Go With The Flow

Ehh, things have been crazy busy lately. The Afro-Asian Learning Exchange and Training Workshop PROMETRA is hosting is beginning May 7th with guests arriving by the 5th …next week! And I think us PROMETRAns will be venturing out to Buyijja either Sunday or Monday to prepare for the arrival of the guests! Though it has been busy, it has definitely been a good experience planning for it! :) As for about two weeks ago, PROMETRA hosted guests from BioVision, an organization based in Switzerland that focuses in Africa and promotes environmental conservation. The guests came to visit PROMETRA Uganda to see how we are promoting traditional medicine as well as conservation of the forests that house those medicinal plants. During that week, us PROMETRAns escorted the BioVision guests around to different traditional healers’ homes and traditional healer groups in order for them to gather information and capture photos for making a documentary and writing an article in BioVision magazine...pretty sweet! They mainly wanted to capture how people in Uganda use the environment for health related purposes, as well as inform the general public that people here are very well educated on the importance of the land and that conservation is key in order to keep forests for years to come. BioVision seems like a good organization with a good purpose! On that Wednesday, the BioVision guests were able to see Buyijja Forest School and understand better how healers learn about the medicinal importance of the forest as well as methods for conserving the natural environment. Thursday was also a pretty neat day…at about 5 a.m. we were all…those who wanted…woken up in order to venture to the top of Doctor’s Msindye Hill to watch the sunrise over Mpigi District. The BioVision people, after visiting traditional healers, wanted to capture images of the environment and the landscape…so we journeyed to the hill! :) Unfortunately, the morning was quite cloudy, so the sunrise was not seen very well…but to give credit to nature, the clouds were beautiful in the way they molded shapes and light-up with various colors. It was like the sun was battling the clouds by trying to break through…off in another direction, there were dark dark dark clouds that hovered over the hills, and every once in a while we caught a glimpse of lightening! Just being on top of the Hill and looking out over part of the Ugandan landscape was breathtaking and worth the early morning wake-up. After the early morning, it was back to visiting traditional healers. Once that Thursday ended, we ventured back to Kampala after having spent a pleasant week in Buyijja away from the hustle and bustle of the city. And let me tell you, that journey was actually quite interesting…the land cruiser first had to be loaded with lumonde (sweet potatoes), then a few of us and our bags were to be loaded on top of the lumonde! Three people laid on top, while I squished down in between two sacks. Our BioVision guests and Doctor squeezed together in the front, while the rest of the PROMETRA staff loaded themselves into yet another packed vehicle…that one full of office equipment and bananas! Once we were on the road and could no longer just sit/lay there, we decided to pull out a deck of cards and play in order to ease an awkward, lengthy journey :) So out came the cards, and we played all the way back to Kampala finally reaching around 9 p.m…just enough time to get a good night’s sleep! Overall, I think the visit of BioVision guests went really well, and they got the information they were looking for! Now as for today…it has been an interesting day! I woke up early this morning to prepare for a journey into Kampala city center to retrieve my new visa. Well…one of my PROMETRA colleagues and I arrived at Immigration early and had to wait about 45 minutes to see someone. I then got my passport and was directed to the cashier’s office. Once there, he wrote up a quick receipt type thing and directed me to Diamond Trust Bank. So my colleague and I hailed a taxi bus and ventured down the busy road to the bank where I was to get a money order for paying for my new visa. Once at the bank, I waited only about 15 minutes to find that I must return in two hours to pick up the money order. So…my colleague and I found breakfast at a little spot near the big ‘old taxi park’ (Paka Kadde). After eating, we still had some time to waste so we walked around inquiring about poster printings for PROMETRA. After two hours, we ventured back to the bank, I picked up the form then we journeyed back to Immigration. Once there, I roamed around shortly to get a copy of some documents…then went to the office hoping to simply get my visa stamp and be done…instead I found I must return again in another two hours to pick up my passport with its new visa stamp. So my colleague and I moved down the road a little to a nice grassy area at a nearby Institution where we simply relaxed for a bit. After about an hour and half, we returned to Immigration… waited some more…then, with no further problems, I obtained my passport with a nice new visa stamp. Ehh, it was a process and half…hehe! Now I am back at the office about to continue working on video scripts for the workshop…I think it will be a long night again…last minute preparations! But it’s all in the name of the workshop…It’s going to be GOOD! :) Sorry for the delay in blogging!!! Hope all is well wherever you may be! Oh I almost forgot…my garden is doing wonderful! My bugga is growing really well, and the other herb…not sure its name yet, but it’s good for anemia…is so bushy and healthy looking. Unfortunately, the third herb dodo is not coming up…maybe it’s just being stubborn..hehe! :) Either way, yayyyy for my herbal garden!

Keep the spirit alive – Ann Kyamulabi