Difficult Beauty

This is a poem that I was moved to write about my experience in Uganda.

Difficult Beauty
by Leor Rotchild

Amidst the mud and mystery;
Behind the horror of history;
Lies a beauty hidden from the naked eye.

Where people laugh and smile;
And talk for a long while;
The equatorial sun sets high in the sky.

The fruit tastes as sweet as sex;
And the tea really is the best;
In a land without electricity or time.

Music is nowhere, and everywhere;
The children dance, jump and shake without care;
As though entranced by an X Box video game high.

Sharing a world with I Pods and space shuttles;
Shit-infested ponds here get reduced to mere puddles;
While malnourished kids stretch to collect their family’s share.

Water. It streams infinitely from our taps;
But on this area of the map;
Every drop spells the difference between survival and despair.

So what do you do;
When the situation overwhelms you;
When you feel crippled and losing hope?

Keep doing your part;
Carry the songs in your heart;
And represent well no matter where you go.

I never thought I would say it but I actually miss Ugandan food. From clockwise, you've got Matokee, made from banana plantain and the main staple of the Ugandan diet; Millet, made from the plant of the same name; Goat Meat, which is your best chance of getting any protein in your diet, unfortunately though, because it's boiled, the meat is very tough and it's hard to bite through or chew the fat; the white stuff is Posho, which is made from maize or corn, this stuff wasn't bad but very starchy; lastly there is the Animal Fat Stew, exactly as it sounds.

Checking In

Thanks so much to those of you who read my blog while I was in East Africa. It was so great to know that people cared.

What the heck happened to Leor? If you pondered this question, then allow me to apologise for being so silent for so long.

I returned from my East African adventure in September of 2005 and have mainly been in Calgary since. I was starting to feel embarrassed because people were stumbling onto my blog and writing to me asking 'Wow, how are you enjoying Africa?' Then I would have to explain that my blog is grossly outdated and not only am I back from Africa, but I have been back for nearly a year.

The truth is that I had a very difficult time re-adjusting to life back home and for a while, was unsure where my home even was. My time in East Africa and especially Uganda was such a powerful experience and so emotional that it has taken me a really long time to process and critically analyse it all.

In the meantime, I have gone through such tremendous change. I came back to my work in Calgary at the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST), ready to tackle with renewed vigour, the overwhelming issue of clean water. After a few months of working on a website and various administrative duties, I found myself extremely restless, unnecessarily burnt-out and hungry for something I could not quite place my finger on.

I think I had grown so much as a person through my African experience that I was finding it difficult to do the same job I had done before I left. I also started to ask myself questions that so many of us ask ourselves, but I was suddenly demanding very clear answers of myself. Questions like: Where do I want to live? Where do I want to be in 5 years? What are my career aspirations? How can I get out of debt? How can I integrate what I learned in Africa into my everyday life?

Focusing on these questions led me away from CAWST and onto new and different challenges. I am now working at an international oil and gas company based in Calgary in their safety, environment and social responsibility group. I am also in a new committed relationship with a great girl (Brenna) who also spent time in Africa and is working and undertaking post-graduate studies in international development-related fields.

Kikagati is still close to my heart and I have surrounded myself with photos of the children of that village at work. I have heard through people I keep in touch with in Uganda that the NGO that James, Obed and I trained on the BioSand Filters have now raised enough money to launch their own BioSand Filter program.

A small group of AIESEC (the youth organisation I used to work with) students from the University of British Columbia have connected with Africa Community Technical Services (ACTS - the same NGO I volunteered with in Uganda) and are now in the same village I was in to work on a BioSand Filter project. They were in Calgary before they left to participate in a CAWST training course and I helped them prepare for their trip. You can check out their blog at http://www.adiuganda.blogspot.com/ and the website for an NGO they started at http://www.adicanada.org/ I am very anxious to read updates on the rainwater harvesting project I worked in that area.

