After 25 hours of travelling and very little sleep on the planes, I was exhausted on arrival but the excitement and adrenaline kept me going . The pilot informed us that it was 26°C when we landed and that was at 5pm, imagine what it is like at midday. A man from the university called James was there to pick us up at the airport and he was very pleasant and friendly. We drove from Entebbe to Kampala which took about one hour. The streets were full of people walking everywhere and there was a constant buzz of community in the air. Throughout our entire drive we did not see a single white person so you can imagine the looks we were getting from everyone.
Eventually we arrived at the hostel and James helped us to find our way and left us in the very capable hands of Rosco (who’s dad apparently has the same name as me except he spells is Ntale). Rosco was very helpful and even changed our light bulb in the bathroom whilst balancing on a very wobbly chair. We had a little nosey around the hostel but decided to have an early night as it was pitch black outside and we were also very tired from our travelling. We had our cold showers (as there is no hot water) which were unbelievable good, unpacked our cases and climbed into bed.
The view from our hostel is surreal as when you look in one direction from the balcony you see little tin huts and a kind of shanty town, and in the other is this huge homely building. It goes from one extreme to the other.
The next morning we made our first trip into Wandegeya to try and get some money. All of the cash machines are in little rooms so that no-one can watch you lifting out money which is quite good. It did seem rather funny standing outside waiting for the person in front to finish though. We also managed to get Ugandan phones whilst in the town too so hopefully communication with home should be less expensive.
Getting into Wandegeya was an adventure in itself. The main method of transportation in Uganda is boda boda’s. These are like scooters like we have at home but you just jump on, no helmet required, and then hold on for your life!! The roads are bedlam in Kampala, you have to fight your way anywhere and the boda’s just dart in and out of the cars. The one I was on today swerved to avoid hitting some pedestrians and I grabbed onto the poor man so tightly. I’m sure he was a little shocked.
It is Day 2 in Uganda and there are definitely lots of things that are going to take a lot of time to get used to. The heat is one aspect that I am definitely not complaining about. It is very hot though, some of the Ugandans were even complaining to us about how hot it was today!! We have already made some plans with people that we have met for the next few nights including ultimate Frisbee tomorrow night and dinner on Friday night so that should keep us busy and I will keep you all posted in the next couple of days on my adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment