Dancing in the Dark

Today marks my 1 month anniversary with Kampala and at the risk of jinxing it…things are starting to get serious.  Everyone told me I was going to love the city but I tried to keep an open mind. Kampala has really exceeded any and all expectations I might have had. A very wise and attractive young man once said “you can’t start a fire without a spark”. Cue the music…

What I love most about Kampala….

1. The friends I have made. It’s only been 4 weeks but I’m continually impressed by the people I have met…Ugandans, other east Africans and expats alike. Remember: there are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet.

2. Kampala and I go out every weekend. Funny enough, dancing in the dark is one of my favorite things to do in this city on the weekends. People absolutely rage here. I haven’t seen anything like it since I lived in Madrid. It’s common for kids to go out on Friday or Saturday nights until 6-7am the next day. Oh and there is a club called Yolo which I find hilarious.

3. The food. It’s pretty easy to find any sort of cuisine you could want here in Kampala…Italian, Korean (it’s no Jeon Jun but it’s the thought that counts), sushi/Japanese (the fact that I can get sashimi in land-locked east Africa makes my heart skip a beat), and the Indian food, as my dad would say, is RFG here (Really F__ing Good). Next on the docket is west African at Mama Ashanti and Mexican at Little Donkey. As a Californian, I feel like I could be potentially setting myself up for complete & utter failure here but even if it gets remotely close to El Tarasco I’ll be happy. I’d put my chances at 50/50. The avocados here are massive so I’ll even settle for some semi-decent guac. Ugandan food deserves it’s own blog post so …to be continued….

4. “You are most welcome”

5. The heat. Okay, not really but I have some friends with a pool in their condo complex. It’s not perfect but on a hot Saturday with a couple of Tusker Lagers it feels so good. Apparently the pool is also equipped with hi-tech colored lights at night which I have yet to enjoy.

skimming malaria off the pool

fair warning

…as if the shards of glass and barbed wire weren’t enough to deter you.

6. Free DVDs. They aren’t actually free but they cost $1 which is practically free. There is a barber/bootleg DVD guy in Bugolobi that can rip any tv show season, movie, you name it off the internet. Definitely illegal but we’re in Uganda where tv shows consist of old Oprah re-runs and telenovelas which have been translated into English and then dubbed over with Ugandan actors speaking either English or Lugandan or both so to hell with piracy laws.

7. The music. Okay, that’s another lie. I am seriously jonesing for a good old-fashioned Echoplex or Troub show but what are you going to do. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. There are a couple live jazz clubs in Kampala that are high on my list to check out! I did go to a concert with some friends a couple weeks ago…swilling Nile Special and listening to live African pop music? It was a pretty solid Valentine’s day in my book.

Mampi concert for Valentine’s Day

Tycho…my last show before departure. A girl can still dream.

8. Nile Special. The beer here has reawakened in me the deep love of “a cold one” that would make any of my mid-western family members proud.

9. Monkeys in my neighborhood. Last week I saw 2 small monkeys in my neighbor’s tree when I was out for a run.

10. Embracing the boda-boda. I have learned to love the speed & efficiency of the motorbikes. Apollo takes me to the office every morning. He’s usually the first person I see each day and he’s always smiling when he says “Good Morning Madame!” as I walk out the gate. I don’t LOVE that he calls me Madame but I’ve decided to save the French lessons for another week.

11. The rains. In case you needed further proof of how crazy the downpours can be here below are some pictures from another recent storm.

only a matter of time

that, my friends, is hail

backyard from my bedroom window

we’ve only seriously lost power once…luckily lots of candles to go around

…while I’m on the subject of Toto, wild dogs really do cry out in the night. I wish I was kidding.

12. Instant coffee. Actually not as bad as one would think, especially when it’s African grown and not that sawdust that Folger’s likes to peddle.

13. Baby bananas. Women carry baskets of these around on their heads so you can find them really anywhere. Also, peanut butter is in abundance in the stores which is all I need. Between instant coffee, peanut butter, and showering with a bucket in Masaka, I am convinced I would be really good at camping nowadays.

14. The backyard. I was introduced to Courtney & Laren through my roommate in LA and they happened to be renting out a guestroom in their beautiful home in Mbuya. They have been so sweet & welcoming AND to top it off their compound has a huge backyard that is so peaceful compared with city living in Kampala.

I mean…who wouldn’t want to come home to this?

