Introduction:
Their first Ugandan site is usually Entebbe Airport, in the extreme south of the country, near Lake Victoria. I had prepared so many documents at the visa office in Beijing (from where I traveled) yellow fever certification, bank statements, photocopies of various forms. After queuing for immigration and visa extension, I was faced with a fairly large lady behind bulletproof glass. She said, “passport” Stamp, one month extension, “thank you sir have a good stay.” I pushed all the papers to her, she looked at me, it is not necessary, bye! I was so disappointed if she had known that sweat and tears brought all of that together in China before I arrived, surely she would only seek to make me feel better?
Kampala
The capital of Uganda is Kampala, sprawling, dirty, on a hill, crowded and downright smelly. Is it exciting for the visitor, there are fascinating things to see, do you feel that you are in the deepest Africa, maybe not, but you have just arrived and are beginning to discover that the sidewalks are full of holes, cracks and unevenness? So walking meant constantly being aware of your feet, the person coming your way, and the many obstacles that stood in your way. I remember seeing a photo of a (Hindu) temple, in the brochure of the Ugandan consulate in Beijing, looking so magnificent and white. Yes, here it was, dirty, damaged in many places and worn by time. This was going to be a common occurrence in Kampala between tourist photos and the real thing, this is a city that is in ruins, and even new buildings that appear to be about 10 years old look worn and tired. The damage is everywhere, on the road, streets, buildings and the environment in general. As for the city center, it is among the worst I have seen. The best they could do with the place is tear it down and start over. I can say something complementary well to be honest right? Yet this is East Africa, abandoned by colonialism in 1962 and on the run from tribalism ever since. Where HIV and polygamy remain top societal concerns, where religion is based on missionary zeal and the hellfire of the Old Testament, where women remain third-class citizens in men’s minds, where avenues The railroad tracks are overgrown and deserted, taxis in disguise as buses run confused and terrified for pedestrians and passengers alike. Suicide motorcyclists are everywhere in and out of chaotic traffic competing to sell the back seat to anyone willing to risk their lives behind them as they try to maneuver in front of the bus / taxi and cars. All cars are scratched or dented in some way, so buying a new car in Kampala is probably not the best decision you can make. The roads have asphalt that is so soft in the heat that much of it just melts and leaves huge holes in the road that tear many cars through violent ups and downs as they try to go over or around the damage. In some places they have what we call in England, sleeping policemen, a hump in the road to calm traffic. In Uganda these humps are so high and so big that the underside of any car with a few scratches loaded along the top of the humps with a screech of metal against the asphalt. As a passenger in the back seat it means jumping onto the roof, bouncing your head, and abruptly sitting back down. In addition to this, they have some parts that have several smaller four-joint humps, so running over them is the joy of being shaken to death and talking funny for a few moments.
The wildlife after all this is Africa is hiding and I’m not sure where? There are many exotic birds around, but not much else. My landlady tells me that every afternoon and morning the monkeys come to the roofs of the houses and talk loudly. Dogs go crazy trying to catch them. However after three weeks I still haven’t seen them once, despite getting up early with camera in hand to go looking for them. My landlady swears they are there every day, but now I suspect that the troop has gone on vacation to Kenya for the rainy season. There was also a green snake in the garden, but when I got there with my camera (seconds), was it gone? The locals tell me that if you want to see the animals now you have to go to the Wildlife Park and pay. I think I saw more wildlife in Shanghai than in Kampala. However, it is the first few days and I have to be patient and wait.
My purpose in being here is, of course, to work. The Uganda Advisory Association has invited me to speak at their conference and a local advisory company has offered me an association to help them streamline and update their operations. In addition to this, I will teach some psychology courses at the local universities. There is a large expat community in Kampala and of course they all speak English, so unlike my time in China, I can at least understand everyone except when they speak in the local dialects. I have taken a tour of the hospitals here (very poor quality, most built in the 1940s by the British and then in the hands of the Ugandan government they went to ruin) most of the mental patients are locked behind fences high with barbed wire to keep them from escaping. At one hospital, the staff told me that they were terrified to even enter the mental illness block, as patients are unsupervised and roam freely. I saw this for myself and thought of London Bedlam Hospital 200 years ago, and that is here now! There is no Quaker humanism in Uganda to treat mental illness with compassion and moral healing. I was offered a position in such a hospital in Ishaka, about 5 hours from Kampala, but the owner had just been released from prison on charges of tax evasion and was so arrogant that I decided that perhaps it was not better to get involved. The shame is that I would have enjoyed the challenge of bringing the mental part of the hospital into the 21st century and saving the misery of all those patients who are trapped in an endless cycle of psychiatric thought and methods of the 1950s. Drugs, confinement and punishment: it is still the only thing psychiatry understands. However, you cannot help them if the boss is in and out of the prison and is likely to disappear forever at any moment, causing everything to turn into chaos.
I will soon have to decide whether to stay longer or move on. I have a two month visa that is about to run out and I have to pay $ 850 to renew it for one year. If I do that, I will commit for three years to improving Ugandan counseling, training and psychology through local businesses and watch the penny fall.
I cannot recommend Uganda as a desirable place, but when you come to a third world country you have to lower your expectations but not your desire to improve it. The days of Idi Amin are behind us, and peace is in the whole country, but like any African state, local crime is very high (they had already lifted my wallet in a taxi / bus) and you have to be careful with it. Mafia government here. I’ll see in a few weeks if I stay or move on – life is about travel, experiences and adventures – so live your life, don’t let life bring you to life.