Football night in Kampala

In Uganda, right after you are asked your religion, people want to know which team you support. Man Utd. or Arsenal? Actually I am a Chelsea fan, but I have been known to cheer for Liverpool and Manchester United on occasion. This answer is usually acceptable. British Premiere League football (soccer) is hugely popular here. The pubs are packed on game nights; even taxi drivers wear their team on their sleeves, or more accurately painted on the rear windows.

Last night Arsenal played Liverpool. The bar was so packed; we got their 25 minutes early and still had to sit on the cement floor. The bar exploded with excitement everytime a goal was scored, or nearly scored, or saved. Us muzungus (foreigner – falang in Thai) went with a couple of the older Bakuli Boys, Junior and Tony.

The Bakuli Boys, so named for the district where most of them live, makeup the NGO African Hearts Community Organization. This is a group of 62 boys who live in poverty. Through the organization they have been given food, the chance for education, and taught to play instruments. They have formed a brass band which has become exceptionally popular, and the money they make goes towards school fees, uniforms, and other necessities. The 15 boys who were homeless now have a place to stay. Some nights I go down and help them with homework. Finals are over the next couple of weeks and their semester break (for 2 months) begins in November.

One of the younger boys, Robert, who guesses his age to be 13, comes for soup after school. He’s not really allowed to come by the guesthouse, but none of us staying here would ever dream of turning him away. Not only is he smart and charismatic, the soup and peanut butter toast probably is the closest he gets to real nutrition. Robert's only other meal is posho at the school lunch. Posho is corn flour than when cooked in water resembles mashed potatoes when it is finished. It is tasty, but when eaten alone rather bland. Robert says the reason I like it, is I have only eaten it a few times.

Anyway, Liverpool and Arsenal tied, which is a big deal. Arsenal’s winning streak is over, which is good for fans of all the other teams! Most of the people cheering for Liverpool were Manchester United fans, who needed to see their main rival taken down a notch. The give away, was when for the few seconds the camera panned to the Man Utd. coach, there was more cheering then when Liverpool scored their goal. I don’t really know much about sports, but that is a close enough approximation to still have me included in further “football” conversations.

News from Uganda Oct. 26

Police are investigating in an all girls’ school, where 10 girls between the ages of 12-14 were reported to be pregnant. The girls were all from the same class. The response from the administration is that parents should step-up and be teaching their children morals.

• I may be editorializing a little bit but that’s not far from the truth. (I was going to put a direct link for the story here, but I find the Monitor's website impossible to figure out - see for yourself at The Daily Monitory Online)

One of Kony’s top officials from the Lord’s Resistance Army gave himself up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The DRC is handing him over to the UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo to prepare him for his return to Uganda.

The refugee crisis in western Uganda is getting worse as nearly 800 Conglese enter Uganda daily. Kisoro is the town where the refugees are headed. UNHCR, MSF France, and UNICEF have set up latrines, and a system for garbage collection to avoid outbreaks of disease.

As Uganda prepares for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) there have been rumours that police are randomly arresting more people in an effort to decrease the number of citizens in Kampala. I have been told that people are afraid to walk outside at night, even with ID, as the officers have been known to rip up the ID and arrest people anyway.

Also, apparently Ugandans are to vote off a particular person in Big Brother Africa. That show is huge here – and there is no creative editing…. Everything is shown.

HIV/AIDS in Uganda

HIV status in Canada is something people tend not to disclose, unless they are activists. To have HIV in Canada is, for the most part, something people feel ashamed of. Those who are HIV positive are often seen as being drug abusers, promiscuous, or prostitutes.

In Uganda, however, HIV is so prevalent it affects nearly everyone. Mothers accidentally pass it to their unborn children; men give it to wives and girlfriends; nurses get pricked by syringes; and people injured in (the frequent) car accidents receive HIV from other passengers. The sheer number of people, both those who look healthy, and those who look ill, is huge. Stigma, for the most part, is gone. The AIDS clinic at Mengo Hospital is constantly full. People arrive early in the morning and wait all day to see counsellors, meet with a doctor, get tested, receive free anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), and those who test positive have the opportunity for a CD4 count.

The Pharmacy

As each new patient is admitted they meet with a counsellor, who discusses modes of HIV transmission and asks what they will do if they test positive. A major emphasis of these meetings is positive living. The counsellors say - just because you are HIV positive, doesn’t mean you will die, with healthy living, proper protections, and a balanced diet, people do not get AIDS for a long time. Patients are asked to make sure they are sleeping under bed netting to avoid malaria, nets are provided to those who cannot afford them.

