November 12, 2009
The more that I see of the rural poverty, the life of the subsistence farmers who comprise a large chunk of the population, the disputes over access to fertile land and the large numbers of children (families of 10 children are not uncommon) that Ugandan women bear, the more distressed I have felt about trying to meet the basic needs of so many people. It was with great interest, then, that I bought the October 31st issue of The Economist which featured a cover story called “Falling fertility: How the population problem is solving itself.” This is a very well-written and engaging article which stimulated some sense of relief as well as concern in me. Some of the key points:
The replacement level of fertility is 2.1. The global average fertility rate is 2.3. The dramatically falling fertility rate (in 1950 it was 5.0) will dip below the global replacement rate for the first time in 2020.
In the 1970s only 24 countries had fertility rates of 2.1 or less, all of them rich. Now there are over 70 such countries, and in every continent, including Africa.
Between 1950 and 2000 the average fertility rate in developing countries fell by half from six to three- three fewer children in each family in just 50 years.
The Economist reports that the reason for this is that poor agrarian families find it more advantageous and less costly (per child) to have more children but that as their financial circumstances improve smaller families are more desired and make greater economic sense. Data show a strong relationship between per capita income and fertility. The spread of female education also leads to decreased fertility. Note that even if current projections hold, the world population is still expected to grow from 6 to 9 billion people before it levels off. Can our planet really support 3 billion more people and maintain ecological health? I am certainly not an expert on these matters. I just wanted to share them with you because I found it very interesting to read about. I must admit there is a part of me that gets so overwhelmed when I start thinking about environmental issues and population (issues such as de-forestaion, greenhouse gases, pollution, oil) that I think, “the next generation will just have to handle this without me” and I go back to concentrating on making a difference in my own small ways in spheres that I especially care about.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Gender Roles: Old and New in Uganda
November 5, 2009
Kate, the intern I wrote about in the Sustainable Development posting, also shared with me a story about the experience of two other interns that affected me greatly. An intern was assigned to talk with people in the local village about what people who are HIV+ need to do to stay healthy and to help their children to be healthy. No one would talk to her at all and people denied that there was any problem or AIDS in the village. There was ample reason to believe that this was not the case but no one would talk. After some sleuthing around what they discovered was that the men in the village were getting tested and, if they were HIV+ they were getting the medication they needed from the hospital in the closest city. But they were not telling their wives about the situation (because of the stigma of being HIV+) and almost all the mothers in the village were dying off “for unknown reasons”. The children were being cared for by the grandmothers, sometimes in their 70s and 80s taking care of 10 – 15 in one household, including many orphans from unrelated families.
Kate and Suki (the other intern) also told me that women have no sexual power in traditional society either to say “no” to sex or to require the use of a condom.
Hearing this distressed me profoundly and I decided to modify my planned talk on Nonviolent Communication for my second and final class with about 100 students at the YMCA business school in Jinga. Over 80% of the students at the school are females, pursing various occupational trainings such as secretarial work, child care, counseling, and tourism. One of the points that I got from Kate and Suki is that most of the people are just not used to having open discussions about topics such as these, and I figured that supporting such a discussion, considering different alternatives regarding the beliefs that we want to guide our lives, the values that are supported by different types of beliefs could be very useful for them. I also wanted to be respectful of their right to choose how they want to live their lives and what beliefs are meaningful to them.
I figured a discussion, drawing from the Narrative Therapy perspectives I have been studying, would be useful. I would ask them, collectively, to generate a list of traditional Ugandan beliefs about men and women and consider the impact of these beliefs on them, how they live their lives, their values, how they want to be in the world and their relationships with each other. Then I would ask them to generate a set of other kinds of beliefs about men and women that they have been exposed to, thought about or could imagine and what the effect of holding the alternative set of beliefs is on them. My intention was to have the evaluate the effects of these sets of beliefs, potentially to consider what story or stories about men and women they want to embrace in their lives.
They were pretty excited and engaged in this activity and some of what they came up with is below.
Traditional Ugandan Beliefs About Men and Women
* A man is supposed to ask for sex at any time he feels like having it and a woman has to give in whether she likes it or not.
* A woman is supposed to do all the domestic work and raise food. Men do cultural work like hunting.
* Men are masters over women.
* Women are emotionally weak.
* A woman should not talk when a man is talking.
* Women are not supposed to sit on chairs.
* Women should kneel when greeting someone.
* Women are not allowed to work in any organization.
* Women are inferior to men.
* Women are not supposed to eat certain foods like chicken, eggs and fish.
* The first man to have sex with a woman must marry her.
* Only men can inherit property.
* Men should marry several women.
* If a couple can't have children it's the woman's fault.
* Women should not give their views in public.
* The first priority for a family is to educate its men.
* Circumcision of men and women is desirable.
* Women are not allowed to preach.
* Girls and women can't climb trees or ride bicycles.
* Women cannot wear trousers; men cannot wear skirts.
* Women cannot drive cars safely.
* It is OK for men to rape women.
* Women should always be submissive to men.
* Women are the property of men.
* Men are always right.
* A woman is to blame for everything that goes wrong.
* The children in a family belong to the man.
* A man has a right to have as many women as he wants but a woman has to stick to only one.
* A man is supposed to decide “yes” or “no” but not women.
Modern Beliefs About Men and Women
* Women and men have equal rights like freedom on speech., education, participation in politics.
* Girls and women can climb trees, ride bicycles and drive cars.
* Women can work outside the home.
* Women do not need to kneel or be subservient to men.
* Women can sit on chairs and wear trousers
Looking at the lists, I am regretting that I didn't ask them questions about modern beliefs about how men and women might run a household together or treat each other. I was surprised and relieved to learn that the belief that is prevalent in South Africa, that a man can prevent AIDS or be cured of AIDS by having sex with a virgin is unfamiliar in Uganda. Sadly, in South Africa and some other countries (e.g. nearby Zimbabwe, I believe) that belief is a cause of many rapes of young women, girls and even female babies, frequently infecting them with the HIV virus.
