I will try and post regularly throughout this next month in East Africa. I am also keeping a personal journal. At times I will post those entries (or edited versions of such), which will be marked as Uganda Journal Numbers, as this one is.
December 9, 2009. Kampala.
Got into Kampala last night. Barely made my connection in London Heathrow and so what I figured might happen, did happen – my bags are still in London. In all the international flights I've taken in the past five years this is the first time this is happened, so I figure I was due. There’s not another flight for a couple days so I’ll have to make do with the one spare t-shirt I had in my carry on. At least I have my laptop and most of my university notes so I can make some headway on my schoolwork in the mean time.
Matt picked me up from the airport but of course it took me longer to get out of the baggage area because it took a while to file the paperwork for my lost bags. Our taxi driver, Charles, the same guy who drove us in last time, then insisted on finding “pressure” for the tires. This took some time at 12:30 at night – fully functional gas stations are a tough find at any time of day - and only prolonged the trip in from Entebbe to Kampala.
Driving in was a surreal experience, partly because my reality was blurred having been in airports and airplanes for over 24 hours. Mostly, however, it was strange because it was so familiar. Having spent three months here earlier this year, Kampala is a place that is not quite home but is engrained in my consciousness as places I recognize. Other such places include Berlin and Hanover in Germany, Bangkok in Thailand, and Ottawa, Churchill, and Kississing Lake in Canada. Returning to any of those places would I would imagine would inhibit a similar feeling. I say they are not quite home but somehow they are all as a part of who I am as Winnipeg is.
I woke up this morning to the caw-caw of birds and the sound of pavement being swept by a straw broom. Despite my exhaustion I only slept four hours. That, I’ve found over the years, is an odd byproduct of jetlag and lengthy travel – being tired but not being able to sleep. It’s just about 9am here in Kampala and I’m sitting in Matt’s apartment with a freshly cracked beer and craving a cheeseburger.
I am going to use these next few days to accomplish a few things.
1. Probably most importantly, get my luggage back. I’m not going to get very far without it.
2. Finish my responsibilities from my university life in Canada – one politics exam, one paper on conflict and culture, one letter of recommendation for a professor seeking tenure, and half of an article for a peace journal newsletter. The most trying part of this most likely be finding a solid enough internet connection to successfully send Word files.
3. Rekindle old connections and meet old friends and coworkers.
4. Spend as much time as I can with Matt. It’s become apparent that after all the two of us have been through, both working in the remote fishing lodge industry in northern Manitoba and here in East Africa, he is my closest friend. I would take a bullet for him without batting an eye and recent circumstances in his life have left him, as I would imagine such happenings would leave any person, feeling lost and unsure about what life is about. I sincerely hope that over the course of the next few weeks we will both be able to come to at least a basic understanding of why, in the general sense, we are here.
5. Develop a game plan for the next four weeks. It will most likely be some time before I make my way back to East Africa and I want to take in as much as I can here. Initially, I imagine this will involve a few good weekends out in Kampala, some hands on work with Uganda Hands for Hope in the Namuwongo Slum, and some travel in the region – potentially to Gulu in northern Uganda and south to Rwanda.
There is also the question of how I want to document the next month in terms of writing, video, and photographs. I purchased a camcorder before I left Canada as well as a number of disposable cameras I plan on giving to a select few people in Namuwongo, should they agree, in an effort to document their daily experiences from their own eyes. Last time around I created a promotional video for Hands and I wonder if an updated version of such could be done again. I have a few ideas, including creating a series of shorter videos that could be posted to YouTube, both on the programs facilitated by Hands and on whatever adventures ensue in the coming weeks. There is also the question of journaling (always something I plan to do when I travel but rarely carry out throughout the duration of a trip) and the prospect of developing a feature article for the student newspaper at University of Winnipeg.
Today I am going to try and knock off as much of my school work as possible. We’re meeting up with some people tonight, and probably for the next three or four nights, so I would like to get as caught up as I can before things get busy. I think I can get everything but the take home exam done today, although the conflict paper I might hang on to for a day or two so I can reread and edit. I might make my way down to Bubbles, an Irish pub and expat hangout, this afternoon to use their internet.
I need a shower.
Peace and love from Kampala,
James
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