The Big City

Kampala. Where to begin. We left early on Friday morning for the big city. The drive was quite scenic. Uganda is full of rolling green hills and flat marshlands carved with red dirt roads. It always amazes me how quickly the weather changes. As we were driving we spotted a huge dark cloud ahead. Within minutes we were in the middle of a torrential downpour. The streets flooded almost instantly with huge puddles. Ten minutes later we drove out on the other side. One thing you notice in Uganda is the police presence. Even in Masaka, you often see police on the side of the road pulling over vehicles. Our driver got pulled over last week and was fined for not having the school’s logo on the vehicle. These police can make your life very difficult for any small reason. My first impressions of Kampala was that it seemed like downtown Masaka multiplied many times over. We never went through the downtown core so there were few tall buildings. Instead the streets were lined with shops, supermarkets, small homes and industrial areas. We dropped off Alisha and Sue to get their hair done and then headed to the guesthouse to drop off our stuff. We stayed at a place called Adonai which is a guesthouse mostly used for Christian groups and missionaries. Arlene, Carina and I then headed out to do some shopping. We stopped at an Italian Supermarket, Banana Boat (a higher end souvenir shop) and Checkers supermarket. Then we went back to pick up Sue and Alisha. From there we headed to the mall Garden City for some lunch. Eating at the mall food court was quite an experience. In Canada, we look around at the options and then line up at the cuisine of our choice to order, pay for and receive our food. In Uganda, you sit down at a table and are bombarded with people waving menus in your face. Choosing your food is a very stressful experience. We each chose a dish from a different food place and therefore had five different servers each bringing our food and later our bills directly to our table. After lunch, I went to the travel agency to connect with someone about booking flights to Tanzania for my Dad and I. Then we did some more souvenir shopping at Banana Boat and left Garden City. Arlene and Carina had some other errands to do and needed the vehicle so Alisha, Sue and I took boda bodas to the craft market. I was a little hesitant about using this form of transportation but realized it was an opportunity to experience the city in a different way. It turned out to be a fun adventure. The market was really neat and we enjoyed shopping around for souvenirs. From there we met up with the others and headed out for dinner. As much as the weekend was a fun get away, it wasn’t very relaxing. There are lots of people, cars and bodas everywhere. Driving in Kampala is a frustrating process and it seems to take a long time to go a short distance. There are no lights and no stop signs. Drivers are extremely aggressive and you have to drive very assertively to get anywhere fast. For dinner we went back to the area by our guesthouse and ate at Katch the Sun which is owned by a Canadian woman. The food was great but the menu had quite a few spelling mistakes and we had a good laugh about the ‘Sweaty Chicken Curry with French Fires‘. My dish was ‘Chicken Breast with Cream of Coriander Saurse‘. I found that one particularly funny and if you have ever heard of Epic Mealtime, you’ll understand why. After a delicious meal we headed back to the guesthouse and went to bed. It had been a long and exhausting day. The next morning I woke up quite early (4am) to a crazy thunder storm. By the time we had breakfast at 8am, the storm was over but it was still raining quite heavily. We decided to have a leisurely meal and wait out the rain. It was very relaxing and enjoyable. Once again Carina and Arlene had to do some business errands so us other three were dropped off at the National Theatre art market. We finished off our souvenir shopping and then walked over to Nakumat which is another mall. There was a large grocery store so we bought some of our dry goods and by that time the other two were ready to meet up. We drove from there over to SmartShoppers Supermarket and Game (similar to Wal-Mart) to do our final grocery shop and errands. Saturday evening there was a soccer game in town between Uganda and Kenya. It was an important game because if Uganda didn’t win, it would be their last game. Everyone was wearing their jerseys, bodas and cars honked their horns and people on the streets had horns and whistles. It was quite a neat atmosphere but we were also aware that despite the outcome of the game, we did not want to be downtown that night. We left around 3pm to go back to the Timothy Center. The game ended up being tied so Uganda was unfortunately not able to move on. We got back extremely exhausted but it really was a neat opportunity to get away with the girls and see a different side of Uganda.

On the right is Banana Boat and on the left is a really nice looking coffee shop that reminded me of Starbucks:

Waiting for our lunch at the food court:

Spot of interest: there was an empty lot with a bunch of road signs and this sign... National Children's Road Safety Training Ground:

Adonai guesthouse:

Eating breakfast:

A bit of the city skyline in the distance:

On the boda:

Construction safety standards in Uganda (this is a close up of the picture below):

The craft market:

Construction in Uganda:

We stopped at a gas station on the way home and this man tried to sell us his instrument. When told him we weren't interested, he proceeded to demonstrate by singing a song for us. He was actually quite talented:

Stopping at a fruit market on the way home: