Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Uganda's Golden Jubilee!

 Today is Uganda’s Golden Julibee!  50 years of independence or in the words of one of my more cynical Ugandan friends: 50 years of living in darkness...haha, funny right?  Maybe not, but there is a middle ground between this jubilation and cynicism and it’s the place I’ve been living for the last 2 and a half years. 

On this joyous occasion, I would like to invite you to join me for an insider’s look into Uganda after 50 years of, well, living outside of England’s rule. 

Here’s a brief outline:

·         The English appointed the king of the central tribe the ruler of Uganda

·         In 1966, the Prime Minister, Obote, committed a coup d’état when the king was out of the country. 

·         After a few years, the leader of Obote’s military, Idi Amin overthrew Obote.  Idi Amin had a lot of support when he came to power, although when a number of his enemies started to disappear mysteriously, all the Indians were forced out of Uganda causing an economic crisis, the Israeli captive situation in Entebbe, and well Amin declared war on Tanzania…things changed.  

·         Tanzania and some Ugandan exiles threw Amin out of power and then after a few interim governments, Obote (from before) was elected.  During this period, known as Obote (II), his rule was marked by a lot of violence, particularly in the SW region...


·         He was overthrown by an army led by Okello who then had a short but very violent reign.

·         Then in 1986, the leader of a guerilla army, Musevini came in from the West and overthrew Okello.  Musevini is still in power and well I won’t get into the politics that surround his rule being a PCV and by order, politically neutral.  During Musevini’s reign, however, the LRA ravaged the north in a 20 year war before being forced from Uganda in 2007. 

Do you see the darkness part?  Yep, it’s there, and unfortunately, it’s only these types of things that usually make the paper...   

I am reading a book on Africa meant for people who have never visited here.  The author is a British journalist who has worked throughout Africa for the last 40 years.  He describes a conversation he had with a young man who said that if the press would covered all the happy things about Africa, then the continent would be able to pull itself out of this constant cycle of war, coups, and corruption.  He answered that journalists rarely cover things like that anywhere, Europe, the Americas, and Asia included because it does not sell papers.  More people, however, visit Europe, the Americas, and Asia than Africa, providing an alternate source of information about these places.  Fewer people provide this for Africa. 

Maybe that’s why living in Africa is addictive for certain people.  It’s like being privy to a secret: that Africa is not all war and danger, but that there is another side that cannot travel the miles to other places as well as the other more depressing stories. 

I was talking with my friend and fellow PCV Steve the other day as we reflected on a recent trip through some local villages.  We concluded how wonderful it is that in Uganda you can act as if you are someone’s best friend immediately upon meeting them.  It’s kind of a fake it until you make it idea.  You take the first few sentences to greet and then, before you know it, you have inside jokes and although you may part ways a minute or two later, you part as if you’ve known each other for ages.  Such a phenomenon has little to do with hospitality and everything to do with the immediacy of the culture.  Everyone lives in the now (which is problematic for people trying to plan projects or budget).   All the tears you want to shed for someone must be shed the day of the funeral.  If you want to spend time with your family, you do it now, even if you are supposed to go to work instead.  There’s no holding back, no let’s wait until later.  If people do delay something until later, there’s a 50/50 percent chance it will happen at all.  Obviously, that something was not important enough to happen “now now” rather than “now” aka “later.”

So back to the inspiration of this blog: jubilation of the golden variety.  Today is about forgetting about the “darkness” of the past and the uncertainty of the future and celebrating what we have today: family, food, and sunshine.  So although most of you all are an ocean away from the joyous occasion, I hope you too will raise a glass in celebration of any and all happiness you feel in this moment and in the hope that the next 50 years will be brighter than the last.

Monday, June 18, 2012

You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out, but you have to dress for them all aka There and Back Again, a Peace Corps Extendee’s Tale

If I got to see you during my time in the Americas, let me just say, wow, you look amazing and I can’t believe how wonderful you are. If I didn’t see you, sorry, but time is not always an accommodating mistress and I have returned already to what my father terms as “the bush” in the hopes that I too one day can say “Dr. Livingston I presume?”

