I have posted some Kenya pics at
www.flickr.com/photos/26781924@N00/
sets/72157606529734424/
They are labeled but hopelessly out of order...how do they do that!
See if you can match them up with the Kenyan part of the blog...
bill
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
nearing the end of my African visit
Just a few passing thoughts as this trip winds to a close; we are off to Nairobi, capital of Kenya, on Sunday and then I fly home on Tuesday.
A rooster with an ego problem woke me up around 4 yesterday morning, crowing incessantly. Once awake, as anyone my age knows, our bladders cannot pass up the opportunity to visit the latrine! On my way back from the latrine there is a noise of someone hammering metal in the distance and another one chopping wood...not unusual for this industrious and polychronic society. What was a total surprize tho was a voice, saying hello behind me, in the dark. Turning, I met a person I had only been told about: the nightwatchman for Common Ground. He was wearing in a trenchcoat, and I am not kidding, carrying a bow and arrows! Joshua says he is from the Masai tribe which caters to security work, and that everyone knows the arrows are tipped with poison, so intruders are rare! Could this be an answer to the gun control dilemma in America?
We have met with another group that is coincidentally working on waterfilters of the same type for another village in Kenya about 2 hours away. They have a challenging situation in that there is no reliable electricity for their factory, adn the host village is not opposing the factory, but they are not jumping at the idea of taking it over either. So we are discussing the idea of merging our projects, using their equipment and kiln knowhow with our site, infrastructure and eager hosts in Kiminini. If this idea comes to fruition we could be making ceramic water filters in a few weeks instead of months away!
It will be hard to leave Kenya, Kiminini, and Joshua and his family, and the friends I have made here. Kenyans are very gregarious and affectionate, laugh a lot and almost always put relationships ahead of time and to do lists! This is in stark contrast to our compulsion to achieve and finish projects on time. It is particularly helpful in a country with poverty and Aids orphans on every corner. This extended village family provides an amazing care fabric for almost all its members.
I promise in a few weeks to have some pictures here to go wtih the narrative. And never again will I take for granted teh luxury of high speed internet connections!
best to all,
Bill
A rooster with an ego problem woke me up around 4 yesterday morning, crowing incessantly. Once awake, as anyone my age knows, our bladders cannot pass up the opportunity to visit the latrine! On my way back from the latrine there is a noise of someone hammering metal in the distance and another one chopping wood...not unusual for this industrious and polychronic society. What was a total surprize tho was a voice, saying hello behind me, in the dark. Turning, I met a person I had only been told about: the nightwatchman for Common Ground. He was wearing in a trenchcoat, and I am not kidding, carrying a bow and arrows! Joshua says he is from the Masai tribe which caters to security work, and that everyone knows the arrows are tipped with poison, so intruders are rare! Could this be an answer to the gun control dilemma in America?
We have met with another group that is coincidentally working on waterfilters of the same type for another village in Kenya about 2 hours away. They have a challenging situation in that there is no reliable electricity for their factory, adn the host village is not opposing the factory, but they are not jumping at the idea of taking it over either. So we are discussing the idea of merging our projects, using their equipment and kiln knowhow with our site, infrastructure and eager hosts in Kiminini. If this idea comes to fruition we could be making ceramic water filters in a few weeks instead of months away!
It will be hard to leave Kenya, Kiminini, and Joshua and his family, and the friends I have made here. Kenyans are very gregarious and affectionate, laugh a lot and almost always put relationships ahead of time and to do lists! This is in stark contrast to our compulsion to achieve and finish projects on time. It is particularly helpful in a country with poverty and Aids orphans on every corner. This extended village family provides an amazing care fabric for almost all its members.
I promise in a few weeks to have some pictures here to go wtih the narrative. And never again will I take for granted teh luxury of high speed internet connections!
best to all,
Bill
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Kenya!
JUst reentering this after an hour uploading pictures then the poewr went off, adn all were lost! so here is the text, pics later....b
We are in Kenya now. The others have gone back to Seattle, I am at Joshua Machingas Common Ground program, and Terri is staying with Sister Freda (Nurse and clinic owner) about 20 minutes down the road, doing midwifery stuff and really being appreciated by them. Terri delivered her first baby yesterday, so she is in her element! I visited her a while Saturday while my family went to 7th day Adventist church . We had a wonderful tour of their farm and grounds, and saw a 1 day old lamb, along with an amazing sight of two guys above and below a scaffolding, sawing lumber from a log by hand with a crosscut saw!
Yesterday, I went to Manor House, the Ag college where Joshua learned organic farming, and saw their demonstration acreage, so I am getting a lot of farm exposure, which as you know, I love! It was started by Polly … the daughter of the founder of Intel, from Maine, who has lived here for 20 years managing and funding this great school.
