Day 3: Kampala

Fri 1/30 - 8:50am I didn't sleep very well last night. It was very warm but there was a mosquito intent on buzzing in my ear all night, so I took shelter under a sweaty sheet. We got up at 7:50am to a big breakfast already laid out in Sam's kitchen: a massive pineapple cut into wedges, sausages (hot dogs?), baked beans, and little glass ramekins with individual poached eggs, whose yolks were almost as light as their whites. 9:45am Driving into Kampala now on crowded, busy Entebbe Road with boda-bodas (taxi motorcycles) dodging and weaving around us. The terrain is dry and dusty and as we go up and down the bumpy hills towards the city centre, we decide to keep our windows closed. Not just because the AC is on due to the heat, with the morning sun coming down, but the kicked-up dust and gasoline fumes are much stronger than the sweet, campfire air late last night. There are rocky ditches on the side of the unmarked four lane highway, lined with unending markets and no sidewalks. They drive on the left (vestigial rule from the British colonization) here and even though we were about seven miles outside of town, people are already walking the long distance into town. In more crowded, trafficked areas men hustle to sell newspapers window to window, running after cars, and some sell car mats and toilet paper by the roll. 10:50am Had a 30 minute meeting with Prasoon Lal, an executive of Airtel, the 4th largest global provider of telecommunications and technology, to discuss the possibility of AAH partnering with them to bring Internet to the small villages in the Bududa district. Airtel's community/social responsibility programming is potentially interested but wants to know how far out the villages are and how much money it would take to invest in new fiberoptics and masts. Interesting meeting! It seems like it was a success. Marissa is going to email Prasoon the GPS coordinates of the schools. I didn't have anything to say, but I sat there, alert and engaged like a good tagalong. 11:45am Just got to the Speke Hotel (where we'll stay next week) and changed out $100 American for $284,000 Ugandan Shillings. Monopoly money!! On our way into the finance office, we ran into an older man who was the mayor of Kampala in 1985 and also head of the Democratic Party. Random surprise! 12:25pm This is a busy day of meetings and driving through insane Kampala traffic to get from one to the other. I am now sitting outside of a small house where Kit & Co Accountants work, where Dad, John, and Marissa are having a meeting with a company about auditing the school's finances. I am reading The Sun magazine on a comfy chair and going in and out of a nice gentle nap. I'm totally a fish out of water here in Uganda, but can already feel my scope of the world broadening. The people here live such fascinating lives and I am reminded at every turn how many more opportunities and luxuries we have in America. I keep thinking about how I'm being perceived. I have experienced only friendly people, who smile broadly and are eager to (lightly) shake hands and tell me their Christian name - Fred, James, John Bob. These folks definitely acknowledge me as Caucasian and probably immediately as American. But knowing that Uganda is one of the most violently homophobic countries in the world, I find myself wondering how these people really feel about gay people and whether they have ever met one before. And what would they think of me? If they got to know a normal, healthy, well adjusted homosexual who doesn't threaten their existence, would that they change their minds? 12:50pm Now driving through Makerere University campus. Stopped to walk around the "quad" and entered the physics department, where we ran into another man named Fred, Professor Fred Twinamasiko, who gave us a walking tour of the department. The building was in serious disrepair and the computer labs and electronics rooms were unbelievably old-fashioned, sparse, and out-dated. Makerere University is the best and oldest college in Uganda and the fact that they have such limited resources and materials was shocking. Prof Fred is interested in coming to AAH and giving a presentation to the students about space, the moon, and basic physics! His associate is going to help us find the energy department. 1:50pm Now we're walking around the Engineering, Design, Arts, and Technology Building and just came into the energy wing, where "we" are all speaking with a young man named Patrick who is an expert in solar panels and batteries. And now we're in a meeting with Smith Tukahirwa, who Patrick brought us to. Smith is a project engineer with CREEC, the Centre of Research in Energy and Energy Conservation. They are discussing potential renewable energy technology projects with alternative resources that CREEC and AAH could partner in: pico-hydro, micro-hydro, turbines, biomass. Lots of conversation about feasibility studies and training local communities to maintain their own energy conservation systems. Logistical implications may determine how affordable and appropriate these energy projects may be for AAH, but CREEC is going to come out to do tests in Bududa. I am only really observing today and have had a lot of free time to journal, but I wonder if I will continue to have this much writing time in the coming weeks... I look forward to being in the school and interacting with the children. Sidenote: We are all feeling the jet lag and haven't eaten since 8am. My energy has dropped and I am starving. 3:30pm We finally ate! Matoke (plantains), posho (maize flour), millet, rice, irish (boiled potatoes), peas, beef, so much food for only $4 (10,000 shillings). A lot of carbs! I am not sure you'd approve, Garen. Kampala is a bustling city, full of vans and cabs and cycles and motorcycles and people crisscrossing the roads, but the people are in no hurry to get anywhere. The fashion and the buildings are all cheaply made, but strong in statement. Women wear colorful polyesters and men wear silk ties and leather shoes. Big office buildings and hotels are in poor condition, but architecturally creative. The roads are in shambles and there are almost never sidewalks. A lot of old British colonial influences still weigh strongly in the way things look and what they are named. 6:20pm After a visit to Craft Village and the shops on the grounds around the National Theatre (where we bought Holly more of her favorite handmade blue and gold necklaces), we just drove back towards Sam's house through the insane traffic, making a brief stop at John Wanda's friend Anthony's home. It is a very small one room home connected the mini-store that his wife runs. We met their new three month old baby Christine. The level of poverty is diametrically opposed to their level of happiness and pride. Anthony and his wife beamed as they showed off their infant in their oppressively small room with three wooden chairs, hangers hung around the room on wooden pegs, a twin bed, and a triple bunk bed for his older children that lived with them. It really tugged at my heart strings. 6:40pm The girl that Holly and Dad have sponsored for the past 10 years was waiting for us at Sam's house when we arrived. She is so sweet and full of love. She saw Holly's video and made one of her own for me to show Holly when I return. We gave her the gifts we had for her - including a new laptop computer and she was ecstatic! I was starting to fade, so I sat on the couch. 8:20pm I just took a 90 minute nap. I woke up to the car starting outside and people saying goodbye to Annah. 8:55pm Another nice Ugandan meal at Sam's - very simple spaghetti, meat sauce with baked beans, peppers, and carrots, and boiled potatoes. Now a stretch and a shower before a good night's sleep. Hope all is well stateside!