The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

I realise I’ve been pretty bad at posting any notes or blogs about my time in Uganda – I think the last one I wrote was about my Christmas celebrations. Hopefully the hundreds of photos and status updates have created a bit of a picture of my life in Uganda... but here are some reflections on the good, the bad and the ugly experiences of the past few months:

The Good:

The people are top of this list. I’m so lucky to have made some lovely friends. Everyone here is really interesting and so much fun.  It’s actually pretty easy to make friends as everyone’s in the same boat; away from home, not knowing many people and out here to have an amazing experience and hopefully make a bit of a difference.

It is so nice to go for weekends away with these great friends; I’ve been lucky enough to spend a couple of weekends in Jinja, take a trip to Murchison Falls and had another awesome weekend in Sipi Falls. 

As well as going away with people here I’ve had some visitors too, Alex, Lizz and Kat came to stay last month and we headed off with our ‘trusty’(!) guide to Queen Elizabeth National Park in the West. The amount of animals we saw was incredible; elephants, hippos & crocs on the banks of the Kazinga Channel. Then as we drove through the National Park more elephants, cape buffalo, warthogs, cobs, baboons, and even monkeys with blue balls! We were a bit scared walking back to our bandas one evening in our camp bordering The DRC. (The camp had been shut down until recently because of DRC rebels crossing the border at the river there!) As we walked back with nothing but a head torch and drunken ranger to ‘protect’ us we could hear the hippos and other animals a little too close for comfort. We were lucky enough not to come across any lions that evening but during our morning game drive; from the safety of our vehicle, we saw a male and a female just 15 feet from us. In fact we couldn’t go anywhere even if we had wanted to as they decided to have a drink and a rest right in the middle of the road. Ishasha, is famous for the tree climbing lions and even though we didn’t see them up a tree it was incredible to see them so close up.

Our journey took us further South, climbing up the mountains to Bwindi and then ended in possibly the most beautiful place in Uganda; Lake Bunyonyi. This is the second deepest lake in Africa but with no bilharzia or crocodiles we couldn’t resist going for a swim, even though it was raining and pretty cold!

As well as wonderful people and great holidays there have also been some successes at work. The main one being Uganda Media Women’s Association (UMWA)’s International Women’s Day celebrations.  The 8th March is a day for the world to recognise and celebrate women’s achievements and highlight important issues facing women today.  This year the Ugandan theme was maternal health and with 16 women dying every day during pregnancy or child birth it is an issue that needs a lot of attention. The run up to the event was a little tense as even though I had secured a few corporate sponsors we didn’t get confirmation that our fundraising proposal to UNFPA had been successful until 5 days before the event. But with lots of last minute decisions and publicity we managed to pull off a great event with around 400 attendees. There was drama from the UMWA drama group and local school children, community dialogue and a health camp with doctors & midwives giving advice to women and men who had questions about maternal health. Mama FM also ran programs for the week leading up to after the event concentrating on maternal health. So hopefully have done, and are continuing to, play our part in supporting women’s health.

The Bad:

It wouldn’t be fair to only concentrate on all of the good things so here’s some of the bad too...

Linked directly with meeting so many lovely people is the negative side of that; saying goodbye to so many lovely people. Like me, most people are only here for short periods while they research for their studies, complete internships or take part in exchanges. So unfortunately saying goodbye is becoming all too regular. But I’m sure we’ll keep in touch and the most important thing is getting to share these experiences with the people around you, even if you do have to say goodbye to them the following week.

I’m not looking forward to having to say goodbye to everyone when I leave in less than two months time. Obviously I can’t wait to see my family and friends (and eat Walkers Salt & Vinegar crisps!) but I’m going to be so sad to say goodbye. But let’s not think about that just yet...

“Muzungu.”  It’s not a bad word but sometimes it gets a bit much constantly being referred to as Muzungu.  The kids down my street have now mastered ‘Alyrene-a’ but to everyone else I am just ‘Muzungu’. Most days it is absolutely wonderful to have a chat to everyone on the way to and from work and play with the kids but I must admit some mornings I miss the anonymity of London. I’m sure after a few journeys on the tube I will not feel like that and will miss the friendly smiles of everyone here!

The Ugly:

Me after sitting in the sun too long!  I got such bad sunburn a couple of months ago. Factor 40 and moving into the shade just wasn’t enough to ward off the African sun.  I was so burnt I spent the evening lying face down on Anna’s couch (the most comfortable position..!) with her putting cold towels over me – although they didn’t stay cold for long, within just a couple of minutes my skin had managed to burn them through too. A week of steroid cream and aloe vera sorted me out though.

On a more serious note though there are ugly things happening all around when people live in poverty. Betty, one of my neighbours is such a lovely woman and is very welcoming to everyone in our little village – all the children congregate at Betty’s house as she is just so warm and kind. I was walking home from work last Thursday and bumped into her – she looked awful and when I asked her if she was okay she just muttered; “I’m hungry.”  I immediately took her home and gave her some food and packed up all the food I had in the house (which wasn’t very much unfortunately) for her to take home. The father of her eldest children (18 and 16) died years ago and she now lives with her husband and Peace her adorable (and mischievous!) 5year old daughter. Her husband had gone to the East for a few weeks to work on a construction site and was due to be home that Monday but he hadn’t returned and thus she had no money and no food. With no way of contacting him she still has no idea when, or if, he will return. She broke down and it was just awful, I’m used to being a shoulder to cry on – but what could I say about this situation that would make it any better...? It’s just so awful and the heart-breaking thing is that Betty is not a one off, with 37% of the population living beneath the poverty line there are too many people in situations like Betty’s in this country....

Well not a cheery note to end on, but a memory that will stick with me forever. Thanks for taking the time to read about my Uganda experiences, it really is a very special country.