Riots, Riots, Everywhere. Will they stop?

Well, I'm sorry to anyone who has been interested that I haven't posted anything about the riots that have been going on in Uganda for the last few weeks, so now I will write a nice summary of it all.

Basically, the main opposition to President Museveni, Kizza Besigye, lost in the elections in February again. Everything was peaceful for a while. Then, people started to protest the sudden rise in fuel prices and inflation which has caused food prices to sky-rocket. Basically, on Thursday the 14th, Besigye and other opposition leaders decided to walk to work in order to protest the price of fuel. The police reacted severely, and tried to arrest him. The people rioted and fought back, and some live bullets were fired. Besigye was shot in the hand with a rubber bullet, which made people extremely angry.

 The police pulled people out of houses and shot tear gas (an irritating gas used to disperse riots) into people's houses, and into some schools. There were running battles, and several people were injured, including a pregnant woman who was shot in the stomach. This all happened about 10 minutes from my school, so they sent us home early. That was extremely interesting, as our neighbor had to drive me and his kids home. These neighbors are from Utah, and are only here for 6 months. They have never been in riots before, and so I called him from school, told him we needed to leave, got his kids (including one of my good friends) and figured out if we needed to take back roads or plan something else. Unbeknown to us, some of these riots had taken place about a 30 seconds drive from the main gate of the university, so about 2 minutes from our front door.

 Besigye promised to continue walking to work every Monday and Thursday.

On Monday everyone thought everything was calm, and around my school it was. However, when my mom showed up at school I could tell something was not right. She pulled out her phone, and showed me a picture of the burning tires she had to drive through to get to my school (the good thing was my dad's driver took her in because they knew there were problems). And this was the back way, while she tried to avoid riots. So, we drove home. The road was still blackened all the way across, and the police were out in full force. It was quite disconcerting. That night, we heard shouting from the house, and people were rioting very close by (about two minutes from my house).

My mom took this picture on her way to pick me up. This was one of the fires on the road, but when we came back through about 100 meters away from this the road was blackened from burning road blocks like this all the way across. My mom luckily avoided those, but she had to go through this one. While it was not on fire anymore, this road was so eerie and charred when we came through.

The Thursday before Easter Besigye walked again. In Masaka, about 2 hours from where we live, people rioted. The police reacted again, and shot live bullets. A two year old was shot while she was playing in the head and the chest. She died pretty much instantly. Besigye was arrested yet again, and held in prison until Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Besigye was allowed bail and set free, as long as he didn't try to walk or cause any riots again.  However, yesterday morning he attempted to leave his compound. The police stopped him, but directed him to drive on a certain road as long as he did not wave or make a scene at all. But, the police and others attacked his car. They smashed it, and him and his aides and workers, with sledge-hammers and gun butts. Besigye was drenched in tear gas, and sent to the hospital unable to see. He was fairly severely injured. People protested, but it was not a massive problem. This picture was taken yesterday when Besigye was being arrested

Today, everything kind of fell apart. A rumor circulated on Twitter that Besigye had died, which was not true. People reacted, though. Severe riots broke out everywhere. They were near my school (though thankfully I'm on spring break), right around my friends' houses, and spread all over the place. Basically, people formed road blocks and hit the anti-riot police with rocks. They set huge fires, and everything turned into chaos. We had no idea about this, until around 11 a.m. my dad sent my mom a text. My dad was at a staff retreat in what turned out to be one of the major hots-spots. We continued getting texts from him which said things like "It's a good thing to have microphones so that you can be heard over gun shots and explosions". Needless to say, we were worried.

This picture I actually took from an msnbc article. The armed person is a riot police officer who is shooting pepper spray at Besigye... in his car.

So, these pictures were taken from the BBC article about today (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13237058) . It was taken about an hour and a half from where we are...

The riots continued to spread, including in Mukono (the town I live in) . However, they finally quieted down. Everything seems fairly calm now. However, on Monday Besigye will likely walk again, unless he is arrested again since he was too badly injured yesterday. It is probable that riots will break out again, and again. It's not like this is a revolution, but it is chaotic. Part of me wishes that people would just revolt, and get all of this sporadic chaos over with. I know that doesn't make sense, but at least a continual revolution is more predictable than this.

I took this picture from the Monitor website (the Monitor is one of Uganda's two main English newspapers). They have live updates on the riots and information. If you're interested, the link is monitor.co.ug

I'll try to post more often about what's going on. Meanwhile, I'm sitting at home, waiting for my dad to get back. One more interesting thing: I'm currently on crutches for a badly sprained ankle. I've been on crutches for three weeks now, and I have at least another to go. Isn't that exciting?

