First impressions of Kampala

So I’ve been in Uganda a month now. In one way it feels like only yesterday saying all my goodbyes (and recovering from all the hangovers..) and in another it feels like I have been here forever. .  I thought it was about time to jot down some of my first impressions of Kampala.  I also wanted to thank everyone who sponsored me – I reached my target for VSO to continue supporting volunteers to fight poverty – thank you!!

The People:

In just a month I have met so many wonderful people both fellow Muzungus (the term for a ‘white person which you hear about 50 times a day) and locals.

Firstly I met the VSO crew. We spent a week in Kabalagala for our In Country Training. There were volunteers from far and wide; Canada, Scotland, Kenya, Ireland & Holland so we learnt about each other’s cultures as well as the Uganda culture. As everyone went their separate ways to the likes of Kabulasoke, Gulu and Lira there were just a few of us left in Kampala. Yvonne, a lovely Irish girl living the same side of town as me and Yan who we’ve already said goodbye too as he was just on a one month placement (although we’re sure he’ll be back some time soon.) Yvonne was the first person I met in Uganda, at the airport waiting for our luggage and now we’re spending Christmas together in Jinja – I can’t wait!

Then I moved to Kisaasi and met Anne Karie, Anna for short.  Anna is my lovely Norwegian next door neighbour and also works at Uganda Media Women’s Association (UMWA.) I’m not sure what I would have done without Anna, she has been so kind; shown me round and introduced me to all the people she has met over her past couple of months here. She is also a breath of fresh-air when things get frustrating at work – I’m not sure how many times we’ve turned to each other and said “it doesn’t happen like this at home.”

Walter needs a mention here too, our boda-boda (motorbike taxi) driver. Everyone advises you to find a good boda driver but before I got here I wondered how to do that. Luckily Anna introduced me to Walter. Walter has about 50 Muzungu clients and everyone loves Walter! He is such sweet guy and makes sure he looks after his Muzungus. He’s really interesting to chat to and always puts a smile on our face. He’s currently writing a book, ‘Stories from the back of a boda’ (let’s hope he doesn’t spill too much gossip...)

Then there’s Betty who lives in a tiny house down the road. Betty is so friendly and always wants to chat. Walking home from work to be greeted with a big, toothless, smile “welcome back Alyrene-a” (she’s got the best pronunciation of Alyrene so far – seems it’s a pretty touch name to say out here..) Her first husband has ‘gone away’ and she now lives with the father of her youngest child, Peace. Peace is far from peaceful and has a great mischievous twinkle in her eye. As a family they don’t have much and can barely afford school fees but Betty always offers tea, food or anything she can find as a gift. She sometimes sells avocados from the tree in her yard so I make sure I buy them from her to at least give something back for her kindness. 

There’s so many other lovely people I’ve met – too many to mention here but I’m really looking forward to getting to know everyone better and sharing this experience with such great people.

The Food

Always an important subject but unfortunately Ugandan cuisine is not much to write home about! During the VSO training we had traditional Ugandan food most days for lunch and it consisted of carbs, carbs and more carbs... A standard meal would be posho (maize flour dough) matoke (steamed green banana) rice,  cassava and potatoes served with beans and a little fish or meat. Basically lots of carbs and not much flavour!

At first I was pleased to find that I would get lunch provided at work. On the minimal VSO allowance any cost saving is much appreciated. Unfortunately in just a few weeks I am already sick of posho and beans (see lunch pic.) I’ve bought a big jar of chilli sauce but even that doesn’t seem to help.

Luckily Kampala has lots of restaurants with most cuisines you could wish for; Ethiopian, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Italian, etc, etc (but unfortunately no Vietnamese – gutted!) So far I’ve tucked into some great dishes. The ‘East African mixed grill’ (see pic) and steaks are the best so far. Unfortunately I shouldn’t get too used to the lovely food as the VSO allowance doesn’t stretch to eating in all those lovely places. We did find a great cheap place though; very local and you have to be sure to request a table as far away from the toilets as possible but they do 2 sticks of BBQ pork served with avocado, cassava, salad and chilli for just 5,000 shillings and it’s absolutely lovely. I think I need to go back there again soon....

