Winnie (Thats what she is poularly called) is fine and started speaking her first words ie Bye Bye, and really meaning it, coz she is waving at the same time. ( She says 'Babay') She will be walking any time now and three of her teeth have popped out.

11 July, 2005

I am not into politics, and I will not pretend to be knowledgeable in politics. At the moment, I am so drained and sad to hear of the murder of one of my aunt’s in Gaba. Apparently, some boda boda (moped sort of taxis common in third world countries) men drove by and carried out a drive-by (literally). She died instantly.

Last weekend, I was attending a bbq party at a friend’s place and needless to say I was the only African in the house. After introducing myself and explaining where Uganda is located 23 times, I finally struck up a conversation with a lady who, together with her husband, enjoys traveling the world. She also seemed to have a keen interest in Africa and its politics. I was not surprised when she mentioned Idi Amin (according to my personal experience, 99% of Americans aged 50 and above who are well traveled / educated know all about Idi Amin) and inquired about the political situation of the country. Being faithful to my nation / president, I went on to give a spill of how wonderful things are in Uganda (M7, you owe me one, maybe a Cabinet post when I get deported or something). She however surprised me in the middle of our conversation when she posed the question, “WHY DON’T YOU GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY?”
Okay, she was not shouting or anything of the sort but in my mind it sounded as though she was yelling this to me the first time I heard it. She must have noticed my shock and clarified that she did not mean it in any bad way. I seriously pondered over the question, “Why don’t I go back to my country?” After all, I did what I came to do in the US, I got my college degree. Many of my friends from European countries could not wait to graduate so as to go back home and join their families. What is keeping me in the US up to this point? I don’t quite remember what I said to the lady but she was clearly not satisfied with my answer. We went on to argue about brain drain, cause and effects etc…and then we got distracted by the drinks.

Later on that night, the question loomed over my head, what are my future plans? Should I feel guilty for contributing to the brain drain in my country? Furthermore, have I abandoned my mother, siblings (sister 13 and brother 10) for the promise of the American dream?

I got the answer to all these questions and my resolve to stay in the US as long as I can was reinforced once I got the news in the first paragraph. I may be a minority in the US, I may miss my family and friends at home in the US, I will struggle through the cold winters and miss that beautiful tropical weather, but one thing that I will not miss about Uganda is the uncertainty of one’s life!
I will not miss the possibility of a hater hiring some boda boda fella to come and shoot you dead. I have too many close experiences with this scenario to be part of it. The Police in Uganda need to get their act together--- Katumba Wamala, what’s up with all the random violence? These are the things that I look at and say, “I will be a coward and stay in good ol’ Kentucky, but at least I will be free to walk around late at night and not worry about some punk shooting me in the head because of some rumor that I might be carrying money on me.” Kampala, we need to get our act together! Why can’t we have a safe city?

11 July, 2005

IU tricycle race party - college partying at its best

This will remain one of the most memorable moments in my college career. Well actually it was post-college. Thing is that I graduated early, in January (long story). So in the meantime, I was left deliberating on whether to go to Graduate school or pursue a professional career…but that is beside the point. I was down in Louisville interviewing for a job with Humana and staying at my gf’s house. So we are out having a goodtime at 4th Street Live in downtown Louisville when my party-crew called me to tell me that they were driving down to IU for a fun-filled weekend. Now J, Kwiz and Tony drove down without a plan, no where to stay, no food, beddings, etc..nothing, just the will to party and high hopes of finding a place to stay. If you know us, this is nothing new to us. We are used to going anywhere that smells of a fun party without any sort of plan. They figured that they would find a place to stay for the night (which as you will later find out, they did).

So I am all psyched out and ready to join them although there is a small problem bout whether I should bring ma gf along or not. If ur reading this and have a gf, you know how problematic it is to travel with ur gf when hanging with the boys. Things can get wild. So after some heavy debating, I decided to bring Dodu (gf) along. I mean, how bad could it get?

