In Repair

Too many shadows in my room
Too many hours in this midnight
Too many corners in my mind
So much to do to set my heart right
Oh it's taking so long I could be wrong, I could be ready
Oh but if I take my heart's advice
I should assume it's still unsteady
I am in repair, I am in repair

Stood on the corner for a while
To wait for the wind to blow down on me
Hoping it takes with it my old ways
And brings some brand new look upon me
Oh it's taking so long I could be wrong, I could be ready
Oh but if I take my heart's advice
I should assume it's still unsteady
I am in repair, I am in repair

And now I'm walking in a park
All of the birds they dance below me
Maybe when things turn green again
It will be good to say you know me

Oh it's taking so long I could be wrong, I could be ready
Oh but if I take my heart's advice
I should assume it's still unready
Oh I'm never really ready, I'm never really ready
I'm in repair, I'm not together but I'm getting there
I'm in repair, I'm not together but I'm getting there

- John Mayer

Still miss it...

Looking Back

As you might know I'm now back in Copenhagen where I've started med school. Yay!

I left Uganda in the end of July, and I meant to post some kind of recap on the whole Africa experience, but after I came back other things (like chemistry and different body parts) quickly took over my mind. Not that I've forgotten about Africa, I just haven't taken the time to sit down and put my thoughts into words.

The last couple of days I've seen a lot of people who I hadn't seen since before I left for Africa and of course they've been asking about my trip.
So, to at least say a little something, here goes:

I'm glad I went. It's been a very valuable experience and it has put a lot of things into perspective.
As expected it wasn't all positive, but it has given me a better picture of the problems that a lot of African countries face.
It's been frustrating at times. Mostly because of poor organization, which results in inefficiency and resources not being used optimally, and on a personal level it meant that there wasn't that much for me to do at the places where I was supposed to work. But being at these different projects gave me a good picture of what works and what doesn't in regards to dealing with HIV/Aids in Africa. In general I've become more sceptical of foreign aid and Western development projects, but that discussion will have to wait till some other time.
And then there was the cultural differences. (No need to mention the previous post...)

But looking back now, what I remember the most is my Maasai friends from Zanzibar. I miss hanging out with them in the afternoons, laughing with them, trying to teach them English, watching them dance and play soccer, and listening to their stories from a world so very far from my own. In spite of the fact that we come from very different places we somehow bonded. That special connection was there. I truly miss these wonderful people.
I still talk to them sometimes (they all have cell phones, of course), but communicating isn't easy since my Swahili vocabulary is slowly but surely disappearing.
But who knows? Maybe I'll see them again sometime...
Until then, Tutaonana!

Zanzibar, April 2007. Leimba, me, Lekseto, Lemunyo and Lasaro.

Life As A Mzungu

Conversation as I was getting in a matatu (mini bus)...

Me: To Njeru?
Matatu Driver: Yes. Then you give me water!
(I was carrying a water bottle)
Me: No.
Matatu Driver: Why?
Me: Because I don't know you.
Matatu Driver: I am not your friend?
Me: No, I don't know you.
Matatu Driver: Why am I not your friend?

I didn't answer. Just like i didn't bother answering when he proceeded to ask my name and nationality. Once again I found myself ignoring a person who wanted my attention.

I don't usually consider myself arrogant but these days i guess it could be a fitting description of my behavior at times.
Unfortunately I've come to expect tiresome behavior from the Ugandans and as a result I distance myself. Too many times have strangers (like the mentioned matatu driver) started out by demanding things, or wanted to be my new best friend - or even husband - asking for my phone number after barely talking to me for a minute, or in other ways put me in a position where I've had to say no. Now I simply don't invite to conversation. I put up a front.
I know that instead of taking this behavior as a nuisance I should look at it as part of being in a different culture and try to understand what causes many Ugandans to act this way around white people, but I've run out of patience.
I thought that at positive attitude would get me somewhere, but it hasn't. It's proven easier not to greet people or be friendly.
I feel like against my will I've been assigned a role that doesn't fit me. And I'm tired of playing this part. I want to be me again.

Safari

As a true mzungu in Africa I, of course, had to go on a safari to take a look at the amazing wildlife.
So while back in Tanzania I met up with the Danish girls and we set out for 3 days of watching wild animals in their natural habitat... from the convenient safety of a safari vehicle, of course.


