Invisible Children's follow up video was released today. I'm still formulating my opinions and will post a follow up. But in the mean time, below is the video to watch it.
Or you can find it here.
Showing posts with label East Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label East Africa. Show all posts
05 April 2012
27 February 2012
A ship destroys the internet
Once upon a time, internet providers in East Africa decided to make their internet faster. To American standards, that ment moving from dial up speed to slow cable speeds. They decided to build a fibre optics station in the bottom of the sea. Surely, no one would ignore the restricted space that flagged this area. So they built fast internet, charged expats a fortune, and locals the inability to experience the fast internet. And so it was.
Then one day a ship was unable to access the port it wished to dock. So it decided to anchor outside the port. Restricted access? Surely it does not mean us. So they anchored. And destroyed the high-speed internet's fibre optics. Down went the high speed interent for multiple countries. Down went fast internet, work ability and the such. But this is Africa, and life continues whether or not the foreigners are able to access the high speed internet.
I laughed when I read this news article about a ship's anchor destroying a fibre optics line for high-speed internet off the coast of East Africa. If I was in East Africa, I would be furious. Since I am not, I can only laugh and think, "only in Africa would the internet be destroyed by a ship".
If you want the full story, you can check it out here: on the BBC website.
I had horrible experiences with internet, paying for internet, only for the record of my payment gone, etc. So this is story is just so typical with the woes of internet and East Africa. For my friends experiencing abnormally slow internet speeds, I am sorry.
Then one day a ship was unable to access the port it wished to dock. So it decided to anchor outside the port. Restricted access? Surely it does not mean us. So they anchored. And destroyed the high-speed internet's fibre optics. Down went the high speed interent for multiple countries. Down went fast internet, work ability and the such. But this is Africa, and life continues whether or not the foreigners are able to access the high speed internet.
I laughed when I read this news article about a ship's anchor destroying a fibre optics line for high-speed internet off the coast of East Africa. If I was in East Africa, I would be furious. Since I am not, I can only laugh and think, "only in Africa would the internet be destroyed by a ship".
If you want the full story, you can check it out here: on the BBC website.
I had horrible experiences with internet, paying for internet, only for the record of my payment gone, etc. So this is story is just so typical with the woes of internet and East Africa. For my friends experiencing abnormally slow internet speeds, I am sorry.
15 October 2010
The Report Card is in for Education in Uganda
This week a report came out from Campaign for Education, and many other major supporters, addressing the 60 countries where it is the worst to have a child in school. Unfortunately, Uganda made the list. Not only is it the worst place for a child to get an education in East Africa, it is the eleventh worse in the world.
This week in the newspaper there was an article about the government disputing the validity of the study, saying that they were asking questions of the students that were too difficult and not at level. Perhaps they are right, the questions were too difficult for their students- but compared to global standards, they should not be.
Education is a messy situation in this country. In 1997 Universal Primary Education (UPE) was implemented for a maximum of four children per family, and in 2002 laws were passed for all children to have a free primary education. I wish that “free” were actually the case. Uniforms, books, food, dormitory, and paper/writing utensils are not free. Thus making what should be a free education difficult to attain for the poorest of the country.
Uganda has put into place measures to increase the education level their children receive. Therefore, to be ranked so low in this report is not only a blow to their ego but it is discouraging to see that the efforts they have taken have not increased the quality of the education significantly (at least to global standards).
When I read this article and the conversation about the results, my heart is pained. Over the course of years, much of the issues addressing the developing world do not affect me the way it use to. Development practitioners become numb to the problems as the years pass by. For whatever reason, this report got to me. Perhaps it is because I work with schools, teachers, and children on a daily basis. It is not only a statistic, but it is much more tangible.
I work with the children who cannot read the alphabet in grade three. I work with the children who cannot solve a basic division problem as well. This report is based on government and private schools. I cannot imagine what the statistics would look like if they surveyed non-formal community-based organization run schools. The schools that I work with!
