Kenya: A three part Harmony. Part I

I had a fantastic time in Kenya and I experienced a lot in my 4 days there. I've decided in order to make my blog posts more readable and shorten the amount of time it takes me to write them, I am going to write about Kenya over three blog posts, and then I'm going to write a post complaining about the Canadian government. You've been warned.

It all started two years ago in a little town called Pretoria South Africa. I was a fresh faced graduate student and Gitonga was an intern when we met at the Institute for Security Studies and we developed a friendship that we would try to continue over facebook. Never would I have imagined that I would be in East Africa at the time of his wedding, no less be invited. But there I was on December 7th heading to Nairobi.

On the way to Nairobi I took the overnight bus from Kampala. Queen's Coach is a luxury bus line which means they have hairconditioning and seats that recline (no washrooms though). They also feed you snacks of highly fatty cookies, orange pop and coffee which seems questionable in the middle of the night. I was relieved when I had no problems at the border.

I arrived in Nairobi at 9 in the morning and headed straight for the Hibiscus guest house where I had booke a room. It was close by to a place Gitonga had reccommended although $15 less per night and actually had better reviews. I have to say it really did live up to its reputation. The staff were very friendly, the rooms were clean, it had beautiful gardens and mattresses on the bed that actually had springs (this is not common in East Africa).

After settling in I decided that it was time for an adventure and so I called the cab driver who dropped me off and asked him to take me to the Kenyan National Museum. The National Museum is on hilly grounds surrounded by trees and statues. It contains a detailed history of Kenya, a hall of mamals and art exhibits. I think the highlight of the of the museum were the skulls of early hominids on display behind some glass doors which I had seen pictures of in my 2nd African History Course at Carleton. After walking through the museum for about 2 hours I sat down and had a coffee and a chicken pie. Black coffee is a bit less expensive in Kenya than in Uganda and of a somewhat higher quality. I was happy.

After walking through the gardens around the museum and checking out Nature Kenya I decided to walk to downtown Nairobi. When I asked the security guard at the gate directions he responded "No, no it's too far it will take you too long" and I asked how far it was and he said "It would take YOU 2 hours." So I asked him how long it would take him and he said "1 hour" in the end it took me 30 minutes including a stop at the Masai Market. When I visited the Masai market I didn't fully have my bearings as I was quite over tired and also trying to ajust to the prices (one Kenyan shilling is 28 Uganda shillings which is 1.1 dollars) and so I was ripped of on the first item I bought and then bought a similar item from a different stall for a sixth of the cost. Oh well you win some you lose some.

On the way to the center of town I met a young woman coming from the University of Nairobi who helped me cross the street. There are more traffic lights in Nairobi but its harder to get across the road because there are more lanes of traffic. After explaining that she was a highschool English Literature teacher she told me she was doing a Masters in International Studies. When I asked why she said she wanted to be an ambassador, but not one working for the government. She told me she was a poet and that she wanted to travel around the world and tell people about life in Kenya and talk about its richness in contrast with its poverty (no pun intended) and everything in between. This was the first of quite a few inspiring conversations I had in Kenya, and to be honest I needed the inspiration. She then delivered me to my bus, which of course got stuck in a traffic jam, some things are the same everywhere in Africa.

When I got back to the hotel I read and used the internet in the guest house's sitting room. While I was there a middle aged Dutch man named Marcel came in. We spoke about what each of us was doing in Nairobi and as it turned out Marcel was helping to run a development project in the Kibera slum which was helping to fund five schools and was employing 12 women on a regular basis (and 60 on a casual basis) to make jewellery which they were selling in the Netherlands (at major chains such as Hema where I bought a set of bright orange plastic dishes 5 years ago which are with me in Kampala) and other department stores. They were working on an order for a shipment of 75,000 bracelets and under a lot of time pressure because the beads had not yet arrived and the order was due two days later. After asking some pointed questions about the nature of his work I decided to go out on a limb and asked if I could visit the project the next day, and to my surprise he said yes! We agreed to meet the next morning.

