Week Six: Lake Victoria
This week most of the SAFE staff is out in the field delivering supplies to the district land boards. Part of SAFE’s project is to promote capacity building at local levels so that land issues can be dealt with quickly and locally before they escalate into either lengthy and expensive court cases or escalate to violence. One report I read recently estimated that approximately half of all criminal cases in Uganda originated from land disputes.
To combat this, SAFE trains local leaders in ADR and meditation as well supplying districts with copies of legal text, computers, printers, cameras, bicycles, and other materials needed to carry out local land rights mediations and investigations.
Back at the office, it’s been a short week. We had Monday off for the Fourth of July and then Wednesday off for Eid but I had a few days at work to catch up on my report writing.
Over the weekend I took time to explore more areas around Kampala. On Saturday, a friend and I went to one of the main markets in Kampala and purchased fried grasshoppers. I had been seeing these around town and had been curious to try them. They were surprisingly good. They kind of tasted like popcorn and now my curiosity can be laid to rest.
On Sunday I took a boat out to Ggaba beach on the outskirts of Kampala on Lake Victoria. There I took a boat to a nearby island and did some hiking before coming back and relaxing on the beach and enjoying some fresh Tilapia. Lake Victoria was gorgeous. It stretches out so far in every direction that you forget you are looking at a lake and not the ocean.
Now I’m back home dealing with a sunburn and an unfortunate water shortage in my neighborhood that has left my apartment without running water for a few days but I’m looking forward to recuperating and starting a new week.