::::I've Left Copenhagen for Uganda::::

Looking at the Nile through a stained window of an aircraft

Along the border between Southern Sudan and Uganda the River Nile flowed silently this Tuesday morning.

It is one of these early mornings where I didn't sleep enough; I didn't eat properly; And where I fought my way through traffice to the airport in Entebbe before boarding a plane to Yei in Southern Sudan. Even in spite of all that - and the nauseous feeling the tiny aircraft creates, I will still say that the view is worth it.

Africa's Finest

Africa's finest...unfortunately relatively stranded on the road to Kasese.

Where are we?

At the moment I get lost anywhere, have completely lost my sense of direction. In Kampala suburbs or in tiny villages. Can't remember left from right, that the sun sets in the West, where I have been in what order and whom I talked to where about what, or if I Skyped, blogged or watched it on TV or the Internet. When I get to a road which splits in two I can never remember which one I am supposed to take.

Embarrasing. Inconvenient. Especially for someone who takes a pride in having a good photographic memory and a strong ability to match names with the right faces. Too many impressions in too little time, I guess. Somehow my harddrive doesn't store properly.

Like this morning I think we are flying Yei to Kampala. South. Half an hour later I look down upon this strange place. UN containers, tukuls (mud huts), the River Nile, mbati (iron sheet) roof houses, white landcruisers...

I have to ask (what might seem like the most stupid question to) the passenger in front; 'Where are we?!'

Hm! Juba, it is...! What else?!

View more photos from Juba here - and Sudan here - from what might be my last trip inside for a long while.

- You've got five minutes and then I want you out of Juba!

I spent the weekend in Juba, and before returning to Yei today I had to visit the big market in Juba this morning - intending to take in the atmosphere and take some photos without confronting an SPLA soldier with a Kalashnikov and a lethal thousand-meter-stare.

I managed to avoid the occasional, stumbling drunk - and truly scary - SPLA soldier. Instead a man (identifying himself as 'working for the government with anti-corruption') tried insistingly to put the message through that I was unwanted; You've got five minutes, and then I want you out of Juba!'. He was instantly dealt with by our local driver and other by-standers, who explained to me that the guy was traumatised. A category which is used throughout to describe the human impact of the civil war in Southern Sudan.

I backed out of the market, while our driver kept explaining don't be scared! - while talking sense to the traumatised person, who then throw himself at an - from what I could see - innocent Masai man. Donk!  I turned around and was greeted by this tall man (probably a Dinka) who kind of slapped me with his outstretched palm right on my chest and then putting a friendly massive white teeth front set on display.

I still cannot believe that the traumas are this visible that you can litterally feel and observe it this clearly just by meeting people in the street. Talking about trauma or being fucked-up in a crazy place in Africa, the occasional South African de-miner, paramedic or whatever is just as scary as a local traumatised Sudanese (at least the Sudanese has an explanation). Not like the self-sufficient South African paramedic I met at a party last night who tried to convince me of the uniqueness of his job -and that he would only help his own, and never ever give medical help to a local Sudaneseh, because 'neither UN nor the GoSS can provide security'). Some people ought to stay home!

Man, this place is so crazy - and who knows if I ever will be back?!

An overdose Africa

Just had some relatively rough & intensive days with lots of driving on bad, bad roads. (If the CHOGM ever thinks about taking the Queen E the road less travelled as in up-country Uganda - I'd suggest they don't take the Kampala-Masindi Road untill someone makes it ready for CHOGM!).

In Murchison Falls the elephants and giraffes were out - beautiful morning sight. In West Nile I gave a lift to a woman with a child sick of malaria. Next, I gave a lift to an old woman, who had to go to TASO in Arua - due to 'the epedimic'.

In Arua I took my Danish passenger to the market for buying kitenge, on a photosafari down Adumi Street and ended up eating pork chops in Oasis Inn.

I unpacked and repacked my stuff, and this morning after putting my Danish visitor off at the airstrip, I drove to Koboko. Then to Yei in South Sudan.

A lot of Africa in little time, and even I have been feeling a little overwhelmed. If you find it difficult to sort out impressions and categorise them, Africa is no good. It is smacked straight in your face. However, I am feeling on the top at the moment, and admittedly, also high. I kind of like it this way.

