Diving into East African Life

When you travel to a very new place, you notice the differences first. Similarities come later. As this is my first blog post, I’ll do my best to give a few good pictures of some differences.

• I noticed the first difference when I stepped off the plane. The air here is simply mostly water. No need for Chap Stick, just try not to drown in the humidity.

• Uganda was settled by England right? Yeah, so people speak English and I won’t need to worry about understanding anyone.

• HA! I only asked “what?... say again?... Huh?” about 6 times before resorting to smiling and laughing nervously to myself. Yes, people speak English, but there was still going to be a language barrier.

• Still at the airport, we got used to the idea that things in Uganda just take more time. Period. When we got out of the airport, Betty had been waiting outside for two hours. Our plane had landed 5 minutes late. This is the first of many examples.

• Food can take many hours to cook. A good dinner here usually boils for about three hours, unless it’s beans where it can take more like 6 or 7
• A simple exchange at the bank that would take only 3 minutes in the states might take a few hours since the line moves so slowly. (Something in the computer system?)
• Lighting a gas stove in America takes about 2 seconds, here it takes about 20 minutes to light a fire and get the charcoal set

A luxurious four burner Charcoal stove

• The other half of the large bag was being carried by Betty’s friend who lived close to the airport. On the way to the car, we seemed to run into almost every passerby coming the opposite direction on the path.
•  Riiiight… England settled Uganda. Brits drive on the left.
• We took a bus the next morning to Soroti (the town we’d be working in for the next month and a half). I quickly learned that transportation in Uganda was not decided by the traveler. As soon as the bus company learned we were trying to get to Soroti, my bags were already out of the car we had come in, and I was being dragged by 3 shouting men into the bus entrance along with Katya and Betty, (who seemed as if nothing was out of the ordinary)

• Looking around a city street packed with people, I was painfully aware that we were the only people in sight that did not have African skin, and judging by the looks everyone was giving us on the street, there were not many others in the whole city.
• After getting to Soroti we realized that we may very well be the only “mzungus” in living in the entire city. (Mzungu is a word for white foreigner, and all of the small children smile and laugh and yell “mzungu hi!”, “mzungu how are you?” “Mzungu!”)

• I had thought it was hot the night we flew in. I was in for a real surprise when I was sitting in a crowded bus with my knees jammed into the seat in front of me under the baking sun coming through the window.
• Not only do you swim in the air here, you swim in your sweat.

• Roads in the US are generally paved, and generally passable at about the speed limit. Uganda does not follow suit. Some of the road to Soroti was absolutely gorgeous, not a blip in sight. Other parts were colored bright rusty red since they were made from the local soil, and the surface was probably more pothole than not pothole.
• Almost all the road work is imported from India or other Asian countries despite there being an enormous population that would be willing to be employed to work on roads. Some believe the government lacks the capital to invest in highway paving machines, and thus contracts small sections of road externally.

• On the bus, I failed to recognize that there were no stop signs or street lights. It was impossible to ignore, however, zipping through busy streets on the back of a motorcycle taxi called a Boda Boda. Four others were carrying our bags, Betty, and Katya.
• Helmets would just be an inconvenience.

Three people to a BodaBoda near Sipi Falls (2 weeks later)

• Driving through the less populated areas of Soroti, it was clear that both running water and electricity are luxuries only the wealthiest can afford. Most get water from hand-pump wells in filling large yellow plastic jugs that resemble diesel cans. (I’ve seen about 50 jugs in line to be filled at one time)

After living here for a little while, I began to notice some less obvious differences.

1. People here feel like they must show their wealth. Even if you live in a clay hut, you still wear perfectly clean clothes in public.
• Additionally a person’s weight is considered a way of showing economic standing, and if your guests don’t gain weight, you are considered an indecent host.
• Yes, they are attempting to fatten us up.
2. In America when most people get off work, they do something fun they enjoy. Embracing fun activity. Here, there is less of a drive to do things for fun. If you do not need to use your muscles to work, most people will sit, talk, and relax. Americans live for adventure, Ugandans seem to think adventure is exhausting.
3. Women absolutely have a lower standing than men. Parents wish their children will be boys. Women do all of the housework and cooking (which takes so much more work than in America.) 
• Most of the gardening and harvesting is done by women. No Boda Boda drivers are women. I guess most Taxi drivers are male in America too, but it’s not 100% like Uganda. 
• If a family only has enough money to send one child to school, the girl will be learning how to take care of the house instead.
4. What happened to experimentation? Here, they play one game of cards. That’s it. In America children make up card games all the time, creativity and individuality is much less valued.­­­
5. If you are white, you will absolutely be charged more for things. Not always, but it happens. The market is usually a place for negotiation.
6. Foooooood Oh my, what do they do to bananas in America to make them taste like plastic? How do they make pineapple here taste like it has twice the goodness? Why does that fruit named Jack look big enough to eat me?

7.  People slaughter animals. Yes you can argue that animals get slaughtered in America too, but no one thinks about it, they just get meat in nicely packaged morsels from the supermarket. Here when you get meat, the vendor hacks it from a piece of animal carcass hanging from the ceiling in front of you.

8.  The sky at night is awesome! At least this time of year there’s been lightning in the surrounding clouds every night. Usually in the distance, but sometimes closer.

And that’s all from Soroti, Uganda this time. I’m sure there will be much more to learn in the coming weeks.

Sunset by our appartment

Uganda Style

Imagine a street full of boda boda (motorcycle taxis) rushing by, letting each pedestrian know that it is their responsibility to not get run over, with men yelling from the shared taxi’s “Jinja! M’bale! Soroti!”. As Betty Ikanaly -- my boss and the person that the next few weeks of my life depended on -- navigated effortlessly through the swarm of people, I followed closely behind until we made it to the bus that would take us to Soroti, an Eastern district of Uganda.

