Is that a Chicken in the back seat?

So those of you who have ever taken a cab in New York City know that it can be a frustrating and harrowing event, but travel in a country where infrastructure is a foreign term is something altogether more harrowing and hilarious.

A few weeks ago, we left Kampala for Jinja, the second largest city, located on Lake Victoria in Southern Uganda. How did we get here? Two and a half hours on a postal bus (87 km) took us here. As in, we rode above the mail. It's perfect - talk about making use of space. we had a raucous group on board and the conductor had oversold the tickets such that 5 or 6 people were standing for the journey.

On our way out, I noticed (for the second time) a cow, tied to the cab of a truck by its horns, on the back of a pickup truck. Every time the truck stopped, the cow's front legs would buckle and the cow/bull would slide forward, despite all its efforts to stay standing. Now this may be of some surprise to you, but having been in a taxi with 10-15 chickens tied to a rope and hanging upside down inside the car (and plantain bananas tied underneath) set the precedent so it was only a mild shock to me. (I later found out a friend rode a matatu/taxi with agoat tied to the roof)

Back to the story - so we were travelling along, tihs happy bunch of hodge podge travelers. As we go, we pass by a market. the hawkers came to teh windows to sell their wares and much to benefit of the standing crowd (which was told to duck if a police car passed by) one seller was eager to sell his bamboo stools; they are quite unlike anything i've seen beofre. made of wood, it is cone shaped with the bottom of the cone cut off, such that if yuo needed some air... you could get plenty. Anyhow, we got to Jinja no problem.

Once here, that's when the adventure began. We worked for a few days in Iganga, a town East of Jinja by maybe 30 km but the journey took a long time because one part of the road was being repaired... and by one part, I mean one side. So drivers for both directions were sharing one side of the road but with one developing world difference - there were no barriers or demarkations. This gives matatu drivers the liscence to swerve all over the roads to avoid the massive pot holes all along the road. matatus and oil tankers. going in both directions. One team member likened it to a game of frogger. I hav ea picture of a cloud of dust, and the cab o fa truck emerging from it. harrowing. and yet, because they all understand the game of chicken and have a desire to live, we live.

For me, I'll just say I'm glad to not take that road to Iganga again. Strange to think that I'll be glad to get back on the postal bus and head to Kampala. Folks, don't try this at home.

Unplug your chargers!

Here is an interesting Green Tip I learned at eBay...

Take charge of your chargers! Cell phone and BlackBerry chargers consume as much energy when your device is plugged in as they do when it’s not.

Pull it out of the socket – if 10% of the world’s cell phone owners did this, we could save enough energy to power 60,000 homes for a year!

Work. So what exactly does my day involve, besides weaving in and out of traffic? our first workshop took place in Kampala with Grace Ministries in Katwe, an area of cramped wood and brick, tin-roofted housing for transient people moving from outside Kampala into and around the city. The organization is led by a tireless, generous-hearted, forward-thinking man named Pastor Livingston. He and his church began a school to meet the needs of local children; the teachers are volunteers who teach 3 classes (the baby, middle and top classes) everything they know from 7 to 1. With few resources, no books and no desks, such a challenging job is made that much more challenging. Imagine needing to sharpen pencils with razor blades because the class doesn't have a sharpener.

And this is a common story among underfunded schools, like the other schools we saw in rural Buganga (named after the smell of gunpowder from the civil war that took place there) and at the Ray of Hope area (built on the now defunct railroad lands - a temporary settlement where the government refuses to give over deeds or do anything with the land). there are simply not enough resoures and teachers are working tirelessly for little to no pay. But they do their work to the best of their abilities and smile at the end of the day. where we come in is to give teachers an opportunity to learn some professional skills we as teachers have been fortunate to learn; basing lessons on national standards (which we've found written by the Ugandan National Curriculum development Council and are distributing), planning units and lessons, learning theory and teaching literacy and ESL.

Meanwhile, some of our team members are also helping org leaders capacity build by setting them up to be able to write grants. A fortuitous meeting with people from Camara project have also helped us to help Grace get access to computers and training. Synergy is a wonderful thing. Our resident nurse has also had a challenging job of teaching first aid to community leaders and purchasing first aid for the organizations; this made more challenging by the extent and source of people's medical needs. how do you advise a woman on ways to stay healthy when her roof is leaking and she cannot afford proper nutrition? The more we see, the more need we see for work to be done by those who are able in communities here, and the need for those in positions of privilege and power to enable those doing good work on the ground; whether through funding, skills training, or better yet, changing the systems and structures that prevent greater equality on this planet we all share.

