I usually take a big trip once every two years. But the best recent one was a month in East Africa in a low impact war zone (my second time in a war zone – I was in central Mexico during the Chiapas revolution). I was there for work in 2007 researching the Lord’s Resistance Army and their conflict with the UPDF. I lived in IDP camps in Northern Uganda. Traveled with Child Soldiers into Southern Sudan. Ghosted WFP trucks through the bush. That sort of thing. It was amazing. Some of my photos from the trip made it on to the BBC website and there’s an interview on World Vision Radio where I talk about being in the conflict zone and hanging with the child soldiers (a ceasefire had just been implemented and the adult leaders had abandoned the kids to go the peace talks in Juba). I won’t post the link here since we’re not supposed to self-promote, but I’m very proud of that trip. If anyone’s interested in East African politics you can find it easy enough.
But as far as being relevant for this blog, I was passing through Kampala on my way to the Sudan border – I flew into Entebbe – and while in the capital I went to one of the music stalls and grabbed a ton of Ugandan Hip-hop on a flash drive. Some of it was absolutely amazing. Of course it’s all piracy there, there are no real music stores, so I didn’t get any data to go along with the tracks and they’re all at a terribly low bit-rate, so though it was one of the deepest digs for music I’ve ever done, it’s all pretty useless for DJing, sadly.
The next trip is either to Azerbaijan or Cambodia!
