May hasn't quite ended and my birthday is nearing. Another birthday in Uganda. However this time I will be in a completely different part of the country. Last year when I turned 21 I was surrounded by the Pajule community North of Gulu as well as traditional dance, music and food. I ended up with mud all over my trousers at the end of the night due to dancing with the locals out in the rain. They say rain on a special occassion is good luck, so the fact that I took time to dance it it, I am sure that it brought even more luck and blessings into my life. Afterall, I was blessed enough to be able to return to Uganda the next year with my 22nd birthday approaching. This time I will be in the South of the country in Kampala. Dave and I will head down on my birthday and pick up some friends from the airport the next morning. I am hoping turning 22 will bring just as many blessings to my life. Rain would be a plus as it would definitely cool down the air in this sometimes devastatingly hot country, but I hope our bus ride down from Gulu is not greeted with it. Transportation here is bad enough as it is.
The next week here will be quite busy yet filled with celebration in both Kampala and back up in Pajule as many more people from Illinois arrive. I look forward to it and am more than excited to see how the next set of visitors will react to Ugandan life. I know they will love it no matter how difficult it can be sometimes. Other than my upcoming week, I have been extremely busy here in Gulu while I wait for the arrival of more volunteers. I visited my second Ba'hai' temple (my first being in Chicago). It was beautiful and overlooked parts of Kampala. I ate more white ants willingly and they were worse the second time around. I have learned to be useful around the compound where I am staying by practicing carrying 10 liters of water in a jerry can on my head (despite fearful faces of many Acholis standing around to watch), I have learned how to scrub my clothes clean using my hands and I have learned to cook various things. I even cooked an entire meal of posho (ground corn), chicken (from scratch...they made me kill another one), and cabbage in Anaka the other day. Ok, I helped the cook but mainly played with the baby chicken that found a place to sleep on my trousers...as well as a place to poop. One of the most exciting things was that I finally learned to drive a stick shift. Well, I at least understand the gears but neither Dave nor Leonsyo would let me give it a try. I guess it was smart on their part as we did have other passengers in the back of the pickup. In doing all of these things, I have met some amazing people. In Anaka Leonsyo walked me around to some of the neighbors homes. I was amazed to see so many elderly people living alone. In Acholi community families are bigger and there is always someone there to take care of you. But it has become apparent that as people are growing older, they don't have strong ties to family members and are left alone. One man, Silvano, was suffering from, I want to say Elephantisis (or something like that), and had a tiny bag of ground corn to make posho but could not make it himself. Other than that he had nothing but a friend sitting in a chair in the corner of his hut to talk to. Seeing what can really happen when you try and aid certain people in a region like this scares me a little bit. There is a lot of dead aid out there and if one doesn't strive to empower an entire community, family ties and relationships become fragile. I think about this every time I go to work here. It's a bit unnerving but I am confident that what we are doing is causing a great deal more good than harm. Afterall, it truly seems to be the CBOs and smaller organizations that are doing the most good these days and will continue to do so as other larger NGOs suffer from the global crisis and the decrease of other countries' foreign aid. In looking at the bigger picture of Africa, the long-lasting effects of this global crisis now toppling governments and expectations the world over, Dambisa Moyo has nominated Africa as the next big thing in terms of a new generation of innovation. Probably one of the largest benefits would have to be that many countries are slashing their foreign aid down. Italy has cut their aid budget by 50 percent. This is understandably a good thing because more African leaders will have to figure out how to govern without the inflow of easy money to backstop them. Necessity will force them to innovate.
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