a day in the life of an iob master student the day
Interviewing a woman from Buliisa who has been the
victim of land grabbing. Her husband was jailed for
refusing to leave and her house was burned to chase her
away. Provided insights into the tactics that are used by
speculators to acquire land for which high compensation
costs are
projected.
A sign placed by Tullow oil, in
a wildlife reserve not far from
Butiaba. It points to the many
oil wells in the area. Of these
wells, only
Taitai1 struck
dry.
Interviewing
the ‘Community
Development
Officer’ (CDO),
which is at the center of several oilrelated infrastructure developments.
Child of a fisherman in Kaiso, a landing site on the
shore of Lake Albert. The village is deeply affected
by oil-related infrastructure. People in Kaiso are
now directly connected to Kampala through the
Hoima-Kaiso-Tonya road, which is threatening
their livelihoods. Rich businessmen come in to
buy all the silver fish, making fish unaffordable
for locals. It has also given rise to price wars:
outsiders sell products at market prices, outcompeting local traders.
An elderly
lady in front
of her house
in Nyamasoga, Hoima District. Perfect example of a
‘Road Affected Person’: the Hoima-Kaiso-Tonya road (as seen in the back) is
right next to her old house, and it was
raised for drainage purposes. Needless
to say, whenever it rains her house is
flooded. The compensation she received
is insufficient to build a new house in a
more habitable spot.
A typical day in the field
7:30
9:10
Rise and shine! Time for…ugh, oh
right. Baked liver for breakfast. And
matoke – cooking bananas. Topped
off with spicy akashenda oil (most
dishes are not extremely seasoned
in this region, but when you add a
few drops of this you’re more than
done in the spicy department). My
stomach!! Anyway, I arranged with
my partners that they would be
there by 8:30 and regardless of their
probable delays I make sure I am
ready on time.
The car arrives, the driver and my
local friend are apologizing, I say it’s
no problem and we set off.
8:35
Waiting… I jokingly call my local
partner to remind him that it is now
past “the real 8:30” as we agreed
upon last night.
???
The rest of the day it’s impossible to
keep track of time. My local friend
is making many phone calls in the
local language, we stop in several
seemingly random places along the
way, where I have to ask him every
time: “So who is this person we are
meeting? Where are we?”. This is
certainly a valuable exercise in improvisation. I would try to direct him, ask
him if he knows of some talkative and
19:00/20:00
open-minded sub-county officials in
the area for instance – but he often
knew where to head way better
than I did. On these types of days I
would typically conduct four or five
interviews and a focus group, and in
between we’re in the car, bouncing
on what my local friend refers to as
“Museveni’s potholes”. You see, there
may be infrastructure developments
but they’re rather targeted efforts. So
the roads are usually either flawless
tarmac or battered marram. In the
meantime I see many wild animals,
especially baboons.
We arrive back in Hoima, where I
spend the rest of my evening typing
out interview transcripts. If there is
no “bottle bottle”, that is. Apparently
drinking beer is the best way to bond
in Western Uganda. My boss and the
local police are among the people
I’ve enjoyed a beer with.
0:00
The end of a long day. I collapse and
dream of baboons (no joke!).