Typefaces in order of appearance: Ostrich Sans, Chunk, Lobster, Blackout
All available for free under the Open Font License
All available for free under the Open Font License
2/23/13
A Portuguese Translation
Sometimes you happen upon phrases that really stick with you. This one, a sketchy translation of some portuguese that I was working with at my job, puts me into a comfortable state of mind. So comfortable in fact, that I made it into a 'quote graphic' just to give it more visual character. It's a fun experiment with different typefaces and imagery. Photo is from my time spent in Cape Town, South Africa along the Western coast of the peninsula.
10/26/12
The Puget/Seattle Region
As this is my last week exploring my curiosities being unemployed, I've found myself perusing the beauty of Puget Sound. I recently moved to Seattle and have been incredibly happy with the region and wanted to explore the different ways of visualizing the area through multiple geographies. I've put together a map hybridizing the bythymetric and land elevation aspects of the region all overlayed with the regions municipalities as type.
I'll let the map do most of the talking, but for those curious about its conceptualization, please continue reading. The bathymetry and land elevation data sets are actually from the same stitched DEM - just with two different queries and color schemes. I was amazed to see how much of the Seattle area is at sea level, but is contrasted so quickly by high-rising hills and eventually mountain ranges. Therefore white represents land mass that is close to sea level - blue is Puget Sound and the greyscale is the rising land around the sound. These schema bring out the structure of the region as a geologic phenomena. The two DEM layers have been slightly blurred to give a more holistic feel. My extremely overgeneralized type-based municipalities are what rounds out the map. The sans-serif typeface (Open Sans) gives a modern, geometric touch to such a natural and free-flowing environment.
All in all, this map is built on curiosity. There's generalizations and municipalities missing due to space, but I find it mesmerizing to look at and once again, I find myself appreciating the new place in the world in which I live.
- Full version -
10/23/12
A Collaborative Cartographic Age
I recently attended the annual conference for the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) down in Portland, Oregon. NACIS is a geographic community focused on the creation of maps, their beauty, and their influence on the greater informed world. The three days of meetings and discussion led to some high-quality, genuine connections that humbled my existence as a cartographer and curator of digital information.
People from around the globe partook in the conversation; the likes of Tom Patterson, the creators and workers of Mapbox, folks from ESRI, awesome dudes from Stamen, high-end users of other cartographic libraries, fellows from Code for America, professors and students from schools all over, and professionals everywhere in between. It was a casual hodgepodge of the big leagues and the farm teams all coming together under one roof: maps.
NACIS was founded on the principles of strong cartographic design, and continues to explore and feed the ever increasing world of beautiful maps. Of course with progress comes innovation, which can lead to competing philosophy and ideals - but more importantly, different ways of defining cartography. There's an obvious divide in the cartographic world found between the traditional cartographers (those strongly forged in aesthetic design of traditional maps on paper) and the new-age, digital conductors (those coding the web and applications for mass communication of spatial information). Traditional cartography is something that many new, code-head youngsters haven't been trained in - but they are finding ways of making maps and using many different computer languages to explore spatial interactions and relationships.
I've found myself straddling this divide, and would like to fully applaud NACIS for taking some major steps in building bridges between two entirely different minds. A computer scientist is a finder-of-solutions for seemingly simple things, through complex languages and mathematical concepts. A traditional cartographic designer is a communicator of information through holistic design. With an ever-increasing computer-based society, we find ourselves with incredible amounts of data that require complex mathematics and solutions in order to understand and be graphically represented. Both cartographic ideals are finding themselves playing key roles in this process. Without coders, the information isn't accessible through digital means. Without the cartographers, the information accessed isn't represented correctly and aesthetically according to spatial theory.
Of course this process doesn't run smoothly all the time. It brings me back to my previous post about the "Cartographer's Dilemma" and how this day and age requires a cartographer to understand concepts from so many different studies. Cartography is a specific node at the intersection of a diverse web, which becomes a burden for our work and understanding of spatial information. This idea is what creates the rift between the new and the old. It's frustrating not knowing a step in the process, because all work previously completed can be for not. My post ended abruptly, in a state of confused hope; that I'll either find a part in the process to understand fully, or cope with only knowing the necessary steps that help me complete a project.
After NACIS last week, I've found my answer. In a cartographic world of confusion and strife understanding, NACIS found a medium in which all ideas can exist. They brought (and continue to bring) together cartographers with diverse backgrounds and understandings of spatial literature under one common understanding: that we all strive to understand our world and the data it provides. It doesn't matter how you do it, it matters that you do it. There in itself is reason to listen to every single talk at NACIS. Albeit it was impossible considering how many there were, there was something of interest for everybody. Sure there's confusion and disagreement, but I do believe there is a mutual respect between cartographers, new and old. This respect is leading to collaboration. Collaboration between people who, until recently, were moving down different paths and careers, not knowing much about the other. With an understanding of how these intersecting interests can aid the other is producing some of the most beautiful and inspirational work the cartographic world has seen.
It's this collaborative effort that allows cartography to safely explore the countless number of underlying philosophies and concepts it is built upon. An effort that fills me with pure excitement – empowers me to continue learning the masses of information in hopes that I can work with others to produce the one thing we all love: maps.
People from around the globe partook in the conversation; the likes of Tom Patterson, the creators and workers of Mapbox, folks from ESRI, awesome dudes from Stamen, high-end users of other cartographic libraries, fellows from Code for America, professors and students from schools all over, and professionals everywhere in between. It was a casual hodgepodge of the big leagues and the farm teams all coming together under one roof: maps.
NACIS was founded on the principles of strong cartographic design, and continues to explore and feed the ever increasing world of beautiful maps. Of course with progress comes innovation, which can lead to competing philosophy and ideals - but more importantly, different ways of defining cartography. There's an obvious divide in the cartographic world found between the traditional cartographers (those strongly forged in aesthetic design of traditional maps on paper) and the new-age, digital conductors (those coding the web and applications for mass communication of spatial information). Traditional cartography is something that many new, code-head youngsters haven't been trained in - but they are finding ways of making maps and using many different computer languages to explore spatial interactions and relationships.
I've found myself straddling this divide, and would like to fully applaud NACIS for taking some major steps in building bridges between two entirely different minds. A computer scientist is a finder-of-solutions for seemingly simple things, through complex languages and mathematical concepts. A traditional cartographic designer is a communicator of information through holistic design. With an ever-increasing computer-based society, we find ourselves with incredible amounts of data that require complex mathematics and solutions in order to understand and be graphically represented. Both cartographic ideals are finding themselves playing key roles in this process. Without coders, the information isn't accessible through digital means. Without the cartographers, the information accessed isn't represented correctly and aesthetically according to spatial theory.
Of course this process doesn't run smoothly all the time. It brings me back to my previous post about the "Cartographer's Dilemma" and how this day and age requires a cartographer to understand concepts from so many different studies. Cartography is a specific node at the intersection of a diverse web, which becomes a burden for our work and understanding of spatial information. This idea is what creates the rift between the new and the old. It's frustrating not knowing a step in the process, because all work previously completed can be for not. My post ended abruptly, in a state of confused hope; that I'll either find a part in the process to understand fully, or cope with only knowing the necessary steps that help me complete a project.
After NACIS last week, I've found my answer. In a cartographic world of confusion and strife understanding, NACIS found a medium in which all ideas can exist. They brought (and continue to bring) together cartographers with diverse backgrounds and understandings of spatial literature under one common understanding: that we all strive to understand our world and the data it provides. It doesn't matter how you do it, it matters that you do it. There in itself is reason to listen to every single talk at NACIS. Albeit it was impossible considering how many there were, there was something of interest for everybody. Sure there's confusion and disagreement, but I do believe there is a mutual respect between cartographers, new and old. This respect is leading to collaboration. Collaboration between people who, until recently, were moving down different paths and careers, not knowing much about the other. With an understanding of how these intersecting interests can aid the other is producing some of the most beautiful and inspirational work the cartographic world has seen.
It's this collaborative effort that allows cartography to safely explore the countless number of underlying philosophies and concepts it is built upon. An effort that fills me with pure excitement – empowers me to continue learning the masses of information in hopes that I can work with others to produce the one thing we all love: maps.
10/11/12
Geographic Information: A Blessing or A Burden?
I was in an interview yesterday where I found myself answering questions about my resume. I've never had someone examine it so closely yet ask so many substantial questions. It was a good thing I knew what was on there and wasn't lying about what I've done, otherwise I would have looked-a-cheat. The interviewer pointed out one thing that has stuck with me since: "Your objective on your resume is quite vague" - I quickly thought to myself about how absolutely correct he was, and how much that didn't make sense considering people point out basically exactly what they want in a career in their "Objective" section. That's why it's an objective.
This is the word-for-word on my resume: "Objective - Continue to explore the interaction between creative design and objective communication within an open and positive work environment."
Through answering him, I've come to realize how vastly diverse the cartographic world is to me, and while it's a blessing to my interests, it becomes a burden to my objective. Cartography at one time – when I was just in the introductory class at Madison – was a linear concept to me. There was a geographic phenomena that could be represented in space. To do this, you brought it through some software and made it look pretty on Adobe Illustrator. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less.
From the second I put my toe further into the water, that linear path split apart quickly; found directions I didn't know existed. As I was learning the basics of cartography, I was learning graphic design. As I was learning how to compile the information and display it, I was beginning to manage my own personal database. I was learning GIS techniques. I unintentionally stumbled into a beginners computer programing class with Python. I was preparing myself to learn the harsh reality of static cartography, which led me to learn interactive cartography. Learning interactive cartography brought me through a jumble of HTML and CSS so I could understand javascript's relation to the map and web. And that is only the front-end of the rabbit hole. There's a whole world of database queries and storage management that belittles my confidence when I try to learn it.
This jumble of knowledge – pure confusion – finds itself in my daily activities. Daily. Each and every concept in what I've learned in the past year is grounds for a career. But I continue on this struggle towards total domination of geographic information. Understanding it from every angle; how to posses it; how to manipulate it; how to store it; and how to visualize it. Every step in the process is filled with a skill that requires incredible amounts of learning to fully understand its use and capabilities. This leads me to believe that geographic information is my burden. My scarlet letter.
