Warm welcomes

After arriving in Entebbe two nights ago and staying at the African Roots Guesthouse, we spent yesterday driving to Masaka and then had the opportunity today to explore the city.  Driving across four hours worth of the country (Entebbe to Kampala to Masaka) is not a half bad way to see bits of the country!

Perhaps the most disconcerting thing is the transition from driving on the right side of the road to the left.  It wasn’t uncommon to look up, see the man in what you expect to be the driver’s seat reading a newspaper and have a quick heart attack.   

We first drove from Entebbe to Kampala where we bought cell phones and plans (basic Nokia cell phones cost 61,000 shillings, or $24ish, a sim card costs 3,000 shillings, or $1ish, and we put 10,500 shillings of prepaid money on our phones where a text might cost 50 shillings/2 cents, and a minute is some ambiguous amount that we haven’t figured out yet).  The place we bought phones from was a mall you might find in America (think Northgate), if American mall cops had rifles strapped to their thighs.  Entering the mall, we first exchanged money (our US dollars bought at a rate of 2540 shillings to the dollar), then bought the physical phones in a supermarket type area that could have existed in the first world in a moderately seedy part of town.  Crime must be a huge issue, because all bags larger than mine, a small cross body bag about 6”x4”, had to be checked at the door.  To this, a lot of people in our group who had brought backpacks with laptops or other valuables in them got kind of nervous.  The bag check was manned by a single guy and was a group of cubbies with a simple “take a number, leave a bag - leave a number, take a bag,” system in place.  But we managed to avoid becoming a cautionary tale.  

Lunch was a visit to the food court, a pizza restaurant in fact.  Food seemed to target American clients, offering pizza, burgers, and sandwiches, despite real Ugandans not considering a sandwich to be a meal, as our Program Coordinator informed us.  After lunch we drove from Kampala to Masaka, with a brief stop to take pictures at the equator monument and observe the coriolis effect.  Masaka is significantly smaller than Kampala.  We drove through it in a few minutes to the Zebra Hotel where Julian, myself, and one other intern are staying for the week.  The other seven interns stayed with us last night, but this afternoon went to stay with host families because their host families live within walking distance of Masaka and it’s not incredibly inconvenient for them to live there and attend orientation.  The hotel hosts many mzungos (“foreigners”) like us.  

While they went to meet and stay with their families, Julian, Lauren and I explored the town.  Regardless of the friendliness/shyness of everyone we walked past, nobody felt uncomfortable staring at us.  In general, if you smiled, waved, or said “oti-oti-ay,” which is an incredibly butchered way of saying “hello” in Lugandan,” then people tended to smile back.  Lauren and I got fist pumps from one guy.  Julian had two kids yell “mzungo!” and grab his hand and start following us.  We got lots of laughs at our Lugandan and lots of “Hey mzungo, how are you!?”s.

The downtown area looks incredibly market-esque.  Walking down you’ll walkpast stalls and narrow shops that sell huge and colorful bolts of fabric, cell phones and cell phone appliances, clothing, and much more.  There were a huge number of solar stores that we saw walking down the street, the sorts of things you can’t find in the states.  When we were looking for a solar panel supplier in NC we couldn’t find anyone willing to sell us a solar panel without installment as well and we had to turn to Amazon.  Here, solar stores are a dime a dozen, although the solar panels themselves are more expensive (see Julian’s post).  Moving down the block, we saw stalls with  huge hanks of terribly smelling raw meat hanging from the rafters and we’ve been warned not to eat because of the dust from passing bodabodas and cars, but nonetheless had a demand and market.  Kidneys and intestines appear to be very popular in Uganda.  Past the main drag, there was an actual market which was kind of terraced into a hill and had no streets running through it.  Fridays are the busiest days, and Sundays weren’t that crazy at all, but in its heyday the market has stall after stall of fruit and vegetables and a huge stack of enclosures with live chickens.  Women were sitting under umbrellas and shades throughout the market, shelling beans or peeling plantains.

Apart from delving into the midst of the Ugandan town, we ate lunch and had coffee in the afternoon at two mzungo-branded cafes.  Plot 99 was where we ate lunch, and the place, while more expensive than most Ugandan food options, offered American and German-style cuisine, free internet, and a beautiful touristy view.  We walked about ten minutes up the road from our hotel and I ate pesto pasta for 9000 shillings (almost $4).  After lunch we did the market route, and after that ended up at café frickedellen, a Dutch café that is a part of an NGO that works with Ugandan children with regards to homecare and education.  The cafe served French press coffee (a “small” jar which actually held about 3 full mugs of coffee cost 7,000 shillings/almost $3) which was delicious, and significantly better than the instant coffee that is standardly served. 

It was great wandering with just the three of us because for the past couple days, and this morning in fact, we were walking around with the huge group in an incredibly conspicuous fashion.  This afternoon we were by no means less foreign or better at blending in, but having fewer people made it easier to see things and get a feel for the city.  It hasn’t quite sunk in that we’re actually in Uganda, and that’s almost surely because of who we’re hanging out with.  Nothing is that out of place because 98% of the conversations I’ve had are with other Americans/the lone Australian.  I think it must take moving in with our host families to actually feel like we’re in Uganda, because wifi access and hanging with other interns certainly isn’t doing the job.