Introduction To My Uganda Adventure

PHOTO: Mpigi Sunrise.

"There's nothin' out there, man! You would love it."- Brendan

I traveled to Uganda primarily to take pictures of birds and to get a taste of adventure. I have returned safely but very much changed. It will take me some time to integrate all of my experiences and process the emotions and changes in perspective resulting from my stay. With each new day I found myself spending less time focusing on birds and more time immersing myself in the culture and being with the wonderful people of this immensely beautiful place. This is a country of extremes in all the domains that make life meaningful: beauty, community, joy, adversity. There is a frenetic energy in the towns and cities which borders on mayhem. The villages and rural areas contain a palpable sense of being timeless and hopelessly estranged from the rest of the world. Life and death are much closer together here.

I feel that I could talk for hours about my experience of Uganda without even scratching the surface. I am deeply grateful to Brendan Crowley for providing guidance and logistical support when I asked for it and for allowing me the space to make my own mistakes and discoveries when I did not. This was no vacation. It wasn't a safari. I was not safely delivered into a Disney-esque African experience by men with Australian accents in crisp white shirts. This was an experience of the reality of how most of the world lives. Stranger in a strange land time. YOYO territory- You're On Your Own. Real [period] Life [period].

This was the single most powerful experience of my life. Over the next few months I will be endeavoring to communicate what I found in Uganda through writing and photographs. I fear that I am not equal to the task but I invite you to follow my fumbling attempts on my heretofore derelict blog: angrybirding.blogspot.com.

I was going to end this with several caveats regarding the idea of sensitivity but it seems to have turned into a brief essay. In the United States we have frustrated ourselves into outrage and silence when trying to communicate with each other about our differences. Race, religion, family dynamics, sexuality, economics, and politics will be treated in my work with the openness and unselfconsciousness with which they are discussed by Ugandans. I cannot allow myself to be hamstrung by the fear of offense our culture suffers from. As such, I will make no further warning or apology. I will simply ask that those of you who know me appeal to your knowledge of my values and that those of you who do not know me well consider that fact before attributing callous or malicious motive to my capturing a particular image or using a particular string of sentences.

That being said, there will be much humor (to the best of my ability), there will be many more smiles than you might expect to see, and there will be pictures of birds.

Continue to the next post!

I've disabled comments on this blog simply for my own convenience. Friends, let's have any discussions on my Facebook posts that will announce each post here on the blog. For the two people I do not know who will stumble upon this blog and care to comment- please email me at angrybirdingadventures (at) gmail (dot) com. [Emails that are simply critical of my positions without offering anything substantively thought provoking will be ignored. If I suddenly am inundated with emails, even positive ones, I will not be able to respond to them all. This last is highly unlikely anyway.