Later that evening I had the opportunity to meet with 3 more CIDA interns for dinner. They were all lawyers, two were working in Nairobi (Josh was working with Gitonga which is how we met) and one was working in Tanzania. We had dinner at a place called artscafe which was somewhat surreal. It was located in a large, western style mall. It boasted three kinds of sugar (okay one of them was sweet and low) and a very modern interior, and jazz music played over the speakers, quite a change from Kampala. During the conversation the visitor from Tanzania indicated that she wanted to go to an elephant orphanage where we could see baby elephants eat their lunch. I asked her if I could come too and she said yes. She then went on to talk about the other adventures she was interested in having in Nairobi and talked about wanting to visit the Kibera slum, and so I told her about my plans the next day and invited her to come along too.

My first impression of Kenya was that it is much more developed than Uganda. There are more paved roads with fewer potholes. There were apparent, strong anti-corruption laws which were highlighted throughout the city. There were much larger buildings and the city was bigger as a whole. No one warned me when I packed for Kenya that it was going to be cold and although the weather was sunny and the perfect temperature during the day time I found myself quite chilled at night. The other thing that I found quite remarkable was that there was a lot less dust in Nairobi, in fact unlike in Uganda I was actually able to get my feet fully clean when I washed them.

That's the end of the first chapter. Stay tuned tomorrow for the next!

The Long Awaited Kasese Post

So there's been a lot going on in my life recently, some of it good, some of it bad, most of it making it hard to find time to Blog. Obviously when I travel I spend a lot of time away from my computer so that doesn't help but there are some other things too. Work has been a bit hectic with a few deadlines coming up and mounting stress about how I am going to get it all done when I leave in April, if I leave in April. On the side I have been preparing applications for a PhD program in Canada that I'm interested in as well as the Parliamentary Internship Program. In addition, things have been rocky on the friendship front; two of my friends are leaving for home permanently this week and last week one of my friends was in a very bad accident in Ottawa which has certainly been preoccupying and that's all on top of my normal stuff.

Anyway here I am now writing to you about Kasese
.

I traveled to Kasese on November 27th with two staff members of the Center for Conflict Resolution with whom I have been working on conflict-sensitivity training courses with the UCA. It is a long drive from Kampala to Kasese, about 6 hours through winding hills. Two things surprised me during the drive. The first was that several of the hills were covered with Evergreen trees. I was informed that these were of course not native to the area but the government had decided that it was a "good idea to plant them there". The second thing that surprised me was that while going through the Kabale forest we came upon 6 Baboons on the road. These were the first monkeys that I saw since arriving in Uganda and I ended up being even more surprised when we found one on the road again on our way back.

Upon arriving in Kasese we checked into our guesthouse called "The White House" it was a clean place with standard African rooms (a bed with a mosquito net, a chair and a table) and a restaurant which was reasonable serving African food. The first night I was in town I met a fellow Canadian at the guest house who invited me to join her for dinner. We had chicken curry which I must say was surprisingly spicy for African food. Sadly I went to bed that night with a pounding headache.

Monday I woke up feeling much refreshed. I was a bit
anxious as the women from CECORE turned in the opposite direction of the Peace Expo which was the purpose of my trip and started heading to local offices to try to drop off my reports. I was particularly anxious because the day was starting with a peace march which I did not want to miss. Fortunately, African time saved the day and despite arriving an hour late we still made it in plenty of time for the march.

Near the beginning of the expo an official announced that the tents to the left of the stage were reserved for child-mothers (mothers under the age of 18). I stared in disbelief there were at least two hundred young women with their children there and they were all from Kasese. Later in the event we would learn that there were over 3000 child-mothers in Kasese alone. The main reasons for this trend were listed as poverty, conflict, cultural practices and gender based violence. Further we learned about many of the challenges facing the mothers including early marriage, abandonment by their families, difficulties finishing high school and accessing medical treatment and a lack of livelihood options.

