Kampala (the capitol of Uganda)

When I first arrived in Uganda (on Monday Sept. 28), we left the airport in Entebbe and started our journey into the capitol city of Kampala. The drive truly broke my heart. I was expecting things to get better as we got closer to the city, but it never did. It is so poverty stricken. The slums are all over the place. Even the “nicer” homes would be considered run down in the eyes of Americans. Although there are a few places that resemble western living. There is a mall, but nothing in comparison to anything we have. It truly is a hard place to describe. The traffic is unlike anything I have ever experienced before. There is only 1 traffic light and several round- abouts. People don’t care about traffic rules, they come in from all over the place, cut people off and that is only the cars. Then you have to watch for piki pikis which are motor bikes that weave in and out of traffic worse than motorcycles in the states and bicycles and pedestrians and you have to force your way through or else you will never get anywhere. I don’t know how there aren’t more accidents than there are. It truly was a scary experience but I started getting used to it the more we were out and around. There are a couple of good restaurants there, so we did eat some pretty good food. We stayed at the guest house provided by the Baptist Mission of Uganda and had decent electricity and water. Pam (my supervisor’s wife) and I got to have good time of conversation and getting to know each other as well as us sort of discussing what will be taking place with the kids. There were many new sounds that were so fun to hear, such as a bird that sounds like a monkey. It was the funniest thing I have heard. On Wednesday, the girls on my team came down to bring Alissa’s mom to the airport and for restocking supplies. On their way down, they got pulled over for “inconsiderate use of a motor vehicle”. HAHA it truly was because there were 3 white women in a truck that was full of luggage. The police wanted them to park the truck and go to court to pay the fee. They told them they couldn’t park it there, but the police could follow them to the mission and handle everything there. The cops had taken down the girl’s information. Long story short, they ended up getting out of it, but after being harassed by the cops for a while that afternoon. But that afternoon we went to get lunch at the mall and get much needed pedicures. They were amazing and cheap. It came out to about $7.50 per person. That rocks!!! The next day I got the opportunity to go shopping with the girls for things that we needed for the house in Arua. And we started going over how things would be split and handled in our home. I am so grateful for the girls that I am living with. We get along so well. I eventually got to enjoy my time in Kampala, but couldn’t wait to get to my new home in Arua.