A trip taken weeks ago
Pictures! I suppose I've been promising them for long enough...
Please note the format change.* This batch of pictures has been put on another blog. If you subscribe to my RSS feed, I suggest you go there to subscribe to that feed, as well. And please let me know whether you like this format, find it easier to use, or if this is a crummy idea.
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Excerpts from my journal and remarks about the pictures.
[On Saturday] we went biking with Emily to the clinic where she works, Goli-goli. The sky was blue[, incredibly azure and studded with large, friendly clouds], the dirt road was orange, and the fields were solid green.... I got into a race with a boda-boda [driver]. He had a passenger and still beat me. -pp. 49-50
She seemed to appear from the very darkness itself, a being magically unfolded from the shadows of the house.... With blurred vision she came into the room with only the vaguest sense of who we were, but she immediately recognized Ron. [...] She went to him and gave him an excited embrace.... After greeting him, she turned her frail form to us, first reaching around Denise, then engulfing me in her arachnid grip. A full 18" shorter than me, she still reached one arm over my shoulder. In that embrace I could feel a worn but still able strength and sense the physical power behind her loose skin. -pp. 29-30
Three of Mze's sons. Mze literally means "Sir;" it's an honorific attributed to his status as the oldest living male born into the clan. He looks frail, standing in the doorway with his canes, but he's as strong as an ox.
Sipi falls spills from the mile-high plateau on the north-east face of Mt. Elgon in southeastern Uganda.
North of Sipi Mt. Elgon flattens down rapidly to the great plains of Kapchorwa, then the deserts of Moroto and Kotido in Karamoja. The Karamojong (the people of this area) have a fearsome reputation across the country. It's a wild place, Uganda's eastern frontier, where cattle raids still claim dozens of lives every year and most men tote around AK47s. But from here, it's just peaceful, green grazing land.
Nestled up against the base of Mt. Elgon, Mbale is a sleepy, dusty town near the Kenyan border. With the broad-shouldered mountain in the background, Mbale's covered walkways and broad streets seem overshadowed. The town is dominated by a single hill, crowned with a roundabout and a clock tower. A typical street in Mbale. (We ate at an Indian restaurant in the last building on the left, at the top of the street.)
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*This blog is text-only. I admit that it's proving a chore to try to link pictures in, but it's the only way to keep the page manageable for low-bandwidth connections.
Please note the format change.* This batch of pictures has been put on another blog. If you subscribe to my RSS feed, I suggest you go there to subscribe to that feed, as well. And please let me know whether you like this format, find it easier to use, or if this is a crummy idea.
-------------------------------------------------------
Excerpts from my journal and remarks about the pictures.
[On Saturday] we went biking with Emily to the clinic where she works, Goli-goli. The sky was blue[, incredibly azure and studded with large, friendly clouds], the dirt road was orange, and the fields were solid green.... I got into a race with a boda-boda [driver]. He had a passenger and still beat me. -pp. 49-50
She seemed to appear from the very darkness itself, a being magically unfolded from the shadows of the house.... With blurred vision she came into the room with only the vaguest sense of who we were, but she immediately recognized Ron. [...] She went to him and gave him an excited embrace.... After greeting him, she turned her frail form to us, first reaching around Denise, then engulfing me in her arachnid grip. A full 18" shorter than me, she still reached one arm over my shoulder. In that embrace I could feel a worn but still able strength and sense the physical power behind her loose skin. -pp. 29-30
Three of Mze's sons. Mze literally means "Sir;" it's an honorific attributed to his status as the oldest living male born into the clan. He looks frail, standing in the doorway with his canes, but he's as strong as an ox.
Sipi falls spills from the mile-high plateau on the north-east face of Mt. Elgon in southeastern Uganda.
North of Sipi Mt. Elgon flattens down rapidly to the great plains of Kapchorwa, then the deserts of Moroto and Kotido in Karamoja. The Karamojong (the people of this area) have a fearsome reputation across the country. It's a wild place, Uganda's eastern frontier, where cattle raids still claim dozens of lives every year and most men tote around AK47s. But from here, it's just peaceful, green grazing land.
Nestled up against the base of Mt. Elgon, Mbale is a sleepy, dusty town near the Kenyan border. With the broad-shouldered mountain in the background, Mbale's covered walkways and broad streets seem overshadowed. The town is dominated by a single hill, crowned with a roundabout and a clock tower. A typical street in Mbale. (We ate at an Indian restaurant in the last building on the left, at the top of the street.)
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*This blog is text-only. I admit that it's proving a chore to try to link pictures in, but it's the only way to keep the page manageable for low-bandwidth connections.
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