The countryside here reminds me of the rolling farm hills around Lancaster PA, or south of Portland OR. There is very little forest or wilderness, since the Brits colonized the area and quickly realized this region was the most fertile in all of Kenya. It is the breadbasket for corn/maize and many other crops. Much of it is grown organically, but some larger operators use chemicals. Needless to say we have not seen any wildlife or tropical native trees, but hope to go to a park later to do so.
Also we have finished a cost spreadsheet for the water filter factory (the main reason I am here), and met a lot of people who could help Joshua make it happen, so I am satisfied with its feasibility and sustainablility. Only problem is there are now 3 yes 3 groups interested in building filter plants within 50 miles of each other! Of course there are also a million people within 50 miles of here who need clean water, so its not really a problem.
Earlier this week I went to a funeral… A little girl in the school here died of tb, malaria, and sicklecell anemia, age 7. I went at Joshuas invitation to the wake and saw this little girl in her casket, and spoke with J and her Dad, a teacher at another school. Avery sweet scene of how this very close community of a very collective culture rallies around the grieving family for two continuous days of singing, crying, dancing, eating, remembering and finally burying the little girl in their back yard.
So many other touching scenes and experiences, each one reminding me of the cultural uniquenesses here. For example on my cel phone I get a scripture every day from some anonymous source, alternating between the Koran and the Bible!
Two days ago we went to Kipsango, a slum for Turukanu refugees. Very heart-breaking and hopeless really, in that the families or orphans there are not recognized at all by the government because they are refugees from a war in northern Kenya 40 years ago, and now number 2000 people living in squalor and starving in the midst of the fairly prosperous town of Kitale. Sister Freda goes there every month and doles out medicine and tends to the seriously ill, of which there are many. We helped hand out loaves of bread, but there were way too many kids for the bread we had…
Stepping back from all this, its necessary to triage the many opportunities to find ones which could be helped by us or our funds, and really help the situation. I think Joshuas school and Fredas clinic are exemplary models of talented people making a real difference limited only by funds and volunteer support. So don’t be surprised when I get home if you hear from me to see if you would like to help in some way.
Sorry the blog has been so intermittent, but internet service is slow and hard ot find here since I don’t have an easy way to get around.
Home in 10 days, so probably no entries til then, and I promise, some pictures, infact many many pictures!
Best to you all,
Bill
We are in Kenya now. The others have gone back to Seattle, I am at Joshua Machingas Common Ground program, and Terri is staying with Sister Freda (Nurse and clinic owner) about 20 minutes down the road, doing midwifery stuff and really being appreciated by them. Terri delivered her first baby yesterday, so she is in her element! I visited her a while Saturday while my family went to 7th day Adventist church . We had a wonderful tour of their farm and grounds, and saw a 1 day old lamb, along with an amazing sight of two guys above and below a scaffolding, sawing lumber from a log by hand with a crosscut saw!
Yesterday, I went to Manor House, the Ag college where Joshua learned organic farming, and saw their demonstration acreage, so I am getting a lot of farm exposure, which as you know, I love! It was started by Polly … the daughter of the founder of Intel, from Maine, who has lived here for 20 years managing and funding this great school.
The countryside here reminds me of the rolling farm hills around Lancaster PA, or south of Portland OR. There is very little forest or wilderness, since the Brits colonized the area and quickly realized this region was the most fertile in all of Kenya. It is the breadbasket for corn/maize and many other crops. Much of it is grown organically, but some larger operators use chemicals. Needless to say we have not seen any wildlife or tropical native trees, but hope to go to a park later to do so.
Also we have finished a cost spreadsheet for the water filter factory (the main reason I am here), and met a lot of people who could help Joshua make it happen, so I am satisfied with its feasibility and sustainablility. Only problem is there are now 3 yes 3 groups interested in building filter plants within 50 miles of each other! Of course there are also a million people within 50 miles of here who need clean water, so its not really a problem.
Earlier this week I went to a funeral… A little girl in the school here died of tb, malaria, and sicklecell anemia, age 7. I went at Joshuas invitation to the wake and saw this little girl in her casket, and spoke with J and her Dad, a teacher at another school. Avery sweet scene of how this very close community of a very collective culture rallies around the grieving family for two continuous days of singing, crying, dancing, eating, remembering and finally burying the little girl in their back yard.
So many other touching scenes and experiences, each one reminding me of the cultural uniquenesses here. For example on my cel phone I get a scripture every day from some anonymous source, alternating between the Koran and the Bible!
