Steve Cran in Uganda
February 2nd, 2010 . by adminSubject: Uganda WOW!
Hello everyone. This is my first blog from Uganda. Im here to set up a community sustainability project in the north of Uganda near the Sudan border. Its a hot spot sometimes with cows guns and dust. These people have been aid dependent for 40 years.
Getting to Uganda from Australia was a mission. It took me 40 hours of travel. I arrived at Kampala airport late at night and finally got to a hotel looking like a zombie. The next day I met my boss and went over my mission. I have been given a heap of lattitude to make this work.
Day 2 Im taken to downtown Kampala to the roof top of a tall building in a meeting with some UN dudes. I can see these huge birds, some kind of crane, gliding all over the city like they own it. Kampala looks like a nice city from up there but I can see slums poking out of the cracks.
The Ugandan people are friendly and polite with me and each other. Im given a vehicle and a driver to get to Karamoja , 8 hours drive north. Bags in the vehicle, wave goodbye to the police guards at the gate and off we go. Once we leave the city the driver puts his foot down. I check my seatbelt. We are speeding along potholed tarmack through villages at 130 kph, just missing people, cows, chickens and parked vehicles. The drivers accent is so strong I think he is speaking in another language. He puts a cd of local music making the drive seem like a weird movie. This country feels familiar even though Ive never been to Africa.
The further out we get the more lush the land looks.I see lots of small scale farming. Casava, banana, beans, goats, pigs…pretty basic subsistence farming. People are all well dressed. Women are loaded with baskets and jerry cans on their heads. We speed on. The country gets drier. The towns are filthy with rubbish, dust and vehicle exaust. Everybodys still smiling. We stop at dark and I crash in a hotel for tourists. The phone rings at midnight. The reception guy asks me something and I cant understand his accent. Finally I realize he is asking if I need a wake up call. GRRRR! I just get back to sleep when there’s a knock on the door. I open the door to a tall Man with a big smile, “water suh?” He’s holding up a water bottle. I thank him and close the door, unplug the phone and bury my head in a pillow. Its 1 am.
Next day we’re speeding again through the scrubby bush. The land is drying out and the road is turning into a 4×4 adventure. Along the sides of the road in the middle of nowhere are women and men in their sunday best or so it seems. Colourfully dressed carrying all kinds of stuff on their heads. They wave and give us big happy smiles. It dawns on me that I really like these people. The kids are lots of fun and they run along the side of the vehicle yelling “mazoonga!” which means white man in a non racist way.
Finally I take over driving as the driver is nodding off. Tricky driving as the holes in the track are hungry and threaten to swallow the ute. Finally we get to Hq at Abim. I meet the staff and unload my gear at the “hotel” which is a room that comes with 2 jerry cans of water per day. Its hot here at Abim but Ive had worse. Small scrubby mountains crowd around the edges of this frontier town. I check out the towns wells and their hand pumps. Theres women lined up at each one. They tell me the water is good and it hasnt yet dried up in 15 years. These women are paid to get water for the NGOs and buisnesses and carry the jerry cans on their heads. They must have tough necks!
Im here now in the safe zone. Im planning my first demo garden which I’ll start on today. Ive got tools seeds and sacks. I’ll pay the local kids to bring in sacks of animal manure. Im showing the local people by paying to children that manure is valuable. I dont pay too much or the adults will want to do it. That may cause them to lose face if they are seen collecting shit! Kids dont care and they may be the only breadwinners in the family. They are funny dudes. They sneak up beside me and in a quiet voice say “how are you?” When I answer they giggle and just stand there looking at me with their wide smiles. I’m gonna have some fun with these guys!
Well thats it for now. I gotta get digging,
Cheers, Steve
