. At one point, while we were resting after a particularly steep segment on the trail, Muna approached me ask, “Mike, are you a real man?”. Of course I knew that this would inevitably be followed by a request to perform some ridiculous challenge to prove my manhood, but regardless I responded in the affirmative. He then said that if I were a real man I’d climb a tree to take a picture of the group. He then jumped up in the tree and waited for me to follow. Growing up in a rural area, climbing trees had been an integral part of my childhood, and to his surprise I followed him with absolute ease. When it was time to get down, got to a point where I knew I could jump and started to go. He grabbed my arm and refused to let me, insisting that I inch my way down, just to be safe. As soon as I had done this, just to piss me off, he jumped from exactly where I had planned. This triggered a series of outdoor related challenges between us. As the group is nearly all girls, this male bonding time was a very welcome change. It was great to have someone to do all the fun things I had wanted to do on our nature hike day. We did everything from climbing rocks, exploring caves, bathing under the falls, to catching frogs. By the end of the day Muna kept saying that we were Generals.
I suppose now would be a good time to give slightly more detail on Muna, as he is one of everyone’s favorite parts about this program, and one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. I’ve been meaning to talk about Muna for some time now. Those of you on facebook may have noticed that I’ve changed my religious status to Munism. This is because Muna has a way of speaking metaphorically, and in such a confusing manner that we decided he very well might be the final prophet. He is always giving out useful advice in the most complex and confusing way possible. I’m sure in their day Jesus and Muhammad all spoke such metaphorically rich nonsense and there disciples were probably all like, “Man, don’t you ever just want to talk about something normal”. Muna, we have decided, must be no different. On top of that he is 43 and looks not a day older than 28, it’s got to be that good clean prophetic living. However, in all seriousness, once you figure out what he is saying he has some good advice. He also gives random insight into African culture. He is also an expert on traditional views of femininity and sexuality, and takes every opportunity he can to expound upon the topic. One day on our trip two girls were sitting outside of the communal bathroom with basins full of water shaving their legs. Muna approached them innocently and asked what they were doing. They told him that they were shaving their legs, and ask don’t women in Africa shave their legs. Muna said no. After a short pause, he said women in Africa don’t eat chicken, and left. We later found out that he said this because it is a belief among Africans that eating chicken will make girls grow beards, and so he figured that Muzungus needed to shave their legs because of all the chicken they eat. He went on to explain how Nile Perch will make female genitalia smell, and has disclosed countless other nuggets of wisdom. He also told me that I shouldn’t eat sugar since women use it to calm men down. I don’t mean to sound like I am mocking Muna, or to give the impression that he is chauvinistic. I truly have nothing but the utmost respect for the man. He told me that he never graduated from secondary school, and yet every morning wakes up at four to try to read English. He loves learning, and as such is a fountain of information, especially about East Africa. Not only that, despite some beliefs to which we as westerns simply don’t subscribe, in talking to him you quickly learn that he is an exceptionally intelligent human. He knows (I believe) twelve languages including Luganda, English and Swahili. Furthermore, given how hard it is to find a job in Uganda even with a college education he has managed very well for himself. Not only is he the head of transportation for SIT in Uganda, he also owns a company that gives private safari tours. He definitely possesses the type of personality that makes you believe that he will succeed in life no matter what. That is not to say that there are plenty of people in this country possessed of that same quality, but who are still bound to a life of poverty simply because barriers to success are too high. However, Muna’s personality has definitely helped him overcome many obstacles in his life. He is always cheerful, full of good advice, and completely unafraid to make himself known. The day we visited the secondary school, he ran up on stage as the TASO director was saying her goodbyes, and proceeded to give the entire high school a few final words of wisdom about preventing HIV. We all thought this was funny because really he is just our driver, and is in no way associated with our academic studies, and yet he just took control of the whole situation. Anyway, I just thought I should mention Muna since he is my friend, another example (like Mama) of someone I’ve come to truly respect on this trip, and a pretty big part of our experience as a program in Uganda.
So I’ve only gotten through the first two stops in our trip, but in the interest of keeping you (the reader) interested and wanting more (and in the interest of me getting some sleep) I’ll stop here and pick up with my journey in the next post. Till then kwaheri!
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