Back in Africa

Finally, 14 months after leaving Madagascar, I find myself standing on
the dark red African soil again. It is an amazing feeling being back
here, and my heart started beating a little faster as my plane started
descending over Lake Victoria, toward Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Lake
Victoria from the air is an incredible sight, and seems to stretch
forever. It is a deceptive view, especially knowing that most of
Africa is struggling to find fresh water. I guess that is one thing
you always have to remember in Africa-- things aren't always what they
seem.
I had remembered the poverty, filth, and challenging conditions in
Madagascar, but being away from it for over a year, I found myself
still surprised by the conditions in the surrounding areas driving
from the airport to Kampala, Uganda's capital. The straw and wooden
boxes that serve as people's homes dotted the roadsides, reminding me
that life here is a different life than most of us know, and in fact, a life
most people do not wish to know.
I have been staying with a guy I met through some other contacts.
He lives with his sister, niece, and their maid on the outskirts of
Kampala, in a little village. The village is very poor and most people
live in the small shacks I wrote about above. The house where I am
staying is simple, but pretty nice for this area. The family has been
extremely nice to me, showing me the generous hospitality and
friendliness Ugandans are known for. Electricity is sporadic, hot
water is non-existent, the nights are hot, the mosquitoes are
plentiful, and the food is a little redundant, but I am loving every
minute of it. The family has also been teaching me Lugandan, the local
language! It is a lot of fun, and many people in the village are happy
to hear me speaking a little Lugandan to them when I go to buy some
mangoes or bananas. I have also been able to visit many areas where
tourists never venture. This is the best part, and you can imagine
that I receive a lot of glances walking through the little village
markets and gathering areas at night, when my white face can easily be
seen in the firelight.
Kampala is a pretty typical African capital, although it seems much
safer than many others. Like the other cities, it seems totally
unorganized and chaotic, but it is also very interesting. There are
many different areas of the city (the rich area where the ex-pats
live, the poor slum areas, the villages, the wealthy area full of
Ugandans who have been working abroad, etc.). Although I haven't quite
figured out the taxi system yet, I have managed to see a lot of the
city, mostly by getting lost and then having to find my way back:)
One beautiful thing that I really missed after leaving Madagascar,
although I hadn't really realized it, is the beautiful singing of the
African people. Every morning, I wake up to the girls in the house
singing beautiful Lugandan songs, while preparing breakfast, washing
dishes, cleaning the floors, and burning the garbage (all at the same
time!). Their voices resonate through the house and display their joy
of life, always bringing a smile to my face.
One cool thing that happened to me during the last two weeks here is that I got the opportunity to attend two Ugandan weddings. The receptions were very fun, with traditional Ugandan dances performed by several girls, and a great deal of African songs and boys playing the congo drums. I was popular, especially with the kids, because I was the only mzungu (white person) at either wedding. The costumes worn by some of the guests and family members were great, and now I need to find out how I can get ahold of one of those men's outfits, called kanzus, for myself!
Every day here is a new adventure. Another cool new thing that I have experienced is a boda-boda ride. The boda-bodas are guys and young boys on motorcycles and scooters, who weave in and out of the jam-packed traffic here, ferrying passengers around town. Although
they are probably about a -4 on a safety scale of 0-10, they are definitely cool and a lot of fun, in a dangerous sort of way!
I really don't feel like a typical tourist here, since I have been living in a village with a family, eaten only local food, learned some of the local language, and also seen many areas tourists never see. The other day, I walked through one of the poorest slums in Kampala with one of my friends. I can definitely say that I saw the "real Africa." I can't really describe what I saw because I still have trouble thinking about it. Poverty is a huge understatement. My
friend, who lives there, told me that I am one of the first white people to walk through that slum, so that is why I received so many stares and looks of amazement. The kids absolutely loved me (except for the little girl who ran to her mom, screaming that the white man was going to eat her), and by the time my walk ended, I had around thirty children following me. Unfortunately, my friend also told me that many of the adults were hoping that I was there to try to improve their village in some way, by building a school, fixing their water supply (they get water out of a filthy little canal, that probably is not even safe to touch, let alone drink), or providing more land. I felt bad that I couldn't help them, besides providing a brief distraction from their daily struggles.
I also took a stroll through the largest outdoor market in Africa. The Owino Market has everything you can possibly imagine, from second-hand clothes and shoes, to fruits, vegetables, old appliances, and a fish market. It is a huge maze of alleys, each lined to the max with sellers and their goods. I could tell that not many tourists visit the market by the attention that I received. The market is a very interesting, but very dirty place, so most tourists stick to the nicer supermarkets, where prices are fixed and they are safe. Every seller I passed tried to shake my hand and welcome me to look at his merchandise, either as his "brother" or "friend." It was pretty amusing. I even saw a huge 150lb. Nile perch being cut up for sale. They definitely don't have these back home!
The last thing I will mention is that I was invited by the maid of the place where I am staying, to go with her and visit her mother and family in their village. It was incredible! The village is about 2 hours outside Kampala, in the forested hills. I received a huge welcome from her mother, who was so happy to see me and make sure I remembered my visit fondly. I met the 12 or 14 children she has (most were orphans from the village or children of other family members who had died), and ate some awesome food. After eating, they took me around their land and showed me how they grow their mangoes, jackfruits, papayas, coffee, pineapple, guava, and everything else, which was really interesting. We then strolled to the "main street," where the village was. The village consisted of two little shops and about 10 little mud houses. The whole village came out to greet me, and my friend explained that her mom had told her that I was the first white person to visit her village. I shook hands with over 100 people and several more children. I even tasted two of the local alcoholic drinks, called "tonto" and "quete." They were very good, and everyone watched me as I sipped them, laughing and smiling at this strange person drinking and eating their food. My visit to the village was something I will never forget, and a great break from the rush of Kampala. Life cannot get much simpler than the lives those people lead.
Well, there is a summary of my first two weeks in real Africa. It has been great, and hopefully will only get better. Every day here is a gift. Every night, I take a moment to look up at the stars and say, "Wow, I'm in Uganda!"

