Mangoes, monkeys and Maggie

Sitting on our patio drinking freshly brewed Ugandan coffee and looking over the Masindi hills shrouded in a dust haze leads you to reflect on the past year. We have had our downs, breaking my arm was not a good way to start 2008 but there have been lots of ups.
Uganda is a beautiful country with lots to see and experience. It has been good to be able to share some of this with students, friends and family. There are not many places in the world where you can see chimpanzees in the wild raiding the sugar cane! The wildlife in Murchison Park must be some of the best in the world and it has been a real thrill to get so close to crocodiles and hippos. They are big!! The rhinos at Ziwa are fantastic. Walking towards wild rhinos and being able to get within 30 yards of them is an experience to be remembered. They are prehistoric looking animals and you realise how lucky we have been to be able to see them in their natural habitat. The bird life here has been a revelation and most weeks we see something new. Today we are trying to identify a horn bill we saw at Kinyara sugar works. Our walk with John and Rena on the Royal Mile in the Budongo forest must rate as one of our best birding experiences. Raymond the guide knew all the birds and was able to entice several out of the undergrowth by mimicking their calls. Wild life is everywhere in Uganda; we will not dwell on the bats, ants and snakes in the house!
During the year we have met many different people. Sitting in Court View Hotel there is a steady stream of interesting visitors. Some are tourists but many are working for governments or NGOs. You get to hear about various schemes and projects throughout Uganda. Some of the schemes fill you with hope but others are badly thought through and designed to appeal to donors but achieve little for the population.
Living in Masindi makes you realise the incredible difficulties facing the ordinary people. Development and aid seem to be a two edged sword. It is difficult to know the best way forward. There are thousands of NGOs in Uganda and billions of dollars of aid flow in every year. In spite of this there is no functionning health service, the schools are struggling to provide for their pupils and the universities have stopped giving an education to their students. Aid is almost seen as a right here and Uganda has developed a dependance culture. The answer to almost every problem is seen as 'find a donor'. This is true of government, both local and national, as well as individuals. As a mzungu people often approach you to ask for money for every thing from school fees to finance for weddings or funerals.
In the villages children still suffer from malnutrition and women and children are dying every day from malaria and diarrhoeal diseases. HIV and TB continue to devastate the community. Unfortunately many NGOs are seen as serving their employees and not the community. If you want to make money in Uganda you work for an NGO. If you want to make alot of money you go in to politics or the church.
Our project providing mosquito nets operates at the village level and there's little scope for any one to cream off money. It has been one of my high spots getting in to the villages and seeing the volunteers selling nets to ordinary people for use in their homes. I really feel this will make a difference to many families and reduce the dreadful toll of malaria.
Thanks to every one for reading the blog. Special thanks to people who have bothered to leave comments.