The Queen comes to Uganda

Yes! The long-awaited CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) will happen in the coming week right here in Uganda. In just a few days Queen Elizabeth herself will land in Entebbe, be escorted to Kampala to open the summit, and grace Ugandans and fifty heads of state with her presence. She was last here in 1954, so it’s about time for a repeat visit!

And I think…I hope…the country is ready. When the bunch of us from the states arrived at the end of June, we picked up our bags in a small terminal and walked out the door past workmen in bright jumpsuits engaged in rebuilding and enlarging the humble Entebbe airport. The going was slow when we left the airport because the road was being rebuilt. Construction was happening everywhere, in fact! New hotels were going up, old ones were getting facelifts, everything was being spiffed up. All for the impending CHOGM.

That was five months ago. The other day when I arrived from South Africa, I walked into an airport so transformed I hardly recognized it. Well, almost transformed. The signs reading “Toilets” at the end of the new, huge luggage carousel turned out to be harbingers of the facilities yet to come. Who knows, maybe bathrooms will be installed by Wednesday! But no doubt about it, Entebbe International is a new airport. And streets are lined with flowers and flags.

Chogm – not even an acronym anymore but more like a new word in the common language here – happens every two years. Uganda is honored and excited to host the 2007 meeting of commonwealth members. I’m an outsider when it comes to understanding the gut-level significance of membership in an international organization involving many countries that were once (and not that long ago) colonies. What I’m more aware of are the contemporary interests of the east African community for autonomy and economic development, the ANC turmoil in South Africa as that fledgling democracy cuts its teeth, and the dire situation in Zimbabwe. But there’s no denying the strange way that history – even one of empire – throws nations into a common arena and leaves them to sort things out as co-players. One thing the Commonwealth has done has been to take action toward countries that do not uphold democracy, like its suspension of Nigeria in the 90s and Zimbabwe more recently.

One boda driver asked me if the Queen were a friend of mine! I’m afraid I won’t even be here to stand along the road and greet her because I’m heading out for points southwest just as I’m getting back into the Kampala swing of things. Maybe it’s that swiftness thing again – the disorientation of leaving one country and emerging into the light of another day and another place. I decided to check into the Backpackers Hotel and take a day or two or three to collect my wits and make a plan for my remaining time. In my thought-gathering and belated scheduling, I managed to ground myself but I missed some of my beloved family. When I called Charlotte, she was catching a plane for Thailand for ten days of training. Ted was just returning from two weeks in Nigeria, and his work will soon take him to Paris. But Malko was in town so we had a lovely afternoon together yesterday, and I caught up on the news of all the Ugandan sons and daughters I claim as my family.

So when the sun rises tomorrow I plan to catch the Post bus to Kabale, probably stay there the night, then go on to Lake Bunyonyi for a week or so of sitting, writing, and walking. I will revisit Rakai on the return trip because the graduation of the students I worked with there has been rescheduled for early December. And there’s more! A couple of the Ugandan women I met in Kenya run programs in southwest Uganda, and I hope to visit them as well. And if I’m lucky maybe I’ll even procure a permit for Bwindi.

So as Kampala holds its breath that the power stays on and the traffic flows and the CHOGM meetings proceed smoothly, I will be savoring my last few weeks in southwestern Uganda’s hills and lakes and islands, whatever they bring.