Uganda in dribs and drabs

I've been back from Uganda for a week now and am currently up to my eyes in interviews. So I'm just going to throw out a bunch of snippets of things. Really, at this point it's this or nothing, so quit your complaining.


We went shooting in the market one afternoon to capture "everyday life in Uganda" which is much harder than it sounds, mostly because it isn't everyday that I bunch of white people show up at the Kalerwe market in Kampala and ask to film the produce. But we gave it a good effort. My job for most of the morning was to run interference, keeping May supplied with fresh tapes and batteries and out of trouble. And to shoot a bunch of pictures, natch.
Something that we were always dealing with (and which I've encountered in most places that I've shot) is people asking for money in exchange for being filmed and/or photographed. I never like to pay in these situations, and although it costs me some great photos, it means I get to have awesome conversations like this one:
Him (in a hostile tone): I want money. Give me money.
Me (laughing): Hey, I want money too!
Him: No, you give me money for food. I'm hungry.
Me: Oh me too! I'm hungry too!
Him: Why are you hungry?
Me: I didn't have any breakfast this morning. Why are you hungry?
Him: I didn't have breakfast either. Why didn't you eat breakfast?
Me: I didn't have time. I had to come to the market and film you!
he's laughing now.
Me: So why didn't you have breakfast?
Him: (laughing) I never eat breakfast!
By now everyone around us has started to giggle.
Everybody now: Maybe that's why you're so hungry!


On my way back from Uganda my flight itinerary looked like this:
1) Entebbe, Uganda to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 2 Hours. No stops.
2) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Tel Aviv, Israel. 4 hours and 55 minutes. No stops.
So you can understand my alarm when I was awoken 3 hours into my Entebbe to Addis flight by the following announcement, "ladies and gentlemen, we have begun our decent into Djibouti, please fasten your seat-belts and return your tray-tables to their blah blah blah..." Really, after they said "Djibouti" I just wasn't listening. Then of course, there's a 5 minute announcement in Amharic just to confuse me more. In my jet-lagged stupor I begin to imagine that pick out words like "Addis" and "eaten by locusts" and "connecting flights" and "hhahahhahahaha", you know, the typical air-hostess fare.
Anyway, as it turns out there was some bad weather in Addis, so they sent us to Djibouti to sit on the tarmac and re-watch some of the horrible movie that I had the good fortune to sleep through the first time. But I still made my connection.
As a side note, when I mentioned the bad weather story to the guy across the isle from me, he rolled his eyes and gave a little snorty laugh: "pffft I bet you anything it's the runway lights. those runway lights in Addis are always going out..." I wasn't sure if he knew what he was talking about or if he was just talking crazy.


I've been in Haifa for a little under two years now, and so I really haven't been traveling as much as I used to. This was painfully illustrated when I was dropped at the airport in Uganda for my return trip. Now, four of us had traveled down to Uganda for this project, but we were all returning at different times and so I ended up at the airport by myself with a pile of video equipment, photo equipment and computer gear. My bags are about twice as heavy as they're supposed to be, I have $108 in my wallet, no cell phone (or rather a cell phone without a sim card in it), and no one meeting me on the other end. But at this point I still thought I was doing ok. Right.
Well, the nice lady at the Ethiopian Airlines counter relieved me of $100 (after getting her to come down from $350), my flight got re-routed to Djibouti (mercifully I still made my connection in Addis, I can only imagine trying to survive a night in Djibouti with $8). When I arrived in Tel Aviv I managed to scrounge a few shekels from the bottom of my bag for the train to Haifa (though I still got off at the wrong station) and as a final stroke of luck a kind Israeli took pity on me and let me use his phone to call a friend to come and fetch me.


We went to the National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO) to shoot both some nice science-y stuff and a bunch of high-tech plants. You know, like those flowers that change colour when you plant them over landmines? Anyway, while we didn't find any landmine detecting flowers, we did find the office of NARO's director after he hauled us in there for the heinous crime of: trying to find his office.
See, we had been next door at the seed research facility and the nice researchers there had told us and the nifty and suitably high-tech biotechnology lab next door. So we went to find the director so he could give us permission. After taking a wrong turn (which was pretty easy considering there are no signs anywhere) this director comes running out and starts asking us all kinds of crazy questions and then tells us to leave and then tells us he won't let us leave and marches us all over to his office to have our ID's photocopied and whatnot.
At one point he askes me where I'm from.
"Canada," I reply.
"Well I've been to Canada, and I can tell you that in Canada you can't just walk into any government facility and start shooting whatever you like!" Said Mr. Irrational.
"Yes sir, you're absolutely right, because in Canada we have things like gates and signs to indicate where you can and cannot go. Perhaps you should look into investing in some of that technology for your top secret facility."*
* I didn't actually say this, but oh how I wanted to...