This I (do/do not) Believe: My Response to an Essay on Atheism.

 One of my friends that I’ve talked with before about religion sent me an essay that she had to read, and asked me what my thoughts were on it. Basically, the essay is about not believing in God. I think it has some really great arguments and points. So, this is my response to it. Feel free to skim read it if you’re bored :P. Unfortunately, once I started writing I couldn’t  stop. So this goes on for a little while, but I added pictures and tried to make it more fun. If you want to read the original essay (which I recommend) here’s the link: http://thisibelieve.org/essay/34/. But I tried to include some quotes so you’re not lost if you don’t read it. That’s part of why it’s so long. Enjoy, and try not to get bored.

This guy says that “anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God”. A lot of people bring this up: there is no evidence for God. How can you believe in something that you can’t see is there? But that’s the thing, you CAN see He’s there, if you look. I don’t understand how someone can believe that the Alps and other incredibly gorgeous sites just came about by accident. Honestly, how is the magma in the earth just the right temperature that it causes convection currents which move the plates in the earth in the right directions that they collide together, push up and form the highest (and most beautiful) points on earth simply by an accident of temperature? I mean, here's a picture of the Alps. How is this an accident?

I love the quote my Biology teacher always brings up when we’re talking about DNA “DNA is the best proof for the existence of God” (or something to that effect, and no, I can’t remember who said it first). But think about it, how do phosphorus atoms alternate with a sugar by lining up with the third and the fifth carbon atoms on the sugar? And the sugar isn’t just any sugar, it’s deoxy-ribose, which means that it has one less oxygen atom than ribose, which has one less carbon than glucose. If this combination was not exactly right, life on earth could not exist. How is it possible that phosphorus atoms aligned just right with deoxyribose to form life (or at least DNA…)? It is so intricate, so specific, that I just cannot accept that it is a total accident. To me, that is fantastic proof. 

As my Biology teacher also says “people say that if the World exists because of Intelligent Design, there should be a plan or blueprint for life. DNA is that blueprint.” If all of this DNA stuff sounds like a bunch of nonsense to you because you haven’t done IB Higher Level biochemistry, there’s a diagram of the structure of DNA strands below :). To me, there really couldn’t be better proof.

A lot of people want hard evidence, something that says “GOD EXISTS, PEOPLE!!!!!”.  But one of my favorite characteristics of God is that He gives us free will. Basically, in very simple terms, this means that we can choose if we want to believe in him or not, and we can choose if  we want to obey him or not. I’ve always thought that this is really because God wants us to be in a faithful, close relationship with him that we choose. We have to choose it. If evidence is thrown in our face, then there is no room to choose faith. And then we’re just mindless droids and slaves. I think that would really suck. I mean, does anyone really enjoy doing a chore that they have no choice about? I don’t. And God wants us to enjoy what He’s given us. 

So, while I’m droning on about freewill… this writer says that “Believing there is no God means the suffering I’ve seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn’t caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn’t bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.” First of all, I don’t believe that God causes suffering. I believe that He allows us to go through it so that we can become stronger and better people. This is, honestly, the one area I’ve struggled with the most, especially living in Uganda.

 How can God have allowed some of the atrocities committed by the LRA? How is it possible that someone dies ever 4.5 minutes from Malaria, just in Uganda? This is why this guy says refers to a “force that isn’t bothered to help us”. Why doesn’t God just wipe out suffering? But, I also think that suffering causes us to see God where we normally wouldn’t, to form a relationship with him through everything. Plus, if we haven’t gone through suffering, how can we help others with it, as he claims is the outcome of having no God? 

 Honestly, I don’t believe that if God wiped out suffering we would really have free will. Once again, if people didn’t choose to inflict suffering on others, or if they didn’t have to overcome suffering, we would just be mindless droids. We wouldn’t have to look for God; we would see him all the time. Again, there’s no free will. I think the point is that we form a stronger relationship to God through our suffering, and that the point is for me to learn to rely on him to get me through it. If the world was a happy place full of pretty flowers (which it kind of is) and we could skip along singing all day then why would we need or even want God? And He wants us to want Him and need Him. 

