Today I felt like writing a couple of happy anecdotes of how things work here. This is not directly related to the topics of my research, but they definitely affect the ways I can carry out the study!

It is all about connections here in Uganda. You need your cousins, brothers and sisters, uncles and clan mates to get you what you need. From money to pay school fees to jobs. Coming to Uganda as an outsider I lack the extended family here, but I get handy in getting connected into other people’s network – mostly to get information. And the mobile phone has definitely made things easier in that respect!

A week ago I had to travel from Kampala to Lira, so I called someone working for an NGO in Lira to ask which bus company has a good reputation on safe driving (e.g. slower speed and not too many accidents on its track record). Since I saw one of the coaches on its head I got a bit more careful. She gives me a phone number of a woman in Kampala ‘who knows’. Mrs. Judith. So I call Judith, she tells me the company and the bus leaves the next day. The next day I go to the bus park and I find Mrs. Judith selling bus tickets under a big parasol. She had reserved me a seat in front of the bus – one of the best in fact!

Then in the field my team and I totally depend on who-knows-who. Finding the right leaders, community groups, anyone. We find it especially helpful to work through clan relations. In one way or the other, when we ask for individuals we want to talk to, they are always the uncle or aunt of the person we ask. Here in the Langi region, it is interesting to see how official leadership and clan leadership sit close together. The husband of the district chair person (LC5 level) is the clan leader of the biggest clan in the district. The wife of the clan leader at parish level is running for the post of sub-county councillor (LC3 level). In some areas of Langi, clan leaders are nowadays elected – a break with the past tradition of inherited clan leadership. Still, people seem to vote for clan leaders and official leaders that come from the family that was traditionally a ‘leadership family’.

I especially like the story of The Key. I was based 50km out of Kitgum town, together with the two research assistants and the ‘boda boda’ rider (the small motorcycles used for public transport). Boda rider Mike had lost the key of his motorcycle and phoned home to have his spare key sent from Kitgum to our village. A few vehicles come down every day, squeezed with travellers and their goods. I thought one of Mike’s cousins would come to bring it, but no. The next day the key arrived, wrapped in a plastic bag and accompanied by a small note. Mike’s cousin had simply left the key with someone travelling in a car to our village. The note said: “To Mike. In the village centre. A boda rider who carries a white woman.’’

And with that note I realised I am less of an outsider, but start to be part of this networked local reality here.