January 12, 2009, Monday, Kampala, Uganda

Paige works for Minnesota International Health Volunteers, an educational program in Minneapolis, Uganda, and Tanzania, that has been in place for a couple decades. The focus is malaria prevention, hiv/aids prevention, family planning. Phil contributes at-home support and photography and graphic design services. The office is in a building in the home compound, good for working family life. Check out andersonbowen.com/blog/. Read More!

Saturday we had a visit with Tom and Linda and kids. Tom, American, works for Save the Children, Linda, Swedish, started an organization that works with women in the northern part of the country. The two lively kids go to an international school in Kampala. They have traveled and worked all over Africa. Tom’s interest and background is in agriculture, and he has a passion for aloe plants, searching all over East Africa for more species. He gave a tour of his aloe garden. They will move back to California this summer to help Tom’s mother rebuild the family home which burned in the Santa Barbara fires. They have fascinating African art collection, including a recently acquired Kenyan fabric with Obama’s picture.

Also there were Luc and Majo, Belgian, and their daughter and adopted Ugandan son. He works for Save the Children also, and Majo has related work also. Very delightful people, all of them. Always there seem to be travel stories, of big travels.
Sunday we met Hilary, New Yorker, for breakfast at New York Kitchen, a restaurant in the corner of a parking garage, serving frappucino, bagels, and banana pancakes. The staffers love to carry Odin around, and he loves it too. Hilary is a technical writer for an NGO, perhaps headed for law school in a year or two.

Last night I went to be a fan at Frisbee practice. Most of the players were Ugandans, extremely friendly, all of them, including Robert, who said, “Oh, you are my grandmother.” He has declared himself Odin’s brother. Two Americans, Bethany and Phil, known as Short Phil at practice, are medical students at U of Minnesota, spending a year working with AIDS research for a year before medical residency back in the states. A Dutch woman, playing in her first-ever game, is a doctor working in internal medicine.

Foreigners are called Muzungus.