All Quiet on the African Front

Greetings from Kitgum! We arrived here at the tippy top of Uganda Friday after a short stay in Kampala at the AVSI compound. Two days in the capital city being slung around on the back of a boda-boda (motor bike) in a skirt (sitting sideways going a billion miles an hour in traffic that would make anyone want to throw up) changing money (ps – just in case anyone wants to come to Uganda, be sure to bring bills printed after 2002. Apparently, our money before that is no good to them. Who knew!!) and haggling with people in the market over the price of football boots and sunglasses. It is nice to be back though. It is HOTT and dry. But things are slow and quiet and I am reminded again how kind and generous and welcoming the people are in Uganda.

Here in Kitgum we are staying for just a few days to meet with people and get our bearings before heading to Sudan on Monday (tomorrow) morning. We are staying with Ann and Pietro (who will head up our work in Sudan with AVSI) and their little boy Yannik (very blond, very fair – great for the African sun) for these few days. They have been awesome to us. Feeding us like kings (Ann is an awesome cook – she makes me cappuccino every morning and one mean chocolate and banana cake…way better than Starbucks) taking me to the market to get some sweet African skirts made (3 skirts – fabric, sewing, everything in 3 hours – all for about $12!!). They have taken us to meet the staff here and their friends, given us computers to use, showed us tons of pictures of where we will be working, and gone out of their way to make us comfortable. It has been wonderful to be with them. We are very excited tonight. They are expecting their second child any day now. Ann thinks it might be sooner than later (like tonight), and Pietro, in typical fashion, is acting annoyed at the late hour and worried that we might have to postpone our entry into Sudan tomorrow. So funny. I have been amused all night by their banter and keep giving Jeff sideways glances. But it has been great and we will miss them and their hospitality very much.

One thing that has really struck both Jeff and me is the way Yannik is being raised. He has the most picturesque childhood I think I have ever seen. Runs around naked all day with his Ugandan playmates digging in the dirt, reading books, riding bikes, and doing who knows what else. You should see this little toe head in rain boots tromping around his back yard with four or five little black children all day, speaking Acholi (the local language) perfectly, or wandering down the road with his friends and finding himself in the arms of one of the village women. He has an awesome life! He has no planned out lessons or playdates; no overly protective mothering; no video games or TV, but sticks and buckets and insects; no Coke or Oreos, but mangos and passion fruit juice. There is no pressure for him to get into that super exclusive private kindergarten three years before he is to start and no thoughts of preparing him at age 3 for AP classes and class rank and measuring up to the kid next door. He is just a kid. A dirty, fun-loving, no cares in the world kid with parents who love him and a whole community of mothers and brothers and sisters that know him and care for him. And you can tell all day long that he loves his life. Just a good perspective to encounter here. Very refreshing.

We visited St. Joseph Hospital (where Ann will deliver her baby) with Pietro today. Now, to say this is the “nice” private hospital in town is crazy. But it is. I was really sad walking around there today. Tiny little babies on the backs of four or five year old girls, old people lying all around in the dirt of the courtyards waiting to be seen, sick mothers and children way too thin on overcrowded wards (concrete rooms with iron beds) that smell worse than anything you can imagine. I felt relieved to walk away from there…and more than blessed yet wondering how and why I should have been born into the life, with access to good doctors (except a few particular ones in DC of late) and good food and water, and people who care about me. There is SO much disparity. I have no idea why it is this way.

We have also been editing a report that a woman working in Sudan wrote just recently. It is basically a baseline survey detailing aspects of the life people there are living. Biggest challenges: access to clean water, access to a stable food supply, access to health care, and inter-tribal warring (basically, killing each other over things like cows and land because the people are very poor and have very few ways to make money). Makes my bitching about traffic and leaky faucets and my wireless internet connection being too low seem a bit less immediate.

I have not been issued a sweet vest or a gun or night vision goggles or big boots and a helmet yet. But I am not worried. They will come.

We head to Sudan tomorrow…if Ann holds on tonight. Not sure about the email or blog ability status there yet. Keep crossing your fingers for success with the blackberry and duct tape wiring plan.