Perhaps this report only reinforces the need to continue the work that my NGO, Fount of Mercy, is doing! Working with teachers and schools to increase their ability to teach the national curriculum well. To give children who will never have the opportunity to go to college, let alone secondary school, the best primary education they can get. I work with teachers to increase their ability to teach, but really so the children gain a better education. One in which is their human right and will better their lives for years to come.
Here are some key statistics in regards to the importance of education according this report:
• The cost of failing to provide a good quality education for all children in poor countries could be as much as $70 billion a year, due to lost economic growth.
• No country has ever achieved continuous and rapid economic growth without first having at least 40% of adults able to read and write.
• An adult who has completed primary education is likely to earn 50% more than an adult who has never been to school.
• A single year of primary school can increase the wages of people earn later in life by 5-15% for boys and even more for girls.
For more statics and information please download the report here: http://www.campaignforeducation.org/docs/reports/1goal/1Goal%20School%20Report.pdf
This week in the newspaper there was an article about the government disputing the validity of the study, saying that they were asking questions of the students that were too difficult and not at level. Perhaps they are right, the questions were too difficult for their students- but compared to global standards, they should not be.
Education is a messy situation in this country. In 1997 Universal Primary Education (UPE) was implemented for a maximum of four children per family, and in 2002 laws were passed for all children to have a free primary education. I wish that “free” were actually the case. Uniforms, books, food, dormitory, and paper/writing utensils are not free. Thus making what should be a free education difficult to attain for the poorest of the country.
Uganda has put into place measures to increase the education level their children receive. Therefore, to be ranked so low in this report is not only a blow to their ego but it is discouraging to see that the efforts they have taken have not increased the quality of the education significantly (at least to global standards).
When I read this article and the conversation about the results, my heart is pained. Over the course of years, much of the issues addressing the developing world do not affect me the way it use to. Development practitioners become numb to the problems as the years pass by. For whatever reason, this report got to me. Perhaps it is because I work with schools, teachers, and children on a daily basis. It is not only a statistic, but it is much more tangible.
I work with the children who cannot read the alphabet in grade three. I work with the children who cannot solve a basic division problem as well. This report is based on government and private schools. I cannot imagine what the statistics would look like if they surveyed non-formal community-based organization run schools. The schools that I work with!
Perhaps this report only reinforces the need to continue the work that my NGO, Fount of Mercy, is doing! Working with teachers and schools to increase their ability to teach the national curriculum well. To give children who will never have the opportunity to go to college, let alone secondary school, the best primary education they can get. I work with teachers to increase their ability to teach, but really so the children gain a better education. One in which is their human right and will better their lives for years to come.
Here are some key statistics in regards to the importance of education according this report:
• The cost of failing to provide a good quality education for all children in poor countries could be as much as $70 billion a year, due to lost economic growth.
• No country has ever achieved continuous and rapid economic growth without first having at least 40% of adults able to read and write.
• An adult who has completed primary education is likely to earn 50% more than an adult who has never been to school.
• A single year of primary school can increase the wages of people earn later in life by 5-15% for boys and even more for girls.
For more statics and information please download the report here: http://www.campaignforeducation.org/docs/reports/1goal/1Goal%20School%20Report.pdf
09 October 2010
Home Sick
Today I am contemplating what to write for this weeks update. The only thing I can say is that I was sick. Which leads me to write a blog post about health care in Uganda, well at least a commentary on my personal experience. I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures. The only thought in my head was to see a doctor and feel better. Therefore, the camera stayed at home.
For the past ten days I haven’t been feeling well, but nothing that would really prevent me from working. Then on Sunday it hit. I doubt that many of you need the details, considering that this is a public blog and symptoms are not really exciting to read unless you are a doctor. Lets just say, I was sick. Really, really sick.
I spent Sunday and Monday praying I would get better. Fighting strange symptoms that would not compute to the normal illness one might find in the States. Tuesday I spoke with a dear friend, Dorien, who is a nurse and conveniently lives in the apartment above me. After a brief consultation and a call to her mom, we determined I needed to see a doctor. She gave me the numbers of two doctors that the muzungus use. I called the first on the list, Dr. Debbie, and she answered. Here is the first cultural difference! Unless you knew the doctor personally, you would never schedule an appointment with a doctor directly. Yet I did. Dr. Debbie is Australian who has lived in Uganda for six years and works for a clinic that is respected around the world.
