the slums

This week is turning out to be about on par with the Rwanda week in terms of intensity. I feel like they slammed everything into one day yesterday and I’m still reeling. Last week and this week we split up into four different modules (human rights; grassroots development; public health; and gender and development – I’ll give you one guess as to which one I’m in….). Last week we had lectures, and this week we’re out in the field. Instead of moving from NGO to NGO every day, the gender and development group is sticking with the Slum Aid Project (SAP) all week. SAP assists people living in the slums of Kampala, especially women and children who are the victims of domestic violence (DV) and/or have HIV/AIDS. So every day we’re going to different slums. Yesterday we went to Kisenye, which according to my mother is one of the worse slums in Kampala. We went to the homes of a few refugee women affected by DV, which was incredibly hard, of course. Then we went to one of the few areas of this particular slum where the prostitutes live and we got to talk to them and ask them questions and it was so sad and interesting and conflicting. Right when we sat down to talk to them, it started pouring rain, so they took us to this building where the prostitutes work and we shoved into this tiny hallway that was only lit by a single green lightbulb and the rain was pounding on the tin roof and we continued talking to them and it was SO strange and surreal. Then we were supposed to talk to children who were victims of DV but it didn’t end up happening, so we moved on to the most dreaded/anticipated activity of the day: condom distribution in the slums. SAP distributes condoms for free to all the slums in the city, so we came armed with boxes and boxes full and walked around handing them out. Apparently they get all their condoms from USAID, so it was kind of funny walking around with boxes that said, in huge letters on the front, “From the American People.”

Snichols/anyone else who cares: these are my potential research ideas:

(a) this is the idea I came in with, and I think I’m going to end up sticking with it. Drawing on my work at PeaceWomen Project, I want to study how women are influencing the peace negotiations in Northern Uganda. Obviously it’s going to have to be more specific than that, but that’s the gist of it for now.

(b) this is the idea I was thinking of switching to the other day, but now I’m thinking of dropping it. During one of our gender lectures, the professor mentioned that it’s been notes that cases of DV have increased in the North in response to western NGOs that are targeting only women for development/reconstruction programs (especially microfinance) and leaving the men unemployed/idle. I thought that could be pretty interesting to look into.

(c) this idea will of course be incorporate in anything I study: how Leonard Cohen’s music will bring peace to the world.

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHNNY!!!!!!

p.p.s. a few nights ago I kept hearing scratching in my suitcase but I kept trying to ignore it because I didn’t want to deal with what was in there and finally I couldn’t take it anymore and I made my mom come and look cause I’m a huge wussy and it was RAT.

p.p.p.s. i have to fill out a housing form for where i want to live in the spring. suggestions????!?!?! obvs i'm gonna put parsons/pannex as my first choice, but what else should i put?