According to the Ugandan daily newspaper the New Vision of June 29th, 2010, an American Academic, Dr Edonna has chosen to live a completely humble life in one of the slums of Kampala with her son. She is not engaged in any kind of social research or Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) which could have required that she lived among poor people; all she decided to do here is try life in poverty.
This is quite ironical because, she is not only a highly educated woman with many degrees and accolades to her honor, but she is above all, a woman from America, a country where nearly all Africans believe is a land of opportunities. Many Ugandans keep asking, whether there is something wrong with the brain of this American woman. They wonder how an educated woman like her could leave a mansion in America, only to come and live in a one room house in a filthy Ugandan slum!
According to Dr. Edonna, she has lived in this Kampala slum for the last four months. She was earlier employed in one of the Ugandan Universities as an Academic staff, but that job was terminated and the University authorities have not paid her terminal benefits. That was when she moved over to Kampala in search of employment which sadly, has not come her way yet.
Her one room apartment has literally no fridge, no TV and not even a radio. All she has are a few locally made papyrus mat and stools. She cleans her house personally and does her own cooking and washing. Her son Kimathi Cofi Alexandria who is now 10 years, studies online.
Because of the really hard financial conditions she and her son are going through, Dr. Edonna lives on hand-outs from online friends who send her a few dollars here and there. She literally spends all her time on the internet and indoors. Many of her American friends are constantly urging her to return to America but the determined Dr. Edonna does not believe that is the most prudent thing to do.
She has bought some land in rural areas of Buganda where she hopes to do some investment. She has vowed never to leave Uganda until she has proved to the world that an American like her can come to Uganda and live a successful life. Going by what we see, I think Dr. Edonna still has a long way to be successful in Uganda. Many Ugandans think she is probably fleeing from something in America because no right thinking person can leave a land flowing with honey and milk, only to come and cling to a land riddled with abject poverty such as the kind she is living in right now. We hope someone will persuade her to go back home soon.
Woda7's Weblog 