While home, I got to visit the bustling city of Bogota, Colombia, the patriotic city of Washington, DC, and the historical city of Williamsburg.


I was shocked and awed by the following things: electricity…all the time…and at times without even turning on a switch, the fact that restaurants almost always have what is listed on their menus (in Uganda, you usually just ignore the menu because 99.9% of the items listed there are not actually available), the diversity, the lack of potholes, the speed and availability of the internet, drinking water from the tap and not suffering later, customer service, and how little people interact when they don’t have to (i.e. walking past each other on the street, being on the same train etc).

The things that frightened me the most: highway entrance ramps (really not a good place for someone who is used to “African Time”) and the canned goods aisle in the grocery store….it just was not natural to have so many options in such little space…it took about 3 times as long and 300 times the level of concentration for me to find a can of green beans as it would take you.

The things that were the nicest were: blending in…relatively at least and, not to be overly corny, seeing and/or hearing about all of you.

On Friday, June 9th, a plane full of smart outfits, bright eyes, and well, me with more electronics in my carry-on than the energizer bunny landed in Uganda around 11pm. By Saturday night I was in Lira, my new home for the next year and on Monday morning, I started working at my new PC site, International Lifeline Fund. www.lifelinefund.org/


Very exciting things about my new home: electricity and running water, living in town (so it doesn’t take a full day to go shopping, I can actually go out after 7pm (so now I can go see the Euro Cup!)), I no longer fear that my clothes will get stolen off the laundry line, my home is no longer a warehouse for my projects or liquid soap factory, there is more than one room, and there is a front porch. It’s my version of a ex-convict’s half-way house, transitioning me from the village to America.

At my new site, I am helping revamp their Institutional Fuel-Efficient Stove project (large wood burning stoves for schools, orphanages etc.). It’s been basically dormant for the last year and a half because they were building up their smaller stove projects so they let me in like a breath of fresh air…or more likely like a passable rendition of “The Flight of the Bumblebee” to jump start it. While it’s strange for me not to have a million projects going on simultaneously and to no longer have to work before 830 am and after 530 pm, this new streamlined lifestyle may make my future blog entries less overwhelming/confusing to read.

My new mailing address is:

Heather Pasley
P.O. Box 1041
Lira, Uganda

My email is much more reliable here so let me know what’s shaking on that side of the ocean, specifically in your lives.
What I should have painted on my old house.

A happy mother in a nearby village with her ILF "rural stove."

Testing the newest model of the ILF "Institutional Stove"

Friday, May 11, 2012

PICTURES!

Currently I am home in the USA for my 30 day leave before extending for another year in Uganda.  This means that I have strong enough internet to upload photos!  Nothing's in order sorry.  If you want to see more pictures and/or the awesome slideshow from the girls empowerment camp I organized, let me know...I'm around.
 
My neighbors Amy and Emy
 

My last two stoves at my school, built with a local vocational school (BAM!)



My very shotty bus...at least its honest about its safety track record

I just flew home on this...just kidding...Ugandan Fighter Jet in the middle of Gulu...seriously



My new home (I share it with 2 other people so I'm not totally spoiled), but it's definitely an upgrade from a hut



Princess and the Pea in Uganda...getting ready for the Girls Empowerment Camp that I organized/directed called Northern Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World)



The taxi I took to get from Kitgum to my new home in Lira. 5 of the bags and my bicycle are loaded on top. This is the first of two times that we broke down on the normally 4 hour trip...

 
  


 
From inside the taxi I moved in...20 people in a 14 max person vehicle...very delux and spacious...



Ochido, a fine art teacher at my school working on our East Africa Map Mural




One of my womens groups

Me terrorizing Emy...or defending my coffee mug...really, it could go either way


Northern Camp GLOW