Although there were indications that the students were very engaged in this activity, it was extremely difficult to get discussion going in the group as a whole, perhaps because of the reluctance of females, who comprised the majority of the class, to speak in public. I talked about the implications of women not feeling free to say “no” to a request for sex. How could a man know that a woman was really wanting to be with him for the enjoyment of his presence rather than because of feeling obligated in she were not free to say “no?” Don't we all want to be with people who really want to be with us? Don't we want to be loved for who we are? We can never trust that a “yes” is honest if people are not free to say “no.” I sensed this was a new take on things for these students. Ultimately, I affirmed, they have to decide how they want to live their lives, what beliefs and stories support them in being how they want to be and which ones they want to use to guide their decisions and their lives.
Kate, the intern I wrote about in the Sustainable Development posting, also shared with me a story about the experience of two other interns that affected me greatly. An intern was assigned to talk with people in the local village about what people who are HIV+ need to do to stay healthy and to help their children to be healthy. No one would talk to her at all and people denied that there was any problem or AIDS in the village. There was ample reason to believe that this was not the case but no one would talk. After some sleuthing around what they discovered was that the men in the village were getting tested and, if they were HIV+ they were getting the medication they needed from the hospital in the closest city. But they were not telling their wives about the situation (because of the stigma of being HIV+) and almost all the mothers in the village were dying off “for unknown reasons”. The children were being cared for by the grandmothers, sometimes in their 70s and 80s taking care of 10 – 15 in one household, including many orphans from unrelated families.
Kate and Suki (the other intern) also told me that women have no sexual power in traditional society either to say “no” to sex or to require the use of a condom.
Hearing this distressed me profoundly and I decided to modify my planned talk on Nonviolent Communication for my second and final class with about 100 students at the YMCA business school in Jinga. Over 80% of the students at the school are females, pursing various occupational trainings such as secretarial work, child care, counseling, and tourism. One of the points that I got from Kate and Suki is that most of the people are just not used to having open discussions about topics such as these, and I figured that supporting such a discussion, considering different alternatives regarding the beliefs that we want to guide our lives, the values that are supported by different types of beliefs could be very useful for them. I also wanted to be respectful of their right to choose how they want to live their lives and what beliefs are meaningful to them.
I figured a discussion, drawing from the Narrative Therapy perspectives I have been studying, would be useful. I would ask them, collectively, to generate a list of traditional Ugandan beliefs about men and women and consider the impact of these beliefs on them, how they live their lives, their values, how they want to be in the world and their relationships with each other. Then I would ask them to generate a set of other kinds of beliefs about men and women that they have been exposed to, thought about or could imagine and what the effect of holding the alternative set of beliefs is on them. My intention was to have the evaluate the effects of these sets of beliefs, potentially to consider what story or stories about men and women they want to embrace in their lives.
They were pretty excited and engaged in this activity and some of what they came up with is below.
Traditional Ugandan Beliefs About Men and Women
* A man is supposed to ask for sex at any time he feels like having it and a woman has to give in whether she likes it or not.
* A woman is supposed to do all the domestic work and raise food. Men do cultural work like hunting.
* Men are masters over women.
* Women are emotionally weak.
* A woman should not talk when a man is talking.
* Women are not supposed to sit on chairs.
* Women should kneel when greeting someone.
* Women are not allowed to work in any organization.
* Women are inferior to men.
* Women are not supposed to eat certain foods like chicken, eggs and fish.
* The first man to have sex with a woman must marry her.
* Only men can inherit property.
* Men should marry several women.
* If a couple can't have children it's the woman's fault.
* Women should not give their views in public.
* The first priority for a family is to educate its men.
* Circumcision of men and women is desirable.
* Women are not allowed to preach.
* Girls and women can't climb trees or ride bicycles.
* Women cannot wear trousers; men cannot wear skirts.
* Women cannot drive cars safely.
* It is OK for men to rape women.
* Women should always be submissive to men.
* Women are the property of men.
* Men are always right.
* A woman is to blame for everything that goes wrong.
* The children in a family belong to the man.
* A man has a right to have as many women as he wants but a woman has to stick to only one.
* A man is supposed to decide “yes” or “no” but not women.
Modern Beliefs About Men and Women
* Women and men have equal rights like freedom on speech., education, participation in politics.
* Girls and women can climb trees, ride bicycles and drive cars.
* Women can work outside the home.
* Women do not need to kneel or be subservient to men.
* Women can sit on chairs and wear trousers
Looking at the lists, I am regretting that I didn't ask them questions about modern beliefs about how men and women might run a household together or treat each other. I was surprised and relieved to learn that the belief that is prevalent in South Africa, that a man can prevent AIDS or be cured of AIDS by having sex with a virgin is unfamiliar in Uganda. Sadly, in South Africa and some other countries (e.g. nearby Zimbabwe, I believe) that belief is a cause of many rapes of young women, girls and even female babies, frequently infecting them with the HIV virus.
Although there were indications that the students were very engaged in this activity, it was extremely difficult to get discussion going in the group as a whole, perhaps because of the reluctance of females, who comprised the majority of the class, to speak in public. I talked about the implications of women not feeling free to say “no” to a request for sex. How could a man know that a woman was really wanting to be with him for the enjoyment of his presence rather than because of feeling obligated in she were not free to say “no?” Don't we all want to be with people who really want to be with us? Don't we want to be loved for who we are? We can never trust that a “yes” is honest if people are not free to say “no.” I sensed this was a new take on things for these students. Ultimately, I affirmed, they have to decide how they want to live their lives, what beliefs and stories support them in being how they want to be and which ones they want to use to guide their decisions and their lives.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
What Sustainable Development Might Look Like: One Intern's Experience
November 5, 2009
I am staying this week at a small family-run guest house in Jinja, Uganda, a small city 60 km from Kampala. At the house are also two young, short-term interns (3-6 months) associated with the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD - www.fsdinternational.org). I have spoken with one of them, Kate, from Washington State, in some detail and these conversations have had a major impact on me.
