The Uganda Post

Almost finished

2010-02-26T07:44:00.001-08:00

We're back by our desks in Trondheim and now in the final week of our project. We are almost done placing all our thoughts, photos and illustrations together in a book. A quite nice book too.

We are not done, but already very happy. We have had a wonderful time and faced many challenges we have learned a lot from.

Thanks to all that have helped, inspired and worked with us!

The exhibition opens the 18th of March.
Welcome to KiT!

Andreas and Ragnhild

To sum up...

2010-01-22T18:06:00.000-08:00

Ragnhild and Andreas has given me the task to round off the workshop blog with a sum up of the last two weeks here in Ibanda. So, what has this workshop period been like? What will I return back home with?

What we’ll remember from this trip is not how we couldn’t stand any more rice with goat meat. We’ll remember all the things that make Ibanda what it is and all the things that are different, that we somehow ended up liking.

I’ll remember waking up to a blue sky by a rooster’s crow on the first day in Ibanda, meeting a relaxed village in a valley protected by enormous mountains on all sides. The first meeting was breathtaking and beautiful.

I’ll remember the beautiful starry night sky, a clear picture forever imprinted on my mind. It was totally black with an enormous amount of shiny stars blinking down at me. It felt like I was standing in a fairytale-world with the real sky above.

I’ll remember all the sounds of Ibanda. Trucks passing by at night, loudly, as if they just passed by our beds. Howling dogs waking us up at 12 pm and 2 am in the night. A pair of glowing eyes snarling angrily right outside our window through the darkness. The sound of crickets playing loud from sunset to dawn. Parked cars starting up their engines at 7 o’clock, leaving our room filled with exhaust and with no need for an alarm clock. The travelling gospel band holding concerts 7 days in a row, filling the whole village with the sounds of Christ from sunset to bedtime.

I’ll remember all the children calling for us when we walked back and forth from the site every day, asking “HOW ARE YOU?” with big white grins on their faces. I’ll remember their scornful laughs when they pointed at us calling us “mzungu”, excited about seeing white persons.

I’ll remember the chapatti-boy outside our hostel, making the best chapattis in Uganda! And I’ll remember the chapattis themselves, with delicious onions and tomatoes which made me believe I could survive the last five days in Ibanda.

I’ll remember how much I appreciated the flush toilet at the monastery just across the road when the diarrhoea was at its worse. It felt just like heaven!

I’ll remember how much I appreciated being a carpenter in Norway during the workshop days, longing for precise building materials, helpful electrical tools and being able to create solutions that I’m satisfied with.

I’ll remember all the different types of people working together towards a common goal. And I’ll remember us succeeding in giving a project to a village that will develop from it.

It’s been hard. It’s been frustrating. It’s been a physical and psychological strain. But we made it. And we are left back with strength and memories of a lifetime.
It has been great!

Sawa!

Silje

A collection of safety proofed foot ware seen on site:

Flooring song

2010-01-20T20:36:00.000-08:00

Today was ment to be our last day at the site. Because of illness, we all have come to an agreement that we will continue for two more days.

This morning it rained cats and dogs…or should we say goats and cows? lol. And since this was suppose to bee the dryseason (!?), rainwear was not on the packinglist. We should probably have known better in this time of climate crises! Anyways it resulted in staying in bed for two more hours. We did not complain… Ten days of hard work makes your body ache. But suddenly the sun appeared, and we were all good to go for a new exiting day at the site.

Unfortunately we had to tear down parts of yesterday's brick wall. The heat turns the bricks too dry bricks making them suck water out of the mortar, which then in turn gets practically useless and glueless. So we had to do it all over again. It really takes a lot of time building brick walls in Uganda!

Today we finished the concrete floors in both of the dressing rooms. This was hard work, but fortunately two native boys, Clinton and Joseph, were helping us. The boys started singing improvised African songs about the work - making it all into pure joy. They also taught us how to count to three in their local language Lukonzo. (We would not be able to write it!) Clinton and Joseph have from now on the status of being Ugandan Masters of Concrete!

(A little help from the editor on the numbers: 1 – ngoma, 2 – ibiri, 3 – isato)

Even though it rained several times during the day we managed to do a whole lot of work like finishing the VIP-flooring and putting up the roof on the last dressing room. Well done!

Suddenly the sun sets and another eventful day in Ibanda has come to an end…
Thank you Ibanda!

Love Jenny & Hanne

All in all not just another brick in the wall…

2010-01-19T23:21:00.000-08:00

Today, we are a day away from the workshops official end and I am perched on a rock under the stadium seating roof. On our first visit to the site of the Ibanda workshop we took shelter from the sudden tropical downpour under the same roof. This quirky structure with its eccentric pitch is barely two months old. Andreas and Ragnhild had built it with their local team when they were in Ibanda last November. On the first day we – the newcomers, old-timers, locals and mzungus- huddled under it and stared across the pitch at the site where we would be building more stadium facilities over the next 10 days. All we could see then were 5 sections of 2mt diameter concrete pipes on the site and not much else. It was fun to speculate what our mixed bunch would leave behind in 10 short days.

Everyone under roof on rainy first day

Nine days later the scene across the field has changed. I still see the pipes; I also see our team busy building. The awkwardness of the beginning has given away a unit working, singing, arguing and laughing together. Through days of sickness, health, rain, shine, productive days, unproductive days, communication days, miscommunication days we have continued building. And the results are there to see. The two changing room roofs are up on both sides of the pipes (roof sheeting in fast progress, brick walls in slow progress), the VIP seating stands high above the ground in the centre (flooring on the way, roof still to go, awesome view from top) and the referee room fits cosily in the central pipe ( its hexagonal elevation providing a perfect ‘football’ motif!) In 9 chaotic days, not bad!! No wonder Andreas keeps saying –‘I am happy’! Or maybe he is just being reassuring….

The raising of VIP stage:

The non stop physical activity coupled with the pressure of delivering on time and delivering well in a still unfamiliar context have made these ten days an intense experience. We can measure results only in hindsight but every once in a while there have been moments which offered welcome insight into the context of our hectic activity. We learned to find a balance between our technical knowledge and the local knowhow of materials and constraints. Julian showed us how to tie re-inforcement bars, Silje adapted to build with crooked timber, Jenny learned to get the perpendicular lines just right with four different methods and I learnt finally to build with my hands a brick wall in three different techniques ( sort of ! ) It seems that it is possible to pull off an audacious amount of building in 10 days with a healthy diet Meat, Posho, Matoke and Doddo everyday. We also now know that Pringles and Coke are crucial health supplements.

There is no time yet to take stock as there is one more day of work still to go. I am just glad to be here, of seeing, doing and learning amongst such wonderful people. I wish I could stay to see things completed but unfortunately I cannot stay longer (almost everyone else is staying back an extra couple of days more to finish work ). So I will have to leave behind Shaban and Caesar busy on the roof, Clinton and Josephs impromptu songs, Kikki and Van deep in discussion on the timber wall, Baluku and Olav with their yellow concrete mixer, Tuva and Per painting the pipes, Silje and Rune busy on their VIP perch, Alex with the changing room windows, Mujuni helping everyone, Mbusa and Ingrid with the bricks, Andreas and Ragnhild trying to keep this craziness in control and get back to Kampala. After spending two months understanding urban planning in Kampala last year it is good come back to see this side of Uganda and to get back to building. Tusen Takk, Wasingya, Asante Sana Andreas og Ragnhild for the opportunity! To Stephen, Joseph, Agnes and everyone in Ibanda for taking such good care and to my new Norwegian and CDTS friends for the ‘nice time' and the language classes.

Lessons in Norwegian, KiSwahili, Lukonzo and Hindi

There are so many experiences, people, and moments crowding my mind that I almost look forward to the bumpy 6 hour bus ride back to Kampala tomorrow as time for reflection!

Sawa!

Amritha Ballal

What went wrong and who's to blame

2010-01-18T21:35:00.000-08:00

I guess this day was when we started realising that we were not going to be done by the planned date. I will therefore focus only on the negative and in an utterly subjective way identify where the problems occurres on any typical day and point the finger of shame in the general direction of who’s to blame.

Things that takes more time than it should during a typical day and who is to blame:

1.Breakfast.
Morning starts at 7 a.m. dawn. Objects necessary to conduct the series of activities commonly summed up with the word breakfast start to appear at 7.30 a.m. and the last of these objects are generally at the table around 8 a.m. The students who also, it seems, are also an imperative to the conduction of the previously mentioned act of breakfast appear at an even more stretched out interval, say 7.am to 8.30 am.

To blame: Slow students, and a bit the kitchen.

2.Carrying equipment, materials and water.
Once at the site, usually later than expected and with the comforting shadow receding and increasingly menacing sun, work doesn’t start up at once. Do to local bad apples that reportedly steal everything that is not literally nailed down, materials, tools and whatever else is required for a working day to be carried out from a locked up storage somewhat 200m away from the site.

To blame: Up to no good locals, and slow students.

Ingrid and Ida carrying things that is not yet nailed down.