I also try and keep regular contact with the team I worked with in Uganda. Dax recently got married and is expecting a baby; Geoff and Paula moved to Calgary, started an NGO specifically focused on rainwater catchments and will be returning to Uganda in the next year or so; Ed is still consulting around town, traveling and active in Alberta's great mountain landscapes; Jamie finished his studies in Denmark and recently returned to Calgary to find work; Rebecca is still working in Yellowknife but she came to Calgary a couple of times to visit; Jeff is in Edmonton now but participated in a relief mission to northern Pakistan after the area was devastated by a major earthquake.

In the coming weeks, I plan to post here more pictures from East Africa, update you on what our water project is like one year later (according to the AIESEC students there now) and sharing more of my retrospective thoughts on what I will always remember as one of the most significant experiences of my life.

Thanks for joining me on the journey.

Leor

Kenya Dig-it?

Despite all the diving craziness (see my last posting), Zanzibar definitely was a fitting pinnacle to reach during my time in East Africa.

Mombassa

I'm back in good old Kenya now. It's so nice to once again speak English freely and have people understand me. Speaking even a bit of Kiswahili here will help you negotiate your way through the "mzungu" (white man) prices you're charged, but in Uganda and Tanzania, just about everything is a challenge unless you know Kiswahili (for Tanzania) or the local language specific to the Ugandan District you're in. Unfortunately there are more than 70 local languages in Uganda and I only learned (or really attempted to learn) one of them.

I've been in Mombassa a day and a half and have already ran into a bunch of people I met in either Zanzibar or Nairobi. The coast of Kenya and Tanzania are both heavily influenced by Islam and there are beautiful mosques, arabic architecture and covered up women everywhere.

I've gotten to know the local cinema here quite well and watched War of the Worlds as well as a great Indian film about that country's Independence (the story pre-dates Ghandi by more than 90 years). I toured Fort Jesus and learned a great deal about the Portuguese colonialists who built it as well as their Arabic killers from Oman who came to liberate Mombassa from the colonialists. I also learned about one of the greatest explorers of all time - Hang Ze from China who developed trade with the Middle East and East Africa more than 150 years before Columbus stumbled onto the Americas.

I had not written about my first pass through Kenya. Before I made my way through Tanzania on my way to Zanzibar, I had a chance to visit a BioSand Filter (water) project in a rural area of the South West before making my way to Nairobi on public transport.

Tea Time

The rural area I stopped in on in Kenya just happened to be the tea growing capital of East Africa. Everywhere you look and as far as the eye could see, there were beautiful rolling hills of tea plantations. Each day there were numerous groups of people sitting by the roadside waiting for someone to pick them up and drop off at a tea estate for work. The really experienced ones apparently pick up to 100 kilograms of tea leaves in one day and then walk a big basket of it to the local factory for processing. I was sure to do my part for the local economy by picking up loads of tasty Kenyan tea straight from the factory to take back home.

Safari

After my visiting the water project, I set off for Nairobi and immediately signed onto a three day Safari adventure to the incredible Maasai Mara. Between June and August, the wildebeast and zebras make thier annual migration across the Kenyan/ Tanzanian border from the Serengeti to Maasai Mara. I had just missed the migration but since there was so much game, I saw about 15 lions, 5 cheetahs (one was feeding on a live impala), dozens of giraffes, elephants, warthogs, hundreds of buffalo, gazelles, impalas, and ofcourse thousands of zebras and wildebeast. I also got to learn a great deal about the Maasai people and their culture.

Nairobi

After the safari adventure I met up with old AIESEC colleague in Nairobi - Eva. We worked together on the International Congress that I organized in Calgary in 2002. It was a nice visit but Eva was in a hurry as she is now working in Dubai and was only in Nairobi for a short visit.

All the things I've heard and read about Nairobi (or Nairobbery as the Lonely Planet calls it) sound very scary. Although it's true that many of the locals complain about muggings, it is not nearly as dangerous as it is made out to be. Ofcourse you should take extra precautions in Nairobi and avoid displaying anything that looks valuable enough to steal, but like anywhere in the world, it's important to judge the place for yourself. Despite being warned against it, I have walked around after dark in Nairobi without problems. It's important however, to know which streets to avoid. Nairobi was unusually cold but I enjoyed the massive and absolutely amazing markets.