Two days ago we went to Kipsango, a slum for Turukanu refugees. Very heart-breaking and hopeless really, in that the families or orphans there are not recognized at all by the government because they are refugees from a war in northern Kenya 40 years ago, and now number 2000 people living in squalor and starving in the midst of the fairly prosperous town of Kitale. Sister Freda goes there every month and doles out medicine and tends to the seriously ill, of which there are many. We helped hand out loaves of bread, but there were way too many kids for the bread we had…
Stepping back from all this, its necessary to triage the many opportunities to find ones which could be helped by us or our funds, and really help the situation. I think Joshuas school and Fredas clinic are exemplary models of talented people making a real difference limited only by funds and volunteer support. So don’t be surprised when I get home if you hear from me to see if you would like to help in some way.
Sorry the blog has been so intermittent, but internet service is slow and hard ot find here since I don’t have an easy way to get around.
Home in 10 days, so probably no entries til then, and I promise, some pictures, infact many many pictures!
Best to you all,
Bill
Friday, July 4, 2008
Safari at Queen Elizabeth National Park!
QE park Friday July 3 2008
Here we are at Queen Elizabeth National Park, one of Uganda’s best safari areas, on the western border with Congo, and right in the heart of the African Rift Valley-West. Here the earth is slowly spreading apart, (possibly forming a new tectonic plate) and has sunk into a flat plain 1000 feet below the surrounding hils and volcanic mountains, 20 miles or so wide, and hundreds of miles long. The sources of the Nile flow thru lakes along this valley running from south to north, so that part of the valley is very dry savannah, and part is lake, river or marsh, creating a great variety of habitat for abundant wildlife and plants. There are over 100 mammal species in the park and over 600 bird varieties!
Yesterday, after driving all day from Kampala, and crossing the equator, (a big tourist attraction), we arrived late in the day and were greeted by a highway roadblock of baboons, demanding bananas before we were allowed to pass. Fortunately our veteran travelers were prepared and we had enough bananas to secure our release and safe passage into the park! They ate the banana first and then the peel too.
After we arrived at our hotel and were enjoying a drink on the deck, we were greeted by a large hippopotamus grazing in the yard at dusk , not 20 feet away from where we were having happyhour! This enormous creature was systematically munching her way across the lawn, making only crunching and chewing noises, oblivious of the cameras going off and us tourists going nuts trying to get close but not too close to her!
Today we had a little safari in our bus with a park naturalist, Van, who was very knowledgeable of each animal and its behavior. In 4 hours beginning at dawn, we saw elephants, gazelles, water buffalo, water bock, gazelles, wart hogs, forest hogs, hyenas and monkeys! I even saw the ears of a lion, who was camouflaged in the grass, but would occasionally lift her head to survey the dinner scene of gazelles and warthogs around her. Tho the famed Serengeti is a few hundred miles east with zebras, giraffes, and other large mammals, I cant imaging a better experience than we are having here.
Upon returning to the lodge, we were greeted by a troupe of mongooses, including several cute babies. They live near the lodge and come around every day to amuse the guests.
We were booked for a river boat cruise this evening, to look for crocodiles, hippos, water birds, etc, but a major squall came up and turned the river into a raging storm-tossed sea with whitecaps and duststorms, so the trip was cancelled. Good for Uganda for having safety standards that put safety above more mercenary motives! Oh well, one more reason to come back to beautiful Uganda! As a consolation, earlier in the day while standing in the lodge swimming pool we had seen an elephant bathing in the river (Brad and I remarked it is probably the only time we will ever see a elephant smimming while we were swimming too!), and about 100 water buffalo cooling themselves in the river too.
A few miles north of here at Murchison Falls, the movie River Queen was filmed years ago, so you can imagine what the river scenery would have been like if you have seen that movie (think leeches)!
The lodge was built many years ago and all decked out for the Queens visit in 1954 and again in 2007, so needless to say it is a rustic but elegant old place, reminiscent of those old lodges out on the Olympic Peninsula…very comfortable and wonderful food, with open passages between the dining area and lobby and the outdoors. The climate here like Kampala is surprisingly mild and breezy…no airconditioning and few bugs. It has been a great break from the workfilled week in Kampala, and a chance to meetup again with the kids and adults from Forest Ridge, who have almost completed their loop around Uganda installing over 150 computers for the schools. They have provided a wonderful service for the country and had a great time doing it!
Pictures to follow this weekend...
bill
Here we are at Queen Elizabeth National Park, one of Uganda’s best safari areas, on the western border with Congo, and right in the heart of the African Rift Valley-West. Here the earth is slowly spreading apart, (possibly forming a new tectonic plate) and has sunk into a flat plain 1000 feet below the surrounding hils and volcanic mountains, 20 miles or so wide, and hundreds of miles long. The sources of the Nile flow thru lakes along this valley running from south to north, so that part of the valley is very dry savannah, and part is lake, river or marsh, creating a great variety of habitat for abundant wildlife and plants. There are over 100 mammal species in the park and over 600 bird varieties!
