Kampala Excursion

February 9, 2009
Monday

It has been exactly one month since flying to Uganda. The time has flown by, yet at the same time it has gone slow. May feels like years away yet it’s only three months.

Four of my friends and I headed into Kampala this last Saturday. We had to walk into Mukono town, which is about a 5-10 minute walk where we caught a “taxi.” In your head you’re probably envisioning a yellow New York Taxi. What you’re picturing is called a “private hire” here in Uganda. A Taxi is a 14 passenger van/bus that drives all over Uganda. There is a driver and a permanent passenger who calls out the window where they are heading. All we had to do was say Kampala, and we were thrown into a very crowded taxi. The drivers really like to get their money’s worth so there were often more passengers than seats. It only cost us 1500 shillings, which is about 78 cents.

We got dropped off near one of the malls of Kampala, called Garden City. We walked there to exchange our dollars into shillings and have a private hire pick us up to bring us to a restaurant. The main reason we went into Kampala was to celebrate. One of my roommates, Emily, was given an award from her college while she was in Uganda. Emily’s mom wanted to celebrate with Emily but couldn’t because of the distance. So we were “ordered” to go out to eat on her. Of course, we could not refuse such generosity.

The restaurant we ate at was called Sam’s Restaurant and they served “continental food”. It was the first time I’ve had American food since being here. We didn’t have rice and beans (which really aren’t that bad) nor did we have Matooke (mushed bananas) or Posho (condensed cornmeal). My meal made me so happy. I had a good portion of grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, a side salad, and apple pie with a scoop of ice cream. I’m sure this sounds like an everyday meal to you, but it was like heaven to me. The vegetables were my favorite part.

After our dinner, which took about 2 hours to order, consume, and rest. We took a mini walking tour of the city. We needed to be back to campus by dark, which is about 7:30 and therefore needed to get on a taxi by 6/6:30. Catching a taxi was an interesting deal. We reached one long line of taxis all their drivers calling out their destinations. Whenever they heard we were going to Mukono they would shake their heads and quickly wave us on. Well, we reached the end of the line and there was no taxi heading to Mukono. So we wondered back and still found no taxi, the people told us there would be one coming soon. Mean time, five white girls walking around a taxi park is pretty obvious and distracting. Almost everyone waiting for their taxis knew we were heading to Mukono.

Finally two taxis pulled up but the drivers were speaking in Luganda so we couldn’t understand. One of the men waiting to board a taxi told us the drivers were arguing over who was going to take us to Mukono. We couldn’t tell whether they were arguing for us to be with them, or for us to be somewhere else. In the end we didn’t end up going with them, another taxi pulled up that was heading to Mukono and we were quickly pulled in.

Rush hour is pretty bad in Kampala so our driver took us on a scenic route to avoid “jam” and to make more money because we’re moving faster. We were on dirt roads that should never be able to hold vehicles, there were times I was afraid we’d get flat tires, flip, hit a person or a cow, or all three. Thankfully we made it home safely AND before dark.

Classes are going really well, I just got out of a class where we’re discussing poverty, specifically in Africa. It’s such a large and broad topic that can easily depress someone when looking at such a huge picture of despair. We’re going to spend about two weeks on poverty; I’m excited to hear what the Africans view of poverty is.

Here are some phrases you might find useful if you ever come across a Ugandan. (It took me a couple days and even weeks before I understood some of these phrases.
“I’ll give you a push to your room” or “I’ll push you to town”. Push means to escort. I was a little thrown off by that for a while.
“You look smart”. This is not a comment on your intelligence, but on your attractive attire. Or you are dressed sharp.
“You’ve been lost”. This means, I haven’t seen you in a while.

I’ve got to run now; I have an orientation for my service project. I’m going to be volunteering in Kampala every Tuesday now, working with youth and children who live in low income neighborhoods. It should be really interesting. Apparently the administrators occasionally ask their volunteers to give little impromptu sermons/speeches. I’m praying they don’t ask on the first week. I’ve never been the best at impromptu motivational speeches.