Do cartographers strive to be more than is possible? Sure we can put together a map, but would our efforts be better suited learning a step in the process to a glorious extent and eventually collaborating with others in the chain? I've found myself stuck. Looking for the direction in which I find more appealing, while at the same time finding the direction that needs me the most. I can't continue to put myself down a countless number of paths – our brains are not meant for this.
Bringing you back to the beginning, I found myself answering the question to the interviewer with total honesty. I have no clue what I want to do. As I've learned in the past two years, I've stepped on many stones that deserve turning. Concepts that are fulfilling in themselves and are calling me to learn them in more depth. My career objective is – what I like to think – optimistically open. The past two years have been a dabbling of large concepts through cartography. Whether or not this was a good answer, it has made me consider my personal goals and if and how I reach them.
Geographic information is the largest dataset. To use it requires understanding from all parts of the world and all parts of the skilled workforce. It is our burden as Cartographers that we are stuck with molding all of these skills into one. Whether we learn them to their fullest extent or just enough to complete the task at hand, I find myself wanting more all the time. This continual desire to learn more, to understand more, is a blessing that many careers cannot offer because of strict niches and grains to follow. As it is a blessing, it's a burden for our livelihoods. For our careers. We find ourselves stretched too thin. Too far in too many directions. I can only wish to be able to cope with this thinning or choose a direction to completely turn and follow.
This is the word-for-word on my resume: "Objective - Continue to explore the interaction between creative design and objective communication within an open and positive work environment."
Through answering him, I've come to realize how vastly diverse the cartographic world is to me, and while it's a blessing to my interests, it becomes a burden to my objective. Cartography at one time – when I was just in the introductory class at Madison – was a linear concept to me. There was a geographic phenomena that could be represented in space. To do this, you brought it through some software and made it look pretty on Adobe Illustrator. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less.
From the second I put my toe further into the water, that linear path split apart quickly; found directions I didn't know existed. As I was learning the basics of cartography, I was learning graphic design. As I was learning how to compile the information and display it, I was beginning to manage my own personal database. I was learning GIS techniques. I unintentionally stumbled into a beginners computer programing class with Python. I was preparing myself to learn the harsh reality of static cartography, which led me to learn interactive cartography. Learning interactive cartography brought me through a jumble of HTML and CSS so I could understand javascript's relation to the map and web. And that is only the front-end of the rabbit hole. There's a whole world of database queries and storage management that belittles my confidence when I try to learn it.
This jumble of knowledge – pure confusion – finds itself in my daily activities. Daily. Each and every concept in what I've learned in the past year is grounds for a career. But I continue on this struggle towards total domination of geographic information. Understanding it from every angle; how to posses it; how to manipulate it; how to store it; and how to visualize it. Every step in the process is filled with a skill that requires incredible amounts of learning to fully understand its use and capabilities. This leads me to believe that geographic information is my burden. My scarlet letter.
Do cartographers strive to be more than is possible? Sure we can put together a map, but would our efforts be better suited learning a step in the process to a glorious extent and eventually collaborating with others in the chain? I've found myself stuck. Looking for the direction in which I find more appealing, while at the same time finding the direction that needs me the most. I can't continue to put myself down a countless number of paths – our brains are not meant for this.
Bringing you back to the beginning, I found myself answering the question to the interviewer with total honesty. I have no clue what I want to do. As I've learned in the past two years, I've stepped on many stones that deserve turning. Concepts that are fulfilling in themselves and are calling me to learn them in more depth. My career objective is – what I like to think – optimistically open. The past two years have been a dabbling of large concepts through cartography. Whether or not this was a good answer, it has made me consider my personal goals and if and how I reach them.
Geographic information is the largest dataset. To use it requires understanding from all parts of the world and all parts of the skilled workforce. It is our burden as Cartographers that we are stuck with molding all of these skills into one. Whether we learn them to their fullest extent or just enough to complete the task at hand, I find myself wanting more all the time. This continual desire to learn more, to understand more, is a blessing that many careers cannot offer because of strict niches and grains to follow. As it is a blessing, it's a burden for our livelihoods. For our careers. We find ourselves stretched too thin. Too far in too many directions. I can only wish to be able to cope with this thinning or choose a direction to completely turn and follow.
9/12/12
mapsam.com
I recently redesigned my portfolio to match my programming knowledge at the HTML & CSS level. I've been learning quickly about user interaction and useability of websites. There's always room for improvements, but this is what I have up as of now. The new, improved version of mapsam.com
8/21/12
A new era for "From Here To There"
As I plan my move out to the Pacific Northwest, I continually dread the idea that I will no longer be surrounded by the Cartography Lab here at UW-Madison. The resources available in this department are invaluable. I'll be without the many people that have helped me get where I am today–broadened my horizons when it comes to data representation–and now I find myself enveloped in a world of web-page design, graphic design, and cartographic and spatial representation.
With this move comes transition in all forms. A new home means a new geography. With a new geography comes new adventures. I'm currently repainting my bicycle, and am struggling with the fact that I wont be working on the nice work computers here in the lab and have even considered purchasing a PC.
Over the past year I've grown fond of the data visualization world. I've embarked on a web-mapping journey, and have been learning basic javascript to enable a more dynamic web-page. To keep my thoughts concise and centralized, "From Here To There" will now become a data visualization blog. That's about as ambiguous of a theme I could think of that will be surface to anything I'm working on and interested in.
Eventually I would like to burst into the full programming and dynamic visualization world, but for now I'm going to start with simple data collection and basic representation. Who knows where I'll go from there. There will be maps. There will be graphs. I'll probably still have a random post about something totally unrelated, and then create a visualization of it.
"From Here To There" can haz data.
With this move comes transition in all forms. A new home means a new geography. With a new geography comes new adventures. I'm currently repainting my bicycle, and am struggling with the fact that I wont be working on the nice work computers here in the lab and have even considered purchasing a PC.
Over the past year I've grown fond of the data visualization world. I've embarked on a web-mapping journey, and have been learning basic javascript to enable a more dynamic web-page. To keep my thoughts concise and centralized, "From Here To There" will now become a data visualization blog. That's about as ambiguous of a theme I could think of that will be surface to anything I'm working on and interested in.
Eventually I would like to burst into the full programming and dynamic visualization world, but for now I'm going to start with simple data collection and basic representation. Who knows where I'll go from there. There will be maps. There will be graphs. I'll probably still have a random post about something totally unrelated, and then create a visualization of it.
"From Here To There" can haz data.
2/14/12
Boondoggle
The Lost Cartographer String Band's first single is finally here! Take a few minutes to listen up, give your ears a little boot-stomping beat to your day.
Boondoggle by maustin90
Boondoggle by maustin90
2/1/12
Quench Lingira
Friends,
Recently the EDGE Project has been working with Global Giving and the Rockefeller Foundation in the Innocentive Challenge. This challenge has put EDGE in a driver's seat of fundraising for cleaner water for Lingira. This opportunity involves a month-long 2 to 1 matching campaign for all donations to the EDGE Project's "Quench Lingira" page. Take two minutes to listen to Paul describe it:
Take a second to think about it. Clean water is a simple thing. Help us share it.
Recently the EDGE Project has been working with Global Giving and the Rockefeller Foundation in the Innocentive Challenge. This challenge has put EDGE in a driver's seat of fundraising for cleaner water for Lingira. This opportunity involves a month-long 2 to 1 matching campaign for all donations to the EDGE Project's "Quench Lingira" page. Take two minutes to listen to Paul describe it:
Take a second to think about it. Clean water is a simple thing. Help us share it.
Quench Lingira here.
1/17/12
The Lost Cartographer String Band
A couple songs I've put together for playing with the newly founded Lost Cartographer String Band. They're layered tracks of myself, my voice and my guitar. Make sure to check out the Lost Cartographer String Band on facebook to keep up on our movement and release of some singles. Enjoy! Try not to judge too heavily. The Mapmaker song is quite ironic, I know this. So, bear with me.
1/6/12
society's changing climate
First post of 2012.
In my opinion, climate change cannot be viewed in a regional or short-term scale. The severity of the situation has nothing to do with my winter being warmer or cooler on a year-by-year basis. It has nothing to do with whether I'm scraping off ice on my windshield in October or driving with my windows down in January. It has to do with our global economy that has been built in an environment predicted to stay the same ever since the melting of the glaciers 10,000 years ago. Currently, the infrastructure of our world relies on the environment staying the same. Global warming, because of an increase in greenhouse gases, isn't changing our lives on a day-to-day scale. This extremely slow-paced change is exactly what won't catch the attention of society. In a world if impatience and on-demand television, talking about a phenomena measured in centuries and millennia means nothing to a person whose life is measured in years. It's an unfortunate reality. Yes, it's easy to say you can think on a much broader scale, but living your life in a broader scale is vastly different thing and beyond difficult. It's impractical to think past your life.
Here's the connection: our environmentally rigid economy combined with our impatient society will inevitably continue to neglect the tragedy of global warming. My warm summers and brittle winters are pointless considerations when the real catastrophe exists in polar regions. Glaciers and ice sheets have been continually melting over time, but only recently (the second half of the 20th century onwards) have they been melting at a faster rate. Along with thermal expansion of ocean water because of increased temperatures, the seas' levels are rising at similarly increasing rates. Cities on the coasts, as well as islands and regions developed under sea level are at high risk. These cities make up the nodes of our global trade. The global market cannot afford their non-existence (ironically the global market can barely afford it's own existence).
My opinion of humans' place in the climate change debate exists in more of a realistic viewpoint. Yes, climate change has been given a pot of coffee by humans, but because of our current capitalistic global economy, changing the change isn't going to happen as quickly as it needs to. Because of our lack of flexibility, we need to start focusing on places that will be affected and preparing them for the future or lack of future. We DON'T need to worry about arguing whether this winter's lack of cold weather is because of my car. We already know that the far worse scenario of melting ice caps is happening, whether it's because of my car or because of the earthly climate cycle that is warming itself.
