back again

Joshua Deaton — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:48:04 +0000

Sorry again for the large delay in updates. I am lucky to have this expensive little internet modem in Bukwo that gets me rather slow access to simple things like e-mail. But, it turns out it runs out of time and you definitely can’t load more time here in Bukwo. But, it ended not too soon before a trip to Kapchorwa and Kampala for the last time so it all worked out alright. I’m at a bit of a loss as of what to write which I guess happens fairly often to me if I haven’t been writing often. So, here’s a quick run down of my recent activities. I traveled with Alex Malinga (the incredibly kind national record holder in the marathon who serves as my host, family, friend, and trainer) to Kapchorwa. Here we met up on top of Mountain Elgon with two generous men who want to start a camp for upcoming athletes to train. So, they looked for the best to come and help them set up how to go about doing that and how to organize everything in a way that will produce top quality. I could write much more on that. Next, I continued on to Kampala for the last time. Here I got to have a going away dinner with my family and also was able to get in nine interviews in four days (I’m much more successful when I schedule interviews on top of each other knowing that one of them is sure to cancel at the last minute). It was good to interview some people who knew very little about Ugandan athletics (despite their holding the very top positions – does it really pay to be a friend of the president when you get a job you aren’t qualified for and as a result appear very ignorant? I wouldn’t want to do that.) It is so interesting for me to compare those who have no power and no resources to those who have all the power and, comparatively, tons of resources, then see which ones are doing all of the help and wonder how I’m supposed to formally report that in a research paper. It becomes more interesting when I consider that the ones who could use my information the most are the ones not helping – or nullifying the help of others. I am also struggling a little bit with understanding how some of my friends here live with their realities. For example, there is a guy in the top position who knows nothing of sport. But, this guy is jealous of the money that the elite athletes make. So, why not deny them the opportunity to make money by denying them passports? Then you can go travel abroad in their place – who cares that they can’t feed their families. In the words of one athlete, “it would be nice if we were allowed to struggle to support ourselves.” Or, lets say this athlete manages to be impossible to block form going outside or he managed to find enough money to bribe. He has run many races outside and competed in multiple Olympics and World Championships. So, he is doing a great job of supporting his family. He has enough cows to produce milk for all children and to sell for 250 ug/sh per cup (11 cents). He also has twenty five acres that produces enough maize and beans that he can support his extended family, several other upcoming runners, and pay school fees for some local orphans. A bank comes into the area that has a great deal for savings in large amounts if you agree not to touch the savings for extended periods. Pretty good deal. After trying it out with a little money for a time he, several other athletes, business, and churches put all of their savings into the bank. Before long, the bank has disappeared. Well, the case is tracked and tracked until finally it is even brought before the parliament. Well, no one will dare track the case any further after that because it turns out it was a couple of members of parliament who had decided those in the far out regions receiving relief food because of last years drought didn’t really deserve to eat their own hard earned money. The athlete’s response? He’s glad he had the small businesses like selling milk and is training hard for the next time he gets lucky enough to travel outside for a competition. Sadly, that is far from the only story I have about such experiences. Will anything change? Well to quote Museveni when he recently visited, “don’t worry about the hospitals, schools, roads, and power, I am working on that slowly slowly.” It’s true, the country has improved since he took over power in 1986, but I would say his long range goals to be accomplished slowly, slowly would be much better short term/immediate goals. Maybe the government could use the money they received from selling Mount Elgon to the Wildlife authority. Oh, did I mention that the land was not the governments to sell – that it had been occupied by the Sabine (the tribe of endurance athletes) for longer than Uganda existed. Despite this, the sabine are staunch Museveni supporters – but that’s another story. So, as you can see, sometimes I just want to rant and have no clue what can be done about the causes of such feelings. Well, now its Bukwo until the 15^th then some time in a Ugandan training camp near Kitale Kenya before moving on to Eldoret, Iten, and finishing my time off in Africa by going with some of the athletes here to the African senior athletics championships in Nairobi on the 28^th-30^th.

morning run

Joshua Deaton — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 09:08:09 +0000