Public Transportation

Public transportation is quite different in Kenya as compared to Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. In each of those countries the public taxis/ buses are run down and packed far beyond capacity. In Kenya, the public 14 passenger taxis known as matatus actually carry no more than 14. When I was fresh from Uganda, I got into an argument the first time I was told that the matatu was too full to take me. In Uganda, there is no such thing as too full. Here however, the matatus are well maintained and people are encouraged to wear seatbelts. Apparently this is all a new thing and the police has only begun enforcing seat belts and capacity restrictions in the last year to year and a half. In Uganda, the police are still visibly being paid off to overlook such things. The system is far from perfect though. In Nairobi, although the matatus are comfortable, there is no guarantee they will take you to where they've promised to take you.

I'll be back in Nairobi tomorrow and will wrap up the trip there. From there I'll be in my home city of Toronto for a week before returning to work in Calgary.

Cheers,

Leor

Abandoned in the Indian Ocean

Greetings from glorious Zanzibar!

I'm in the historic port city of Stone Town, Zanzibar - just off the coast of Tanzania. Stone Town is a charming town with narrow streets and beautiful historic architecture at its heart, conjuring up images of Indian, Arabic and Portuguese settlers and colonialists, slave and spice traders, Sultans and separatist movements.

I came here to visit with a close friend of a close friend with whom I came into contact through AIESEC - the youth organization I used to work with. Inbal and her two flatmates - Anna and Sanjya were fantastic hosts and have become good friends. When we learned that there was a full moon party on one of the northern islands, we all decided to go.

We stayed in beautiful Nungwi beach where the white sand, turquoise water and stunning sunsets are enough to inspire even the most ruthless to sit down and write a romance novel. We walked over to the full moon party beach, littered with drunk British tourists, acrobatic entertainers and phony Maasai warriors dancing to horrible western music until the sun came up. Once the tide came in, there was no way to get back to Nungwi except by boat which we eventually returned with at around 6:00AM.

Inbal and her friends returned to Stone Town but I stayed on long enough to lose my heart to a lovely British girl. I decided to upgrade my diving certification and experienced the sensational diving that Nungwi and the Indian Ocean have to offer. It became an interesting and life threatening experience.

I went on my first ever night dive with two other people and when we surfaced there was no boat to meet us. We waited for about 10 minutes before we gave up on the boat and decided to swim for shore, which was several miles away. I don't know why but there's something about someone screaming at you "don't panic!" that kind of makes you want to panic. I had a difficult time because my BCD (buoyancy control device) wouldn't fully inflate so I had to use a lot of exertion to stay afloat. It also didn't help that the waves were smacking us around pretty good so I swallowed a lot of salt water and felt like I was drowning. Fortunately after about half an hour in complete darkeness the boat found us. I was filled with such relief until I realized that the waves were pulling me so far away from the boat that I wasn't sure I could reach it. The dive master came out for me and swam me in, literally saving my life.

The expereience was enough to turn anyone off of diving but I was determined not to let it stop me from obtaining my Advanced Open Water certification and I was back at it the next morning. This time it was my first ever deep water dive. An Open Water certificate entitles you to dive to 18 metres but in the advanced course you have to get used to reaching 30 metres and experience Nitrogen Narcosis. This is when the nitrogen in your system is so high that it creates a euphoric feeling of drunkeness and slower response times. I had to do a mathematical equation, count backwards from 10 and write my name backwards, but I had no problem with these exercises. Perhaps I didn't experience nitrogen narcosis or I just have a higher threshold for it. The bad news on this dive was that I got an air bubble under my filling in my tooth and when I surfaced, the air bubble expanded causing my tooth to explode. I will have to see a dentist about it when I get back to Canada. At least I did get my advanced certificate in the end.

I have much more to write but I've run out of time. I'll tell you more later and also fill you in on my experiences in Kenya.

Take care,
L.

In De-Nile

Jambo!

I left Uganda and have crossed over the border into Kenya. I'm currently in Kisumu and will be soon headed to Kericho to visit a BioSand Filter project area.

