Geckos on the Ceiling and Chickens on a Bike

Crazy. That’s pretty much the only way I can sum up my first night and day in Kampala.

But first, let me start from a bit earlier. I arrived at the Phoenix Airport at 4:30 am on May 11^th, and then had a five hour flight to New York, after a few hours, my next flight took off for Brussels, which was a bit heftier coming in at seven and a half hours. At the gate in the Brussels airport while waiting for my flight to Rwanda, I was surprised to see how many Americans were going to be on the flight too. Most people seemed to be continuing onto Uganda to go work at various NGOs and schools for a few weeks. That flight was 8 hours, and then the last leg was only about 35 minutes to Uganda. I managed to get through all four flights with no problems or set backs whatsoever. I got in about 10 pm Ugandan time (we’re 10 hours ahead of Arizona I believe), and the proceeding drive from the airport to Kampala was pretty crazy. We were headed to the AIESEC national staff’s house there, but it was very dark so I couldn’t see much. When we started to get into the city, Matthew, my host for the weekend, explained to me that the AIESEC house is actually in the middle of a slum, but it is “perfectly safe”. There are huge walls all around the house, and a nice front and backyard. Don’t worry, there’s also lots of barbed wire on top of the walls in case the walls weren’t enough. The house here is very nice for the city, and has both electricity and running water. I went to bed in a room with two other beds in it, but didn’t think much of it because I was so exhausted. There was a mosquito net on the bed, but it was difficult to get really spread out since it was only hanging from the bunk bed above me. I didn’t get bitten as far as I know last night, so one night down, and many more to go (later I asked someone to help me with it, and I was doing it all wrong, so don’t worry mom, the second night I was properly mosquito-free!).

I woke up this morning to the sounds of roosters and people talking outside the door. Once I finally got myself up and out of bed, I walked into the main part of the house, and found lots of people my age getting their stuff together to go on their weekend excursions. It turns out that there were at least 11 people who slept here last night – all interns from around the world. Most of the interns that work in Kampala stay here, but since I will be in a village a bit further out, I will be living at the NGO itself. Many interns like to congregate at the AIESEC house on the weekends regardless of where they live in order to go into the city, or just hang out.

For breakfast we had guacamole, except that Matthew had never heard of it being called that, and kept telling me “no, no”. Apparently, one of the other interns made it for him and now he loves it. Avocado, tomatoes, and onions are very easy to get here, so I think I may try having this for lunch sometime. Also, the avocados are at least 4 times as big as the ones back home, and way cheaper too! The house is located on a hill overlooking other hills in the distance. The sounds are so strange too because there are roosters crowing almost constantly, goats bleating, and kids and babies making noise just outside the walls.

After everyone in the house kind of woke up and either went on their way or stayed home, another intern who arrived from Toronto the same day as I did came into town with me and one of the local AIESECers. Taxis there are the safest way to get around, and we stumbled down the huge hill, which is full of shanty houses and kids running around (often following baby goats), to get to the main road. The kids are so cute and always say “hello” or “bye-bye” to us as we walk to and from the house. The adults are pretty used to all the foreign interns always walking through, and it is very safe to walk around there during the day. We finally hailed down a taxi, however, if you are currently picturing a small four-door yellow cab, stop. The taxis are little mini-buses that may hold four people in each of the four rows because they pack you in just like sardines. You are pretty much sitting on top of a local or nearly being sat on. The girl from Toronto Jenna and I got a front seat at one point, which was nice to not be in the back, but was also moderately terrifying. I thought driving in Boston or L.A. was scary, but East Africa brings aggressive driving to an entirely new level. The local AIESECers keep asking me if I have a driver’s license, but there is no way I could ever operate a vehicle in such chaos. They drive on the left side of the road here, which is a bit disconcerting initially, but the bigger issue is that lanes are rather arbitrary, and people easily squeeze three cars side by side in each direction on what I would consider to be two tight lanes. There are also little motorbikes called boda-bodas, which are another option for getting around, but they are rather dangerous as they weave in and out of these cars that are already insanely close together. I am pretty sure it is a miracle that we never once saw a car accident – though minor ones do happen quite frequently here.

