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Week 1. As my first week in Uganda is coming to a close, I thought I would do a little update.
My departure from Amsterdam went smoothly; I ended up staying up all night and making to the airport early to avoid sleeping in and missing my flight. As a result, I passed out on the plane for the first six hours. I then woke up surprised to see that the plane was above Sudan and that arrival was only a couple of hours away. I made it to the backpackers hotel in Entebbe at around 9 or 10 or so. They had no available rooms, so I ended up pitching my tent. It rained a bit during the night, but it was kind of a fun introduction to the country, in a way. Also cool was talking to the son of the hotel owner, and he was very open about talking about his life and curious about mine.
The next day was awesome. Having arrived after dark it was the first I got to really see of the country, and seeing Lake Victoria as a walked into town was beautiful and made me feel really happy and excited about everything. For most of the day I rode that high of excitement that comes with being in a new place.
As I walked into Entebbe (the town where the airport is close to the capital Kampala), I met a university student named Tony who studies tourism. He worked at the botanical gardens in town and was happy to show me around (for a fee of course). The park was beautiful, and Tony was able to tell me what all the plants and trees were. Things like cinnamon, tea, perfume, cocoa, etc. came from many of them. I also saw monkeys and the water source from which Idi Amin would insist on getting his water.
I next made my way over to the Wildlife Centre, where I was able to see a variety of the fauna of Uganda, including rhinos, monkeys, and a lion. It was like being in a spacious zoo and without all the crowds. The Pata monkeys there were by far the coolest, and also quite hilarious. They were free to run around the park amongst the visitors like myself. They were very silly and would hop around each other like kangaroos.
Finally, it was time to return to the airport and meet up with the other interns. I was excited to meet them all and find out what they would be doing. There are six of us working for a variety of hosting organizations in Jinja. To clarify though, we are all FSD (Foundation for Sustainable Development) interns, and FSD will be guiding our work.
Before departing , I saw the following in a newspaper "60 bombs found in Jinja." Yay.
With our program coordinators we made the 2-3 hour drive to Jinja, passing through Kampala, which wasn't quite as big as I expected. We ate dinner at our hotel (which is fairly posh by Uganda standards), and chilled in the patio area afterwards. Getting curious about Jinja, me, Mario and Steven (two of the other interns) went out for a little exploratory walk. We didn't make it all the way into town as Jinja is a bit spread out.
The next day was also fun. One of the program coordinators, Ned, just came to Uganda from Kenya, where he was a coordinator before FSD terminated their programs there a couple of weeks ago. It was definitely interesting to hear from him, and James, one of his interns, who is now a "refugee with money" about the situation over there. Nairobi sounds like hell, and many other urban centers are also dangerous places to be. Homes are being burnt, and police are shooting rioters with little discretion. James is considering returning, without the auspices of FSD, as the village in which he lives is actually pretty safe and removed from the turmoil. However, if he chooses to go, getting there is gonna be one hell of a time, which is to say dangerous.
On a lighter note, the food here as been interesting to get acclimated to. It is not bad, just getting used to the way it is eaten is the trick, we've been mostly using silverware but many Ugandans just use fingers. In restaurants you order some main thing like chicken, a sauce to accompany it, and then food (potatoes, rice, bananas). There is no food shortage in Uganda, or atleast throughout most of it, and there is always more food than can be eaten.
Language training has been fun, and its been fun to see each other completely butcher the language and struggle with the most basic things. However it is important, as Ugandans are very into greeting each other. On the other hand it is nice that English is so widely spoken.
So the first couple days were fun getting to know the other interns and struggling as we learned about Ugandan culture. While its been fun hanging out with them this week, I probably won't be seeing a whole lot of them throughout my internship as we will each be very involved in our different organization, and as our leaders have expressed repeatedly, will spend a lot of time with our host families.
On the third day, I kind of came down a bit. We talked about culture shock, and realized that my initial period of infatuation was over. This was depressing as I learned that what would follow would be a time of struggling and frustration. Internalizing this I ended up kind of having a bad day, sad that my euphoria was over.
The next day was much better, and we went to Bujagali falls, a beatiful location in town where the Nile begins, and where they have some crazy whitewater rafting. It was fun, and we threw the frisbee on a little field overlooking the falls. We started making our way back but were stopped by a rather torrential downpour (making me question the whole 'dry season' thing). This ended up being a lot of fun as we ended up throwing the frisbee in the rain. While doing so, some local came out of his little hut and offered us a joint. This was a bit funny as he was wearing a rasta hat. In fact the Uganda colors are Rasta colors, and reggae is pretty big, which is cool. We got absolutely soaked, and dirtied our clothes (very un-Ugandan, everyone's clothing are very neat). Of course when we finally got in our taxi (a van), it got a flat tire. So we played with some kids for awhile as the driver fixed it. When we finally made it to the hotel, we were disgustingly dirty (and I'm sure an embarrasment to the Ugandan leaders).
Last night I met my host mother at a dinner we hosted at the hotel. She was very nice, and I'm excited to meet the rest of the family when I move in tomorrow.
This has been longer than expected, but I believe the rain has stopped and I need to get back to the hotel.
Interesting Facts
On the drive to Jinja I saw a sign for the Invisible Children campaign.
Yams are different from sweet potatoes. Yams are gross.
Women actually carry stuff on their heads.
Uganda is now pretty much Ebola free.
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