This author claims to be happy with everything in the world. But the truth is, what if he only knows a tiny fraction of it? What about trusting that God is looking out for you and can guide and advise you? What about knowing that there is something more? What about knowing that, in the midst of any suffering or pain, there’s something more than that? Why would you not want that? Honestly, he believes that that is everything in the world. I believe there is more. I believe that everything he lists as being “everything in the world” is a little superficial. And besides, as I mentioned at the beginning of this ridiculously long thing, where does he think all of these good things come from? How do the chemicals in the brain create romantic love? 

He brings up the idea of forgiveness, and that there really is none accept for kindness and faulty memories. He says that it makes him more thoughtful and nicer to people the first time round. Honestly, does he not realize that he’s human? Humans make mistakes. And even if others forgive us, can we always forgive ourselves? God offers us complete and total forgiveness if we come to Him. I would certainly not want to live knowing that there was no way to really wipe out all of my mistakes, especially if they were big ones. Even with little mistakes, who wants to always be forced to remember them, and to know they cannot be forgiven? I don’t know who could die in peace that way, with a whole long list of wrongdoings and condemnations in the back of their mind. Personally, I prefer the idea of dying in peace, knowing that God has thrown my sins, and mistakes, “as far as the East is from the West”.

Okay. I have to say I agree with him about communication. Honestly, talking with people who don’t agree with you is the best way to challenge your own beliefs, and to strengthen and refine them. If I didn’t agree with that then I wouldn’t be writing this right now… Honestly, I don’t really respect people who say “I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.” (as this writer says people say). Faith is meant to be shaken and tested and worked on. And honestly, the other quote he brings up is pretty bad too: “How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do.” Ouch. I think a lot of Christians say that, just in more kind words.

 All I can say to this last point is that the judgmental,  over-bearing kind of Christian who has no problem pointing out that what someone else things is absolutely WRONG is not the kind of person I like to be around either, and the kind of Christian I hope to never be. Jesus ate with prostitutes, and loved them for who they were. Honestly, if I cannot listen to someone else’s view and have an intelligent conversation with them, than I wouldn’t care very much for myself. 

So, that said, I wasn’t meaning to shut down his beliefs. I think these are some really great points about not believing in God. I didn’t want to shut down the arguments. I’m just responding to his beliefs with mine, not intending to be judgmental or condescending. I don’t know enough about the world to do that, and I don’t think anyone really does. I would love to hear what anyone else has to say about this :)

 

Sick :P

So, most people who are reading this probably know that I’ve been pretty sick lately. Not the “eeh I have the flu” kind of sick (though I did have the flu a few weeks ago) but SICK. I guess if you want to have a lot of fun in a tropical country you’re obviously taking risks. Back in January I went sailing with my youth group. We had a really awesome time. That said, swimming in bilharzia-riddled Lake Victoria and accidentally consuming about half the lake water is definitely a risk.

                I was looking out for signs of Bilharzia after the prescribed 6 weeks needed for it to have an effect. If you don’t know what Bilharzia is, it’s basically worm type things that live in snail feces in the water. They burrow in through your legs and feet in bad water, find a nice, comfy home in your blood, and lay a bunch of eggs. Then you get sick. Or something like that…  Anyways, once I was better from the flu I still wasn’t feeling great. The night of prom (the day after my fever went away) I was dizzy. The next day I woke up with hives.

Monday morning I woke up with HIVES. Like, big, 2 inch in diameter, ¼ inch thick itchy red bumps that all ran together to form a big red puffy itching mass on my arms and stomach. Ugh. So my mom took me to the doctor, who put me on a steroid. Of course, over the next few days the hives kept coming back, spreading to my legs, and very, very itch; and of course the prednisone made the left side of my face swell up and get tingly, and the next day my arms swelled up. THAT was fun. The picture is of my hives. After they had gone WAY down. You get the idea :P

                Thankfully we had a week and a half off starting that Wednesday. Of course, it was the day before I went back to school that I realized I had no energy and was a bit nauseous (and no, I didn’t wonder if I was pregnant. I knew that one would be a NO!).  So, the next day my mom took me to the doctor to get tested for bilharzias. They did two tests, both were very positive. The good news is it’s easily treated with two doses of pills three hours apart from each other. The bad and gross news: if you’re sick, the pills hatch all the eggs in your body, which makes you incredibly dizzy and can bring on a low grade fever if you’re really sick. So that Tuesday was lots of fun!