Yesterday, after driving all day from Kampala, and crossing the equator, (a big tourist attraction), we arrived late in the day and were greeted by a highway roadblock of baboons, demanding bananas before we were allowed to pass. Fortunately our veteran travelers were prepared and we had enough bananas to secure our release and safe passage into the park! They ate the banana first and then the peel too.
After we arrived at our hotel and were enjoying a drink on the deck, we were greeted by a large hippopotamus grazing in the yard at dusk , not 20 feet away from where we were having happyhour! This enormous creature was systematically munching her way across the lawn, making only crunching and chewing noises, oblivious of the cameras going off and us tourists going nuts trying to get close but not too close to her!
Today we had a little safari in our bus with a park naturalist, Van, who was very knowledgeable of each animal and its behavior. In 4 hours beginning at dawn, we saw elephants, gazelles, water buffalo, water bock, gazelles, wart hogs, forest hogs, hyenas and monkeys! I even saw the ears of a lion, who was camouflaged in the grass, but would occasionally lift her head to survey the dinner scene of gazelles and warthogs around her. Tho the famed Serengeti is a few hundred miles east with zebras, giraffes, and other large mammals, I cant imaging a better experience than we are having here.
Upon returning to the lodge, we were greeted by a troupe of mongooses, including several cute babies. They live near the lodge and come around every day to amuse the guests.
We were booked for a river boat cruise this evening, to look for crocodiles, hippos, water birds, etc, but a major squall came up and turned the river into a raging storm-tossed sea with whitecaps and duststorms, so the trip was cancelled. Good for Uganda for having safety standards that put safety above more mercenary motives! Oh well, one more reason to come back to beautiful Uganda! As a consolation, earlier in the day while standing in the lodge swimming pool we had seen an elephant bathing in the river (Brad and I remarked it is probably the only time we will ever see a elephant smimming while we were swimming too!), and about 100 water buffalo cooling themselves in the river too.
A few miles north of here at Murchison Falls, the movie River Queen was filmed years ago, so you can imagine what the river scenery would have been like if you have seen that movie (think leeches)!
The lodge was built many years ago and all decked out for the Queens visit in 1954 and again in 2007, so needless to say it is a rustic but elegant old place, reminiscent of those old lodges out on the Olympic Peninsula…very comfortable and wonderful food, with open passages between the dining area and lobby and the outdoors. The climate here like Kampala is surprisingly mild and breezy…no airconditioning and few bugs. It has been a great break from the workfilled week in Kampala, and a chance to meetup again with the kids and adults from Forest Ridge, who have almost completed their loop around Uganda installing over 150 computers for the schools. They have provided a wonderful service for the country and had a great time doing it!
Pictures to follow this weekend...
bill
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Week 2
here are a few pics and observations from our intensive week work ing on the SMS (aka textmessage) data gathering project for midwives...
The main Mosque in Kampala. About 10% of the people are Muslim, but 100% of us get to hear the call to prayer at 530 every morning!
There seems to be goodwill among all the religious sects here generally; they work well side by side in the hospitals and clinics, for example
the main Uganda Hospital in Kampala, where all high risk moms and babies are hopefully brought
Dr Margaret Nakakeeto, an amazing leader in the mother/baby care system in Uganda. Here she explains work they have done on ultrasound for babies. They also had posters up about Ebola virus, bird flu, and other problems unique to Uganda. We saw many preemies there where they do "Kangaroo care" to improve outcomes: the mom carries the little infant swaddled to the front of her skin to skin to keep the babywarm and cuddly til it is older.
baby bill of rights
I am not showing pics of the cute babies because of patient privacy concerns and out of respect to the families; but let me tell you, there are some cute babies here any grandpa would be happy to hold!
These next pics are from Kikiri, about 30 miles west of Kampala where we went for our first trial of the software and celfone idea with midwives
Most people love VP Bokenya here (we were in his district where this crosstitch for him was) ...something you wont see in many places for VP Cheney in the US!
A midwife with her celfone trying out our data entry system at the training in Kikiri. They loved it, because its simple, goes directly to the database where someone will see the trends and do some thing about the shortage of transportation, training, equipment they need to reduce infant and maternal mortality and problems in Uganda.
Here Fredrik is giving certificates to each of them after the training.
These women are so devoted and talented, and very comfortable with digital/celfone technology...they were a pleasure to work with. This despite a scheduling mixup (one of many) that caused them to drive all the way to Kikiri twice for this one meeting!
A little free range goat outside the office!
Fredrik working on his laptop in the hotel garden (and everywhere else we go!...a Microsoft slave driver fi ever there was one!
Fredrik, Terri, and Brad, our US team at breakfast in the Fairway hotel
Ugandans really take their bugs seriously
Meeting Katie and Ivan in Kampala, who were over at exactly the same time from Seattle to adopt a child! Its taking longer than hoped, but what's new about that? They will be very happy when its all done!