Come Saturday night, Dodu and I drive down to IU, which is like a 3hr drive from Louisville at about 10pm, drinks in tow, ready to party. Getting directions to the party was a problem cos neither of us had ever been to IU, but by the mood around the campus, there seemed to be a party buzz going around. One could tell by the numerous scantily dressed gals walking all over the streets and the drunk guys chasing after them..damn this was gonna be one hell of a night. I only prayed that I would not do anything I would regret.
After about 20 minutes of driving around and stubbornly refusing to ask for directions, Dodu gets pissed (she always freaks out when we seem to be lost, even though I always know where we are). She starts yelling some incognizant blab that I always ignore when she gets in that mood. Trying to keep my cool, I reluctantly agree to call Kwizo to ask him for directions.
Kwizo is drunk, or pretending to be, and he puts on one of the gals that lived there to give me directions. He always does this whenever he is having a blast at a party to make me feel jealous and pump me up for the party.
The gal claims she cannot understand my accent when I speak to her on the phone. Clearly she is either intoxicated or had a bad grade school teacher. I say screw it and hang up, decide to find my own directions. After a lot of yelling and arguing, we finally made it to the parties.
It seemed like the whole town of Bloomington was intoxicated because throngs of people were staggering across the streets of off-campus housing. WE made it to the one party that was happening [check out the pics at http://www.galiwood.com/pages/IU/album0.html ]
Ofcourse J, Kwizo and Tony were on their way to getting totally trashed. Tedlaye was also present (the guy with the afro in the pics). I started off by heading to the keg and trying the beer which was no good. I decided to stick to the cocktails, I fixed my gal a drink and we started to mingle with the party crowd. There seemed to be an influx of hot gals all over the place. My boys had already disappeared in their own corners and were crooning different females with whatever stories their drunk minds could muster.
My understanding gf, realizing my strong urge to test my flirting skills, decided to have a bet with me on who could get the most numbers that night. I was skeptical about the whole idea at first, thinking that it was a test of some sort. So did my boys. But hey, its not often that ur gf gives leaves you uninhibited to explore the prospects around IU gals ( in retrospect, maybe I was the jack-ass for thinking that she was letting me free…maybe she had her own hidden agenda in mind). ….
Anyway, it’s time for my rugby practice..will continue this story when I get back…if I remember that is ...

21 June, 2005

Anyways, today was an interesting day..it was my first day at Humana (www.humana.com). We went through new associate's orientation and it was long but interesting since I got to meet a lot of new people and some of whom I may actually be working with. I was real confused by the morning session since they were going over a lot of benefits stuff and I did not quite click it, but luckily I was not alone and many people in the room did not understand it...obvious by the numerous questions. However, over time, I got the hang of it so hopefully I will be making the right choices in terms of my health insurance benefits.
They provided the lunch which was neat and it was on the 25th floor where we had a spectacular view of the entire downtown Louisville. I was wearing my same suit that I wore to Aum's wedding (wedding pics are on galiwood.com)..same tie but a white shirt inside...like u care to know...but anyway ..point is I was looking smart although some people that showed up were quite underdressed. Many of the people in the room were older and most of them were talking abuot their families and children which was quite odd for me..I can bet that we were less than 10 singletons in a room of about 80 people. But it was all good..no one had to know that I am just a college graduate.
I got to meet one of the guys that I will be working with and turns out that he is also a recent graduate from DePaul University in Computer Science....small world..his name is Joe and he lives accross the bridge in Indiana. We talked and shared experiences about our interviews and all... he seems like a cool guy, probably about the same age, still lives with his parents, plays basketball....seems like we shall get along.
I also met another dude called MAtt from Ithica College..he is from Philedalphia and he is a funny dude..he also just moved here and knows no one in Louisville. He wants to me give him a call later on this evening so we can hang out.... I will see if I have time though because I want to read through some of this benefits informatino that was given to us. Man the traffic on the way back from work was crazy..it was hot..everyone was slamming their brakes like crazy..Louisville is gonna be a trip to drive in! I stopped by Walmart to do some grocery shopping and it took me a while to find a few simple things, I hate shopping! grocery shopping that is. I

Generally, I had a great first day and am looking forward to workign with Humana. I know it is going to be a great experience. It still feels wierd to be living on my own..but I will get used to it.

Long time no see
16 June, 2005

A lot's been going on lately...
Finally got a job with HUMANA, health insurance company out of Louisville and am excited about that. I have been moving my stuff to Louisville and trust me, moving is a b$#tch. UHAUL, PENSKE and all those moving companies are a rip off..way too expensive. Thank God for my friend Vicky that helped me move from Indiana to Louisville with her truck.

Last weekend, one of my close friends, Aum got married to Branden. I mean, I knew her before she ever kissed a guy, that's how far back we go. Aum, the pics are coming up soon on the album section, hope you liked my wedding present. That was my first American wedding and it was a hell of a time! Not as boring as I had presumed. Branden has a crazy (in a good way) family, so the wedding was exciting.

Today, I am gonna check out the Louisville Rugby team to see what it's all about. I have not played the game in years but my love remains. Hope I am still in shape.

26 April, 2005

(Forgive All Grammatical Errors - FAGE)
I just watched Hotel Rwanda about two days ago and the experience that I went through was really touching and it affected me personally as an African reigning from Uganda which neighbors Rwanda. I was in Kampala when the genocide happened in 1994.

What touched you the most? What statements shocked you, made you angry, happy etc?
To me, the most outstanding statement was, "the Western world despises you because you're black. You're not even a n-gger, you're an African." -- Col. Oliver (Canadian army general) was explaining to Paul (main Rwandese character) why the rest of the world chose to ignore Rwanda in its time of need. I must admit that even with the tough core that I have developed surviving the past four years in an overwhelmingly white school, town, city, state etc., this movie forced me to re-evaluate my position on this earth.

