Our First Week Back in East Africa

After arriving in Entebbe on Friday the 20^th Caitlin and I spent 2 nights in Kampala Uganda before we made our way south to the Karagwe district of Tanzania.  Our journey to Karagwe began on Sunday morning at 6:15 a.m. which is when we awoke and packed our bags.  We had called for a taxi the night before to arrive by 7 a.m. so we could beat any traffic and to secure a ticket for an earlier bus.  Once we arrived at the bus park at 7:15 we got on a bus and felt good that all of our luggage could be stored securely under the bus in the cargo chambers and above us in the overhead compartments.  

Not having had breakfast yet, I went to the closest gas station convenient store to fetch the most important meal of the day.  Yogurt, cookies, marble pound cake, and juice boxes would suffice.  Caitlin and I began to wait patiently for the bus to fill which could take a long time but we were content with the fact that we got good seats.  Little did we know that our wait would be 3.5 hours because our bus had an issue with one of the rear tires.   In hindsight we might have gotten on a completely different bus, however no one else on our bus was doing so and our luggage was already stowed so we waited until a new bus arrived. Once it did everyone of course got up at the same time and was rushing to the new bus for a good seat and we just stayed put and said oh well  Once again we are reminded to roll with the punches in regards to African travel; Hamna Shida, (No Worries)

Our week in Karagwe was spent meeting with community partners and visiting friends in Kayanga town.  We have also completed our final preparations for when the students arrive in 10 days.  We are very pleased with our productivity and we are looking forward to picking up the students in Entebbe Uganda.  We are very happy to be back and we have been welcomed back by our friends and community partners. 

One of the more gratifying moments in my life occurred when we were walking into town for dinner on Sunday night.  Running toward us in his running gear was our 16 year old friend Fahimu.  Last fall Fahimu started running with me after showing an interest.  Since we left Karagwe in November he has been running 4-5 times a week and has really enjoyed it.  He has already set some goals and I have been working with him on a month to month schedule in order to meet those goals.  We meet at 5:30 most evenings and he follows me wherever I go.  Currently he attends Kayanga Secondary School where I will resume English instruction in February.

Our next order of business is to travel to Masaka on Monday to visit Caitlin’s family with whom she spent the summer of 2008.  Caitlin has been anxiously awaiting this reunion since she hasn’t seen her family in over 18 months.  On the other hand I am concerned with the running conditions in and around Masaka since this will be my first visit to the area, and of course I am also excited to meet the family!  Masaka is located approximately 70 kilometers from the Tanzania and Uganda border.  After our visit to Masaka we will go to Entebbe to pick up our colleague Nathan Darity.  Nathan will be joining Caitlin and I for the first 4-5 weeks of the semester.  After picking up Nathan we will have several days to venture around Kampala before the arrival of the students on the 7^th of February.

As we prepared for this semester we reflected a bit on last semester in order to learn from our mistakes and get the most out of the entire experience.  Being back on the ground has reminded us of some of the complexities of living and working in Karagwe.    When we left Karagwe in late November we didn’t really contemplate the possibility of much change within our little bubble in East Africa.  However, some things have and are changing.  Change is something that occurs and we have to learn to work with the changes. 

One of the changes that have occurred here is our friend Deodatus (the cook at the guest house) no longer is employed there.  Fortunately he came to visit us once he got word that we returned.  He apparently has gone home to farm and has no intention to return to the guest house for work.  Caitlin and I were disappointed to get this news but we understand that he has to do what’s best for him.  Kayanga town is a place where people live and die and sometimes we forget that when we are temporary.  

~Paul

London/Heathrow Airport- In Transit to Uganda

London- 8:17am- Jan 20, 2012

As I sit somewhere in the center of the London-Heathrow airport, I have mixed feelings about what I see in the context of where I’m going. The floors are squeaky clean, the top-line stores are flashy with pictures of alluring models making you want whatever they’re selling, people from all over the world are stuck in this limbo… some rushing bright eyed to their first flight, many around me are waiting for their second or third flight, tired and ready to leave this place where a British woman’s voice makes announcements every 3-5 minutes (at least it’s with a British accent). 

Paul’s trying to kill pigs in Angry Birds and is not as successful as hoped… “Those lucky bastards.”

Social class differences are glaring during international travel. Our British Airways flight (which was not very good, I want KLM (Delta) next time) had three classes of seats. The first class was complete with chairs that lay down to a horizontal position, with thicker blankets, and remote-controlled individual screens. The second class had fewer chairs squeezed across the width of the plane, and lots of leg room. And then our third class, where seats are small, leg room is minimal, but each person still has an individual screen (albeit not working most of the flight). While I walk through the Philadelphia and London airports, I see luxurious, exclusive ‘galleries’ where wealthy frequent travelers have big comfy chairs and assumedly escape from the British woman’s voice making announcements.

I am walking around with a very heavy book bag which instantly irritates me (maybe it’s the two hours of sleep I’ve gotten when my body thinks it’s 3:30am), when almost everyone else is easily walking with a roller carry-on gliding behind them. I think, why didn’t I use my roller carry-on? Oh, that’s right, because a book bag makes more sense for where we are going… rural Tanzania. It will be a long time until I am surrounded by this kind of atmosphere again: the clean, sanitized nature of everything, the posh advertisements, the wealth.

Why does this bother me? This environment is much like where I grew up in the United States. It bothers me because I am surrounded by things telling me I could be richer, and I should want to be. If I had more money, I could buy that purse the beautiful model is trying to sell. THIS IS RIDICULOUS. I am going to a place where people can only dream of the luxuries I am afforded. I fly on international flights with televisions for everyone. I am able to fly home for six weeks and do close to nothing while I visit family and friends. I have a loving husband who has been awesome enough to share a position with me in rural Tanzania for a year. I’m typing this blog post on a relatively new netbook, while Paul plays Angry Birds on my newly acquired iPod Touch.

Will I always be this Debbie-Downer now that I realize how wealthy I am along with all of my friends and family? It’s better to have this understanding of relative wealth and poverty than to go through life never seeing different parts of the world where people live drastically different lives. The next seven months will be spent serving out the rest of our one year contract with Amizade. Most of that time will be in Karagwe, Tanzania. This time will be challenging, but it’s the difficult periods of life that lead to the most personal growth. And, it must be good for the soul to get away from this life of wealth, and live more simply for a while.  I look forward to this next semester, and hope to integrate into our local community and learn some things that will help me keep the simple life perspective even after my time ends in Karagwe. Here we go!

Update: We landed in Uganda around 10pm last night and arrived at Backpackers Hostel at midnight. We hope to continue our journey to Karagwe today, if not tomorrow.