Imagine you wake up at about 5:30 in the morning and have to hurry a little because you almost overslept. Soon, you are pulling on your socks and making sure your shoelaces are tight as you watch the sun creep its way up into the sky as it outlines a silhouetted border of mountain peaks far off in the distance. You appreciate the perfectly orange ball as it fixes a lasting image to your memory, but you also realize that it will look completely different and yet still so good tomorrow. You and your friends make your way out onto the dirt road and begin a very slow jog started of course with a groan or whimper from some other runner who is not quite yet awake. Most athletes here are training for track but the U.S. does things a little differently and I’m training for cross country. As a result, my friends here take me to their xc training trails on this particular morning. I say trails but there aren’t really ever trails, occasionally a cow path. So, soon we are off the little dirt road and twisting around the slopes of mountain Elgon. If you are a runner, then take the most difficult course you have ever run, make it the muddiest course you’ve ever run (did I mention it’s the rainy season here – that means lots of rain), intensify those levels a little, and then raise it up to somewhere between 6,500 and 9,000 feet (I really have no clue what the elevation is but Alex says someone came once and measured the camp to be at 2,700 meters). You have tucked in behind an Olympian so you are working about as hard as you’ve ever worked on a training run, but it’s ok because for some reason you feel like you are flying. Well, occasionally the mountain and the lack of oxygen compete to try and knock you off the train, but sooner or later you change direction and the combination of a stunningly gorgeous view and a slight downhill helps you out. I might add that without a doubt, one of the best sights I have witnessed in Africa is that of a train of ridiculously fast athletes effortlessly pulling away as they put a little surge into their pace. Yes, I get to see this sight all the time. Now, you’ve finished the run, enjoyed some chai and chapatti and have gone a couple of kilometers away to go home and relax with your friends. It happens that today they want to go for a chase. Yu of course would never turn down that opportunity. So, before long you are back on the slopes. Only, this time those little surges you put in are aimed in the direction of a gazelle. And yes, you and your friends will catch it. I regret to say I didn’t take part in the chase because I happened to spend the day with one of the other guys – but I just thought you should be included on it. People sometimes hunt this highly respected and beautiful animal for its apparently delectable meat despite the its illegality, but, my friend isn’t too keen on spending time and money in prison and prefers the chase as more of a challenging and fun afternoon activity an thus simply catches the animal to show it that he can. So, I guess all of that is just to explain a little on why I sometimes feel big, heavy, slow, weak, out of shape, and kind of like a little child who just can’t keep up with the big kids. There are of course many other topics I could talk about, but this one currently is perhaps etched a little more deeply on my mind due to muscles that are just a little tired from cross country training.

Introductions

Joshua Deaton — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:58:35 +0000

Introductions here in Uganda are not common. I am always meeting people but almost never discovering their name, what they do, if they are a super close friend, family, or just some random guy passing through. Introductions just don’t seem necessary. I lived with my homestay family in Kampala for several months and I still don’t exactly know how everyone living there is related. Here in Bukwo things are not much different. It makes me think that I will probably try a little harder at introductions when I get back to the states since I’m not exactly the best t that. While simple introductions just don’t seem important to people here, there is a certain introduction ceremony that is very important. While engagements in the US are between the couple, here in east Africa they involve much more people. Yes, the fathers and family of both are heavily involved (especially in the dowry process) as are the church and community members. Before the wedding there is an official introduction ceremony where the two become officially engaged and exchange rings. This is what James Kibet recently invited me to. His sister was getting introduced with her fiancé and I had the privilege of being one of the invited guests. I say invited because there are a limited number invited who get chairs, a soda, and a meal, but, lets be real, the entire village shows up whether invited or not and this is of course expected. There was a heavy rain just before the ceremony. So, most people did what I did, which is duck into someone’s shop or home and wait for the rain to pass before slipping their way on through the ridiculously thick and heavy mud (the soil here is great for crops but the mud after even a small run is ridiculous). Timing never matters here in East Africa anyway so it didn’t really matter that people didn’t arrive until an hour or so later than originally thought. What I didn’t expect upon arriving at the little clearing by the couple of huts in the middle of a maize field was being introduced myself. I don’t know how I feel about getting so much attention at someone else’s engagement. Attention like being placed in a seat right up front by the bridesmaids equivalents and having to get up after the exchanging of rings and say who I was, where I was from, and how I liked Uganda. But, I guess that what I get for being a muzungu who lives with the runners here.

Another good time this week was getting to go home with Mamma Caleb/Betty (who I was introduced with at church last week) after church and enjoy rice and potatoes (both are considered a treat here) and spend time getting to know Caleb’s older siblings Kenneth, Joshua, and Precious. It was great. Precious couldn’t quite get over the fact that I looked so funny and refused to come anywhere near but Kenneth and Joshua were quite excited. Especially when it started to rain, because that meant I got to stay for a couple more hours and shell beans, play, and teach them a little of the ABC’s and words that those letters start. So, like always, another good week.

