I recently finished reading “The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity”. It was one of those books that I’d randomly picked up at the Strand Annex after work, and then let sit on the shelf for a long, long time. I didn’t bring many books when I moved here, so I figured I should bring something thought provoking that I hadn’t already read. After I made my way through Harry Potter and a few other 700+page fantasy books, it was still there waiting for me. The author spent a lot of working with charities in Somalia in the 90s. The stories he tells are terrible, and really make you want to consider whether we do any good by giving development aid. Who’s really being developed? The poorest and most vulnerable? How often is it the already-elite profiting from the influx of money and goods?

Food aid in particular received a lot of attention – and criticism – in Maren’s book. Walking around town I saw a little sliver of that aid pie going somewhere other than its intended destination. Walk into the Embassy Supermarket and you’ll see a tall pile of USAID vegetable oil cans for sale right in the entrance. As the name suggests, its right across from the US Embassy. The same thing’s happening all over town – I took this photo in a market near my house.

All of my loved ones made it through the fires ok - thank goodness!

Home Fires Burning

When I was in high school, a big wildfire threatened the community near my home. Our house was in no danger, but we watched the flames from the balcony at night, and the ash floated over ours streets and coated the cars. My parents had a school out in the canyon pretty close to the blaze. They opened up the school to the firefighters and gave them coffee and snacks and somewhere to sit down and take a break.
I haven't been following the news back home closely, but tuned in when I saw the California wildfire reports online. The Santiago fire is near the homes of a few of my family members - thankfully the sister who living in an apartment right near the foothills moved earlier in the year. My little sister is at San Diego State - the campus isn't under threat of fire, but the smoke situation can't be good....Hoping the Santa Anas cooperate, and that everyone stays safe.
"The fire was set near Santiago and Silverado canyons in a way to maximize its spread, authorities said, and will probably take at least two weeks to contain."

Happy half-anniversary to me! It's been six months since I left the US for Uganda. I'm finally feeling settled in my house (now that I've bought a couch), and I'm starting to really, really to miss things from home. Aside from the obvious (loved ones), some of the things that I miss:

• Home postal service. Even when it's just catalogs, it's nice to come home and find things that weren't there when you left. I've only received 2 pieces of personal mail so far: 1) the Saddleback Valley News and 2) a letter from my friend Gen.
• Soy sauce. I've tried every brand available here from Pearl River to American Garden, and I'm dying for some Kikkoman. Who knew there were so many ways to make bad soy sauce? And that sometimes its not even salty?
• The Subway. Driving can be fun, bet there are those rainy mornings when I just don't want to deal with the >30km of driving to Entebbe, dodging trucks, bikes, people, animals, potholes, and who knows what else. Getting on the train with a cup of coffee and not paying attention to how you got there feels like an absolute luxury right now.
• Fall (and soon, winter). It's almost always sunny. Like California, but better. Changing seasons has always been one of my favorite parts of living in New York. Why I bothered packing a few sweaters and cords, I'll never know.
• Paying with plastic. No paying with a debit card. No online payments for anything. Every now and then, you can pay for something via text message (it deducts airtime from your cellphone) - one area where almost everyone's got the US beat.
• Fruits that I understand. Lemons, oranges and limes - all green. The pumpkins are green, too. I miss mushrooms and peaches and just about anything that isn't a cabbage or tomato or banana. Although we do have great mangos, pineapple and avocado.

I bought a step-down transformer, so now I can use (almost) all of my American appliances that were in my shipment. Since we're on higher voltage, I need to plug in a series of adapters in oder to use everything:

The transformer into the wall> then a converter for the transformer's European plug> then a book to prop up the adaptor> then whatever I want to actually use. The whole things looks kind of dangerous. I'm just trying to keep the rigging away from water....



First up, the blender. Making passion fruit juice is a pretty messy endeavor, but worth it. I think my first batch turned out pretty well. Better than my lemonade from hand-squeezed (and I do mean only with my hands) lemonade.

Back to Lake Mburo.
I drove the PATH team for a district-wide dissemination meeting in Mbarara, a city about 4 hours south of Kampala. We left for the meeting on Independance Day. Aside from doing the drive there and back alone, dodging potholes and broken down trucks parked in the road and night - with no lights on! - I also took the guys on a game drive through the Lake Mburo National Park.
I was a big hit with the school kids - for some reason, they like taking photos with foreigners.
A not-so-big croc sleeping my the lakeshore

Scott would have preferred that we kept our distance!

I was looking forward to watching some TV in the hotel - maybe catching up on the local news and entertainment. Big Brother Africa was playing on ALL channels, though. Does TV get any more boring that watching people sleep? Who actually tunes into this show?
We had pretty good turn out for the meeting from District Health and Education representatives. Dissemination trips to the three other research districts should be coming up soon.

Scrap it out!

We made another trip out to Leslie's land for brunch and to check on the progress of her construction. The outing started out with a little storm, and ended with a big one...
The captain gets out the wet weather gear


Building on the tented lodge-style 'cabin' should be done soon. Once the roof is thatched, they'll complete the flooring. Looking forward to weekends camping out there!

Row upon row of sweet potato growing under a very old tree

A village school awaiting grant funds to finish construction

The local wildlife (aka dinner)

Picked up a chicken for dinner on the island - hanging out in the bow for the ride home

Just after we left, a big storm came in. Despite the excellent canopy on the canoe, we got pretty wet!

Next phase of canopy construction: roll-down windows