Hi Guys
Well a lot has happened since my last post which I sent having just moved to Uganda in November.
Work became very hectic and unfortunately not very enjoyable either. Most of my colleagues were great to work with being either Ugandan or Kenyan. The company’s owner however was an odd guy who ran the organisation rather like a school. It was a very strange environment to work in.
Aside from work you may have heard about a new proposed law in Uganda which aims to toughen up the anti-gay laws. Homosexuality is already against the law with the maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Apparently this is not strong enough and a new offence of aggravated homosexuality is proposed.
This is defined as anyone caught more than once or someone with HIV having sex with or without a condom. The penalty for this would be death! It is widely believed that much of the pressure behind this law has come from radical Christian organisations in the USA.
These two events led me to realise that I did not want to stay in a country that would rather I was dead.
It is very strange living in a country which is so backward when it comes to HIV and Human rights and often scary. I did not face any direct abuse but that is mainly due to hiding the facts about myself. Locals live in fear of prosecution; indeed the new law would make it an offence to know that someone was gay and not inform the authorities.
So I decided to leave in January and felt I owed it to myself to see something of the region; I therefore went on the most fantastic 2 week trip to the coast of Kenya and to Tanzania.
Africa is such an enormous and beautiful continent filled with generous, gorgeous and very friendly people. It is just a shame that there are so many problems.
To be honest whilst human rights are an acute issue there it is nothing compared to the poverty and malnutrition that are the major problems of many countries in the continent.
I arrived back in London a few weeks ago now and I can tell you it has been a bit of a shock. Not just the weather but also the order and the anonymity that everyone has walking down the road since there is such cultural diversity here. No more being stared at!
The one sad thing is despite wealth and sophistication everyone seems so miserable – nobody smiles!
I am currently looking for work and hoping to stay in the development area, although that is looking hard at the moment.
My health continues to be fine and will be off the hospital for a full check in the next couple of weeks.
Until then
Px