In this posting I would like to tell you about her work for FSD. Kate was assigned by FSD to work with a major NGO that assists HIV+ people in a variety of ways. Her work is in a small village near Jinja and her task has been to talk to people who are HIV+ and develop a plan with them of a project that would help to sustain them economically, to meet basic needs more effectively. From conversations with the assistance of an interpreter of the local language, she found that between harvests the people have little to eat. They usually eat only one meal a day at that time because they have no way to preserve food. She had heard of a nearby village that was drying food for preservation and learned of someone near Kampala who was an expert in canning and asked the people if these activities were something that they were interested in doing. They were extremely enthusiastic about the idea. Because the village is close to a major tourist center in Uganda (where I went whitewater rafting and where bungee jumping and kayaking are also very popular) there is also the possibility of selling these products to tourists for income generation.
So, Kate wrote a proposal for a seed grant ($200) from FSD describing the plan she and the villagers put together. Kate is leaving Uganda in a few days, having finished her 9-week commitment. Within that time, she co-developed the plan for food preservation, wrote the proposal, investigated how they could make driers using local equipment, hired a carpenter to construct the driers from wood and sheets of metal, brought in the canning consultant to teach the group members how to can, experimented with the group about what to dip the drying food in to attain good results (as far as appearance and taste go), wrote another grant for an additional $600 to build more driers, found local restaurants that would be interested in buying their products directly (rather than going through the local market and paying the cost of a middle man), and helped to set prices, and design marketing strategies. This morning at breakfast I tasted the first jar of pineapple jam produced by this group! I was amazed! Kate gave a lot of credit to her group, which has become very cohesive in supporting each other, transparent in sharing what they are doing with the money that is available, and open to discussing problems and issues. It is their project and she is hopeful that they will continue to develop their skills and organization after she leaves. She hopes that in January another intern will be assigned to further support them in their goals. FYI – I just check the FSD web-site. As I expected, interns and volunteers for FSD pay their own travel and maintenance expenses because there is no way that developing countries could afford to pay them. What they get is an incredible learning and growth experience. People of all ages and skills are involved.
Kate and I also talked about responding to requests for direct help from local people. “Will you help me to get glasses? My eyes are not good and I have trouble reading.” (This is a request from a student at Makerere University that I am currently dealing with.) “Will you pay my test fees so that I can take my exams?” “Will you pay for the medicine of my sick baby who will die without it?” “Can you give me money for food? My children are hungry.”
Kate doesn't believe in giving things to people, except insofar as helping them to get started with self-sustaining activities. I asked if this was because she thought such gifts encouraged dependency. I couldn't tell, but it seemed like for her it was more about wanting people to help themselves and not look for hand-outs. I guess that is close to what I asked, but it seemed like there was a shade of difference. I thought I detected a certain moralistic judgment about giving to people who are not “deserving” it, but I am not sure.
For me, the whole issue feels extremely complicated. Philosophically, I much prefer to give to organizations which can support communities, and groups and for which there is (hopefully) some sort of accountability process. But what about the student who needs the glasses? It is so hard for me to say “no” when I can say “yes.” (The other day I misplaced my glasses for a few hours and I was so grateful to know that if I needed a new pair I could get them. So I do have a small amount of experience to relate to his.) And the needs are so great. I can't possibly meet them all. And what does it mean for me to meet just this one? Will it make a difference “in the scheme of things?” Does that matter if I can just help one person right now? What about the other people who also need help right now? I find this all pretty confusing and even a bit upsetting. I have adopted the strategy of not making individual donations because it seems simpler than trying to figure out when and where to make them. But I can't say that I am comfortable with it.
Note: I did text the Makerere student that I was willing to meet with him and perhaps some others in the class to brainstorm ways he could get his glasses. I do believe there are some charities (e.g., Lions Club) that have that as a project. I would really like to see students as a group figure out ways collectively that they can support and assist each other. Somehow that seems like a better long-term investment in needs meeting than simply paying for his glasses. And it involves my supporting them in a way that I am more comfortable with. But I still struggle with the issue.
Uganda School for the Deaf: A warm visit
Sharing Nonviolent Communication with Deaf Children in Uganda
October 28, 2009
First, I would like to express my appreciation to all the members of the networks of trainers and trainer candidates of the Center for Nonviolent Communication who provided suggestions and support for my meeting with students at the Ugandan School for the Deaf a few days ago. Feeling really “out of my element”, not having a lot of experience working with children, or deaf people or Ugandans, it was very helpful and meaningful to me to receive so many thoughtful ideas and words of encouragement.
Some background.
The children at this school are among the most privileged of deaf children in Uganda in that they are in school and in what appears to me to be a very caring environment. (The school was founded 50 years ago by the mother of two deaf children and I suspect her passion, commitment and love have influenced the direction of the school tremendously. Her son is employed as an accountant in the United States; he and other “successful” graduates are held as important models for the children of what is possible.) Nationally, fewer than 10% of deaf children here are in school. It is very difficult for many parents here to pay for the educational expenses of their “normal” children, let alone find the resources to support children with special needs. And there is also the stigma of having a disabled child. Many deaf children are locked away in rooms and hidden from others. At the end of our time together I asked the children if they had any questions that they would like to ask of deaf children from the United States (I am hoping to get an interchange going) and one of their questions was “Do the parents of deaf children in the United States oppress them?”
The children are prime targets for all sorts of abuse from family members and people in the community. And because of communication problems they are especially susceptible to victimization; the perpetrator of the abuse can easily think he is invulnerable. On the continent as a whole, there is the belief among many that having sex with a virgin can cure or prevent AIDS. This leads to rape of children and young women who others may think are virgins. And, of course, the transmission of HIV to them.
The school is a very safe, protective environment for the children. Unfortunately, there are very few educational opportunities for them after they receive their primary education (7 years) unless their parents have substantial resources and determination to support their children. Most return to their home villages and have substantial struggle to meet their basic needs. Right now the Uganda School for the Deaf is fund-raising to open a vocational school for deaf students. Let me know if you would like to make a contribution and I will find out how you can do that.
I was given a tour of the school by a teacher who interpreted for me. I saw the one of the girls' dormitories of 40 bunk beds in one large room with barely room to walk around the beds. It was all very clean and neat. I saw the children dancing to music and playing games. I visited the special unit for deaf-blind children (5-10 of the children are so categorized) and also met some deaf children with additional handicaps (emotional disturbance, retardation, etc.). Then the interpreter gathered together half a dozen of the most advanced students and we went into a classroom. I explained that I had brought with me some words from children in the United States which describe some things that are very important American children and I was curious whether some of these things are also important to Ugandan children. The words were printed one per page and when I held up each work the children signed that word to signify that they understood it. As the children signed each of the words (the interpreter helped as needed) I noticed how excited the children were – they seemed so eager to take in these values that were important to American children and also, it seemed, very meaningful to them.
