T.I.A.

I know it's been almost a week since I've posted an update. Let me go ahead and say that while I would've loved to post an update, I was a little preoccupied with "not dying."

Let me make a long and disturbing story nice and short for you by giving you a rundown of my weekend.

- Have you gotten food poisoning in America? I haven't, but I've had it in Africa!

- Have you ever had to provide a urine sample in a cup? In your drinking cup? Have you ever had to collect the urine sample and in the middle of collecting the sample your city was hit with an earthquake?

- If the doctor says, "Well, there is one more thing we can do to break the fever..." Say no and run away. Or crawl away. Just get away. Don't look back.

- Did I mention I was carrying around my own IV when I was collecting my urine sample?

- Has a doctor ever said to you, "Your body has started eating itself...it's not a good cycle."

- Have you ever had strange women pass out and fall into your room while you were hooked up to an IV? Me too.

- Make sure the first thing you drink when you get home isn't apple juice. Your body will just laugh and laugh and say, "Try again."

- Make sure your first solid food in 48 hours isn't Indian food.

I would like to publicly thank my wonderful roommates for ensuring that I survived June 14-17. I would also like to thank Kevin for mercilessly making fun of me every bizarre step of the way.

I would also like to thank Star Wars for being created, because I watched every movie this weekend.

I would also like to thank the four pounds of medicine I've swallowed in the past 48 hours. Because of you, I left the house today.

Anyway I'm fine now and I think I'll be ready for work in the morning. I just thought I would share my absurd misfortunes.

T.I.A.

A word on some links

I just realized that I haven't said much about the links on the right side of the page.

Invisible Children is a group that works on behalf of displaced chlidren in Northern Uganda. They are the people responsible for the Displace Me nights all over the world where people (usually young people) sleep in the streets to show solidarity with their little brothers and sisters in Uganda.

Waves of Justice is a blog that is loosely related to a new nonprofit called Isaiah Project International. I'm a part of IPI but I don't have anything to do with the blog. It follows the summers of young people all over the world.

International Justice Mission is basically like a holy swat team. It's a group that uses national laws to help oppressed people. Usually, it helps young people forced into prostitution, people wrongfully put into prison, and people who had their land wrongfully taken. They even stage raids on brothels. That's awesome.

Restore International is a nonprofit in India and Uganda. They do things with the judiciary, digging wells, teenage prostitutes, and some other projects. The founder, Bob, is an amazing man. He might be the most well-connected person I've come into contact with.

Ilea's Blog is Ilea's blog. Go read the whole thing and you will get a better idea of what is happening in Uganda right now. A lot of good links here.

Enjuba is a clothing/fashion company started to spur on economic development. It gives African artisans an easy way to sell their work on the internet, and therefore all over the world. A new friend of mine named Leah works for them. I honestly don't know much about this company at all, but I thought I'd pass it along.

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll add more sites later.

Mzungo, how are you?

I am:
Interested
Curious
Willing
Driven
Invested
Confused
Flawed
Selfish
Ugly
Hungry
A Force

I am not:
Anyone’s savior
Selfless
Perfect
Altruistic
Jaded
Cynical
Afraid
Fatalistic
Enough
Comfortable
Satisfied
Complete

I stood on the bank of the river, squinting to see through the rain. Each cold drop bounced off my head and ran down my shoulders, my chest. Little hands squeezed my own hands and pulled me up the hill. As we trudged through the brush, I felt orange mud squish between my toes. The children showed me everything there was to see, teaching me how to name everything in English and Luganda.

“Mzungo, this one is cassava. This one is avocado. This one is maize.”
“And this?”
“Soya bean.”
“And this?”
“Coffee.”
“And this?”
“Mzungo, that’s a tree!”

I didn’t mind the rain, or the giant bugs, or the mud that stained my feet orange. I hope my feet never lose these stains. I hope that forty years from now I remember every drop of rain that hit my buzzed head. I hope I remember every ripple in the river. I hope the sky and the trees and the hills and the mud stay as real to me as they were yesterday. In a few years a dam will stand where we stood. The children will be forced to move because their homes will be underwater. I hope that when they have left and moved on, they will remember yesterday as vividly as I do. I hope they can see and smell and feel everything. I hope they remember me like I remember them. I know I won’t forget.

I Survived the Nile River

I went whitewater rafting on the Nile River yesterday. Tales of victory, defeat, and a weird stomach problem will surely follow. For now, I just wanted to let everyone know that I went, it was maybe the most fun I've had in 2 1/2 hours, and I'm still alive. And kicking.

I'll write more later but I'm at work right now. By the way, work right now involves me consulting on the creation of a small claims court. It's a wonderful idea, and several brilliant people have already done all the work. Basically I just flew in from America to give a thumbs up.

I've realized part of the reason I'm here is so that the Ugandan higher-ups can show some young Americans that Uganda is looking pretty good in a lot of ways right now. And then young Americans will tell other Americans. That's fine with me, though, because a lot of traveling is just about understanding yourself and the world around you. If we can come over, help a little bit, and learn a lot about this beautiful country, then that's a good 74 Days, yeah?

Talk to me!

Good news, friends! I am the proud owner of the most economically priced mobile phone in East Africa. Here's how this phone purchase went down: I handed a young woman some shillings. She proceeded to smile, laugh, and hand me an Etch-A-Sketch with an antenna. I said, "Thank you, nyabo," and scampered away.