The highlight of my day was while sitting on this first taxi ride, we saw people go by with the strangest things attached to their boda-bodas including, but not limited to, banana leaves piled high, too many people, and one man who had about 20 chickens strapped by their feet to the back of the boda-boda – and they were all alive and very wide-eyed. There in all this traffic and craziness is a big ball of live chickens, just stuck there in the middle of this city on the back of a motor back that was hardly visible. Yes, it may be a bit cruel to laugh at the poor upside down chickens, but sometimes you just have to laugh, and realize that fresh chicken here could really be quite fresh.

Kampala is a pretty busy city, and there are lots of shops selling just about everything along the main road. We stopped in the Mzungu Mall today (Mzungu means “white person”, and while the mall is actually called something else, it definitely has the feel and products of a western grocery store and shops, and the local girl we were with joked that it attracts all the Mzungus like bugs to a lamp. We bought some food to bring back to the house, since it’s kind of feed yourself style here. A bag of rolls, a jar of peanut butter, and some Koko Krunch (Nestles African/SE Asian brand of cocoa puffs) will help hold me over until I actually arrive at the NGO later this weekend. There is a lot of delicious fruit here, and we will be picking it up today in the market when we go back into town.

The rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent talking with two of the interns about Uganda. One of the frequent comments I’ve heard is that there is often not much to do when you are not working here because there are few TVs, computers, and smartphones. I did get a modem yesterday, which will allow me to have some internet access. You pay by the amount of data you use, so while it will be nice to be able to get internet access easily when needed, it is a little weird not just browsing the web for kicks. Unfortunately, uploading photos to the web uses a lot of data, so until I get some free wi-fi sometime, I will probably just wait to upload photos until I get home.  In other news of staying connected, I got a cheap phone to use here, but I think the woman at the store thought I was a total loser since I didn’t need very many minutes considering I am not going to be calling people very often. People definitely talk on their phones in the city all the time, but I guess I am just not cool enough to need very many minutes!

That night we went back into town with a couple of interns to a very nice western bar/restaurant called Kyoto. We sat outside in the cool evening and enjoyed some good food. Even at such a nice restaurant, they still messed up our bill, which is quite a common occurrence from what I hear. Everyone says to just do the math and make sure it’s correct because often the waiters overcharge either on accident or on purpose. When we pointed out the discrepancy to the waitress she quickly fixed it and said she accidentally left some of the change back at the counter. That being said, food is so incredibly cheap, even in the city, that it is very strange to get such a low bill. In the villages it is not that difficult to eat well for $2-3 a day.

Even at night, Kampala felt quite safe, and people are pretty used to seeing foreigners there so we mostly never even got weird looks. I know that when I head to the village it will be a whole different story though; many of the kids have never seen a white person before. Really, the biggest concern when walking around Kampala is not getting pick-pocketed or hit by a car. Both of these situations are pretty easy to prevent with a few precautions by keeping things in good bags and watching the traffic very carefully when crossing the road. (Something bird just flew over the house and made the weirdest/loudest noise I’ve ever heard a bird make!). In other weird animal new, we also have geckos on the ceilings and walls here. They just chill, and are supposedly harmless, but still it’s a bit weird. I always say hello to the big one in the kitchen when we walk in there. I think I may slowly be getting over my fear of creepy crawly things – but (gah! That bird literally sounds like something out of Alice in Wonderland)…but anyways, if there are any big bugs in the bed, I am probably not that okay with them yet.

Well that’s all for now. Today we are headed to a hotel swimming pool to cool off ,and then tomorrow I head to the village. Next time you take a warm shower, think of me. I am not yet fully accustomed to the icy-cold water no matter how hot it is here!

Hope all is well,

Megan