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Dark And Light: Into Weapons
Blog: Where the road goes - 15 April 2012
[Taken from the Ugandan Journals] In transit at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, I bought a copy of Six Months in Sudan by James Maskalyk. I vacillated over the decision to buy it. Mostly because of not wanting to draw shillings from the ATM just for a book. In the end, of course, I would. I’ve read [...]
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Sir Winston Churchill’s pearls of wisdom about Uganda
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 15 April 2012
Sir Winston Churchill famously said of Uganda: “Uganda is the Pearl of Africa.” I wonder what he would make of how often the 21st-century Ugandan tourist industry quotes his words? At Entebbe airport, visitors are invited to fill in immigration forms proudly stating “welcome to the Pearl of Africa.” Coincidentally, I now work for Pearl [...]
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Waraji dreams on the River Nile at Jinja
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 25 March 2012
The bed next to mine hasn’t been slept in and I reach through a Uganda Waraji haze for my phone, stashed away in the metal trunk under the bed at Nile River Explorers Camp. “Hope you’re ok? Or do I need to pull you out of a ditch / jail etc?” reads the text I [...]
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Do you stop the car in Nairobi?
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 17 March 2012
“Stop the car,” says Jane. “Take me back to the airport.” It’s 11 pm. After an uneventful flight – save for the mother who let her (very obviously distressed) 4 year old son bawl for 20 minutes, we land in Nairobi. We’re last on the plane. (Are there many international airports where the flight attendant [...]
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Kony2012 and what it means for Uganda – the Muzungu’s view
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 11 March 2012
The 64 million views (as of today) of Invisible Children’s videos on YouTube are a marketer’s dream come true. Isn’t it a goddam shame that it’s always the bad stories that are popular? And isn’t it a tragedy that Uganda is always in the news for the wrong reasons? Eh banange! The #kony2012 and #makekonyfamous [...]
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Chimp alert! muzungu bolthole? Kibale Forest
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 12 February 2012
Three dogs bark excited greetings as we drive up the steep hill on the approach to Julia’s house on the edge of Kibale Forest. The four hours to Fort Portal on tarmac are easy. The last hour of the journey is the hardest: balancing a plastic bag full of raw eggs on my lap, as [...]
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Slumming it, Kampala style
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 28 January 2012
Rubbish collection is managed privately in Kampala: you pay through the nose for a private contractor to collect your rubbish once a week. Local people just burn their rubbish, and maybe that’s all the private contractors do? And so, a week after moving house, and reluctant to burn, I asked Alex how I could dispose [...]
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Vagobond Travel Museum Week of January 27th, 2012
Blog: Vagobond.com - 27 January 2012
The web is full of great travel blogs, travel stories, travel photos and travel videos - the hard part is finding them amidst all the garbage. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more!
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Travel Photo of the Day – Uganda Beetles Mating
Blog: Two Backpackers - 20 January 2012
2 Backpackers - Travel Photo of the Day – Uganda Beetles Mating Subscribe Now -> http://feeds.feedburner.com/TwoBackpackers
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Same Continent, Different Worlds: Part 2
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 2 January 2012
By Kiva Fellows in Africa, KF16 Compiled by Tejal Desai Ow de body! Are Sierra Leone and Rwanda still danger zones? What challenges do Ugandans most commonly face? Kiva Fellows from KF16 bring you another unique perspective from the diverse and vast continent of Africa! We patched together an overview of each of our placement countries that includes: basic socioeconomic stats, common stereotypes (and to what extent they are true or false), greatest challenges, most common loan products at our respective field partners, and the borrowers' most common use of their profits.
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The Muzungu’s Best of 2011!
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 1 January 2012
If 2011 was busy, 2012 looks set to be busier still! Here are a few of 2011′s highlights (if you don’t hate me by now …) TRAVELLING – Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Ethiopia, Turkey – and of course, Uganda. Kenya - The Naivasha Relay (84km from Nairobi to Lake Naivasha) is one of the highlights of Nairobi [...]
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The Muzungu meets Wandering Trader in Kampala
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 3 December 2011
Wandering Trader Marcello wandered into Kampala last week. He’s a fellow travel blogger I saw he was in East Africa and made contact. Now that I work for a tour operator, we swapped e-mails about gorilla trekking in Uganda, what to do in Kampala, etc. I’d said he could stay for a couple of nights. [...]
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Politics, Morality and the Responsibility of Travel
Blog: Landlopers - 28 November 2011
I’ve written about this topic before, so I’m not going to rehash an old argument for new circumstances. Instead of just waxing philosophically about traveling to this country or that country, I want to propose something for anyone traveling, well, anywhere. The other day I...Copyright LandLopers All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
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Lessons in parenting from Mweya’s Mongooses!