The Peace Expo was focused on eliminating sexual and gender based violence throughout Uganda as well as reducing the number of Child Mothers in Kasese. At the beginning of the expo we all received bright pink shirts with messages like "Be the Change you want to see in the World, stop child marriages" which everyone put on so when we set off on our peace march we were surrounded by a sea of pink. I was surprised to see many of the local people in Kasese came out to watch the march although none chose to join the group and attend the expo which was free. My greatest concern about the expo was the fact that the majority of participants were either working for a peacebuilding organization or members of local government. There were very few community members and almost no men who of course would also be important recipients for the topics we were discussing.

Nevertheless, the Peace Expo was very informative. The first day speeches were given by the organizers as well as the members of local government in attendance and the second day we heard from several child mothers as well individuals with expert knowledge of sexual and gender based violence. The speeches were interspersed with cultural performance by elementary and high schools related to Gender Based Violence.

I also enjoyed the different craft tables that were set up by various community peacebuilding organizations which gave me the opportunity to meet with women from many different communities. I was able to make contact with some organizations working in the communities I will be visiting. I also had a particularly meaningful conversation with a group of women from Kitgum in the far North who were part of a group of women living with HIV (or living positively as the the Ugandans put it. Two of the women described how they became infected, one from her husband in whom the disease is dormant and the other who contracted the virus when her husband took a second wife because she had produced six girl children and no boys.

On Tuesday, the second day of the Expo, something rather remarkable happened. Three organizations including the Center for Conflict Resolution launched reports which were affirmed by the deputy-Prime Minister of the Rwenzori Kingdom, as part of her speech she invited all of the foreign delegates attending the conference to join her on stage including, much to my surprise, me! All of the people who were on the stage were asked to take an oath that they would help to reduce Gender Based Violence in their home communities and were given a copy of one of the reports by a local government representative. Mine was delivered by the Mayor of Lira which was neat because that is one of the districts that I will be conducting my fieldwork in early next year.

On the side I also enjoyed interacting with the local people who I met. One of the staff members at the White House was intrigued to see me writing post cards to people, it seemed she had never seen one before. Further, I found the people of Kasese a bit less aggressive than those in Kampala so I heard a lot less "Muzungu How are you?" I also was not hit on for the entire trip which was something of a relief.

We left Wednesday morning although the expo ran until the end of the day Thursday. On the way back we stopped several times again to drop off reports. This time I took the opportunity to get out and walk around. In one small district during my walk from a distance I saw a family with several small children so I decided to approach. As I got close the three smallest children started screaming and ran for their mothers. Apparently they had never seen a muzungu before. The older children and father greeted me with curiosity, they spoke not English.

On the way back we stopped at several vegetable markets and I purchased the best sweet bananas I've had since arriving.

Anyway Off to Nairobi tonight, expect more updates soon! Enjoy the pictures!

How I learned the Word "Bonga"

Two Sunday ago I at a lot. I started my day at a trendy cafe followed quickly by a delicious Ethiopian lunch. I had been feeling a bit like going to a salsa lesson but decided I preferred to stay closer to home. I knew there was a slum down the street with a market and the weather was nice so I decided to take a walk. Approximately twenty steps into the slum I was surrounded by 20 very excited children all asking "Muzungu! How are you?" (Muzungu means white person in Swahili). Almost every child in Uganda knows this phrase as well as "I am fine" even if they speak no other English. I would soon discover that this was the case for most of the children who were crowding around me. After a few failed attempts at communication I decided I would continue my walk. To my surprise the children decided to walk with me, grasping for both of my hands. I can't imagine how ridiculous it must have looked to the local adults to see a blonde mzungu walk down the street with so many children around them. After heading back on my walk I stopped near the exit of the slum and wasn't sure what to do with the kids. First I spoke with the ones who understood English and then proceeded to highfive most of them. I then danced a little bit which didn't seem as popular. So I did what I always do when everything else fails, I fist bumped (props) them. Immediately they all excitedly screamed "Bonga!" As I walked away some of the older children prevented the younger ones from leaving the slum with me. And that's how I learned the word Bonga

Note I assume Bonga is either swahili or Lugandan, no sure which.

Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

Another reason to hate Boda Bodas.

Last night at 8:30 my friends and I departed from Kabalagala where we had just finished having dinner. We were running a bit late for a concert we were hoping to see and my two German friends got on one boda and my Congolese friend (Joseph) and I got on another. The concert we were supposed to be attending was in an area called Lugogo which you have to pass through an industrial area to get to.

Driving through the industrial area everything was going swimmingly until I noticed something out of the corner of my eye and Joseph reached over and tapped the driver on the shoulder and told him to stop, as two police officers encroached on us. They walked around the Boda, examining us as they went, there riffles perched over their shoulders, not at the ready but close enough to make you feel uncomfortable. I stood silently and observed. I wasn't sure whether we had committed a traffic violation but I suspected they had not. Joseph suggested I stand a bit farther down on the sidewalk which I did feeling quite uncomfortable in the poorly lit area by the train tracks. First the officers spoke to Joseph, then they spoke to the driver and then we waited. After about 10 minutes a group of women on their way home from factory jobs passed and stopped to talk to me. The interchange was pleasant, they asked if everything was alright I said yes. Then the boda driver flagged another boda driver down there was some sort of interchange and then Joseph asked "and now can we be on our way?" and the police officers grumbled as we got back on the bike.

What had happened was the police had stopped us to request money. When they asked Joseph if he had any money he lied and said he didn't and then they asked the boda driver for 4000 Ugandan shillings and in the end he produced 1000, or approximately 40 cents. I'm not really sure why the police officers never addressed me or asked me for money but I'm glad they didn't.

It's obvious that the situation could have been much worse and of course for the second time this week the character of the police here is brought into question. It is of course possible that these police officers were off-duty or were perhaps not police officers at all, but I hope that I don't meet any more.

Once we got there we discovered that we had missed the concert.

Kampala is Burning... In the Dark

Since I've been in Uganda I have experienced many power outages and so far the most valuable thing I brought with me from Canada has proven to be a strong flashlight from MEC which converts into a small lamp. The power outages have mostly stopped at home but remain frequent during the day at work in down town Kampala. Generally they last about six hours, luckily we have a back up generator which covers our needs most of the time. Neighbouring businesses are not quite as lucky.

I am told that the cause of the power cuts is the recent privatization of the only electricity company here which has been selling electricity to Rwanda, not leaving enough from Uganda.

This morning on the way to work I noticed that the roads were a bit quieter than usual but didn't think much of it. When I arrived at work the power was still out after going out yesterday morning which is a lot longer than the standard six hour outages. Finally, when I reached my office my colleague anxiously asked me if I had seen the riots on the way to work. I was surprised as the roads had seemed to be so quiet. We looked out the window of our office to see people lining the streets, although not in large numbers. Farther down you could see that something (probably garbage) was burning and there were more people. But it was peaceful.

After watching for about 2 minutes all of a sudden the people who were lining the streets started running into store fronts. Tear gas. When I asked my colleague in disbelief why they would use tear gas when the protest was so peaceful (people weren't even chanting) she explained that they always used tear gas at protests and sometimes used pink water which she described as a skin irritant. Slowly people made their way back to the street. A few minutes later about ten police officers walked down the street who were jeered at by protesters, followed by a police truck (pick up truck with seats in the rear) with the police firing their guns into the air. Certainly an excessive display of force. The truck was then followed by an armoured vehicle with an automatic weapon perched on top. At this point the power had been restored. We waited. Nothing happened, and gradually the crowd started to disperse. There were not injuries in our area but its hard to know what happened farther down the street where there were more people gathered.