Before I left one of the most amazing countries I have ever been to I had a chance to indulge in an adrenaline pumping activity at the source of the Nile. About 200 years ago John Speke discovered that Lake Victoria in Uganda was actually the source of the White Nile. On August 5th, 1948, Mohatma Ghandi's ashes were spead across 7 locations and one of them included this place. Today it is home to one of, if not the best white water rafting locations in the world.

I joined onto a day trip that had 50 screaming young people from Canada, USA, the Netherlands, Ireland, and mostly the UK risking life and limb (at least that's what the disclaimer said) to conquer the great Nile. There is something pretty scary about paddling as hard as you can down a major waterfall only to be met by a giant 3 story wall of water as soon as you reach to the bottom. The raft topsided twice on two of the grade 5 rapids but the small crew I joined onto managed to conquer most of the others without any casualties. Just to give you an indication of the size of these rapids: a grade 5 rapid is the largest anyone can realistically do. Grade 6 is considered not suitable for even the most experienced rafter/kayaker to ever attempt. It was so much fun.

I'll let you know how Kenya's treating me next time I check in.

Cheers,

Leor

Goodbye Kikagati

There never really is a good time to leave behind that which you have accepted into your heart but that’s what I did this week. I said goodbye to Kikagati and have moved on to Mbarara where I am tying up a few loose ends. From here it’s onto Kampala, Jinja and then Kenya and Tanzania.

The most difficult part was saying goodbye to the children of Kikagati. My departure date fluctuated with each new event, opportunity or challenge so when I finally did leave it was a sudden decision without any notice. That didn’t seem to stop the dozen or so kids that came out to see me off. I kissed some goodbye and hugged them all as the overcrowded taxi (at one point reaching 11 passengers in a small 5 person sedan) honked for me to get inside. As the car pulled away, the waving continued until I was far off into the dusty sunset. I was overcome with a large uncomfortable lump in my throat and a stinging sensation in my heart.

I left behind an amazing team of friends that I guess one can’t help but get close to in an environment as different and challenging as the one we encountered together. I already miss Geoff, Dax, Jamie (newest edition to the team) and Paula (Geoff’s girlfriend) so much and wish them all the very best of luck pushing towards the conclusion of the rainwater catchment project.

Ten Things I Will Miss…

There are many things I will miss about Kikagati including:
1. Driving to and from work everyday through a parted sea of children waving, doing happy dances, and screaming “how are you!”
2. Participating in the Returnees’ high energy dancing and memory piercing singing under the stars
3. Children’s smiles, laughter and singing
4. Peace (our cook)’s delicious feasts of goat, beans, rice and matokee
5. Seeing the mind-blown looks on the faces of the children watching the Monsters Inc movie on our solar powered laptop
6. Listening to Geoff and Dax letting off steam during one of their late night guitar jam sessions
7. Children touching the hair on my calves, forearms and head in complete amazement
8. Nightly language lessons and practicing what I’ve learned with the locals
9. Hearing the children within earshot talk about Kabungee (my nickname) but not understanding what they’re saying
10. The beautiful scenery of rolling hills, fireball sunsets and bright, endless constellations

Ten Things I Will Not Miss…
The positives far outweigh the negatives but here are a few things I thought I might mention that I will not miss:
1. Completely standing out as though you’re naked and having all eyes on you every single place you go
2. Being called Mzungu (White Man) so often that it really does start to feel like your name
3. Complete and total lack of any kind of privacy whatsoever
4. Some select people’s cultural/ religious ignorance. For example, a local village politician asked me if I was a Christian or a homosexual. Umm…Is there a door #3 on that one?
5. Cuts, scrapes, bruises and torn, stinging calluses from doing more manual labour than I’ve ever done in my entire life
6. Daily struggle to introduce the concept of protein to our cook
7. Using a smelly, fly infested latrine each day
8. The nose numbing stench of incredible body odour. Especially during the drive back from a long day’s work in a Toyota HiLux crammed past capacity with ten or more sweaty Returnees who haven’t washed since the previous Sunday
9. Trying to fall asleep to the sound of goat screams loud enough to wake the dead
10. Being awoken at 4:00 every morning by a rooster who is trying to get the jump on all the other cocks by crowing 3 hours before dawn