15. Work. The fellowship itself has not been without its frustrations but I am learning a ton and am constantly amazed by the people that I am lucky enough to encounter along the way. Below is a picture from training at BRAC’s Community Connector program…more to come on this one as they are still getting the microfinance bit up and running.

learning how to test for malnutrition in children from 6-24mos

The End.

On The Road

To put my first field visit into words is difficult. It was incredible, exhausting, eye-opening, and at times challenging but truly an unforgettable experience. To meet the borrowers, hear their stories, and learn more about their businesses was the reason I applied to be a Kiva Fellow and I feel like my move to Kampala came full circle last week.

If you have never read Kerouac’s On the Road, I highly recommend it. My trek across pot-holed dirt roads in Central Uganda did not include any drugs or bar brawls but it did remind me of Sal’s road trip across America.  The book also has my favorite quote of all time: “the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everybody goes “Awww!”

Not to mention, we drove across the Equator twice which was rad (more like blew past). No pictures because I was only with Ugandans and obviously they didn’t give two hoots. Below are a few of the pictures from the trip…

community center in Mityana

One of the projects I am working on is Grameen’s CKW (community knowledge worker) program. In a nutshell Kiva lenders fund a business-in-a-box for peer-nominated farmers in districts around Uganda. The package includes a smartphone, charger, and agricultural scales. These CKWs are identified as leaders within their communities and receive a stipend from Grameen to use their smartphones to collect and disseminate critical information for small-holder farmers in their villages such as crop disease, treatments, tips for livestock, weather, and fair market prices. The CKWs pay back the Kiva lenders to eventually own the materials outright.

The most recent class of CKWs in the central district of Uganda still had yet to receive their scales so two of the Grameen program trainers went out to deliver them. I was lucky enough to be able to tag along for a couple days to Mityana, Buwama, Gomba, and Masaka. We spent about an hour and half with each group to solicit feedback, listen to concerns and learn the community impact thus far.

After our meeting in Mityana we drove to Buwama. Even though these towns aren’t too far from each other the roads are a web of single-laned, potholed, dirt trails….and I never saw a street sign. It really brought a whole new meaning to my blog title. The average travel time between destinations was probably 2-3 hours.

one of our Grameen trainers speaking with CKWs in Buwama

this is a very nice, smooth road

After our meeting I was wandering around the area while my Grameen coworkers were fixing any smartphone issues. I get a lot of cat calls from kids here in Uganda. These three saw me taking pictures and came running over to see what the muzungu was doing there. I showed them how my camera works and then we took a video which I played back for them. We probably watched it back 4-5 times….they couldn’t get enough of it.

“heyyyyy muzungu!!!!”

a bike with some serious street cred

After we finished in Buwama we drove to Masaka where we spent the next two nights. By the time we arrived it was 9pm so about 3hrs travel time. I will never forget pulling into town listening to Wahab’s collection of smooth R&B.

morning sunrise in Masaka with my instant coffee

6:30am rise and shine. I was the first one downstairs for coffee (naturally) and after a quick breakfast of eggs and matoke (typical Ugandan dish of mashed unripened banana) it was off to Gomba. The drive took longer than expected as we took a wrong turn. Our driver is from the area but even he had difficulty remembering the correct turns to make through the back roads.

A side note: there are basically no street signs in Uganda. Maybe a few in Kampala but everyone goes by landmarks. For example when I give someone directions to the house I say…past the army barracks in Mbuya you’ll see the Jeba supermarket and it’s the second gate on the right. Plot 51. I don’t know what I would do without Google maps. That said, what do you do when you’re driving on dirt roads through banana plantations and mud houses? You go by a fork in the road or a mango tree. Great! Only problem is there are mango trees everywhere.

we made it to Gomba!

passing out scales

CKWs in Gomba with their scales

one of the CKWs, Dorothy, and I with her new scale

After we finished the meeting, one of the borrowers David struck up a conversation with me. We discovered that I am almost exactly 1 month older than him. Below is a picture of us before we left.

David & I

On our way back to Masaka we had a bit of a road jam in the form of cattle. The native cattle to Uganda are Ankole-Watusi with massive horns. I’ve never seen anything like it and they are everywhere. We easily drove past 200+ cattle in 3 days. One of our trainers, Godfrey, tried to take a picture for me out his window but they ran behind the bush. Tuesday we listened to a lot of Michael Jackson which was a big step up from Luther Vandross on Monday.

on the road from Gomba to Masaka

For our meeting in Masaka we met in a classroom. School was still in session but this room happened to be empty. Again, lots of stares and “muzunnnguuu” whispers through the back wall.

with CKWs at a school in Masaka

All in all, it was a successful first trip into the field. More to follow in the next couple months!

