Welcome to Uganda!

Upon reaching the Ugandan border, we left the bus to walk across the border and apply for our visa in the immigration office.  We were surprisingly greeted in English (one of the first times since being in Africa), paid our $50 US, and were granted entry into Uganda for 3 months.  The landscape and people in Uganda were noticeably different; trash littered the dirt roads, people weren’t smiling much, and we began driving on the left-hand side of the road.  After stopping to get gas about 2 hours into the trip, we headed back out on the road and saw plastic bags and bottles whizzing past our window; all the bus passengers began throwing their out their trash.  We were both a bit horrified but tried to hide our shock as everyone else assumed littering was completely acceptable.  8 hours on the bus, and we arrived in Kampala; the capital and main city in Uganda.  We took a taxi to a local backpackers called Red Chili and tried to regroup and relax.  After meeting another friendly backpacker, an American guy working in Sudan (but in Uganda for a couple weeks), we went out for a yummy Indian meal at the local mall.  The next day, our coordinator, Leslie picked us up, along with a couple fellow volunteers who had just flown into the country.  Leslie was bubbly, positive, and honest about our time in Uganda.  She brought us to the new volunteer house; quite a bit different to where we stayed in Rwanda.  To start, about 10 minutes after we arrived we heard a crashing noise and ran outside to find that a moto driver had skidded off the road and hit a man and a woman holding her baby (the first of 3 crashes we would see within 4 days).  Thankfully all involved were okay, but a shocking sight to see the first few minutes at our new home.  The moto drivers in Uganda are all unlicensed, without helmets, and decidedly a bit scarier than what we had experienced in Rwanda.  The shower at our new home consists of a square concrete room with a hole in the corner and a few buckets along the edges.  To bathe, we must (in a variety of positions) scoop the water from the bucket over our body.  When “nature calls”, we have to climb down four flights of stairs armed with our flip flops, headlamp, toilet paper, and scarf wrapped tightly around our faces (imagine a burglar).  The latrine is a small cement box with a hole in the middle that is rarely cleaned, covered in cockroaches, and the worst smelling toilet I have ever encountered.  We have come up with a strategy to spray one of my scarves with perfume, and then wrap it tightly around our faces, with the headlamp securely on our foreheads.  Because we are uncertain as to what the walls, door, and surroundings may be covered in, it is necessary to balance carefully over the hole while squatting to avoid touching anything.  Clearly it is not the most pleasant experience, but one that is part of many local Ugandans’ lives.  Another common occurrence in Uganda is power outages; we’ve had dinner by flashlight 3 of the 4 nights here already. 

We met our manager, Travis, a local Ugandan man who runs the NGO called FREDA (Foundation for the Relief and Development of Africa) here in Mukono, Uganda.  It’s a grassroots organization that works deep in villages to educate locals about topics like sanitation, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence prevention, nutrition, and sex education.  Travis is open-minded, funny, and passionate about equal rights and development in Uganda.  Growing up poor, and now with a family of his own; he really believes in a positive future for the country. 

Travis took us out to “shake bones” as he calls dancing at a local bar.  While we made up some dance moves (the chicken, nature calls, and making chapatti), we sampled the local beer and tunes.  The next night, our house mum/cook Jackie taught us how to cook over charcoal.  After lighting the coals with plastic (probably not the healthiest fumes to be inhaling), we waited for the coals to heat up, chopped veggies, and chatted about recipes.  We had to fight her a bit when cooking the vegetables for our Africa “stir-fry”, when we wanted to take them off the heat but she insisted they were only half cooked.  Our first week in Uganda has been very overwhelming and exciting, and we’re looking forward to our first week of work in a rural village on Monday J

xo Cait