I made it.

Hi there.

So this is my first posting since I have arrived. I have so much I could type. I am currently sitting in a dark internet cafe surrounded by children playing Grand Theft Auto - oh globalization.

After 24 hours of travel I arrived at 9PM Tuesday (2PM your time) and was greeted by Kizito (the executive director and founder of the school) and the woman of seemingly all other tasks at the school Annette (also known as Ann). We had a meal and talked about the class scheduling. I am teaching 2 classes with 12 students each for the next two weeks. One class goes from 8:15-12:45 and the other from 2:00-4:00. One class as taken some photography, but as I found out today - those who have had little experience are more behind than those that had their first experience with cameras today. Also, I am teaching with a Ugandan national named Nicholas.

We proceeded to where I will be staying where I met my housemate Zeevic. He is from Israel and in the 3rd month of his 12 months here. He is working with an NGO teaching people (incarcerated, AIDs carriers and students at the art school how to make art from plastic bottles (normally things that would be burned in rubbish piles) and paper mache. I'm guessing he is in his 40's ponytail, Jon Lennon glasses and clothes he made in India that resemble pjs. Oh - and he is a vegan. Hooray! Out home has 3 bedrooms with 5 beds, a 2 day old refrigerator that already broke, a squat toilet/drain for the shower, a hot water tank for the shower and living room furniture. We are living the luxury life.

Although exhausted I hardly slept because of the 7 hour time difference. That made for puffy marshmallow eyes and a long Wednesday. I got a tour of the art academy and was impressed by what they were doing. It's no CIA, but very interesting. They run 2 semesters the same as us and have been bringing in artists to do 2-4 week workshops in a constant rotation. They had some work from a ear ago that was silkscreen prints on glass that are awesome. Zeevic is working with them and they are working on painting and lettered communication design. I also made it to the city (Kampala) to set up my cell phone and look for a power converter. While there I saw a wheat paste poster for a concert this Friday at the rugby stadium that features Emmanuel Jal. I saw a documentary about him at the Cleveland International Film Festival. A former child soldier from Sudan who now lives in New York. I told Ann I wold cover her ticket if she went with me and that is our plan.

I visited Kamubogo Academy and saw their art department as well as Ann had to fill out paper work as an affiliate of the school. She had just as much of a wild goose chase as any one who has tried to cross register classes at Case. The students were making mostly wood sculpture with plan or reused plastics as facade.

For dinner I ate a Rolex (chapote fried tortilla type bread with fried eggs rolled together). I am a non vegan when I am here. Still no meat or milk. I talked to Jon, my mom and dad which was nice to feel reconnected after a few days.

Today was great. My first day of teaching. I am very happy to work with Nicholas. He picks up when I don't know another way to describe things. He states a few sentences in their language and then we continue. He has both a passion for photography and a sense of humor that keeps the class fun. The second class was asking how much cameras cost, where they could buy them, where there were darkrooms, and when could they learn how to print photos after just a basic introduction to ISO, Aperture and metering. A special thanks to Maxim, Mike and Vince for the manual cameras and film. They have had a great impact in just a day. For those of you that don't know - they donated some great cameras for the program that I brought with me to give to the school. Also thanks to Donna, Aunt Pat and Richard for their help with donations as well.

Although it is not common for the students to meet on Saturdays we are meeting to go to the beach and practice and next Saturday night we are going to do some experimental photography with light drawing and long exposures. I will be finishing up the classes a week from next Wednesday and giving out an assignment for when I am in the North. I will come back at the end for the critique and will hopefully put together a book when I return home.

That is all for now. It's past time to eat something. Tomorrow I will be teaching and then maybe going to the Ugandan Museum that has artifacts, Friday is teaching and the concert, Saturday is the beach and Sunday shooting photos in Kampala.

I'll keep you posted.

peace,
Lauren

Oh I almost forgot. For those of you that know my love for pigs will understand why this story is important enough to post in this blog. I was walking last night with Ann to get food and there was some beef on a stick. Out of no where she was like, "if you are here then who is there." I asked her what she meant by that. She explained that in the movie Babe the pig there was a part when the animals thought their duck friend was going to be eaten for Christmas dinner. There was a duck on the table, but their friend flew up next to them and Babe said, "if you are here then who is there." It was great. She said she really liked that movie. :@)