Thwarted

Things just get stuck here and the admonition of PCVs who've been here for a while come home - always bring something to read.  Today was a case in point and I'm beginning to realize - not uncommon.   Forward motion here is made at great odds.  The Ugandan people are extremely hard working.  I have never seen so much effort and industry applied simply to live a life.  So it is not for lack of effort -

Electricity is the common denominator for many things.  Not having electricity at my home stay just meant I either operated with a six inch circle of light from my trusty solar lamp or went to bed at 7:00 PM.  But for kids, it meant no light for reading or homework.  Surprisingly,  after bumping around in near dark for an hour taking my cold bucket bath and then climbing under my mosquito net, I would read for a bit and discover I couldn't keep my eyes open.  Not much computer escape was available at that time, because - you guessed it - there were few opportunities to charge the batteries and the mobile modem used to access internet sucks the life out of a battery remarkably fast. So I got a LOT more sleep.

Here, in Gulu  access to power translates to the illusion of having electricity, because its availability is totally random.  There are five computers at my organization's office and all work effectively stops when the power goes down, which is does multiple times during the day.  If deadlines are to be reached, there is a mad scurry to find some office well funded enough to afford a generator, where a laptop can be plugged in and work continued.  This is a rare find and still unpredictable.    My hotel has a generator, but only sometimes - when the hotel is pretty active - will management turn it on.

Consider how much progress would be made in any U.S. business if  - at random intervals - you lost access to computers, lights, machines - in short, all of the things that keep civilization as we know it running.

In poor countries (Uganda qualifies) - other challenges are just around the corner.  First, not every organization has a vehicle.  Mine does and it is the absolute heartbeat of the program because they deliver services and materials to roughly 30,000 kids and adults who participate in their Literacy project.  The GULU office has one truck and some of the Program Officers have motor cycles, all of these are subject to road conditions. Many times a planned trip is aborted because you get most of the way there only to discover a pot-hole the size of Vermont or 3 feet of mud that not even an all wheel drive Toyota can out wit.   But today, a rather important trip to another organization was cancelled at the last minute, because we were still awaiting a registration sticker that should have arrived yesterday. It was to have come  either with one of the employees or on a bus from Kampala.  Neither happened.  Mail?  Nah - seldom used here because not all places have an address, just a description.  The registration sticker never arrived - even though this process has been "in progress"  "somehow" for well over a week.  There are too many variables here to even contemplate, but the end result is that nothing happens.  There is no emergency fund, no process in place for such events and no petty cash (or the person who controls the petty cash is also not available).  It is confounding, and hopefully, while I'm here I can address some of these  issues, but they run deep and are part of a larger cultural predisposition.  This is not an indictment of the organization - it happens everywhere.  It's simply symptomatic of why Peace Corps and other organizations are here.  But it is an eye-opener.

Also, here when you're pulled over for lack of registration, I've been told they can actually take you in and put you in a holding cell until you pay.  It's not a simple matter of being fined, although that also happens.   Everywhere you turn, there is a hurdle.

The next thing to fall through is my move this weekend.  No registration sticker, no truck. No truck - no move.    And one doesn't just go hire a truck for the weekend - well - not on a Peace Corps stipend, and just finding one is another challenge.  So - work will be delayed for a day next week because someone will be moving me to my new digs - if the sticker arrives...

This is just a tiny slice of life here.  But it is sometimes stunning to realize just how much is stymied due to basic services being down randomly for part of a day, or sometimes days in a row.  And then there is the rain - if it rains and most of the population is on foot, work stops because it's raining.  Understand - it takes more than a sprinkle to slow things down, but rain here is seldom a sprinkle.   The dry season starts in December and I hear that brings on new challenges.  I've been warned to keep my computer in a sleeve or plastic bag (hey - anyone sending a care package - can you stick in a two gallon zip lock that will accommodate my MacBook?)  The dust is pervasive enough to kill a laptop.  Noooooooooo!

Night falls here - have a good day on the other side of the planet!