Sick, Sicker, and Hospital Tests

Wednesday night, though, I woke up in the middle of the night with a 103.3 (or 39.6) degree fever.  That was definitely NOT from the pills. My mom kept me home the next day for obvious reasons, at which point I figured out that the stomach pain, nausea, severe muscle pain and fevers were not just from bilharzia or the flu. Great. So my mom talked to a family friend/colleague at the Uni who told us to go to this one clinic/hospital. So, the next day, that’s where we went. After checking me out (no, not in that way) the doctor sent me down to the lab for all kinds of blood tests, a chest x-ray and an abdominal scan. None of this was particularly fun, including talking to a 30 year old male lab tech about abstinence and purity while wearing a gown cover-up thing and he x-rayed my chest. It wasn’t like I wanted to talk about that, but he asked if I was pregnant, and when I said definitely not it turned into this big thing.

Then they did an abdominal ultra-sound. I did not take particularly kindly to the icky goo the woman squirted all over my stomach. This was especially special when she scanned one part of my stomach and it hurt really bad. She made the comment that something wasn’t quite right, but wouldn’t tell me what. That was freaky. So, eventually it turned out my liver was enlarged. That’s generally NOT a good thing, but it’s not uncommon with something like this. So that explained why that part of my tummy was soooo tender and painful. After talking to the doctor again, we finally figured out what was going on. It turned out I had typhoid. Lovely.

The Dreaded IV

                I went to school on Friday, took antibiotics, and still was not feeling a lot better. I could stand fairly straight without falling over half the time, and I thought I was getting better. We had Monday and Tuesday off, and then Wednesday two periods at school and I went back to the doctor. Now this is where it got even more special. We did more blood tests. It turned out my blood pressure had dropped a fair bit (below what’s normal and good) and my white blood cell count was pretty  high (a lot higher than normal and healthy).

 The doctor diagnosed a systemic infection of some sort. Ugh. After that, she decided I need IV (drip) antibiotics. She told us to do this one really strong kind so that whatever it was would be totally killed. That meant IV antibiotics twice a day for five days. She was going to put me in the hospital so I could get the IV’s, but the nice thing about the University is having people around with various skills. One of our family friends is an American ICU nurse who was more than happy to come up early and late to hook me up to my IV. So, they put the canula in my arm (a plastic tuby thing that goes in your vein and has more plastic on top for the IV tube to plug into. Ouch. That was seriously annoying. And I had to keep it in for 5 days.

                That night our friend, Karen, came up, mixed up my IV plastic bottle thing that was full of glucose solution (water with sugar) and put my antibiotic powder stuff in it. Then we hung the IV bottle from a picture hanger with some plastic wires, she flushed my arm (put saline through the canula thingy) and hooked my IV into it, and an hour later when the bottle was empty came back to flush it again and unplug me from the picture hanger.  This was the routine every 12 hours for the next 5 days. Needless to say I was not going to school at that point J. And this picture is of me on the IV below. That was... special 

 Of course, because nothing ever goes easily, my vein got “tired” according to Karen, started leaking IV fluid into my arm (ow!) and got irritated and painful. So, after an interesting evening of two failed impalements of my arm involving a lot of moving a canula needle around trying to find another vein (again, ow) we moved the canula.

By Monday night I was feeling a little better, and the doctor’s tests on Tuesday showed that I was getting better. Of course, I made the mistake of showing my face at school for two periods on Tuesday, during which time I got yelled at by 3 teachers and my friend Lea for coming to school when I should be resting and recovering, was told to rest a lot by 3 other teachers to stay home and rest. So I did. Then I went for 4 periods on Thursday and stayed home yesterday.

                And now I’m here. I’m getting a lot better, though still lacking energy. Apparently it’s supposed to take several months for me to be totally normal. So, this was my first major experience with being really sick with tropical sicknesses. I could probably do without another one for quite a while…. Anyways, thanks for reading this. And if you want some advice: don’t get Typhoid, Bilharzia, and another weird infection simultaneously. : -) 

Welcome to my blog!

Hey! Welcome to my new blog. I'll update this as often as I can! Basically, I wanted to create a blog so that the people in the US and other places who actually want to keep up with me can see what I'm up to. That said, I also made this blog for people who want to know what life in a place like Uganda is like not just for a teenage Third Culture Kid but for a Missionary Kid (believe me, there is a difference in how we view the world). Hopefully, I'll update it often enough that no one gets too bored. I'll put a link up on my facebook page when I update the blog, or you could just sign up for email updates!
If you want to actually get in touch you can search for Alyssa Fountain on Facebook, email alyssa@outpourings.net, or look at my parents blog: fountains@ucu.blogger.com.
Thanks for checking out the blog!
Alyssa