Celebrities

Joshua Deaton — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:17:11 +0000

Wow! So, last time I said more later, I didn’t mean this much later. The battery that the solar panel charges died, which in turn means that my laptop battery stayed dead too. But, after a long time I have found a primary school that has a generator, and if I pay for fuel I can charge my laptop after the school day. I might not be trekking through the maize fields everyday to do this, but at least a often enough to keep everyone updated. Hopefully not everyone has given up hope on my every writing again. I have way too much to talk about than is possible in a single update but I’ll try and summarize it all with talk of celebrity life. You all know by now that I am living with some of the best athletes in the world and that is pretty cool. I have to say, there have been times previously when I would have dreamed to just be able to carry the spikes of these people to the track and get to watch. Well, instead, I get to wake up to the noise of the others rustling to find their shoes for a run before sunrise. Then I spend time listening to them joke around before walking and eventually jogging through maize fields and dirt roads until we reach the track (we each carry our own spikes – and I am expected to run too (fast) – I do my best. Oh, and the track is a 200m uphill and 200m downhill single file dirt path in the grass. If it has rained then it becomes ridiculously difficult and if it is dry then these cool little pufs of dust explode under the strides of a single file line fifteen people long – and me somewhere back there. We finish and might have two separate lunches (both of course are rice with beans – breakfast is a piece of chapatti with two or three cups of chai, and dinner is posho/kimyet/akawunga/ugali depending on the language (dried maize ground into flour and boiled) with beans. There is so much more to be said, but living with those celebrities is great. Although, you do sometimes feel very slow when you are comparing yourself with the guy who just did 16x400m in 61 seconds and 25x200m in 28 seconds – but that guy is also racing in Rome this weekend with big names like Bekele so I don’t feel too bad. The next celebrity topic is me. I am indeed a celebrity whether I like it or not. In makign the long hard trip to Jinja last weekend with they guys to the Source of the Nile half marathon and 10k I was always placed in the front seat. This means those who were hoping on supporting themselves, the camp, and their parents and families with potential earnings would be riding in the sun sitting or standing on a little iron bar through about five hours of bumps or then crammed in the back of a van (8 passenger except somehow managed to hold 17 for another four hours. Needles to say this is not good for racing. I managed to not be placed in that position, but it took much persuasion because for some reason they treat me as if I am much more important than they are. And of course, I am quite the celebrity to the Bukwo villagers. A muzungu is never to be seen here so to see me out running is quite the event of the day. By the way, im trying to figure out if the elite are the best because they ran to school as children, or if they are so good because they have to outrun the school children as they do their training – I at least find it very difficult to outrun them. One little guy about eight years old will last about 400m before being replaced by a girl a little older who lasts 800m – and then the hill gets steeper. Next celebrity topic is how I just missed getting to interview president Museveni for my research. His chief security operations manager and even planner stayed at the camp a few days ago. Museveni came to Bukwo for his campaign route and the camp is the only place to stay. He helicoptered in, but his staff had to find housing. Anyway, the chief security manager said he could have easily scheduled a time if he knew I was here – problem is we didn’t know they were coming here either. Too Bad! The next day I was introduced to Bukwo church life. Awesome. The church practices translating everything all the time so that they can get better at their English, which works just perfect for me. The service was great and mentioned things like rely on god for rely on god for solutions (Museveni had mentioned that when they go back home their poverty and problems will be waiting on them but he was working to fix everything slowly slowly – apparently very slowly) praise god with everything you are. If you worship through clapping then clap the best in the world, if by jumping then do it the best in the world, if through farming then grow the best maize in the world, if running – oh, they do. Then I was introduced to the church because I was a visitor. The catch was that I was also introduced with a brand new baby. So, I found myself in the midst of singing, clapping, jumping, drums and more rhythm than you can imagine, and flying flower petals as I held brand new baby Caleb in front of the church. It was of course mentioned that Joshua and Caleb led the Israelites into the Promised Land and that we too were sure to go great places – I say that has already been happening, and its supposed to get better? Well, I haven’t described in the least what I am learning or experiencing but I need to wrap it up and go for evening jog.