The Waiting Room

The patient then has blood drawn in the lab and 10 minutes later the counsellor will tell them their status. It boggles my mind, that within 10 minutes a person’s life will be totally changed. Nearly everyone goes for testing, especially because couples are legally required to be tested before they can get married.

While people with HIV can avoid getting AIDS for a long time, there are many patients at the clinic who are very ill! A woman, Jane, came in yesterday. She was so well dressed, like everyone in Uganda, and I guessed her age to be around 50. She is 29.
Due to her battle not only with AIDS, but also TB, she had lost a lot of weight since her last visit, the scales showed her weight to be 44 kgs. Jane is just one example of people who, despite taking all prescribed medications, is literally wasting away.

Even though many people Kampala are educated about HIV and its transmission, there are people trying to profit from it. Henry, was tested the first time at Mulago hospital, on the way home with his results, he stopped by a small church. For a large fee and the correct stamps on his positive test they would pray for a miracle for him. He came to Mengo hospital looking for the official stamp. Jennifer, one of the counsellors, explained to him, that some people will take advantage of those that are sick, and that he shouldn’t have to pay people to pray for him. Christianity is very important in Uganda, and the counsellors constantly struggle to convince Catholics to use condoms to protect themselves. The other battle is against small religious sects that convince people to throw away their AIDS medications; these groups say asking God for forgiveness will clean people of HIV. Despite these set backs, the counsellors are blunt in their explanations and are willing to answer any questions to help people understand their HIV status. Some of the counsellors are HIV positive themselves.

Arrival at Mengo

The plane from Amsterdam to Kampala had more white faces then black – holidaying families, sports teams, groups of AIDS workers, and UN representatives. But, these faces moved out of the airport quickly and into waiting Land Rovers, the preferred vehicles of NGOs, before disappearing among the 1.2 million people living in Kampala. One of my first questions to Nicole, the girl giving me a tour of Owino, the largest market, was where are all the white people that I flew in with? She brought up an interesting point – you don’t find them at Owino or many of the other outdoor markets. They prefer to go to shopping malls and stay in high-end hotels.

Although by the standards of most Ugandans JaJaGwens Guesthouse at Mengo Hospital could be a four star resort because we have running water (both hot and cold), beds, toilets, electricity, and a generator for the many power outages. Not to mention our stove is half electric and half gas, so we can still cook when the power is out!

Persis, our friend (and housekeeper), also lives on the hospital grounds. She has a mat on her concrete floor for sleeping, uses lamps and candles for light, uses a shared latrine, and her water (for cooking, bathing and cleaning) is collected from the shared tap outside.

Besides the accommodations Mengo hospital is home to a dental clinic, eye clinic, maternity ward, paediatric unit, AIDS clinic (called “Counselling”), and several patient wards. Luke and Catherine are the male and female wards respectively, for those people who do not have much money. Those people who can afford more stay in single rooms in the Sir Albert Cook building. Luke and Catherine are 80 bed dorms where families bring food to their sick relatives. Also in the compound are armed guards ensuring people don’t leave before they pay their fees, oh and the garbage heap. Regularly circling the garbage, or perching in a nearby tree are about 20 – 25 of the largest birds I have ever seen. Standing at 1.5 m tall the Marabou Stork put our scavengers, like seagulls, to shame.


Outside the compound all bets are off. Looking both ways before taking any steps prevent you from rapidly becoming roadkill. Every street corner houses a booth, in the most rudimentary sense of the term, where you can purchase minutes for your cell phone, or make calls from the one they have set up. Suzanne sits right outside the gates of the hospital, all day, everyday, and she is where I purchase my minutes.
Across the street is a little corner store that sells some western type products mixed in with the beans, rice, and cartons of milk that doesn’t always have to be refrigerated. Down the street about 8 minutes, just past Maggie’s bar, an excellent place for beer and a game of soccer, and the internet place, is Mengo Market. This is an outdoor market with bananas (called matoke), pineapple, most vegetables, ground nuts (peanuts) and a great place for rolexs. A rolex in Kampala is an egg omelette with tomatoes (and sometimes onions) rolled up into a hot chipati. They are rolled eggs, hence the name rolex. (If you still don’t get it say rolled eggs then rolex out loud).

In fact I am responsible for dinner tonight, which means I need to head out to the market, now.
Next post will have more on the AIDS clinic and the African Heart Boys (Bakuli Boys).

The view from JaJa Gwen's Guest house. (Jaja is grandmother).

The start of something new.

A new career, a new location, a new trip, hopefully a new starting point - it seems fitting it comes with a new blog.