So far, my trip to Uganda hasn’t quite met expectations. I knew I was going to be working here, but I wasn’t quite expecting to be putting in investment-banker hours (eight days here so far and the other Research Assistants have calculated we’ve each worked at least 105 hours – you do the math). When… Continue reading What they can’t take away
Today was my first full day in the field. There are just a couple of thoughts I wanted to jot down before they leave my mind. We started our day in Rakai, the district capital, which is really little more than a large shanty-town. Driving into the countryside was a surreal experience; all the vegetation… Continue reading … and I think to myself.
Let’s play a game. It’s called the ULTIMATUM GAME. (Cue sinister music – but don’t get too excited). You have one-hundred dollars to divide between yourself and another person. You can divide it however you’d like. However, the other player will have a chance to accept or reject your offer. If they accept it, both… Continue reading The Project, Part III: Games!
*Almost nothing. There are so many things about Uganda that are radically different from what I’m used to that to try to select one thing to be the first to write about, and to hope that it would capture what I’ve experienced thus far in Uganda, is an exercise in futility. Instead, I’m stuck just… Continue reading Everything I know about Uganda*, I learned from a Boda
I really hated Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and not just because my 11th grade English teacher assigned it as summer reading. While our class tried to have a balanced discussion of whether the book was racist, given its historical context, I could never get past the fact that Conrad used Africa as a metaphor… Continue reading Heart of Darkness
Time for another thrilling introduction to my research! One sentence summary that says the same thing I said two days ago except in less than 500 words: I’m going to Uganda to evaluate what makes farmer cooperatives – organizations formed to help alleviate hunger by making farmers more productive, innovative, and market-friendly – succeed or… Continue reading The Project, Part II: Social Capital
On my drive from Flagstaff back to Bend last week, I took a detour to see the border (Okay, I was actually going to San Diego). It was a riot – insofar as it is hot and ugly and I had to go through three Immigration and Customs Enforcement checkpoints. I didn’t have it too… Continue reading On the Border
I suppose it’s time I actually make an effort to explain what it is exactly that I’ll be doing in Uganda. Until now, when people have asked what my project is, I’ve told them that I honestly don’t know (except that I’m horribly unqualified to be doing it). That’s still basically true, but after doing… Continue reading The Project, Part I: Background
There’s something ironic about receiving Walter Kirn’s new book, Lost in the Meritocracy, as a graduation present. Obviously the well-wisher who bought it for me figured I would be interested in reading what people are saying about Princeton, but it certainly doesn’t make graduating seem like much of a cause for celebration. The book—written by… Continue reading Climbing the Meritocracy
Princeton is ending pretty well for me. Its hard to believe, though, that any positive sense I have of Princeton as a whole is dwarfed by my affect towards the band. With respect to that particular institution, it’s been a frustrating denouement, mostly because most of the people with whom I joined – the once… Continue reading Some closing thoughts on the band
Alex V. Barnard - Sociology 