We grind our own coffee each morning; how strange: here we are in Uganda, a BIG coffee exporter of great coffee , but you cant get a good cup of coffee here. Why? possibly because the British colonized Uganda so everyone drinks tea! (or soda)
The main Mosque in Kampala. About 10% of the people are Muslim, but 100% of us get to hear the call to prayer at 530 every morning!
There seems to be goodwill among all the religious sects here generally; they work well side by side in the hospitals and clinics, for example
the main Uganda Hospital in Kampala, where all high risk moms and babies are hopefully brought
Dr Margaret Nakakeeto, an amazing leader in the mother/baby care system in Uganda. Here she explains work they have done on ultrasound for babies. They also had posters up about Ebola virus, bird flu, and other problems unique to Uganda. We saw many preemies there where they do "Kangaroo care" to improve outcomes: the mom carries the little infant swaddled to the front of her skin to skin to keep the babywarm and cuddly til it is older.
baby bill of rightsI am not showing pics of the cute babies because of patient privacy concerns and out of respect to the families; but let me tell you, there are some cute babies here any grandpa would be happy to hold!
These next pics are from Kikiri, about 30 miles west of Kampala where we went for our first trial of the software and celfone idea with midwives
Most people love VP Bokenya here (we were in his district where this crosstitch for him was) ...something you wont see in many places for VP Cheney in the US!
A midwife with her celfone trying out our data entry system at the training in Kikiri. They loved it, because its simple, goes directly to the database where someone will see the trends and do some thing about the shortage of transportation, training, equipment they need to reduce infant and maternal mortality and problems in Uganda.
Here Fredrik is giving certificates to each of them after the training.
These women are so devoted and talented, and very comfortable with digital/celfone technology...they were a pleasure to work with. This despite a scheduling mixup (one of many) that caused them to drive all the way to Kikiri twice for this one meeting!
Chaqua and two colleagues refurbishing computers at the Connections Uganda office in Kampala
A little free range goat outside the office!
Fredrik working on his laptop in the hotel garden (and everywhere else we go!...a Microsoft slave driver fi ever there was one!
Fredrik, Terri, and Brad, our US team at breakfast in the Fairway hotel
Ugandans really take their bugs seriously
Meeting Katie and Ivan in Kampala, who were over at exactly the same time from Seattle to adopt a child! Its taking longer than hoped, but what's new about that? They will be very happy when its all done!
We grind our own coffee each morning; how strange: here we are in Uganda, a BIG coffee exporter of great coffee , but you cant get a good cup of coffee here. Why? possibly because the British colonized Uganda so everyone drinks tea! (or soda)
Sunday, June 29, 2008
First Pictures
Here are some pictures from our first week here. We were with highschool students from Forest Ridge Girls School to install and donate computers to schools in Uganda. Unfortunately when I labelled the pics, the result was not in the order taken, and the labels were lost, so just enjoy them and I will do better next time. Bill
Our hosts son Lloyd with Ugandan flag
kids on the bus
computers at the refurbishing center
someone's home
plantains on the way home
assembly at military school to thamk us for the computers
Brad and Terri at the airport
Brad in front of the office
drums at the school celebration
proud headmasters at the school
Our hosts son Lloyd with Ugandan flag
kids on the bus
computers at the refurbishing center
someone's home
plantains on the way home
assembly at military school to thamk us for the computers
Brad and Terri at the airport
Brad in front of the office
drums at the school celebration
proud headmasters at the school
Astronomy, Food, People, and Our work here in Uganda
HI all, Here are a few impressions about Uganda. All is well here, except that the travel bug caught up with me so I have beeen confined to quarters most of today, but it gave me time to send this along. enjoy...
Astronomy and Geography and Climate
Uganda is right on the equator. This leads to some peculiar effects…Especially now while the sun is way up at the tropic of Capricorn at the summer solstice. Because of this, right now, the noon shadows are casting to the south, opposite of what we are used to in the northern regions. When the sun sets or rises is does so very quickly because it is almost vertical with the horizon, compared to its gradual slanted descent up where we live. The air is very thin owing to this direct path to the sun, and the high altitude, so sunburn and radiation received are maximized.
The milky way is quite visible most nights also because of this thin atmosphere. In addition, the north star is way over on the northern horizon, because we are so far from the north pole where it is overhead! We can see constellations to the south which are new to me, because they are too far south to see from our vantage point in WA.
But the elevation of Kampala, Lake Victoria, and most of Uganda is over 4000 feet, so the climate is mild. Right now it is very dry, similar to Seattle’s August weather. Something creates a rainy season in Feb-May, and again in the fall. The hottest months are Jan and Feb.
