Lilian went into early labor this weekend. The baby died and she almost did too. The mood is very somber at my house, but thank god she's alive. The malaria had weakened the baby too much, and it was too late to do a C-section.



it strikes me that a lot of people are afraid of Africa, as evidenced by the endless gasps I received whenever I told someone where I was studying abroad. The association of Africa with nothing but images starving children is patronizing, and it's offensive to me that people think Africans are incapable of conducting ordinary lives, no matter how poor they are. Kampala is a dusty, run-down city that can't afford public buses, but wherever there are people that need to get places, there is a market for affordable minibuses. Africans use the internet and watch tv and a lot of times get along better without our help.

sometimes I wonder if it's just because we assume Africa is so pathetic that it stays underdeveloped. That and the Berlin Conference. Why should it always be kept in a separate category and be spoken about in hushed voices?

at the same time, we have a need to prop up our self-esteem with "success stories" from Africa. Before I came, I read everywhere: "Uganda is on the right track. Uganda has good governance. Uganda has high growth." I thought of President Museveni as an enlightened despot, who had brought order and prosperity despite the fact that he has been "democratically elected" for 23 years. But he's become just another African dictator, universally despised and spending money on presidential jets instead of schools. Uganda has an intellectual, highly-developed civil society, with great newspapers that act as if the opposition has a chance of winning, but the physical characteristics of the country are nothing like what I read in those World Bank publications. I think a lot of Ugandans would be surprised to hear how often their country is cited as the "poster child" for development.

in other news, I still love Uganda and my host family and my cows and the fact that Rihanna plays even more often on the radio here than in the US. My camera was pickpocketed last week in Rwanda so I lost a lot of pictures of Obama-themed stores and advertisements. So it goes.