3.Getting annoyed with unfamiliar materials.
Wood shaped like a banana in several directions. 2”x 6” that more resembles 1,5” - 3,5” x 4” – 6”. Wood that is to wet and too heavy and too dense, and not long enough. Beautiful drawings are composed and planned by eager western student minds the previous night. Too much time is thereafter required to morn the failed plans and to reach the conclusion that we have to make a long piece of wood by joining together tree, four or five pieces of wood. Just like we learned in carpenter school that we shouldn’t do since doing this will leave the piece less strong and certainly fail and kill everyone.

To blame: Hard dense stupid endangered jungle trees, and students with too high expectations and to little sense of adaptation.

4.Finding the right tools for the job.
It sounds like your standard tip from any self-help book. But when the right tool for the job is the only tool we have and someone else is using it finding the right tool for the job becomes a habit that consumes lots of time and lots of excess will to live.

To blame: The instant-gratification generation student who thinks the wait for the light to come on when one turns a switch is too long.

Ingrid finally got her hands on our one set of spanners.

5.Lunch
Lunch is usually served between 12.pm and 3.30 pm. Students feast on the food for about 15 min and spend the next hour laying on the grass in the shade drained from the events of 1,2,3, and 4 and the scorching mid day sun.

To blame: Slow kitchen, too hot African sun, badly acclimatised student.

6.Carrying inn all the materials, tools, and such to prevent it being stolen by thieving local bad apples.

Work has to be ended some 45 min before the light disappears around 7.30 p.m, to start to carrying in the stuff that one started making this morning, but due to the delays of 1,2,3,4,5 it is not finished and you have not yet nailed it down to the rest of the structure.

To blame: Same locals as in the morning. Mostly them.

This was only a few of the reasons we are going to miss our deadline. If you have any more suggestions, please feel free to mention them here.

Rune

The Sunday above floor-glory story

2010-01-17T22:28:00.000-08:00

This was the day when our building's elevation finally rose over the 30 centimeters of the dressing room's ring beam. To se the main roof construction up in the air worked as a catalyzer on the entire group. In addition it gave the work site even more attention from curious bystanders and passers by.

We've all felt the time limit approaching, and been longing for a roof - which could provide shade to make the work more endurable and effective.

While the roof coloumbs and beams was raised the bricklaying of the dressing rooms walls started. This was not a flying start, even dough there was a lot of visible energy and pace. It became evident to put on the brakes when crispy dry bricks, not in level, was stacked upon each another combined with vast amounts of dry and worthless mortar. Discussions started within our group, mzungus and the local lads. In addition school teachers and boda boda drivers of the street all felt they had something to say. This frustrating exchange of meanings lasted trough out the the working day, and here is the compromised conclusion: Norwegian masonry tradition is not the same as Ugandan. The bricks and their strength are different, the mortar, or at least the view on mortar, different, the equipment are different, resulting in different technics and approaches to laying of bricks. To top of this debate on what building tradition our project was best served with, we also had Amritha in place telling how it's done in India.

To wrap it up I would like to dedicate a few lines to our precious Rune. This was the day when he was ordered to fill up our beloved generator with fuel. This generator is our only source of electricity at the site and is therefor very dear to us. Rune did as he was told and filled sweet Genny with fuel. Diesel or gasoline? That's potato potato.

This minor slip can't hide the fact that Rune now has taken the name Mr. Solid (with good reason).

Per

Poem of the day

2010-01-16T19:48:00.000-08:00

Moral were low
We were missing snow
Hottest day until now
Work went slow
Interrupted by a cow
Could have shot it with arrow and bow
Framework removed so and so
Ring beam revealed, made with love

Change in mood with a market trip
Strange how these things so easily can flip
We did not need more than a little sip
Of a soda to reattach a smile on our lip (s)
All forgotten were the difficult construction for the VIP(read with Norwegian pronunciation)
At the end of day all had gotten a grip
On life and were eager to go back to work with enthusiasm

Gøril

Good atmosphere

2010-01-15T22:59:00.000-08:00

Early in the morning the cockcrows, goats, trucks, children or alarm clock woke us as usual. It was a good atmosphere in the Norwegian camp this morning, almost everyone felt healthy and ready for work.
Through the day we completed casting the foundation for walls and columns in the first dressing room.

The VIP-tribune-gang, who had been plagued with illness for a while, could finally start building the great truss that would span 6m. They had pondered and thought about the construction over the past days when they were ill and at home. Unfortunately the wood materials were not as straight or long as in their drawings. This is one of the charming differences between Norway and Uganda materials.

Today's big challenge in the referee room was how to attach the wood beam to concrete pipe in a simple manner without much additional construction. (After some discussion, the solution was to connect beam with a big nail, which actually worked out very well.)

Ragnhild and Steven, who constantly are getting stuff to the building site, were getting wooden materials this day. They had found a good solution to tightening all the materials to the back of the truck. Unexpectedly it did not work out that well; in the steep hills all the wooden materials suddenly disappeared……

After a modified solution (and some extra work) they were good to go.

After a long day of work we celebrated Ragnhild’s birthday with cake, champagne and gifts. The CDTS boys made a T-shirt with greetings from everyone participating in the workshop. After singing the birthday song in 4 languages and eating a lot of cake, we went out to the local pub. This was followed by the local discotheque which originally were closed, but opened in honour of all the guests.

And everything ended up being Super Cool or SAWA!

From a runners perspective

2010-01-14T17:55:00.000-08:00

7.15 a.m:
Ibanda looks like a scene from an early Clint Eastwood western. Dust blows around lonely street corners, an old woman hobbling home with a bucket of water, men glare at you from broken stools, in the shadows of a shivering tree two lazy goats are put out to grass.

The reason I know:
a hundred meters up the street there´s a convent (nonnekloster) with a western toilet opening at this time in the morning. For the last two days this morning walk has become a kind of daily ritual. Expectations. Excitement. Relief. Analysis. Always analysis. If you´re lucky the nuns are singing at the Mass in the catholic church nearby and the sound, together with the morning sun, filtrates through the square formed window. Zen-ish.

Thoughts at the toilet seat:
- It feels strange that the room I take most pleasure spending time in here in Uganda, is a western toilet run by a group of people that fight against the use of condoms in a land plagued by HIV/AIDS.
- I wonder what the Pope will say if I let him know Steven store 10 000 condoms in the room next door wich he rents from the convent. (he´s handing them out as a part of his information material by the way)
- When Ugandans run it looks like their feet is winding yarn into a ball.

Today the group of people wearing the badge “to sick to work” is counting 6, myself included. Rune (today addressing himself as mr Solid) and Silje who seams to be on the way to recovery, used the morning hours on planning the construction of the VIP seating together with Shaban. Doing some sketch-up work is obviously doing Rune some good.

After lunch the sick committee pulled ourselves together and went on an expedition down to the building site. We were met by a good atmosphere of optimism and hard work. After building formwork with Kikki in charge for the last two days, Baloko could now start making concrete for the foundation of the walls and the woodcolumns. Andreas came up with a good detail on how to make formwork for the foundation of the steelshoes by cutting corrugated iron plates into pieces and folding them into cylinders.

Per and Ida also learnt a lot about reinforcement today. Spending the whole day discussing how to best bend a reinforcementpipe into a precise 90 degree angle. After observing them for some hours Junan decided to help them out by using a woodbeam, simply bending the reinforcement upwards against the wood instead of bending it around a couple of nails. Ask Ida for the rest of the story, it´s her favorit (don´t ask Per).

Personally I contributed by laying on my stomach observing. Taking photographies. Dreaming of tomorrow. I´ll work my way up. Rise from the ranks. It´s just a matter of toilet tactics.

07.15 p.m:
The steep mountains bading in orange. Kandinsky at the helm.

Olav

Good Morning Ibanda!!

2010-01-13T22:47:00.000-08:00

Our girls dorm of seven are now down to six due to a nightly flea attack. (If you are wondering; a mosquito net wont actually keep the fleas out, but rather in your bed.. ) Ida is doing fine in her new one-man suite, nicely situated wall to wall with ours. And when there are creepy noises in the African night, the old room mates are just a phone call away. Ibanda is full of dangerous lions and mountain gorillas at night, or at least some dogs having an extremely loud snort-howling get-together just outside our window, preferably in the middle of the night!

The day starts with a few more sick-leaves. This sadly includes one of our pit latrines. It´s a good thing we have been allowed to use the nuns' WC just across the street. This place is in all modesty the closest to heaven you´ll get bathroom wise in Ibanda. Runes recommendation: podcast in ear and a short trip to the monastery before breakfast for the perfect start of the day.

After digging into our boiled eggs, strawberry jam, chapatis and bananas, we head for the site. Sickos are left behind, toilet paper close at hand, nursing bottles with their own version of breakfast; orange yellowish nutritional liquid, bought specially for this type of running rump situation. (Good foresight Ragnhild and Andreas!)

Walking to the site is an experience of its own. There seems to be more children every day rushing down to the road to greet us with their “How are you?”s an “How is life?” It's school holiday, and there are kids everywhere; playing football, balancing wheels with sticks, running after mzungus, and of course, fetching water for their mums.

Being an only child myself I find it hard to imagine what it must be like to have 10 or maybe even 15 siblings! No wonder there exists a special name system. Janet (one of our super building girls) explained to me how every child is given a name according to witch number in line he or she is, weather you are a child of the second or first wife, and the child born before you was a boy or a girl. It is all a bit complicated, but I'm sure once you've learned it, it makes your family life a lot easier. Just imagine family get togethers with your 200 uncles and aunts!

