I thought it would be good to write down some stories, experiences, anecdotes and other worthwhile stuff during my stay here in Uganda. And I finally pushed myself to do so! On the one hand for you, whoever reads this, to provide you with an insight in (my) life here and the things I do, but also for me, to make sure that many years from now, when my memory is even worse than it is now, I still know the funny little things that happened and the thoughts that crossed my mind during my first stay in Uganda (and Africa in general). And who knows, maybe, by reading this I might even change the way you think about Africa, its people and its cultures, because I have found that certain things we think to know about Africa are true, but surely not all.

 

In between the photos of tropical juice, exotic people and mysterious places one might forget why again I am here. It has indeed long been my wish to travel to Africa and see what the countries, cultures and people of this continent are really like. But I’m not here for travel purposes only. As part of my degree in Dublin (Master in Development Practice) I need to complete 10 weeks of fieldwork research. From a list of interesting projects and organizations in five countries in East Africa I have selected CDRN, the Community Development Resource Network, in Kampala, Uganda. This NGO focuses on capacity building of civil society in Uganda, and as such works with many different partners on a diverse range of projects  (agriculture, livelihood support, ethnic minorities, gender, disability, school management, social accountability, anti-corruption and more, as well as general support to organizations in need of capacity assistance). The collective knowledge of CDRN staff about Uganda’s people, cultures, history and civil society is impressive. Combined with a welcoming and friendly atmosphere and staff it seems I have ended up in a rather nice place!

 

To be clear, I guess most of the time I will automatically write ‘we’. Not because I regard myself of royal blood and thus feel the need to write that we, Julien, have seen things, but because I’m not here on my own. Traveling and working together with me is Anna, my companion from Sweden, who is also doing her fieldwork research project at CDRN in Kampala, Uganda.

 

I cannot promise to update regularly or often, nor can I promise the stories will be short or  super interesting, but I’ll do my best! Feel free to ask questions about what you read or about what you don’t read but would like to read about! I’ve opted to write in English to allow as many people as possible who might be interested (if any…) to read whatever I put up here!

 

I’ll post some general things/topics first before randomly turning this into a diary!