Today, Tuesday, was my first official day of work at the Embassy, and I have quite a lot to report! I got picked up first by the Embassy motorpool (a carpool that picks up about 5 embassy employees in my area) and we got to work at about 7:30am. What was my first task of the day? Shredding paper!! But anyway, I accepted my humble beginnings (knowing the day had much more in store during the afternoon) and shred a hell of a lot of paper for about 30 minutes until I received my next quick assignment: to read the three major Ugandan newspapers and make a bullet list of important headlines with brief descriptions. Well, I guess I got a bit too in depth with my readings, because I only had listed two important stories by the time my boss came to collect my work. So, lesson learned, next time I will scan not scour.
At 9am I had my official security briefing and one of the most important things I learned is that in the case that I get in a car accident, especially if it is my driver's fault, we are required to hit and run! Now although that is completely counter to every lesson ever taught to American drivers, in Uganda it can be a matter of life or death. The hit-and-run policy applies especially if we hit a boda-boda motorbike, and it is even more important if the boda-boda driver gets hurt! I was told that if a boda-boda driver is injured, all the other boda-boda drivers on the street will charge the offending car, ram into it, throw stones, and eventually attack the passengers if they can get ahold of them. Although I guess it that funny…at all…but I couldn't help but laugh hysterically as he told me a story of two female embassy employees who hit a boda-boda and fled the scene all the way to the embassy with 20 boda-bodas in tow, where armed Marines then had to escort the women into building and fend off the angry bodas. Maybe it's the fact that the motorbikes name is so funny, maybe it's because the image I have in my head is of a biker gang with fists raised and two women screaming and swerving (not funny, I know) but I was laughing for a good five minutes which got kind of awkward. So, another lesson learned, don't try and be responsible and exchange insurance info, get the hell out of dodge.
At 10am I left the Embassy and headed to the Ambassador's house for my first Public Diplomacy Event. During the ride, my boss told me a lot about his time in Kampala (the traffic and potholes are infuriating) and shared his thoughts on whether everything that the US does here really makes a difference. Beyond all the meet and greets, PR events, and photo ops with the Ambassador, he told me that over half the money that the Embassy receives from DC goes to fighting AIDS in Uganda. The US provides $300 million worth of anti-retroviral HIV medication to all Ugandan citizens, a job that should be the responsibility of the Ugandan government, but as I've explained in previous posts, this government is far too corrupt and dysfunctional to put money where it's needed most. So go USA! Your tax dollars are doing something that truly does makes a difference.
We arrived at the Ambassador's house and supervised the event set up. The event was for the Rising Stars, a new mentoring program for high school girls funded by the US government. Last year, Obama called to US Embassies around the world and requested that the embassies find impressive, local entrepreneurs to go to Washington DC and participate in a world-wide forum. This embassy chose a woman named Rehmah, who went to DC and returned to Uganda and founded the Century Entrepreneurship Development Agency (CEDA). At the time she returned, Obama had another idea. The US wants to fund important new programs aimed at empowering and cultivating local talent and inteligence, so send in your applications. Rehmah, through the US Embassy Uganda, sent in her idea for this entrepreneurial mentorship program called Rising Stars, and her program was selected to receive funding. Rehmah and CEDA chose 7 girls’ schools across the country of Uganda and then created a highly selective application process, including written essays, grade evaluation, and an oral interview to determine which girls at these schools would be chosen to participate in the program. Today was the official launch event for the Rising Stars, and at 11:30am, 175 Ugandan girls from the ages of 14-17 arrived, along with teachers, speakers, and Ugandan press. Before the event began, I had a chance to meet and speak with our Ambassador and the Deputy Chief of Mission, who is the second in command at the Embassy. Both were very kind and had a great sense of humor, and I got to meet the Ambassador's wife and then his dog, a spunky and loud golden retriever. The event featured five speakers, all women besides the Ambassador, and concluded with the official Rising Star anthem, that all the girls sang together and danced to. As part of the program, a trained CEDA mentor will teach a fine-tuned curriculum to the girls once a week after school. Rehmah believes that the greatest problem facing the country is the failure of the education system to empower people as leaders to solve the many problems that face Uganda.
