Entries in Life

We arrived in Uganda last night.  I'm here to finish installing the Knowledge Management Portal (Knowledge Tree + Joomla) that I put together over the past few weeks and help train the local staff.

Following are my first impressions of Uganda.  Keep in mind that I arrived after sunset and am staying at a nice hotel so my first impressions are especially limited.   Still, using my time in Rwanda as a frame of reference, I do have a little insight.

During the drive from the airport in Entebbe to Kampala, I kept thinking of how I could describe what I've seen so far here in Africa.  My first thought was that much of it is like many rural areas of the U.S. during the early 20th century.  But there are a lot more cars and more electricity.

Then I thought about the government in Africa.  The "Wild West" seems to work a little better, then.  The West with electricity and cars.  And paved roads.

Of course, I wasn't yet in Kampala when I was thinking about all this.  What I saw of Kampala last night, and from what I can see today, Kampala is fairly modern.  Short, modern office buildings, plenty of paved roads.  We'll see if my impression changes once I actually get a chance to drive around today.

Speaking of roads: In Uganda, they drive on the left.  In Rwanda (the other land-locked country just south of Uganda), they drive on the right.  I wonder what happens at a border crossing.  Oh, and they use yet-another-power-connection.  I had to pay 15,000 UG Shillings for a new adaptor today.  Highway Robbery, I tell you!

I suppose you can tell exactly which European country colonized which African nation by looking at their power plugs and on which side of the road they drive.  Uganda is clearly a former British colony -- left side driving and British power plugs -- wheras Rwanda, with its power plugs and right side driving is clearly a former Belgium colony.

One more thing before I start work.  International flights are about the most fun you can have (if you don't sense sarcasm there, let me point it out for you here).

Take Amsterdam, for instance.  I hopped off my flight from Philadelphia, went through customs once to enter then country and then again to hop on a flight to Uganda.  Hurrah!  At least this was better than transiting the U.S. where they make you grab your luggage even if you're just catching the next flight out of the country.

Customs (long lines, lots of waiting) and switching flights (long layovers, long lines, lots of waiting) mean that I left Philly at 6:30pm Tuesday and, after hours in airports and whatnot, arrived in my hotel in Uganda at 9:00pm Wednesday.  Not much jet lag, though.  I seem to have a knack for sleeping on planes -- even in the cramped economy class conditions.

“Forgiveness is the final form of love.” — Reinhold Niebuhr

I went and saw “As we forgive those” tonight. It is an amazing account of the process of reconcilliation that some people in Rwanda are going through. The documentary focused on two different genocideres and the reconciliation that they sought with the surviving members of their families they attacked and murdered.

Two women whose families had been killed struggled to forgive the men who had killed their families. The process of reconcilliation in “As we forgive those” covered what happened after the Gacaca courts.during reconcilliation workships run in cooperation with the Prison Fellowship in Rwanda.

One of the projects the former genocideres participate in is building homes for victims of their crimes. This is especially poignant since they often destroyed those homes during the genocide.

(I have to admit that I only saw the last part of the movie. The listing of screenings gave a contact email and said it was being shown by Church of the Apostles in Fayetteville, NC. I sent an email, got a response, found the date posted on the site was wrong, and got a showtime. But no location. So I naturally assumed it was at the Church of the Apostles. No one linked to their website. If I had gone to the website — or even known it existed — I would have realized it was showing 20 minutes
away from the church. Anyway… if you post information, make sure it is all connected.)

Besides the excellent message of reconciliation instead of retribution, the Church of the Apostles seemed to be using the film as a sort of evangelism. The minister.stood up after the film and said, essentially, “See what Christians are doing? You might have a bad
impression of the church, but We ain't all bad!” I thought it was a bit too pathetic.

Still, I think this is a great film for any church to show or sponsor. And it's great for people outside the church, too. The message is universal.

Forgiveness isn't human. It is divine. (from the trailer)

It was only because I read about the award that I even found out about the documentary "As We Forgive Those".

The documentary covers two widows facing their families' killer's and asks "Can survivors truly forgive the killers who destroyed their families? Can the government expect this from its people? And can the church ... fit into the process of reconciliation today?"

The last bit seems the most poignant to me. I'm not sure this sort of national reconciliation would work at all if it was merely a civic duty.

I'm hoping to see this next week.

You know what? I like the way Rwandans do bureaucracy -- completely open to the world. We walked right into the Ministry of Health and found the person we needed to see. No bothersome identification checks. No screening. Just plain trust.

Contrast this with our visit to the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda. A squat building built to be impervious to almost any attack. Two ID checks. Two metal scanners. No laptops. Bah!

Well, some journalism interns from Canada are in Rwanda and, when one decided he needed a contact at the Ministry of Infrastructure, he was a little surprised:

Jean Pierre, our program assistant here in Rwanda, suggested we just go to the Ministry offices and ask around. I was skeptical; surely security wouldn’t even let us through the door without a contact or an appointment.

But much to my surprise we walked right in the front door and after asking around I found a man who has worked in road safety for over a decade: the perfect expert.

So, I didn't get to visit the gorillas, but the reporter for this story saw them. What caught my eye, though, was this description of the Gorilla's Nest Lodge where we stayed:

That evening, as the sun was setting over the valley, the gardens of the Gorilla Nest Lodge resounded with drums and chants.

In the magic of an African sunset, the garden exploded with sound and movement as a troupe of dancers rushed on to the lawn.

There were lithe young men in long wigs resembling lions' manes, exuberant young women and beaming little girls in white Communion-style dresses.

As they performed traditional Rwandan dances, they tossed their heads, gyrated, twisted and jumped with ecstatic abandon, to the accompaniment of a hypnotic chant that echoed long after they had gone.

I should point out, If you're interested in the stuff I write about here — Orthodoxy, Rwanda, Emacs, Linux, etc. — I've got a few link over on GotNoBlog.com.

Why there and not del.icio.us?

Because I want to do something useful with the domain besides let it be turned it into yet another empty site of spam. And this use (link and comment) it is similar to what I first saw the name GotNoBlog suggested.