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.

Waiting...

I'm caught in the tropical rain. Can't really complain about it though. At least I was lucky enough to get myself to a restaurant before it started pouring.
So now I'm sitting with a hot cup of coffee looking out at a grey and wet Kampala. Actually this gloomy weather compliments my state of my mind perfectly.

Today was my second day at work at Reach Out. We went on two home visits to patients that were to weak to come to the clinic.
One of the two was Susan. When I saw her through the slit in the door I almost couldn't go in. It was like being in the middle of one of those Red Cross ads showing the worst of the worst to make people donate money.
She was too weak to even sit up. Last time she was weighed she was 31kg (68lbs). Her cd4 (T-cell) count was 3. A normal cd4 count is about 600-1500. It was like her body had just given up.
I've never before seen a person so sick and I felt very uncomfortable being in her home. I felt like I was invading her privacy and I couldn't really see the purpose of my presence there because there was absolutely nothing I could do to help her. I felt like I was just there to watch her suffering and it made me very conscious about the differences in this world.
I come from a place where people don't have to die from this disease.
I represent the part of the world that has the power to do something, but on a large scale is just closing it's eyes.
I'm not a doctor and I'm not a politician and there's little I can do, but as Stella (the nurse that I went there with) said, 'It's important that you see this, because we have to create awareness in the world, and all the volunteers who come here have to take this experience home with them and share it.'

Now, a couple of hours later, I, the rich white girl, am sitting in a restaurant waiting for the rain to stop, while Africa is waiting for the rest of the world to open it's eyes and start caring about their fellow humanbeings.
By the time that happens it will be too late for Susan.

(Written on May 9th)

Kampala Pics

Hectic crowd close to the taxi park


It's amazing what people carry around!


Eline, Line and Sidsel in the nicer (but less charming) area on Kampala Road


A good view of Kampala's hills

Kampala

Kampala is a big old, chaoticly buzzing, dirty mess of a capital city... And I'm loving it!

Still haven't found a computer where I can upload pictures. Sorry!