Our work with the medical/midwifery community
We have now been to 4 clinics and hospitals in the city and country, to see what they are like and how the SMS system might work for them. Right now, there is data gathered by each midwife for each birth, but most of it sits in a book in their clinic or home and never gets compiled as helpful statistics for use by the national Public Health Department. This project would make it very easy for this data to be summarized at the national level, in a paperless electronic database. It would be better than what we have in the US in some ways, because we have a mix of paper and electronic systems that don’t talk to each other.
In doing this feasibility study we go to each clinic and Fredrik, Terri, and Brad train the midwives in entering baby and mom data on their celfones as text messages (they ALL have celfones and know how to text, even way out in the bush, and coverage is better than in rural areas of the US!) Then we ask them to send sample messages and see how they like the idea in a discussion afterwards. So far, every single midwife likes the idea and most can input to it after one lesson! They see how this can help them have better information and document the causes of infant and mother mortality/illness, in order to improve things that are not working. For the most part, simple things stand in the way; owing to the large number of babies (1.5 million born annually in a country of 32 million), and the small budget for care. Also the roads are poor at best, and impassable in the rainy season so moms with problems can’t get to the clinic when they need to.
The groups we talk with are so appreciative; one sang the Nurses Anthem, whose chorus includes the words “We’re chosen to be nurses…” beautifully sung and very touching.
We visited one midwife named Sarah (many biblical names here), out in the rural area yesterday, she is a leader in her village, and has been delivering about 20 babies a month for 20 years! Adjoining her little 2 room house, is her delivery/labor room, a dark simple room with a metal bed and a dirt floor, and a bare light bulb. She is a very knowledgeable caregiver, and is respected in her community, despite a lack of formal training.
Beautiful People of Uganda
Everywhere we go we are so impressed with the people of this country. Regardless of their place in the income pyramid (and many are very very poot), they seem dignified, well dressed, appreciative, modest and softspoken, and cheerful. They are so soft spoken that we have yet to hear even one person shout or speak loudly to another adult or child in our 12 days here. They have the interesting custom of shaking hands and then holding onto the handshake for several minutes into the conversation which follows, regardless of gender. They seem very happy to see us whenever we meet, by chance or planned. Yesterday we stopped at next door to a girls middle school to meet with a midwife. About 100 girls were out on the playground for recess in their bright blue school uniforms. Before we knew it, they all were stampeding toward us, smiling and greeting us and waving as they ran! They all wanted to talk with us, touch us, and be in pictures with us! This was in a village with only dirt roads, a town handpump well for water, cows and goats free ranging in the street and yards, and just the simplest brick or thatched huts for homes, some with dirt floors, and most without electricity.
Food
The food of Uganda is very simple. Most meals include 3 starches (potato, maize, rice, yams, etc) and one dish called matoke made of plantains mashed into a pulp about the consistency of very stiff oatmeal, which sits in your tummy like a brick for hours after each meal. To this is sometimes added a small amount of (very expensive) meat, either goat, fish, beef or chicken and gravy. Ugandans eat 3 BIG meals a day, so we have to politely ask for smaller portions most of the time. They eat very little sugar, and no dessert. It is rare to see a person who is not thin, except for some high government officials and a few others, who are quite chubby! We may even come home no fatter than we were when we left!
Though they grow excellent coffee and tea for export, they rarely drink these themselves. We had to buy a boiler and Terri brought a coffee press, and coffee form Seattle! So we are all having coffee each morning.
Many homes have no running water. Kids carry two 30 pound jerry cans of water many yards from local wells, or even further strapped to their bikes. Most cooking is done on wood/charcoal outdoor stoves, usually in a cooking shed to keep the rain off. Needless to say, the city and villages are very smoky around dinner time!
Its common to see freshly killed meat hanging in the shop for sale the same day it is killed, and live chickens for sale, owing to little or no refrigeration in most homes. Most people seem to buy what they need for each meal one day at a time, because of hand to mouth income. Nevertheless, in towns and the city they have increasingly modern grocery stores and shops as a middle class emerges from the many poor families.
Malaria and mosquitoes
Houses (and our hotel rooms) have no screens on the windows so there are mosquito nets over each bed. Bugs aren’t bad at all, except for mosquitoes at night. Because of malaria risk, nets are an essential feature of each bed, hanging above them and giving a surreal ghostly appearance at night.
All for now, more later...
bill
Astronomy and Geography and Climate
Uganda is right on the equator. This leads to some peculiar effects…Especially now while the sun is way up at the tropic of Capricorn at the summer solstice. Because of this, right now, the noon shadows are casting to the south, opposite of what we are used to in the northern regions. When the sun sets or rises is does so very quickly because it is almost vertical with the horizon, compared to its gradual slanted descent up where we live. The air is very thin owing to this direct path to the sun, and the high altitude, so sunburn and radiation received are maximized.
The milky way is quite visible most nights also because of this thin atmosphere. In addition, the north star is way over on the northern horizon, because we are so far from the north pole where it is overhead! We can see constellations to the south which are new to me, because they are too far south to see from our vantage point in WA.
