Aug 10, 2009 - We arrive!

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Aug 2, 2009 - One week to go

Ok. We had to get a lot of shots for our trip last year to Ethiopia so we wanted to take advantage of our vacinations. Last year was a cultural safari. This year it is an animal safari. We are still finalizing an itinerary but it looks like we will be met at the airport in Uganda and be with guides the whole way. Our last afternoon will be at a market in Kampala. We will be staying at lodges and permanent tent camps so hopefully we will have wi-fi along the way. We will keep you posted this week. As you can see, we are busy using our tech...

May 6, 2009 - Kyambogo

Bright and early and a bit bleary after all the car riding of the past two days, Larry and I get back in The Toyota around eight-thirty and head for the campus of Kyambogo University, one of the two in Kampala which offer a drama/theatre programme. I’ve picked up a sore throat and I’m leg weary but the show must go on. At Kyambogo we’re greeted by the redoubtable Sister Francis, who marshals the instructors who will comprise the nascent drama/theatre programme. After some conversation we head over to a large room covered by a tin roof where...

May 6, 2009 - Safari, 2

It turns out the car has once again gone bad. Larry sets out to get the wheel alignment fixed so I head out at two on the boat tour alone, save for the twenty other tourists in the motorised skiff. Victoria, in this part of the Park, is highly polluted, with little islands of toxic foam floating along with the current. The tour guide on the boat says this is foam generated by the power of the falls, but he’s either deluding himself or gilding the lily for the foreigners. It’s sludge. Still, this disappointment is quickly forgotten as the...

May 6, 2009 - The Dembe Talented Actors

A slew of cancelled workshops has resulted in my second week here ending the way the first one did; both my trip days were lost, so I won’t make it to Jinja this time, although Pallisa may get fitted in next week. Today Larry and I drove out to Kanoni, a small village many kilometres down a dirt road from Mpigi, itself not much more than a couple of buildings. We left early, about 7, so my introduction to the village’s good citizens consisted of asking where I could find some food. The restaurant had none (!), so eventually I bought some...

May 6, 2009 - Safari, 1

It goes like this: we set out early in the morning for the three-plus hour drive to the gates of Murchison National Park. It’s bumpy, but uneventful; there isn’t much traffic and it’s only after Masindi, some 30 kilometres outside of Murchison, that we encounter really tricky roads. At the gate Larry tries to talk his way out of paying an entry fee without success and we head in. It’s about eleven. Twelve kms in or so we run over a bone and it pierces the back left tire, rendering it flat within a couple of minutes. There’s no cell phone...

Apr 29, 2009 - Kibuli and Some Angels

Two days, each with a workshop. Each workshop utterly different from the other, both equally satisfying. With apologies to my Sis, I’m going to talk about theatre in this entry, because theatre, after all, is about people, just as much as a description of life on the streets here is. Last evening Larry and I ventured out to the neighbourhood of Kibuli to visit the Talented Players. Kibuli is one of those neighbourhoods which combines the houses of the wealthy next to the hovels of the poor, and the part of Kibuli we ventured into was beside...

Apr 27, 2009 - When the Work is HOT

Back to work at last! Textbook example why one workshop a day is a good idea: it took us two hours to cover less than 3km in downtown traffic on our way to the rendezvous with “House of Talent (HOT)”. The leader of HOT is Andrew Ssebaggala, who I had corresponded with prior to my arrival, as he is a board member of the UTN and the guy who arranged most of my gigs here. Most of his actors were at another meeting, but Jasper, Nyonjo and Richard were keen, apt players and, working with Andrew, made for a compact unit. They asked me all the...

Apr 26, 2009 - Kampala, This Day

This is a city of extremes. In the past ten years rural Ugandans have flocked to Kampala as the country’s economy grew at a steady rate and service improvements inside the city outpaced those in its disparate regions. There is a middle class here, of sorts, and primary schools are springing up everywhere. These look nothing like the primary school building you just pictured in your mind’s eye. Often they are essentially piles of sticks or unmortared brick, with no windows and no facilities beyond an ancient chalk board and some chairs with...

Apr 21, 2009 - A Day in Kampala

The optimism of the previous entry has now been replaced with pragmatic assertiveness. In two days I have been introduced to everything that is infuriating and fascinating about life in an emerging nation. Not to mention gross and disgusting, and anyone who knows me and my, shall we say, preoccupations, knows why that’s all I’ll say about that! It’s rained heavily both the past two nights, which is a blessing as it reduces the dust at least for the first part of the day. The dirt, a hard-packed flinty red, dries into a fine powder which...

Apr 20, 2009 - Touch Down in the Pearl

Kampala Events already overwhelming me. Got through customs at Entebbe yesterday afternoon and met Larry, the administrative assistant for Teach and Tour Sojourners, my hosts for the trip. Over bumpy roads, driving on the left, we drove over an hour into Kampala and then back out the other side, to a guest house mid-way down a road which defies description: “cow track” would be charitable. Larry is a driver of, shall we say, remarkable fortitude. Driving around potholes in emerging nations usually involves veering into traffic in a game of...

Mar 17, 2009 - Kampala

Just a couple of hours to Kampala today. Sarah and I ended up with our own stand-alone house - we had two double bedrooms, separate, lounge and dining, kitchen, bathroom and even a courtyard!!! The only pity was that we weren't there long enough to enjoy it, but we dug deep and made the most of it!!