The People I Know

Joshua Deaton — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:48:06 +0000

I am currently living the life of a professional runner in Uganda. Not bad. Who would have thought I would end up stringing those words together? I am out in the secluded and incredibly beautiful Bukwo Uganda. The peak of Mount Elgon could be reached with a good long run, the children can be heard joking with each other across the fields from a mile away, and the (city) center as it is called offers a one room hotel, a butcher, and a place/restaurant to buy tea and chapatti. It’s nice. There are a limited number of people in the area, but they are all quickly learning to recognize my whereabouts before I am even there. It’s not surprising that in a small place like this that the muzungu is easily spotted, but what was cool was being recognized back in Kampala. For the week and a half before I left, I did not go a single day without happening across at least one person in the city who I knew. I would meet the hotel guard at a taxi stage who I would sometimes stop and talk with as I walked across town and passed him at his work. Or, I would meet someone I had previously interviewed. Or, I would be walking and have a runner I met at the last track meet see me and then sit down on a bench to talk for half an hour about how I can get fast, where I can print photos for my homestay family, or if running really can play a bigger role in development if the current efforts are better publicized. My last track meet at the National trials was pretty fun too. I attempted another 10k but was again lapped at the two mile mark by my barefooted friend who runs in the 28’s and pulled off the track by an official I had previously interviewed. Everyone knew me. I was that guy who couldn’t go ten feet without being stopped to greet and talk with someone. It was really a kind of nice way to leave the city. I guess it made me feel welcome and a part of things. And of course, I feel no less welcome here. I got in the back of the truck to Bukwo and happened to find the brother of Boniface Kiprop Toroitich (12th fastest 10k ever) to escort me. It was also fun to start a discussion group of sorts about whether or not athletics significantly helps development, but, the conversation was in about three different languages – none of which I understood. Well, my battery is running out and it takes the solar panel about a full day to charge it. So, more later.

Writing

Joshua Deaton — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:05:19 +0000

So, I have been doing way too much writing the past week and as a result failed to update the blog – not because I didn’t have things to write about but because I honestly just didn’t feel like going to the effort to type it out. So, now I still don’t feel like writing, but I’ll tell you a little anyway. I have finished a draft of my research and turned it in to the School for International Training to close out the books there. I say draft because I will continue working on it and improve it before giving it to the Uganda Olympic Committee and Uganda Athletic Federation libraries before I leave. On Saturday I leave my homestay family who I have come to like so much and head out to rural Bukwo for some serious athletic training, fun, research, and who really knows what else. I was originally going to spend my summer with and internship, however I was willing to give up this opportunity for the one which awaits me in Bukwo mostly because I had not fully committed and the internship was ok with me not coming. So, these last couple of days I am moving around Kampala trying to do different things which I never got the time for and also squeezing in a couple of last interviews with Olympians and the likes. I’m kind of disappointed about the fact that I will be leaving so many quality un-interviewed behind in Kampala, but, that’s ok. I still think its crazy how awesome my experiences have worked out. I end up running with the Rwandan national team, and then the Ugandan national cross country team, and then get this crazy idea that I should study running in some way, and then end up meeting with world class on a daily basis. I would never have thought that would be part of my normal day while studying abroad. Well, I’m making the most of my Luganda right now because that is about to stop. In Bukwo I get to try and learn Sabei – without the aid of anything in writing (because that apparently does not exist). Hopefully I’m a good oral learner because unlike Kampala where I have to work to get people to speak with me in Luganda, community members will not be speaking English to me in Bukwo. Well, I feel like I haven’t really said anything and what I have said has been rather disjointed. So, I think I will let writing alone for a little while longer and go buy my family some grasshoppers for dinner.

Calendars

Joshua Deaton — Sat, 08 May 2010 06:12:50 +0000

You know those pictures of beautiful places that you always see on calendars? I have found so many times now during my Ugandan experience that I seem to be walking around in those calendars. I just finished a week on Ssese Islands in the middle of Lake Victoria finishing up my time with SIT (formerly spelled Tsetse – because it’s home to that fly which has something to do with sleeping). There really is no way to describe the gorgeous hilltop dirt roads that wind and roll past views of the sun rising over dense forest with families of monkeys calling out over the blue water in a sand shored cove. It was great. I listened to my fellow students give presentations of their research and also listened to them talk about how excited they are to go back to things like bagels, cheese, cruise control, and many other great concepts. I’m excited about going back to those things too, but I have a couple of more pages on my calendar to go through first.