The holes we dug yesterday are still there, and now its time to find out where to cast the ring foundation. Norwegians obviously love leveling so much that we could do it all day. Some of the CDTS lads are wondering when were going to stop playing about with pieces of string and actually get down to building something. When we finally start nailing formwork together it feels like at great relief from all the “thinking and planning”.

Amritha, Tuva and myself (Kikki) have by the way spent so much time together that we're starting to assimilate each other. Today we've dug into our laundry bags and found some matching pink-orange sweats. A color looking good on all skin tones from luminescent/glow in the dark (in the middle) to golden and a becoming brown (each flank).

After a hard day of work there's nothing like strolling home in the sudden dark, getting a cold jerrycan shower and sitting down to yet another goat-rice-potatoe meal. The electricity's gone, but with our headlights on we sit pealing onions to spike up our meal. By now we've drunk 200 liters of bottled water, 40 (?) liters of soda (mostly coke, not so much of the miranda burping stuff) and had one packet of biscuits out of the CK shop. The chapati-man must have quadrupled his income, and I myself have managed to empty the village for the local Sportsman cigarettes, and am now on to the more exotic safari brand. Life is good! (with the exception of some of them rumps)

The day ends with Andreas' triumph of repairing his Mac's charger with some sports tape, pocketknife and a sukkerbit. Amazingly enough it works and even more amazing; no one makes any Macgyver puns.

Kikki (making bad puns all the time)

SHIT!!!!

2010-01-12T20:12:00.000-08:00

Some crazy bacterias has been sneaking their way into our camp, knocking out at least four of our group members! The disease seems to be extremely unpleasant, and it also seems like more people are joining the circle of the running rumps as we speak. Not exactly awesomeness- but the rest of the team are hard core bad asses (or good asses), so we are rockin’ the building site despite the germ attack.

The different groups startet a bit rocky, figuring out the measurements and plans of our building components. This resulted in the digging not starting until mid day, in gasping heat- which struck out even more builders, sunburnt and some dehydrated. But then we realised mommy was not present, so we began to drink, taking breaks, and working on shifts. The CDTS boys were really eager to both learn and dig, and were doing a wonderful job. We should try to include them more in our work, and be more instructive so we can leave them with both a stadium and the knowledge to extend it if needed.

Other minor funny stuff that happened during the day:

Per and Tuva were ambushed by a pig in the backyard in the evening
Alex learned the concept of water and how to use it, and also that it can be useful in terms of not passing out (while sitting down)
We are as dirty as ever before, our feet will never be clean again (and we like it)
We are looking forward to dirtying the sicko’s up in the murram soil on the site
Rune was swimming in his own sweat today
We are planning to make a music video
Joseph is sooo cool with his cowboy hat- and is looking a bit like Snoop Dog!

The progress from now will both depend on what’s up in the butt, and if we can organize ourselves and the CTDS boys’ work well, so we’ll have good and efficient days from now. We’ve also put together a master plan to kill the gunners in the gut, with dividing of toilets and extensive hand washing rules. Spirits are good, people are wonderful- WE LOVE AFRICA!

Tuva

Our room is flooding!!

2010-01-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

Today was another warm day. Waking up at 7.30 for boiled eggs and coffee, as well as plenty of different jams and fruits. After breakfast we went down to the building site to continue drawing. As we were sitting there making different suggestions for the building program some kids joined us making their own drawings and impressions of our visit. After getting some drawings ready we started putting out bricks on site to check the different ideas. After lunch everything was stopped by a sudden thunder and rain making it impossible to hear anything or even get some rest. The result was flood at Tuva, Ida, Ingrid, Silje, Kikki, Gøril and Amritha's house. The bright side of this was that we finally could get a good shower. When the rained stopped we summed up todays work and had a great dinner made by Joseph, the referee of the CDTS football team.

Alex

(Unfortunately we were too busy saving the girls room from the flooding water, that we totally forgot to preserve this remarkable event on camera. Sorry!)

Hello Ibanda!

2010-01-10T21:55:00.000-08:00

As we arrived after sunset yesterday, waking up today to see the beautiful green hilly scenery of Ibanda was amazing. Breakfast was served at comfortably African speed, which was also a bit frustrating for efficient Norwegians wanting to get the day started. White bread, bananas, jams and very well boiled eggs. After breakfast we met up with some of the boys from CDTS, the football team/organisation we are working with here in Ibanda. They took us for a guided tour up in the valley. Starting at an ongoing building of a hydro power plant, we found ourselves in the middle of Africa looking at people wearing shirts saying Trønder Power. It felt a bit like home. As we went up in the valley we were struck by several things, like the intense heat, the primitive, but yet idyllic houses, the greenery, the variety of plants, how many houses there actually are in Ibanda and especially the numerous black children shouting and laughing at us. I guess 12 pinkish mzungos* with backpacks and cameras are not something they see every day. The resemblance was comic when Kikki finally met a pig(no offence, Kikki).

After lunch we went to the football field to visit the site for the first time. We got there just in time for a mach, so there were a lot of people at the field. It was cool to see the site we were working with, and the work Ragnhild and Andreas have already done. As the heaven suddenly opened and the rain hit us hard just before the match, the roof they built the last time they were here was tested. It was great to see that it works and that people actually use it. It was inspiring and I hope we are able to get some of the same positive effect of the work we are about to do.

We escaped from the field to work indoors, and after a quick introduction to the task, we were divided into four groups for some heavy brain storm designing for some hours. It was almost scary to dive into a task and context so different from what we are used to, but mostly very interesting. We are going to help the CDTS build a building for the stadium containing changing rooms, VIP seating and a referee room. After working just the mzungus with the site, we presented our ideas to some of the boys from CDTS. I think it was good that we got to start working with the project without knowing too much about what they thought and expected, as we got our own experience with the site and it generated a lot of ideas. But everything got even more interesting when we got to discuss the project with the football boys and our ideas met theirs. We got tested in presenting our work to non-designing people, but I was also amazed by how much of our drawings and architectural language they understood. Ragnhild and Andreas have obviously taught them a lot. I’m really looking forward to working more with these boys and helping them realize their project!

*Mzungo is the word for foreigner in swahili. It sometimes feels strange being named like that, but I think it is meant well.

Ingrid

Uganda is in Africa

2010-01-09T13:18:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time there was a group of tourists going to Africa. Suddenly they were there. Or actually, they could not see a thing so they just supposed that they were there because of the humid air. “I cant believe it!” one said. “A month ago I hardly knew that Uganda is in Africa”. Then they drove into the capital of the African country and found a nice hotel room. And guess what, it had both a bed and a toilet! What a nice surprise. For isn’t it like that, that all Africans live in small cabins made of mud, with no food and no widescreen TV? The happy tourists soon realised that that Africa is much more than that. They had chicken and chips, they had small houses and big houses and a lot of people and the people were really nice. The people were even so nice that they answered “yes” whatever the tourists asked about. A bus driver would for example always say that he would pass by their hotel, even if he was not passing by(!).

The new continent was exiting in so many ways. It was even fun for the boys to go shopping! Oh, I have to admit that most of the time it was about staring. The ten white tourists were staring at the black people and thousands black people staring back, most interesting was the white tourists legs. “How are you?” the black people asked, “I am fine, how are you?” the white people answered back and they all got happy as ever before. Besides staring, the tourists also had a more detailed shopping plan for the day; they were all going to buy simcards, they were all going to change money, they were all going to get dressed as Muslims and visit the mosque, Gøril were going to buy toothpaste, Alex were going to buy adapters and Kikki got hungry and Silje got hungry, and suddenly it got dark and the day were over.

The two next days the tourists had to do everything they forgot to do the first day, and even more tourists arrived during these days. The last tourist to arrive was a girl named Hanne. She had white angel hair and was a bit scared about flying. However, it was nothing to be afraid about.

After three long days the tourists said goodbye to the people in the east and travelled to the west, heading for a small village up in the mountains.

The end

Ida

Ibanda!!

2010-01-08T22:44:00.000-08:00

On our journey towards the village of Ibanda, we have had strong feelings of return. We returned to Bativa hotel in Kampala, to Kamapala city with its smells, sounds and busy people. We returned to Virina Garden with its joyful, singing staff, our old, small hut and their slow dinners. But now, we have returned to Ibanda. It is next to unbelievable for a Norwegian architect student to walk through a small village in the mountains of the moon in the middle of Africa, meeting one friend after the other. Their smiles, greetings and hugs making us feel more welcome than ever before. We feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to earn these friendships.

We started the day by a tour through the most well-reputed hard-ware shops in Kasese to get an impression of what is available and make possible good deals. It is noticeable how the Indians turn out to be the best businessmen in town. At least from our point of view. It also became clear that following the advise of our Portuguese and somewhat eccentric friend from Noremco, had been a good idea. He led us to several good places. And suddenly he was there in person! The world becomes smaller and smaller by the day. Fernando gave us a lift up to Bugoye, where we met our friend Mr.Ben – the best chef in Kasese, and got some of his good lunch. Arriving in Ibanda, we were met by a very excited Emze (CK guest house manager) who had prepared 8 rooms for us and our visitors. Wonderful!! We must admit that we were a little bit surprised. Our experiences would not let us believe that everything could be in order, but they really were. Except the lack of flush toilets and power of course, but that only make the African experience more real. We were so pleased that the more emotional one of us actually got a little bit touched by their great concern for our wellbeing.