I bless the rains

It was only a matter of time before I posted this … because who doesn’t love Toto??! Also, we had a crazy storm this week. The kind that makes you lose power for 24hrs.

I had taken a boda out to Nyanama, which is on the way back towards Entebbe airport to visit the BRAC office. The skies started looking really ominous around noon so I quick found another boda and hightailed it back to Kampala before the storm rolled in. I think the back of a motorbike splashing through red clay potholes is the last place I want to be in a bad thunderstorm. Below are some pictures from MTN Tower (Grameen office).

You can’t really tell from these pictures but it was raining sideways in both directions. When it rains, it pours! Unfortunately all I had was my Google smartphone from Grameen that we distribute to rural farmers so the picture quality is somewhat lacking.

I have never heard thunder that loud in my life. Unfortunately I don’t have any video so you’ll just have to take my word for it. It even hailed at the house in Mbuya…hence the 24hr power outage. I love when it rains here in Uganda because it’s usually very tropical and short-lived but mostly because it cools everything off …for at least an hour.

roll me away

Bob Seger once wrote a very catchy song about riding on the back of a motorcycle (see title).  The open road stretched out in front, the wind in your hair….it all sounds so idyllic.  I hope that I appear to look something a la Christy Brinkley at the end of Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” music video (another classic), but in reality I know it is something quite different.

The motorbikes (“boda-bodas”) are cheap, dangerous, and most importantly fast. The traffic here is unreal and that is coming from an Angeleno which says a lot. Not only is the gridlock just as bad or worse than LA but its considerably more disorganized. And I won’t even get into the rain…

As someone who commutes to 3 different offices in/around Kampala, it did not take me long to face my fear. My first day at Grameen I made a promise to my local coordinator that I would not get on the back of a boda for at least one week which I promptly went out and broke the following day. Not only do they cut down on the travel time, they are a significantly cheaper alternative to private hires (taxi). A typical ride around Kampala will set you back around 5,000 UGX (or less than $2) …muzungu pricing I know but I get tired of haggling with multiple people on a daily basis. Sometimes you just have to know when to throw in the towel and enjoy the ride.

Are my hands scraped from gripping the seat too hard? Am I still completely terrified on a daily basis? absolutely.

Wilson was recommended to me by a friend and sits at the boda station outside MTN towers. Most people get the name and number of a few drivers they trust and then call them on a regular basis for rides. This is on my commute home yesterday through Nakasero at 3pm. It’s a far cry from the Commuter Express 438: Redondo Beach.

On top of the congestion and oncoming traffic, it is common practice for people to walk right out into the middle of the road in front of bodas, making the experience all the more harrowing. Apparently pedestrians here in Kampala have just as much of a death wish as New Yorkers.

I finally moved into a house in Mbuya which is near the homes of the UPDF. Below is a view coming down the main road on my way home…

Hunter S. Thompson said “faster, faster until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death”. I feel something of the opposite as I’d like to make it to my 30th birthday.

Mbuya neighborhood…

I’ve gone full hipster in Kampala. All I need is a huge bike lock for my fixie hanging off the messenger bag.

Aside from my death-defying commute…this is my life lately (work-wise at least) minus a cup of instant coffee. I can really only describe being a Kiva Fellow as drinking from a fire hose: totally overwhelming and just trying to retain as much as possible. Luckily I remembered my saving grace: headphones. So I can still keep Wolf Parade rolling while I pour over presentation slides and USAID proposals.

View today from Grameen’s office in MTN Towers.

The grassy area and helipad to the right is part of the Serena Hotel, not a park sadly.

After being here for one week I’ve had time to reflect on exactly what it is that I am doing. I saw this the other day and although a little cheesy, I like it.

I think this really is the heart of what Kiva is about, giving people the opportunity to realize more of their potential. Yesterday I was looking through intake forms for recent borrowers and among the hopes and dreams they listed were … education for my children, to be a better community member, and improve life for my family. Small loans through Kiva and its partner organizations do help people to reach these goals and I feel very lucky to be a small part.