1 May 2009

Post date: May 1, 2009 5:18:09 PM

1 May (Friday – Afternoon) – CHOGM Holes

I would have to say yesterday was one of the worst I’ve ever experienced in Uganda – and also one of the best. Good news - bad news – who knows?

I met up with Dinah from APCT at 7:30 and we headed out to Aliance High School (spelling is correct – only one “L” in Aliance). Dinah and I were scheduled to meet Don at the school at 8AM. We arrived at 7:50 and he arrived at 8:30 – not too bad for Don. (Margot and I waited two hours for him last year when we were heading out to Aliance for the first time.) The kids have school off for three weeks. They were supposed to report this the morning to get their term exam results. Well --- they straggled in between 9:00 and 11:30 and as some came, some left, and we never got it together with them. Ha the difference between teenagers and adolescents – it seems they usually have something ‘better’ to do. So at 11:30 we finally decided that Don would present the banner and do the letter exchange on the 19^th when they’re all back in school. It also looks like we’re going to cancel my trip to Mbale and Lira for the same reason – why travel all that way when the kids probably won’t come. Mable and Lira would probably be even more difficult – since they are mixed day/boarding and boarding schools and the children at those schools often travel some distance just to be home during school break. This is where the expression TIA – This is Africa – comes in handy. You just have to go with the fow sometimes and see what happens next. This point was reiterated to me in casual conversation over breakfast with some Ugandan friends this morning. “Why do Westerners get so uptight when plans fall apart? It’s life – enjoy it for what it has to offer.”

By 12:30 I made my way back to La Fontaine, had some lunch, and caught a matatu out to Mango Tree to do some work. With my trip cancelled to the Lira and Mbale the pressure is off a little bit – but I still have a lot of work to do at Mango Tree before I leave for New Hampshire in 18 days. Guustaf has asked me to create a daily log and accounting form for Office Sales. The form needs to access the Master Database and be able to pull back product information – pricing, code, details, etc. This would be relatively simple if we were using a real database – but right now everything is in Excel and making pretty forms for easy use is not so easy. Mango Tree is not ready to make the leap to a real database and accounting system yet – “TIA” man – patience and persistence. The first Pastel accounting program and Excel inventory were put in place in 2007 – during their fifth year of official operation. Pastel is an accounting program from South Africa and the version we have does not include an Inventory System. You might say why not invest in something more practical. Well, there’s no money for a big time system here. We need to make do with what we have and what people can learn to work with and operate. We talked about using Microsoft Access but all agreed that moving to a new program and trying to learn that would not be the best idea now. Cleaning up process steps, expanding the base of Excel skills, and putting checks and controls into the process are the foundations of the improvements. I could go through a list of two dozen improvements that are taking place – not the least of which is an entire reorganization of the physical space over the next two weeks – but I think I’ve probably bored most of you all by now with this level of detail. By 7PM I last had wrestled through a half dozen iterations and I’m still was not happy with the results. It was getting dark out quickly and I was late for Ann’s dinner good bye dinner at an Indian restaurant in Kampala called Haandis.

I walked out of work and soon stumbled into a passing matatu as it was beginning to run out of gas – this is a pretty common occurance. Cash flow impacts just about everyone here and most of the boddas, matatus, private hire taxis, and everyone else run around with gas tank indicators pointing to E. We coasted into the nearest gas station and the engine coughed and choked its way to running again. Mid way through the trip to Kamapla the matatu changed drivers at one of the stages. When drivers or conductors change out it always makes me wonder how they keep track of the money in this business. Maybe one of these I’ll figure it out. The driver was very efficient in snaking through the back streets and by passing the traffic jams so I made it downtown in about 20 minutes. From there I hopped on a bodda that took me another mile or so to Haandis. Most visitors won’t ride in matatus because they can’t figure out where they are or where they’re going – and because their cramped – and because Ugandans get cold and close all the windows – etc. etc. Actually matatus are really amazing. Once you know the city you can just jump in one heading in the right direction and jump out when it starts heading in the wrong direction. From early until late there are always matatus running the main routes throughout Uganda. The cost is only about 25 cents per mile or two – I’ll stress the about.

