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Showing posts from 2011

Taxi Driver

My taxi driver during several years send me a Christmas greeting via sms to my Ugandan phone number. This year I am in Denmark during Christmas season, though I would rather spend every winter under Equators sun. But this year is when my whole Danish family are gathered like every other uneven year. The even years I spend with my African families. I return my taxi drivers greeting - and thank him. You might think that he is only doing it to remind me to also use him next time, but I can never forget to call him when I arrive in Nairobi Airport. He has always been nice to me and treated me very good - besides he is a very nice man. I can recommend Roses Taxi and Lawrence to anyone. So if you are going to Nairobi don't hesitate to call me. Then I will give you his contacts and a few other necessary tips. Happy Holidays ... ... I wish you a brown Christmas ... ... El Vez rocks ...

I can beat you!

On the first nite in Kampala I am going to get something to eat before going to sleep – as I return to my home I decide to have a drink in Wine Garage. I order a glass of red wine and stay at the counter to drink it. There is another man next to me. I greet him – he greets me. We talk casually, but suddenly he becomes hostile and agressive. I am admiring the painting at the wall. He says: ”stop, stop, stop ...”. I keep quiet to respect his demand and avoid to cause conflict, but he stares at me. It is hard not to react on his wild eyes, because his attitude is very violent. He begins to say, that he could beat me. I am not sure if I shall take it seriously or not. He continues: ”I don't like you”. I realise that a conflict is unavoidable – so I decide to pay my bill and go outside. He stands up and begins to push me. The waitresses befind the counter do nothing. I pay and walk outside to finish my drink, but he follows me and I see no other solution than leaving my drink and walk a

Visuability

My glasses has gone from transparency to white-gray as an old man's hair. After many years my optician has refused to put them back on track. Right now I am back in my beloved East Africa and just after a few hours my glasses has again become transparent.

White babbling

There will always be a white woman or man puking about conditions in Africa. They have always spent considerable time in Africa, though they still do not understand much. Years ago it was Uganda. For several years Uganda was a donor darling. Apparently it has now become too obvious that the Ugandan President is corrupt beyond reach. An article in a Danish newspaper seem to indicate that Rwanda is the new darling. It is striking as well as surprising. The Rwandan President Paul Kagame did for years send his troups into the Congo to fight against the Ugandan Army and whoever else have been there - the battle field of Central African, where there has been wars constantly during the last 50 years with very vague international attention. The Congo messures the size of Western Europe.

Time

Time passes it is something, it has to do. We believe the movement of time is an important part of life one day is like the other without meaning in a broader perspective more time, more life. We are thiny particles it means more than we imagine outside, warm and cold it is our decision. I prefere life. (Beginnings p.16)

Aftermath

I am not you you are definitely not me we are the intercourse between life and death

Desorientation

I have a habit of travelling in and out of Europe - as I now call the place, where I am supposed to come from. It never was possible for me to accept the idea that I belonged to a specific place. As long as I can remember I have felt out of place. To go outside Europe gave me comfort - but it didn't give me any sense of belonging. I was given the possibility of seeing something else. Thereby I was able to tell different stories about myself. In New England I was sliding along the walls as a young and scared teenage boy. I could not find any space that I regarded as mine. Most of the time during a full year I walked silent as an invisible ghost. I could have returned to Denmark, but it didn't appear as an option. Was I colonised by a broader purpose? Eventually I returned to Denmark, where I finished high-school, as I was expected to do. Again I felt out of place, but in more profound manner. After high-school I decided to travel to Mexico. I was alone - it was a pleasure for me

A message from ...

If I wanted to be religious, spiritual or believe in destiny ... these past weeks in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have given me several opportunities. The first days in Nairobi just before Christmas I met two friends coincidentally - I had lost contact with both of them, though we all are in each others Facebook-archives. In Kampala Charles pulls by me in Kabalagala - I had actually thought I had lost him, because his phone was off when I was in Kampala in April. He was one of my first friends in Uganda, Ugandan friends - I mean. We used to meet in the evenings in Kabalagala together with other friends: Joseph, Richard (before he died), Francis ... Charles always told one incredible story after another. They were all definitely on the borderline of we in Europe regard as the truth - but here where storytelling is the core of communication the truth does not make a lot of sense. The very evening that I return to Nairobi I meet Jack – by coincident in a City of 4 mill. people in Nakumatt L

Guilty as charged

I have been caught in a crime I thought I was protected against. It might not seem severe, but it is contradictory to my basic principals: 1) Give anybody the benefit of doubt 2) Do not think of yourself as above others I treated her as a prostitute and not even a prostitute should be treated like this. Just because I walk into a bar, where I am usually attacked by suspicious women. I also know that here are all kind of decent women just having fun with their friends. It is the silent corruption of a white man in Africa - or a rich man anywhere. I have slided back on that path, where you think, you can do, what you want and place yourself as superior. I will have to pull myself back, as I did before, and ask her for forgiveness. It is ironic that I am far and for most known by the song "Mumusonyiwe" - please forgive him, which tells about a white man, who does serious mistakes and still is forgiven, as I properly have been and will be in the future.