"I'm the chief here, and I could have you arrested."

Those were the first words I heard from Ugandan media official Robert Kabushenga in the predawn darkness of his building's parking lot.

I was part of a group of journalists gathering to trek to President Yoweri Museveni's rural retreat – a four-hour ride from the capital.

Mr. Kabushenga's intro was probably meant as jocular and funny. But it was a strange way for him introduce himself to the foreign press.

Several hours later, though, when Mr. Museveni greeted the journalists by calling us "rumormongers," I could see the antipathy toward the press came from the top.

People here worry the government is becoming increasingly militarized – and unfriendly to the press, which traditionally has been relatively free here, despite occasional harassment.

Because I don't live in Uganda permanently, it's hard to tell how true that is. But, if this reporting trip is any indication, the government does seem to be growing more wary of an increasingly critical press.

Much of this material appears in the Reporters on the Job feature in the Feb. 23 issue of The Christian Science Monitor.

In a remote place like Rumbek, Sudan, where there are no taxis, no rental car agencies, and no public transportation, journalists usually rely on international aid groups for logistical help.

While I was there, the UN’s World Food Programme provided transportation around town – and helped me and several other journalists navigate the local bureaucracy. They were very generous. But relying on them – and riding around in their antennae-bedecked 4x4s – meant we were always somewhat removed from ordinary village life.

Looking for more interaction with the local residents, a journalist friend and I decided to walk a couple of miles into town from our camp. In the bustling market, we saw blacksmiths making tobacco pipes and spears out of recycled bullet casings. (After all, this is southern Sudan, which has been in a civil war with the north for more than two decades – and just signed a final peace deal on Jan. 9.)

We saw people gathering under a giant mango tree whose trunk must have been 30 feet around – and whose branches reached about 80 feet into the sky. And we saw a bike shop. In fact, we persuaded the owner to rent us four bikes – two for us, and two for four local guys to follow us home on, and then ride the bikes back to the market.

So we set out on our lumbering Chinese bicycles. Mine didn’t really have brakes, but it did have a bouquet of silk flowers attached to the handle bars. It turned out my bicycle seat was a perfect perch for getting a better view of the rhythms of local life.

In the town square we came across people practicing traditional dances for the big celebration planned for when former Sudanese rebel leader John Garang came to town. Click here for a video clip of the dancing (1014K).*

As we got out of town we came across a village where two teenage girls were standing under a giant tree, taking turns pounding what appeared to be sorghum seeds into a mealy substance that would be used for food. Video clip of the girls (781K).*

Then there was an older woman preparing dinner in a round bowl over a coal fire. Only after watching her for a moment did I realize she was blind. She’d clearly done this task so many times that she didn’t need to see in order to get the food ready. Video clip of the woman (772K).*

*You must have Quick Time 6.0 or above to view the clips. Don't have Quick Time 6.0? Download it quickly here.

Perhaps never in history has Rwanda been filled with so many foreign journalists as in the past week. Some 500 of us from as far away as Japan descended on the country for the 10th anniversary of the genocide. One Rwandan reporter, observing the influx, said to me, “You should have been here in 1994. You’re more powerful than a whole battalion of UN peacekeepers. You could have stopped the genocide.”

As I arrived at one genocide site, a school where 50,000 people were killed and where preserved bones are still on display, my reaction was, “What am I doing here? I’m 10 years too late.”

So why weren’t all of us here 10 years ago? Well, I was still an intern at the Monitor. But people tell me one reason was that South Africa’s first democratic elections were going on at the same time. It was a rare case of the good news – Nelson Mandela’s ascendance to the presidency and the end of apartheid – overshadowing the bad. April 1994 was also the height of the O. J. Simpson trial. So the global media was otherwise occupied.

Even now, by being in Rwanda, we all may be missing a crucial story: "Ethnic cleansing" (as one UN official calls it) in western Sudan.

I’ve already asked my editors if I can go. They've agreed. So my next big trip will be to try to get a closer look at the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. If my colleagues join me, maybe we’ll be in the right place at the right time to help highlight a current conflict that needs the world’s attention.