so the other day we had the "drop off," which is apparently a major component of all s.i.t. programs and, in my opinion, is code for The Scariest and Most Overwhelming Thing You'll Ever Do in Your Life. basically it entails pairing up, being assigned a broad topic (ranging from Culture and Fashion, Trade and Commerce, Education, Healthcare, etc), and traveling around the city with your partner trying to find out as much info as possible on your topic. my partner and i got what was probably the scariest but also the most useful topic: the Old Taxi Park. you remember what i said about uganda's taxis? well the old taxi park is basically where most of them congregate to wait for passengers. we're talking a HUGE area crammed with hundreds of taxis and thousands of people yelling, selling things, running around, and speaking luganda. there's small signs posted above areas of taxis indicating the general destination of those taxis, but you pretty much have to know the most obvious landmark near your destination in order to even begin to know what taxi you should be looking for. here's a link to a photo of the taxi park: http://egoimagekenya.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/taxi-park1.jpg. multiply the chaos you sense from this picture times INFINITY.
now imagine being foreign, english-speaking, scared white girl trying to figure this situation out. yeah.
anyways. so my partner and i went there and decided to take a taxi to the s.i.t. resource center. we knew the general area where we should be going but had no idea where we would be getting off, when to pay, what to say when we wanted to get off, etc. i don't have a lot of time to go into detail, but suffice it to say, we survived and managed to get to the resource center and back without too much trouble. i'm not going to be humble here -- that was a FEAT and i am DAMN PROUD of myself. ;-)
so the president! we were there and started noticing a lot of people congregating, yelling, etc. then we started seeing signs saying that the owner of the taxi park is supporting museveni's next bid for presidency, and he was coming to thank him for his support. so.....there he was. the president. and we just happened to be there. some nice ugandans kind of explained what was going on, but mostly it was loud and chaotic and overwhelming and we didn't stay too long because we couldn't tell what he was saying and we didn't want to be caught in the middle of something potentially dangerous or controversial. my opinion of museveni aside, it was a pretty cool thing.
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that makes me feel better that you got your 1st taxi experience out of the way...you forgot to mention the whole president thing on the phone....pretty cool babe..and i especially liked the concept of avoiding potential danger...i keep forgetting to ask what the weather is like...along with a thousand other things....couldn't get the taxi park photo link to work but am using my imagination....can't wait for pictures...and details on all the upcoming speakers in the program....i know you have a huge week coming up what with moving to your family....give my regards to your new mother and give her my thanks for accepting you into her family....i adore you, my love....mama
ReplyDeleteOMG!!!! i just threw up. that picture is disgusting. (jennifer, if you delete the period at the end of the link, the picture will work :)
ReplyDelete-J
ASHLEY!
ReplyDeleteHAHAHA OMG I love you- I just laughed SO LONG at the sentence: "drop off" SIT code for the scariest and most overwhelming thing you'll do in your life- That is SO TRUE! So Congratulations on completing that- and getting the old taxi park, probably the most overwhelming place in Uganda- well done my friend :) It's too bad that it's so hard to describe the chaos and overwhelming nature of the taxi parks to people in the US, but you did a good job. Thanks for updating so often, I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to read these :) And I'm so excited to talk with you when you get back!