by 11am i had been taken advantage of…twice…and was starving and tired. the ride into kampala, which in waiting terms began before 8am, was relatively quick. of course it would have helped if i had printed the conference information. instead i managed a tour of parts of the city i’d never seen, walked through makerere university’s campus, and amused the guards at the kabira country club as my boda driver inspected my 20,000shilling note to make sure it was real in the shadow of the posh establishment.

today was all about science. at least it was supposed to be. UVP successfully submitted four abstracts to this annual conference and i am responsible for presenting two – one today and one tomorrow.

our presentations centered around projects and work we do in iganga district – village health teams and our summer internship. other presentations had “sexier” topics. the seeming hit of the day was titled, speaking in tongues, could it be hysteria. it noted the history of glossolalia and hysteria, my favorite being the idea that hysteria was caused by a uterus roaming to other parts of the body.

questions abounded but Shoes refused even to clap based on scientific principle.

the day dragged to an end without even the lure of african tea to entice us to linger. so off we rode, one boda between us. Shoes squeezed in the middle to accommodate my bulging backpack and my skirt blowing in the artificial breeze.

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