Jambo! olyotya. (how are you in swahili and bugandan - as a friend mentioned to me before arriving here, there is no simple hello. It's always how are you - so if you ever say hi, the response is "fine. how are you?")

It's been a week in Kampala and so far, it's been a great experience. Every day has been different full of good things. when I first arrived at the backpacker's hostel in southwest Kampala, I was happily surprised to find a kooky building surrounded by a tree-filled oasis. Turns out the compound was once the Prime Minister's grounds. An Aussie ex-military guy with tons of personality bought the place, helped some Rwandan refugees across the border and opened a hostel. The facilities are good here and the place is always buzzing with new faces, non-profit groups at work and travellers from overseas; a great place to network between orgs and to share ideas.

i'm staying in the "round banda", the tarp and grass covered building you see below. It's dark and damp most of the time, but otherwise, it's spacious and well suited to our needs.

Though the trip will take on more members soon, our core group here has consisted of myself and the 4 other staff/volunteers from Fount of Mercy, a group that runs out of the US whose work is to support local, on-the-ground organizations that do education (and health care) for children, widows and the disabled . Oftentimes these are families that have been affected by HIV/AIDS. It's hard to go wrong working with a group of intelligent, compassionate and friendly people. (www.fountofmercy.com) We've planned some teacher education, health education and grant-writing/accounting workshops to give to teachers and community leaders; capacity building for local groups doing good work.

My first day in Kampala city centre included a quick trip to the Old Taxi Park, a bustling chaotic pit full of people selling goods, "boda bodas" or mopeds for hire, and shared taxi vans. It's quite ingenious; post a sign to indicate the destination. wait till the 18 seater fills up, everyone pays a standard fare (or "muzungu" fare - the white/European fare sometimes) and you carpool. Without these, the city would be in gridlock, as it is already busy enough, full of traffic enough and polluted enough. The people are friendly and helpful, always eager to sell their goods but not pushy. (Funny to come from India where bargaining involves much give and take to Uganda, where a low offer is often met with a blank stare rather than a middle ground offer.)

The downtown core is a mix of old low rise concrete buildings and shiny tall towers for hotels and banks. There's lots of construction going on and it feels like the city is headed somewhere. For myself, I'd like to know where but that kind of understanding will have to wait. There are people everywhere and at all hours. Lots of street vendors who lay their wares out on the streets or on the dirt by the sides of sidewalks. I know of 1 streetlight, a new one, in Kampala. i've been told and people are still getting accustomed to using it so crossing the street can be like walking a maze here.

Of course in the city centre, it being the capital, one can find the Parliament, where I went today. It is in session tuesdays to thursdays so when I arrived there today (on a Saturday), I was asked "what are you doing here?" When i responded that I was hoping to tour the building and look around, I was met with a very puzzled face. perhaps it's not a traditional tourist thing to do to see the parliament here? I don't know. Lonely planet did not recommend this one. (the other question I was asked was "are you carrying any weapons?" when I responded no, I was allowed to pass without a bag check... hmm...)

So that's my intro and your intro to this busy city.

Synthesis

I want to push myself to really try to synthesize my experience in Moz. Get below my experience and observation. What did I learn? What questions did my experience raise? I'll try to pull something together and post it on here. Don't expect anything mesmerizing...

Rest of my trip in Mozambique

I apologize for the long radio silence...it's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks. I wrapped up my trip in Mozambique about two weeks ago, flew back to Boston, drove to Toronto, moved out to San Francisco where I am spending the rest of my summer! For about a week, I amused myself by thinking about how far I had traveled recently.

Before I talk about my experience in California, I wanted to briefly wrap-up my trip to Mozambique. I spent the last week of work putting together a report for the organization that I serving. Lots of Excel and PowerPoint, the typical tools of a former consultant. I spent my last weekend in Mozambique chilling out in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. I met up with a friend from school, ML, who had just arrived in Mozambique for his internship.

