A vist with Kevin

A few days ago, Avery and I went to visit one of the Ugandan friends we met, Kevin, who lives in the village next to Katosi with his mom and his 18 siblings! Kevins's mom had 18 children with two different men, yet neither one of the men has stayed around the home (Kevin's dad actually died because he was shot by the police in a land dispute. Kevin still has such a good atitude, and he smiles all the time no matter what goes wrong. I really admire him.) Marriage here is actually quite interesting, and I honestly dont really get how it works. I honestly have seen like one family that has two parents living together. I think the men often just "marry" women, have kids and then move on to another woman leaving the first wife alone to raise their children. And that is pretty much the best case scenario. Margaret, the Katosi organization's director, told me that she was proud that her father only had one wife at a time, even though he had many wives over his lifetime. I guess that is better than having many wives at once, but i still don't think it is fair to the women!!



Anyway, Avery and I had a long conversation with Kevin about life and politics in Uganda, and it was really quite interesting. We talked about Mussevini and the elections that are coming up next summer. Kevin, as well as every single other Ugandan I have talked to, are worried and frankly almost terrified about election time. Although Kevin recognized that Mussevini has done a lot of good things for Uganda, he said the younger generation doesn't really like him that much because he has been in power for too long. But he did say the older Ugandans, even if they may not like Mussevini, will vote for him because they want to avoid war. Mussevini has apparently said that he came to power through a gun, and that is the only way he will leave power. Even the Ugandans are going to get the heck out of Kampala during election time.



Then I started to wonder what people here think about Idi Amin. It seems like Amin's dictatorship is hardly in the public memory at all, at least not openly. Even though Amin killed pretty much anyone that threatened his power, it seems like the violence really depended on who you were and what region of Uganda you lived in. I guess people in Southern Uganda, where I am now, were not as badly affected during Amin. Raymond, my homestay brother, was reading my Uganda guidebook one day, which has a little history about the country at the beginning. I asked him if the history was interesting to read, and he told me that he was surprised because he had no idea Amin killed so many people. Raymond also said that Amin is not really in the public memory because Ugandans are good at forgetting. Would that be a good thing?



Another political issue that I have found interesting is Uganda's relationship with Sudan. I read the Ugandan newspaper almost everyday, and I LOVE it because it is full of all of the interesting things that only take up a tiny section of newspapers in the US. Some of Uganda's government ministers wrote to the newspaper about how the west is only trying to villify Sudan by issuing arrest warrants for president Al-bashir, like the one by the ICC, in order to "pave the way for the ultimate usupation of Sudan's vast and rich resources." I would have to disagree with that! And it is quite interesting because the African Union is set to meet in Kampala this month. At first Mussevini told Al-bashir he could not come (since Uganda is a member of the ICC), but then he had to re-invite Al-bashir since Uganda is also a member of the african Union which voted to ignore the ICC's arrest warrant. I wonder what is going to happen!!