March 24

Fatima and Christina at the National Coalition for Woman with Aids, Kampala

Alice at NACOA explains the challenges faced by women in today's Uganda. She and one of the few men in the coalition, sit in front of a quilt embroidered with the names of all the women in their organization who have died.

Beatrice Were, one of the leading HIV-positive AIDS activists in Africa

The men and women of NACOA

Back at Banda Inns for lunch

Drama Professor Patrick Mangeni at Makere University

Judith Adong, Writer and Lecturer at Makarere's Institue of Languages

Steven Nyeko, a young Kampala-based filmmaker

On the shores of Lake Victoria, Binyavanga and James talk politics

We join Ugandan novelist Doreen Baingana for astonishingly good Pizza and Tilapia - that's Anurita Bains to Doreen's left

Definitely not goat

Three visits today.

1) The National Coalition for Woman with AIDS in Uganda.

This is an organization that supports women (and now men) who are HIV positive. We met a large group of women, and three men. All the women were widows raising children. Most were on ARVs (Anti Retro Virals). Uganda has been good in rolling out treatment. But there are now second wave challenges. among them:

- extreme side effects which go untreated - so much so that now some women refuse treatment to begin with (Fatima's side effects included blisters covering her entire body, and sores on her mouth which welded her lips together - surgery was needed to part them - she was curious as to whether the West had better treatments that weren't reaching Africa. A good question).

- lack of employment for people living with the disease successfully. this means no income, no food for children

NACOA has almost no funding, yet boasts a membership of 20,000 women across Uganda. 

And they sang for us. Beauty and strength. 

Among our favourite lyrics:

"Traditional beliefs torture women"

2) Makarere University

We had a fascinating chat with two teachers and an ex-student, now a filmmaker. A glimpse into the writing and theatre of Uganda. An interesting sidebar: NGO commissions occupy the place of corporate gigs in North America. That's where the money is for writers - and that's where the quality doesn't matter. Brand-placement matters to the average NGO.

3) Lake Victoria with Doreen Baingana

Binyavanga's old friend Doreen invited us to Lake Victoria for dinner. It was marvelous. And so was Doreen - a wise and delightful woman. 

Home to bed. It's late. Blogging steals time from sleep!

Easter Evening

Ekitoobero's Menu - made from bark. A traditional Ugandan restaurant

Kalundi and Maria question the waitress in Luganda, the language of Buganda (central Uganda)

Billy Kahora from Nairobi 

Binyavanga at dinner, while Maria looks on

Goat? 

Dinner with Kalundi (Ugandan filmmaker) and Maria (Ugandan accountant) and Billy Kahora (Kenyan editor - works with Binyavanga on the literary journal, Kwani?). We ate at Ekitoobero - a surreal experience. The bright yellow room made everyone look somewhat ill. The service was bizarre - we were asked to pay in advance, Maria had to get clean tablecloths for us to put on ourselves, the entire restaurant was geared - it seemed - to be watching the soccer match between Chelsea and Aresenal. Our was the only room of many in which the TV wasn't on. Anytime  a goal was scored, cheering interrupted our conversation.

And what a conversation. Kalundi was very curious as to why we were in Africa, and suspicious of Western fascination in the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It was his grandmother's town in Uganda that was ground zero for the disease in the late eighties. He lost most of his extended family. He is clearly tired of talking about it - and of talk of it. As he said, many Africans have died of many things, but the West seems fixated on this. Why?

A good question. To which he provided some challenging answers. These may turn up in the work.

A fascinating night.

Easter

A young girl at Easter service in the Mbuya Catholic church

A wall at a cement yard in Kampala

Man on bicycle in Kampala

Street hawker, Kampala

The Uhr-Tortoise

Ok.

1) Jet lag. 

Hits.

Us.

2) Thunder.

The loudest thunder clap in the history of the world happened last night. The house shook.

3) Today is Easter. Kampala is rather Christian.

So we go to a catholic service near a site called Reach Out Mbuya. Immaculately dressed people. Astonishingly well-behaved children. And an enormous crowd. The church is full. Another adjacent room is full. The verandah outside is full. We stand.

Otherwise. It's, like, church. I think the priest, somewhat to my astonishment, is Irish.

LATER NOTE: turns out he's Italian, but with a very strange hybrid accent...

