living in kampala

Living in Kampala

About three and a half weeks ago I moved out of my host family and into a hostel right in the city, situated between a slum and the nation’s leading university- Makerere. Our program has split all over the country to work on their projects. I and 8 others (including Caleb) and living here and doing our research in the city.
In interest of the international donor community and my natural love and affinity towards Japan, I have been studying Japan’s role here in Uganda’s development. I was a bit concerned at the beginning and it took awhile to make contact with the people I needed to. But now I have been able to work closely and learn from JICA (Japanese International Cooperation Agency) which essentially serves as project manager for development projects being funded by the Japanese Government. Comparable to America’s USAID. The people at JICA have been so gracious, kind, and accommodating to me. I have gotten to meet with experts from Japan as well as officials in the various Ministry’s belonging to the Ugandan government. Japan takes a unique approach to aid different than many other international donors because the rarely give budgetary assistance. Instead, in an effort for sustainable development, to fight corruption, and to offer technical knowledge they work on the ground, hands on with all their projects. This ensures that the aid they are giving really is relevant.
Recognizing that I am likely much more interested in this than you, I will stop there. It has been a neat way to see my interest in politics and foreign policy combine with my heart for the developing world. Maybe a possible career? …I hope :)
Life is much slower here in Africa as I was warned and have now learned. Evenings are spent reading or playing cards and getting more sleep than I ever have in college. Even during the day when I don’t have meetings set up my days seem so much slower than the pace kept at school. I try and remind myself of the times I would have killed just to be able to sit a read a book. I get to do that now, but sometimes I feel like I am not ‘doing’ anything. I am learning that it is a gift just to ‘be’.
On the weekends we have gotten to do some travel, and this weekend I am going to the Sese Islands in Lake Victoria.... a little break from this not so strenuous life I am living. After this week we have just two weeks left for our research and then one final week in the program. Then it will be over and Caleb and I will have one last month in Uganda where we will spend some time traveling with friends, very enthusiastically host my Dad and Sarah who are coming for 10 days (yay yay!), and then hopefully spend the end of that month working at an orphanage! Oh my how fast the time has gone.