Catching up on the Week (through July 2nd)

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Tuesday I didn't do too much with my day or I can't remember doing that much. I probably did laundry and tried to catch up on my blog and reading before watching some soccer. I did take a picture of something very common here. It may not look like much but in one of the pictures you will see a small fire. Since there aren't garbage trucks in many of the areas, a way to get rid of the trash is to make a pile and burn it. This is small example but there are more larger "dumping" areas that will be garbage one day and ash the next. There is always a faint smell of smoke in the air. Sometimes it's more than a faint smell when the fire is near the hostel. It's one of those sights that is strange at first but becomes normal. The amount of garbage everywhere is a terrible sight. It makes me want to start something like a "burning barrel" initiative where we would just put a barrel in the slum areas so that people could at least put their trash in that to burn rather than on the ground where it can blow away in the wind. It's not the best solution in the world but I feel like it's a step up. At least the trash is somewhat contained

Back at the hostel one of the interns Laurel also asked me if I wanted to help out with a market research project that they were doing for a consulting firm. It was a great opportunity because I was working only 2 days a week and the project would be more in my field of study. I accepted and I met with the group to discuss the plan.

Wednesday I woke up and decided to check my email. May, my project director, had sent me an email with a new schedule. On top of my Monday and Thursday sessions at MUK I would also have one on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday at Kyambogo College. I was to meet May at 3pm so we could head over to the school. Luckily I had read the email because my original plan was to go to the city center.

I met up with Roy, Eric, and Susie and we headed over to the new location. We took a taxi then had to walk for about 15 mins in the hot sun before we finally arrived. Our plan was to just introduce ourselves. We didn't do too much before our time was up. We have only 1 hour from 4:30-5:30 and most people don't arrive until 5pm. It's pretty disorganized and somehow we are supposed to teach them how to use microsoft office in 3, 1 hour sessions. I will just deal with that as it comes though.

I went back to the hostel and no one was home. I ran into Richard, one of the Ugandan students, and spent the night hanging out with him and his friends. I can say that the Ugandans definitely have nicer rooms. They have the same rooms but they know that they're going to be staying for a long time so they have them set up a lot nicer with a linoleum floor, furniture, shelves, and dishes. We sat and ate some rolexes that we picked up in the slums and had some tea. We then watched a Steven Segal movie. I couldn't stop laughing throughout the movie because the script was terrible however the Ugandans really enjoyed it and didn't see it as humorous. After the movie I spent some time watching the Ugandan news (the East Africa market was opening up so that has been a big deal) and I chatted with the Ugandans. As a gift they gave me some canned fish for me to try. It's still sitting in my room untouched. At some point I'll start picking at it.


Thursday

Once again. Malaria Day. Also marked my 2 weeks in Uganda. I had my next session and also had a house party at night. Not too much to get into detail about here. It was Canada day so all of the Canadians were celebrating. I started to realize that my sessions every day and doing the market research project might be a bit much.


I had a day off on Friday since I wanted to watch the Dutch v. Brazil match which took place during my new Friday session. I went to town with some of the other interns. I first stopped at the crafts market and then we walked down to the old taxi park. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before but the old taxi park is probably the craziest part of the cities. It's like a giant market that is full of traffic both people and cars. I really don't enjoy being in the area. It's too hectic for me but some of the other interns wanted to go. Also I heard that there was a really good Indian restaurant and I was craving some food with spice or zest. People ask me if I like the food here and I always say, well it's not offensive but it's just bland. I can eat it but it's not the most appetizing thing in the world.

We certainly had to earn our meal. It took forever to push through the crowds and dodge the taxis and cars in the road. You're constantly looking down to make sure you don't step in any of the puddles that I'm sure are toxic. Meanwhile on the walk you're ignoring the people who constantly ask "how are you?" (almost everyone that is sitting that you pass by). Some parts you try to walk through faster than others because of the fowl smell. I think eventually though the smells were drowned out by the aroma of curry. Finally we had a arrived. We walked inside and I ate some of the best Indian food ever. I just got chicken Masala but it was so spicy that I had a nice tower of tissues next to my plate from having to wipe my runny nose.

After that I headed out to get back in time to watch some Dutch soccer. There is a Dutch bar here called Iguanas where the Dutch all go to watch the soccer games. I wouldn't even call it a bar. It's more like a Dutch refugee camp. The place was packed with Dutch, including families. I was wondering where they all came from. It was insane. I hadn't seen so much orange in my life. It was a great match and after the Dutch won the bar went crazy.

After the match we headed down to an area called something like Kamagala for Swanee's last night. It is supposed to be the seedy red light district of the city. We took a cab and met up with the other interns for dinner and a drink. Honestly the area didn't look different from any other part of outer Kampala. It was full of people, a few stands along the side of the road lit by oil lamps. A couple of bars to drink. After dinner I made an effort to get people to the bars to watch the Uruguay v. Ghana game. Once again wearing my Uruguay jersey and cheering against the Africans. I was careful not to cheer too loudly since it was pretty much me against an entire continent. After the match we all caught a taxi home and just called it a night. We were all tired from the week and we wanted to save our energy for the rugby match that we would be going to the next day.

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Photos

Me and the Tims
the two Dutch guys in my hostel are both named Tim