Wow – what an interesting, culture-rich day. Uganda is everything I thought it would be and more. I don’t know where to start so I’m going to bullet my thoughts and memories as they come to me.
BUT FIRST – NOTE TO SELF: Dear Self, If you again try to spray your 50% DEET directly on to the mosquitoes flying around your bathroom, you’re just going to slip on the DEET soaked floor again and then those same mosquitoes will dive bomb you as you’re lying there in the oily DEET pool. Next time, settle for the three coats of DEET you already applied (nevermind that the instructions say one light coat is sufficient), get under your cute little mosquito net that took four people to install for you, and cuddle up with your anti-malarial drugs. Also, just add a sleep aid and you’ll sleep like a baby. Love, Marnie
Kampala
- Beautiful setting for a very interesting city. A large white mosque sits on a hill across from my hotel balcony.
- Checked out and drove to a bank in a mall to exchange currency (something like 7,000 shillings for $1 USD). On the way, drove by huge homes protected by 10’ walls with barbed wire on top, big beautiful gates and guards. Anthony says mainly government officials live there.
- The mall – not quite Bell Square. You enter and feel so safe as there are guards with machine guns wherever you look. REALLY I toyed with the idea of asking them if I could take their picture but they didn’t really look like they had a sense of humor.
- Went to a market inside the mall – mainly to get water and clothes for Benjamin as his suitcases were maybe in South Africa? Quite a well-stocked market. I needed a bottle opener for the Coke Light Elizabeth and I splurged on. The men were too masculine and insisted that they wanted the “real thing”. The bottle opener worked on that too.
- Driving through Kampala was sensory overload. For the ears – sirens, shouts, goats bleating, longhorn cows mooing, motorcycles roaring by, all while trying to maintain a sense of equilibrium. The eyes - shack upon shack upon shack all up and down the hills. Little tiendas (shacks too) selling everything from recliners that are lined up along side the road, to carpets to tomatoes and bananas. People everywhere. A boy around 8 selling sugarcane stacked high on his bike – huge machete in hand.
The six hour drive to Ogur - The scenery changed dramatically along this trip –many varieties of tropical plants, far more lush than Hawaii. Everything has thick, large leaves and it’s very dense. As we got further north, the plants thinned out some, the land was flatter, and the landscape was closer to a green savanna. I’ve never seen such a big, expansive sky.
- Roads were good about ½ the time. After that, I felt like a pinball. SO many potholes, on a single lane road that you share with oncoming cars, buses, bicyclists, and pedestrians. We didn’t just drive slowly through the potholes, we dodged as many as possible while going probably 45 MPH. Anthony is a very good driver, but it was, ummmm, exciting.
- You drive through such rural areas, but everywhere there are people walking. I remembered something I read that said one reason Africans can’t pull themselves out of poverty is that they have to spend so much time taking care of life’s basics such as walking miles to retrieve water, and then food, and then firewood. By the time you’ve done all this, it’s time to start cooking dinner. There’s no time to consider plans or potential opportunities. Also, there are the most beautiful and very young kids walking too – often alone or in small groups. Many wear matching uniforms from their primary schools – bright green, or a pink/blue combo, or yellow. All so pretty!
- Four people on one scooter, or a man riding a bike with the mom sitting side-saddle behind him with a baby strapped to her back. This is the second most common way to get around, after walking.
- Crossed the Nile River. Beautiful – with roaring falls and very blue water. However, only got one not-so-good picture as your camera will be taken by the armed guards on the bridge if you take a picture. Something to do with heading north into the territory once occupied by the LRA.
- Monkeys (goats, cows, chickens, etc.) and baboons alongside the road. I tossed a banana to a mom baboon with a baby on her back. She caught it with a clap and shoved the entire thing in her mouth. Fed two more baboons – they will come right up to the car and beg. Yes, Charlie, I did get the picture you requested.
Ogur - Arrived and went straight to the Medical Teams International Uganda headquarters. Met Joanna, Dick and the other Felix (can’t remember his last name). Received a tour (nice building) and then went to our hotel to prepare for dinner.
- · Ate at the MTI volunteer house. Our wonderful chef, Okio I think, prepared dinner for Joe, Elizabeth, Ben, and me and Ugandan staff: Kristen, Dick, and David. Dinner was ok – we all tried to follow the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy with the food. (I do think we had some goat – it wasn’t that bad.) However, I later found out that in her enthusiastic hunger, Elizabeth didn’t look closely at what she put on her plate. Fortunately, she realized as she was eating that she was about to bite into a pig’s snout. No, really it was too large for that – maybe a boar? Anyway, she told me about it on the drive back and we were delirious in our laughter – especially because we didn’t want anyone to know what we were laughing about. Sorry Elizabeth, but since you didn’t eat the snout, you will be voted off the island tonight!
Big day tomorrow in Ogur for the commissioning ceremony. We were advised to eat a large breakfast because it will be a long day. We are very honored to be a part of this important event for the District and the sweet, beautiful people of Uganda!