A few pictures I have managed to upload so far can be found at http://www.photoworks.com/members/Nathan_Owens under the Uganda folder.

My brother

Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to point this out to you all. My brother, Dan, just graduated from the San Francisco Police Academy two days ago. Not only did he graduate, but he was the top academic student out of over 40 graduates! Way to go Dan! You are making the Owens family very proud.

On the Road

Hello from Dubai! I have spent the last week and a half in Cairo, Egypt, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It has been quite an experience and the differences between the two places are striking.
Once arriving in Cairo, I was immediately overwhelmed by the size of the city and the number of people there. Cairo is the second largest city in the world, with around 22 million people! It is a very dirty city with people everywhere, and what seems like mass chaos all day, every day, except on Fridays (Muslim holy days). It was cool seeing Arabic writing all over the city and hearing only Arabic as I walked through the streets. I was very surprised by the lack of English spoken in Cairo, with very few people able to speak any more than a simple greeting.
My trip started off well with my bag actually arriving on the same plane as myself. I should have known that something bad was about to happen, and it did. My second day in Cairo, I withdrew money from an ATM machine. However, the machine refused to give my card back. To make a long story short, I ended up having to cancel my card, and now I will have to hope that a new card arrives in Uganda pronto. Unfortunately, this setback prevented me from traveling down to Luxor to see more pyramids and the Valley of the Kings. I did see the Pyramids of Giza and the Pyramids at Saqqara, which were incredible and something that I have wanted to see my whole life. I got the chance to ride a camel through the desert around the pyramids, and that was a lot of fun. I polished up my bargaining skills and by the end of my trip, was receiving items for almost the cost that a local Egyptian would pay. I also befriended a kid from Cairo who took me around some of the areas of Old and Islamic Cairo, including entrance to several mosques. Since nearly 80% of the Cairo population is Muslim, at five different times each day, a person can hear the entire city praying out loud throughout the thousands of mosques of the city. It really is a beautiful sound. On the contrary, the rest of the days are filled with the nonstop honking of car horns (I named this "Egyptian music":). If you think drivers where we live are bad, just spend an hour in Cairo, and I can guarantee you that your perspective will change. To give you a better idea, as far as I could tell, there are absolutely no traffic laws in Cairo. This is shown on a three-lane highway when there are five or six cars spread across it, and also by the fact that my taxi drivers rarely spent time driving below 120km/h, while simultaneously passing a "60 km/h speed limit" sign and waving to the police on the side of the road. When bored, or just when the mood strikes, the drivers begin honking and don't stop until both hands are required for driving while talking on their cellphones. Cairo was absolutely crazy, and although seeing the pyramids was the fulfillment of a life-long dream, I couldn't wait to escape the chaotic hustle-and-bustle of that huge city.

Dubai is an absolutely incredible place. There is so much money here that it is a little mind-blowing. Dubai is over-the-top in every way you can imagine. This city alone has the tallest and most luxurious (7 stars) hotel in the world, the largest shopping mall in the world, and the tallest building in the world. Everything is brand new and the amount of building going on here is insane. This city reminds me a lot of Las Vegas without the casinos. All the cars here are new Mercedes, BMWs, LandRovers, Ferraris, and Porsches. It is kind of funny seeing a Muslim man in his headdress and robes, speeding down the highway in a Ferrari while talking on his new iphone.
I stayed with a friend in his apartment, a sweet place up on the top floor of a tall building near the water. I'll just say that it is a little different than staying at the hostel in Cairo. I'm afraid that I've been spoiled now before going to Uganda. We'll see.
So tomorrow morning I will catch a taxi to the airport and hop on a plane to Uganda. I can't wait! I wish you all the best and will report next from Kampala!