Wednesday I woke up, took a boda to the compound that Dr. Debbie lives and works. After greeting a handful of men, I was directed to wait in the hallway. Dr. Debbie emerged and I she brought me into her office/examination room. Quite literally, there was a desk, a few chairs, medical supplies, and an examination table in the corner. After discussing my symptoms, her looking at my head, and feeling my stomach, she believed I had a virus. She wrote on a paper and instructed me to go and get blood work done at a different clinic.
I hopped on a boda, and directed the driver to where I needed to go. I enter this compound and there were 20-30 individuals waiting outside in the courtyard, all looking very ill. I walked into the building and up to the front desk and told them what I needed. The receptionist flatly responded that it would be 15,000 shillings (roughly $7). I hand her the money and she tells me to go to the back, through the red door. I entered right when a man finished drawing someone’s blood. I hand him my papers and he directs me to wait. I proceed to watch two other people’s blood get drawn in front of me, which Ugandan’s call bleeding. I suppose you are bleeding but purposefully which is why American English has a different term. In addition, Americans are very private people both in daily life and with medical issues. This is not the case for Ugandans. I saw everything.
The room was divided in half, divided by a glass wall. On one side was a few chairs a tall table and behind the table another chair where the lab tech drew the blood. On the other side of the room was where the blood was tested. A few men, listening to the radio, worked on wooden tables, with microscopes that reminded me of high school biology class. When my turn came, I told the man that my veins were difficult to find. To which he immediately responded by having me sit in the lab for one of the other men to draw my blood. At which point, we all began to chat about life (read=them incredibly curious as to why a white woman was sitting in their lab and if I was available to date). Miraculously enough this lab tech was able to draw my blood on the first try! Please know, that most American lab techs are never, ever able to draw my blood out of my arm! Or should I say, able to bleed me.
An hour later, my results were done and I went back to Dr. Debbie’s office. Unfortunately, I missed her by a few minutes and sat to wait for her return. During that time, I spoke with the man who cleans the compound, and watched as Dr. Debbie’s children run up and down the halls getting lunch prepared. About halfway through my wait, a young man walked in looking terrible ill. He has only been here for three weeks but from a non-trained eye, it looked like he had Malaria. I felt so bad for the man as he seemed completely full of anxiety to the fact that he was sick. I am sure his anxiety was a combination of being in a new country, being sick, and not knowing what he would do. Yet it is so common for people to become ill! I am constantly hearing about people in the hospital, people dying, etc. that it has become normal. Sickness is part of life anywhere in the world- but illness that is preventable with modern medicine and yet people still suffer, is part of life in Uganda.
Finally, Dr. Debbie returned, read my results, and wrote (in my notebook) the medication I should buy. In Uganda, you do not need a prescription. I went to the pharmacy, told them what I wanted, and they sold it to me. Many people will often for-go the doctor and head straight to the pharmacy, explaining their symptoms and requesting their advice on medication. After spending $1.50 on medication, I proceeded to my house where I crashed, exhausted and sick.
All in all, I spent roughly $30 on doctor’s fees, blood work, transportation, and medication. In the United States, people would call that a good deal. In Uganda, people don’t have that kind of money. I am not wealthy, to American standards, to any extent. I would probably fall under the poverty line given the fact that I am taking out student loans. However, I am wealthy compared to the majority of people I interact with on a regular basis. My wealth was able to provide the necessary doctors, blood work and medication so that I will be better in a few days. For others, their lack of wealth would could potentially be life threatening.
For the past ten days I haven’t been feeling well, but nothing that would really prevent me from working. Then on Sunday it hit. I doubt that many of you need the details, considering that this is a public blog and symptoms are not really exciting to read unless you are a doctor. Lets just say, I was sick. Really, really sick.