To conclude on a tragic note, Coca-cola recently put out its new regular Coke can that portrayed some polar bears and ice on the sides. In response to the changing habitat in the North Pole, they've decided to start a donation matching campaign to combat against the bear's shrinking environment, ice. The same ice that is affecting our coasts around the world. It's a great way of getting people to see a more relatable way of how the melting ice is affecting us and species that we idolize. Now is when it gets really bad. The cans with polar bears look like diet coke cans. THEY LOOK LIKE DIET COKE CANS. Because our impatient selves couldn't spend an extra five seconds reading the package description to look for the already hugely oxymoron word "diet" on a soda box, people complained to Coca-cola about their inability to tell whether they were buying diet coke or regular coke. The label campaign was quickly suspended.
Our society won't allow for climate change to become a part of our lives. Our economy that isn't able to adapt to a changing climate sits and waits for an inevitable disaster. Eventually we must bear the weight of this phenomena, whether we want to or not. Preparations must be taken globally to equip ourselves with the resources and tools necessary for a new world. Maybe 2012 IS actually the year for life as we know it to change (thanks Mayans), for our society to become ubiquitous with its environment, instead of trying to create it.
12/19/11
sneak peak
I'll talk about the coffee map once it's finished. For now, here's some quick shots of the work in progress...
 |
| In Illustrator |
 |
| Growth Rate: Brown is a huge decrease as of right now. Also showing major coffee species export |
 |
| There is an enormous amount of information about ICO member countries and non-member countries. Member countries are only those in Europe and the United States |
 |
| Preliminary divergent color scheme for import and export countries. Bare with me, I'm color blind. |
10/25/11
(im)perfection
Every day, we're confronted with mistakes, errors, accidents and malfunctions. I may be an optimist, but I'm pretty sure these things are what makes life great. The inconsistencies of daily events, wrong turns down the right road, and being anxious about what may come or what has come to pass. Imperfection is perfect. Perfection is imperfect.
This video can be as closely or as distantly related to anything above as you would like:
Shoutout to this being filmed at the Walker Art Center. Double shoutout to Betsy Berens for showing me an awesome site North Shore Sessions where this video came from!
The coffee map is coming along splendidly. I'm currently working through my basemap showing export/import totals for three decades. Trying to figure out where/how fair trade will come into the equation. I'm leaving a lot of room for changes and updates as I go. Taking data as it comes and using it all to figure out which works best. There's so much! Will post some progress photos soon.
EDGE Project is running smoothly but I'm just going to link the blog since I don't want to type what's been said already. I'm constantly in debate over how I want to go back to Lingira. Not debate about wanting to, because I absolutely do, but when and for how long. If I go back, it can't be for simply a month. Time is what will give EDGE the grip on Lingira, and that's what I want to give to EDGE and myself; time. I'm trying to think of what I could do longterm for the community. So far I've worked out some ideas for working on a written history of Lingira Island through monologues and interviews, as well as some historical research in and out of Uganda. I think it would be a great way to work on the community aspect of the area, to have people better understand the land. It's a long ways away, but I'm pretty sure I was thinking about traveling to Uganda around this time a year ago. And considering my days are filled with EDGE, It's no surprise that traveling is something I'm always thinking about.
For those of you who haven't seen the "new" video, here it is in all of its glory. Edited by yours truly, put together and made possible by many.
And for a tacky motivational quote that I can't take any credit for but like quite a bit: I want to give you everything just to see what you would do with it.
Cheers, friends.
This video can be as closely or as distantly related to anything above as you would like:
Shoutout to this being filmed at the Walker Art Center. Double shoutout to Betsy Berens for showing me an awesome site North Shore Sessions where this video came from!
The coffee map is coming along splendidly. I'm currently working through my basemap showing export/import totals for three decades. Trying to figure out where/how fair trade will come into the equation. I'm leaving a lot of room for changes and updates as I go. Taking data as it comes and using it all to figure out which works best. There's so much! Will post some progress photos soon.
EDGE Project is running smoothly but I'm just going to link the blog since I don't want to type what's been said already. I'm constantly in debate over how I want to go back to Lingira. Not debate about wanting to, because I absolutely do, but when and for how long. If I go back, it can't be for simply a month. Time is what will give EDGE the grip on Lingira, and that's what I want to give to EDGE and myself; time. I'm trying to think of what I could do longterm for the community. So far I've worked out some ideas for working on a written history of Lingira Island through monologues and interviews, as well as some historical research in and out of Uganda. I think it would be a great way to work on the community aspect of the area, to have people better understand the land. It's a long ways away, but I'm pretty sure I was thinking about traveling to Uganda around this time a year ago. And considering my days are filled with EDGE, It's no surprise that traveling is something I'm always thinking about.
For those of you who haven't seen the "new" video, here it is in all of its glory. Edited by yours truly, put together and made possible by many.
And for a tacky motivational quote that I can't take any credit for but like quite a bit: I want to give you everything just to see what you would do with it.
Cheers, friends.
10/3/11
data jitters
Well, as anticipated, I'm deep into the grounds of caffeine while compiling data for processing through software (ArcGIS). It took me some time, but I finally found a solid source of data. The International Coffee Organization (ICO) has quickly climbed in the ranks of most visited websites in the past few weeks. I first checked out the National Coffee Association, but unfortunately you need to pay for membership to access their data. I would normally jump on board if it were a simple fee, but these people are serious. They want a whomping 800 dollars for a non-trader membership. This makes me figure that the website is pretty legit where people of the coffee trade compile their annual data through. The ICO on the other hand has much of their data from the past thirty years conveniently organized in downloadable spreadsheets! The amount of data has been quite difficult to dig through, but I've compiled decade data (1990, 2000, 2010) on export and imports for all recognized countries.
So, yada yada yada, I have all of this data. Now what to do with it? I've got some relation-based ideas to find some patterns or relationships within the data. Some focus on the export numbers versus the climate and available land for countries, to get a better representation of possible export numbers versus actual numbers. With price data, there's the possibility of comparing exports/imports with retail and basic cost to farmers. The problem I'm running into is where the need for a map comes into play. The climate and land availability are the most spatially required data, but the other numbers don't necessarily need a map. This is my current situation. I've found the data, now I'm trying to find its use.
With all the data jitters comes plenty of coffee jitters. I've recently purchased a fantastic blend of Peruvian medium arabica beans from a nifty little organization: Just Coffee. I linked them on the previous post, but they are a well ventured business dealing with the fair trade and just treatment of growers and buyers. Quite well run I would say. The cartography lab continues to radiate beautiful aromas around the mezzanine level of Science Hall. I'm starting a nice trend and to be honest, my productivity has gone way up. I'm not able to sleep much (3:00 AM) right now, but by golly I'm getting work done.
So, yada yada yada, I have all of this data. Now what to do with it? I've got some relation-based ideas to find some patterns or relationships within the data. Some focus on the export numbers versus the climate and available land for countries, to get a better representation of possible export numbers versus actual numbers. With price data, there's the possibility of comparing exports/imports with retail and basic cost to farmers. The problem I'm running into is where the need for a map comes into play. The climate and land availability are the most spatially required data, but the other numbers don't necessarily need a map. This is my current situation. I've found the data, now I'm trying to find its use.
With all the data jitters comes plenty of coffee jitters. I've recently purchased a fantastic blend of Peruvian medium arabica beans from a nifty little organization: Just Coffee. I linked them on the previous post, but they are a well ventured business dealing with the fair trade and just treatment of growers and buyers. Quite well run I would say. The cartography lab continues to radiate beautiful aromas around the mezzanine level of Science Hall. I'm starting a nice trend and to be honest, my productivity has gone way up. I'm not able to sleep much (3:00 AM) right now, but by golly I'm getting work done.
9/21/11
the world of coffee
This semester (Fall 2011), I'm finding myself in a different type of academic world. This academic world is maleable. Moves where I want it to and comes up where I see best fit. The beginning of my GIS/Certificate program, again at UW-Madison, has started off quickly but seems to move at a pace that I can control. Working in the cartography lab helps me keep my lens focused on what I desire to reach for in a career, while classes seem to compliment basically everything I have gone to school for. I'm currently in advanced quantitative methods, which is a fancy name for upper statistics and introduction to remote sensing. These are structured classes that extend beyond what I originally anticipated as a hobby; opening up the world of geographic data and its sources and how one can basically find relationships between anything and everything. Hence, Tobler's first law of geography, which is basically summed up by the following: a point is more relatively related to an object closer to itself in a trip, path connectivity sense, than things that are relatively further away.
Now that I've rambled about nonsense that nobody cares about. Let's get to the part where the sub text matches what the title briefly mentioned. This, folks, is coffee. For the sake of my lack of sleep and future posts, I'm going to leave coffee as non-researched as it seems in this post. Coffee is the basis of my next project. An independent study, mentored through my boss Tanya, will give me the opportunity to research and develop a project about coffee. Since I am in the GIS/Cart. program and if you only slightly knew me, you better believe that this is going to turn into a full on map-poster. That's correct, I will be earning a full two credits based purely on the idea of coffee.
Now, I know this may seem silly to some (it does to me so don't worry), but hold your horses (in a contemporary sense, keep your foot off the pedal, or finger off the enter key to leave distasteful comments about my attitude towards academics). This aint going to be no walk in the park or fairy flop of a project, I'm turning it into a cross study between coffee and itself, as well as the fair trade, organic components involved in world trade. I want to look from a world point of view all the way down to the local (Madison). Example here. Therefore, for the next few months, this blog will serve me as a means of gathering my research and thoughts about coffee, maps of coffee, cups of coffee, beans of coffee, bags of coffee, grounds of coffee, and data of coffee. It's all turning into the real deal and I'm not talking about the jumbo long island from the Red Shed Bar.
I plan on doing this entire project while going crazy on caffeine and shaking like a mad man because of the pots of coffee I will consume. Prepare yourself, body of mine, because tonight might be the last real night of sleep you get in a while.
Now that I've rambled about nonsense that nobody cares about. Let's get to the part where the sub text matches what the title briefly mentioned. This, folks, is coffee. For the sake of my lack of sleep and future posts, I'm going to leave coffee as non-researched as it seems in this post. Coffee is the basis of my next project. An independent study, mentored through my boss Tanya, will give me the opportunity to research and develop a project about coffee. Since I am in the GIS/Cart. program and if you only slightly knew me, you better believe that this is going to turn into a full on map-poster. That's correct, I will be earning a full two credits based purely on the idea of coffee.