I left off on my last post wondering what these next couple of months will hold and while I’m still not sure, I do know they will have something to do with running with Uganda’s best athletes on a regular basis. I hope to meet with a member of the Ugandan Olympic Committee who was particularly helpful during our interview to help work out details about modifying and continuing my research. The Ugandan’s are close friends with the Kenyan runners and I may end up doing a little bit of a comparative study in their development roles. Absolutely no details have been worked out yet, but details don’t usually worry Ugandans so much so I guess that’s ok. I don’t want to belittle my decision process in anyway, but I think perhaps seeing that both Rhodes men and women just won the SCAC Track and Field Championship might have somehow worked its way into the contributing factors. Maybe not, but it in either case I became extremely excited. I definitely miss the team, but hopefully I’m learning a little about running here along with everything else I’m learning that may help when I return. So, a huge congratulations to the Athletes from Rhodes – I’ll tell my training partners all about your accomplishments.

Extremely Overwhelming

Joshua Deaton — Sun, 02 May 2010 13:05:09 +0000

So, I have just experienced one of the greatest times so far in Uganda. Last Saturday evening I made a phone call to the national marathon record holder and about twelve hours later I was on my way to see him. It was incredible but has left me in a state of slight anxiety. Decisions are not always fun to make. Should I continue with my plans to leave for Kenya on May 19 and intern with the Foundation for Sustainable Development in Kakamega? Or, should I take up my new friend’s multiple requests to stay with them in the Bukwo altitude training camp where I would train with Uganda’s best for the summer? I really have no clue as to what I should do. I worked very hard writing essays and completing applications just to get the opportunity to work with FSD. It is a solid company and focuses on making sure that their volunteers fully integrate with the community rather than living as the tourist Muzungu that is so much more common. The offer language lessons, short courses on development, field trips (I guess that’s where the Muzungu part comes in but I’m ok with that), a homestay family, and an opportunity to learn very much from working with an NGO, developing a project with the $200 I’m given (a lot of money here), and grant writing. I would be working with the African Canadian Continuing Education Society which strives to provide scholarships for disadvantaged post-graduate students for higher education as well as lessons for young children without the means to pay school fees. I would have the opportunity to learn about the operation of NGO’s and the ways in which they are helpful or not. If I was interested in a resume I’m sure putting in a line about working with FSD could be powerful. A bigger point of interest to me though is that I would be in Kenya – an idea that has loomed large in my mind for some time and an idea that was very influential in my decision to come abroad at all. I know Kakamega would be nice because Professor Nasong’o who calls it home (or at least pretty close to it) and so many others here have told me so. I think it would be a little like what I’m experiencing now. My current experience is wonderful beyond words, and in Kakamega I would still be experiencing things like similar weather and East African city life. If I decide to stay in Bukwo I will definitely not be experiencing anything close to being described as city life. I would be training in an incredibly beautiful environment with endless winding dirt roads and trails. Oh, and did I mention that I will be training with Uganda’s best? Does the name Moses Kipsiro ring a bell for those of you who run? This week I was fully welcomed into one of the closest communities I have ever seen. Imagine about twenty five runners who wake up at 6am to run, finish and lounge around for tea and chapatti, go for the 10am midmorning training session, have lunch, nap, have time to do whatever, go for the 5pm evening jog followed by the daily soccer game that ends when the plastic keeping the air in the ball falls out or when it gets too dark, next is dinner, and then short time of worship and praise songs. (by the way, the soccer games are hilarious. They are very competitive, but are also composed of a bunch of skinny runners who cower every time the ball has to be controlled with anything besides the feet – handballs are just fine and somewhat expected but there is also an unspoken rule that you follow your handball with a short pause to give the other team a chance to take the ball away) I guess I should also add that on the speed sessions I struggle to keep up with the junior girls and on the distance runs work hard to keep the youngest guy in sight so that I don’t have to rely on looking across hilltops for the house to keep from getting lost. The runners are incredibly close friends, and as I learned, are also incredibly welcoming of new friends. Maybe midday you will fall asleep with whoever you were talking with in the shade, or maybe will you go over to help Moses lay bricks for a driveway at his little hilltop home. Maybe you will spend the evening taking your turn to help cook and clean, or by going to a little one room candle lit “hotel” hut and getting tea for your friend – or he will get it for you because you got it last time, or perhaps you will walk around the village trying to find out if one of the three butcher/farmers has fresh goat meat that you can buy for everyone as a surprise.