I asked the children to choose two of the values that they expecially liked and to say what they would like American children to know about why that value was important to them. Their names and what they said is as follows:
Ajaji Mwenda Beauty: God made everyone beautiful.
Moris Senyonjo Peace: Deaf need peace everywhere they are and where they go.
Matha Naggino Learning: Deaf can also go to school.
Namawenje Naome Respect: Our parents should respect our disabilities.
Tuhikayo Ndats To give to others; We give to others as they give back to us.
Monica Nyaco Rest: We need rest for what ever we do
They also had some questions that they would love to have answered by American children, including:
Is the learning system for the deaf in the USA the same?
Do the parents in USA oppress the disabled children as it is in Uganda?
Is the sign language in USA the same like that of Uganda?
Do deaf children in USA have the same understanding like the hearing children?
I was very moved by their eagerness to connect with deaf children in the USA and to learn more about our country. When I got back to the guesthouse I wrote to four residential schools for the deaf in NY and PA. A few days one (Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf) responded that they had a class of children who would love to correspond and be pen pals with the Ugandan children! I am very happy about that. There is such a sense of isolation I pick up from the Ugandan children that I am delighted to connect them with others eager to get to know them. I have had bouts of temporary problems which have affected my hearing and recently I lost my voice for a few days. In some small way this gave me a taste of what that social isolation from the broader society might be like.
And there is such a dynamism and expressiveness that I see in Sign Language, that I am really tempted to learn it when I get home. I see it as potentially enriching my experience both in connecting with deaf people and with my own desire for expressiveness and aliveness.
October 28, 2009
First, I would like to express my appreciation to all the members of the networks of trainers and trainer candidates of the Center for Nonviolent Communication who provided suggestions and support for my meeting with students at the Ugandan School for the Deaf a few days ago. Feeling really “out of my element”, not having a lot of experience working with children, or deaf people or Ugandans, it was very helpful and meaningful to me to receive so many thoughtful ideas and words of encouragement.
Some background.
The children at this school are among the most privileged of deaf children in Uganda in that they are in school and in what appears to me to be a very caring environment. (The school was founded 50 years ago by the mother of two deaf children and I suspect her passion, commitment and love have influenced the direction of the school tremendously. Her son is employed as an accountant in the United States; he and other “successful” graduates are held as important models for the children of what is possible.) Nationally, fewer than 10% of deaf children here are in school. It is very difficult for many parents here to pay for the educational expenses of their “normal” children, let alone find the resources to support children with special needs. And there is also the stigma of having a disabled child. Many deaf children are locked away in rooms and hidden from others. At the end of our time together I asked the children if they had any questions that they would like to ask of deaf children from the United States (I am hoping to get an interchange going) and one of their questions was “Do the parents of deaf children in the United States oppress them?”
The children are prime targets for all sorts of abuse from family members and people in the community. And because of communication problems they are especially susceptible to victimization; the perpetrator of the abuse can easily think he is invulnerable. On the continent as a whole, there is the belief among many that having sex with a virgin can cure or prevent AIDS. This leads to rape of children and young women who others may think are virgins. And, of course, the transmission of HIV to them.
The school is a very safe, protective environment for the children. Unfortunately, there are very few educational opportunities for them after they receive their primary education (7 years) unless their parents have substantial resources and determination to support their children. Most return to their home villages and have substantial struggle to meet their basic needs. Right now the Uganda School for the Deaf is fund-raising to open a vocational school for deaf students. Let me know if you would like to make a contribution and I will find out how you can do that.
I was given a tour of the school by a teacher who interpreted for me. I saw the one of the girls' dormitories of 40 bunk beds in one large room with barely room to walk around the beds. It was all very clean and neat. I saw the children dancing to music and playing games. I visited the special unit for deaf-blind children (5-10 of the children are so categorized) and also met some deaf children with additional handicaps (emotional disturbance, retardation, etc.). Then the interpreter gathered together half a dozen of the most advanced students and we went into a classroom. I explained that I had brought with me some words from children in the United States which describe some things that are very important American children and I was curious whether some of these things are also important to Ugandan children. The words were printed one per page and when I held up each work the children signed that word to signify that they understood it. As the children signed each of the words (the interpreter helped as needed) I noticed how excited the children were – they seemed so eager to take in these values that were important to American children and also, it seemed, very meaningful to them.
I asked the children to choose two of the values that they expecially liked and to say what they would like American children to know about why that value was important to them. Their names and what they said is as follows:
Ajaji Mwenda Beauty: God made everyone beautiful.
Moris Senyonjo Peace: Deaf need peace everywhere they are and where they go.
Matha Naggino Learning: Deaf can also go to school.
Namawenje Naome Respect: Our parents should respect our disabilities.
Tuhikayo Ndats To give to others; We give to others as they give back to us.
Monica Nyaco Rest: We need rest for what ever we do
They also had some questions that they would love to have answered by American children, including:
Is the learning system for the deaf in the USA the same?
Do the parents in USA oppress the disabled children as it is in Uganda?
Is the sign language in USA the same like that of Uganda?
Do deaf children in USA have the same understanding like the hearing children?
I was very moved by their eagerness to connect with deaf children in the USA and to learn more about our country. When I got back to the guesthouse I wrote to four residential schools for the deaf in NY and PA. A few days one (Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf) responded that they had a class of children who would love to correspond and be pen pals with the Ugandan children! I am very happy about that. There is such a sense of isolation I pick up from the Ugandan children that I am delighted to connect them with others eager to get to know them. I have had bouts of temporary problems which have affected my hearing and recently I lost my voice for a few days. In some small way this gave me a taste of what that social isolation from the broader society might be like.