Now, I know this may seem silly to some (it does to me so don't worry), but hold your horses (in a contemporary sense, keep your foot off the pedal, or finger off the enter key to leave distasteful comments about my attitude towards academics). This aint going to be no walk in the park or fairy flop of a project, I'm turning it into a cross study between coffee and itself, as well as the fair trade, organic components involved in world trade. I want to look from a world point of view all the way down to the local (Madison). Example here. Therefore, for the next few months, this blog will serve me as a means of gathering my research and thoughts about coffee, maps of coffee, cups of coffee, beans of coffee, bags of coffee, grounds of coffee, and data of coffee. It's all turning into the real deal and I'm not talking about the jumbo long island from the Red Shed Bar.
I plan on doing this entire project while going crazy on caffeine and shaking like a mad man because of the pots of coffee I will consume. Prepare yourself, body of mine, because tonight might be the last real night of sleep you get in a while.
9/11/11
a bonspiel for the ages
This one is high in the running for the most random post ever. Let's get our curls on.
8/8/11
reaching summer's EDGE
It's now August and by-golly time has flown by. Paul and I have been busy preparing the EDGE project for a new year and new people. We are currently in the process of re registering as a student organization, while keeping our Global Giving account up-to-date for donor purposes. There is a new report out, summarizing our trip. If you have read my blog, you will know most of it (and much more) but it's a nice way to see what we did if you don't want to read pages and pages of rants on my blog.
It has been very nice being back home in Madison. Although the pace has quickened with administrative shenanigans, my mind is at rest after being off of Lingira for some time. We have been in contact with some of the lovely people on the island. Teacher Fred called one afternoon to send his greetings to myself, Paul and the EDGE ladies, while informing me of the progress of the school garden. The whole plot is tilled (!) and ready for planting in the growing season! Our garden master, Robert Bagatya, has been showing up and doing good work, although his weekend trips are shorter than we would have liked. Paul talked to Andy from SHIM the other day. Andy is very reliable when it comes to honesty and true details. He said that the garden is doing quite well, although, as does any project in Uganda, there are a couple setbacks. Some farmers on the island have been letting their livestock into the fence. This is to be expected, unfortunately, but it has only been sheep and goats, which don't have as much of an impact on the crops as cattle. The garden has been half planted with mostly potatoes and some other greens. The school term just ended, so doing the whole plot would be unrealistic. It was nice to hear mostly good news, considering how laborious the fence project truly was.
I talked to Emma yesterday morning. Emma is a boy in the primary school but older than the common age since his family couldn't afford his payments. He typically hung out with Paul and I at SHIM and helped us with random stuff, most importantly with where people lived and showing us what everyday life is like on Lingira. It was good to talk to him, remind him to go to school (since is much smarter than the typical primary school student, he loses motivation), ask how his family is and to send greetings to SHIM and the island.
For me, I'm enjoying the administrative side of EDGE. I'm feeling much more confident about this coming semester than I did before traveling. Other than EDGE, which seems like a full-time job in itself, I am working two other jobs. The cartography lab fills my mornings while the food & beverage department fills my evenings with the football team starting their August training camp. I'm busy. I like being busy, though. In this respect, I have hit the edge of the care-free days of summer (other than Tip Top vacation). I'm finding joy in keeping this blog going, however random and pointless it may be during lapses in travel. My few readers may have noticed a revamp in the look. Also, Paul and I recomposed the EDGE Project blog. All of these changes in EDGE are a slow transition in administration, becoming more and more personalized towards the way Paul and I want EDGE to appear. We are searching for a theme, a brand, a "look" for EDGE. Something to keep all of our ideas consistent across all platforms; from t-shirts to our blog, from the university to Global Giving, we are becoming a thorough and established organization.
Another (and final) year of academics approaches. I'm incredibly happy with my decision to stay one more year in Madison. I wouldn't have left feeling satisfied. It continues to bring me happiness and challenges. I am taking a couple classes, working on a new internship (dealing with pastoral societies in Ethiopia), running EDGE with Paul, working both jobs, and somewhere in the mix of this organized chaos, finding time to be with the people I love.
Stomp your feet.
Burn the barn.
Be a hootinany.
Start a humdinger.
Have a good one.
It has been very nice being back home in Madison. Although the pace has quickened with administrative shenanigans, my mind is at rest after being off of Lingira for some time. We have been in contact with some of the lovely people on the island. Teacher Fred called one afternoon to send his greetings to myself, Paul and the EDGE ladies, while informing me of the progress of the school garden. The whole plot is tilled (!) and ready for planting in the growing season! Our garden master, Robert Bagatya, has been showing up and doing good work, although his weekend trips are shorter than we would have liked. Paul talked to Andy from SHIM the other day. Andy is very reliable when it comes to honesty and true details. He said that the garden is doing quite well, although, as does any project in Uganda, there are a couple setbacks. Some farmers on the island have been letting their livestock into the fence. This is to be expected, unfortunately, but it has only been sheep and goats, which don't have as much of an impact on the crops as cattle. The garden has been half planted with mostly potatoes and some other greens. The school term just ended, so doing the whole plot would be unrealistic. It was nice to hear mostly good news, considering how laborious the fence project truly was.
I talked to Emma yesterday morning. Emma is a boy in the primary school but older than the common age since his family couldn't afford his payments. He typically hung out with Paul and I at SHIM and helped us with random stuff, most importantly with where people lived and showing us what everyday life is like on Lingira. It was good to talk to him, remind him to go to school (since is much smarter than the typical primary school student, he loses motivation), ask how his family is and to send greetings to SHIM and the island.
For me, I'm enjoying the administrative side of EDGE. I'm feeling much more confident about this coming semester than I did before traveling. Other than EDGE, which seems like a full-time job in itself, I am working two other jobs. The cartography lab fills my mornings while the food & beverage department fills my evenings with the football team starting their August training camp. I'm busy. I like being busy, though. In this respect, I have hit the edge of the care-free days of summer (other than Tip Top vacation). I'm finding joy in keeping this blog going, however random and pointless it may be during lapses in travel. My few readers may have noticed a revamp in the look. Also, Paul and I recomposed the EDGE Project blog. All of these changes in EDGE are a slow transition in administration, becoming more and more personalized towards the way Paul and I want EDGE to appear. We are searching for a theme, a brand, a "look" for EDGE. Something to keep all of our ideas consistent across all platforms; from t-shirts to our blog, from the university to Global Giving, we are becoming a thorough and established organization.
Another (and final) year of academics approaches. I'm incredibly happy with my decision to stay one more year in Madison. I wouldn't have left feeling satisfied. It continues to bring me happiness and challenges. I am taking a couple classes, working on a new internship (dealing with pastoral societies in Ethiopia), running EDGE with Paul, working both jobs, and somewhere in the mix of this organized chaos, finding time to be with the people I love.
Stomp your feet.
Burn the barn.
Be a hootinany.
Start a humdinger.
Have a good one.
7/5/11
pictorial
35. Unfortunately, that's not how many bottles of international plane wine I drank. That is the number of hours we traveled to get from Kampala to Madison. Matatu, airplane, layovers, walking and bus. I'm pretty delirious at this point. My internal clock put me to sleep around 11pm last night and woke me up around 4am this morning. I just can't sleep! Nonetheless, I'm content, to say the least. Madison continues to show its comforts, making home just as great as traveling. For lack of any sort of motivation, I'm going to stop typing. Instead, photos from the trip. Representative of every emotion I felt and memories most precious to me, I hope you enjoy a more pictorial representation of mine and EDGE's time in Uganda.
more to come
more to come
7/1/11
how was there?
Spontaneous rainstorm post (3:25am on Wednesday the 29th):
Woke up to an absolutely torrential rainstorm. The thunder is completely in sync with the lightening, so right over us. The aluminum roof makes the entire place sound like it's coming down and there is very little chance of falling back asleep. The thunder is making my bed shake and my heart jump (the latter of the two more concerning). For a relatively water proof place water it seems to find it's way in because the roof can't sweep it away fast enough. I got up to close the windows but one flew open, which resulted in the swinging open of our door to the outside. It was a double whammy at best, Paul quickly mobilizing to shut the window while my wide-eyed self scrambled to keep our shoes dry by the door, which had opened as if Poseidon himself were on the guest list. It's as if the rain hasn't come before and won't come again. I cannot imagine the homes in the camps are staying dry in the windy rain, which is very unsettling to me considering I know many of the people in them now. Lightening literally struck outside our window. A cannon fired from the Black Pearl. Possibly an early 4th of July firework that happened to find Lingira and consequently, my face. Or the oldest redwood from the oldest forest cracking next to my ear. I think my bed sheets just jumped. I'm interested to see what this coming-of-christ of a rainstorm does to the island in the morning. The worst of it all: I have to pee, the latrine is a good football field away, and for some reason I can't keep my mind off of flowing water.
Namusis
The other day we got back to the island to find out that a student had passed away in the morning. Namusis was a girl in S4, which is close to 9th or 10th grade I think. The entire island seemed to be in a sort of shock mourning state. Many of the kids were just sitting in groups around the grounds when Paul and I got back from the boat. It wasn't too difficult to tell that something had happened. School was cancelled the next day and many people traveled to her burial in her home town. Paul and I would have liked to go if only it weren't our third to last day on the island with much to get done. Lovi, another girl in the S4 class, asked me if I could bring down the guitar and teach her a little bit (thanks to Elise Mann and a well crafted note that she had me deliver without my knowing of its content). I quickly saw the chance as a means of keeping her and others' minds off of the day's unfortunate event. I played a few songs after teaching for the girls who managed their way to our part of the ground and teacher Zaduk.
Paul and I attended a memorial service the next day at the school during their lunch break. The first twenty or thirty minutes were pleasant and well intended, as a celebration of a life should be. The next hour basically entailed dozens of bible scriptures along with many of the teachers explaining that she is gone and people should begin worrying about school again, not letting it affect their studies. Alright, I'm not going to say much for the sake of not using a sad event for a rant and out of respect to Namusis, but there was almost a total lack of spirituality when teachers' speeches read from the bible and explained its meaning that had absolutely nothing to do with the life of Namisus. A sad day for all of course, though. Paul and I celebrated her life at the top of the island over sunset.
