The last 5 weeks

We’re definitely in the lull stage of the project – protocol has been standardized, interviews are conducted, and data is entered throughout the week; only 5 weeks to go, actually. I know it's going to fly by. I’m pretty sure Godfrey thinks we’re bored because at out last meeting he planned a trip for us on Saturday to Lake Mburo National Park. It’s nowhere as monumental animal-wise as Queen Elizabeth but it’s really close – only an hour away – and they have zebras :-D

I was originally heading to Rwanda this weekend; now I’ll be traveling there July 8th – 12th. I was going to try to squeeze in Tanzania as well but it’s looking unlikely at this point; there just isn’t enough time. Uganda is actually an ideal base from which to travel in East Africa; it’s gorgeous, jam-packed with highlights, relatively small and borders many countries. However, transportation, as you can imagine, is very slow in Africa. The roads are usually in poor condition and there are numerous stops and starts when traveling on buses. The only other option is flying – which doesn’t follow the cheap trend like most other commodities here. I looked at a flight from Kampala to Dar Es Salaam/Zanzibar – where I really had my heart set on visiting (and definitely will someday!) – and round-trip is $490. The bus option is affordable but takes 36 hours – which doesn’t mesh well with work and would likely be one hellish journey.

I sat next to a man who spoke English fairly well on my last bus ride from Kampala to Mbarara. We got to talking and I found out he’s a graduate of Makerere University, the school I stayed at in Kampala upon arriving to Uganda that was once considered “The Harvard of East Africa” in its intellectual heyday of the 1960’s, before the rise of Amin. As we traveled, he complained several times about the bus driver’s erratic driving and the horribly slow pace of the trip. I told him it would be wonderful if Uganda could have a state-of-the-art, reliable train system built – one that ran on clean energy – maybe solar – and was affordable for the majority of citizens. Uganda is a small enough country that most of the urban centers could be railed together easily and it would definitely lead to more economic growth from faster travel. But then, he said, that would put the bus drivers out of business.

If anyone is looking for some first-class, non-fiction reads about Africa, I have two recommendations. The first is Africa Doesn’t Matter by Giles Bolton, a British aid-worker who discusses the many blunders of foreign aid – past and present – and why Africa has struggled to rise out of poverty. He lays out facts very clearly and it’s full of interesting tidbits of information that you’ll feel intelligent for learning. The second is The Invisible Cure by Helen Epstein, a scientist/public health graduate who originally came to Uganda in the early 1990’s to research an HIV vaccination. This book follows her unplanned, relentless journey to determine why the HIV rate in Uganda dropped so sharply as the rates of richer, sub-Saharan countries skyrocketed, while exposing the many fallacies of heavily-funded HIV interventions in Africa (if choosing, read this one; it’s brilliant).