I've been tagged - 8 random facts/habits about me

I have been tagged by Uganda's Scarlett Lion.

We have to post these rules before we give you the facts. 

1. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. 
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. 
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1.  I am Nordic, not just Danish, but Nordic as in having a viking's selfconfidence and in treasuring Iceland for the Nordic sound of Bjørk and Sugarcubes, the clear light, sea and landscapes, and the way the viking women took charge a thousand years ago. If I were to choose another nationality than Danish I'd like to be Icelandic.

2. I am impatient, impulsive and stubborn. I like to test limits. Never afraid of entering a conflict if it can ease the air. Add to that cynical, ironical, sarcastic and abbrasive. If you ask, I'll tell you what I think, or I'd say little. I am learning to wrap it in, though. 

3. I love Africa. But I think all I'll be is a visitor. I might stay long, though, I hope. However, Africa, due to hospitality doesn't make me feel like a visitor, I feel at home any time. I think I am too different, too Nordic. Deep down I want to structure, act, change, manage time, make order in chaos, make people wear safetybelts, never to put children in the front seat of a car, to band all up-country coaches driving lethally and tie the arms and legs of the mad coach drivers and cut off their private parts.

4. I am not sure what impact I have had on Uganda. But I know for sure that Uganda had a big impact on me! And I am really thankful for that. It has changed my life and how I look upon myself. It has given me opportunities I wouldn't have had if I'd stayed home. In particular, it has improved my writing and photography. It made me a stable driver. It taught me to deal with shit on the spot and to make quick decisions. It makes everyday trouble in Denmark look small, which gives me the space to enjoy the bigger lines in life. It makes me happy in glimpses.

5. I get real angry when people patronise or degrade others. If people start abusing their authority or ability to put others down. People who think they are better than others. People who think they have the right to put limitations on others' lives: Like the teacher who makes fun of the pupils who can't read. The well-educated, urban upper-caste citizen - or the uptight mzungu  - who think that poor people = stupid peasants. Men who beat women. Xenophobic fascists in Denmark who claim that Denmark only is for Danes. Or fundamental Christians who believe it is wrong to be homosexual and that those must be ordered back to live a normal life.

6. On the other hand, It makes me very emotional when someone takes a pride and acts from strong selfdiscipline in making her/his life work and in achieving her/his goals. In spite of civil war, tribalism, hunger, poverty, educational skills, taboos - you name it.  And who will still meet you with a positive mind, insisting on making it in life her/his way.

7. I'd never do bungy-jumping or river rafting, too afraid. However, I once crossed the Indian Ocean in a dhow from Bagamoyo to Zanzibar overnight under the African stars. And in January 1997 I drove from the muslim-dominated area in Northern Bosnia to the Croatian-controlled area in the war-torn town of Mostar - in a rental car with Bosnian registration plates. I also like to going out in Jo'burg at night.

8. Where am I next year or in 10 years? I was never good at making plans regarding my professional life. It just keeps turning out for my liking. Regarding my personal life, I am even worse at making plans. However, I do intend to move towards settling somewhere for a longer period of time. Hopefully to combine what I like to do the most with Africa. Insha'Allah!

Tagging eight others:

1. Judith in the Jungle
2. The Mundu
3. Black Kush
4. TIA - This is Africa
5. Jkomboe
6. Punta Malia
7. Wholehearted Sudaneia
8. Mzungu Eiriki on a bike

Uganda is ready for CHOGM

Billboards and posters all over Kampala featuring famous Ugandans are telling us that Uganda is ready for CHOGM.

For a long time doubt has been expressed about Uganda's capacity, security and effiency to accommodate the meeting. We observe the daily progress of the construction of new hotels in the centre of Kampala, and ask each other if they will ever make enough room for the CHOGM participants arriving.

However, I see the billboard and poster campaign as an interesting  - and constructive - respond from the Ugandan government; - a positive branding of CHOGM - we ARE ready! I hope so. It is important to Uganda to get this attention. Positive attention. Read more here.

I can´t get the smile off my face...

Plans changed. I am not leaving Uganda for Copenhagen. I am staying in Africa a little longer.

Sort of a last minute thing. I am packing for 6 weeks in Uganda, preparing myself to return soon and get back to life in Copenhagen. But Monday night I got an offer I could not resist. Wednesday I signed the contract, and got myself a new job which is going to occupate me in Africa from September till December. Maybe longer. I hope. The job and duty station are almost too good, and I fear that if I talk about it too much they will take it from me and give it to someone who doesn't go bla bla bla on a blog.