And there is such a dynamism and expressiveness that I see in Sign Language, that I am really tempted to learn it when I get home. I see it as potentially enriching my experience both in connecting with deaf people and with my own desire for expressiveness and aliveness.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Terrifying Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Committee in Ugandan Parliament
October 28, 2009
My first day at Makere University I got a hand-out describing a bill tabled in Parliament on Oct. 14, 2009 and currently in committee. According to this information,(over 20 Human Rights organizations participated in putting it together) the following are at risk:
any parent who does not denounce their lesbian daughter or gay son to the authorities Failure to do so s/he will be fined 5,000,000 shillings ($2,500, a huge amount here) and or put away for three years
any teacher who does not report a lesbian or gay pupil to the authorities within 24 hours: Failure to do so s/he will be fined 5,000,000 shillings and or put away for three years
any landlord or landlady who happens to give housing to a suspected homosexual risks seven years of imprisonment
any medical doctor who seeks to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS through working with what are known as most at risk populations, risks his or her career;
any human rights activist who seeks to promote an understanding of the indivisibility and inalienability of human rights would be judged to be promoting homosexuals and homosexuality, and be punished accordingly
any media house that publishes “pornographic” materials risks losing its certificate of registration and the editor will be liable to seven years in jail
any Person alleged to be a homosexual is at risk of LIFE IMPRISONMENT and, in some circumstances, the DEATH PENALTY
Further, the bill asserts Extra Territorial jurisdiction. All of the offenses covered by the bill can be applied to a Ugandan citizen or permanent resident who allegedly commits them outside the country. The bill calls for Uganda to nullify any international treaties, protocols, declarations and conventions which are believed to be “contradictory to the spirit and provisions' of the bill.
It is all so amazingly regressive – I can't believe this dialogue is seriously going on. The level of homophobia that I am encountering in Africa is just out of the realm of anything I am familiar with. I am so disturbed by what I have read that I am thinking of committing some time to this issue while I am here.
My first day at Makere University I got a hand-out describing a bill tabled in Parliament on Oct. 14, 2009 and currently in committee. According to this information,(over 20 Human Rights organizations participated in putting it together) the following are at risk:
any parent who does not denounce their lesbian daughter or gay son to the authorities Failure to do so s/he will be fined 5,000,000 shillings ($2,500, a huge amount here) and or put away for three years
any teacher who does not report a lesbian or gay pupil to the authorities within 24 hours: Failure to do so s/he will be fined 5,000,000 shillings and or put away for three years
any landlord or landlady who happens to give housing to a suspected homosexual risks seven years of imprisonment
any medical doctor who seeks to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS through working with what are known as most at risk populations, risks his or her career;
any human rights activist who seeks to promote an understanding of the indivisibility and inalienability of human rights would be judged to be promoting homosexuals and homosexuality, and be punished accordingly
any media house that publishes “pornographic” materials risks losing its certificate of registration and the editor will be liable to seven years in jail
any Person alleged to be a homosexual is at risk of LIFE IMPRISONMENT and, in some circumstances, the DEATH PENALTY
Further, the bill asserts Extra Territorial jurisdiction. All of the offenses covered by the bill can be applied to a Ugandan citizen or permanent resident who allegedly commits them outside the country. The bill calls for Uganda to nullify any international treaties, protocols, declarations and conventions which are believed to be “contradictory to the spirit and provisions' of the bill.
It is all so amazingly regressive – I can't believe this dialogue is seriously going on. The level of homophobia that I am encountering in Africa is just out of the realm of anything I am familiar with. I am so disturbed by what I have read that I am thinking of committing some time to this issue while I am here.
Whitewater rafting on the Nile and first days in Kampala, Uganda
October 25, 2009
I am glad to be back in Uganda and beginning the “teaching and sharing” part of my sojourn in Africa. Being a tourist and constantly planning my days around how to have fun and find memorable places to visit pales for me after a few weeks. I want a better understanding of the places I am visiting and the experiences of the people who live here. So, spending six weeks in Uganda sharing Nonviolent Communication and mediation tools seems like the perfect opportunity for me.
Note: I am writing this blog after a week in Uganda; it is now October 29. So much has happened it seems like at least 3 weeks! But I do want to tell you about the whitewater rafting trip because it was very special, even though in some ways the experience is not as immediate now as it was 4 days ago. Gosh, I can't believe it was only 4 days!
I arrived at Entebbe airport Thursday night and was picked up by Larry, an employee of TATS (Teach and Tour Sojourners, the agency co-ordinating my visit and teaching). Larry said that the guest house I would be staying at was full that night because of the unexpected change in plans of one of the guests. I would stay at a nearby hotel in Kampala that night and move to the guest house the next day. Sounded OK to me. Well, the “hotel” was definitely a modest one and not well-maintained by my standards, but it had the basics, so I was OK with it. My only concern was the very loud music which seemed to emanate from an establishment extremely close to, perhaps underneath, my room. At the upscale hotel in Rwanda loud music ended at 10:30 pm, so I wasn't too worried. I asked somewhat jokingly if it would go all night and the woman answered, “No, not all night.” I wish that would have been the case. At 3 and 5 am it was still extremely loud; at 8 am when Larry was knocking on my door it was only moderately loud. Oh, brother! What a way to begin. Not what I was expecting for a Thursday night. I was very, very tired the whole next day.
Fortunately, things got better. The guest house that TATS runs to house teachers is quite comfortable and, because I am here at a time when few teachers are (as opposed during during July-August), I am receiving a great deal of personal attention from Larry and the few other staff as far as transporting me to meetings and classes, making arrangements for me to talk with Deans, principals, etc. The downside is that right now I am the only teacher TATS is hosting and it is kind of lonesome, in a way, not having others to talk to about their experiences. Also, because it seems a bit confusing getting around by myself and because he has offered, Larry has been driving me every place and somehow I think this has contributed to my not getting to have one-on-one informal conversations with people. I am talking with him about how I can be more independent. There doesn't seem to be as much concern about personal safety here as there was in South Africa and that gives me more confidence about taking this on. It is also so reassuring that English is so widely spoken and understood here; it is the language of instruction in all schools.