But Uganda has over 30 tribes, how do we manage to survive without any genocide?
Or maybe I am underestimating the animosity that lurks between these tribes. There are the general stereotypes present in Uganda – the westerners are rich,proud and powerful since they control the government and President Museveni comes from the west. They are usually tall and fair skinned. The Baganda are the proud majority. They have big noses. They are concentrated in the central region of the country and seem to be obsessed with their king (kabaka). The Northern part of Uganda has the ignored tribes. It is ravaged by rebel activity of Kony and the current government has done little / nothing to help out their situation. Since they are darker skinned, they go through a lot of criticism because apparently in Kampala (capital city of Uganda), the lighter skinned you are, the better. Is this racism? What kind of discrimination is this? But anyway, back to HOTEL RWANDA.

What were the reactions to the movie? What is the point of feeling sorry for the dead Rwandans anyway? What was the point of Hotel Rwanda?
I spoke to a number of my American friends here at the college that watched the movie and the general consensus is that they were angry. Steve said that Bill Clinton was a poor president because he let the genocide happen. But then again, Steve is a Republican. Mike, on the other hand, felt like he wanted to beat somebody, anybody! True, this movie does elicit a tremendous amount of emotion. But is this enough? What shall we say when we are done watching MOTEL SUDAN, the sequel to HOTEL RWANDA that is due for release in 2015, around 10 years after the current genocide in Sudan?
What was I doing anyway when the genocide happened? Why didn’t I do something to help? What did other African countries do?
When the actual genocide occurred, I might as well have been an American because being a student at Kampala Parent’s School, one of the top primary schools in Kampala city, all I knew of the genocide was from the New Vision newspaper. The only scare was when the national water supply was compromised due to the many dead bodies that floated upstream River Kagera into Lake Victoria, our chief water supply.
Anyway, why do we always wait for the UN to come solve African problems? What is wrong with Africa? Why it always that there is corruption, power struggles, war, poverty, starvation, AIDS……………………………….etc? Why are we always in the compromising position whereby we are soliciting foreign aid? When shall we become self sufficient?

19 July, 2005

So anyways, we have officially arrived at the party, the dj is playing the latest 50 cent bootleg album, and the gals seem to be having a competition of who can dress the skimpiest, two fraternity boys outfitted in the obligatory Abercrombie gear are giving the bushes a golden shower we they shout at the girls in the house (they are later going to be embracing and shaking hands with the same gals). “GAALIII, DOORREeE!! You are late!!” Tonny Toca aka Shhhneaky was screaming at us as we exited the car. Now you must understand the Shhhneaky manages to whisper a business-related sentence once every two days…if he is in a good mood. Otherwise, he only uses sign/body language – hence the name. To hear him yell wilder than William Hung having an orgasm was a sign that he was intoxicated. Tonny Toca was drunk, it was official that this was going to be a great night!
Meanwhile, Dodu after sizing up her competition and realizing that these gals were not playing around decided to get back in the car and bring her A-game. ( I think gals bring along their make-up kits to parties just in case there are situations like this such that if there seem to be a bunch of hungry wolverines trying to devour your man, you are prepared… isn’t that true my dear?)
Fast forward >>>>>>> (Dodu makes bet about numbers etc)>>>>> I am sipping on some goose, slowly feeling the cold, hard liquor run through my veins, enjoying the sultry-but-cool sensation that comes along with having the freedom to consume liquor without the worries of real life, the satisfaction of edging towards graduation with a job secured for you once you graduate, the temptation of having your gf’s exclusive permission to go out and be merry amidst this harem of nubile creatures of seduction. I remember thinking “Wait, did she tell me how far I could go? Hmm, don’t remember, but this drink is really good, I need to burn that cd from whoever the owner of this house is – that’s some good sht, I need ano….”
My thoughts were cut short when this gal bumped into me and asked me to show her friends some dance moves. Not to be out-tricked even when drunk, I knew this was a setup from Dodu. I quickly scanned the room for her but to no avail. But then again I thought, why be a miser with one’s talent instead of sharing…even Jesus preached, “Let your light shine”. I am expecting Dodu to jump out yelling ‘aHA!’ as soon as I got sandwiched by these two hot looking gals. Not that she has any reason to mistrust me, but u know how gals can get jealous. >>>>> 5 minutes past, nothing yet, well, I guess I was being paranoid, I wonder what Dodu is up to anyway. The two hot gals are whisked away by their jealous-cannot-dance-boyfriends. That’s the least of my worries, I am starting to wonder what Dodu is doing… or even a more shocking thought, “WHO she is doing!” But wait, I cannot be freaking out, I am the man, surely I cannot be out here stressing about her after she gave me this once in a lifetime chance to wild out. So I look for the next catch.
50 cent is spitting lyrics that make you want to wash out his mouth with soap….(and not because they’re dirty, but so that they can stay that fresh)
I walk through the dark corridor, Kwizkwiz, with all the alcohol in his system, is attempting to groove with a gal who is half my height (Kwizo is about 6’3). He wipes the sweat off his forehead and palms… I always thought taller guys had it best, but in this case, it was harder work.
Toca (Shneak) is strategically stationed by the girl’s bathroom… I always tell the boys that the phrase “pimpin ain’t easy” don’t apply to the Shneeak master. As soon as the next couple of gals leave the restroom, he abandons the one he was chatting up and starts off with the two.
Smiling, I walk to the lawn to see what’s going on out there. There were a lot of people..scratch that. In my entire college career, I had not seen so many people in such a small place – Bin Laden would have a blast here (literally!!). However, one particular gal caught my eye, she was tall and leggy (hot legs), cherry bottomed (not to big, not flat, just enough, munchable---hey, all u should ever mind is the behind), great hair...generally, she passed the back view test with flying colors. Some drunken chump was trying to say something to her. It was obvious he was only interested in one thing (it’s funny how guys can always see through each others’ bullshit, and ladies can be so gullible). Anyway, I ain’t no hater so I wished the lucky bastard good luck, and turned to go get another drink (even though mine was only half way---#1. sign that I was not sober). Wait, what was so striking about that gal? She resembled Dodu in so many ways..was it Dodu?! #2. sign that I really not sober. But with my veins fully pumped with anger, I raced to find that couple!! … (damn that really was a long night, I feel like I have been writing forever and I gotta get going already…next time)

