Inside Uganda

When is the good news coming….so I made my first assignment for The Independent…if I don’t tell them what I want to write they will never come up with anything. I cover my first events this weekend.

 So anyways back on the malaria thing….I went to the doctor and they told me I had Malaria! I’m just not really feeling Africa! Everyone kept on telling me I had Malaria because of this blister/bump thing on my lip….I didnt have any syptoms but last week my musles were hurting really bad and my chest. I just thought it was from dancing:-( But I was wrong. ….I brought the medicine which was some $$$$ yesterday I should be getting better soon…I just don’t understand I was taking my medicine, vitamins and everything—-its just not okay….. I will be celebrating my 1 month in Africa on Monday:-) I’m so excited there is so much I want to do and see. I went to the ”beach’ lake yesterday it was nice….pictures coming soon on Monday —- a picture slide show showcasing my month in Africa

This is a picture I took at the beach yesterday….more coming on Monday:-)

Obama!Obama!Obama! A local salon renames their salon to the Obama Salon when Obama won.

Obama SalonSo once we got dressed after Barack Obama’s speech, the girls Divinity and Tiffany went to Web City to call up everyone on Skype and email family and friends.

I went with Seb to The Independent a magazine/newspaper out here in Uganda. I was hoping to do some freelancing assignments there (using the high speed internet would come in handy to ). The internet at Web city is kind of slow and I just end up all mad and when I go there.

Seb is one of the ports coordinators at the house is friends with the managing editor of the paper. I have been told that he is the top journalist in the city. His name is Andrew M. Mwenda.

Today I actually got to sit down and talk to the guy…..but we didn’t talk for that long which was weird. So I guess I’m officially an international reporter! The sky’s the limit. So I googled Andrew’s name he was a fellow at Stanford University last year.

According to the natives in the house and those that I have interacted with Andrew is the only journalist that really “really” talks about the government and Uganda’s president Museveni. It’s crazy because their actually related. Museveni had a son with Andrew’s sister. It makes me wonder if Andrew wasn’t related to him if he would be treated different.

I think…no I’m sure I will learn a lot from him.

You know those days that last forever. Well it seemed like finding out the results of the U.S. election would take a million years. Uganda is ten hours ahead of California and seven hour ahead of N.J./N.Y.

After my first night on the club seen in Africa I didn’t want to go out again. To keep up with what was going on in the U.A. we (Tiffany, Brian, and myself) started the day at Café Pap and sipped African Tea (Spiced—-another blog with details about this wonderful TeaJ—-it’s so good).

We drunk our tea and watched CNN on the big screen t.v. in the café. The election had just got started. We spent the night at three different clubs dancing and stopping to look at the T.V. Screens in each club to see how Obama was doing in the race. The DJ’s periodically gave us club goer’s updates…but of course I already knew as I was not far from the t.v.

Everyone all day wished us luck and high-fived us. Everyone also had on their tee shirts with their cousin Obama’s picture on it.

When we finally got home it was 4:30 a.m. The race was still hard to ell but Barack Obama was in the lead. The final results wouldn’t be known until 6 or 7ish am Ugandan time—Wed. 11/5/08.

We turned on the T.V. when we got home, but I fell asleep. A couple hours later I woke up the t.v. was off. We turned it on and the results were on. Barack Obama was President-elect. Everyone in the house gathered in me and Tiffany’s room. We listened as McCain gave spoke and then Obama followed. The room was silent as Obama spoke. Tears rolled down my cheeks as they did for all the African American women in the house.

We told the kids we would be slaughtering a goat on Wednesday Nov 5^th when Barak Obama won.

Election day events: To be continued

 1.6 million Ugandan Shillings that not a lot really—-yes it is that’s the amount of money it would cost to fix my laptop out here in
Uganda. 1.6 million shillings which is about $1,300 U.S. dollars is just about the cost of the laptop in
America with the student discount.1.6 million shillings is the quote we got from the Apple store here in
Kampala, Uganda that we got on Nov 1^st the day after the laptop broke. At the time I was still upset I was suppose to start teaching today.Before we went to check the price to fix the laptop we met up with this guy names Isaac. He works in entertainment and use to live in Glendale (C.A.) so that was cool…we talked about Say It Loud! Being that it is the only African American newspaper in the San Fernando Valley and
Glendale is a part of the SFV. Since we barely made it to Africa Tiffany and I were thinking about getting a side job while we were here in
Uganda. Getting a job is not something I was trying to do here but I have to keep it real I have bills, and student loans to pay back….(if only I had a benefactor or a really rich boyfriends;-) ). The guys at the house told us this other girl that was there volunteering made two commercials and one video. They said she got paid well…enough to buy a new laptop, or fix one!We’ll see what happens. I was waiting to get back home to be in America’s Next Top Model, but if I become
Africa’s Next Top Model that works for me to! That would be so cool to day I got my start in
Africa….that’s what’s up. “You Wanna Be On Top?!”

 Okay so jus cal me Miss Missing In Action….but really it’s not my fault. Okay so to celebrate my 1^st week in Africa (Oct 31^st ) I decided to go out to one of the local clubs with one of the coordinators at the Bavubuka House. I wanted to have a little fun and see the city a little bit. Tiffany was acting up and didn’t want to go…so I wasn’t really felling it but decided to go anyways. I wish I would have stayed home really if I knew what was to come.The clubs were kind of lame. I guess out here they go to three clubs or more in one night which is weird. In Cali….I can’t speak for the whole
USA….we go to one club go home at that’s it lol (laugh out loud!). So the first club was okay, when we went to the second club the same DJ from the first club we went to was there. He was playing the same exact songs like okay I guess…WACK!Apparently the DJ’s rotate and DJ at each club for a couple of hours. It wouldn’t be a problem if people didn’t go to ten clubs in one night. LOL! I probably would have had more fun if Tiffany was there…or at least that would have helped me with my problem of why I have been MIA.So when we got back to the house, I had some bad news waiting for me. Tiffany was using my computer to work n articles for the newsletter that was going out to our supporters.The bad news was that she dropped my laptop which happens to be a MAC and the screen brokeL. Man I was really upset and crying of course —-but I know it cab be replaced…the question is how longer will it take to replace it? It just really sucked that my brand new Mac that was only two weeks old was destroyed —broken screen, scratches and all L. I probably wouldn’t have been that upset if I didn’t have midterms and online classes I’m already in
Africa with limited resources. How the heck am I going to fix a Mac in Africa—there hard to fix in
America.I was sitting with Brian (one of the guys that stays at the house and teaches boxing and football/soccer to the young boys that come to the house) in the living room he was watching I Am Legend which he had paused…cause apparently everyone in the house except for me and my clubbing buddy new about my laptop situation at the house. When Brain started the movie Will Smith was working on his IMac the computer I have at home but couldn’t bring because it was to big…. ( I am praying that when I get home my wonderful siblings haven’t gone crazy and messed that up). I really am not a materialistic person but I’m a journalist and there are certain things I need to make my life easy: my computer, my digital camera, and my recorder. My life won’t end if I decided to go back to the Ice Ages but it will be a little difficult in this new media age.  Two weeks old, brand new its not suppose to be broke…and I don’t want to use anyone else’s laptop/computer until mines is fixed ….I want my computer..this sucksLAnd I just figured out how to add photo’s to this blog