EdforDev, Anna

I've been in the U.S. for 7 days now, trying hard not to forget what I learned.  It's surprisingly difficult, even after only a week.

These are the before and after photos of Namirama Community Secondary School.  The first morning that I arrived in Namirama, there were tomato plants where the school would be.  Behind the field were mud houses whose imininent removal had already been negotiated.  By the time I left, this big building was there with all of the roofing timbers up.  By now, there should be iron sheets on the roof and the walls should be partially plastered.

The progress.  In the first photo, a mason ("fundi") is digging the foundation with a hoe. The second is the only female mason, Eunice, laying bricks for the foundation.  In the third photo, the engineer, John Watuwa, is at the far right.  The man in the middle is Joseph Khisa, Michael's brother and the chair of the Bubolo District.  The little kid next to him liked to follow me whereever I'd go.  He wouldn't say much - he'd just giggle and wave a lot.

In contrast to our well-guarded construction sites and helmeted workers, these workers came to work in flip-flops and often removed them for convenience.  It wasn't uncommon for little Namirama kids to be running around the site and trying to help for fun.  The second photo shows a "porter" mixing cement.

For those who didn't have to be at home doing work, the construction site (and the white person) were nice forms of entertainment, especially for the little kids.  Here, some kids were amusing themselves (and the white person :oP ) by plowing the open field with someone's cattle.  The buildings in the background of these photos are the government-funded Namirama Primary School.  The motorcycle in the first picture was my transport that day to Namirama.  It was a government motorcycle that Joseph had been using to ride around the district campaigning in favor of a multi-party system.  When Yoweri Museveni officially became president of the country, political parties were abolished in favor of one "Movement," which became the name of Museveni's group, as far as I can tell.  The goal was to prevent the kind of conflict between parties that had repeatedly led to overthrows of the nation's leaders.  While I was there, the government held a nationwide vote on whether the country should begin allowing political parties.  I'm not sure what led to this vote, but word on the street credited pressure from donors advocating democracy.  According to the government newspaper, 92.5% of voters voted to allow political parties.  Hard to believe, but they did admit a very low voter turnout.  On the surface, I suppose the vote looked like a great step in the direction of democracy, but on the ground, it was hard to figure out what it meant.  There were a lot of complaints that the people didn't understand what they were voting for.  Many boycotted for this reason.

Museveni campaigned in favor of allowing political parties, which made him look - at least to foreigners - like he was really supporting democracy.  However, not long before the vote, Museveni's parliament voted to abolish the limit on the number of terms the president is allowed in office.  So in the short term, the multi-party vote seems a little meaningless; I would bet a bunch of money that Museveni will win his now-permissible third term in 2006, and the "Movement" will maintain power.

As a foreigner, perhaps the most interesting part of the vote was the ballot.  It stated, "Do you agree to open up the political space to allow those who wish to join different organisations/parties to do so to compete for political power?"  The voter had two choices:  she could check the box next to the "Yes" and drawing of a tree, or she could check the box next to the "No" and drawing of a house.  The drawings were meant to accomodate the illiterate population, but they stirred a whole new controversy about the meaning of a house and a tree to people in the village.  I heard someone argue that villagers would be more likely to check a house because they'd rather have a house than a tree; I heard another mention the issue of the fact that the door to the house was closed, implying that others are not welcome, etc.  The things you don't think about when you live in a country that's 97% literate...

These are the Namirama Secondary School scholarship students.  The man on the far right of the first picture is Morton Sitawa, chair of the school's Board of Governors and donor of the land on which the school is being built.  The man crouching in the front with a paper in his hand is Alfred Bwayo, the school's headmaster.  The photo in the middle are some of the scholarship students' parents, a few of whom "signed" our form with a thumbprint.  The last photo shows a student named Teddy and her mother.  Teddy was first in her class last term.  The building behind them is the mud structure that the secondary school is currently using.

I'd like to post more photos, but it doesn't seem to want me to.