Happy Anniversary to me!

The one-year anniversary of my move to Kampala (today!) also happens to be Earth Day. I did a little comparison of my carbon footprint over the last year, and *surprise! surprise!* while I've been here trying to do good, my travel around the globe has been taking its toll. A little comparison of:

Me in Brooklyn (until April last year)
Me since moving to Uganda (compared to other Americans in the USA)
Me since moving to Uganda (compared to Ugandans)





Guess I have a lot to make up for when I get back.....

I took a few days off of work (least I can do since the guy moved continents, right?) and we headed to Jinja for a drive around Jinja, lunch near the Bujagali falls, and dodging huge trucks on the way home.

Last time Kody was here, I really had no idea where to hang out in Kampala. This time around, I'm trying to do a much better job (have to keep up appearances of a very active social life, right?). We met up with Dorte and Mikkel for dinner at Tuhende, and then headed over to the Mayfair Casino for a comparatively quiet cocktail.

On the way home, I was thanking my lucky stars that I have been extremely disciplined about what I had to drink that night. I had the pleasure of taking my first breathalyzer test on the way home. I was sure that I was fine, but the whole process was a little nerve-wracking. Especially because the officer speaking with me made it very clear that we could come to an 'agreement' if I thought I would have 'trouble' with the tests. Disconcerting indeed.

Seems that not everyone got the offer - at least three people were hauled off to jail in the 15 minutes I was there.

Welcome to Kampala, Kody!

Peaches and Herb

Kody arrived, safe and sound, after a rough last few days in the US. Getting evicted is never fun, but getting the news when your friends (aka subletters) are on the doorstep? And you're 8 hours away in Maine? Sucks. Mike and Dianne will have to come move the rest of Kody's things to storage. Otherwise, he seems to be settling in fine.

Stuck to the interweb, as per usual.

Kwanjula Paul and Rose (134)
Originally uploaded by gablam

Last weekend I joined colleagues to celebrate the kwanjula of Rose and Paul, colleagues from IAVI who are getting married this spring. I followed along with the other ladies, trying to judge when I was supposed to kneel, etc. The ceremony was in Luganda, but you could follow along the context failry well. Being on the man's side at this traditional introduction (engagement) ceremony, we had a lot more work to do.

Somehow I managed to balance baskets on my head with one hand, while keeping my traditional dress together with the other. For the second round of gift-giving, I ended up at the front of the line. Since I wasn't sure where I was supposed to be going (or what I was supposed to be doing) I was a little nervous about the whole thing, but had fun dancing the group in. My colleagues tell me that I (the 'one who comes from far away'), the only foreigner at the kwanjula, was given a name. By the end, we'd given goats, chickens, a cow, heaps of baskets, crates of beer, a huge gourd of traditional brew, traveling clothes and who knows what else. And the bride-to-be wore no fewer than four different dresses. The Bugandans do love a costume change! More photos on flickr here.

Raw00696
Originally uploaded by gablam

My rescue was successful, so I've got a few more photos from India to share. I'm hoping to get more from my colleagues - including the Delhi debut of my hip hop duo with the lovely Maaza.

They're on flickr here.

Back-tracking a little bit

I had my first-ever kayaking experience with my friend Dorte on Lake Victoria.

We were a little worried that we would be trapped at the sailing club when we finished, because the road was closed off for a car rally. You could see the dust and hear the cheers from the lake! When we finished our fun by choppy kayak trip (I was covered in Lake Victoria by the end, and convinced that I'd contracted bilharzia), we had to enter the car rally in order to get home. The crowd loved Dorte's driving!

landing.JPG
Originally uploaded by glamourelle

Children at a fishing village landing site near my work in Entebbe

HAZA!!!!

I've managed to recover the vast majority of pictures and videos that I stupidly formatted over, using the miraculous program RescuePRO. I'll be uploading more photos from India when I return from a short trip to the field here in Uganda. For now, enjoy this one of some guy trying to sell my friend Skip a fake beard (and Skip trying to ditch him) in front of the Red
Fort in Old Delhi.

Back on the blog!

A lot has been going on in the last month, and I just haven't found the time to update the blog lately. In brief, all of Kampala went to see UB40 perform live (we don't get too many international acts here). Things are picking up on my cervical cancer vaccine project, and so I'm finally starting to travel out into the field more. I went to India (for work) for the first time last week, and stupidly deleted all of my photos. So the only proof I have is this photo of me at the Taj Mahal. The other 12 glamour shots won't go up online, but are available on request.

And most importantly, I'm counting the days until Kody moves to Uganda!