Makerere Art Exchange

Hey all, Betsy here--I'm sitting in a hotel (WITH WI-FI!!) in Jinja, Uganda, with a view of the Nile River and Lake Victoria. The team has reached our debriefing/chillin' time, complete with swimming pool, Internet, and (eventual) white water rafting on the Nile River. Right now Dr. Bleattler is outside playing with the local dogs (yes, I'm serious) and most of the team is getting ready for a well-deserved sleep.

Our van broke down literally five times on the way to Jinja (which is about three hours from Kampala), and once it even broke down in the rainforest. How cool is that. Seriously, the team took it in stride and we actually had fun singing and looking for monkeys out the window. We all made it in one piece, and our driver, Fred, deserves a lifetime supply of pineapples or something. Note: total monkey count was sadly 0.00.

Wow. Our exchange this week with the students of the School of Industrial and Fine Arts at Makerere University totally exceeded our expectations! We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with 20 of the top art students in east Africa painting, singing, dancing, and talking. They are even cooler than I expected, and everyone wants to hopefully reunite next year.

Day one (Monday) was a lot of introductions and cultural exchange. Dr. Bleattler lectured on how African Art has influenced the West and Prof. Kynyene of MU lectured on 20th century Ugandan art. We talked with the students about our impressions of Uganda and America, and it was so cool to hear their reactions. One of my favorite quotes was by one of the students, who described America as "money-rich and time-poor." Too true.

Elvina introducing her neighbors to the group

Day two (Tuesday) got exciting as we collaborated with the students on art projects that reflected our discussions on how culture and art influence one another in our respective nations. The students at Makerere are so talented--we worked together on making beautiful jewelry, painting with watercolors, mixing media such as traditional Ugandan dried banana leaves and bark cloth, and even a little acting. The atmosphere was relaxed and slow-paced, with a lot of tea and chipate (traditional African flatbread) to go around. MU was so gracious and even provided lunch for us. We worked in the MU art studio building--tomorrow Elvina will post some of the amazing photos Elijah took. :)

Elijah, Ali, and Katelyn's group brainstorming ideas for their art project

Ali working on her group's painting

Elvina and Karla's group's final project

By day three (Wednesday) none of us wanted to leave. We presented our numerous projects to the group (one of my new friends, a jewelry making/museum curating major named Violet, made earrings and necklaces for almost everyone!). In the evening we had an open mic talent show.

Rehearsing for the talent show

The talent show included everything from original songs to crazy African dances to poetry.

The art students at Makerere are all such natural performers--many of the guys can do backflips and dance as well as Usher, and the girls have beautiful singing voices. Their passion was such an inspiration for us. Many staff and faculty members were in the audience and by the end it broke into a huge dance party. I loved playing music (lots of guitar, and even a little African drum/American harmonica fusion!) and just getting to know and love the students. I think we all learned so much about each others' cultures and personal lives as well.

Joe reads a poem at the talent show

Well, all for now. You may be hearing more than usual from us because we have our first consistent Internet connection in 2.5 weeks! Also, we've recently discovered that our flight has been canceled due to British Airways strikes, so please pray that we find a flight around the same time frame ASAP. I'm sure it'll all work out--we're all getting used to this polychronic time thing, which means we're a whole lot more patient than we were when we left the states. All in good time, we'll work it out. (All the flights we're looking at are around the same time, so we won't be a month late or anything.) ;)

Love,
Betsy