World Cup, MP’s, fireworks, and thieves

World Cup, MP’s, fireworks, and thieves

Last weekend was a great weekend! I went to Kampala, not really knowing what I was going to do. Some the other interns were going to Kampala so that they could celebrate fourth of July at the US embassy, but I thought I would just go and see where the wind took me! So I called Margaret, the Katosi Women Organization’s coordinator, and asked her if I could stay at her house. Then I packed my bags and headed into the city!

The most awesome, exciting, frustrating, and sad part of the weekend was the Ghana world cup game. I wanted Ghana to win, even though Uruguay is cool too. It just would have meant so much for Africa as a continent and as a group of people to have a team go to the semi-finals for the first time in history. Even though Ghana lost, Africa should still be proud; they fought so hard and played with such determination that even people cheering against Ghana had to admire it. The team just sort of got unlucky. To me, the game sort of parallels life in Africa as a whole. Most people work so hard to fight through such hard circumstances like poverty and violence, but history has not always been on their side. Yet at the same time, Ghana’s soccer team proved they mean something and should not be disregarded by anyone; they had a lot to contribute to the world cup, just like the African continent has a lot to contribute to the world. I just hope we can all help change Africa’s future.

So anyway, even though the Ghana game made me sad, it was still really fun to watch (I watched with Margaret, her family, and the two other interns in the Kampala office. We were all screaming and jumping up and down most of the time!!). That night, Margaret invited us to a celebration the following day. We were excited to go to another traditional Ugandan ceremony, and even more excited (and surprised) when we found out it was a ceremony for Margaret’s husband, who is a member of parliament!! What…WHAT??! We have been working at Katosi Women Trust for six weeks, and I have spent numerous days and weekends with Margaret and her family; but I never knew her husband was in parliament! CRAZY! But at the same time, it sort of explains a lot. Margaret is awesome and she definitely works really really hard, but she is also sort of a diva…a pretty wealthy one too. Because Margaret’s husband is in parliament, though all of the people that voted for him expect him to give them money out of his salary for things that they need. The MP’s don’t get much money from the government to do projects, so I guess people just expect everything they need to come from the MP’s themselves! Margaret says people line up at their home, asking for everything from medicine to money to fix their motorcycles. I guess politics are complicated everywhere!

So the celebration itself was pretty cool! It seemed like a combination of John (Margaret husband) campaigning for the next elections and the community thanking him for what he has done. There was a lot of singing, dancing, and hugging. Of course, it was all in Luganda but it was still fun! John sort of has an aura like what I imagine Obama to have. I also made a friend, I think. A four-year old girl, in the middle of the ceremony, bolted across the “stage” and right into my lap. Then she sat there for the rest of the ceremony, counting the beauty marks on my arms. It was so funny!

The way home from the ceremony was almost as good as the ceremony itself. First, we stopped at the equator! There was a little monument, and we took lots of pictures. It was really cool to stand in two hemispheres at once. Have you ever done that???? Then about half-hour outside Kampala, there was the most gigantic traffic jam I have ever seen. And it just kept getting worse, because people behind us kept driving past us on the side of the road (which made Margaret SO mad, haha), so we pretty much were in a dead stop for god knows how many hours. Eventually, we got out and walked next to the car, which was actually really fun. I probably could have gone shopping if I wanted to, but soon it got dark! So Cathy, Margaret’s daughter, and I listened to music on my ipod. I let her choose the songs, and it was cool seeing what kind of music she liked. We have a similar taste in music, so when we got home she told me she would put some really “hip” music on my ipod for me. I was expecting a few awesome Ugandan songs, but when I looked at my ipod, Cathy had put on 135 songs, 134 of which were American. Hahahah!

The rest of the weekend was eventful too, although nothing enormous happened. Margaret thought the noise from the fireworks at the US embassy on fourth of July were gunshots, which I actually don’t blame her for. That is what they sounded like! I had never thought of the fact that our firework celebrations could evoke a totally different feeling (like fear) among other people, especially that has a huge potential to face violence.

Another event of last weekend has to do with thieves! Scarlet, another intern, and I were walking down the really busy park of Kampala to catch a bus back to Katosi. The street was so crowded with cars, and the sidewalk was so crowded with people that we were all bumping into each other and it was kind of making me dizzy. At one point, I looked behind me because I thought I lost Scarlet. She was still right behind me, but I saw her spin in a circle, grab someone’s wrist, and yell “give it back!!” Then this random guy that had been walking next to us looked mad and then handed her something he had stolen out of her backpack. Normally, the whole thing would make me mad, but it was just so awesome how Scarlet reacted. She is this tiny, soft-spoken Chinese girl, but she totally used her kung-fu assertiveness to scare away a pick-pocketer. It was so awesome!

That is pretty much it about interesting events! (oh yeah, except when I walking around in Katosi and I was cerenated by a parade of people that were dancing and singing. They pretty much surrounded me, so I danced with them for a bit and everyone thought it was funny. Then later I found out it was a rite of passage circumcision ceremony, dang!) These last few weeks in Katosi are going to be busy. I have gardens to plant, murals to paint, and books to write! (Avery and I are making booklets with ideas and instructions for Sanitation Club projects for schools in Katosi. They other day, we went around to three schools and met with teachers asking them what sort of sanitation projects they needed and what would be useful for their schools, so we can include that in the book). And I love teaching; it is just so awesome watching students learn right before your eyes.

I hope I am making a difference in Katosi, even if it is a really small one.