Uganda Beat

When I interned with Women’s eNews in 2009, I would write up a story every week called Cheers and Jeers, where I would boo and celebrate gender news from around the world.  I thought I would do something similar for Uganda, every Friday.  Check out this week’s C+J, and thanks to Women’s eNews for the idea!

Uganda: Cheers

News to cheer in Uganda.

1) CNN Multichoice African Journalism Awards considered 975 journalists from over 40 countries, and picked 27 finalists.  Among the finalists, 2 talented Ugandan journalists were selected– the East African’s Halima Abdallah, and Leon Ssenyange, from NTV Uganda.  The award ceremony will take place this May in Kampala, hosted by Isha Sesay, who presents ‘Inside Africa’ for CNN, and Dr. Ronnie Mich Egwang.  Some of the judges who selected Abdallah and Ssenyange included CNN’s South African bureau chief Kim Norgaard, and Ikechukwu, the editor of Nigeria’s Daily Independent.  The Daily Monitor reported this story on April 9th.

2) President Museveni signed the Domestic Violence Bill, which will punish those who abuse their partners.  Those convicted will face two years in jail, a fine of sh960,000, or both.  The perpetrator may also be asked by the court to pay damages to the victim.  Over an estimated Ugandan women say they have experienced physical violence since they were teens, with two-thirds saying it was inflicted by their partner.  New Vision reported the story on April 8th.

Jeers:

This week's disturbing news in Uganda.

1) At a rally in Mpigi, a man attacked Dr. Kizza Besigye, attempting to strangle him.  Besigye said he pushed him away, causing a gun to fall from the perpetrator’s pants, and his aides held him.  The police said the attacker was a farmer named Justus Asiimwe.  New Vision reported the story on April 9th.

2) German firm Muhlbauer High Tech International signed a contract with the Ugandan government to create a mobile data enrollment system, a central population database, and biometric voting identification cards.  The contract will cost the taxpayers sh200billion, much more expensive than comparable programs in Kenya and Tanzania, and has been criticized for ignoring the tendering process.  The Independent reported the story on April 6th.

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No one knows yet what caused the Kasubi Tombs fire.

Last Wednesday, after historical and cultural Buganda icon Kasubi Tombs was burnt to the ground, 5 journalists covering a violent clash between protestors and security forces were injured, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Many of my closest friends work as journalists in Uganda for New Vision, Daily Monitor, and other publications, so whenever I hear of reporters being injured, tortured, or kidnapped in my other home, I feel pretty anxious.

1) A security agent shot Ggwanga reporter, Mukiibi Serunjogi, in the knee at Kasubi Tombs.  He was hospitalized in Namirembe, and is recovering at home.  Ggwanga is published by the Buganda News and Publishing House, closely connected to Mengo.

2) Bukedde, the Luganda sister of New Vision which I used to write for, saw one of its freelancers- Benjamin Ssebaggala- and a photographer, Steven Musoke, attacked by protestors.  New Vision has had a rocky relationship with the Buganda kingdom in the past year, particularly over an article published by talented journalist Barbara Among over Bulange that led to a boycott on New Vision products, particularly Bukedde.  It’s not surprising that protestors would attack Bukedde reporters or photographers.  Bukedde’s freelance photographer, Moses Lemisa, was hit by the Presidential Guard Brigade, according to an interview he gave CPJ.

3) Protestors stoned Deutsche Welle correspondent Leila Ndinda, accusing her of being Ankole, and stole her purse.  Presidential candidate for the 2011 elections Olara Otunnu was also stoned when he attempted to visit the tombs to grieve.

My condolences go out to these brave reporters and photographers– and I appreciate their efforts to provide audiences with valuable information, despite difficult working conditions.

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Chaos at Kasubi

A loud explosion was heard behind the Kasubi Tombs last night, and the revered 128-year-old burial tombs was burnt to ashes, the Daily Monitor reported on March 17th.  Hundreds of people gathered in front of the tombs crying and screaming.

Nearby boda-bodas drivers spotted a white pick-up truck emerge from the scene.

