On Monday, my phone rang at 9:30 am and I frantically clawed myself out of my mosquito net to answer it. It was Lawrence. “I’m sending a driver to pick you up.” “Okay! When?” “Now.” Gahhhh. When Lawrence means now, Lawrence means NOW. I shoved two mini Clif bars and some trailmix down my throat and pulled on a skirt and a t-shirt that looked acceptable together. I thought I was good on time, but the driver was at my door before I had even brushed my teeth. I finished up and we were on our way. The organization is actually in a very nice area of Kampala, but you have to get through some MASSIVE potholes to get there, so that was a good wake-up call. On the way, I tried to get some pictures of the amazing hills in the distance, but none of the ones I took do them justice so far. When I got to the office, everyone was in a meeting, so I was given some literature to read about the organization. About an hour later, I was introduced to Josephine, who would be taking me around the city. First we talked about some basic cultural things and then she drove me around to let me get my bearings. Now, you know how I am with directions… this woman was telling me about how to take a taxi/boda-boda to work from my hostel, speaking very fast in a heavy accent and pointing at random places on the map. I thiiiiink I vaguely understood it by the end of our car ride, but she suggested that the driver pick me up again tomorrow anyway. During the ride, we were solicited by men at stoplights selling shoes, tennis rackets, pillows, and fishbowls (more like jars, actually, complete with real fish swimming inside), saw boda-bodas driving around with children sitting on the driver’s lap, and crunched the bumper of our car into the back of a boda-boda (don’t worry, everyone was fine—Josephine just has a very large dent in her car). It was interesting to see how the fender-bender was handled. In the US, both parties would get out of their vehicles (or in the boda-boda’s case, off the vehicle), but Josephine just yelled out the window “It is nothing, my friend!” and then got out to examine the damage. There was a sizeable dent in her car, but she just said “Ahh, you let me know when you are stopping when you stop the next time, eh?” and got back in the car, and the boda-boda drove off. No exchange of numbers or insurance talk. I just looked at her and she shrugged and said, “Eh, you expect these things in traffic.” After our little mishap, we went to the Garden City mall to get lunch. We went to the food court, and, to my surprise, Josephine motioned for us to sit down at a table. Immediately, four people came over and dropped the menus for all of the restaurants in the food court on our table and walked away. Apparently, once you choose a place, the person from that restaurant comes over and waits on you. It’s kind of like a restaurant competition. I had to laugh and took a picture of all the menus. I chose a dish from the Persian restaurant, which was rice with chicken and “wine berries,” which turned out to be dried currants. Om nom nom. I also ordered a side of banana milk. Heaven. After lunch, we went back to the office and Lawrence and I tried to sort out my accommodations for the week after Thursday, which is when my reservation at the Red Chilli ends. I had booked it according to the itinerary I was given, but it looks like we won’t be going to Bwindi until at least Sunday. Lawrence found a hotel and sent me with a driver to go check it out. We picked up some guy on the way who was supposedly taking us to the hotel, but he took us to a different one that was kind of far away and in a not so great part of town. He explained that the other hotel was already all booked up, after we arrived at the other place, which was deserted as far as I could tell. Ohh well, we’ll figure it out. Coming back from that excursion, I had my first mzungu name-calling christening from a few people on the street. I got back to the main office and waited around for a bit, and was driven back to the hostel, where I ate a toasted baguette with cheese and veggies (crossing my fingers for no sickness later on), listened to African reggaeton/techno while watching the World Cup and talked to some people en route to southernmost Uganda to work at an orphanage (can I just say that I have met some of the coolest, nicest people EVER over the past few days? Awesome.) Now I’m about to gear up for my first day of actual work tomorrow—the jet lag is still lingering, but I hope it’ll be gone within a day. Still missing everyone, but still rocking ☺

gigantic pig at my hostel

my room! those white things are mosquito nets

missionary friends!

menus at the mall food court

mall in Kampala

at the hostel

paradise at the hostel

stairway down to my room

Persian food-- rice with chicken and "wine berries" (currants!) and a side of banana milk. ommmnomnom.

kids 🙂

driving

building being worked on

this pic doesn't nearly do these hills justice

dude selling stuff on the road

traffic

3-legged cat!

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June 23, 2010

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