Eliza and a Gloria, girl from the sociology class, had arrived at some point in the night. I slightly remembered going out to say hi, then falling back into bed. When I woke up we took a quick jot to the bank, then went back to the hotel for a filling breakfast of oats porridge, and the most delicious fruit salad I have ever eaten. The rest of the day we walked a small circle near our hotel as we purchases water, and I got sunglasses. Walking around the town it became apparent Orientation started later that day at seven. It was there we met Juilet and her son Jophe. Juliet is a Ugandan who did her Ph. D. at UBC, and is now and in country coordinator for ISL. Jophe is studing computer science at university. They were both kind. Jophe dressed well as did his mother. We could see why ISL had told us that Ugandans dressed well. Dinner was delicious, but an odd experience. I had pizza at a Turkish restaurant in Uganda. Some people had fish, and when they ate it with forks Jophe said most people at it with their hands. It then made sense why the night before the waiter at the resteraunt had told Courtney and I where a hand was station was. We decided to sleep with a fan on that night. Each time the fan turned it made clicking noises. Between the clicks, the thunderstorm, the rest of our group getting in that night, the rock hard quality of the matress, and the mosquito net constantly touching me I had trouble sleeping.
The next morning we had the equivalent of a continental breakfast. There were eggs, fruit, African Tea, muffins, bread, and other foods. They even served us watermelon juice. I felt so full after breakfast. We then journeyed upstairs were our groups discussed Ugandan culture, and our individual and team goals. We learned about the family and clan system in Uganda, the different languages, and the regions to which they belonged. When we discussed our goals we had Cornelia (a Ugandan) student help to provide us advice. She said to wright smaller reports along the way, about one a week, so that when we had our final report due at the end of the summer it would not be as difficult to write. When I asked Juliet what would be an example of something we do in Canada that would be seen as rude by Ugandans, and she said kissing and holding hands. I wanted to know more for small things that we as an all girls group going to Lyantonde might do that would be rude, but I guess her answer worked too.
Juliet took lunch as an opportunity to introduce us to typical Ugandan food. This consisted of maize millet, sweet potato, yam, Irish potato, mattoke (boiled and mashed bananas), rice, fish, beans, ect. I had so much food on my plate that my entire table could not help but admire how much I had eaten. I have been full ever since. I have also gotten sick of mattoke, but oh well. At lunch we also met Brent from Salama Shield. He talked more about the program, the town, and the specifics of our project. It was probably the most helpful thing we had done out of all our pre-departure seasons.
After lunch we were wisked away by Cornelia and her friend Edwin. They showed us the massive market downtown where all the fresh fruits and vegtables were being sold. As we walked we must have looked like an odd bunch. All around everyone cried out Mzungu (Lugandan for froigner/ white person). Everyone wanted one of us to buy something. We barley stopped as we wove our way through cracks and small wedges in the market.
From there we went to “the park” where hundreds of taxi’s waited to take people to their destiniation. Taxis, however, in Kampala are different from those in America. Instead of being small cars that take one person wherever they wish to go, they are 14 passenger bus like things that have specific destinations or areas of travel. We found one headed our direction, and seeing as we were 15 people, rented it out. Laws of traffic in Kampala seemed to be more lax so the driver had no issues with taking an extra person. From there we had to persuade the police to let us tour the oldest university campus in Uganda. Apparently unlike the University of British Columbia tourist visits to the campus is frowned upon. We finally got to see that the students there, though, looked exactly like the ones you would find at home.
Then it was into the taxi once more, past a massive golf course in the middle of the city, and to the Garden Center (mall) for cell phones, and internet sticks. Some three hours later we all had phones with no minuets, but my roommate Eliza and I had an internet stick with 5 GB of data on it. Then it was dinner and Handi, which was an Indian restaurant, and off to bed.
The next day we drove down to Lyantonde where I met my host family.
