Settled in Kampala

It’s amazing how you can leave a place and return to feel as if you’ve never left at all. Ever since I came back from Uganda last year, there was always something that reminded me of being in Uganda and I could picture the sights and sounds in my mind. Today I got to relive all of those pictures in my mind and it was amazing!

We started out with the buffet at the Botanical Gardens. The breakfast surprised me for a few reasons. First, I didn’t realize how many Ugandans it takes to run a breakfast buffet. I’m not joking when I say that there were at least 13 people standing behind counters, beside tables, and serving us fresh coffee and tea. Not to mention there were more people in the kitchen area too! It wouldn’t be so unusual except that the three of us were the only ones in the dining room and I didn’t see anybody walk past the dining hall in the entire hour that we were there other than hotel staff. We were trying to figure out how the economy works here. We saw the same thing at lunch today at the food court. There were 10 people making pizzas and pasta at a little restaurant and another 2 or 3 out front serving and taking money. In a place where very little money comes in, I sometimes wonder how you can afford to pay that many people. However, when I look at it from an economic standpoint (which I can’t help with training in business) it seems like a good idea to pay a lot of people a little bit instead of only a few people a lot, especially when a little goes a long way. For us, the prices are generally higher, but the locals can get very cheap cab fares and food from the markets compared to what we pay. Oh yeah, a note about the food. Although I am a meat eater at home, I turn to mostly vegetables while I’m here. Don’t get me wrong, fresh meat is probably better than the processed stuff, but when you see a carcass just hanging at a stand along a dusty road in the hot African sun, it makes you think twice about eating it. Plus, you might not get what you expect. For example. I grabbed some breakfast sausage that I eventually decided was made out of liver, based on the signs close to it. I didn’t want to be rude and put it back, so I took it to my table. I could handle the first one….barely, but by the time I finished, I decided the texture and the idea that it was possibly ground up liver was just not up my alley. I like trying new things, but I can be particular about food. I fully respect we need animals to survive, but every time I eat one that is fresh, I have issues. I think I will work on trying to get over them soon!
Driving from Entebbe to Kampala is a treat! It gives you so many things to look at that your brain is exhausted from over-stimulation by the time you get to a quite places. The buildings are painted in bright colors at advertisements for things like MTN (mobile phones), Coke, or some paint company with bright colors. There are people selling all sorts of things from phone cards to granite stones, drums to bed frames…pretty much anything you need is sold by some roadside stand. I think there is a new addition of weed-wackers. Ross and I don’t remember many of them before, but this time there were people using them all over the sides of the road and stores had heaps of them piled up and ready for use. The beauty of the people never ceases to amaze me. The women are dressed in bright colored clothes, sometimes carrying food on their heads or a baby on their back. Men are driving Bodas (motorcycles) or peddling bicycles with loads of food or supplies. There are children running around doing chores or playing games. I took some video of the drive but I don’t think any words or pictures can capture the full experience of being here.

Once we got to the guest house, we unpacked our things. Rachel and I are sleeping in the same room that Ross and slept in last time and Ross and Troy will be where Troy slept before. The house is run by Nelson and Rosette takes care of the daily tasks for him. Josephine (who runs the Ugandan HVO coordination) came by to greet us and be sure that we were settled in. Jenny Kelly, who is from HVO in the states is going to be here in a few days and will be staying for a few months. It will good to finally meet here face to face, since we have been coordinating with her over email for so long.

After meeting with Josephine, we took a walk through Mulago (the hospital) to show Rachel around a bit. Nothing has really changed. The steps we built last year are already showing signs of wear and tear, but with unstable ground and crude building materials, I am not surprised. They are still an improvement from before. The children are amazing as usual…..you always end up with a smile on your face as a little one runs beside you and looks up to wave and say “Hello Mzungu, how are you?” As soon as you say you are fine, they are satisfied and run away. My favorite was a little girl, no more than a year or two, who waved from her mother’s arms and said “Mzungu” as best she could, with a big grin on her face. I don’t think I’ll every know what it feels like to be a celebrity or have a bunch of people look up to me and want my attention, so this is the best I’m going to get, and I’ll be perfectly content with that. I also don’t want to just be here to have people look at me and want my attention. I want to hear the stories about people’s lives and somehow find a way to connect with them and share some life experiences with them. This is day one, and we have a lot of time to hopefully make these connections and make a difference.

We walked to Garden city to change money, eat lunch, and buy food and water. I exchanged $200 and got 434,000 shillings in return. It feels like so much. I don’t think I’ve had 434,000 of anything before and a big wad of bills is kind of special. To get an idea of how much that is – I spent 12,000 shillings for the equivalent of a bunch pizza and a bottle of Fanta. We spent 30,000 shillings for three 5 gallon bottles of water, bananas, a couple of boxes of digestive crackers, and some hot chocolate power for Ross to put in his coffee.

We took a cab back from Garden City and then took a short nap…..it’s amazing what the sun can do to your energy level! I even got a little burned on my shoulders, but all the redness was gone by the time I got back from dinner. The tour guide, Gofrey, for our safari trip to Murchison falls on Sunday came to meet with us and square up our payments. We had a great conversation with him about how important it is for people in his generation to appreciate Uganda for what it is and how business works here in order to make improvements and keep people living in Uganda. Godfrey has wealthy parents that chose to raise their family in Uganda so they could appreciate their culture instead of getting used to life in Boston or Ireland. He also said his parents lived in those separate places for a long time and saw each other 4 times a year. He has 3 brothers and 2 sisters and his parents are still together. It goes to show that there are strong family values with people here and being faithful to your spouse is something that can be held in high regards. Godfrey said he might be able to be our guide and come with us on the safari. He seems like a very interesting person and would be a great source of information about the people and culture.

After Godfrey left, we got a hold of Angella and decided to meet here at the Crocodile restaurant for a light dinner and drinks. On our walk I saw for the first time construction actually taking place on a building. Usually you just see some creaky wooden scaffolding that is abandoned on the side of building. At this place there were at least a dozen people passing materials up a pulley with a rope and bucket and making progress on the building. It was great to see Angella! She was excited to see us, but very tired from her difficult work as a physician. Tomorrow we are going with her to meet with a woman about going to see some of the orphanages that would work for Ross’ study. We are planning on three orphanages with about 45 kids total between them. It was wonderful to catch up with her face to face and talk about our lives and hers. She does a lot of work for the people of her country and is passionate about helping the orphanage and other orphanages here. Hopefully we will be able to use all of the resources we have for improving something in the orphanage.

This message is longer than I planned. We had a bit of time on our hands this afternoon and there is just too much to describe here! I can’t wait to get started on projects and see more of what’s going on here in Uganda!