If you feel like giving me a call, you can reach me anytime at (get ready for this): 2560712881383. I would really enjoy talking to you. Here's how many of my day to day conversations go in Kampala:

What?
What?
WHAT?
...
What?
(Smiles and gestures)

I can also receive text messages, but I haven't mastered the two white knobs yet. There's no telling whether or not you will understand my reply.

I talked to my parents today and they really appreciate all of the support you are giving both them and me. I appreciate it, too.

Oh, here's a good story: In Uganda, you can buy your own malaria testing kit. It's like a home pregnancy test in that you have to decode a series of colored lines to understand your results. It's not like a pregnancy test in that you have to draw your own blood with a giant needle. I tried to do it myself, but I just couldn't do it. I kept laughing. My roommate Kevin tried but we both kept laughing and I made him stop trying after he said, "I think I heard it work." That didn't make any sense. After fifteen minutes of screaming and laughing, Liz eventually got enough blood out of my finger to let us know that I don't have malaria. So, that's what I did today.

That's all the news I have for today. Please feel free to give me a call, and check back here often. I am going to add some pictures tomorrow.

Words of the day:
Nyabo: Mam
Sebo: Sir

Cheers,
Joey

Jinja and Malaria

I may or may not have malaria. I probably don't because no one really gets malaria in Kampala. I do have several symptoms, though, so I'm going to get tested today. What is more likely is that I swallowed some local tap water or ate something prepared with local tapwater, and that has bacteria in it that I'm not used to yet.

I really hope I'm ok because we are supposed to go to Jinja tomorrow for a legal workshop that lasts all weekend. When we aren't working we can go to the spot on Lake Victora where the Nile River supposedly begins. You can take rafting trips up the Nile from there.

SO, I hope I'm well enough to do that.

Don't worry too much about the malaria though because it's easy to remedy and it only costs about $4.25 total.

Either way, I'll write about my weekend on Sunday or Monday.

Some Friends of Mine

I've made quite a few friends since I've been here: my house mates, expat wanderers, and local people. Here are a few...

James: James is from CA, and he works for Invisible Children. He's been in charge of the IC bracelet campaign for awhile. If you know my friend Brett, then picture Brett, and you will have a general idea of James. He's thoughtful, kind, intelligent, and he's searching. Kerry and I stayed up through half of Sunday night talking with him about life in general, and I'm already sure it will be one of my favorite memories.

Jamie: Is in his thirties. He's a world traveler. My understanding of his story is that he was working in a corporate office in America and was told to fire a friend of his. He was sitting in the room and said, "You know what, let him keep his job." And he walked out of corporate life forever. Some things are more important than job security.
"
Fizer: I'm not sure how to spell his name, but Fizer is a young boy who lives at an orphanage located next to Lake Victoria. Fizer lived around an area called Jinja, but his parents beat him often so when he was VERY young he walked away from his home and walked the 80 km to Kampala, where he slept under the clock tower in the heart of downtown. I believe he was arrested but somehow ended up at the Mercy Home orphanage. He is bright, calm, and hopeful, and his eyes belie a soul much older than his years. Can you look up to a child? I suppose you can.

Fizer is just one of the more than 130 amazing people living at the Mercy Home orphanage. I know about Mercy Home because a non-profit that I work for, Isiah Project International, is working to improve the children's' dorms and build a permanent school for the orphans and the many children of the surrounding area. They had a temporary school, but it blew down in a recent storm. We hope to have the temporary building up again by the end of next week, and we hope to break ground on the permanent school very soon. Currently we are making sure that we have competent people of integrity at every level of the building and financing process. It's rather arrogant and reckless to spend a few months in a place and believe you know what is best. We aren't interested in that messy road. Too much hurt comes from it.

Speaking of hurt, I must confess to you that when I first heard about the new school building, I thought it sounded like a good project. I thought it was a good way to help and make a difference. Once I met Fizer and hung out with the children of Mercy Home, though, "project" meant nothing to me. "Making a difference" sounded so silly. I was just spending time with some friends of mine.

If you'd like to meet my friends at Mercy Home, send me an email and I'll tell you what you can do.

Vocabulary of the day:
There are dirtbikes and motorcycles for hire all over Kampala. The drivers will take you anywhere you want to go for a very reasonable price. The bikes are called "boda bodas." Someone told me this came from "border to border." That seems right. Anyway the drivers have crazy names like Scorpion and they wreck all the time. I rode a boda boda once and that was enough to prove to me that they are unsafe and crazy. I rode one again just to make sure. Don't worry, friends, I take taxis now.

Although it is impossible to reduce a diverse amalgam of cultures into a word, I feel like I can point you in the right direction of understanding the people of Uganda. Uganda is Brexico. Brexico is a mix if Britain and Mexico. Since Uganda was a colony until 1962, it has retained much of the vocabulary and practices of the UK. Examples are driving on the left side of the road and "topping up" cell phone minutes. The people are very Mexican in their diet, attitude, and spirit. Rice, beans, tortillas are very popular here, although the tortillas have different names. Even though people may not have much, they are more than generous in sharing what they do have. They are a warm and friendly despite what we in the US would consider hard times. Brexico.

I finally found a reliable internet cafe so expect two posts a week on here.

Cheers,
Joey