But the elevation of Kampala, Lake Victoria, and most of Uganda is over 4000 feet, so the climate is mild. Right now it is very dry, similar to Seattle’s August weather. Something creates a rainy season in Feb-May, and again in the fall. The hottest months are Jan and Feb.
Our work with the medical/midwifery community
We have now been to 4 clinics and hospitals in the city and country, to see what they are like and how the SMS system might work for them. Right now, there is data gathered by each midwife for each birth, but most of it sits in a book in their clinic or home and never gets compiled as helpful statistics for use by the national Public Health Department. This project would make it very easy for this data to be summarized at the national level, in a paperless electronic database. It would be better than what we have in the US in some ways, because we have a mix of paper and electronic systems that don’t talk to each other.
In doing this feasibility study we go to each clinic and Fredrik, Terri, and Brad train the midwives in entering baby and mom data on their celfones as text messages (they ALL have celfones and know how to text, even way out in the bush, and coverage is better than in rural areas of the US!) Then we ask them to send sample messages and see how they like the idea in a discussion afterwards. So far, every single midwife likes the idea and most can input to it after one lesson! They see how this can help them have better information and document the causes of infant and mother mortality/illness, in order to improve things that are not working. For the most part, simple things stand in the way; owing to the large number of babies (1.5 million born annually in a country of 32 million), and the small budget for care. Also the roads are poor at best, and impassable in the rainy season so moms with problems can’t get to the clinic when they need to.
The groups we talk with are so appreciative; one sang the Nurses Anthem, whose chorus includes the words “We’re chosen to be nurses…” beautifully sung and very touching.
We visited one midwife named Sarah (many biblical names here), out in the rural area yesterday, she is a leader in her village, and has been delivering about 20 babies a month for 20 years! Adjoining her little 2 room house, is her delivery/labor room, a dark simple room with a metal bed and a dirt floor, and a bare light bulb. She is a very knowledgeable caregiver, and is respected in her community, despite a lack of formal training.
Beautiful People of Uganda
Everywhere we go we are so impressed with the people of this country. Regardless of their place in the income pyramid (and many are very very poot), they seem dignified, well dressed, appreciative, modest and softspoken, and cheerful. They are so soft spoken that we have yet to hear even one person shout or speak loudly to another adult or child in our 12 days here. They have the interesting custom of shaking hands and then holding onto the handshake for several minutes into the conversation which follows, regardless of gender. They seem very happy to see us whenever we meet, by chance or planned. Yesterday we stopped at next door to a girls middle school to meet with a midwife. About 100 girls were out on the playground for recess in their bright blue school uniforms. Before we knew it, they all were stampeding toward us, smiling and greeting us and waving as they ran! They all wanted to talk with us, touch us, and be in pictures with us! This was in a village with only dirt roads, a town handpump well for water, cows and goats free ranging in the street and yards, and just the simplest brick or thatched huts for homes, some with dirt floors, and most without electricity.
Food
The food of Uganda is very simple. Most meals include 3 starches (potato, maize, rice, yams, etc) and one dish called matoke made of plantains mashed into a pulp about the consistency of very stiff oatmeal, which sits in your tummy like a brick for hours after each meal. To this is sometimes added a small amount of (very expensive) meat, either goat, fish, beef or chicken and gravy. Ugandans eat 3 BIG meals a day, so we have to politely ask for smaller portions most of the time. They eat very little sugar, and no dessert. It is rare to see a person who is not thin, except for some high government officials and a few others, who are quite chubby! We may even come home no fatter than we were when we left!
Though they grow excellent coffee and tea for export, they rarely drink these themselves. We had to buy a boiler and Terri brought a coffee press, and coffee form Seattle! So we are all having coffee each morning.
Many homes have no running water. Kids carry two 30 pound jerry cans of water many yards from local wells, or even further strapped to their bikes. Most cooking is done on wood/charcoal outdoor stoves, usually in a cooking shed to keep the rain off. Needless to say, the city and villages are very smoky around dinner time!
Its common to see freshly killed meat hanging in the shop for sale the same day it is killed, and live chickens for sale, owing to little or no refrigeration in most homes. Most people seem to buy what they need for each meal one day at a time, because of hand to mouth income. Nevertheless, in towns and the city they have increasingly modern grocery stores and shops as a middle class emerges from the many poor families.
Malaria and mosquitoes
Houses (and our hotel rooms) have no screens on the windows so there are mosquito nets over each bed. Bugs aren’t bad at all, except for mosquitoes at night. Because of malaria risk, nets are an essential feature of each bed, hanging above them and giving a surreal ghostly appearance at night.
All for now, more later...
bill
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Bellevue meets Kampala
Sorry its taken so long, but finally found time today to reflect back on the passage of our first week here. Everything takes longer than in the US, on Uganda time, and internet access has been very slow. But now we are in a better hotel with wireless in the room, so hopefully will be able to blog updates more easily.