Day One: Tarangire National Park

Zebras.

Getting up close with the elephants.

As we were on the way to our camp after leaving the park we passed a giraffe hanging out by the the road.


Day Two: Ngorongoro Conservational Area

Beautiful view on the way to the Ngorongoro Crater which is an old volcanic crater surrounded by mountains and a couple of still active volcanoes. Since this is a conservational area - as opposed to a national park - the Maasai are allowed to live and graze their cattle here.

The Ngorongoro was full of animals. Mostly gazelles, wildebeest and zebras.

More zebras with hippos in the background.

Buffalo.

Lioness.

The girls.

Amazing view of the crater from above.


Day Three: Lake Manyara National Park

Baboons cleaning each others fur.

Giraffes.

Hippos.

Zebras rolling in the sand while uncle wildebeest watches.

Mommy with baby elephant.

On The Bus

2 tickets Handeni-Arusha: 14000TSH (12USD)

iPod: 299USD

Travelling through Tanzania while sharing headphones with Maasai friend who can't get enough of Justin Timberlake 'Sexy Back': PRICELESS!

Maasai

Staying with the Maasai was an amazing experience. It was like entering a different world. A slower and simpler one.
Everyone was very sincere and sweet and lived seemingly carefree and happy lives. Hardly the warriors they are said to have been.
They are apparently content with what they have and do not try to pursue what we in the western world consider wealth. For them wealth is measured in cattle so they feel rich even though they in our eyes don't have much.
Of course it is easy to romanticize their way of life and they obviously have problems like anyone else (e.g. if they get sick and need to pay for a doctors visit), but staying with them made me think that there is something very genuine about them that the western world might have lost somewhere along the way.


Me with Teres and Ester who are both married to Andorois.

Ester with her two own children and some of the others.

More children. I never really found out where they all came from, but there were many hanging around taking care of each other. The smaller ones were afraid of me in the beginning (guess they don't usually see white people), but soon they were very curious. Most of the ones that are old enough go to school, but this picture was taken on the weekend.

Women and children hanging out in the afternoon. Some are making new bead jewelry, some cleaning a goat skin, some cleaning the milk gourds, some breast feeding their children, some cleaning their teeth. All the while they are chatting and laughing. Maa has got to be one of the softest sounding languages. Their chatting combined with the faint ringing of their jewelry is like a sound you want to fall asleep in.

Children singing Christian songs and dancing with an amazing joy and energy. They apparently do this every evening.

There was a party on Saturday and everyone was singing and dancing. The boy in the red was jumping which is an important part of the men's dancing. They jump straight up and down and can jump amazingly high.

Sunday morning I woke up to more singing. Everyone had gathered to bless the cattle and thank God which they do every Sunday. They are very religious and show it in a joyful way.

The women milk the cows when they are brought back to the kral in the late afternoon.

Leimba using a stick to churn the yogurt (or just old milk, depending on how you look at it) to get the lumps evened out.

It actually tasted alright. Leimba loved it and drank three mugs. (Note the previously mentioned white plastic sandals... The coat he's wearing is mine. He kept it on for four days after I lent it two him for the piki-piki ride.)

Cattle herders in front of the hut we stayed in.

Our roommates... Sheep! But you couldn't really complain. They weren't noisy and they were gone all day.

Leimba's parents: Sarai and Mainge.

Mama Lekseto with her youngest daughter. I also became very good friends with Lekseto on Zanzibar, but unfortunately he couldn't leave work to visit home with us. Mama Lekseto is also married to Mainge, so Leimba and Lekseto are half brothers. All together Mainge has thirteen children ages about 2 to 30 (they don't really know how old they are).


Departure.
I would have stayed with the Maasai for a lot longer, but as any westerner I was on a schedule and had to get back to the other reality.
We left the village on foot as the sun was setting. At first a group of friends walked with us, but bit by bit they stayed behind. The last one to say goodbye was Leimba's mother who knelt down and prayed for our safe journey before she turned around and walked back.
After that we walked in silence for a long time while the darkness settled around us. It felt like we were walking out of a dream.