So, on to the the rafting. I saw a brochure for Whitewater rafting on the Nile and a description in the Lonely Planet guide. It sounded a bit more my speed than a 3-hour boat ride on the Nile that Larry proposed for a week-end excursion. My only concern was whether the physical demands might be more than my 64-year old arthritic knees could handle and whether the promised Grade 5 level rapids (6 is the highest grade given) would be unsuitable for a relatively nonproficient rafter. At the registration desk I was given a choice of a Grade 3 level excursion, but I was also assured that the Grade 5 level was suitable for beginners and when I asked if they had ever “lost” a customer, I was told “no.” So, I signed up for the 6-hour excursion and off we went.
It was pretty easy to tell the customers (all white and a few of Asian background) from the staff (all black). What might the natives be thinking of these young (pretty much all under 35) white folks from U.K., Europe, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Scandinavia, spending the equivalent of 1-2 months income for them on a one-day excursion? Spending a half-year's income on a one-day gorilla tracking permit ($500 from the Ugandan or Rwanda governments)?
We were given an orientation about what to expect for the day and then asked to sort ourselves into groups according to interests – those who wanted to “trash” the river (go down the river in the wildest, most challenging ways), the “conservatives” who wanted more sense of safety, and the “moderates.” I decided to go with the conservatives and wound up in a raft with two 20ish volunteers from UK working with children at a nearby orphanage, two 30-year olds from Canada on an extensive holiday, and a veterinarian from New Zealand. Two of the group were non-swimmers and a bit nervous about that but we were reassured that our vests would bring us to the surface no matter what.
Well, the long and the short of it is, this was THE VERY BEST RAFTING I have ever done. OK, that's not saying a huge amount. I have only been rafting in the Pocono Mountains and in Vancouver, B.C. But the quantity of Grade 4 and 5 rapids, and the challenge of it all, was wonderful. One rapid, known as Overtime, involved going over a 21 foot waterfall. Talk about getting the adrenalin pumping! Trust me – when the guide commanded us to “Get Down and Hang On” I sure as heck did!
Our guide was an amazing man from Zimbabwe with an incredible gift for languages. French, English, Spanish, and a gazillion tribal languages it seemed. He was also wonderfully strong, patient and helpful. I had a lot of trust in his guidance which was certainly helpful. We had to practice how to recover if we dumped and it was a bit more scary being trapped under the raft in the river than I thought it would be. I was glad that we didn't dump on the trip itself. But we were accompanied by a slew of strong young native men who frolicked in the river in their kayaks and were paid to rescue us very quickly if we did dump.
The only hard part was a 100 meter portage through the woods instead of doing the Grade 6 rapids in the river. We had been instructed to leave our sandals in the truck and so we went barefoot. Well, the week before I had had a pedicure in Rwanda with a woman who only spoke Kinyarwandan. To connect, I showed her the photos in my camera, which included those of my present trip to Africa as well as previous trips to India, Thailand and Cambodia, as well as some family pictures. She was intrigued by all of these (she did know a few words of English) and perhaps as a reward she spent 2 hours on my feet, including removing every remnant of a callous that ever existed. So there I was on the rocks and dirt with no protection for my tenderest of tender feet. It was really, really painful.
That plus the final exit climbing some boulders, dirt and rocks up the river bank to the truck. Between the knee problems and the tender feet, I really needed help. My guide lent me his arm and half-way up a young staff person lent me his worn flip-flops. I was SO GRATEFUL! I don't know how I would have done it without the flip-flops, especially. I tipped both of them the equivalent, I am guessing, of several pairs of flip-flops. It was so worth it.
Oh, yes, and the second thing that made the rafting so great was the temperature of the water and the air. I had assumed that Uganda, being on the equator, would be very hot, humid and uncomfortable. I am told that it is pretty hot in January and February, but it is really quite temperate and pleasant now – I would say in the 70s most of the day, sometimes a bit warmer, in the evenings a bit cooler. And the river temperature was also pretty warm. Rafting in Vancouver we had to wear wet suits and were still pretty cold and uncomfortable. And in the Poconos, the only time you get true whitewater rafting is when the Spring snows melt and add to the water flow. You can imagine what it feels like rafting in that water! We were all pretty delighted with the conditions, especially the experienced Canadian rafters who just loved the warmth.
I am glad to be back in Uganda and beginning the “teaching and sharing” part of my sojourn in Africa. Being a tourist and constantly planning my days around how to have fun and find memorable places to visit pales for me after a few weeks. I want a better understanding of the places I am visiting and the experiences of the people who live here. So, spending six weeks in Uganda sharing Nonviolent Communication and mediation tools seems like the perfect opportunity for me.
Note: I am writing this blog after a week in Uganda; it is now October 29. So much has happened it seems like at least 3 weeks! But I do want to tell you about the whitewater rafting trip because it was very special, even though in some ways the experience is not as immediate now as it was 4 days ago. Gosh, I can't believe it was only 4 days!
I arrived at Entebbe airport Thursday night and was picked up by Larry, an employee of TATS (Teach and Tour Sojourners, the agency co-ordinating my visit and teaching). Larry said that the guest house I would be staying at was full that night because of the unexpected change in plans of one of the guests. I would stay at a nearby hotel in Kampala that night and move to the guest house the next day. Sounded OK to me. Well, the “hotel” was definitely a modest one and not well-maintained by my standards, but it had the basics, so I was OK with it. My only concern was the very loud music which seemed to emanate from an establishment extremely close to, perhaps underneath, my room. At the upscale hotel in Rwanda loud music ended at 10:30 pm, so I wasn't too worried. I asked somewhat jokingly if it would go all night and the woman answered, “No, not all night.” I wish that would have been the case. At 3 and 5 am it was still extremely loud; at 8 am when Larry was knocking on my door it was only moderately loud. Oh, brother! What a way to begin. Not what I was expecting for a Thursday night. I was very, very tired the whole next day.
Fortunately, things got better. The guest house that TATS runs to house teachers is quite comfortable and, because I am here at a time when few teachers are (as opposed during during July-August), I am receiving a great deal of personal attention from Larry and the few other staff as far as transporting me to meetings and classes, making arrangements for me to talk with Deans, principals, etc. The downside is that right now I am the only teacher TATS is hosting and it is kind of lonesome, in a way, not having others to talk to about their experiences. Also, because it seems a bit confusing getting around by myself and because he has offered, Larry has been driving me every place and somehow I think this has contributed to my not getting to have one-on-one informal conversations with people. I am talking with him about how I can be more independent. There doesn't seem to be as much concern about personal safety here as there was in South Africa and that gives me more confidence about taking this on. It is also so reassuring that English is so widely spoken and understood here; it is the language of instruction in all schools.