Growing hope… and food
The teacher Zadoc, who helped us with much of the fence, was officially given the title "Director of Facilities Management and Security" for the fence area. His commitment to our work really showed that many of the teachers are excited about the project and see the benefits of the garden. Headmaster says the school is on board for budgeting for the garden. It's tough to fully believe him (unfortunately), since he never really commits to anything verbally. The good thing is that the school has tried growing crops before but they have always failed because of livestock. They have the initiative somewhere, now we just have to focus it within the fence and keep it sustained. With Zadoc, we formed concrete ramps under the gates to close the gap between them and the ground. Without a second thought I knew it was my chance to leave an everlasting mark in concrete. I quickly engraved "EDGE 2011" in the entrance to the garden. On the other gate Paul and I wrote our initials. The morning after Rainstorm 2011, we went down to the garden to check on the slabs and see if they survived the night without being completely settled. Not only did they manage to keep safe, someone had engraved "Sam and Paul - God Bless You" into one of the bases. We were and still are touched to see that someone cares for our work at the school. It's a good way to finish off our month of work with the children, knowing that their new fence and garden area will go appreciated by the students and teachers using it. A sign that EDGE is sticking. Growing. A pun.
School photo near the garden entrance
Lunch
Oryagi gave a nice talk, to Paul and I, about nutrition. Basically he described our need to eat diversely to keep our bodies healthy. I suppose it was good to hear someone from the island directly describe our reasoning for making the fence for the school. He talked about the chili sauce specifically. To regress from details, most of which included comparisons to the bible, I learned two things about chili sauce. First, it works as a good way of clearing your system of flu and cold symptoms. Second, and I think more importantly, it aids in successfully erecting the male penis. Every time. I quickly asked what if one eats too much chili sauce to get a response resembling the over indulgence of chili sauce is bad for bodily functions.
Ensi nga nungi
7/1/11
The last couple days on Lingira were absolutely wonderful. With the fence physically and organizationally complete, much of our time has just been spent genuinely talking to people. Content, our mood has been. Relaxing, our time has been. Frisbee, sun, eating, talking, laughing, wondering, singing, being. Stress and anxiety have filled much of our trip, with us just focusing on finishing our projects. It has been great to finish on a light note. The island can be two different places depending on your mood and focus. A place of work and a place of life and enjoyment. It began as a place of work and now finishes as a place of reality and beauty. There's too much to say about my last two days to fit in the blog. Enjoying and living the life of Lingira basically sums it up. We're off Lingira now, back in Jinja. Paul and I, though it feels somewhat selfish, plan on white water rafting a little river called the Nile tomorrow morning. Getting soaked and tossed like a rag-doll, weirdly enough, sounds entirely pleasurable right now. I've said it before and I will undoubtedly say it again, let's get rowdy.
I'm genuinely happy about our time spent on and off projects and will greatly miss the smiles and hospitality of everyone who has worked with us. This trip has made me feel alive in so many ways. The pain (physical and mental); the laughter; the anger; the warm feeling of success; the torment of failure; the reality of discomfort and the delight of making someone smile have all forged a feeling unlike any I've ever experienced. I feel clean, but can count the number of showers I've had on one hand. I have cuts and bruises, but they remind me of our incredible endurance and strength. Life is good. And I am leaving Uganda happy, a goal that I didn't see entirely possible considering our reason being here. It's entirely because of the people. The world is good. Ensi nga nungi.
Shoreline fishing in Lake Victoria
Keep it loose, keep it tight.
Keep it real, keep it right.
Yup.
I guess I'm coming home on the 4th of July.
Peace.
Woke up to an absolutely torrential rainstorm. The thunder is completely in sync with the lightening, so right over us. The aluminum roof makes the entire place sound like it's coming down and there is very little chance of falling back asleep. The thunder is making my bed shake and my heart jump (the latter of the two more concerning). For a relatively water proof place water it seems to find it's way in because the roof can't sweep it away fast enough. I got up to close the windows but one flew open, which resulted in the swinging open of our door to the outside. It was a double whammy at best, Paul quickly mobilizing to shut the window while my wide-eyed self scrambled to keep our shoes dry by the door, which had opened as if Poseidon himself were on the guest list. It's as if the rain hasn't come before and won't come again. I cannot imagine the homes in the camps are staying dry in the windy rain, which is very unsettling to me considering I know many of the people in them now. Lightening literally struck outside our window. A cannon fired from the Black Pearl. Possibly an early 4th of July firework that happened to find Lingira and consequently, my face. Or the oldest redwood from the oldest forest cracking next to my ear. I think my bed sheets just jumped. I'm interested to see what this coming-of-christ of a rainstorm does to the island in the morning. The worst of it all: I have to pee, the latrine is a good football field away, and for some reason I can't keep my mind off of flowing water.
Namusis
The other day we got back to the island to find out that a student had passed away in the morning. Namusis was a girl in S4, which is close to 9th or 10th grade I think. The entire island seemed to be in a sort of shock mourning state. Many of the kids were just sitting in groups around the grounds when Paul and I got back from the boat. It wasn't too difficult to tell that something had happened. School was cancelled the next day and many people traveled to her burial in her home town. Paul and I would have liked to go if only it weren't our third to last day on the island with much to get done. Lovi, another girl in the S4 class, asked me if I could bring down the guitar and teach her a little bit (thanks to Elise Mann and a well crafted note that she had me deliver without my knowing of its content). I quickly saw the chance as a means of keeping her and others' minds off of the day's unfortunate event. I played a few songs after teaching for the girls who managed their way to our part of the ground and teacher Zaduk.
Paul and I attended a memorial service the next day at the school during their lunch break. The first twenty or thirty minutes were pleasant and well intended, as a celebration of a life should be. The next hour basically entailed dozens of bible scriptures along with many of the teachers explaining that she is gone and people should begin worrying about school again, not letting it affect their studies. Alright, I'm not going to say much for the sake of not using a sad event for a rant and out of respect to Namusis, but there was almost a total lack of spirituality when teachers' speeches read from the bible and explained its meaning that had absolutely nothing to do with the life of Namisus. A sad day for all of course, though. Paul and I celebrated her life at the top of the island over sunset.
Growing hope… and food
The teacher Zadoc, who helped us with much of the fence, was officially given the title "Director of Facilities Management and Security" for the fence area. His commitment to our work really showed that many of the teachers are excited about the project and see the benefits of the garden. Headmaster says the school is on board for budgeting for the garden. It's tough to fully believe him (unfortunately), since he never really commits to anything verbally. The good thing is that the school has tried growing crops before but they have always failed because of livestock. They have the initiative somewhere, now we just have to focus it within the fence and keep it sustained. With Zadoc, we formed concrete ramps under the gates to close the gap between them and the ground. Without a second thought I knew it was my chance to leave an everlasting mark in concrete. I quickly engraved "EDGE 2011" in the entrance to the garden. On the other gate Paul and I wrote our initials. The morning after Rainstorm 2011, we went down to the garden to check on the slabs and see if they survived the night without being completely settled. Not only did they manage to keep safe, someone had engraved "Sam and Paul - God Bless You" into one of the bases. We were and still are touched to see that someone cares for our work at the school. It's a good way to finish off our month of work with the children, knowing that their new fence and garden area will go appreciated by the students and teachers using it. A sign that EDGE is sticking. Growing. A pun.
School photo near the garden entranceLunch
Oryagi gave a nice talk, to Paul and I, about nutrition. Basically he described our need to eat diversely to keep our bodies healthy. I suppose it was good to hear someone from the island directly describe our reasoning for making the fence for the school. He talked about the chili sauce specifically. To regress from details, most of which included comparisons to the bible, I learned two things about chili sauce. First, it works as a good way of clearing your system of flu and cold symptoms. Second, and I think more importantly, it aids in successfully erecting the male penis. Every time. I quickly asked what if one eats too much chili sauce to get a response resembling the over indulgence of chili sauce is bad for bodily functions.
Ensi nga nungi
7/1/11
The last couple days on Lingira were absolutely wonderful. With the fence physically and organizationally complete, much of our time has just been spent genuinely talking to people. Content, our mood has been. Relaxing, our time has been. Frisbee, sun, eating, talking, laughing, wondering, singing, being. Stress and anxiety have filled much of our trip, with us just focusing on finishing our projects. It has been great to finish on a light note. The island can be two different places depending on your mood and focus. A place of work and a place of life and enjoyment. It began as a place of work and now finishes as a place of reality and beauty. There's too much to say about my last two days to fit in the blog. Enjoying and living the life of Lingira basically sums it up. We're off Lingira now, back in Jinja. Paul and I, though it feels somewhat selfish, plan on white water rafting a little river called the Nile tomorrow morning. Getting soaked and tossed like a rag-doll, weirdly enough, sounds entirely pleasurable right now. I've said it before and I will undoubtedly say it again, let's get rowdy.
I'm genuinely happy about our time spent on and off projects and will greatly miss the smiles and hospitality of everyone who has worked with us. This trip has made me feel alive in so many ways. The pain (physical and mental); the laughter; the anger; the warm feeling of success; the torment of failure; the reality of discomfort and the delight of making someone smile have all forged a feeling unlike any I've ever experienced. I feel clean, but can count the number of showers I've had on one hand. I have cuts and bruises, but they remind me of our incredible endurance and strength. Life is good. And I am leaving Uganda happy, a goal that I didn't see entirely possible considering our reason being here. It's entirely because of the people. The world is good. Ensi nga nungi.
Shoreline fishing in Lake VictoriaKeep it loose, keep it tight.
Keep it real, keep it right.
Yup.
I guess I'm coming home on the 4th of July.
Peace.
6/27/11
dance like everybody can see you
Hitting up the world from Jinja. It's a calm day on the mainland, with some clouds but plenty of heat. Paul and I went to the central market in town and did a little shopping for some new threads and novelties. I managed to leave with a few bags of loose leaf tea and a new rolling pin for baking. Not the expected bounty, but a good one that cost me less than two bucks. There were plenty of second hand shirts that one would find in the overstock racks of ragstock (I have a new appreciation for their choice of . The thing here, though, is that people who shop for these clothes aren't going for the hipster/vintage/traditional swag, but more of a basic-need-for-clothing look.
