Unity...And Other Craziness

So much has happened over the past week, and all of the craziness just confirmed my belief that you can never be surprised by anything that happens in Africa. I will start first with the good stuff.

Our program at the Youth Center has been taking off since the holiday break began. We have had upwards of 50-60 kids attending our football training sessions each day, and many of them come for the regular programming at the Youth Center prior to trainings each day as well. Our theme over break is "Unity" and we are modeling our teaching points off of a camp that SWB has run at its site in Nicaragua. We have split all of the kids up into about seven teams, with one team captain per group. Over the next few weeks we will have different competition amongst the teams for which they can win points. The competitions will range from games on the soccer field to spelling bees to scavenger hunts and the kids can earn points for their teams by winning at different tasks or by gaining attendance points each time they come to a program. The kids are really excited and will get to choose team names and decorate their poster this Monday.

The other interns and I are also excited for the Unity competitions, as it will be a nice change of pace from the programming which we have done in their classrooms. The organization of the kids into different teams reminds me of the TAG teams I had for summer training in college and the different tasks we faced as a team during pre-season. While we won't be implementing any early morning breakfast clubs or karaoke sing-alongs, the concept is essentially the same, and I've really enjoyed brainstorming different ways to get the kids excited about the concepts of unity, cooperation, spirit, and confidence.

In other news, I barely escaped being deported by the Ugandan Immigration Authorities, and the post-election riots that we were expecting in February finally occurred in Kampala, two months later...so right on African time essentially. First allow me to explain the deportation debacle.

Last fall, Adam and I didn't bother to renew our tourist visas which expire after three months. As we were catching our flights home for Christmas, we got scolded rather sternly at the airport for having stayed in Uganda on expired visas, so this time around I figured I should go to the trouble of getting mine renewed. So, two weeks ago Adam and I went to the immigration office and submitted our forms and our passports, requesting that our visas be extended. SWB is not officially registered as an NGO in Uganda, so we have been here on tourist visas this entire time. Well, Adam returned to pick up his visa on Tuesday, to find out that he had to go in for questioning and was ultimately denied an extension because the immigration officer didn't believe that he was truly a tourist. He was told that he had two days to leave the country or pay a $30 fine for every additional day he was here. The immigration officer also refused to return his passport to him. Nervously, I went to the immigration office on Wednesday, prepared with an elaborate story about my tourist activities in Uganda, should I be taken into questioning. Amazingly, the immigration officer returned my passport to me, with an extension, for free, and told me to have a nice day. I couldn't believe my luck! So now we are working with a lawyer to try and get Adam's passport returned and the fine per day reduced. So, hopefully, everything will be worked out within the next week or so.

Now, as for the riots. The politician who lost to Museveni in the presidential election, Besigye, has been causing mayhem since February. It finally came to a head last Friday, as some police officers roughed up his car a bit and sprayed him with tear gas during a demonstration. Lots of misinformation made its way down the line and many of Besigye's supporters flocked to cities all over Uganda and began rioting. There were large riots in Kampala, as people tried to burn down the main police station and set fires in other areas of the city as well. We have stayed in Ndejje for the past few days, but have managed to get reports from different friends concerning the ebb and flow of the riots. Things have calmed down now, but there are still rumors of more riots taking place at some point. It has been so interesting having lived in Africa this year, watching one dictatorship after another be toppled, or at least challenged. It really has been a ripple effect, and it looks as though Uganda could be next in line...