I had a blast with ML. We toured Maputo and stuffed ourselves with way too much seafood. On the Friday night, we went to a fish market for dinner. The fish market allows patrons to purchase the day's catch from local fisherman and then take it to restaurants, which are attached to the market, where they cook the food for you. We ordered clams, shrimp and fish. All three dishes were fantastic, especially the shrimp and the clams! We ate so much, we had no desire to tackle Maputo nightlife. Instead, we opted for some intense development discussions back at Marco's place, where I was staying.


On Saturday, we took on the local crafts market. Artisan set up shop in an outdoor plaza. We bargained our way to some paintings, sculptures and other souvenirs. I was also tailed by a street vendor for almost an entire block. He was trying to sell me a drum for 100MT ($4) and I kept turning him down. Somehow he knew that I would crack...so he kept following me. I asked for 50MT, but he wouldn't lower the price nor leave me alone. After an entire block, he finally lowered his price to 80MT and I relented and purchased the drum. I love this photo! I was basically attacked by these artisan vendors while posing for a photo. I just asked ML to take the photo anyway.


The rest of the weekend was more relaxing. We hung out in the gardens of Maputo's nicest hotel, Hotel Polona, which is a restored colonial building with beautiful views of the ocean, we partied at one of Maputo's two nightclubs, and we ate more shrimp.

One of my favourite parts about Maputo are the street signs. Mao Tse Tung Ave. and Lenin Ave. are reminders of Mozambique's socialist past. There are also many streets named after dates of important battles or revolutions, such as 24th of June Avenue. It was amusing to walk around Maputo, if only to check out all the difference street names.

My experience in Maputo was very different from my experience in Chimoio. Maputo is clearly much wealthier than most other parts of Mozambique. Basic infrastructure is better developed - the roads are paved, high-speed internet was available and many parts of the city were lit at night. There is a wide selection of food from Italian to Thai to Ethiopian. There are entire neighbourhoods of large gated mansions with groomed gardens. Most of these mansions had Mercedes-Benzs and BMWs parked in the driveway. The contrast between Maputo, Chimoio and the even small villages provided a clear reminder of how difficult it can be to spread economic development beyond urban centers and capital cities. It also provided a stark reminder of the inequality that exists in the country.

Even though I was only in Mozambique for 4 weeks, it was a fantastic experience. It gave me the opportunity to reflect about much of my coursework over the past year. I don't think I necessarily know how to apply it any better, but I certainly used many of the concepts from the classroom to analyze the problems that I observed first hand. Hopefully, I will actually be able to provide some solutions to these problems after a couple more years of school!

Dubai - Crazy crazy city

Given that one day in a city is never enough to get past first impressions, this blog will be about first impressions about the crazy city I descended upon for a day - Dubai.
A couple stories to illustrate:
I checked in to my "3 star" hotel to find that not only did I have a huge suite (Set at a chuilly 19 degrees) with a massive bed, ginormous windows and my own seating area, but that when I wanted to find a place to fill my water bottle, and was told they didn't have one, the desk manager personally had the bottle filled, and the concierge bring it to me. The rooftop pool and complementary internet service also adds to the more than 3 star appeal of this bustling, hotel-filled city.

Second story: enter the Dubai National Museum. So Dubai doesn't have a huge history but what it has is nestled beneath wind towers meant to draw in the hot still air, and connected with a modern shopping-business complex. Most of the museum is underground. Litterally. And some of the outdoor buildings are non-insulated, door-open, air conditioned. yup. crazy city. To be honest though, it was hot hot hot in Dubai.

Third story: Amidst the spartan warning signs to "remember, we are in a desert", and vast stretches of rolling sand dunes, one can find a very well above-ground irrigation system making emerald green patches of soft grass and baby palms, all of which will line the dusty hot streets, congested highways and fancy hotels.

Fourth story: Where else but in Dubai can you take a tour of the desert that involves a 1 hour 4x4 roller coaster, disney-can't-beat-this ride on the sand dunes, followed by a camel ride, a chance to hold a falcon, take some shisha/hooka, watch some belly dancing (and maybe get pulled on stage) and buffet under teh stars in a "bedouin" compound.

Lastly: Where else can one find more shopping malls selling western designer clothing but local women fully covered; where else can one find so many expat Eurpeans, Indian, Pakistani, and Philippino workers, and so few "locals" and finally, where else can you find so many hotels, being built on man made islands, filled with skating rinks/malls in deserts with ski hills?

Dubai? A crazy crazy city.