My favorite part of the event was the opportunity I had to mingle and talk with the girls for an hour following the speakers. All of these girls attend boarding schools across the country, some located in Kampala, others located in the north, and they are all extremely bright. Their families are by no stretch wealthy, far from it, but they have been able to pull enough money together for their daughters to attend good private schools. When I met many of the girls, I was a bit shocked by their names: Ethel, Priscilla, Judy, Gloria, Rose, Sheila- reminders of English imperialism many years ago. Immediately the girls told me that they thought I look exactly like Miley Cyrus, which made me laugh because it is a comparison that I've gotten many times at home but not quite as forcefully. They were fascinated that I was from the US and I was very impressed by the questions they asked. One girl, 14 years old, asked me what my friends and I thought about Africa and Uganda when we were 14. What do you think of us, she asked. I told her honestly that many people do not know much about Africa. We know that there is AIDS, violence, and poverty, but most don’t think specifically of the individual countries, like Uganda, with its own peoples, cultures and customs. I told them how much I learned from Josephine, and was interested in learning even more about them. Another girl, Rose, also 14, told me that she is from a village in Northern Uganda, that borders the Sudan, and when she was younger her father was killed by a rebel army. She said that the soldiers who lived in her village would walk down the street and torture her neighbors and fellow citizens- just cut off the lips or nose of someone who they didn’t like. The girls around her nodded their heads, as if this type of cruelty has completely lost the sting or shock that it would hold in more developed countries. It is only luck of birth that has prevented my family, friends and I from ever experiencing horrific torture like this. Why must these girls go through it when we are all so lucky? Not one girl I spoke to has ever traveled outside of Uganda, and none knew someone who had traveled beyond East Africa. I asked the girls what they dream to be when they grow up. Sheila told me she wants to be a doctor but she's scared of blood, and three girls told me they want to be pilots, quite a common career dream here which I found interesting. One of the girls said she wanted to be a pilot until she found out that Uganda, as an entire country, owns only one plane (the planes that fly in and out of the country belong to other airlines). They want so badly to explore, study, and live in the US. I asked them the same question I was asked, what do you girls think of the US? Immediately they all broke out in smiles and laughter and loud voices. They all started talking at once, saying they think it is the most amazing place where you can wish anything you want. Ugandans love Obama, and Sheila told me that he seems like the most incredible man, and was curious if I voted for him and how people like him in the States. This interaction with the girls was my favorite part of the day, and I hope I can take advantage of every interaction I have with locals, especially children and teenagers, to answer any of their questions and learn as much as I can from them as possible.
At the event I met another Embassy employee on his first tour with the Foreign Service. When we got back to post he introduced me to Nate who is the same age, and they said that although the young, fun crowd is few and far between at the Embassy, there is a huge NGO presence in Uganda and tons of young Americans and Europeans to meet. For the rest of the afternoon I settled into my office and received a cell phone, computer login info, and my official Foreign Service badge. I got picked up at 5pm and although I live only 10mins from the Embassy, I didn’t get home until 5:45pm because I was last dropoff in the route. I was so exhausted when I got home that I made myself a piece of toast for dinner, started to read my book, and fell asleep before 630pm. I was woken up by a call from Nate who said that he and a bunch of friends were getting together and he could come pick me up if I wanted to join. I was absolutely exhausted, but I refuse to settle into an old woman routine this early in the game and I was eager to meet kids around my age. Nate picked me up and we went to his NGO friend's house in downtown Kampala and there were about 10 people there around 25 years old, all who work for various non-profits in Uganda. We drank and ate a delicious creation called chocolate beef, made by one man, Peter, who is a British-educated Ugandan and now owns the largest low-income bus company in Uganda, selling bus fare for half the price of the commercial companies. The title of this weekly gathering is "officially" called Think & Drink, where everyone wines and dines then starts pondering serious topics. I guess this is what mature people do after college… where usually the Drink time is supposed to be a break from the stressful Think. It's a pretty funny idea, but it was a really great time and people got pretty heated in discussions. Two of the girls in the group, Angelica and Maggie, work for Educate! an NGO dedicated to improving education in the world's poorest regions. Everyone got into a big debate on the value of Teach for America in the US, whether it's just a resume builder or can really make a difference. Other people at the gathering included workers from US American International Development (USAID) and NGOs related to exploring Ugandan energy and oil. The amount of oil recently discovered in Uganda is now said to be twice as much as was originally thought…if the resulting wealth from this oil is to be distributed across the Ugandan population without corruption every citizen could receive about $70 per year, which by Ugandan standards is incredible. If, however, the government intervenes and corruption ensues, Uganda could very easily fall victim to the natural resource curse that plagues many developing countries. This oil could bring billions of dollars into the country, but there is no way to guarantee that this money will make its way to the right hands, to help the people that truly need it.