Kik and Kit

We didn’t always have a cock problem. It started when we finally managed to obtain two egg laying hens. It was quite a happy day when the neighbourhood rooster showed up in our compound to impregnate our hens. They laid about a dozen eggs and sat on only the ones they knew would hatch, the remaining ones for us to eat. We finally had more protein in our diets, which in Uganda is a big deal. We affectionately named our chickens Kik as in our village home of Kikagati and Kit short for Kitezo - the village cell where our project is based. It’s important to note that in Uganda “K” followed by the letter “i” forms a “ch” sound. We were quite pleased with the highly creative names of Kik ‘n’ Kit.

Soon, things started to go wrong. Kit got sick and died. Kik must have been in mourning because she was no longer laying eggs. Worst of all, as noted above, the rooster was there to stay. He was waking us up at ridiculous hours of the morning and we had no more eggs to show for it. After some deliberation, our team came to a decisive conclusion: Kik had to go. On my last night in Kikagati Peace (our cook) took matters by the neck and soon enough I was treated to a farewell dinner of chicken and a bottle of red wine, which I smuggled in. Usually, we are pretty good about not drinking in Kikagati because it sets a bad example and could tarnish the reputation of the NGO we’re volunteering with. It was a luxurious treat and a good meal.

Football Mania

One other fun thing I got to do shortly before I left the Kik was play football (soccer) with the Returnees. They had challenged our team to a match and we finally found a Sunday when our entire team was together to accept. When we got out to the football pitch we were surprised and a little apprehensive to find people in bare feet running laps and wearing old Arsenal jerseys with their own names and numbers etched on the back with markers. They really took this seriously and there was even an official referee with a whistle. They were all so excited to see an actual soccer ball as they often play with one made out of banana leaves in plastic bags tied tight with string. It seemed as though all of Kikagati had come out as spectators and I’m sure it was one of the biggest events to ever take place in the Returnees village. We definitely held our own and it helped that we had sports shoes while most of the others played in bare feet but after two hours of running up and down the pitch I was sore and completely exhausted.

Catchment Challenge

I guess there is no good time to leave a project while it is ongoing but I felt particularly bad for abandoning it at a time when there are so many staffing challenges. Without getting into too many details, basically the entire construction and excavation crew was recently let go and the catchment team is in the process of hiring all new workers from the local community to complete the last leg of the project. This has been building for a while but it came to a head when the entire group of Returnees (Ugandans exiled from Tanzania) decided, without warning, not to show up for work one morning as a strategy for higher wages. There has already been a wage increase and several perks added along the way for the crew. This strategy came across as very strange and totally inappropriate.

Millennium Village Project

Despite recent setbacks, tremendous progress has been made and the end of the project is actually in sight. The Member of Parliament (MP) for the District of Mbarara, Honourable Dr. Nkouhe stopped in the other day to see how things were going and seemed very impressed with the project. He is a big fan of Geoff and his work. Dr. Nkouhe came to Kikagati to announce that the area has been selected as a Millennium Village Project site. This means a concerted multi-sectoral effort over the next ten years to demonstrate the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include among many other goals, halving the number of people without sustainable access to water. To learn more about the MDGs check out this link: www.un/mdg

Education & Training

Obed and James are two Ugandans that I helped come to Canada a year and a half ago to participate in CAWST's BioSand Filter training workshop in Calgary. The two of them and I recently delivered a similar but condensed two day BioSand Filter Introductory workshop for a local NGO. The NGO is now working on a funding proposal so they can get a steel mold made (necessary for making their own filters), receive more training from Obed and start their own filter program. The experience was a fantastic learning opportunity for me.

Shortly after that training, Obed and I delivered a 3 day (half days) commuity education workshop on water, hygiene and sanitation in Kitezo. This is the community where the catchment is being built. It wasn't a big crowd (7 commuity members) but by the end of it, the participants decided to form their own commuity based group to transfer what they've learned to other people in the community. Very exciting.

Well, next time you read an update here it will be from Kenya. Until then.

Leor