Over the weekend, on the island, our friends from AGYA visited the secondary school. AGYA, which is a Luganda acronym ending with Youth Association, focuses on after school programs for children that invoke creativity, which lacks in the public school system. Last year, Abraham, the head of AGYA, came to the island for a few days and did some programs with the boys. This year he managed to bring eight other children from Kampala whose skills ranged from poetry and drawing to rapping and break dancing. On Saturday we set up a morning and afternoon program that allowed the kids to choose which class they liked the most. We were able to include the girls this year, which was nice because we didn't have anything planned for them during our stay on the island.
Much of the day was spent taking video and cheering the kids on, but Paul and I managed to get our groove on in the boys dance class. It was a total throwback, learning to the eight-count from a choreographer. It made me realize how much I miss dancing at Larkin and how free it made me feel. I thoroughly enjoyed the movement and have to say that many of the children were quite surprised to see a mzungu getting down and rowdy on the concrete dance floor.
After lunch, Abraham and the boys held a sexual education class in the room to talk about HIV/AIDS and give the chance for the children to ask questions of their own. In a christian founded school, the concept of sexual education is completely shutout to the point where kids only have a chance to learn from their parents. This would be fine if Ugandan parents talked to their children about sex, but that doesn't happen either. Friends are the only place where a child learns, which tends to be construed and filled with untrue rumors. Abraham had a talk with the headmaster before doing the class. Headmaster basically said that he doesn't want any sort of sex ed class happening, but liked the "idea" of an HIV/AIDS awareness class. Thought process: HIV/AIDS is disconnected from sex. The new study from YWAM, a health organization in Uganda that has a base on the island, shows that 8 in 10 people on Lingira island have AIDS. An absurd statistic that absolutely cannot go unnoticed. Abraham, because AGYA is his profession, obviously had to comply out of respect.
Headmaster actually left the island after their talk because of meetings somewhere else, and failed to mention any of their talk and produced guidelines to the teachers. This was a small blessing in disguise. The teachers, who seem very aware of the necessity of a sexual education class were in charge and Abraham basically let the children lead the class. I managed to have a sit-down with a teacher and politely ask if the teachers could be absent from the sex ed class so the kids could feel comfortable. After some hesitation of the teacher and perseverance on my part, he finally agreed. Paul and I decided to be absent from the class as well. We basically sat with the teachers in the break room keeping them occupied with some drawing and guitar playing so they didn't go into the classroom.
After the class, the groups met for a little while longer and then we had a showcase for everyone including the teachers. Paul and I made fools of ourselves on the dance floor, had some laughs, and listened to a lot of poetry and rap. It was all in Luganda, so we didn't understand anything. Listening to the flow of the language was enough to entice my ears, though. Overall, it was a fantastic day that the children thoroughly enjoyed. I even got a chance to play a couple songs on the guitar in front of the kids! Their talents go mostly unnoticed at the school. Football and netball are the only activities that the children participate in on the regular. This was chance for them to personally grab an opening and find their way out of the box. Abraham and the AGYA guys were impressed with the kids' talents and interest in the classes. They listened intently and participated entirely. For a school that has scheduled, mandatory study sessions and classes on Saturdays and Sundays, it was a very well deserved day of fun and awareness.
Our last week in Uganda is looking quite busy. Our work on the fence is basically done, except for Fred's art class painting the sign for it. We have a lot of talking to do with some of the community members and a lot of friendships to say goodbye to, unfortunately. Our time here, other than working on the fence, has mostly been used for establishing and continuing relationships for ourselves and for the EDGE project. Since Paul and I are basically a power team, we have also started some things that need to be completed for next semester. We had Kenny, Abraham's assistant at AGYA, design the new EDGE t-shirts. They are bomb.com with a little slice of hip and a bite of spice. The shirts he has made for AGYA are absolutely amazing, so we are having him actually screen and print them before we leave. An investment that will eventually pay for itself, these t-shirts are half the price they would be in the states. Plus, we have a design from a good friend in Uganda so our connection to the shirts can be much greater.
Somebody get some chocolate on the ready. My body is weak from the lack of sugary, mouthwatering goodness. I miss you all, as always when I'm away. Much love,
AGYA
ps: this is my 50th post!
Over the weekend, on the island, our friends from AGYA visited the secondary school. AGYA, which is a Luganda acronym ending with Youth Association, focuses on after school programs for children that invoke creativity, which lacks in the public school system. Last year, Abraham, the head of AGYA, came to the island for a few days and did some programs with the boys. This year he managed to bring eight other children from Kampala whose skills ranged from poetry and drawing to rapping and break dancing. On Saturday we set up a morning and afternoon program that allowed the kids to choose which class they liked the most. We were able to include the girls this year, which was nice because we didn't have anything planned for them during our stay on the island.
Much of the day was spent taking video and cheering the kids on, but Paul and I managed to get our groove on in the boys dance class. It was a total throwback, learning to the eight-count from a choreographer. It made me realize how much I miss dancing at Larkin and how free it made me feel. I thoroughly enjoyed the movement and have to say that many of the children were quite surprised to see a mzungu getting down and rowdy on the concrete dance floor.
After lunch, Abraham and the boys held a sexual education class in the room to talk about HIV/AIDS and give the chance for the children to ask questions of their own. In a christian founded school, the concept of sexual education is completely shutout to the point where kids only have a chance to learn from their parents. This would be fine if Ugandan parents talked to their children about sex, but that doesn't happen either. Friends are the only place where a child learns, which tends to be construed and filled with untrue rumors. Abraham had a talk with the headmaster before doing the class. Headmaster basically said that he doesn't want any sort of sex ed class happening, but liked the "idea" of an HIV/AIDS awareness class. Thought process: HIV/AIDS is disconnected from sex. The new study from YWAM, a health organization in Uganda that has a base on the island, shows that 8 in 10 people on Lingira island have AIDS. An absurd statistic that absolutely cannot go unnoticed. Abraham, because AGYA is his profession, obviously had to comply out of respect.
Headmaster actually left the island after their talk because of meetings somewhere else, and failed to mention any of their talk and produced guidelines to the teachers. This was a small blessing in disguise. The teachers, who seem very aware of the necessity of a sexual education class were in charge and Abraham basically let the children lead the class. I managed to have a sit-down with a teacher and politely ask if the teachers could be absent from the sex ed class so the kids could feel comfortable. After some hesitation of the teacher and perseverance on my part, he finally agreed. Paul and I decided to be absent from the class as well. We basically sat with the teachers in the break room keeping them occupied with some drawing and guitar playing so they didn't go into the classroom.
After the class, the groups met for a little while longer and then we had a showcase for everyone including the teachers. Paul and I made fools of ourselves on the dance floor, had some laughs, and listened to a lot of poetry and rap. It was all in Luganda, so we didn't understand anything. Listening to the flow of the language was enough to entice my ears, though. Overall, it was a fantastic day that the children thoroughly enjoyed. I even got a chance to play a couple songs on the guitar in front of the kids! Their talents go mostly unnoticed at the school. Football and netball are the only activities that the children participate in on the regular. This was chance for them to personally grab an opening and find their way out of the box. Abraham and the AGYA guys were impressed with the kids' talents and interest in the classes. They listened intently and participated entirely. For a school that has scheduled, mandatory study sessions and classes on Saturdays and Sundays, it was a very well deserved day of fun and awareness.
Our last week in Uganda is looking quite busy. Our work on the fence is basically done, except for Fred's art class painting the sign for it. We have a lot of talking to do with some of the community members and a lot of friendships to say goodbye to, unfortunately. Our time here, other than working on the fence, has mostly been used for establishing and continuing relationships for ourselves and for the EDGE project. Since Paul and I are basically a power team, we have also started some things that need to be completed for next semester. We had Kenny, Abraham's assistant at AGYA, design the new EDGE t-shirts. They are bomb.com with a little slice of hip and a bite of spice. The shirts he has made for AGYA are absolutely amazing, so we are having him actually screen and print them before we leave. An investment that will eventually pay for itself, these t-shirts are half the price they would be in the states. Plus, we have a design from a good friend in Uganda so our connection to the shirts can be much greater.
Somebody get some chocolate on the ready. My body is weak from the lack of sugary, mouthwatering goodness. I miss you all, as always when I'm away. Much love,
AGYAps: this is my 50th post!
6/21/11
this post measured in inches. not word count.
6/13/11
We purchased the fence. I wish that's where I could move to another topic. After blogging and doing coffee in the morning, Paul and I moved down to the hardware area of Jinja, where there are stores and stores of metal, lumber, and what have you. We monetarily purchased what we knew we needed for the fence from a store. It was quite expensive, but about what we expected. Our purchase was large enough to allow us to go behind the counter and pull out our money (all in cash) so we didn't have to count it at the counter. It was ridiculous having a total bill in the multi-millions of shillings. I felt like a big spender. Ow ow! Unfortunately it was for a fence and not a Lamborghini. We waited around for Oryagi (sp?) and headmaster so they could come help us figure out what else we needed and how we were going to cut our pole lengths and get them welded into the right shape. Thank goodness they showed up and knew what they were doing. What was originally going to cost us 25,000 UGX to cut each pole and shape them was reduced to 3,000 UGX per pole because of Oryagi knowing a guy who had done some good work previously. Yikes! Oryagi and headmaster, the Ugandans, were a big help in the afternoon. Many people were surprised to see two mzungus dealing down in the hardware/dock area. We were helping life supplies and even riding in the back of the truck we hired! We got a lot of looks, to say the least. Our original departure time from the port was 2pm. Our actual departure time was around 7pm. We took the boat across the lake under a pretty moonlight and finally set foot on Lingira around 8:30pm. After unloading all of the supplies, including 7 chain link rolls, 54 poles, 10 bags of concrete, barbed wire rolls and other wire rolls, Paul and were pleasantly surprised to see dinner still out and waiting for our return. I slept hard. Real hard.