           

            As soon as we climbed on board, the bus started. To be completely honest, it was more like we climbed on board as the bus was moving. We took our seats and I waved farewell to Kampala. The scenery changed from rows of two story buildings to run down cement and sheet metal houses and then to farm lands with scattered villages. As the bus made its first of many stops in a village, women and men flooded the bus with goods, such as roasted maize, water, soda, and grilled goat. Betty, a wonderful host, treated us to roasted cassava, groundnuts, and chapati. Within the first hour of the bus ride, I knew that food here would definitely not be lacking in flavor, or in quantity.

            When we reached Soroti, I quickly noticed the starking contrast from the capital city. People lounged outside of the shops and strolled through the town. Most took shelter from the heat underneath buildings. We boarded some much less hectic boda boda, and drove out of the town to our new apartment. Children ran out as we drove by, screaming with glee, “Mzungu hi!” (Mzungu means white foreigner). After a short ten minute drive, we reached the apartment. Betty made sure that everything would be ready for us when we got there; we have running water, electricity (most of the time), and even a fridge!

Our apartment in Uganda (the second door from the left)

            Three weeks later, I have settled into my new home for the next couple of weeks. Colvin and I have been working on improving the carbonization process at Betty’s company, Appropriate Energy Saving Technologies (AEST). I have definitely learned a lot during this project. For example, one of the largest differences between the US and Uganda is that here, things move slowly. A task that might take an hour in the States, can take up to a day here. Part of the reason is that some processes simply take time, such as waiting for the charcoal to dry in the sun, or warming biomass to make charcoal. Other reasons include a lack of resources and the blasting heat, which definitely takes a toll on productivity. When visiting a local high school – one of the best in Uganda – I chuckled as I read the school’s motto, or what Colvin and I consider to be Uganda’s motto: if you rush, you crash.

Betty's cook stove factory

Other things to note when coming to Uganda:

• Most women and girls wear skirts and dresses
• Look first right then left when crossing!
• Your host wants you to gain weight before you go back home, as will be noticeably in the quantity and quality of food
• Throwing food waste on the ground is completely acceptable
• It is quite toasty (currently sporting a nice sun burn)
• Cooking takes much longer, since you need to heat up your charcoal cook stove before your food!
• You will do the same thing as a local for a day and end up covered in dirt, whereas they will still be wearing a pristine ironed white shirt
• You won’t even know where to begin when doing your laundry (how the heck to I get mango juice out of a white t-shirt?)
• Workers will stick weld on the side of the road wearing only sunglasses
• Children will find you fascinating and a little terrifying- most screaming the little English they know, and some even daring enough to touch you or shake your hand 

Stick welding the cook stove grates

            But in the end, people are the same everywhere. We bond over the love of Justin Bieber’s hot new single, complain about the heavy lifting, and tease everyone working incessantly. After a day of work, we might kick around a soccer ball or throw a Frisbee (that we brought from the States).­­­­­­ I’m definitely excited to learn more from the people here and from Uganda!

           

Sipi Falls: One of the many beautiful landscapes of Uganda

Goodbye Bogota

A student painting a mural at the National University of Colombia.

Tomorrow, I leave the big city for a town called Fusagasugá (known locally as Fusa) to start preparing for IDDS Climate Adaptation with the other organizers. I wish I could say that I'm equally sad to be leaving Bogotá and happy to be going to Fusa, but I'm much more excited than sad. Though I've had a good time in Bogotá, I'll likely never be a fan of big cities or wearing wool socks in June. Fusa is much lower in elevation and therefore a bit warmer than Bogotá, and it's nestled in a valley in the beautiful coffee-producing regions south of here. 

The place I've been going to work for the past 5.5 weeks

In the past few days, we've packed the entire workshop/office into boxes, and tomorrow we'll put it all into a truck to drive down. I'm currently in the process of packing up my things here at home. Fortunately, many of my clothes stayed in my suitcase for the whole time I was here, since my travels this summer will bring me to the warm temperatures of Mexico City, Boise, Seattle, and Boston, as well as cool, rainy Bogotá. Fusa won't be too drastic of a change, but an increase of 5 degrees Celsius is enough to really alter the way a climate feels. While I'm not very excited to reacquaint myself with mosquitoes, moving to weather that feels like summer will be a welcome change. 
The prospect of experiencing the summit itself is also very exciting. I'm expecting to learn a lot about both design in low resource contexts and the actual execution of an event like this. Though I'm not a participant, I'll still get to meet everyone and see the whole process while helping to make it happen. Sixty participants make this is the largest IDDS ever, so there will be no shortage of new perspectives, and I'll be spending my days with people from many different places and walks of life. I'm also looking forward to having three solid meals a day. I know how to cook, but often fail to convince myself that the effort is worth it when I'm only cooking for myself. This is definitely not related to being in Bogotá; I struggled to keep my weight up last summer when I was doing research at Olin as well. I guess eating is so connected to socializing during the school year that I just don't get as hungry when I don't have anyone to eat with. I haven't had many opportunities to exercise, either, since long work hours and 6pm sunsets make running a little unfeasible. As a result, I'm not nearly as fit as I used to be, but there's a track at the place where we'll be living, so I'm hoping to wake up early and try to remember some track workouts from high school. Don't worry, parents, I'm not wasting away, Bogotá has just left me not quite as strong and healthy as I prefer to be.
I'm sure I'll find myself missing things about Bogotá throughout the next few weeks, but right now I'm just excited to go to Fusa. We'll see how it lives up to my expectations! I'm sure I'll have much more interesting things to write about as well once the IDDS is in full swing.