When President Museveni arrived on the scene, protestors began booing him, and set up a barricade to stop him from entering.  The Ugandan police responded by shooting and killing two of the protestors.  Five were also injured, and have been taken to Mulago Hospital.

The Buganda cabinet has declared seven days of mourning.

The tombs are a Unesco heritage site.

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With elections less than a year away, many eyes are turning to Uganda.  Will President Museveni, whose regime surpassed former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi this year in the region’s historical records, continue to serve as East Africa’s longest-standing president?

It’s easy to get behind on elections news, so I have decided to create a small guide to the 2011 elections for my readers, which will evolve in later blog plots as I imagine things will get more intense.  This first entry looks at what Uganda’s political opposition has been up to recently.  Tomorrow, come back to learn why the international community is putting Uganda’s upcoming elections under scrutiny– and whether political experts think Uganda’s 2011 elections could be as deadly as Kenya’s.

What is the opposition up to?

Norbert Mao scooped up the DP presidency, causing Kampala mayor Nasser Sebaggala to quit the party.

Four of the opposition parties formed a coalition called Inter-Party Cooperation almost two years ago.  The parties will each hold primaries to pick a candidate, who will then contest for the larger Inter-Party Cooperation ticket.  The coalition is made up of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the Justice Forum (JEEMA), Conservative Party (CP), and the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC).  The Democratic Party will runs its own candidate, as will other opposition parties.

FDC presidential hopeful Mugisha Muntu launched a rolex campaign last week to raise funds a la Barack Obama-- hope to raise funds from many small donors.

Currently, Gen. Mugisha Muntu (a former army commander for 9 years) and Dr. Kizza Besigye (current FDC president who ran against Museveni in 2001 and 2006) are facing off in an FDC campaign that Besigye says will strengthen the party’s democratic principles.  Last week, Muntu surprised the public by starting a fundraising campaign, which he hoped to model after Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, which tapped small donors.  The Daily Monitor reported that presidential candidates in Uganda don’t usually do much public fundraising, causing speculation over the source of funds.  Muntu has called on ordinary people to donate sums as small as sh1,000 to help with his campaign.

“For students, sacrifice a rolex per week for us to be able to build and improve our education system,” he said.  ”Women, sacrifice as much as you can to stop infant mortality.”  Five bank accounts to hold ‘rolex-donations’ have been opened that will go towards his election campaign.  The FDC will pick its own candidate in April.

UPC candidate Olara Otunnu hopes to challenge Museveni in 2011.

Candidates currently competing for the UPC presidency (currently Miria Obote) include former prominent U.N. official Olara Otunnu, who returned recently from exile, Jimmy Akena, Joseph Ochieno, Opul Dickson and others.  Last Thursday, during a radio program, Otunnu hinted at a potential election boycott by the opposition candidates, unless an independent electoral commission organizes the 2011 elections, according to reporting by the Daily Monitor.  ”This E.C. is part of the NRM rigging machine,” Otunnu said, and added that the commission would not organize the elections.  FDC spokesman later added that credible elections could not be held if the current E.C. leadership remained.

UPC has suspended its delegates conference, which was supposed to happen today, until the end of March, after internal disputes.  Akena withdrew a court petition to block party elections, which had argued that UPC needed more time to prepare.  Elections for youth and female representatives for the conference will be held this week.

Outside of the IPC, the Democratic Party elected Norbert Mao as their flagbearer at a conference in Mbale after some serious party in-fighting (this decision led Kampala mayor Nasser Sebaggala to quit DP, and announce that he would launch his own party).  Mao, LC5 chairman for Gulu (who you can follow on twitter here), lost his house in Gulu last month after a fire police suspect is arson.

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Sexual violence, not just school fees, keeps girls out of classrooms in Uganda.

Action Aid, a historical U.K. nonprofit now based in South Africa that is the largest global anti-poverty agency, launched a big report today for International Women’s Day.  Lucky for me, I got early access to their embargoed report, and did a story for Women’s eNews on how gender violence is blocking all the major development targets.  Whether it’s education or maternal health, the development goals of the NGO industry are often not reached because gender violence stands in the way.