I spent Sunday and Monday praying I would get better. Fighting strange symptoms that would not compute to the normal illness one might find in the States. Tuesday I spoke with a dear friend, Dorien, who is a nurse and conveniently lives in the apartment above me. After a brief consultation and a call to her mom, we determined I needed to see a doctor. She gave me the numbers of two doctors that the muzungus use. I called the first on the list, Dr. Debbie, and she answered. Here is the first cultural difference! Unless you knew the doctor personally, you would never schedule an appointment with a doctor directly. Yet I did. Dr. Debbie is Australian who has lived in Uganda for six years and works for a clinic that is respected around the world.
Wednesday I woke up, took a boda to the compound that Dr. Debbie lives and works. After greeting a handful of men, I was directed to wait in the hallway. Dr. Debbie emerged and I she brought me into her office/examination room. Quite literally, there was a desk, a few chairs, medical supplies, and an examination table in the corner. After discussing my symptoms, her looking at my head, and feeling my stomach, she believed I had a virus. She wrote on a paper and instructed me to go and get blood work done at a different clinic.
I hopped on a boda, and directed the driver to where I needed to go. I enter this compound and there were 20-30 individuals waiting outside in the courtyard, all looking very ill. I walked into the building and up to the front desk and told them what I needed. The receptionist flatly responded that it would be 15,000 shillings (roughly $7). I hand her the money and she tells me to go to the back, through the red door. I entered right when a man finished drawing someone’s blood. I hand him my papers and he directs me to wait. I proceed to watch two other people’s blood get drawn in front of me, which Ugandan’s call bleeding. I suppose you are bleeding but purposefully which is why American English has a different term. In addition, Americans are very private people both in daily life and with medical issues. This is not the case for Ugandans. I saw everything.
The room was divided in half, divided by a glass wall. On one side was a few chairs a tall table and behind the table another chair where the lab tech drew the blood. On the other side of the room was where the blood was tested. A few men, listening to the radio, worked on wooden tables, with microscopes that reminded me of high school biology class. When my turn came, I told the man that my veins were difficult to find. To which he immediately responded by having me sit in the lab for one of the other men to draw my blood. At which point, we all began to chat about life (read=them incredibly curious as to why a white woman was sitting in their lab and if I was available to date). Miraculously enough this lab tech was able to draw my blood on the first try! Please know, that most American lab techs are never, ever able to draw my blood out of my arm! Or should I say, able to bleed me.
An hour later, my results were done and I went back to Dr. Debbie’s office. Unfortunately, I missed her by a few minutes and sat to wait for her return. During that time, I spoke with the man who cleans the compound, and watched as Dr. Debbie’s children run up and down the halls getting lunch prepared. About halfway through my wait, a young man walked in looking terrible ill. He has only been here for three weeks but from a non-trained eye, it looked like he had Malaria. I felt so bad for the man as he seemed completely full of anxiety to the fact that he was sick. I am sure his anxiety was a combination of being in a new country, being sick, and not knowing what he would do. Yet it is so common for people to become ill! I am constantly hearing about people in the hospital, people dying, etc. that it has become normal. Sickness is part of life anywhere in the world- but illness that is preventable with modern medicine and yet people still suffer, is part of life in Uganda.
Finally, Dr. Debbie returned, read my results, and wrote (in my notebook) the medication I should buy. In Uganda, you do not need a prescription. I went to the pharmacy, told them what I wanted, and they sold it to me. Many people will often for-go the doctor and head straight to the pharmacy, explaining their symptoms and requesting their advice on medication. After spending $1.50 on medication, I proceeded to my house where I crashed, exhausted and sick.
All in all, I spent roughly $30 on doctor’s fees, blood work, transportation, and medication. In the United States, people would call that a good deal. In Uganda, people don’t have that kind of money. I am not wealthy, to American standards, to any extent. I would probably fall under the poverty line given the fact that I am taking out student loans. However, I am wealthy compared to the majority of people I interact with on a regular basis. My wealth was able to provide the necessary doctors, blood work and medication so that I will be better in a few days. For others, their lack of wealth would could potentially be life threatening.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)