So, on to the the rafting. I saw a brochure for Whitewater rafting on the Nile and a description in the Lonely Planet guide. It sounded a bit more my speed than a 3-hour boat ride on the Nile that Larry proposed for a week-end excursion. My only concern was whether the physical demands might be more than my 64-year old arthritic knees could handle and whether the promised Grade 5 level rapids (6 is the highest grade given) would be unsuitable for a relatively nonproficient rafter. At the registration desk I was given a choice of a Grade 3 level excursion, but I was also assured that the Grade 5 level was suitable for beginners and when I asked if they had ever “lost” a customer, I was told “no.” So, I signed up for the 6-hour excursion and off we went.
It was pretty easy to tell the customers (all white and a few of Asian background) from the staff (all black). What might the natives be thinking of these young (pretty much all under 35) white folks from U.K., Europe, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Scandinavia, spending the equivalent of 1-2 months income for them on a one-day excursion? Spending a half-year's income on a one-day gorilla tracking permit ($500 from the Ugandan or Rwanda governments)?
We were given an orientation about what to expect for the day and then asked to sort ourselves into groups according to interests – those who wanted to “trash” the river (go down the river in the wildest, most challenging ways), the “conservatives” who wanted more sense of safety, and the “moderates.” I decided to go with the conservatives and wound up in a raft with two 20ish volunteers from UK working with children at a nearby orphanage, two 30-year olds from Canada on an extensive holiday, and a veterinarian from New Zealand. Two of the group were non-swimmers and a bit nervous about that but we were reassured that our vests would bring us to the surface no matter what.
Well, the long and the short of it is, this was THE VERY BEST RAFTING I have ever done. OK, that's not saying a huge amount. I have only been rafting in the Pocono Mountains and in Vancouver, B.C. But the quantity of Grade 4 and 5 rapids, and the challenge of it all, was wonderful. One rapid, known as Overtime, involved going over a 21 foot waterfall. Talk about getting the adrenalin pumping! Trust me – when the guide commanded us to “Get Down and Hang On” I sure as heck did!
Our guide was an amazing man from Zimbabwe with an incredible gift for languages. French, English, Spanish, and a gazillion tribal languages it seemed. He was also wonderfully strong, patient and helpful. I had a lot of trust in his guidance which was certainly helpful. We had to practice how to recover if we dumped and it was a bit more scary being trapped under the raft in the river than I thought it would be. I was glad that we didn't dump on the trip itself. But we were accompanied by a slew of strong young native men who frolicked in the river in their kayaks and were paid to rescue us very quickly if we did dump.
The only hard part was a 100 meter portage through the woods instead of doing the Grade 6 rapids in the river. We had been instructed to leave our sandals in the truck and so we went barefoot. Well, the week before I had had a pedicure in Rwanda with a woman who only spoke Kinyarwandan. To connect, I showed her the photos in my camera, which included those of my present trip to Africa as well as previous trips to India, Thailand and Cambodia, as well as some family pictures. She was intrigued by all of these (she did know a few words of English) and perhaps as a reward she spent 2 hours on my feet, including removing every remnant of a callous that ever existed. So there I was on the rocks and dirt with no protection for my tenderest of tender feet. It was really, really painful.
That plus the final exit climbing some boulders, dirt and rocks up the river bank to the truck. Between the knee problems and the tender feet, I really needed help. My guide lent me his arm and half-way up a young staff person lent me his worn flip-flops. I was SO GRATEFUL! I don't know how I would have done it without the flip-flops, especially. I tipped both of them the equivalent, I am guessing, of several pairs of flip-flops. It was so worth it.
Oh, yes, and the second thing that made the rafting so great was the temperature of the water and the air. I had assumed that Uganda, being on the equator, would be very hot, humid and uncomfortable. I am told that it is pretty hot in January and February, but it is really quite temperate and pleasant now – I would say in the 70s most of the day, sometimes a bit warmer, in the evenings a bit cooler. And the river temperature was also pretty warm. Rafting in Vancouver we had to wear wet suits and were still pretty cold and uncomfortable. And in the Poconos, the only time you get true whitewater rafting is when the Spring snows melt and add to the water flow. You can imagine what it feels like rafting in that water! We were all pretty delighted with the conditions, especially the experienced Canadian rafters who just loved the warmth.
The Rwandan Genocide - Never Again?
October 17 – 22, 2009
Our group studying Collective Narrative Practices spent 5 days in Rwanda. To my surprise, I found Rwanda to be an extremely beautiful country with a beautiful countryside. It is the “land of 1000 hills” (“mille collines”) and the terracing of the land throughout the country, the cleanliness, the clay tile roofs speckling the hills remind me of countryside in Europe. Plus there is a huge amount of money for construction and development is being spent; it is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. I have heard reference to this being “guilt money” - guilt because of how the horrific genocide was ignored by the United Nations and by the developed countries who had the information about what was happening but didn't intervene when it might have made a difference.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING TWO PARAGRAPH CONTAIN GRAPHIC MATERIAL– SKIP IF YOU PREFER NOT TO READ IT
On several fronts the Rwandan genocide stands out relative to others. It has the dubious distinction of having the greatest number of deaths in a short time: a million killings in 100 days or an average rate of 10,000 per day. It is one of the most physically brutal; civilians were killed face-to-face, often by people they knew or had relationships with, with machetes and other direct means. Body parts were slashed or hacked off, children and babies dismembered, tossed alive into wells and cess pools to drown, and so on. People were encouraged to gather in churches and schools and other “safe” places, then annihalated by the Hutus. We visited one school where 50,000 where slaughtered; a church where 10,000 were massacred. The number of memorial sites in this small country seemed endless. And then, of course, there were the mass rapes of women and girls, many by men who were HIV+.