"But I am plagued by the thought that we have arrived at a moment in history when this is about to be swept away. Of course the swell has been gathering force for a century or more, since Joseph Thompson first saw 'the most peculiar band of men to be found in Africa'. Now the wave is about to break. How many Masai will be doing this in twenty years' time?"
Justin Cartwright 'Masai Dreaming'

Travelling The African Way

Dar es Salaam - Leimbas home...
- A journey from hell or two days of good African travelling entertainment?
Since I was in the company of a good friend who took care of all the practicalities I chose to look at it as the latter.

Day One: Dar - Handeni.
In the early morning we left Dar in what I thought was a piece-of-shit-bus. This should later turn out to be exactly the case.
After about 4 hours of driving on good Tanzanian main road we arrived at Mkata with a full bus. Really full. All the way from Dar the bus had frequently stopped to pick up more passengers. Every time a horde of people would run up to the bus and try to sell anything from shoes, to bananas, to watches, to meat on skewers which they would stick in our faces through the windows of the bus.
Mkata was, as far as I could tell from my map, more than three quarters of the way so I figured we'd easily arrive in Handeni in time to proceed from there the same day. I was wrong.
We now left the main road and turned on to a very bumpy dirt road. A place that you wouldn't take your own car if you cared just a bit about it.
After about an hour we made what I thought was just another of the random stops, but after a while people started to leave the bus and I realized that there were men working under the bus. When I asked Leimba what was going on he just said 'fundi' (fixing) as if it were a regular part of any bus ride... Nothing to worry about.
And sure enough, after a short while the overstuffed bus was bumping through the country side again.
But after about another hour we stopped again. More fundi.
To kill time some of the guys started picking on one particular guy who seemed a bit out of it. He reacted to their farting noises and other insults by running after them pretending to want to hurt them. At one time he even picked up a long metal bar from underneath the bus and threatened to beat the other guys with it.
I couldn't help but laugh to myself. Here I was in the middle of nowhere, travelling with a Maasai in lovely white plastic sandals (seems to be their latest fashion), with a broke-down bus and the guys trying to fix it behaving like school kids, all the while people are trying to convince me that I really want to buy a pair of mens shoes.
All of a sudden something crashed and the bus dropped about a foot. Whatever they had used to elevate the bus had broken, so they had to start over.
But just when people were starting to give up hope, the problem was fixed and we were ready to move again.
By now I'd learned not to expect too much and of course it didn't take long before we stopped again. Everybody out of the bus once more. This time the problem was a truck blocking the way. The driver was found, but he didn't want to move the truck. Everyone was yelling at him and they even shoved and pushed him til he fell to the ground. He was then picked up and carried to the truck, but still refused to move it. Apparently he was drunk.
After 15 minutes of slapping him around and threatening to really beat him up he finally got in the truck and drove it past the bus while swearing all the way and almost driving into it.
Everybody got in the bus again and we continued to Handeni where we arrived in the late afternoon. Too late to find further transport the same day.

Day Two: Handeni - Leimbas Home.
Again we got up very early and Leimba went looking for a car going in the same direction as us. He came back on a pick up truck - in very bad condition, of course -going to a village with the monthly supply of beer.
Me being mzungu and all I, of course, had to sit in the cabin with the driver and a big Maasai-daddy who apparently was the owner of the establishment that was buying the beer.
If the roads and the vehicle had been shit the day before then I'm not sure what to call this. We were bumping around, several beer bottles breaking on the way, but the worst thing was the fumes from the car that were getting in the cabin because of holes in the floor. My eyes were burning.
We of course stopped several times for fundi and I asked Leimba if I could please sit on the back with him and the beer, but they wouldn't let me, because they were sure that I'd fall of because of the bumpy road. They might have been right, but I'm not sure that would have been worse than breathing the fumes.
At one point Maasai-daddy started drinking and offered me some beer. Again I was laughing to myself. It was 9:30am and I was in a fume filled cabin of a pick up truck that broke down every couple of hours sharing a beer with a big Maasai guy whom I didn't know somewhere of the map in Tanzania (Handeni was the last place the Lonely Planet had cared to point out).
After about six hours we arrived in the village where the beer was going and Leimba made some phone calls and went to look for further transport.
After about two hours a piki-piki (small motorcycle) came to pick us up. Both of us got on behind the driver with all our baggage and we set of on a dirt road. This was the perfect way to end our two day trip. Wind in the hair, driving through the beautiful landscape surrounded by mountains in the distance.
After a while the dirt road turned into a narrower and narrower path through the bush, and Leimba was guiding the driver on what to me looked like identical paths. At times the bushes were scratching our legs and I was actually bleeding from a couple of places. But nothing serious.
I was more concerned when Leimba said that he wasn't sure if he remembered the way correctly and we had to go back and ask some Maasai herding their cattle on the way. But it turned out that we were on the right track and after two hours we stopped by some low huts.
We had arrived.