I am 36 years next week. But no older to admit that I am feeling childishly, stupidly happy and very enthusiastic (had to go out with friends and drink a lot of wine to level it out). At the moment it is all a huge mix of getting a job offer (when all I got last month was rejections), the job itself, the fact that Copenhagen has been postponed (autumn and winther coming up), that I don´t have to write job applications for a while, or show up for interviews and pretend to know what is what.

Imagine, over the past two months I have been applying for jobs, done a few subsequent interviews (two with a slash of malaria) without results. I had periods of doubt regarding my own talents and experience and I tried to get on another track, out of the development business. I wanted to stay in Africa, but to get out of northern Uganda because of travelling all the time and not having a functional base in my life. I gave it a break, got malaria, sort of resigned, and left it to the destiny. Apparently, that worked.

I will be in Uganda till September 1st where my contract ends. I will do my best to meet all I have worked and socialised with. I will pack my belongings, my million kangas, kitenge and kikoyes. I will try to sort out how the resource centres in the north can spend the money I fundraised (in spite we could´t take cash out of the bank due to absence of signatories the last time I was around), I will write my final report and make it short.

And then I will leave Uganda for Tanzania.

Meeting Kony in the jungle - Did you ever think about how people get there?!

In Gulu Willy Akena writes about the peace process between LRA and the two governments of South Sudan and Uganda.

Last year Willy went to South Sudan on this truck (!!) to participate in the peace process. The caption for the photo goes like this:

The road to peace is not smooth, It's full of pot holes like the one in the picture: Some people had to travel on this Diana Truck to meet Kony in the Jungle as a confidence building measure in July 2006, including of course Rev.Willy Akena.

I think Willly has illustrated one of the most important things for Uganda on the spot with an image which is very familiar to people who have travelled in the area; - Suddenly it's damn difficult to make things move, you are stuck - but I bet this truck got out there - because people got together and pushed and pulled, and I know Willy finally made it to Garamba Forest.

Get the whole story and the timeline for the peace process here.

- When are you going back to Africa, are you finished there?!

People ask. And I reply that I just got back to Copenhagen after three weeks in Belgrade, where I spent one week in hospital to be treated for malaria, and add - that I am not going anywhere for some time. I realised that there is this little scary thing at the back of my mind pulling me from going anywhere difficult. Like a sort of thing saying danger ahead. (Even when my Icelandic brother-in-law tries to convince me that my involuntary time off from Uganda opens up for the option of visiting Iceland for his birthday, I grab myself thinking - those vikings know shit about acute malaria).

The thing pops up when I try to visualise myself committing to organised shopping in Kampala (for an up-country stay), packing my car, driving the 450 km up-country, settling in my house in Arua, and trying to move around West Nile to work. I know my hesitation is grounded in a combination of the fear of another malaria attack (I feel too week for another round) and the fact that I get tired by the thought of the practicalities of making my way round in Uganda.

Basically, I am drained for energy. I loose my breath on walking up stairs. I still have anaemia, and the doctors are also here mentioning blood transfusion as a way out. I am still too worried about long-term impact, and too shocked about my own reluctancy to face my malaria for me to see the potential advantage of the facts that two rounds of malaria in three weeks already is an amazing topic for conversations with all kinds of people.

Fortunately, I know from previous periods in my life of i.e. severe work stress, that in spite I suddenly loose my appetite for life, I know it will return if I work on restoring myself. But in the beginning I hate it, I think it is a waiste of time to take time off, do nothing and bore oneself. But it is necessary. Which is why I am back in Denmark for a couple of weeks, a rather excellent place to be off alcohol, bore myself in the countryside, visit the hospital for regular check-ups and plan the next move.

I must not forget to thank to my Serbian friends, who made it possible for me to survive malaria treatment in a public Serbian hospital. One thing was the professional female Doctor Lidija, but my Serbian friends made it bearable. Even though they were busy, they came for visits, brought me supplementary and edible food, litterature, clean clothes, toiletpaper and soap!

Finally, I have been very touched by comments on my blog from people who follow. I appriciate your concern a lot! Thanx!