After settling an extremely good price (thanks to Stephen), we went for this wonderful walk were we met many of our friends, ending up being invited for a little meal. Along with the small pleasures of realizing that goat meat, beans and pocho was not as boring as you remembered, and the great pleasures of handing out photos to our building friends, seeing their almost ecstatic reactions of joy and fun to see them selves on a piece of paper and receiving the picture as a gift. Small pleasures, big hearts.

It’s great to be back.

ps: Happy birthday to my best little brother!

Our Ugandan Sponsor

2010-01-06T03:03:00.001-08:00

After a good night sleep, both exhausted from the long journey, we walked in to Kampala city centre to meet Lawrence Omulen in Newplan. He was the workshop’s first sponsor, donating 2 million Ugandan shilling to the project. After waiting for a while, he takes us to a man called Hamlet and says: “These two are doing some project in Bugoye. Could you go to the bank and take out 2 million to them?” Hamlet: “Sure! I’ll have the money by 3 pm. Could you come back then?” Us: “No problem. Thanks!”
If the rest of the workshop goes as smoothly, we could build a palace!!

So, now we have been allowed to borrow a desk in the offices of Trønderpower (which are in the very same building), using the opportunity of Ugandan-“fast” internet to get some work done.
Tonight we are expecting 10 of the workshop participants to join us in Bativa Hotel. We are excited to see them in these surroundings and eager to travel to Ibanda to get started. Kampala is a busy town and even though it grew on us at the end of our last visit, it is still not among our favourite cities. So we are leaving for the green Rwenzoris first thing tomorrow morning!

Uganda II

2010-01-05T22:46:00.000-08:00

From snow, white winter and temperatures way below zero in Norway, we have once again spent a very long day in both enormous and loud, and very small and packed places. We have returned to the Pearl of Africa! It’s amazing how one remembers sounds and smells, and how they bring out thoughts and feelings from earlier experiences. Uganda smells the same and looks the same. The people act and talk in the same way. The music and rythms in the streets are still on the same beat. We are back! Only this time, we have been here before. The hotel staff welcomed us with smiles and open arms. We have returned to a well-known territory.

More money!

2009-12-21T02:13:00.000-08:00

Oooh!! And suddenly we now have even more eager sponsors!!
Bygg uten grenser is joining the list of good hearted contributors. They were also one of the main sponsors of the successful workshop arranged by Andreas and TYIN Tegnestue in Thailand in January.
Thank you!

Money!

2009-12-21T01:50:00.000-08:00

We are hereby congratulating our selves on recieving major sponsoring from Trønderenergi! The workshop (and our personal bankruptcy) is safe, we are more eager than ever and ready to roll.

Uganda, here we come! Again!

Stephen presenting his and our work to representatives from Trønderenergi visiting Ibanda.

We have to say that we are also very grateful to our other sponsors NTNU, Newplan and Luostejok Energy for their contributions. Thank you all!

Home, sweet home...

2009-11-16T08:35:00.001-08:00

We are back in good ol´Trondheim. It is wonderful to eat different food every other day, even though it costs way more than we can afford. We just ate lunch for close to 90.000,- shillings!

The idea of us being in Uganda less than one week ago seems more and more unreal for each day. The two worlds are so utterly different, and we feel a bit detached from both our project area AND our hometown. Luckily we will be able to acclimatize for a while here, and then do a check on the project-status and realism in January. This gives us a great advantage, and we will probably learn different things from the second trip.

But firstly, we need to build a firm framework around our ideas and experiences. Now everything seems to flow freely in our heads, and it´s time to get a grip!

Workshop in January 2010

2009-11-16T08:14:00.000-08:00

We are well into the making of a workshop for students from our university. The invitation is sent and we already have a lot of people applying for participation! The workshop will be held from 10th to 20th of January 2010, and will be a very interesting process to take part in.

The students will collaborate with the core group, and in the short period of 10 days, design and build a structure in relation to the NOREMCO Stadion.

Our next task concerning the workshop is getting funding. We have some support from the university, and have contacted many of the major power companies in Norway. Some of these could possibly be interested in giving the project their christmas gifts.

The first sponsor was actually Newplan, who have given us 2 mill. UGX which is approx. 7.000,- NOK. This is a very interesting turn, since we thought most sponsors for norwegian initiatives are rich, norwegian companies, not african ones. For us this is a very good sign of the close local connection and sustainability of the project.

We are looking forward to an exiting workshop. It will be a blast!

The final week

2009-11-09T14:30:00.000-08:00

After warming up by digging the drainage, we were ready to start working on the field itself. With timber donated from Rwenzori High and gravel and murram from local contractors, we had spotted out a site for a seating area shaded by a nice roof. We all agreed we should build something to show the community what we are working on and this seemed to be the perfect task.

We marked out a site between the football and the netball fields. Stephen and Noremco had made a nice row of big stones along the fields when they did the levelling work, so these worked as a very good foundation for our new seating area.

We started off by removing the top soil, and digging 8 holes for the foundation of the columns. Fernando, the Portuguese/African 60 year’s old ladies man, had made us steel brackets of scrap from Noremco’s workshop, and these worked perfectly. Lining the brackets up parallel and in level took some discussions, but in the end we could put in concrete and wait for it to dry.

While waiting for the concrete, the most eager ones of the guys cut and put together the four wooden frames. Shaban was drill-meister and they made the best they could out of somewhat wobbly beams.

Thursday evening we got visitors from Kampala. Astrid and Olav are architect students exchanging from Oslo, Norway to Makerere. They wanted to help us build and brought their Dutch medicine-studying friend Saskia with them. Her band-aids and experience from wrapping people up, turned out to be quite handy the following days.

All three of the mzungos were of great help in the building process. Together with the core group we managed to raise the wooden frames and start laying the rafters. It’s no less than incredible how the Ugandans manoeuvre on top of unsteady, slim constructions.

Since laying one and one rafter is no work for 15 people, we started a design session. We needed more seating than only the stones and we had one day to make it. So while Andreas was supervising the roof building, Astrid, Olav and Ragnhild arranged a seating workshop. With one group each, the three architects-to-be introduced new ideas of lines, shapes, meetings between materials and aesthetics. We had interesting discussions with ideas from both us and the core group, and the three design proposals finally boiled down to a simple concept of slim benches in two lines. We cut out pieces in wood, Stephen put used motor oil on the ones going into ground, and we started digging again. And it must be said; the Ugandan women are impressively good at digging.

Saturday we lay the roof. That is; Shaban and Jolait lay the roof. They were amazing, worked in the sun all day, learning by doing and being absolutely exhausted when finished. While the laying of the roof went more or less smoothly by it self, the rest of us braced the construction, finished the benches and spread out a layer of gravel and murram.

Half an hour before sunset the roof was complete and we were all very tired and very happy. It was an amazing experience watching the students and the footballers turn in to builders, crafts men and designers. We learned that when they finally could see where we were going with the work, when they could visualize the final result and a construction started growing, they all put in the extra effort to make us finish in time.

The successful end of three weeks of workshops was of course celebrated with a party. We bought 60 chapatis from the chapatti boy outside the lodge and Cessar and Mbalasi bought meat and prepared Muchoni – roasted meat. We all gathered in the compound outside our room, listening to music, eating, drinking and being sooo tired from working. But we had a very nice time and Joseph even held a lovely speech thanking us for our efforts and for leaving knowledge and inspiration for future development.

Finally the students had to go back to their dormitories and the rest of us went to the Peak to loose our hearing and shake our last energies out! Great times!!

Digging a drainage and unexpected turns:

2009-11-02T03:09:00.000-08:00

At the entrance of the school (and in the future; the stadium) water were gathering in a muddy pool, making it hard to pass for cars, bodas and people. As a test to see how the group cooperated in physical work, we told everyone to bring work-clothes, hoes and shovels for a real "dugnad". NOREMCO sponsored us with an partly broken PVC-pipe which made an excellent culvert.

Measuring the pipe

After struggling to get enough tools, we could start digging. The water was drained and three groups started digging different ditches. One group started on the main drainage, another dug the trench following the road towards a bigger aquaduct close by and the third fixed a smaller pool of water.

Cessar and Shaban digging hard

Even though the work was a bit inefficient, and some people worked harder than others, we managed to finish before lunch (an hour delayed). Some kids from the area stood and watched for a long time, curious to see what was happening. We included them in the work, and they deemed very good rock-pickers. They ran all over the area collecting stones and pebbles for the drainage. They seemed happy to share lunch with us.

Covering the pipe

Stones to stop the rushing water from digging out the road

Smaller drainage 5 meter down the road

Paying taxes

A small enterprise arose during the work. Since the boda-bodas pass this road quite often, they were happy to see the road being improved. Our most ingenious guys started taxing the drivers 500 shilling per time they passed to support the work on the road. After making sure the money was pooled to benefit the whole group, we saw no reason to stop the business. Cessar was appointed treasurer and Shaban was set to police him, avoiding corruption.

Moving forward

2009-10-30T06:20:00.000-07:00

After a week of many events, we are now taking an internet day to maintain our connections with the outside world.

