Liz says I remind her of "Contentment" as described by Ruth Gendler. I'm not sure what that means, but this is what I've managed to dig up online:
"Contentment has learned how to find out what she needs to know. Last year she went on a major housecleaning spree. First she stood on her head until all the extra facts fell out. Then she discarded about half her house. Now she knows where every thing comes from—who dyed the yarn dark green and who wove the rug and who built the loom, who made the willow chair, who planted the apricot trees. She made the turquoise mugs herself with clay she found in the hills beyond her house.
When Contentment is sad, she takes a mud bath or goes to the mountains until her lungs are clear. When she walks through an unfamiliar neighborhood, she always makes friends with the local cats."
— J. Ruth Gendler (The Book of Qualities)
Liz is the new Fulbrighter from Omaha, Nebraska. We were roommates at orientation something like half a year ago. Now she's moved out to Uganda to start her 10-month research project on sanitary pads. Sanitary pads in terms of girls and education, health and sanitation, waste production and management...all interesting stuff. I would write more on it, but I think that's her task here for the next months. So, when she publishes something wonderful, I'll forward it on. Basically, Liz is a journalist/writer by training, but most likely by nature, I'm sure.
Liz has moved into the building adjacent to mine; we're in nearly identical apartments. I'm A-2, she's B-2. The layout is exactly the same, except that my flat has a serious amount of very blue carpeting, while hers is that dark red painted over concrete/cement that so many of these homes in developing countries are floored with. Strangely, her place is almost nearly empty of everything except for its not so attractive large furniture. We think most of it is actually shipped over from the U.S. Something about the stickers on a lot of the furniture that say something about the U.S. Information Agency might be what's giving it away.
Crazy for such furniture to come from so far when equally unattractive and probably much cheaper furniture is also available here. I highly doubt that that esteemed U.S. agency of ours can tell me that they shipped it all the way here because it's special sustainably harvested woods, not acquirable here in such close proximity to so much of the world's illegal timber activities.
Speaking of illegal activities, I'm learning a few interesting things. Just this weekend, we made a quick stop at the Aviation Club in Kampala. Apparently it's one of only two places (the other being Entebbe Int'l Airport) in this country where you can get aviation fuel and it's also the only place to get one of those small planes that zip around the region and land on those grassy air strips that are everywhere.
Rumor is, those little planes are also what's trafficking a lot of the illegally extracted natural resources out of the DRC. In the parks where I work along the border with DRC, you can see these small planes flying in and out all the time. I highly doubt they're carrying tourists. But, my question is.....if those planes are trafficking illegal resources and one place they must fly in and out of or refuel at is here in Uganda at the Aviation Club....why is it so hard to stop these guys? I mean, I think I know the answer to my own question (corruption runs deep and powerful), but that doesn't make the answer any more acceptable.
I'm brought back to the question underlying so much of my master's thesis. What do individuals and communities do when their governments aren't fulfilling their end of the social contract? If the governments do not take proactive steps to protect natural resources and landscapes, or at the very least to prevent harmful activities? Or even worse, if the governments themselves are the ones who are engaging in the harmful or even illicit acts? It's not the first time I've come across such blatant corruption. The villagers and park rangers in many parts of Central America that I have worked in have told me similar stories of government abuse. But again, the question is, what do we do? What can we do?
"Contentment has learned how to find out what she needs to know. Last year she went on a major housecleaning spree. First she stood on her head until all the extra facts fell out. Then she discarded about half her house. Now she knows where every thing comes from—who dyed the yarn dark green and who wove the rug and who built the loom, who made the willow chair, who planted the apricot trees. She made the turquoise mugs herself with clay she found in the hills beyond her house.
When Contentment is sad, she takes a mud bath or goes to the mountains until her lungs are clear. When she walks through an unfamiliar neighborhood, she always makes friends with the local cats."
— J. Ruth Gendler (The Book of Qualities)
Liz is the new Fulbrighter from Omaha, Nebraska. We were roommates at orientation something like half a year ago. Now she's moved out to Uganda to start her 10-month research project on sanitary pads. Sanitary pads in terms of girls and education, health and sanitation, waste production and management...all interesting stuff. I would write more on it, but I think that's her task here for the next months. So, when she publishes something wonderful, I'll forward it on. Basically, Liz is a journalist/writer by training, but most likely by nature, I'm sure.
Liz has moved into the building adjacent to mine; we're in nearly identical apartments. I'm A-2, she's B-2. The layout is exactly the same, except that my flat has a serious amount of very blue carpeting, while hers is that dark red painted over concrete/cement that so many of these homes in developing countries are floored with. Strangely, her place is almost nearly empty of everything except for its not so attractive large furniture. We think most of it is actually shipped over from the U.S. Something about the stickers on a lot of the furniture that say something about the U.S. Information Agency might be what's giving it away.
Crazy for such furniture to come from so far when equally unattractive and probably much cheaper furniture is also available here. I highly doubt that that esteemed U.S. agency of ours can tell me that they shipped it all the way here because it's special sustainably harvested woods, not acquirable here in such close proximity to so much of the world's illegal timber activities.
Speaking of illegal activities, I'm learning a few interesting things. Just this weekend, we made a quick stop at the Aviation Club in Kampala. Apparently it's one of only two places (the other being Entebbe Int'l Airport) in this country where you can get aviation fuel and it's also the only place to get one of those small planes that zip around the region and land on those grassy air strips that are everywhere.
Rumor is, those little planes are also what's trafficking a lot of the illegally extracted natural resources out of the DRC. In the parks where I work along the border with DRC, you can see these small planes flying in and out all the time. I highly doubt they're carrying tourists. But, my question is.....if those planes are trafficking illegal resources and one place they must fly in and out of or refuel at is here in Uganda at the Aviation Club....why is it so hard to stop these guys? I mean, I think I know the answer to my own question (corruption runs deep and powerful), but that doesn't make the answer any more acceptable.
I'm brought back to the question underlying so much of my master's thesis. What do individuals and communities do when their governments aren't fulfilling their end of the social contract? If the governments do not take proactive steps to protect natural resources and landscapes, or at the very least to prevent harmful activities? Or even worse, if the governments themselves are the ones who are engaging in the harmful or even illicit acts? It's not the first time I've come across such blatant corruption. The villagers and park rangers in many parts of Central America that I have worked in have told me similar stories of government abuse. But again, the question is, what do we do? What can we do?
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