6/15/11
After days of "negotiating" with headmaster over a fence plan, we finally have one figured out. We were able to make the fence entirely focused on the garden area. It doesn't have anything to do with any school buildings and separation of the sexes. I think we wore him out with our continual list of pros and cons for the respective plans. We finished digging all of the holes with the help of some classes during their breaks. The teachers have been bringing the kids out for half-hour-long periods to till and dig, which has been great! The kids keep in high spirits and are always laughing and having a good time. Some have even said they are excited for the garden!
6/15/11 - 6/20/11
The following is a random series of things happening. There is no order. Enjoy your b-sides and rarities…
The food is becoming monotonous here. It's tough to get through a day when you can know what to expect for lunch. Posho and beans are a regular, which I wouldn't mind but posh is really getting old. It's especially bad when you find the greens seasoned with plenty of good, natural dirt and sand that give it a nice crunch. Thankfully there is regular rice at dinner time, which I have been eating religiously knowing that I won't have it for another 24 hours. My bottle of Siricha hot sauce that is in a landfill somewhere sounds really nice right now…
I am almost done with my second book here. I am rereading the Golden Compass series, thanks to Erin Christmas and her quick thinking before leaving from Chicago. They are simple to read and are good for keeping my mind off of real, stressful things. I plan on finishing the second one in the next few days so I can start reading anotehr book I found in the library here. It is "The Geography of Bliss" which is written by an author who travelled around the world in search of what happiness is. I am excited to have a new book, plus I have heard some really good things about this one!
My video camera, yes the one that has been filming for the new EDGE video, decided to stop working. Along with my headphones and my new camera, my electronics have decided that they are best used as bookshelf ornaments. Thankfully Paul's camera takes some good video so our project isn't lost! Silver lining: the 160 videos that I did take on my camera were uploaded on the computer before I lost them. Paul and I have been continually buying soda from the shop in Lingira camp, which requires us to return our bottles before buying some new ones. It's a nice way of making sure we get over to the camps when all of our work is basically at the school. We made mandaziis with Mama O the other morning. Mandaziis are similar to donuts except they have much less sugar. They are sold and consumed all throughout the day on and off the island. Since they are super cheap, we have learned to enjoy them quite a bit! We spent a Sunday morning, after learning and while the entire island was at church, making a batch and ate the entire amount. Time well spent. We even got Papa O to miss church, which is a rarity, because we made them so well!
Robert, the man from Jinja who wants to design the garden, came to Lingira over the weekend to do a primary assessment of the land and the school. Basically, he said that if the school becomes invested with purchasing the necessary seedlings and tools (which are surprisingly cheap!) he promised to have a flourishing garden that could even begin to make a profit for the school. He has set up 98 school gardens in the Jinja area, which is incredible! This guy really knows what he is doing and has some great initiative. His knowledge of Ugandan soil and growing is rare to have with a man who is entirely devoted to making people's diets better. He also is really invested in this one on Lingira, because he wants to use it as the primary demonstration garden for the surrounding Buvuma islands. Since Lingira Living Hope Secondary School is the only one in this region of islands, it would bring in a lot of people and hopefully money for the school to start more projects and begin expanding for the children who aren't going to school. Eventually (this is ideal and long-term) it could lead to more looks from the government to provide more funding for the school, which has been coming in more steadily in the past year or so. EDGE has to work with the school to keep Robert coming. It is going to require a lot of talking from Paul and I, trying to get the school to begin budgeting for the garden. But I think we have started what can be a very good, sustainable project by putting up the fence to ensure crops growing.
Warning: Venting. Blowing off steam.
Paul and I were hauling aggregate from the front of the school to the other side where the fence is, when the children started to gather near the entrance. We were interested to see what was going on while people formed a semi-circle around an area when headmaster began to speak. There was a child next to him. He went to the secondary school but was recently suspended for a number of things. Pretty high crime such as yelling for a teacher in the middle of the night to get inside his dorm because it was locked; having a love letter from a girl in the school, and accused of stealing a book. It was pretty blatant that the headmaster and the teachers were enforcing their control by making a public case for this kid. He had served two weeks of suspension at home without being able to attend school. Paul and I were still taking in the information but found it interesting that the kid stole a school book. Yes, one to read and to study for class. Presumably he wasn't able to afford them or had lost his but the fact remains that he was stealing for his own education. I'm not advocating thievery at all here, but find it wholly screwed up when a kid has to steal from someone or someplace to be able to read a book for classes to a school that he is attending. An interesting and ethically confusing irony.
So, here we stand, taking a break from our work and all of a sudden the head master has a teacher whip out a couple canes (basically branches of a tree) for a good ol' genuine caning. It brought a crowd, to say the least. It was the epitome of humiliation, which is probably one of the least successful forms of punishment. His mother, the teachers, and the headmaster were all included in the lineup for a whack at the kids lower back and bottom. First, the mother. In a place where family relationships are utterly mixed up and family planning is a key source of domestic healing on the island, the school just lost 40 points in their attempt to fix domestic violence by making a game out of the caning. Next, two teachers. Probably the most influential people for this kid, next to his family. The people who he has the chance to learn from are now associated with pain and humiliation. I can't imagine wanting to go to class after having my teacher whole-heartedly smack my backside. Finally, the headmaster. After having the child stand up, the headmaster made him say in front of everyone watching, "I want to be caned again." Well, why not?! Bam. Caned. In a school that is so completely ambiguous and conspicuous about its vision and drive, they didn't didn't take minute to even consider the fact that pain as punishment cannot equate to authority. All respect in authority is lost when the authority has to resort to a means of caning to get a point across.
His next form of punishment, which was not at all brought up to Paul and I beforehand, involved having to hoe part of a termite mound in the garden. Yay, now the garden is associated with pain and punishment for this child. It is no longer a new, exciting project for him to learn and prosper from. Thanks a lot headmaster for finally taking some initiative in the garden. I'm glad the EDGE project could invest enormous amounts of money in an area where manual labor will come in the form of naughty children and unhappy work.
(Sorry. I needed to put that somewhere.)
6/21/11
Our work on the fence has been quite difficult, but consistent. We finished digging all of the holes and cementing the poles. Saturday was our first day of pouring concrete. We had the help of two students, Moses and Henry, who worked for four hours. They did some pretty laborious work for a handsome 10,000 UGX total. This is what the teacher bargained for them to work for. It was originally 3,500 UGX each, which is near $1.50. Paul and I felt weird only paying that much for tough work, so we increased it to $2.00 each… Ugh, sometimes it's so weird following the normal flow of money here, where that work wouldn't have been done for anything less than $30.00 in the states. We have been working from around 9am till lunch around 1pm, then go back to work for four more hours until 5 o'clock rolls around. It's like a full work day, but filled with dirt and rust and metal and cement. The levels (for making poles straight) that we have been using, or used, are completely off level. The couple guys we hired to help build the fence are persistent on using them, when the bubble level is noticeably tilted and the poles themselves are as straight as spaghetti. It has worked better to eye out the poles and make sure they are in line. Concrete has been quite difficult to work with. I never knew how much stuff goes into making the binding concoction. I know the difference between cement and concrete, and the types of sand and aggregate that should be used for different projects. I'm a grind working man with a killer farmer's tan. We have been dirty. And it has been awesome. No showers. Grizzly hair. Bruises. Cuts. Sore backs. Toes that want out. It's all for the fence. Which will be finished. Just you wait.
Paul and I have been working well with each other. Unfortunately, we are the only ones we can really vent and complain to, so sometimes we are at each other's throats. We both like to do things our own way, which can be arguably different sometimes, but we make sound and productive decisions for the EDGE project. We have talked about this, which was good, because we are seriously the only people who we can really talk to about anything that is annoying us. It would be nice to have a few more people travel next year, just so one can spread out their time to not have to continually go to the same person for ventilation. At days end, though, we enjoy each other's company and take comfort in the fact that we are both doing this together. Not to mention our tradition of watching a bit of Lord of the Rings on the computer before sleep. It's another way of taking our stressed minds off of the island before resting. Upon our return to Madison, I think our partnership will work quite well within the EDGE project as co-directors. A little bit of the old mixed with a little bit of the new. Some sugar and spice. It's a concoction meant for glory.
After another long day by the school, Paul and I are sitting on the front porch of the shim building, listening to Sharon Van Etten (thanks to the lovely Livy Baldwin and her musical addition to my life). Overlooking the lake. The sunset. The birds. The watermelons. The marigolds. The children running down the path. Termite mounds. Dirt. Trees. Haze. Dragonflies. Breeze over our sunburn skin. It's a very romantic scene to say the least.
To end on an entertaining note, here are some questions that Paul and I have been asked about America:
Can everyone walk around with guns?
Is rambo living there?
Do people actually get killed in movies? I was always confused when I saw a man die in one movie and then alive in another.
How do you know if Osama is dead?
Won't people look for his body in the ocean anyways?
There can't be poor people in America, can there?
Why do taxes exist?
Does everyone have a car for work?
Have you heard of swizniga - i heard he's the governor of california…
Has Ghadaffi been attacking people from where you are from? Why does Obama want to attack Libya then?
Can the military jets brought over to Libya flip a car over?
Are there forests in America? Green space?
Do you have goats and cows? How do you get the cows so big?
Do you have pigs? (laughing hard when asked)
Did Vietnam happen?
Sorry for the delay in posts, and the incredible length of this one. I promise that I will do it again.
Love. Laughs. Bagels. Cheese.
(ps: someone, please have a cold spotted cow ready for when I get back. You will be my best friend for it.)
We purchased the fence. I wish that's where I could move to another topic. After blogging and doing coffee in the morning, Paul and I moved down to the hardware area of Jinja, where there are stores and stores of metal, lumber, and what have you. We monetarily purchased what we knew we needed for the fence from a store. It was quite expensive, but about what we expected. Our purchase was large enough to allow us to go behind the counter and pull out our money (all in cash) so we didn't have to count it at the counter. It was ridiculous having a total bill in the multi-millions of shillings. I felt like a big spender. Ow ow! Unfortunately it was for a fence and not a Lamborghini. We waited around for Oryagi (sp?) and headmaster so they could come help us figure out what else we needed and how we were going to cut our pole lengths and get them welded into the right shape. Thank goodness they showed up and knew what they were doing. What was originally going to cost us 25,000 UGX to cut each pole and shape them was reduced to 3,000 UGX per pole because of Oryagi knowing a guy who had done some good work previously. Yikes! Oryagi and headmaster, the Ugandans, were a big help in the afternoon. Many people were surprised to see two mzungus dealing down in the hardware/dock area. We were helping life supplies and even riding in the back of the truck we hired! We got a lot of looks, to say the least. Our original departure time from the port was 2pm. Our actual departure time was around 7pm. We took the boat across the lake under a pretty moonlight and finally set foot on Lingira around 8:30pm. After unloading all of the supplies, including 7 chain link rolls, 54 poles, 10 bags of concrete, barbed wire rolls and other wire rolls, Paul and were pleasantly surprised to see dinner still out and waiting for our return. I slept hard. Real hard.
