Tuesday, October 20th 2009

Woke up at 5:07 AM to write and do some work. When I walked out the sun had just peaked over the horizon and the clouds stretched tangerine orange into the vast sky. It was beautiful. The clouds here seem higher and more dramatic. On more than one occasion I’ve lost myself looking at them. I went back to my room to get my camera and walked up onto our second floor patio. Akiki the miserable mutt followed me up there and harassed me as I tried to get a good snap. I am extra weary of Akiki nowadays – he has been biting people lately – the prior night he bit Lindsay. He is a flea-ridden dog that is locked up most of the day – I guess I can understand why he’s antsy. We’re in a catch-22 situation with him though – Eric, the founder of Educate!, found him injured and rescued him from life on the street – but he’s not tame so we basically live with a street dog. Great. ☺
Honestly – it wasn’t an exciting day…I worked all day:
- Met with Connie to discuss the troubled Busiro School and typed up my Busiro analysis.
- Researched the cost / benefit of purchasing a cellular “family plan” for our mentors
- Uploaded Educate! photos to our hard drive
- Researched a generator for the house
- Sent out emails to MFI’s in Uganda
- Researched our funding model.
Exhilarating. I’m sure you’re all at the edge of your seats in anticipation (sarcasm). Hey cant all be exciting days I guess.
My day was much better then Lindsay’s. She’s getting worse. She now has blackouts when she stands up…in addition to mental sluggishness, nausea and a whole slew of other issues.
She decided to go to the hospital. I felt bad for her. I know what its like to be injured or sick in another country. It’s downright scary to know you’re over 30 hours away from medical care in the US of A.
When the girls returned from the hospital Lindsay seemed cheerful.
“Well – its not malaria, but they don’t know what it is.” She said. “They took blood samples. They think it’s a parasite or something.”
Yikes.
I turned to Maggie. “How was the hospital?”
“Umm – lets just say I hope I never get sick here.”
I concur.
Later that night I spoke Lindsay and Jodie about living in Kenya. Things are so bad there that the girls have gone through a “what to do if I get raped” scenario. They gave each other the people they want called, what hospital they want to go to (or if they want to be air lifted to the United States), a copy of their international insurance, what tests they want performed…etcetera…
I asked them why they continued to live and work in Kenya if they feared being raped or kidnapped on a daily basis.
“We’re hoping the positive energy will continue to keep us safe.”
“I really hope I never have daughters like you.” I said. How scary.

Women’s issues are a real problem here. It’s very upsetting to me.
Ironically enough…that night I went to eat at Edith’s restaurant by myself (going to Edith’s with a book and reading as I eat, or, talking to the locals is one of my small pleasures here) and on the front page of the “Daily Monitor” (one Ugandas daily newspapers) was the headline:

Rapists on Rampage
• 2,000 girls sexually assaulted in two years
• Rape cases nearly triple between 2007 and 2008
• Police say alcohol and drug abuse behind the spike
• Rapists increasingly also murder their victims
• High cost of medical examination of victims hampering efforts to try suspected victims.
•
As you might imagine the article was disturbing, but there were a few items that stuck out:
“In 2007, 599 rape cases were reported to the Police. This figure tripled last year with the police registering 1,536 cases.
Thus, at a rate of slightly over 2,000 rapes occurring in the last two years, this would suggest that about three females are raped each passing day in Uganda today.
So far only 239 suspects have been arrested of whom just 3 were convicted by court. By December last year, 222 suspects were awaiting trial, according to official records.”

“Ms Aciro says unless the Sexual Offences, Marriage and Divorce, and Domestic Relations bills are passed, violence against women will continue.
There is an increase in impunity…which must be stopped,” she says. She however said the law isn’t an end in itself but government must strengthen the Police’s capacity to combat this crime of violence against women.”

“Matters are, however, not helped by the fact that proving rape in court requires that the prosecution adduces incontrovertible evidence which will “leave the judge without any shadow of doubt” that the suspect(s) raped his victim.
A key piece of evidence is usually provided by a medical report which should prove penetration and establish through DNA testing that semen found on the victim came from the suspect. Uganda does not, however, have adequate in-country capacity to carry out the usually expensive testing, which fact compromises the trying of rape cases.
Also in cases of suspected rape, defilement or other sexual assault the victims are ideally supposed to report the matter shortly after the incident to facilitate the requirement that medical examination be conducted within 24 hours after the fact. Many times though victims are unable to afford fees for this medical examination that ranges between 20,000 USH ($10) and 30,000 USH ($15).”

When I was done eating I went to pay my bill. Edith told me it was 1,300 USH (65 cents) for matoke, beans, rice and avocado. I gave her a 10,000 bill, but she didn’t have change so she asked if she could hold onto the 10,000 and give me change the next time I came back.
Fine.
But then Hassan (young Muslim guy I had a beer with at a local bar) asked me if he could have 1,000 of my change to buy more plantain alcohol.
Moral dilemma here – again I struggled with the right thing to do – Hassan has always been kind to me, and truth be told 1,000 USH (50 cents) wouldn’t have broken the bank…but I felt uneasy. If I gave money to Hassan to buy plantain liquor, then I’d have to give it to the next guy, and the next guy, and the next guy. Ultimately I told Hassan no, and I don’t think he was really pleased. I was going to explain to him that it wasn’t about money, it was about principle…but decided to leave that for another day.