Saturday, July 24, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Kampala bombings
just a quick post to tell you all that i'm safe.
it's a very sad day in Uganda and things are pretty hectic here. people are badly shaken, struggling to contact loved ones, horrified by the images they are seeing on their tv sets.
mulago hospital is overrun with severely injured patients and the country's meager security response system is largely overwhelmed.
i heard about the blasts early early this morning as i was leaving kigali, rwanda. that's where i was last night, watching the final match projected onto a huge outdoor screen. somewhere in that city, behind a car wash, in a crowd of giddy fans on the edge of their row by row whiteplasticlawnchair seats, I lost my voice cheering wildly for Spain.
it's a very sad day in Uganda and things are pretty hectic here. people are badly shaken, struggling to contact loved ones, horrified by the images they are seeing on their tv sets.
mulago hospital is overrun with severely injured patients and the country's meager security response system is largely overwhelmed.
i heard about the blasts early early this morning as i was leaving kigali, rwanda. that's where i was last night, watching the final match projected onto a huge outdoor screen. somewhere in that city, behind a car wash, in a crowd of giddy fans on the edge of their row by row whiteplasticlawnchair seats, I lost my voice cheering wildly for Spain.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Greetings from Kalisizo Town, Uganda
And suddenly i'm in Africa! the enormity of the idea, the action, the distance is all still settling in. i've been thinking about Uganda for so long that now that it's upon me, i still can't quite believe i'm in it. that i'm there. it's hard to digest how far i've journeyed away from home, but since "home" has always been more of a patchwork quilt of people & places than anything else, i've learned to associate that notion of comfort with smaller things: the wrinkles around the laughing eyes of people i love, the wandering lines engraved in my palms like some nomadic map, the breath i feel best during and after a run, patient and fierce. the calm that only certain voices evoke. that is home.
the older i get, the more i fall in love with the idea that home is whatever you need it to be. it is everything and it is nothing. something you can wear on your back. it is there when you need it, with or without your say. it comes and it goes in the best of ways, like everything else.
okay, enough on musings...
what on earth am i doing in Uganda? funny you should ask!
the job-
Who: Priya Anne Chalam, MPH candidate, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
What: Masters in Public Health Practicum
Where: Rakai Health Sciences Program, Kalisizo Town, Rakai District, Uganda
When: June & July 2010
How: Research Design and Data Collection (creating quantitative and qualitative evaluation instruments to measure the impact of the Health Education Mobilization Department's drama show and small group outreach work)
More on that soon...
the older i get, the more i fall in love with the idea that home is whatever you need it to be. it is everything and it is nothing. something you can wear on your back. it is there when you need it, with or without your say. it comes and it goes in the best of ways, like everything else.
okay, enough on musings...
what on earth am i doing in Uganda? funny you should ask!
the job-
Who: Priya Anne Chalam, MPH candidate, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
What: Masters in Public Health Practicum
Where: Rakai Health Sciences Program, Kalisizo Town, Rakai District, Uganda
When: June & July 2010
How: Research Design and Data Collection (creating quantitative and qualitative evaluation instruments to measure the impact of the Health Education Mobilization Department's drama show and small group outreach work)
More on that soon...
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About Me
Community Health Meeting, Rakai District
Ugandan cuties
Nice & Easy Butchery
MZUNGU!
Uganda, the only place i've ever been labeled "white"
labeled and reminded 50 times a day.
Mzungu! Mzungu! when i walk, when i run, when i smile, when i dance, when i send my "oli oteayah" greetings out into the universe. i have become the "white person" the "foreigner" the mythical beast of childhood fantasy. the unicorn that rarely comes out to play.
i am hilarious and terrifying all in the same breath. the unknown. the unpredictable.
it's exhausting. there is no way to blend in, which is strange yet similar to the feeling of growing up in Virginia and spending my summers in Cape Breton. somehow different, somehow the same. forever sticking out like a sore thumb.
but instead of being met with fear, we are met with the most beautiful smiles i have ever seen. followed and serenaded by our own paparazzi of fruit laden 5-year-olds. i've never experienced such immediate warmth, openness and trust from strangers. kalisizo already feels like home. the good mix of hard fast and easy slow.
labeled and reminded 50 times a day.
Mzungu! Mzungu! when i walk, when i run, when i smile, when i dance, when i send my "oli oteayah" greetings out into the universe. i have become the "white person" the "foreigner" the mythical beast of childhood fantasy. the unicorn that rarely comes out to play.
i am hilarious and terrifying all in the same breath. the unknown. the unpredictable.
it's exhausting. there is no way to blend in, which is strange yet similar to the feeling of growing up in Virginia and spending my summers in Cape Breton. somehow different, somehow the same. forever sticking out like a sore thumb.
but instead of being met with fear, we are met with the most beautiful smiles i have ever seen. followed and serenaded by our own paparazzi of fruit laden 5-year-olds. i've never experienced such immediate warmth, openness and trust from strangers. kalisizo already feels like home. the good mix of hard fast and easy slow.