March 1^st

This may be the last blog post from Uganda on this trip, but I will write some more from home. Tomorrow I leave for Kampala, and I will leave the computer with Susan to give to Augustine or Jimmy Francis, to be used at Keframa by the secretary-bursar to begin to do monthly accounts, and to be able to print more stuff. There is no printer there but they can bring a flash drive into UCI to do the printing. Some Keframa students, as part of their tuition have donated paper. A and/or JF will use some of some money I donated last week to buy a small generator to be used to charge up the computer. They looked into getting a solar panel, but it would require one that is too expensive. They have a few small solar panels there to provide a little light at night for studying.

Today I walked into town to go to SanKofa for the last time. I had a tropical smoothie. A very hot day. But, maybe because it was hot, I was able to appreciate the wonderful taste and feel of water as I drank it along the way. I was also able to appreciate the little patches of shade provided by trees along the road on the way into town. By the way, they call walking anywhere “footing.”

The little old lady next door – The one I mentioned the other day. She speaks no English. I see her out there every day constantly working: sweeping, cooking over a fire, peeling casaba roots, shelling peanuts, grinding whatever, washing clothes. Today she was cleaning the ashes out of the fire area where she cooks. When I asked Susan how old the woman might be, she said she might even be 70. What a life she must have had. All work for her family.

This morning, the kids going through all the stuff that Susan had just swept out of the house and off of the porch, getting all the “good” stuff to keep using for play.

Yesterday in Community Health at UCI I was talking about Occupational Health, and I mentioned the risk of skin cancer in people who work under the sun. I mentioned that they, the students, were mostly protected by the melanin in their skin. One student said “Some of us try to lighten our skin by bleaching.” I repeated that the melanin protects them. He said “But we look like apes.” I said god gave you the melanin to protect you because you live in Africa, where you are exposed to so much sun. Be proud of your black skin.

I would estimate that 80+ percent of the people in Uganda, even in the villages, have cell phones. One pays about 500 shillings a day (25 cents) for the service. You can buy “air time” in many stores, even the smallest ones. There is stiff competition among the various companies to sell air time.

Good bye for now from Uganda.