Dinner at was great. It was a small gathering of the American gang of ‘independents’ (people here doing their own thing and not working for big NGOs). It was Ann Chang’s last night before heading to London then Israel then back to NYC in August where I think a bunch of us will meet to discuss our next moves – Ryan, Stephanie, Cory, Tadaj, etc. Stephanie, BTW, got engaged last weekend the day her boyfriend arrived. I haven’t seen them since – although there was a casual dinner invite on Tuesday that I passed on because I wasn’t feeling well. This brings us back to the dinner at Haadis for Ann. On the way home we dropped her at the clinic. She wanted to get some tests done, and some medicine if necessary, before she left the country. This is a typical and is generally considered to be a wise choice.

Since I have been experiencing continued intestinal challenges, headaches, and slight fatigue I thought I would go in with her and also get checked out. Early night time is a nice time to go to the 24 hour clinic. Most everyone is settled in at home for the evening, and for those out partying it’s too early for them to have hurt themselves. Well it turns out that those are the symptoms for ameba in your digestive system. So they asked me to return in the morning with a stool sample – and to bring that story to a quick close they didn’t find anything and think it might be a parasite. For now - take more probiotics and come back in three days if the problem persists.

Ann and I walked back together on the sidewalk along the road from “The Surgery” clinic back to La Fontaine. It’s about a mile and a half and there’s not much traffic at that time of night. Here’s a picture taken today during my return trip to the clinic. You can see the Metropole, one of the hotels built for CHOGM, in the background.

This is where the CHOGM Holes come in. I figured that I would need to share about them at some point, but not from the point of view of having fallen in one. If you recall from the 24 March BLOG, Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is a large mess that occurs annually in some former British colony. Throughout 2007 most of Kampala and parts of the surrounding community were torn apart rebuilding roads and large and fancy hotels sprung up all over the city, all for the Queen’s visit in November. For most Americans we experience public drainage systems that have large metal grates over them. That’s not so much the case here. While all this construction was taking place, the number of large drainage holes without covers on them multiplied. Of course when you remove a resource from use it becomes free for other uses. So the drainage covers walked away and didn’t come back – mostly against their own will I would guess. My Canadian friends dubbed all of the holes – new and old – as CHOGM holes. The idea of CHOGM being a hole also fits in well with the amount money that disappeared into it. Here’s a ‘healthy’ CHOGM hole – one that doesn’t suck up money or people.

This brings us back to the walk home with Ann. We carefully traversed the very dark sidewalk along the road back to La Fontaine. What we first encountered were wanna-be CHOGM holes. These are just little potholes in the sidewalk. At night you can’t see well enough to be able to tell if it goes down 6 inches or 6 feet. You could call them distracters, so you can’t see where the all the CHOGM money is really going. In the picture on the right you can see Protea –another CHOGM hole – um I mean another fancy hotel built for CHOGM.

The ones in the distance are a little more interesting. At night the one that’s close up in nearly invisible and your attention is really drawn to the wanna-be CHOGM holes - the distracters that keep you from seeing the real holes. Well, that’s exactly what happened last night.

My attention was on the distracters and I stepped right into the big CHOGM hole, which was six feet deep. I’ve heard many stories of people walking along during the day and loosing friends into CHOGM holes because they weren’t looking where they were going. This was different. Ann and I were carefully picking our way along. I would have had my flashlight out that Deb sent with me – but that quit working pretty much as soon as I got here -- TIA. In retrospect I could have had my cell phone out and used that as a light – but that didn’t cross my mind at the time. We weren’t looking for a 500 shilling piece on the bottom of a matatu floor. Falling in was quite surreal. When the Earth disappears from beneath you unexpectedly there’s just no real way to describe it. The next thing I knew all 200+ lbs of me (I had my backpack on and I haven’t lost any weight this trip) crashed into the hole and my stomach and chest slammed into the concrete.