4) A Driving Tour of Kampala.

Highlights:

- Muammar Ghaddafi's newly named (after himself) mosque. He was here yesterday. Headlines.

- beautiful downtown government buildings

- a slum, in which we see

- a bus-breaking yard, where men are taking apart old trucks and buses with sledgehammers

- a trip to a supermarket for beer, gin and tonic (for our own Easter celebration)

- and a giant, 300-year-old (as legend has it) tortoise

Then rain. And rain. And more rain.

So we sit on the verandah at Banda Inns, sipping our G&Ts, and blogging.

March 22

Liesl and Christina on the verandah at Banda Inns, Kampala

Binyavanga has some tea, and gives me some attitude...

Idah joins us on the veranda at Banda Inns

Florence is puzzled by my photographic technique...

Five Things 

1) Breakfast.

O. My. God. Perhaps the best eggs ever. And bacon. And tea. And fruit.

The coffee was instant. 

We didn't try it.

2) Binyavanga Wainaina joins us - our final compadre - from Kenya.

3) A meeting with Idah Mukuka.

The first meeting with one of two powerful, wonderful, impressive women. 

Idah has lost a brother and a husband to AIDS. She is herself positive, and has publicly declared herself as such. Her story, one of stigmatization, and of the struggle faced by women who are positive, is staggering. Idah is herself a miracle - to have become so proactive in fighting for the rights of African women, to be so prominent in the saving of lives across the continent - this is an enormous story. After designing counseling strategies for the YWCA, she now works for the Stephen Lewis foundation in Africa, assessing the grants made to the foundation. 

She spent the day with us. And came with us on the next visit.

4) A meeting with Florence Nightengale Mukasa, and her interpreter, Olivia Bulega.

Florence runs the Uganda Silent Theatre - a theatre for the deaf in Uganda. Florence spoke to us of the challenges faced by the handicapped community in Africa, especially in the face of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Though the infection rate is going down in the general population, it is accelerating in the handicapped community. The main determiner is access to information. No AIDS info exists in brail. No information is relayed to the hearing impaired through signing. But there are many more complicating factors: 

- men who rape know that the handicapped will seldom speak up, or even be able to identify them; 

- handicapped women will often say yes to a man's advances because they feel their likelihood of acquiring a boyfriend is so slim; 

- doctors will often not explain HIV/AIDS to a deaf (or blind) patient, but rather to a relative. The illness is therefore not understood by  the patient, and treatment is compromised. 

Florence and her Theatre group create plays to inform the deaf (and hearing) communities of these issues. They also address other subjects, but, at the moment, the pandemic is front and centre. 

Idah (from the Stephen Lewis foundation), and Anurita (who works with AIDS Free World) both suggested to Florence that she come to the SLF with a grant proposal. This is wonderful work, being done by a remarkable woman.

5) Dinner at Indian Summer. Again - the food in Uganda is STUPENDOUS. And a local beer - Bell Lager - was found not to be wanting. Not at all.

Getting There

Christina Anderson at JFK

The Flying Dutch

When:

March 20, 2008

How:

(for me, that is - Ross Manson - CDN theatre director...)

- 26 hours door to door

- leave South Philly (where i sometimes live) for the bus station

- wait (1 hr)

- bus to NYC (2hrs)

- subway to JFK (1 hr)

- wait (3.5 hrs - 2 Guinness and a burger)

- plane to Amsterdam Schipol (6.5 hrs - sleep)

- wait (3 hrs - 2 coffees and a ham sandwich)

- plane to Entebbe (8 hrs - 3 movies)

- minivan to Kampala (1 hr)

This includes meeting four of my compadres who are, in order of appearance at JFK: 

1) Anurita Bains (CDN - advisor and expert on HIV/AIDS in Africa, coming from Toronto)

2) Christina Anderson (American - and playwright, coming from Providence)

3) Liesl Tommie (South African - and director, coming from Pitsburg)

It also includes:

1) better-than-average airplane food (KLM), 

2) Anurita bumping in to TWO people she knows at the Schipol airport (the NGO travel scene)

3) a jaw-dropping verdant smell in stepping off the plane at Entebbe

4) and the Jesus Saves Mini-Supermarket on the night drive into Kampala

And so we arrive in Africa. The evening of March 21, 2008.