Here is the first one:
Bellevue meet Kampala
It is impossible to describe the city of Kampala, capital of Uganda, certainly not from a blank page, so what if we compare it to a US city like Bellevue, WA…from satellite altitude they probably look similar in size and shape, both on a lake, hilly terrain with roads, schools, shops, parks, all the attributes a city should have. So now imagine you are in Bellevue and the following changes suddenly appear before your eyes:
The population goes from300,000 to 3 million. This would be like moving the entire population of eastern Washington into Bellevue. Then at night, 1 million of these people leave town to sleep and live somewhere else, roughly the entire population of Seattle. Uganda itself, about the size of WA, has about 10 times the population: 32million
Half of these residents are under the age of 15! Most are active in a religion, primarliy Christian and about 10% Muslim. Religious schools abound for all ages.
There are roads and traffic. Its bad in Bellevue, and many times worse in Kampala, every road we have 4 lanes on would have 8 lanes (I use the term loosely) of traffic, motor bikes, minibuses, cars, trucks. Diesel smoke abounds, horns toot, not in anger but as a steering aid, and the clearance between vehicles and pedestrians is measured in inches. Neither town has any form of mass transit. The streets are filled with potholes ranging from a basketball to a wheelbarrow in size, so traffic weaves around these obstacles like a school of fish navigating a rocky stream, never hesitating or complaining.
Buildings: Make all the buildings 10 stories tall or less, add dwellings of huts and business kiosks of sheet metal or crude but sturdy brick in EVERY open space between the present homes and businesses in Bellevue.
The celfone is ubiquitous, and costs about half of our rate, with received calls being free. Almost everyone has one. For those who don’t, provide a celfone kiosk consisting of a simple wooden shed/phone booth staffed by a young nicely dressed person who will sell you call minutes on her phone or minutes to “top up” your phone.
Food is plentiful, sold in simple stalls on every block, so buyers never have to go more than one block for groceries, and living hand to mouth, only buy what they need that day. Charcoal is also sold in bags for cooking. Goats and chickens free range all over town, grazing on anything that looks like food. Gardens are planted on any available patch of land, even between sidewalk and street there will be corn and beans growing.
Can you imagine all that? It’s mindboggling to be here, but each day, the chaos assumes a certain loose order, all so fascinating…
More later, including pictures once I figure out how to upload them…bill
Here is the first one:
Bellevue meet Kampala
It is impossible to describe the city of Kampala, capital of Uganda, certainly not from a blank page, so what if we compare it to a US city like Bellevue, WA…from satellite altitude they probably look similar in size and shape, both on a lake, hilly terrain with roads, schools, shops, parks, all the attributes a city should have. So now imagine you are in Bellevue and the following changes suddenly appear before your eyes:
The population goes from300,000 to 3 million. This would be like moving the entire population of eastern Washington into Bellevue. Then at night, 1 million of these people leave town to sleep and live somewhere else, roughly the entire population of Seattle. Uganda itself, about the size of WA, has about 10 times the population: 32million
Half of these residents are under the age of 15! Most are active in a religion, primarliy Christian and about 10% Muslim. Religious schools abound for all ages.
There are roads and traffic. Its bad in Bellevue, and many times worse in Kampala, every road we have 4 lanes on would have 8 lanes (I use the term loosely) of traffic, motor bikes, minibuses, cars, trucks. Diesel smoke abounds, horns toot, not in anger but as a steering aid, and the clearance between vehicles and pedestrians is measured in inches. Neither town has any form of mass transit. The streets are filled with potholes ranging from a basketball to a wheelbarrow in size, so traffic weaves around these obstacles like a school of fish navigating a rocky stream, never hesitating or complaining.
Buildings: Make all the buildings 10 stories tall or less, add dwellings of huts and business kiosks of sheet metal or crude but sturdy brick in EVERY open space between the present homes and businesses in Bellevue.
The celfone is ubiquitous, and costs about half of our rate, with received calls being free. Almost everyone has one. For those who don’t, provide a celfone kiosk consisting of a simple wooden shed/phone booth staffed by a young nicely dressed person who will sell you call minutes on her phone or minutes to “top up” your phone.
Food is plentiful, sold in simple stalls on every block, so buyers never have to go more than one block for groceries, and living hand to mouth, only buy what they need that day. Charcoal is also sold in bags for cooking. Goats and chickens free range all over town, grazing on anything that looks like food. Gardens are planted on any available patch of land, even between sidewalk and street there will be corn and beans growing.
Can you imagine all that? It’s mindboggling to be here, but each day, the chaos assumes a certain loose order, all so fascinating…
More later, including pictures once I figure out how to upload them…bill
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
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