Back To Tanzania

In a couple of hours I will embark on a twenty-nine hour journey through East Africa. By bus I will pass through the landscapes of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, the final destination being Dar Es Salaam where I'm meeting a friend, whom I'm very excited to see.
A month ago when I left Zanzibar we had to say goodbye. - The ever present back side of traveling. There will always be people and places that come to mean something special to you and leaving them behind is difficult.
As was the case with this friend.
I don't know him that well, but I trust him.
His name is Leimba and he is Maasai. He is rich in cows and his eyes light up when he talks about drinking their blood. He never went to school and he doesn't speak English. He calls me 'dada' (sister) and he makes me laugh.
He will take me to his village and show me how life is where he comes from.

Lake Bunyonyi

After a month of Kampala's intensity and frustrations at work, I decided it was time to give myself a break and get away for the weekend.
Hoping to find some peace and quiet in what I had heard was one of Uganda's most beautiful places I left for Lake Bunyonyi.
I was not disappointed!
After a nine-hour bus ride (the bus broke down on the way and we had to wait for another one) I found myself in a place of breathtaking beauty.




I got all the peace and quiet that I needed and could not have asked for anything else. And to top it all off I even enjoyed the unexpected luxury of a hot shower... The first one in two months.

Our Humble Home

And yes, I do mean humble!
It's pretty basic but here's everything we need.

The best thing about our house is that it's outside of Kampala in green surroundings where it's a bit more quiet and a lot less dusty.

Our front porch is the perfect place for a cup of coffee.


And there's always a lot of kids playing around.
When ever we come or go we're greeted by the standard 'Hi mzungu!' and 'Bye mzungu'. Mzungu means white.

Our bedroom.

The shower...
Sometimes there's running water, sometimes there isn't. But it is actually possible to shower in a cup.
(After thorough consideration I decided to leave out the picture of our toilet... You don't really need to see that. But I will tell you this much - it's just a whole in the ground.)

The kitchen...
Sometimes there's power, sometimes there isn't. Sidsel and Majken are actually cooking by candle light in this picture, you just can't see it because of the flash.

Dinner in the candle light. Very Romantic.

Laundry time. Clothes get amazingly dirty here because of all the dust. No matter how hard you try, thing's never really get clean... I don't even think I remember what the color white looks like.

Breakfast and drying laundry. It all adds to the cozy ambience.

Now you might have gotten the impression that we don't enjoy any luxuries at all, but if that's the case you're mistaken. We have our own pedicurist, Daniel, who comes to the house.

It's like a mobile beauty salon with everything you need for the perfect pedicure. So for only 1.000 shilling (about 65 cents) you can have your nails brushed with a toothbrush and painted in any color you like.

And we even have pets. The ghekkos are my favourite, but we also have all sorts of insects, that I don't really care to share.

My favourite morning spot.
On the weekends I tend to wake up before everyone else and this spot behind the house is perfect for reading or watching the sun come up while listening to the sounds of a new day beginning.

Walk The World

On May 13th we joined the walk against hunger with the people from Reach Out.
The walk is a World Food Programme initiative to end child hunger. Every year people all over the world join the walk to create awareness and raise money.
A lot of Reach Out's clients get food from the WFP so there was no question we had to walk.
We had a great time and even though we were a little nervous about how long time it was gonna take to walk the 8 kilometres - you know, everything moves kind of slowly down here - we actually set a quick pace and were done in less than an hour and a half.
I even got to carry the banner most of the way.
Afterwards there were several speeches. My favourite speaker was a very dedicated ten year old girl who boldly yelled out her opinion. She did not think that her class mates or any other child in Uganda should have to suffer from hunger. She ended her speech with a 'Please Mister President, you have to do something...'
After that President Museweni took over and during his speech much of the audience fell asleep. It was the regular boring jabbering and in the end he donated 10 million Uganda shilling (about 6250 USD) and looked like he'd just saved the world. Then he took off in his luxury car escorted by all his security staff.
Once again the contrasts of this country were thrown right in my face.