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 27 November 2011
I often forget when we go out into the Bush how, even on short distances, a vehicle is necessary. And so, armed not with a gun or a machete, but a long radio antenna, we jumped into the back of a pickup truck and headed off the main track and into the scrubby bush. The [...]
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Africa Hash 2011, Ethiopia – Shoulder shimmying in Gondar
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 20 November 2011
Secure in the knowledge that Ethiopia is one of the safest African countries for a woman to travel independently, I’d mentally prepared to spend the rest of the fortnight travelling on my own. But I’m glad I didn’t; I couldn’t have wished for better travelling companions and, to be honest, there was no escaping the [...]
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Update from the Field: New Products in Microfinance, Over-Indebtedness + Transparency
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 15 November 2011
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF16, Rwanda This week on the Kiva fellows blog, start out by learning about three new microfinance products - microinsurance in Indonesia, higher education loans in the Philippines and green and water loans in Kenya. Continue on to Nepal to admire the handiwork of artisan borrowers. Make your way to Ecuador to find out more about the risk of indebtedness. Share the fellows' personal experiences with the recent elections in Nicaragua and rush hour traffic in Uganda.
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Lonely Planet votes Uganda No. 1 for 2012!
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 2 November 2011
This is my shortest post ever – the title says it all! I’m so delighted to be part of something that is helping promote this beautiful country, and her fabulously warm and welcoming people. I’ve been voting for Uganda every day since I arrived two and a half years ago. “We go, we go, Uganda [...]
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Update from the Field: Expanding the Reach of Microfinance, Downsizing Development + Why We Kiva
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 31 October 2011
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF16, Rwanda This week, you have no fewer than 14 new articles to choose from on the Kiva fellows blog: Let the fellows take you along on borrower visits across the world. Learn how Kiva field partners expand the reach of microfinance in Rwanda, fill the microfinance donut hole in Sierra Leone and improve social performance in Uganda. Find out what poverty is like in urban Tajikistan and rural Burkina Faso. Get inspired by one of the creative ways to bring renewable energy to the developing world in the form of a soccer ball.
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A close encounter with Lions!
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 13 October 2011
One of the incredible benefits of working with UCF, the Uganda Conservation Foundation, has been work trips to the Bush – and free game drives. Friends and family back home may be under the impression that’s all I’ve been doing for the last two and half years! Unfortunately, once I’d got the hang of the [...]
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Orbital
Blog: Where the road goes - 1 October 2011
Two years and some some change ago, on a dark rooftop in Addis Ababa, I recall having my thousandth Ethiopian espresso with Jonathan, a friend and adventuresome soul who had come to join me for my days in the country on my slow road north to Cairo. I can’t recall much about the setting, besides [...]
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Kampala to Nairobi – 14 hours of speed bumps
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 30 September 2011
It was a terrible night’s sleep – a 14 hour bus journey from Kampala to Nairobi: I awoke cold, cold and achey. The speed bumps shuddered us awake every few minutes. I swear I woke a hundred times. A few glasses of Waragi (it was my birthday after all) would have knocked me out, but [...]
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The real ‘boda boda’ – Nagawa travels sidesaddle into Kenya
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 29 September 2011
There were plenty of seats on the bus – so why does the big man always have to sit next to me? Immediately, he reclined his seat and wedged two greasy paper bags between us. “Do you even have an apple to eat?” he asked me and then proceeded to eat fried chicken from one [...]
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Still counting myself lucky! 2 years on …
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 28 September 2011
As I stumble home through the craters of Tarmac, alternately blinded by oncoming motorbikes and plunged into darkness, thanks to yet another power cut (who knows how long for this time) I count myself lucky: for the last two and a half years as a volunteer, I’ve essentially worked from home in a quiet, controlled [...]
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Last days as a volunteer . . .
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 18 September 2011
“Watch that binge drinking!” warned Mum, on our last phone call. Fact is, I’m making up for the binge working I’ve been doing recently: trying to tie up my last projects with UCF, recruiting and training my replacement, and looking for a job. I’ve always felt there are lots of opportunities in Uganda, but when [...]
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How to be a Travel Writer
Blog: A Traveler's Library - 9 September 2011
Destination: Africa Book: One Day I Will Write About This Place (NEW August 2011) by Binyavanga Wainaina (NOTE: After I wrote and titled this review, I carefully read Binyavanga Wainaina’s sardonic instructions on “How to Write About Africa” in the magazine Granta.