After the recommendation of Ibanda's future major, madam Teddy, we went to see Alex, the physical planner at the District Head Quarters. Accidentally we met the wrong planner-Alex, but this one was very helpful and provided us with everything he had of statistics from the area. A lucky accident. When we later met the Alex we were supposed to meet, he turned out to be quite a disappointment. Not going into details, we finally got a soft copy of his report when Andreas helped him look on the computer - after at least half an hour of waiting. It is sadly becoming more and more clear to us that many jobs are filled with employers unfit for the tasks sat before them. And that they are still doing a good job keeping their job by pretending to work and having lots to do...

Pasi left us on Wednesday and is going to continue his studies in Gulu in northern Uganda. He is travelling with the planning group in Kampala, joining them in their work in an IDP-camp (Internally Displaced People). We very much enjoyed Pasi's visit, it is always good to get a third opinion on things, and we recommend everybody to follow his blog on www.pasiaalto.com/diplom.

The workshops are still running and we see the group becoming closer and more enthusiastic in the work. Tuesday we had a very long discussion on the placement of different functions. Divided into three groups, each making a plan proposal, we got several ideas on both sizes and placements, but in the end we all agreed on a single plan. It is encouraging to see their enthusiasm, even though they need some time to arrive with good solutions.

Thursday we met at the field, using sticks and rope to measure and mark the plan we had decided on two days earlier. This time the group actually took control and organized the work them selves; dividing areas and tasks to different groups. This was great! but time demanding. Even after six weeks in the country, we are still not used to "the time difference." Things take time. But the group got started and we guided them as best we could. It was fun to talk about spaces, imagining activities, problems, rooms, where will people walk, where would they want to find water, snacks, shadow, where are the special guests and so on and so on.

We had some trouble convincing them that a netball field actually is supposed to be 33x18 meters - even though the fields in the valley are not. In the end, the convincing argument was that we had found the measurements in a book of standards. If they want the field to be of international standard, it needs to have these measures...

The core now seems to believe in the project and are getting eager. They have realized that we are leaving in a short while, and that we should do something visual to show the community what we are working on. So, tomorrow we are starting digging! We have been offered a pipe from Noremco and students from Rwenzori High has carried stones from the river. This makes a very good drainage which will fix a muddy hole on the road leading in to the stadium. Next week we hope to get both sand, murram, gravel, bricks and maybe even some wood, and we will begin building foundation and structures.

We also got the good news of getting more visitors! Thursday we are expecting Astrid and Olav to come help us with the building. They are exchange students at Makerere University in Kampala, both from the Architecture School in Oslo. They are very welcome!

Session 3: Program Discussions and Sketch Modelling

2009-10-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

Friday we held a new workshop with the core group. The task was to identify main functions and parts of the physical design of the stadium. Our friend and fellow student Pasi and our professor Hans Skotte are visiting, giving us a great opportunity to get objective feedback to our methods and process.

We started by splitting into groups of 4-5 people. We asked for ideas and suggestions to what would be natural to have at the stadium. Each group had at least one footballer, one boy and one girl student from Rwenzori High.This way we ensured a wider perspective and exchange of values and ideas from different standpoints.

After some time we gathered around a big sheet of paper, and asked everyone to state one important feature they wanted at the field. This was noted in a thought-chart, not in list-form to prevent the usual rigid and “result oriented” answers.

This was more difficult that imagined. We came quite fast into a line of “stating-personal-items” for the visitors coming to the field. More focus was given to footballboots, referee whistles and scoreboards than the physical structures we were aiming for.

As an attempt to stop this we tried to change the strategy to focus on what the needs of the different kinds of visitors could be and what the differences between them are. What do players need that visitors don´t? What are the similarities between the referee´s and the manager´s needs? The change of strategy didn´t seem to help, and we felt somewhat frustrated and demoralized.

The solution was a ten minute break and to proceed to the next task: Sketch-modelling!

We brought cardboard, tape and knives and introduced the idea of building small scale examples of the structures identified earlier. It was slow in the start, mostly because it is a extremely foreign way of working and thinking, but also because the participants were afraid to do something wrong or that they weren´t able to do it good enough.

We had to do some explanation and showing examples of how cardboard can be folded and cut to make shapes, but when they picked up the general idea it all came to life. The groups all worked enthusiasticly and concentrated for a long time. Even the arrival of food from Mama Juliet couldn´t brake the trance of model-building. “We just need 15 more mintues”. It was a great comfort to see the workshop evolving on its own, and we feel motivated by their efforts.

The models were put onto three maps we had prepared, based on the measurements from the last workshop, and the groups presented their ideas and discussions to the rest. To promote more discussions, we asked some questions on the differences between the three group´s suggestions. As an example there were two different entrances on opposite sides of the field. When asked about this the groups had to think and argue to promote their own choices.

The best thing for us was that they started discussing amongst themselves, not only defending their design to us. We identified the fact that two solutions can have equally valid arguments, and that one can “find” information hidden in the models and inside the heads of each other.

Some of the arguments even led to the important discussion on how can we make sure the structures are usable to other activities and other users as well. Because the resources are so limited, we need to make sure our project is benefitting more people in the communty. If the canteen is placed close to the school it can be used for all the students in the daytime and for bystanders during games in the evening and the weekends. This issue was pushed on by prof. Skotte, and we will try to bring it further in the upcoming workshops.

Andreas

Blending in

2009-10-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

Finally achieving to arrange workshops, meetings and brick testing sessions has lifted the spirit and motivation for the two of us. In addition to working on the project, we are doing our best to integrate and getting to know the community. A good start has been to learn some useful words in the local language, Lukonzo. After greeting “good morning, madam” the lukonzo way everybody looses their sceptic frowns, starts smiling and stops for a chat. Making the effort of trying to learn their language is highly appreciated and strongly encouraged by many locals.

Some basic Lukonzo:

Good morning - Wabuchire
Good afternoon - Wessibire
How are you? - Woneyo?
I’m fine - Ganeyo
Thank you - Wasingya
Bye - Wichire
Brown person (swahili) - Mzungu
Good (swahili) - Saua

There are many ways to trip or fall into cultural potholes, but mostly they are fully aware of the fact that mzungos come from far away and accept all kind of silly and impolite behaviour. Only yesterday we were told that it is considered rude to greet someone who’s eating. The same man also told us that it is not good to talk while eating. Probably why it is always very quiet at our restaurant… When it comes to eating, it is also considered arrogant to eat with knife and fork. If you really like the food, you eat with your hand and make a big mess. This was a bit difficult to get used to, but we’re getting there, improving day by day. We eat at Sharon´s place almost every night, were we get very nice, local food. Variation is not her speciality, but it’s tasty and cheap. And we get a fork each.

Sharon’s menu:
Matoke - mashed green banana
Pocho - mash of maïs flour
Bean stu
Rice with some spices
Meat - goat, swine or beef

Sometimes she also has:
Chicken
Tapioka - mash of cassava flour and millet
Tilapia - fish

An advantage of the politeness in making a mess is obvious when one realizes the amounts of bone fragments and sand in the food. We think they crush the bones and boil everything together. This makes everything very tasty, but we keep wondering were they put the fillets??

To get back to the blending-in part, Tuesday I went to join the boys for football training. I went there a bit early, and was suddenly invited to join in a game of 10-13 year old girls. I must admit that with most of them in school uniforms (dresses!) and a strategy resembling the one of bees, I could not tell my team from the others. But it was great fun and inspiring to see how much fun the girls had in playing. They seem bonded across ages and proud of the attraction from their peers from school and neighbourhood around the field.

Later on I got to play with the oldest boys in a game of (a bit to) organized football. Very different from the first game, but just as fun. Stephen said afterwards that he was surprised they didn’t “kill me,” and that I had gained respect by not being a sissy or a push over. Puh! Looking forward to next time!

Another attempt to integrate came in the longing for Italian food. We had bought some spaghetti in Kasese and decided to cook for the first time in 5 weeks. I found the lodge kitchen, which turned out to be a small brick house with dirt floor and 3 stones as a fireplace, and asked if Agnes (the only staff that is nice and actually does something useful) would help us. So we went out to buy tomatoes, onions and oil, made fire and sat outside in the dark outside the kitchen, cutting and cooking spaghetti and tomato sauce. It is incredible how little tools and equipment they have to help in the everyday life. Agnes ran around fetching water, looking for knives, buying kerosene and cleaning sauce pans. But we had a nice time and got the best spaghetti we’ve eaten in weeks!

Sorry about the lack of photos, but some occasions are best illustrated in the head...

Ragnhild

Session 2: Measuring the Field

2009-10-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday we gathered the core group to make measurements of the field. We provided pens and paper, and asked four groups to measure each side of the main pitch and noting all important features. The task was quite simple, but we had to press for more detailed measurements before we finished.

When the groups finished their task, we collected all the numbers and information on one big sheet of paper. Each group added their findings, and irregualrities between the different groups were discussed and clarified. Some of the group felt it would have been better to have one person in charge of collecting the numbers, but we think it´s good that all participants were active in the process of making a map together.

While the last lines were added to the map, Ragnhild took some of the group to discuss and measure sizes of the body and how this relates to heights of roofs, benches and other structures needed for the stadium. This was also collected, and when all the work was done, we gathered everybody to sum up the measuring and inform everyone on the different issues discussed.