In Uganda, for instance, Action Aid reports that sexual violence, not lack of school fees, is the main reason that girls drop out.  This could range from sexual violence on a long walk to school to assaults from teacher and classmates.  In light of International Women’s Day, let’s see what are our sisters, mothers, wives, girlfriends, classmates and coworkers are up against globally…

Gender Violence Blocks Development Targets: Report

By Rebecca Harshbarger

UNITED NATIONS, New York (WOMENSENEWS)–Isatu Kalokoh, a 32-year-old mother of three, lives in the far-eastern suburbs of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

In her community, 60 percent of the residents are women. Kalokoh is a housewife, but many of the women here making a living farming oysters, selling wood and working as petty traders of small retail goods.

Only about 100 women in her suburb can read, but a single female chief, elected over the resistance of many men, runs the community.

Despite this victory, many husbands in Kalokoh’s neighborhood consider wives to be their property and beat them when they are home.

This was the case for Kalokoh in her second marriage to a man who often shows resentment towards her three children from a previous marriage.

“When my husband comes home from work, he grumbles about my children,” she told researchers with Action Aid, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the largest global anti-poverty agency. “When we go to bed at night, he forces me to have sex with him as much as he likes. My husband always promises to change his attitude, but will do the same things again. I feel very ashamed now.”

Action Aid issued a report today in London that offers a sample of similar stories.

Although violence against women affects countries that are both rich and poor, and women of different backgrounds, authors of the Action Aid report say violence blocks progress in every major development target. This violence ranges from intimate partner violence in couples to sexual violence in the classroom.

The authors say violence–from rape during armed conflicts to domestic violence–is a leading cause of death and disability among women of all ages, and costs nations billions of dollars as it drains public resources and lowers economic productivity.

Skills Lost to Protect Safety

Action Aid argues that women, who represent half of the world’s population, see their skills and talents drained away in efforts to protect their own safety.

Authors say well-intentioned policy often ignores the role of violence, pointing to efforts to close the gender gap in primary education as an example.

Action Aid researchers say governments have focused primarily on increasing girls’ enrollment, rather than addressing deeper issues that contribute to female students’ absences and drop outs.

USAID calculates that 60 million girls every year are sexually assaulted either at school or on the way to their classrooms. Girls are abducted on their walks to school. They are raped by teachers and classmates.

Many girls engage in transactional sex to meet the cost of school fees.

In maternal health, another major focus in development circles, progress remains far off-track.

The latest report on the U.N.’s eight Millennium Development Goals, which seek to eradicate global poverty by 2015, says goal five–to achieve universal access to reproductive health care and reduce maternal mortality deaths by three-quarters–has seen the least progress of all the goals.

More than half a million women still die every year from complications associated with pregnancy and childbirth, according to the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development.

Action Aid says this is partly due to violence against pregnant women that gets overlooked by international aid policies.

The World Health Organization, WHO, estimates that 1-in-4 pregnant women worldwide suffer violence, often at the hands of a partner. World Bank researches also find violence against women intimately linked to maternal mortality during pregnancy and childbirth. In some communities, the WHO reports that women are not even targeted for violence until they become pregnant.

Read more here, on Womens’ eNews…

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This has been an uphill year so far... let's hope spring is better!

(Hey everyone, I hope you like the new design of Uganda Beat.  Please note that my website has migrated over to an easier domain– it’s ugandabeat.com, not ugandabeat.wordpress.com! Thanks for reading, and please comment.  I love keeping the conversation going, as they say…)

Usually, the stories that I work on don’t impact me directly.  For instance, let’s say you reported on a string of robberies in Battery Park, and then you or a friend ends up getting robbed there.  That hasn’t happened to me.  But recently, a story I wrote in the past hit close to home.

When I was last in Uganda, I wrote a two-part series on cervical cancer in Uganda for Women’s eNews, and a news story about it for New Vision with another reporter.  In the United States, cervical cancer was once the leading cause of cancer deaths among women– until regular Pap smears became much more routine over the last forty years.  It’s still a problem, though– in 2005, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 4,000 women died from the disease, and 11,999 were diagnosed.  (This is much less than breast cancer– the American Cancer Society says there is a 12 percent chance in a woman’s life that she will develop invasive breast cancer.)

