Friday, February 24, 2006
I'm writing this from a trendy webcafe in downtown kampala - Web City, if you must know. Most of the webcafes I've been hitting are little holes-in-the-wall with 10 computers crammed into a tiny room; this one is spacious, cool and has DSL (!!! so fast!!!) which probably explains why there are so many wazungu (white people) here. Well, there aren't a LOT - but I've probably seen more here than I have since I got off the plane Tuesday night. Being here is incredibly comforting right now, right down to the smell of coffee (it's not even instant!) and the use of Microsoft Word.
Ordinarily I wouldn't admit to enjoying such a Westernized place here, but I'm tired, friends. I spent the day getting lost in Kampala. The agency I needed to visit was closed this morning, probably because of the elections yesterday. (Brief update on that: so far, no news. We heard cheering last night at the guesthouse as some of the early returns came in, but the election won't be counted till Saturday. For now, the city is "quiet" - in the words of the warden at the guesthouse, although I wouldn't call it quiet - waiting.) The security guard at the door of the building assured me that they'd be open this afternoon, so I'll go there soon.
A digression: This agency (a national agency from whom I need permission to do my research) is housed in the Uganda House, a big office building downtown, and it wasn't until I got on the elevator that the poverty here really hit me. I've seen goats, beggars etc while here of course, which didn't really shock me because that's what Westerners expect of Africa, right? I saw the same thing in Malaysia. To us it's just a touristy thing. However, there's a middle/upper class - tons of people have cellphones (MObiles, as they call 'em - rhymes with toe tile) and lots of these are pretty well educated. And yet.. . the Uganda House is the scariest, shadiest skyscraper I've ever been in. Imagine if a building was built in the 1970s - pretty good construction, but not state of the art or anything - and then got looted by two different armies at the end of the 70s and no new money has been put into it since then, because that is pretty much what happened.
OK, much more to say but my time is expiring. Later...
Ordinarily I wouldn't admit to enjoying such a Westernized place here, but I'm tired, friends. I spent the day getting lost in Kampala. The agency I needed to visit was closed this morning, probably because of the elections yesterday. (Brief update on that: so far, no news. We heard cheering last night at the guesthouse as some of the early returns came in, but the election won't be counted till Saturday. For now, the city is "quiet" - in the words of the warden at the guesthouse, although I wouldn't call it quiet - waiting.) The security guard at the door of the building assured me that they'd be open this afternoon, so I'll go there soon.
A digression: This agency (a national agency from whom I need permission to do my research) is housed in the Uganda House, a big office building downtown, and it wasn't until I got on the elevator that the poverty here really hit me. I've seen goats, beggars etc while here of course, which didn't really shock me because that's what Westerners expect of Africa, right? I saw the same thing in Malaysia. To us it's just a touristy thing. However, there's a middle/upper class - tons of people have cellphones (MObiles, as they call 'em - rhymes with toe tile) and lots of these are pretty well educated. And yet.. . the Uganda House is the scariest, shadiest skyscraper I've ever been in. Imagine if a building was built in the 1970s - pretty good construction, but not state of the art or anything - and then got looted by two different armies at the end of the 70s and no new money has been put into it since then, because that is pretty much what happened.
OK, much more to say but my time is expiring. Later...
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