6/15/11
After days of "negotiating" with headmaster over a fence plan, we finally have one figured out. We were able to make the fence entirely focused on the garden area. It doesn't have anything to do with any school buildings and separation of the sexes. I think we wore him out with our continual list of pros and cons for the respective plans. We finished digging all of the holes with the help of some classes during their breaks. The teachers have been bringing the kids out for half-hour-long periods to till and dig, which has been great! The kids keep in high spirits and are always laughing and having a good time. Some have even said they are excited for the garden!
6/15/11 - 6/20/11
The following is a random series of things happening. There is no order. Enjoy your b-sides and rarities…
The food is becoming monotonous here. It's tough to get through a day when you can know what to expect for lunch. Posho and beans are a regular, which I wouldn't mind but posh is really getting old. It's especially bad when you find the greens seasoned with plenty of good, natural dirt and sand that give it a nice crunch. Thankfully there is regular rice at dinner time, which I have been eating religiously knowing that I won't have it for another 24 hours. My bottle of Siricha hot sauce that is in a landfill somewhere sounds really nice right now…
I am almost done with my second book here. I am rereading the Golden Compass series, thanks to Erin Christmas and her quick thinking before leaving from Chicago. They are simple to read and are good for keeping my mind off of real, stressful things. I plan on finishing the second one in the next few days so I can start reading anotehr book I found in the library here. It is "The Geography of Bliss" which is written by an author who travelled around the world in search of what happiness is. I am excited to have a new book, plus I have heard some really good things about this one!
My video camera, yes the one that has been filming for the new EDGE video, decided to stop working. Along with my headphones and my new camera, my electronics have decided that they are best used as bookshelf ornaments. Thankfully Paul's camera takes some good video so our project isn't lost! Silver lining: the 160 videos that I did take on my camera were uploaded on the computer before I lost them. Paul and I have been continually buying soda from the shop in Lingira camp, which requires us to return our bottles before buying some new ones. It's a nice way of making sure we get over to the camps when all of our work is basically at the school. We made mandaziis with Mama O the other morning. Mandaziis are similar to donuts except they have much less sugar. They are sold and consumed all throughout the day on and off the island. Since they are super cheap, we have learned to enjoy them quite a bit! We spent a Sunday morning, after learning and while the entire island was at church, making a batch and ate the entire amount. Time well spent. We even got Papa O to miss church, which is a rarity, because we made them so well!
Robert, the man from Jinja who wants to design the garden, came to Lingira over the weekend to do a primary assessment of the land and the school. Basically, he said that if the school becomes invested with purchasing the necessary seedlings and tools (which are surprisingly cheap!) he promised to have a flourishing garden that could even begin to make a profit for the school. He has set up 98 school gardens in the Jinja area, which is incredible! This guy really knows what he is doing and has some great initiative. His knowledge of Ugandan soil and growing is rare to have with a man who is entirely devoted to making people's diets better. He also is really invested in this one on Lingira, because he wants to use it as the primary demonstration garden for the surrounding Buvuma islands. Since Lingira Living Hope Secondary School is the only one in this region of islands, it would bring in a lot of people and hopefully money for the school to start more projects and begin expanding for the children who aren't going to school. Eventually (this is ideal and long-term) it could lead to more looks from the government to provide more funding for the school, which has been coming in more steadily in the past year or so. EDGE has to work with the school to keep Robert coming. It is going to require a lot of talking from Paul and I, trying to get the school to begin budgeting for the garden. But I think we have started what can be a very good, sustainable project by putting up the fence to ensure crops growing.
Warning: Venting. Blowing off steam.
Paul and I were hauling aggregate from the front of the school to the other side where the fence is, when the children started to gather near the entrance. We were interested to see what was going on while people formed a semi-circle around an area when headmaster began to speak. There was a child next to him. He went to the secondary school but was recently suspended for a number of things. Pretty high crime such as yelling for a teacher in the middle of the night to get inside his dorm because it was locked; having a love letter from a girl in the school, and accused of stealing a book. It was pretty blatant that the headmaster and the teachers were enforcing their control by making a public case for this kid. He had served two weeks of suspension at home without being able to attend school. Paul and I were still taking in the information but found it interesting that the kid stole a school book. Yes, one to read and to study for class. Presumably he wasn't able to afford them or had lost his but the fact remains that he was stealing for his own education. I'm not advocating thievery at all here, but find it wholly screwed up when a kid has to steal from someone or someplace to be able to read a book for classes to a school that he is attending. An interesting and ethically confusing irony.
So, here we stand, taking a break from our work and all of a sudden the head master has a teacher whip out a couple canes (basically branches of a tree) for a good ol' genuine caning. It brought a crowd, to say the least. It was the epitome of humiliation, which is probably one of the least successful forms of punishment. His mother, the teachers, and the headmaster were all included in the lineup for a whack at the kids lower back and bottom. First, the mother. In a place where family relationships are utterly mixed up and family planning is a key source of domestic healing on the island, the school just lost 40 points in their attempt to fix domestic violence by making a game out of the caning. Next, two teachers. Probably the most influential people for this kid, next to his family. The people who he has the chance to learn from are now associated with pain and humiliation. I can't imagine wanting to go to class after having my teacher whole-heartedly smack my backside. Finally, the headmaster. After having the child stand up, the headmaster made him say in front of everyone watching, "I want to be caned again." Well, why not?! Bam. Caned. In a school that is so completely ambiguous and conspicuous about its vision and drive, they didn't didn't take minute to even consider the fact that pain as punishment cannot equate to authority. All respect in authority is lost when the authority has to resort to a means of caning to get a point across.
His next form of punishment, which was not at all brought up to Paul and I beforehand, involved having to hoe part of a termite mound in the garden. Yay, now the garden is associated with pain and punishment for this child. It is no longer a new, exciting project for him to learn and prosper from. Thanks a lot headmaster for finally taking some initiative in the garden. I'm glad the EDGE project could invest enormous amounts of money in an area where manual labor will come in the form of naughty children and unhappy work.
(Sorry. I needed to put that somewhere.)
6/21/11
Our work on the fence has been quite difficult, but consistent. We finished digging all of the holes and cementing the poles. Saturday was our first day of pouring concrete. We had the help of two students, Moses and Henry, who worked for four hours. They did some pretty laborious work for a handsome 10,000 UGX total. This is what the teacher bargained for them to work for. It was originally 3,500 UGX each, which is near $1.50. Paul and I felt weird only paying that much for tough work, so we increased it to $2.00 each… Ugh, sometimes it's so weird following the normal flow of money here, where that work wouldn't have been done for anything less than $30.00 in the states. We have been working from around 9am till lunch around 1pm, then go back to work for four more hours until 5 o'clock rolls around. It's like a full work day, but filled with dirt and rust and metal and cement. The levels (for making poles straight) that we have been using, or used, are completely off level. The couple guys we hired to help build the fence are persistent on using them, when the bubble level is noticeably tilted and the poles themselves are as straight as spaghetti. It has worked better to eye out the poles and make sure they are in line. Concrete has been quite difficult to work with. I never knew how much stuff goes into making the binding concoction. I know the difference between cement and concrete, and the types of sand and aggregate that should be used for different projects. I'm a grind working man with a killer farmer's tan. We have been dirty. And it has been awesome. No showers. Grizzly hair. Bruises. Cuts. Sore backs. Toes that want out. It's all for the fence. Which will be finished. Just you wait.
Paul and I have been working well with each other. Unfortunately, we are the only ones we can really vent and complain to, so sometimes we are at each other's throats. We both like to do things our own way, which can be arguably different sometimes, but we make sound and productive decisions for the EDGE project. We have talked about this, which was good, because we are seriously the only people who we can really talk to about anything that is annoying us. It would be nice to have a few more people travel next year, just so one can spread out their time to not have to continually go to the same person for ventilation. At days end, though, we enjoy each other's company and take comfort in the fact that we are both doing this together. Not to mention our tradition of watching a bit of Lord of the Rings on the computer before sleep. It's another way of taking our stressed minds off of the island before resting. Upon our return to Madison, I think our partnership will work quite well within the EDGE project as co-directors. A little bit of the old mixed with a little bit of the new. Some sugar and spice. It's a concoction meant for glory.
After another long day by the school, Paul and I are sitting on the front porch of the shim building, listening to Sharon Van Etten (thanks to the lovely Livy Baldwin and her musical addition to my life). Overlooking the lake. The sunset. The birds. The watermelons. The marigolds. The children running down the path. Termite mounds. Dirt. Trees. Haze. Dragonflies. Breeze over our sunburn skin. It's a very romantic scene to say the least.
To end on an entertaining note, here are some questions that Paul and I have been asked about America:
Can everyone walk around with guns?
Is rambo living there?
Do people actually get killed in movies? I was always confused when I saw a man die in one movie and then alive in another.
How do you know if Osama is dead?
Won't people look for his body in the ocean anyways?
There can't be poor people in America, can there?
Why do taxes exist?
Does everyone have a car for work?
Have you heard of swizniga - i heard he's the governor of california…
Has Ghadaffi been attacking people from where you are from? Why does Obama want to attack Libya then?
Can the military jets brought over to Libya flip a car over?
Are there forests in America? Green space?
Do you have goats and cows? How do you get the cows so big?
Do you have pigs? (laughing hard when asked)
Did Vietnam happen?
Sorry for the delay in posts, and the incredible length of this one. I promise that I will do it again.
Love. Laughs. Bagels. Cheese.
(ps: someone, please have a cold spotted cow ready for when I get back. You will be my best friend for it.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)