Food was brought by Mama Juliet which was a nice break in the work. She makes the best food in Ibanda, rivaling the cooking of our favourite cook, mr. Ken down in Bugoye.

Andreas

Aiming for the Top:

2009-10-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

After a succesful meeting with the community hot shots in the morning and a fruitful brick testing session at Shaban's in the afternoon, we decided to spend the last hours of daylight exploring the hillsides of Ibanda. From our lodge, we can see hills on all sides and the great Rwenzori mountains in the background. We went up a hill looking more doable in just a few hours.

It was steep!! We spent about two hours walking straight up a clay pathway, by every step realizing that we maybe had underestimated the hight of our goal. But after a short while, we got a great overview of first Ibanda and later the entire valley, the savannas in the rift valley, the mountains on the other side and finally the mountains on the other side of the hill.

On the way up, and down, we passed several small farms and fields reminding us of the Norwegian television show "Der ingen skulle tru at nokon kunne bu" (Where nobody would believe anyone could live). Many of the farms were actually very idyllic with a number of small houses forming courtyards and outdoor spaces. We also passed fields of potatoes, beans, banana and coffee, amazed by the fertility on the completely natural soil.

Almost at the top I, Ragnhild, began worrying about the leaving daylight, the increasingly high, sharp grass and absence of pathway. But Andreas, on the other hand, who had been thirsty and tired for some time already, got an enormous second wind and was unstoppable in his exploration and quest towards the top! And good was that! The view was great!

On the top we got company from some curious kids. They were very polite and smiling, and showed us the fastest (and steepest) way down. Feeling that giving away money every time we are grateful is wrong, we gave them a bottle of coke to share. As a comparison, how many children in Norway drinks champagne at a value of 700 NOKs?

Meeting with representatives from the local authority:

2009-10-20T01:52:00.000-07:00

To ensure that our project has essential support from the people in charge, we invited representatives from different levels of authority in Bugoye Sub-County. Irene from Newplan helped us by calling in the right people to the meeting.

In addition to us, Irene and Stephen, we recieved the Rwenzori High-School Headmaster, the Sports Manager of Rwenzori High, and Chairpersons from the local councils - even the LC 3, who is the head representative in the whole area.

We presented our project and intentions to them as best we could. This time we left out the winter-images, and added some technical drawings and aerials of Ibanda. As always, the only preliminary sketch of the stadium facilities got extra attention, even though we tried to leave out as much "design" as possible. After some explanation we could leave the solutions-discussion and talk about challenges and resources in the project.

The whole group seemed eager to support the project, and positive to our efforts. This was our most important goal for the meeting. They seem optimistic for a better future, and have big ideas for the development of the local communities.

We were hoping for some level of planning or future structure of the villages in the valley. It became obvious that the little we hoped for still was too much. There is high inflation in land-price because of foreign investors prior deals in the area. This affects the possibility for the Local Counsil to buy land to ensure public space for the future. All of today's Ibanda centre is privatized, and the mish-mash of ownerships and borders makes it hard to come to agreements.

The village of Ibanda is growing, to our surprise. There is influx from the mountain areas and even investors coming from bigger cities like Kasese to profit from the fertile soils around Ibanda. Over the latest 5 years the population has risen from 15.000 to about 20.000. The centre is now growing in two directions along the main road, and when introduced to the idea of thinking ahead, buying land before it´s valued as "central", the brains started working on an even higher level. We got the motion we were hoping for.

The news of a topo-survey being held in November was great news for us. The District Physical Planner is coming to do the first ever mapping of the area. This is a big step for the community, and if the survey is done in a good way, it will become an important tool for planning for the future. We are setting up a meeting with this individual as soon as possible, and bring with us all warnings of his "greatness" (real or self-proclaimed).

A demand for lists of needed materials and resources was put forward to us. This is to make the jobs of the Chairpersons easier when speaking to the people in the communities and local contractors. We have been asking for all available spear materials, scrap and left-overs to use in the building of our project, but amounts seems to be crucial in these areas.

After this meeting we conclude with a "Go" from the "important" people in the area, which gives nutrition to a belief in our selves and our ability to realize a sustainable and positive project.

Session 1: The Core Group:

2009-10-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we finally had our first workshop with people from the community! Stephen (CDTS), Irene (Newplan) and we (Ragnhild and Andreas) agreed it could be good to make a reliable core of youth from the area. We invited five guys from CDTS and eight students from the Rwenzory High School. Some of Stephens staff were supporting us with interpretation and organizing. All in all we were 18 people in the workshop.

The 15 youth will follow the whole process, discussing, designing and building the structures they find appropriate for the Noremco Stadium. At the end of our project they will be presented a certificate for participating in community development work for the Bugoye Sub-County.

After presenting ourselves, we showed some pictures from Norway to let them know a bit of our background and lives back home. Not unexpected, the winter-images got a lot of responses.

We followed up with a presentation of everyones names and backgrounds, since all of the people in the group come from different villages. This was done by one inteviewing the other and presenting to the rest of the group. This way we introduced the idea of asking questions. We asked them to make a descriptive drawing of the other person to start the process of "talking through drawing". As architects, we are used to this idea, but for most of the people in the group, this was strange and to us surprisingly difficult.

The final part was group-discussions on pro´s and con´s in the area regarding the development of the community. This is a topic which is discussed regularly, and even though it was a bit slow in the start, many of the conversations and key issues were interesting for the following sessions.

We picked up a lot from the group, even from the things they don´t tell us directly. For every day we spend in Uganda, we learn a bit more and our understanding of how different their backgrounds and ways are is constantly increasing.

Our main challenge will be to prevent their answers to be what they think we want to hear. The education-system in Uganda is based on "correct answers" and is highly competitive. This makes it hard for them to suggest radical ideas and raise "stupid questions".

Next time we are planning on-site measuring and getting to know the field itself. Hopefully the more physical aproach will tap into the reservoir of free spirited discussions and playfulness.

Friends or beggars?

2009-10-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

After living in Ibanda for five days, we are getting more comfortable and used to our situation. We wake up at 6am from cars honking when passing the road outside. Then, someone comes to drive out all the cars parked in our yard, making sure to honk some too. At 7am all the neighbours are up and at 8 the children greets their teacher good morning in the school next door and breakfast is ready – hopefully.

Today we started the day with a stroll around the village, getting to know it and its functions better. When we did the same stroll in Bugoye we met a very eager, enlightened and smiling photographer called Kato. He told us about history, language, culture and tendencies in the area and showed us around introducing us to everyone. He also explained to people that we were students doing fieldwork, that we had no money and that our work was important. His presence, despite a somewhat high level of interference, made the process of registering much easier. We have yet to meet the Kato of Ibanda…

Here in Ibanda we feel perfectly safe, but like outsiders. People stare without restrains. The kids keep calling to us; “Mzungu! Mzungu! Give me money!” We are getting to know some people though. The young guys outside the gate selling chapati (pancakes), the lady who’s restaurant we eat every night, the staff at our lodge, the grocer who’s always asleep on his bench, the guy who sells sodas warmer than the outdoor temperature and of course Stephen and his staff and players. They make us feel welcome and more at home in a situation that often leads to frustration and a sense of hopelessness.

Today the CDTS main team won the Kings Cup final. It was an incredibly boring game with lousy play from both teams. But in addition to spending time watching bad football, both of us were approached by all sorts of people from the crowd asking us to be their friend. Asking for our contacts. Asking for money. For marriage. When you are standing on an overly crowded truck and a young and tiny man with obvious eye problems is asking for a job so that he can complete his education – how do you give a good answer?

It is difficult, maybe impossible to become fully integrated in a society so different from your own. When it in addition thinks of all white people as filthy rich money machines, it is sometimes tempting to stop caring, give up and go home.

Official Opening of the Power Plant:

2009-10-14T05:59:00.000-07:00

A big group of officials attended the opening of Bugoye Hydro Power Plant. Even the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni was there with several of his ministers, and visitors from Norway included the norwegian minister of development, Erik Solheim and the board of TrønderEnergi.

Erik Solheim wrote an article on the opening published here: Adressa.no - "Fornybar energi er Afrikas fremtid"

For more info read an article in the norwegian magazine "Bistandsaktuelt"

From the Sickbed:

2009-10-12T03:52:00.001-07:00

The power of draft is unmistakable. Whether you are in the northernmost, coldest areas of the world or in equatorial Africa, be aware of the dreaded draft. To get to the point; I’ve fallen sick. Quite tiring, boring and annoying, but it will surely pass. So I thought I would use the opportunity to write some words about where we are.

Imagine you sitting in the back of a car in the middle of Africa. The car is a wreck of a Toyota ’90-model held together with ropes, making sounds you don’t want to know where are coming from. You are driving on a road best fit for tractors and 4-wheelers, sharing the back seats with 4-5 locals wondering what kind of business a white person has in their taxi, normally with one of them eager to chat, bumping up, down and sideways with a pointy thing coming in from the side – all the time passing banana plantations, small mud houses and courtyards, boda-bodas with more load than one would fit in a car in Norway, women dressed in colourful dresses carrying food, wood and water on their heads, children running, smiling, waving, a pink mosque, and more banana plantations.