The Drink

Of course there had to be a drinking section... It’s mainly beer and Club is my brand of choice, it’s only served in big bottles – no complaints there! Whenever you order a beer the bar man/waitress asks if you would like it warm or iced, I’m not sure why warm beer would be appealing in this weather but the cold beer goes down very well!

Unfortunately there are no bars near where I live but a call to the trusty Walter and there are lots of places to choose from in town. (I say ‘in town’ to refer to anywhere past the Northern by-pass as my awful sense of direction is not helped by living in a city full of hills!)

Luckily Captain Morgan is also widely available here too for when we’ve had too much beer!

The Work

Uganda Media Women’s Association (UMWA) has been running for 27 years, in fact it was set up in the same summer I was born. They run community outreach programmes, a newspaper and a radio station. Mama FM was the first women owned and run radio station in Africa and uses its programmes to promote gender equality. My main role is fundraising for the radio and to be honest it looks like I have a tough job ahead of me – but hey I wanted a challenge!!

The working culture is very different here in Uganda – as is the time keeping (but I actually quite like African time because with African time you can never be late!) It is however  a little frustrating when you book a meeting at 10am and it doesn’t  happen till 5pm!

It was the UMWA Christmas party last week and although not the best Christmas party I’ve ever been to, the staff loved it. Nearly all of the 45 staff members are volunteers and often have to use their own money to pay for work phone calls or for transport to the field. The Christmas party was a way for the organisation to show how much they appreciated everyone’s commitment. There was a gift for everyone and never have I seen anyone so excited to open a parcel of bed sheets (although to be fair it was quite a handy gift – even though mine are bright pink.) There were certificates for the best presenter, technician, editor, etc and again people were so proud to receive this recognition.

Arriving here in November was really good timing because I’ve had chance to get to grips with work and life in Kampala. I’ve been able to input into (and write) the 2011 work plan and now have some time to reflect over the Christmas break.  I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me in the New Year but I’m ready for the challenge. It’s also a really interesting time to be working in Kampala and especially in the media industry with the elections coming up.

The Place

When I found out my placement was in Uganda  and I’d be living in Kampala I was really excited. I’d heard Kampala was a really safe and reasonably developed city. I must admit I got a bit of a shock driving to my new home! I’m living in an area called Kisaasi which is about 8km North of Kampala but it may as well be 80km out of town.  The shock quickly wore off and now I feel I have the best of both worlds – I get to live in what feels like a rural Ugandan village but can hop on a boda and be in ‘civilisation’ in 20mins.

I only have a 5min walk to work which is great and can even pop home for lunch if the posho and beans get too much.

It’s a really lovely and reasonably safe area. The neighbours are all very friendly and even though it’s not exactly a Waitrose I can buy all the essentials from the local shops. There are also a few little stalls at the end of people’s gardens selling fresh fruit and vegetables and at a fraction of the price they sell for in the supermarkets in town.

The only bad thing about Kisaasi is the dust. Because none of the roads are tarmaced it gets so dusty.  It’s actually quite nice when it rains just to get rid of the dust for a few hours – I’m not sure I’ll be saying that in full monsoon season though as I’m guessing the track to my house may turn into a bit of a river!

The Transport

Never again will I complain about the British transport system! There are three transport options in Kampala:

Option One: Special hire, which is a private taxi and not affordable on the VSO allowance.

Option Two: Bodaboda, the motorbike taxi which I think is the best option, but maybe that’s because after spending time on a bike in India any road system seems to make sense. It does seem strange being on a bike without full on motor-cross gear but the must have accessory in Kampala is a helmet. Back home everyone carries a nice handbag on their arm; here all the Muzungus walk around with our helmets.  Walter – our lovely Boda driver is very proud of his Bajaj Boxer but dreams of one day upgrading to a BMW.

Option Three: Matatu; a shared minibus taxi and the cheapest way to get around but I hate those things! Not because of all the reports of accidents or stranding passengers in the middle of nowhere but because I have no idea where to get on or off. As you all know my sense of direction leaves a lot to be desired and attempting to figure out my way round the taxi parks is a bit of a challenge (check out the pic to see what I mean.)

Well I think that’s it for now – a longer report than I meant to write but I hope you found it interesting. Thank you again to everyone who has supported me. And lots of Christmas love and wishes to you all. xxx