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in uganda car license plate numbers essentially replace VIN numbers for permanent car identification. for example, all offical records of our landcruiser refer to UAD 592H. not only is the license number on the plate but it’s also etched into every removable piece of glass on the car. until tonight, i didn’t […]

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uno’s spent the afternoon alternating between rubbing his face on my laptop screen and walking across its keyboard, and in doing so has effectively reminded me that i have yet to blog about him making his way to africa. this is uno’s minnesota-to-uganda story, sort of like a rags-to-riches story but not really…
we’d debated […]

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every time i get into my car, i’m reminded that i really live here. i’ve never lived in a foreign country long enough to own a car before. now i do, and i do. i’m no longer intimidated by the traffic or the drivers or the lefthand-side-of-the-road driving. in fact, i […]

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moving to uganda i expected to take some time off from ultimate - both as a player and as a coach. as it turns out i’ve done neither, and happily so.
coaching in uganda and coaching in the states are the two extremes. there i coached one of the best college women’s teams in […]

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i saw the last king of scotland the other day. i’m not really a reviewer but i think you should see it. forest whitaker will win the oscar for leading actor, and for the most part it’s often worth watching oscar-winning movies.
the last king of scotland is historical fiction about idi amin and his […]

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you’d think that moving to africa would be a whole new world, and it is on a certain level. there’s new sights, new sounds, new people, new culture. but, really it’s all the same. no matter where you are you need a place to live, a way to make money, friends to […]

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i visited an orphanage just outside kampala today that serves children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. the public health term for AIDS orphans is “orphans and vulnerable children” (OVC). OVC encompasses children orphaned by other causes, too - famine, conflict, accident/injury - but in its most common application it refers to children who lost one […]

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i’d allowed myself to be lulled into complacency, ignorance, acceptance. i was spoiled. for over a month i have not had to deal with any government agency (other than the ministry of health) directly for any kind of service. then, today i was thrown back into the deep end. today i had to […]

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one of the perks of living in africa: when it rains all the little creatures come out to play. okay, so the geckos are around all the time (on the walls, on the ceilings), but after yesterday’s afternoon downpour i was plagued by more cockroaches than i could count. and, they were gi-normous. […]

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a friend asked me today what my favorite and least favorite things were about living in uganda. my response…
101paige 101africa 101iph
favorite: working in a position that actually matters both within the organization and within the community.
least favorite: the culture of dependence created by the international aid community.

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