This demonstrates the dangers of having only one privatized electricity provider for a large city but it also highlights the government's crackdown on freedom of association. My colleague said there were also riots in May when the leader of the official opposition was arrested because he was considered to be a "security threat."

If you would like to read more about restrictions on the freedom of assembly in Uganda: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR59/016/2011/en

I initially posted this at 12:30 pm local time. At lunch as I was leaving the building to pick up a salad the power went out again. As I walked the block to where I buy salad I could see the riots starting again but I thought that I would be safe because I was inside. After receiving my salad there was a loud bang and then a distinct smell and then my throat started to burn. The building had been tear gassed. The lights then went out and we were left in the dark holding our noses. Fortunately the owner of the cafe walked me back to the office where I discovered a fire had been lit on the street immediately behind. I'm fine but my throat is really irritated.

The Politics of Remembrance

It's Remembrance Day, and every year on this day, I take the opportunity to write about Peace.

In Canada today, perhaps as well as in other places around the World, televisions will show live broadcasts of Remembrance Day Ceremonies, some provinces will have the day off work and most people will wear poppies. But who and what are we remembering?

Traditionally Remembrance Day marks the end of the first World War and reminds us again of the violence and the excessive loss of life associated with World War II. We pay tribute to our soldiers for protecting our freedom, and no doubt securing a political and economic environment which allows us to live in the comfort we do today. Increasingly we are also asked to remember the sacrifices have made in other wars, including the war in Afghanistan. We think about soldiers.

We also sometimes think about civilians. Particularly of those killed as part of the Holocaust, because in Canada we have never been the direct victims of an attack either through war or terrorism, so remembrance day only provides with an opportunity to remember those that die in service and those civilians who have died in politically relevant conflicts, where we helped to save them and the "good guys" won.

Yet, we rarely think about the civilians who have been killed in Afghanistan or in Somalia where our interventions have partially successful at best. The victims of these conflicts are not only collateral damage but they are family and community members worth no less than anyone else on this planet. It is also important to remember that even the soldiers on the other side of these conflicts are no different from our own even when their ideologies may disagree with ours, these soldiers still fight for a country they believe in and also leave families behind when they are killed.

More worrying still, on Remembrance Day no one ever speaks of the millions of people who have lost their lives through genocide and crimes against humanity. Or the people who continue to struggle to survive under repressive regimes.

In the freedom that our soldiers fought and died for we failed to stop the Rwandan Genocide and war crimes in Sudan, we continue to fail to stop the rape and murder of women and men in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and we are making little effort to remedy the global conditions which allow these atrocities to develop and persist.

So today ask yourself, who are you remembering?

Halloween and Eid

After experiencing utter disappointment over Halloween in South Africa, when my friends and room mates refused to celebrate with me, my expectations for Uganda were incredibly low. However, a week before Halloween arrived I made a new friend from Germany named Bettina who was keen to experience her first Halloween and as it turned out so were a number of other people. So, on Oct 29th I brought together a small group of friends, made candy and grasshoppers available and we all dressed up in costumes. The highlight of my night was that everyone who was there let me paint their faces which was really exciting.

The following night I attended a larger Halloween dance party with many of the same friends and once again painted faces and enjoyed dancing with the different characters that turned up, although I wasn't a fan of the man who showed up as a rape victim (which he chose because he was told he needed to be something scary).

I was a fairy for Halloween which was a rip-off of my pixie costume from two years ago, but at least I had something.

On a completely different festive note, last weekend was Eid. Uganda has a fairly large muslim population including my Turkish neighbour who at sunset gave our gatekeeper, Peter, and entire cow's worth of beef and its head. Imagine my surprise when I came home to find a cow head in my front yard. Peter insisted on sharing some of his beef bounty with me and provided about 5kgs of meat, still attached to the bone. In a bizarre twist of fate we had a couch surfer from Equador staying with us that was able to separate the meat from the fat and bone. Without her I might have been lost. Now I won't need to buy steak for the rest of my trip :).

Pictures to follow