Week 2 Wrap-Up

Buganda Parliament

Thursday in the afternoon my class went out for an excursion to learn about the kingdom of Buganda in the central region of Uganda. We saw the Buganda parliament, palace, and went to the Uganda Museum. It was very interesting to know that the people who are part of the Buganda Kingdom in the central region of Uganda are ruled by both the King of Buganda and the President of Uganda. 

Buganda Palace

We were not allowed to enter the palace because we are not royalty, but we did get to see the chambers that were formerly used to torture enemies of the king. It was very scary. We saw cells that were raised about 4 feet above the ground that would apparently hold hundreds of prisoners at a time. They wouldn’t feed them, so people would die every day. To ensure that the prisoners would not escape, the ground in front of the cells would be filled with about 13 inches of water, of which an electrical current was passed through so that anyone who tried to escape would be instantly killed. When people died they would roll them out of the cell into the water to get them out of the way. When people were brought there, the intention was to kill them, and no survivors have been found. However, there is a lot of controversy with this story, and some people do not believe it to be true. One of our drivers was angry we went there and claimed it was only a tourist attraction that only aimed to make money. 

Buganda Torture Chambers

On Friday we visited one of the larges slums in Kampala. About 20,000 people live there, and the conditions are incredibly deplorable. Ditches are cut through the roads and raw sewage flows everywhere, of which children play around. “Houses” are tiny and only a few inches apart. At many moments I felt like I was looking at the pages of a TIME magazine. It’s very difficult to maneuver in the slum as the ground is very uneven, the paths are small, and there is garbage and waste everywhere. Fatal disease is rampant, including malaria, yellow fever, diarrhea, typhoid, AIDS and many others. About 1/3 of the school-age children do not go to school. Most people who are born there never leave.

From the car on the way to the slums

I saw sad children and happy children, clothed and naked. Some with shoes and some without. I saw small children holding even smaller children. When they caught a glimpse of us, they were so excited and they followed us around in bunches. Some even tried to hold my hands or just touch my white skin. I don’t know what’s going to happen to all those kids. It seems like Uganda receives so much international aid and the fruits of so very many NGOs, so why are there still so many people living like this? Where is all the money going? People are literally dying of diarrhea everyday, and yet the Ugandan government has nothing to say about it. Candidates come to this slum, campaign, tell the people their lives will be better, and then forget all their promises and never think about these poor people again. It’s truly heartbreaking. 

I’ve been in the beautiful country of Uganda for two weeks now. The things I’ve learned and observed have undoubtedly opened my eyes to some of the serious issues plaguing development. Yet, somehow I don’t think stops there.

Being in Uganda has also allowed me to understand a lot of things about my own wonderful country, the US. I think we have come a long way, but we still have a lot of work to do. Some issues are very different than the ones facing Uganda, but some, I’ve realized, are not so dissimilar.

til next time