All this shown with a backdrop of hills covered with squares of fields and plantations in different shades of green, and the 5000m high Rwenzori mountains ruling in the background. This is the road up the Mubuku valley. Our home for the next four weeks.

Mubuku valley is divided into two sub-counties by the river Mubuku. On the west side you find Bugoye sub-county, Maliba on the east side. Until now we have spent most of our time exploring the villages of Bugoye and Ibanda – Bugoye being the village where the new hydro power plant is located, conveniently enough with both an excellent lunch and satellite internet.

We have found a place to stay in Ibanda, so we are now leaving the comforts of hot showers and sitting toilets in our hotel in Kasese, to be more conveniently situated close to the site.

At first glance, Bugoye looks like a settlement of only 15-20 tiny shops along the road and with a small marked under a tree. But behind the facades towards the road, there is a patchwork of houses, shops, people and services in all shapes and sizes. There are for instance a hotel, several restaurants and even a cinema. The standard is somewhat lower than what we know of from Norway, but the food is very good and people are happy. Almost every spot over a certain size is used to dry coffee beans. They are spread out on the ground, patiently taken in and out every night and on every rainfall. They look like colourful carpets of red, yellow and brown on the red soil.

In groups along the road you’ll find many men sitting on their motorcycles asking if you need a ride. They are called boda-bodas and are a very common site all over Uganda. We’ve been told that many young men drop out of school to drive on of these, hoping for easy money. Unfortunately, the market is overloaded and finally they go back to agriculture – if they didn’t already sell their land to get the boda-boda that is. There is also a small market in Bugoye. This is where you’ll find mostly women. They come from farms in the area, selling all kinds of vegetables like potatoes, matoke (a kind of a banana that is one of the most important foods in the country), coffee, rice, flour, etc.

Surrounding the market, there are as much as 6 butchers, tailors, grocery shops, drug stores, a shoe vender, and many bars. Unfortunately there is a culture of many men drinking. While the women are at home doing hard work trying to make a living for her family, the husbands have a rumour of spoiling everything away on drinking and such. The women have no power here and men can often have many wives. This inevitably leads to very big families, often poor and without means to send the children to school.

Ibanda is a bigger village further up the valley from Bugoye. This is where both the Rwenzori primary, secondary and high school is situated. The community council has their office here, and more importantly, this is where you’ll find the brand new Noremco stadium. This is our site. We have met a Scotsman called Stephen Pritchard who started an NGO called CDTS (Community Development Through Sports) two years ago. He lives in Ibanda and he and his staff are organizing football and netball trainings all over the valley, bringing youth and children together to play. Their new stadium is the flattest one in the entire district (they are normally veeery bumpy), and the pride of the valley.

We are going to work with the kids from CDTS and together construct changing rooms and tribunes for the stadium. We are very excited and eager to start!

Webale Kurzawa, Andreas!

2009-10-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

The people at our hotel was very sweet, and arranged quite an event around Andreas´ birthday. Cake, candles, song and good wishes. It´s all best presented in the video below:

Cupfinals with CDTS:

2009-10-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

We got an invitation to attend the Cupfinals between CDTS and Kasese Youth. It was a great opportunity to get to know the guys in the team. These are some of the people we will work with in the design process and later in the building period.

It started somewhat slow, waiting for the other team, waiting for the judge... real African Time. When the match finally started, the team was already a bit unfocused, so Stephen lost his voice yelling to the struggling players.

After some 30 minutes, it all came together, making the first half an exiting time. Second half was not very good for any of the teams. Even though CDTS did a great job in defence, leading to 0-0 in the end, the Kasese Youth unfortunately won on penalty shots.

The guys were discouraged by loosing, but the spirits rose on the way home. It´s an amazing experience driving on the back of a big truck filled with African footballplayers singing and shouting out in the night in languages we barely have heard before.

Some of the guys were easier to get in touch with, and luckily we were well recieved in the group. Ragnhild got sick and had to leave before the end of the game, and for the next 24 hours the guys were asking: "where is Farida?" (Førde - Farida)

We are looking forward to arrange workshops with these guys. Good, motivated kids with high spirits!

Safari:

2009-10-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

The next day we visited the amazing Queen Elisabeth National Park for a full day of Safari!

We hired a driver and got up at 6am to driver over the savannah. In the afternoon we went on a two hour boat trip on the channel connecting the two lakes George and Albert.

In addition to seeing "normal" animals like antilopes, water bucks, hyenas, warthogs and many more, Ragnhild almost got throttled by a hippo we had named Elisabeth.

(Ragnhild: This was actually not fun at all and quite scary, but since we're all still well alive it's fun to tell people about)

Our guide spotted lions, even a big male jogging across the savannah, and on the way home we finally got close to some really cute elephants!

Two wonderful, extremely touristy days! Then it´s back to work.

Another run

2009-10-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

Tired of slow moving Africans, I decided to explore the surroundings of Kasese in the light of the morning sun. And what a difference from Kampala! After 2 minutes I was out of town passing two-story villas with nice gardens up in the hillside. I found a route leading me past villas, small villages and finally big fields with women working patiently. Turning around, I faced the view of Kasese town down on the plains covered in the pale light of the morning mist. Nice.

Invited by our study friends from Kampala, we decided to join the group for a mini vacation. After a day in Bugoye we squeezed into a matatu (14-seat taxi) with 24 other passengers, headed for Katunguru, a small village 40 min south of Kasese. Without us knowing about it, Katunguru was the home town of Sahra (Ugandan student in the UEP course) and she had prepared a big party in honour of our coming! We got beer and delicious fish, there were many many speeches, a girl’s choir singing and finally the whole thing turned in to a fabulous African disco! It was really incredible!

Two steps forward, one back..?

2009-09-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

We have now come to the point where we actually have both a site and an overall program for our building project. And until yesterday we also had a plan on using ISSB, buying or renting the machine, hiring a trainer, and getting money from Norwegian sponsors. But then Amritha posed some of her always very good questions and we came in doubt. Is the ISSB really so excellent? It is not as cheap as we thought it would be. First of all, there’s the absolute necessity of a machine costing 2,8 mill shilling. Secondly, one needs trainers or workers that already know how to make the bricks. Both of the options creating expenses. Thirdly, one needs cement and cement is expensive.

The people in Bugoye are poor and used to being able to building a house with what they can find in their close surroundings. After all, they live surrounded by murram, stones, trees, mud – even limestone. So why make it more difficult than it already is?

The ISSB represents a sustainable future. It is a cheaper alternative for middle class housing and industrial buildings. The training of ISSB-making and – building is a possible new livelihood for young people in the district. A beautiful and well built example in Bugoye would set a standard and also inspire for further use of the method.

On the other hand, if most people in Bugoye can’t afford building with ISSB then why do they need to learn about it? Would it not be better if they came to learn better ways of building with mud? If we found a way to make the bricks more solid and more even, they would need less mortar. If they could build without mortar, with only mud and wood, it would be even cheaper. The question here is whether or not they would find the basic building methods too primitive and old fashioned. Or strange.

Maybe we should go ask them?

Here we are:

2009-09-26T03:54:00.000-07:00

Click for larger version

We are currently living in Bugoye in Kasese District situated in a great valley called Mubuku Valley in the westernmost parts of Uganda.

Bugoye is a small rural village surrounded by many other small villages. People here life mostly of agriculture, growing beans, bananas, pineapple, coffee and tea.

Kasese

The closest citylike structure is Kasese, where we are living at the moment. This is a small cluster of stores and houses which resembles the cities from old Western-movies. Fronts are nicely painted and the back is horribly cluttered and poorly maintained. It seems as the mobile operators are taking over the world, as whole houses are painted in brand colours, logos and slogans all over town.

The area is famous for the beautiful nature and wildlife in Queen Elisabeth and Rwenzori National Park. On the way here we saw black zebras from the bus. We didn´t actually get a really clear picture, but one can distinguish something that looks like stripes on the hindlegs of the blobs.

In the Making:

2009-09-25T04:48:00.000-07:00

We are here! We are moving!

Shown above is the view of the Bugoye area where we are going to develop our diploma project in architecture at NTNU.

We are mapping the different sites, stakeholders and issues we are going to work on in the following five months. We will present our findings, ideas and progress in this blog. This way we can share information with people that could be interested in this kind of projects.

Stay tuned..!

Second run

2009-09-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

We have officially given up on Mr. David Carry. Call me conventional, but isn’t it normal courtesy to let people know if you suddenly change your mind and decide not to work with them despite several phone calls and e-mailing? Anyway, the church of Uganda isn’t much better they either, so we are taking matters in to our own hands. Yeah.

Today has been a good day. Despite the 100% pressure of all the water storage in heaven (lots of rain) and the 0% pressure of water in the shower, sink and toilet this morning, we have started producing stuff and that always feels good. We are making a folder presenting our thoughts and ideas for the compressed soil brick in combination with community development, hoping that it will give us the opportunity to pursue our ideas – and bring in some money…

The planning people had presentations of their findings and progress over the week, and it was quite interesting to listen to their stories of horrible destinies and difficult working conditions. It is not easy to work your way through the slum when you are so enormously white and rich and the inhabitants see you as either a moneybag or just one more of the ‘good people’ spending their time on silly questions. It will be exciting to follow their work.