In Uganda, cervical cancer is still the leading cause of cancer deaths among women, and Uganda continues to have one of the highest cervical cancer death rates in the world.  New Vision (the Ugandan daily that I used to write far) has kept the ball rolling on this particular health beat.  The lovely Irene Nabusoba, a talented journalist based in Kampala, reported on March 7th that a staggering 40 percent of the cancer cases listed in the Kampala Cancer Registry are cervical cancer.  More than 45 women per 100,000 will suffer from cervical cancer in Uganda.

Lack of access to pap smears, early marriages and HIV make women in Uganda more vulnerable to the disease.  However, when I covered the story, I learned of a unique angle: health activists were saving women with a simple household ingredient.  Vinegar.

Little did I know my own future gynecologist in New York would also begin using the same test, which uses vinegar to detect cancerous spots in the cervix.  They turn white under a microscope when vinegar is added to the cervix.

Part of the draw of this story is actually the irresistible (!) enthusiasm that Ugandan health activists show towards fighting cervical cancer.  Whether they are giving presentations in markets or driving mobile clinics to villages upcountry, activists in groups like SAWI (Save a Woman Initiative) were excellent storytellers and sources.

But little did I know that about 9 months later, I would be lying in a paper gown, feet with dingy nail polish from last fall in stirrups, while my gynecologist in Manhattan opened her cabinet and took out  a container of household vinegar.

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In Mbale, former Kenyan leader Daniel arap Moi campaigned for Museveni's fourth term. Let's not forget that Museveni was one of the first presidents to congratulate Kibaki during the Kenyan 2008 elections.

Kenya’s excellent newspaper, the Daily Nation, ran a well-written, if depressing piece about Museveni that was initially published by their sister Ugandan paper, the Daily Monitor (where my colleague and Garden City bowling buddy Gerald Bareebe works).  I first came to Uganda in 2007, 21 years into Museveni’s regime, so I never really experienced the initial presidency that did so much for Uganda in the 1980s and 1990s.  Museveni’s regime turned 24 this year, and he surpassed former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi as East Africa’s longest-standing ruler.  But with oil profits on the horizon, and a penchant for overstaying, Museveni is currently running for his fourth term– and even Moi has been in Uganda this week, helping to campaign for Museveni.

When I first came to Uganda, newspapers affectionately referred to the country’s president as “M7.”  I can’t tell you how long it took me to realize what they were referring to– a fighter jet? A different version of LC1s and LC2s (local gov. officials)? Out of the blue, I finally realized that M7 was literally Museveni, and cracked up at myself for not realizing it sooner.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwyZoTbOQXk]

The Monitor piece describes the Museveni who first came into power, and I was practically gaping… anyone who has only known Museveni in the decade after 2000 would feel a similar sense of surprise.

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My story ran today in Women’s eNews!

Haiti Quake Puts 63,000 Pregnant Women at Risk

The Haiti earthquake has increased the risks for an estimated 63,000 pregnant women in Port-au-Prince, as medical facilities and supplies have been destroyed. The UNFPA is distributing delivery and ‘dignity’ kits to help minimize the damage.

UNITED NATIONS, New York (WOMENSENEWS)–Rose Mirlande Veilard could no longer feel her baby’s kicks and became scared. The Port-au-Prince, Haiti, resident wondered if her baby had been killed during her struggle to leave her home near Champs de Mars, the presidential plaza, during the earthquake.

Since the earthquake hit Haiti on Jan. 12, the 22-year-old has slept in a car parked outside of a church. When Veilard was finally able to see a doctor at a hospital, she found out her baby was still alive, the U.N. Population Fund, or UNFPA, told Women’s eNews.

But other women in Haiti will not be so lucky.

When the earthquake hit, Haiti’s Ministry of Women was in a meeting with 20 development partners who work with the UNFPA. Almost everyone in the meeting was killed or injured.

“It’s very tragic,” said Dr. Jemilah Mahmood, chief of UNFPA’s humanitarian response team. “You lose the people who could respond and support these communities.”