13 August, 2005

Today is a great day! I am sooo happy for my homes Em who got a job with Bloomberg in Boston. Em, if ur reading this, I know ur gonna kill me but man, I gotta celebrate with you, it's all love bro. It's funny cos Em and I went through the same scenarios.
See, unemployment for a Ugandan in the US is different from basic unemployment. You see, basic unemployment won’t stop you from flippin burgers or joining the army. But not international unemployment, we're looking for that H1B, so we dont have the luxury of messing around with small time entrepreneur employers (read H1B). So long story short, Em has been whining to me bout how his life is going through hell.
Watch out for stories of what Em's gone through.

18 August, 2005
Unemployed Em has been holding down a fulltime job of applying for jobs. Unfortunately he is no longer eligible to stay on campus since he has already graduated from college. Luckily his pal Tom signed up for summer housing but left half way the summer. He offered Em the place for the remainder of the summer.
Sunday night, 10 pm, Em is lazing around contemplating his future when a beautiful brunette keys into his apartment. Was this his lucky night? Unfortunately, it was the beginning of his nightmare.
“Who are you?”
“Emnuel, who are you? “
“I have been assigned this room for my summer class!”
Shit! Gotta think quickly! “There must be some mix-up because I booked this place for the summer.”
The girl seems to buy this and contacts housing security who gives her a different room for the night. Ofcourse Em’s cover is blown. He prepares for more lies the next day. Packs his bags just in case.
Sure as hell, at 8am, two burly security guards are knocking loudly at his door.
“You have to leave the place now!” (not what they really said, but what they really meant when they said whatever they said) Em insists on being conniving. “there is a mixup, lemme call housing.” Security guard stands close by as Em makes the call. Em speaks to Betty, a pleasant lady he has worked with over his college career. “You have to leave Em. Our records state that you cant be there. It was assigned to Tom.”
“Lemme be honest with you Betty..” Em comes clean about Tom lending him the apartment. He begs his ass off so that he can stay there.
“Do you atleast have a job oncampus, working atleast 20 hrs a week? “
“Ofcourse, I have been working phonathon for Jonathan.”
”Okay Em, will make an exception for you.” Betty orders the barking guards down.
Phew..close call. Em diffidently smiles as disappointed guard leaves the apartment.
20 min later, a knock on his door again. What now? The guards again! Silmultaneously, his phone rings. It’s Betty.
“Em, I spoke with Jonathan, he told me that you stopped working for him two months ago.” Shit, Busted! Think Quick!!
“Okay Betty, I will be real honest with you this time, I stopped fulltime but been workin parttime ….” Betty is not buying any more crap from Em.
Em pleads for his life, he has nowhere to go at the moment, let alone stand the embarrassment of being evicted.

Finally, Betty agrees to give him until Friday.
Now Em sits on his porch contemplating, how did it ever come to this?
Bummy ass car, no reimbursement. No job, time is running out. No place to stay as of Friday.

Why do I seem to take less pictures with my digital camera after college? Is my life getting boring that I have nothing exciting to take pics of anymore? I have lost the passion that I once had for my camera.
I surely am in the wrong state. This is a sign for me to leave Louisville.