I went out on a new run today. Only this time in the afternoon with more people out than last time. I wish I could have recorded what I saw on a tape. It is SO weird to run down a street being noticed, stared at, pointed at, shouted after and even run after by the locals. At one point there was a matatu (a minibus taxi) that had driven out of the road into a water channel. These things always get surrounded by people and there were maybe 80-100 men looking at it being pulled up. Running past this scenery, becoming the very unwilling centre of attention for all these men, shouting and calling, actually made me somewhat uncomfortable and a tad nervous. But it was all ok of course. Just… not so fun.

A better part of the run came later. After being followed by a young mechanic for about 200 meters, I reached a big marked place. I turned the corner and it was all so beautiful! To close out all the calling I had the music on quite loudly, so I had Kasabian (again) with a background of cars, horns, shouting and talking in my ears, a smell of dirt, pollution, sweat, animals, food – a kind of an African mix that is difficult to describe, and the setting sun shining so delicately through the grey, dusty air. It was a big, open space with a lot of sky over it, as alive as in the liveliest pile of ants with people and cars and boda-bodas going everywhere. The running through all of this while dodging the crazy boda-bodas, bicycles overloaded with goods, and busy, hurrying people - was a run to remember.

Dr. Musaazi:

2009-09-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

In our search of projects we stumbled upon the work of dr. Moses Musaazi. He works at Makarere University in Kampala, and is doing great efforts for the poor peoples of Uganda. Our link was his work on the ISSB-building techniques (See link to the right). Initially we talked about using these blocks to start a small business in relation to our diploma, and using the blocks produced to build th structure we´ll design during our time here.

It became clear that dr. Musaazi is quite a hero. And he is one of those guys we want to meet and talk to in order to not loose all our faith in this country. He and his employees are constantly working against the current for the poor.

In addition to the ISSB, he has designed sanitary pads for girls that is affordable even for the poorest. Many young girls actually quit school when they reach puberty, because menstruation isn´t something they talk about publicly.

He is also involved in water treatment, solid-waste management and affordable low-energy LED-lighting.

We are inspired by this man and his initiatives, and feel motivated by his work!

The Trønders:

2009-09-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

After a week of too much white bread and chicken & chips, I decided to go running in the morning. To be quite honest; it was a run of misery. Just around the first corner I met two of the huge, long legged, long beaked, not so nice marabou storks feasting in a pile of garbage. They were as tall as me and I was not at all sure it was safe to pass them.

The miserable part of this image was, on the other hand, that behind these to big vulture-like birds, in a smaller garbage pile, was an old lady bent over looking for something to eat or sell. I nearly turned around and went home. Despite the bad start I continued, put the iPod on "Kasabian" and ran faster than normal along filthy water ways, next to slums, jumping over pot holes the size of my self, navigating between people people people, boda-bodas, taxis and huge cars, through dirty commercial streets with buildings looking like they are about to fall down, passing police with shotguns left over from the French revolution, all the time navigating after the minaret of the big mosque on the hill and being the only white person around.

When exercising for the fun of it in these surroundings, I felt kind of stupid, very rich, privileged and kind of superficial. I’m running to keep my body and mind in order, but I have to. The people I passed are working so hard just to make a living. It puts things in perspective.

So, after a refreshing, but not so uplifting morning run, Andreas and I once again went out to find someone to work with. Hans had talked about Newplan, a branch of the Norwegian company Norplan, that might have some architecture or planning projects on the run. A call from the Norwegian professor Cato Lund (who works here at Makerere) made them agree to have a meeting with us. One thing let to an other, their man Lawrence was very helpful, and suddenly we were offered to come to study a resettlement project they had going in Bugoye (in the west of Uganda). We even found out they did this in collaboration with Newplan and Trønder Power(!). It was surreal to meet mr. Gunnar in an african office in the ugandan capital. Even more surreal was the fact that he knew my father. It's a small world...

They were very positive towards student like us, and we even got offered to have a working space at their facilities (which are equipped with internet through satellite connection!)

"Oh, It´s you Bishop":

2009-09-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

After waiting and waiting for response from our contact person mr. David Carry (This makes sense to those of you who knows of our plans before departing to Uganda), we decided to finally take matters in our one hands, and try to find him our selves. So, knowing that the children village project was to be done in cooperation with the Church of Uganda, we went to their office asking for help. “Hello. We are looking for a man…”

After a bit of commotion, they told us to go see to a lady called Alison Barfoot who works in the archbishop’s place/house. And incredibly enough she not only knew about the project, but was the manager of it! And had never heard of neither us nor mr. Carry… But she was very nice and eager to have us as a part of the project, so we’re crossing fingers for her American efficiency being more productive than what we’ve seen of speedy operations in Uganda so far. She actually seemed like a really cool and intelligent lady we hope to be able to see more of.

This incident was a bit incredible in it self, but it actually got better. While we were sitting in this lady’s couch (disturbing her in cooking her lunch), it knocked on the door. She went out and we heard; “Oh, is it you, BISHOP!” So, all of a sudden we found our selves discussing Ugandan politics with one of the bishops from Church of Uganda!

We’re very curious and excited to see the continuation of this…

Sunday Tranquility and Family Party:

2009-09-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

Kampala’s peace and normal state of mind is about to be restored and as the temperature of the city is going down, the diploma students' calm is fading. So while our friends the UEPs went sightseeing in town, we stayed home reading. Good times. To sit on a front porch of a hotel reading, sleeping, looking at the staff strolling past you – it’s not so bad actually. Almost halfway through Dambisa Moyo’s DEAD AID, there are many new thoughts running through my mind. “Why are we here?” was there already. Now this has been followed by the more interesting “Should we be here?” Reading is good. Moyo is a really smart lady. Go Moyo.

One of our local coordinators, Andrew (who has spent two years doing his master in planning in Trondheim), invited all of us to his birthday dinner at his sister’s house in a somewhat fancier part of Kampala. She’s actually the neighbour of Idi Amin’s son! But anyway, it was truly an evening to remember. There were his sisters, his mother, his aunt, his cousins, his nieces and nephews, his friends – and all of us. Old and young, white and black, from three different continents ate the most delicious home made food, drank, talked and danced African style.

Kivulu:

2009-09-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

Just behind our hotel there is a slum called Kivulu. It is actually so close that the hotel is built on grounds that used to be a part of this slum area. This is an informal settlement of a more urban kind than the one we saw yesterday in Acholi. Here, there were garbage everywhere and much more crowded and dense, but most of all; you could feel a sort of hopelessness over it all. The women and children were working, cooking, selling goods – the men drank or watched videos. And whether it is because of the unrest in the city or because of us being unwanted, we still felt a sort of aggression from some of the men. We didn’t feel safe.

(...this is why we don´t have images from this place. Hopefully we´ll come back to it...)

Kivulu lies in an area very close to Kampala center and the university campus. It could therefore be very attractive for investors. They would like to build either private apartment blocks or student housing. And this will probably happen within few years. The main problem of a large part of Kampala’s poor inhabitants is namely that they do not own the land they are living on. They are squatters. They are merely renting the land from the owner, and this land owner can at any time come and say they have to leave. Yes, they do get a small amount of money for lost investments – or get paid off, but they normally don’t have a choice whether or not they want to leave. So, in Kivulu there are now three plots that have been cleaned of shacks and are ready to be built on. These empty, unused spaces ruins the street structure, the public spaces and thereby probably also the street life. The area will soon find itself in the bizarre situation of having new, 3-floor apartment housing in the middle of a mess of shacks and garbage. Until then, the plots serve as garbage dumps, playgrounds and a place for keeping goats and chickens.

On our tour through the settlement you feel an unknown, quite strong smell, you carefully pass by narrow passages with 60 cm deep ditches, you go through someone’s kitchen, you try not to fall in the somewhere steep streets (this must be so must more difficult and muddy during the rainy seasons) while at the same time avoiding the look of drinking men sitting in groups anywhere there’s shadow. Still, in a situation that seemed so stuck in shit, there were glimpses of hope. Well, a kind of hope. They had quite many brand new toilets spread around the settlement, keeping excrements out of the streets. What they will do when these toilet’s shitholes get full, is a problem for later…

The most positive thing we saw in Kivulu, as we saw it, was the marked place. It was a square with shops and restaurants around it, and with a big roof in the middle under which they sold vegetables, doors and other stuff. This was a nice place to be and is probably the heart of the community. Though we must add: it is not a warm, beating heart. This was a messy collection of shacks and shelters – not homes. They are temporary places to stay while waiting for something better. There is no solid waste management. No sewage. No streets. But people don’t care. According to themselves, their main problem is that they don’t have jobs. If they just get a job, they also get out of there.

Departure:

2009-09-09T04:15:00.000-07:00

After a day...no several days of preparation, good byes and lectures on how to behave in strange places, we finally were on our way. While sitting with my Africa-backpack waiting for the bus at 4:15 in the morning, Trondheim showed herself from one of her best sides; Yellow traffic light blinking unsynchronized, clear and clean air, dark sky, warmish, and almost empty. Though was the only person I met so drunk that we almost walked into each other… Anyway, all was quiet. A very nice goodbye.

As Hans so delicately put it; the plain from Amsterdam to Entebbe was full of very nice people. One can almost not begin to grasp the amount of organizations and people working for making Africa a better place to live in. …so on and so on