And, to bring it home to us more personally, we were part of a team supporting trauma counselors for genocide survivors (from the IBUKA organization), people who were survivors themselves. These are people whose entire families and extended families were wiped out. How do you work with a client who is a young woman who is HIV+ because she was raped at age 3 during the genocide? And the counselor whom I spoke with who is raising two teen-age daughters by herself without any extended family because she is the only one who survived? And our taxi driver who is one of the very few Tutsi in the whole western region who survived because he was studying in Uganda at the time? It is pretty hard to take in the vastness of the numbers of people victimized, but one horrible story by a person sitting in front of me gets to me.
I read two books the week we were there, trying to gain some understanding of what happened and why. One was a book, An Ordinary Man, written by the “hero” of the movie Hotel Rwanda. The book was recommended by someone at the airport bookstore as being inspiring. Inspiration is good, I thought, and it was an easy read so I read almost all of it in a couple of days and felt like I was getting some understanding of the events. And then, at the very, very bare bones national tourist agency I saw a book titled Hotel Rwanda: or the Tutsi Genocide as Seen by Hollywood. This brief book is a scathing indictment of the other book and is written by two Rwandan academics. I just had to read this book which said that the other was a fraud of the worst kind. I could easily see serious problems of bias with both narratives.
I visited the Genocide Museum in Kigali, the capitol, and this was a very moving experience as well as somewhat enlightening. One part that really stays with me is their display of genocides in history – the Nazi holocaust, the Armenians, the North American slave trade, the Native Americans in the U.S., the genocide in Darfur. Do Americans accept that our behavior is viewed as genocide by others? Do we use that term in the history books that we give our children to read?
During the memorial period that Rwanda has each year to remember what happened the slogan “Never Again” is used repeatedly. And has anything changed in the 15 years since the Rwandan genocide that would lead me to think that this will never happen again? Hasn't it already happened again? I am not an expert in these matters, but when I see the level of violence that we are willing to accept in the world I don't really see any major changes.
On a related note, I am still very troubled by the statistics shown at the Slavery Museum in Cape Town – the number of adults and children in slavery conditions throughout the world is staggering. As is the trafficking in women and children that is occurring world-wide as sex slaves or for other purposes. And this doesn't count the number of parents who sell their children to others or pimp them themselves because they don't have the money to feed them. Or the violence of people dying of starvation, lack of health care and preventable diseases. For me this is just so very awful,...How can we even begin to think the phrase “never again” has meaning?
Our group studying Collective Narrative Practices spent 5 days in Rwanda. To my surprise, I found Rwanda to be an extremely beautiful country with a beautiful countryside. It is the “land of 1000 hills” (“mille collines”) and the terracing of the land throughout the country, the cleanliness, the clay tile roofs speckling the hills remind me of countryside in Europe. Plus there is a huge amount of money for construction and development is being spent; it is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. I have heard reference to this being “guilt money” - guilt because of how the horrific genocide was ignored by the United Nations and by the developed countries who had the information about what was happening but didn't intervene when it might have made a difference.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING TWO PARAGRAPH CONTAIN GRAPHIC MATERIAL– SKIP IF YOU PREFER NOT TO READ IT
On several fronts the Rwandan genocide stands out relative to others. It has the dubious distinction of having the greatest number of deaths in a short time: a million killings in 100 days or an average rate of 10,000 per day. It is one of the most physically brutal; civilians were killed face-to-face, often by people they knew or had relationships with, with machetes and other direct means. Body parts were slashed or hacked off, children and babies dismembered, tossed alive into wells and cess pools to drown, and so on. People were encouraged to gather in churches and schools and other “safe” places, then annihalated by the Hutus. We visited one school where 50,000 where slaughtered; a church where 10,000 were massacred. The number of memorial sites in this small country seemed endless. And then, of course, there were the mass rapes of women and girls, many by men who were HIV+.
And, to bring it home to us more personally, we were part of a team supporting trauma counselors for genocide survivors (from the IBUKA organization), people who were survivors themselves. These are people whose entire families and extended families were wiped out. How do you work with a client who is a young woman who is HIV+ because she was raped at age 3 during the genocide? And the counselor whom I spoke with who is raising two teen-age daughters by herself without any extended family because she is the only one who survived? And our taxi driver who is one of the very few Tutsi in the whole western region who survived because he was studying in Uganda at the time? It is pretty hard to take in the vastness of the numbers of people victimized, but one horrible story by a person sitting in front of me gets to me.
I read two books the week we were there, trying to gain some understanding of what happened and why. One was a book, An Ordinary Man, written by the “hero” of the movie Hotel Rwanda. The book was recommended by someone at the airport bookstore as being inspiring. Inspiration is good, I thought, and it was an easy read so I read almost all of it in a couple of days and felt like I was getting some understanding of the events. And then, at the very, very bare bones national tourist agency I saw a book titled Hotel Rwanda: or the Tutsi Genocide as Seen by Hollywood. This brief book is a scathing indictment of the other book and is written by two Rwandan academics. I just had to read this book which said that the other was a fraud of the worst kind. I could easily see serious problems of bias with both narratives.
I visited the Genocide Museum in Kigali, the capitol, and this was a very moving experience as well as somewhat enlightening. One part that really stays with me is their display of genocides in history – the Nazi holocaust, the Armenians, the North American slave trade, the Native Americans in the U.S., the genocide in Darfur. Do Americans accept that our behavior is viewed as genocide by others? Do we use that term in the history books that we give our children to read?
During the memorial period that Rwanda has each year to remember what happened the slogan “Never Again” is used repeatedly. And has anything changed in the 15 years since the Rwandan genocide that would lead me to think that this will never happen again? Hasn't it already happened again? I am not an expert in these matters, but when I see the level of violence that we are willing to accept in the world I don't really see any major changes.
On a related note, I am still very troubled by the statistics shown at the Slavery Museum in Cape Town – the number of adults and children in slavery conditions throughout the world is staggering. As is the trafficking in women and children that is occurring world-wide as sex slaves or for other purposes. And this doesn't count the number of parents who sell their children to others or pimp them themselves because they don't have the money to feed them. Or the violence of people dying of starvation, lack of health care and preventable diseases. For me this is just so very awful,...How can we even begin to think the phrase “never again” has meaning?
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