(Like my shoes Deb bought me? They're just like Rick's)

There was a Ugandan man walking behind me and he quickly responded with the typical and polite “Oh, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Despite of, or perhaps because of, all the hardships Ugandans face, most are very quick to empathize and ‘jump in the hole with you’ when a problem arises. He then pulled on the back of my backpack handle and helped me out, again asking if I was alright. At the time it was difficult to breath from getting hit simultaneously in the chest and stomach and having the wind knocked out of my. Aside from this, and a scrape on my hand I was okay and pretty much unscathed. I always wondered how people fell into these holes and didn’t get hurt – and now I know. Lots of people fall in and do get hurt – I don’t have a desire to figure out how that happens.

When we got back to La Fontaine I was pretty dizzy. Julie bought me a drink and encouraged me to relax. It was then that I discovered that my phone didn’t quite fair as well as me. I’m back to using my little phone from Thailand for the rest of this trip – oh well. If you think the adventures for the day end here – they don’t.

Sometime around 1 AM Eric drove me home. As I walked through the gate and reached into my pocket from my house key I realized my pocket was empty. Now, quite often I put my keys in the guitar case, but I was sure I hadn’t done that while I was playing for the little kids running around at Aliance. I checked throughout my computer bag, but no luck. I had left the guitar case at La Fontaine when I stopped in for lunch between my trips to Aliance High School and Mango Tree. It was in Ryan’s room. I thought to myself that I could call Ryan and ask him to check for the key, but my phone was broke. I could call Eric and have turn around and take me back to La Fontaine, but my phone was broke. I could call Eka and ask her to bring my keys to me from La Fontaine, but my phone was broke. Hmmm – don’t get caught without a working phone!

I checked my watch – it was about 1:30 AM. La Fontaine might be closing up soon and locking all of their doors, so I needed to get going. I walked the mile along the dark road from my place to the main road – wary of CHOGM holes. Then I walked about another mile along the main road until a bodda driver came by that seemed to be sober enough to keep his bike straight. We zipped down to La Fontaine and I found myself really enjoying the ride in the dark with very little traffic. Despite of, or maybe because of, the day I was really enjoying myself and the adventure.

When we got to La Fontaine at 2:30 everything was pretty much the same as when I had left shortly after 1:00. Eka and Tina were still talking with Eka’s brother on the restaurant patio and Ryan was still working on his computer upstairs. I found my keys in the guitar case and I thought about how grateful I was that I found a sober bodda driver, that La Fontaine was still open, that Ryan was still up, and that my keys were found. By 3:00 I was back in my room and showing for bed. To top off the day the shower head broke and the water now comes out in spurts instead of a steady stream – ha – oh well.

Something interesting happened last night that I want to share before I close. Two of my Ugandan friends shared with me that I shouldn’t take any of the negative comments against Westerners personally, and when my Ugandan friends spoke to me this evening I could really feel their hearts as they connected with me. I’ve come to realize that some Ugandan adults, in general, don’t necessarily care too much for many Westerners. I can’t blame them. In general I have found most Western visitors to be arrogant and degrading to the local population. Sometimes I just want to crawl, or fall, into a hole and hide my face when I see how rude people can be.

Ugandans, on the other hand, are pretty quiet and extremely polite. I’ve been told and I’ve generally experienced Ugandans to not be very direct and to never be insulting. My friends are generally no exception. However, when we all get chatting and the passion for life begins to flow from their hearts, things get pretty lively and loud. Derogatory comments towards Westerners aren’t blatant, but they’re obvious enough. I think what I have begun to feel is that my friends are not holding back to protect my ears from anything I might find offensive. Honestly I haven’t found anything anyone has said to be offensive – I have found it to be quite honest. I felt blessed again to be able to share with my friends how much I love their company and how much I love the beauty that emanates from them as human beings. I am in love with how passionately and openly they express themselves and live their lives. Honestly I would rather spend time with them then with my other good friends here. Time with them just seems to be so rich and fulfilling. Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to sharing the conversation we had on sex and dating this past week. Who’s reading this BLOG anyway? Can we talk about R-rated topics?

Peace Out,

Kev

Have you smiled today?

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13570080