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Toys, Photographs and Difficult Questions
Blog: Where the road goes - 5 March 2011
It’s December 10 and Tom, Saskia and I have come to the half-completed Karin Children’s Clinic to watch a local women’s group hold a weekly meeting to discuss administrative matters. They manage projects from beadmaking to raising livestock on a pay-it-forward scheme amongst various families in the group. A man from the Heifer Foundation – [...]
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Erection fever part II - feeling the heat
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 5 March 2011
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Erection* fever part II – feeling the heat
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 5 March 2011
Election season is dragging. No last-minute public holiday announced for today’s local election. Shame, we could have all done with a day off to escape the heat. It’s hot, sticky and dusty. Unusually there is also a strong wind, firing dust and dirt across the road as we walk. The clean floors of the house [...]
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Video Blog: The Kiva Story
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 2 March 2011
By Nila Uthayakumar, KF 14, Uganda Nila is a Kiva Fellow living in Kampala, Uganda. She looks forward to working with several Kiva partner MFIs in Uganda and Kenya over the next few months. Filed under: Africa, blogsherpa, KF14 (Kiva Fellows 14th Class), Micro Credit Development Trust SACCO (MCDT), Uganda Tagged: Borrowers, interview, Kampala, [...]
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Update from the Field: Videos, Epic Commutes + Going Beyond Microfinance
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 28 February 2011
Compiled by Alexis Ditkowsky, KF14, South Africa Another week, another incredible range of dispatches from around the world.
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A Dream Deferred: Uganda’s Presidential Election
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 24 February 2011
Nila Uthayakumar, KF14, Uganda A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore– And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over– like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. [...]
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Video Blog: The Story of Lini Nanyonga
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 21 February 2011
By Nila Uthayakumar, KF 14, Uganda Nila has just arrived in Kampala, Uganda after having spent six months in Zanzibar, Tanzania last year. She considers East Africa home now, and looks forward to working with several Kiva partner microfinance institutions throughout the next few months in Uganda and Kenya. Filed under: Africa, blogsherpa, KF14 (Kiva [...]
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Last Week in the Field: “Christmas”, Trekking, Adversity + Good Company
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 21 February 2011
Compiled by Alexis Ditkowsky, KF14, South Africa Members of the 14th class of Kiva Fellows have officially hit their stride. While we never know where the next dispatch will come from or what interesting topics the Fellows will cover next, we always know we'll be transported, entertained, and edified.
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Johannesburg – don’t hit the panic button until after dinner
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 19 February 2011
There is a feeling of space in suburban northern Johannesburg, by far the largest city in South Africa. The plots are big, the streets are lined with large beautiful trees and the treetops are full of the sound of birdsong. There are three big Hadeda Ibis on the chimney stack, a Crested Barbet appears by [...]
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In Defense of “High” MFI Interest Rates: Part II
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 14 February 2011
By Nila Uthayakumar, KF 14, Uganda On the one-year anniversary of Eva Wu’s blog post entitled In Defense of “High” MFI Interest Rates, I was inspired to write a post on this exact topic. The date of this post is a coincidence, as I was actually inspired by the concerns of a group of friends [...]
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A new start for the Sudanese but 'same same' for Ugandans
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 8 February 2011
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A new start for the Sudanese but ‘same same’ for Ugandans
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 8 February 2011
Welcome South Sudan! With 98% of the Sudanese voting ‘yes’ to partition of the country, I look forward to a new stamp on my passport. There are nine days to go to the presidential elections here in Uganda. The walls, lampposts and Palm trees are plastered with election posters. This nascent democracy (I’m being generous) [...]
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Early morning sights and sounds
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 4 February 2011
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Early morning sights and sounds
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 4 February 2011
A parrot just flew overhead, its unmistakeable call heralding fun. It’s a misty morning but you can tell it’s going to be a bright day. As we walk up Muyenga Hill, a glimpse of Lake Victoria in the distance never fails to lift my spirits. It seems my favourite worst road is being improved. I [...]
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The View from the Ground
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 3 February 2011
By Nila Uthayakumar, KF 14, Uganda Tuesday morning. It was just my second day at Micro Credit for Development and Transformation (MCDT), a Kiva partner microfinance bank based in Kampala, Uganda. I sat at the helm of a grouping of desks in an airy room within an office building perched at the very tip-top of [...]
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Erection fever
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 1 February 2011
Every monday evening I run through the slums and wetlands of Kampala, through the traffic or across the golf course, in and through the lives of thousands of Ugandans along with 150 fell
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Erection* fever
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 1 February 2011
Every monday evening I run through the slums and wetlands of Kampala, through the traffic or across the golf course, in and through the lives of thousands of Ugandans along with 150 fellow Hashers. Dr Ian Clarke, founder of Kampala’s International Hospital (IHK), is one of us. PHOTO: Ian being interviewed by WBS TV. Like [...]
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Human Wildlife Conflict - in my bedroom
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 31 January 2011
We are living through an extreme period of mosquitoes. It's also incredibly hot. On Friday night I killed 30 mosquitoes in my little bathroom. On Saturday night, much the worse for wear, I staggered around and killed a mere 20 before giving up and seeking refuge under the net before I quickly started snoring.
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Human Wildlife Conflict – in my bedroom
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 30 January 2011
We are living through an extreme period of mosquitoes. It’s also incredibly hot. On Friday night I killed 30 mosquitoes in my little bathroom. On Saturday night, much the worse for wear, I staggered around and killed a mere 20 before giving up and seeking refuge under the net before I quickly started snoring. Last [...]
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Justice in the balancing act
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 17 January 2011
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In the Back Garden
Blog: Where the road goes - 30 December 2010
When we arrived in Gulu, we spent only one night in the place we had booked to stay in. A serendipitous confusion of a lost booking and an entire house becoming cheaply available near the Kabero Opong district meant that we would relocate lock, stock and sleeping bag to this new home for the duration [...]
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It's official: life in a developing country wears you down
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 18 December 2010
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Where Dark and Light Meet
Blog: Where the road goes - 18 December 2010
Light and dark are a simple analogy for so many things. Waiting at the baggage counter for my pack and pondering the miles of home beyond the exit gate, I think I would have done well to consider how light and dark interact. How they manage, in a way, to make each other. Allow you [...]
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Do I just need a holiday?
Blog: Kampala Days (Diary of a Mzungu) - 16 December 2010
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From Our Correspondent in Kitgum
Blog: Where the road goes - 14 December 2010
Kitgum lies about three hours east of Gulu, and is the largest town in the Kitgum district of Northern Uganda. It is a place where, as I stepped out of the front door of the Sunshine Modern Guest House (singles from 16,000 shillings), I was privileged to witness the entertaining spectacle of a resistant pig [...]