Of the 3 million people affected by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti, and the aftershocks that continued as recently as Jan. 20, an estimated 63,000 are pregnant women. In the month ahead, 7,000 women are expected to deliver. Giving birth or seeking prenatal care in a city where even the presidential plaza is destroyed poses countless risks to women in Port-au-Prince and throughout the quake region. The New-York based UNFPA has spearheaded efforts to help minimize the risks these women face.

Logistics a Challenge

“The challenge for Haiti is logistics,” Mahmood said. “We do not want pregnant women, or women and girls overall, to fall off the radar screen.”

Even before the earthquake, giving birth in Haiti was no easy feat. The country has the highest maternal mortality rate in the Northern Hemisphere. For every 100,000 births, 670 mothers do not survive. Fifteen percent of all births before the earthquake had complications that required hospital care, such as hemorrhaging and high blood pressure in the mother, according to the UNFPA.

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Before the holidays, I posted about the anti-gay bill that a Ugandan MP had introduced, and the American evangelical connections.  I was thrilled to get so many comments on the post, and to facilitate such a thoughtful discussion from people living in Uganda and the U.S. This bill was clearly huge — I saw the story (not always accurately!) everywhere, from the Guardian to the BBC, New York Times, various Ugandan publications, the Rachel Maddow Show, and many others.  I wanted to give you all the latest update on the bill, which proposed the death penalty for gay people living with HIV (a.k.a. “Aggravated homosexuality” ) and life in jail for gay people who are not HIV positive.  It looks like these parts of the bills may be scrapped, but we won’t know until Parliament begins debating the bill.

Gay activists demonstrating in Uganda. Uganda's anti-gay bill includes the death penalty for gay people living with HIV.

The international community. The reaction to this bill has been huge.  The international community has a lot of weight in Uganda– about a third of Uganda’s budget is donor-financed (European Union, individual European countries like Sweden, etc.) , and many Ugandans depend on the U.S. government for antiretroviral drugs through PEPFAR.  Museveni went to this year’s CHOGM and was criticized by Commonwealth leaders, a big deal if you remember all the money and time spent on promoting Uganda’s image at CHOGM in 2007, when the summit was held in Kampala.  Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, the U.N.’s top human rights official, and some prominent American senators coordinating support of the Ugandan military in fighting the Lord’s Resistance Army condemned Uganda.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/user/ntvuganda#p/u/44/SHikc-SxHSo]

Reaction to the bill within Uganda. Most Ugandans didn’t seem to realize that homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, and thought the bill would forbid the practice.  Some thought the bill was meant to protect children from pedophiles.  Very few seemed to realize the bill would execute gay people with HIV.  When the Swedish government said it would no longer finance Uganda’s budget if they began executing gay people living with HIV, most Ugandans thought the Swedes said they would withdraw support to Uganda if Ugandans did not support homosexuality.  Many Ugandans reacted as if the Western world were forcing Ugandans to be gay or support gay people, blackmailing them with foreign aid.  Many Ugandans reacted as if the western world was imposing a gay lifestyle on them, then threatening to withdraw support for the neediest Ugandans if they didn’t comply.  Pastor Martin Ssempa, a prominent anti-gay activist in Uganda who runs the Makerere Community Church, is planning a million-man march in Kampala to support the bill.  President Museveni has tried to assure donors quietly that the bill will not pass, but top Ugandan officials said Uganda can live without the foreign aid.  One American senator wanted to threaten Uganda’s AGOA trade status, a special status for Ugandan goods in the U.S that is supposed to make trader easier.

Pastor Ssempa said people attending the march could take a photo and send it as a postcard to Barack Obama.  He described the Western world as failed states for supporting homosexuality.  A few Ugandans have spoken out against the bill, such as prominent lawyer and academic Sylvia Tamale, who is writing a book on how homosexuality is conceptualized in African countries (Uganda? East Africa? other African countries as well? I’m not sure).  A muslim cleric called for special squads to hunt down gay people in Ugnda, adding his hateful voice to the mix.

And for the American evangelicals?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=304v5hpf0p8]

In the U.S., the American evangelicals who helped MP David Bahati draft the bill faced a considerable backlash, and were criticized for importing an American cultural war into East Africa.  Evangelicals like Scott Lively said they didn’t realize what was in the bill being drafted, and were just trying to protect Ugandan families.