So, that is what I have to decide between. I think I’m leaning towards the camp – but ten minutes ago I was almost definitely going to Kenya – who knows what I’ll think in another ten minutes. We do run into Kenya on a regular basis because it’s only 5k away and the closest town (two and a half hours away) is also in Kenya. Plus all of the radio and tv news stations (if you happen to have enough battery power from the solar panels to have tv) are also Kenyan. So I guess that takes care of the idea of Kenya. I’m trying to think of some sort of research or project that I could do on my own that could be conducted solely in Bukwo. Well, I am turning this into a rather long blog post as I continue to think through my typing. So, I’ll just leave you all by saying that I have no clue where I will be on May 20^th. For now, I leave for the SIT final party for students and host families. This next week I will be on Lake Victoria listening to everyone’s research presentations and finalizing everything with the program.

slightly overwhelming

Joshua Deaton — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:17:13 +0000

Research is going well, I still have the same challenges of actually obtaining interviews but I guess that’s ok. In my first interview of the week we started and then the interviewee said, “Oh this is a real interview.” The person promptly got up, told the secretary not to let anyone bother us, and closed the door before giving me undivided attention. The undivided attention part is something I cannot be thankful enough for. The people I’m interviewing are all highly accredited individuals. Whether they are Olympians, former athletes who are in charge of all of Ugandan Athletics, or internationally acclaimed coaches to name a few of the categories, it is clear that they are extremely busy and I don’t blame them for not originally thinking that they can make time for some random foreigner. I’m actually quite pleased with the fact that they change that mindset once the interview starts and not only give me all the information they have, but also provide me with further contacts. I guess the only problem is that there is simply not enough time to do what I want to do. With every interview I seem to acquire another two new contacts who appear essential to my research. However, I only have one more week before I am supposed to present my research for SIT. The SIT deadline is the least of my concerns and I’m going to continue my research until I leave for Kenya, but that will still only give me another ten days or so. So, time is clearly limited – especially when you remember that people here operate on African time as I have discussed earlier. Because of my amazement with my opportunity to talk with the people I am working with means that I really do want to ensure that my work is good beneficial. Those contacts also believe that it’s possible for my research to help. Which, I guess is why they are giving me attention, and why they want to put my finished product in the Ugandan Olympic Committee and Ugandan Athletic Federation libraries. With every interview I feel like I am moving onto even more important people and I’m seeing that while I hope to create a good product, I could do months and months of research on my topic. I guess that’s a good thing, but it does make me see how insignificant a six week research product is. It makes me laugh at how long I thought six weeks was before beginning. I’m cutting out my time for traveling around the parks of Uganda for which I had originally planned. But, I really don’t think that running and talking with the people I’m interviewing could possibly be described as anything less than exciting.

Challenging Progress

Joshua Deaton — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:18:36 +0000

I am officially making progress on my research now but it’s not going quite as fast as the runners I’m learning about. If I’m generous I might say that I actually get about 50% of the interviews I schedule. Without exception I end up waiting for the interviews for a minimum of thirty minutes and it seems that more often than not the interviewee simply does not show up. I wrote a little about this before, but timing of things here is hard to get used to. I am always expected to be on muzungu time, and even if I wasn’t I would probably be to scared to show up thirty or forty minutes late and risk missing an interview with the President of the Uganda Athletic Federation or an Olympic medalist. So, I have begun to accept the fact that I will do lots of waiting. What is harder to get accustomed to is the percentage of people who simply do not show up and will tell you over the phone or sms that they are still on their way – even when they are not. In Uganda it is somewhat rude to tell someone that In Uganda it is somewhat rude to tell someone that you don’t have time to meet with them. So, even if you know you have absolutely no time in your schedule you will agree to a meeting at a time that you might have a one percent chance of actually making it to. What ends up happeing in such cases is that I show up five minutes early and wait for about twenty minutes before calling. I call ant the interviewee says that they are on their way. If I’m lucky they will arrive in about thirty minutes. Then I proceed to get amazing information for research and have a blast hearing form whoever I’m talking with. Otherwise, I wait another forty five minutes and then send a text. The interviewee will respond that they were in a meeting but it is going to end in five minutes and they will be on their way. If I really need the interview that day and have the time to wait then I might stick around and see what happens, otherwise I leave and send a text message or call a couple of hours later to see about the possibility of re-scheduling. That is the polite way of scheduling – at least as far as I know so far. On top of all of that, I also have to deal with the fact that I’m just a student whose research probably doesn’t have the greatest chance of making a difference in the lives of the other people involved, and the fact that the people I’m trying to talk with are most likely very busy with work that is more important than mine. Such challenges really do make me want to double my efforts to produce something of worth, but they simultaneously seem to prohibit any progress in that direction. So, I guess I just hope that the remaining two weeks allow for interviews as good as the ones I’ve had so far. But, it would be nice if I were able to triple or quadruple the efficiency of the process.