Introducing my self and the country I hail from – Uganda!

Hello to all the Steemit family!!

Every one of us has a story to tell, and I am here to just do that about my self and where I hail from.

First and foremost thank you very much for the great reception on this platform, the follows and up votes… all have been warmly received. I am still getting accustomed to how every thing here works on the platform. Never the less, I am more than willing to put in the required effort and time to fast pace my learning process to become comfortable with the various aspects of the platform and the idea of posting something worth reading and sharing.

My name is Grace D. Christian Kisame, I am from Uganda and currently working and travelling in different parts of the world where I find opportunities. My areas of work are in the realm of conflict/dialogue facilitation and environment. I have a consultancy firm called Greenconflict, which I believe encapsulates very well the world of my work.

I am very passionate about writing but never have I written consistently and I believe this is the opportunity for me to learn how to do so and practice. You know the adage practice makes perfect… I guess the time is now for me to put it to work. Therefore, my goal is to learn how to write and share compelling stories on this platform. On that note I call out those with experience to help me out on this. I am also very excited about the world of cryptography, blockchain technology and the future it promises.

This is a picture from my last trip to Uganda at the Ndere Troupe Centre.

The purpose of introducing my self is to let my fellow steemers to get to know about me, and my home country Uganda. This I guess is my first time to share in writing about my country and its diverse cultures.

Uganda is located right in the heart of Africa bordered by Kenya to the east, South Sudan to the north, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the west and Tanzania and Rwanda to the south and southwest respectively.

Map of Uganda and its borders:

As you can observe it is right in the heart of Africa, with an amazing scenery of green rolling hills, magnificent rivers, abundant wild life, snow-capped mountains and home to Africa’s largest population of Mountain Gorillas. No wonder Winston Churchill called it the Pearl of Africa. It lies about 1200 meters above sea level thus having a fantastic climate.

It is also home to the source of the Nile river which is considered the longest river in the world, flows out of lake Victoria (Nalubaale) original local name, toward the north to meet up with the Blue Nile from lake Tana in Ethiopia before flowing through Egypt and ending up in the Mediterranean sea.

Uganda is a multi lingual country with over 40 languages, 56 tribes and nine indigenous communities. I happen to speak about 8 of these languages since most are similar although others are very distinctive. English is one of the official languages among others earlier on mentioned. This is because Uganda was a British Protectorate – which is kind of different from the Colony – because it had pre-existing governance structures like parliaments (Lukiiko) that pre dated the colonial error. However became independent in 1962 following the decolonization wave that swept across Africa.

From a cultural perspective, we are considered among the most diverse nations in the world because the idea of Uganda is an amalgamation of different ancient kingdoms with different traditional customs, languages and practices that are pretty much alive today and clearly identifiable within the different societies.

I have uploaded this video taken during my last visit to Uganda at the Ndere Troupe centre in Kisaasi Kampala, to have an idea of some of the traditional dances on the continent. This particular dance is from Burundi and hope you enjoy it!!

Thank you for taking the time to read my introduction and looking forward to interacting with you. Remember to follow me @chrsgk2018 for more of these stories!!