portaluganda.org

Brian

Brian is a student of Computer Science at Makere University in Uganda's capital, Kampala. He is also a part time boda-boda driver. Brian lost his parents at an early age. Now, at age 20, he supports himself and his younger sister by driving a boda — or motorcycle taxi — ...

Reflections on the Summer: Project Evaluation

Project Summary: We worked in three areas of Uganda. First we worked in Kampala, the capital city. We stayed there from July 6th to July 27th, and worked with children in two organizations – Focus, an after-school program for kids in the slums of Mulago; Cornerstone, a house for street ...

Stage? Sex workers in Lyantonde

In the small village of Lyantonde, it’s the hum of trucks passing that first wakes you in the morning. Not the birds. Or the kitchen. Even the large woman sweeping briskly in the courtyard. No. It’s the trucks that wake you. The entire main ...

Ojok Tony

Ojok Tony is 16 years old. Originally from the rural village of Koro in Northern Uganda, Tony was forced to flee northwards to the city of Gulu with his family after the village was attacked by Lord's Resistance Army ...

Pausing for Rain

In Uganda, all movement halts for the rain. Life pauses, patient, watching raindrops fall, droplets that land with a ting on tin rooftops and delicate splashes into growing, red puddles, with a million soft thwumps into the grass and the maize and the soft, fertile orange-red earth. Life pauses, ...

Evelyn and Maxmiriam

Nabayego Evelyn and Namayanja Maxmiriam are best friends. In the early 90s, they both lost their parents to AIDs. Today, at sixteen, they attend Bishop's Senior School in Mukono, a district just East of Kampala. This is ...

Chapatti

This blog is for Mickey, as I never pass a food stand without thinking of him! Chapatti stands are ubiquitous in Uganda. At any point of human traffic, whether by foot or by bus, along dirt or cement, among building or trees – in any place of human congregation, chapatti ...

The Meeting Fortold

We sit in a small, darkened room before a stern, middle-aged man. Besides us kneel two of his children, estranged since his second marriage, and a friend of ours and the girl’s. Daylight noises call through cracks in the walls and the window – children, roosters, washing ...

Devotion

This church is small – half a dirt floor and half cement, a red clay stage and four walls of multi-sheeted tin, held together by long wooden beams. A stained-light window of dappled sky and trees peers in from above the curtained stage, a triangle of light and warmth ...

Update

After a whirlwind two and half weeks in Kampala, we are setting off for Leontonde in Southern Uganda for the second leg of our project. In our first stint at recording, we were able to capture some great narratives and youth interviews, all in the midst of meeting with Uganda's ...