Personally, I’m a bit exhausted of the story.  I hope the bill doesn’t pass, and wish Uganda was in the news for something other than anti-gay legislation.  The 2011 elections are next year, and I am concerned about the potential human rights abuse that could explode.  The underlying fear of course is that there could be violence a la Kenya, but Uganda has always been less ethnically divided in Kenya, despite the September riots (the Buganda kingdom’s clash with the central government).

There was a disturbing incident where opposition candidate Olara Otunnu’s car was run off the road by the presidential guard brigade, which has barely been covered in the local press, and not covered in the international press.  Hillary Clinton has said she will observe Uganda in the 2011 elections.  The opposition has largely united and plans to field a common candidate.  You can follow election coverage through Africa Connections here, which is updated daily with the latest bit of news about the elections.  50 female Ugandan political activists were arrested yesterday, for a demonstration calling for the Electoral Commission boss to step down.  You can read more about that here, on the Voice of America website.  The Daily Monitor and New Vision have also covered the story.

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At the Source of the Nile River in Jinja, Uganda, where some of Gandhi's ashes are scattered.

Hey all, whether you are in Brooklyn, Wisconsin, Uganda, or Kenya, I really wish you a blessed new year in 2010!

This year was one of the most challenging of my life– but also the most rewarding.  Many times I felt as if I had slammed my head
or fell over my feet (both metaphorically and in the real sense!), and other times I prayed for a crystal ball that would let me go back in time.
Do things differently.

I can’t say this enough- Hindsight is 20/20.  Hindsight is 20/20.  But mistakes offer the most powerful lessons of all.  In many ways, I entered 2010 with
a gigantic blindfold over my eyes, and had to let reality be my teacher.  I realized I was scrappier than I ever imagined, but simultaneously blessed
in more ways than I could fathom.

I enjoyed writing at New Vision this year.

2009 was a year of writing for Women’s eNews, Saturday/New Vision, and the New York Post.  It was a year I began in Jackson Heights, Queens, shifted to Brooklyn, moved to Kampala, returned for respite in Long Island, and relocated back to Brooklyn.  It was my first year that I was not in school.  Where my interview subjects ranged from the president of the Kampala ghetto (with a cabinet, no less!) to Felix Kulayigye, Manhattan garage owners, NYPD officers, bicyclists, colon cleansing patients near the Old Taxi Park (I kid you not), and a woman who survived living with HIV, a white blood cell count of 0, poverty, and cancer– but now weighs 80 kilograms, runs a support group for discordant couples at Mulago Hospital’s Infectious Disease Unite, and has reunited with her husband.  Her name is Zam.

It was a year of launching the Ugandans Abroad website and social networking site, and making our first e-commerce store at our Africa Connections ebay website.  I used all sorts of proxy sites to access Facebook at New Vision, tweeted quite a bit, started this blog, and temped at Iconix.

I got horrific food poisoning at Shell Club, was cheated dramatically Abii Clinic in Wandegaya, and attacked by bugs in New York’s Central and Highbridge Park.  When I would cough in Uganda, people feared I had swine flu.  I began paying back my students loans in June.  I skyped a bit, but mainly used gmail chat
as my favorite form of communication.

My father gave me a red Blackberry Curve for Christmas, allowing me to file from the field.  It was definitely an upgrade from my kiboko phone.  Or is it a
kikumi phone? I can’t remember.

To go further back… I spent New Year’s 1998/9, ten years ago, in Sayville.  I was 13 years old, and went to an awful laser show with my then step-brothers.
I was in eight grade (S2 for my Ugandan readers!), and had glasses, stringy brown hair, and pants that were too short for my rapidly growing legs.  My favorite past times were chatting on AOL instant messenger, drinking Mountain Dew, playing Mario Kart and Sim City 2, as well as Grand Theft Auto.

In 2000, I moved back to Oyster Bay, where I enjoyed history lessons, diatribes about Hillary Clinton (haha well maybe not that part! My family and I are lifelong Democrats), and learning about ancient Greece & Rome from Mr. Levorchick.  During a world history moment on Africa (an afternoon’s worth of coverage in 4 years of high school), I nearly blew off the assignment, disinterested in ancient Mali.  I lived in Karen Court, and did spring track with Grace and Stephanie.  I was awful at the 200 meter, but at least I got in pretty good shape.  I took my first and only photography class with Mrs. Crowley, who was terrified of peanut butter but loved my photos and writing.  The key quote from her is- “Has anyone seen a lens cap?” It was when Mrs. DiMaggio was Mrs. Scudieri, and I tried to get through Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens.

My city of ruin...

In 2001, there was 9-11.  My biology teacher, Mr. Billelo (spelling?) told us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and we turned on the radio.  I figured it was an awful accident, then saw my best friend Stephanie in the hall.  I told her, and she gave me a startled look.  Mr. Rose, our history teacher,

told us that two planes had hit the World Trade Center, and the White House was on fire, the Pentagon attacked.  We thought he was kidding.  Mark Mitchell burst into stunned laughter.  Classmates began calling their parents who worked in the New York City.  I came home to my teary father, who hugged me and paced around the living room, devastated.  We went with a friend of his he had been seeing to a temple the next day to grieve.  On September 12th, there was a terrible smell of decay.  Only a week before, my friends and I had attended a boat tour of the NYC skyline for my friend Lisa’s sweet 16– the last time we would ever see the city whole.  I was writing for my high school newspaper, and we debated what to put in the next issue.  What should be our focus? Our teachers refused to turn on the televisions to keep calm, but students went to computer labs that week to download images of the crumbled towers.

In 2002, I took the PSAT, AP exams, and had my first boyfriend (no comment, but tragically, he loved anime, a type of Japanese animation).  He fetishized East Asian women (I hate the idea of racial/ethnic fetishes- shudder!), and dumped me for a Korean girl, hoping she would be “submissive.”  Glad that relationship didn’t survive! I looked him up on facebook, and found him overweight with long, greasy brown hair to his waist, working in IT.

Joshing Around in College

In 2003, I proudly served as my school newspaper’s features editor, and applied to colleges, a mess of anxiety.  I was accepted early decision into Sarah Lawrence, and felt more dread than excitement about university life.  In 2004, I finished up my freshman year in a difficult semester, full of drama and disappointment.  I joined facebook– back when just a few universities could participate! That summer, I interned at the Anti-Violence Project, and was fired from IHOP for being a shitty waitress.  I handed out copies of my poetry chapbook to my office coworkers.

In 2005, I took economics, history, and had a difficult summer at home.  The following year, in 2006, I spent the summer interning at the U.N.  I lived in the Columbia dorms (hey- where Barack Obama went to college! yay), and hung out with my friends who lived nearby in International house.  In 2007, I traveled to Uganda and Rwanda for the first time for a study abroad program with Makerere University, living with Ugandan host families in Kampala (Kanyanya) and Busia.  My life has never been the same since then.

Studying Abroad in Uganda, 2007...

That fall, I began my master’s in journalism.  While I had been in Uganda, I debated whether to go into international relations, development studies or journalism after getting accepted into three different master’s programs.  My heart was in journalism, so for better or worse (I didn’t realize the extent of problems in the industry), I began my new, exciting life at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism– community board meetings in Queens, living at International House with Adeola, Nadia, and other amazing friends, and (not) doing ballroom dancing or salsa (I have two left feet, to put it mildly!).

24 and with a master's degree in journalism! Graduation- Me, Jeff Jarvis.

Through CUNY, I got a grant from the Knight Foundation to intern at New Vision, and ended up going back to the English daily to work after graduation.  I also got a grant from CUNY to start my Ugandans Abroad website and Africa Connections company, which launched at the end of November.

I have no idea what the next decade will bring.  Journalism? Marriage? East Africa? New York? Someplace entirely new? Children?

God, I am staying tuned… please love and protect me in these years ahead.
Surround me in your love, and help me to grow as a person, writer, journalist, daughter and friend.

Love,

Becky

Where I will be for my 25th birthday?

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