Seriously? -As in, if there had ever been a time in which the benefits of such a video could have outweighed the potential harm it might inflict, the wounds it might re-open, the fuel it might cast on a dying flame, it might have been 5-10 years ago when Kony was still largely relevant. But the video still would have been a hugely presumptuous call to arms by one tragically uninformed Southern Californian filmmaker.
If you like real and surreal together, then by golly, Gulu is the place for you. It’s dusty and proud and friendly, but not overly so. It’s also two distinct towns on a collision course. A small stream, which also serves as the town car wash, divides these two realities. South of the car wash lies the gridded African town of cinderblock rowhouses and dusty streets inundated with boda bodas and heavy trucks [...]
After 10 days spent in the nation’s capital, Kampala, Alexandra and I were itching to finally set out into the field to begin our interviews in earnest. In that respect, on some level we felt we were very much headed into the “wild,” or at least the unknown for us and for the project.
We headed out of town to the lakeside village of Munyonyo, stopping at Cassia Lodge (proclaimed the best view in Kampala). This was a momentous occasion because it was our first trip out of the capital, and it was Alexandra’s first-ever ride on a matatu.
Our first Saturday in Uganda was spent walking around Old Kampala, viewing the mammoth “Gadhafi” Mosque perched on top of Kampala Hill, and taking a private hire taxi out to the Baha’i Mother Temple of Africa. In addition to the “Garden City,” Kampala is also known as the “City of Seven Hills,” and nearly all [...]
Our field research in Uganda was to span 7 weeks and would take us to nearly every corner of the country. It was truly a crash course in the people, places and culture of Uganda, and on some level I feel I know the whole of this country better than I knew Mozambique after living their for over two years.
26 days after learning that I would be spending the summer in Uganda, our Ethiopian Airlines 767 touched down in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) for a layover en route to Entebbe (Uganda). It was actually a pleasant flight, far less time than the flight duration from Portland, OR to Maputo [...]
This summer I find myself in Uganda, of all places, traveling around the country looking for answers; not for solving any sort of existenstial dilemma, though many folks come to Africa for that purpose. I’m traveling on assignment for the World Bank with a research partner, Alexandra, to get [...]
