Getting To Know You (Day 1 – Kampala)

I love newness. Change, transition, new people, new cultures, new animals, new sites and sounds… That’s why I love traveling, particularly to places I’ve never been before.

Monday morning, we woke early to a symphony of sounds – birds I’d never heard before, a call to a Muslim prayer service, roosters that I swear forgot to set their clocks back in the fall because the sun isn’t even close to cresting over the horizon.

25 hours travel the day before didn’t exactly leave us feeling wide- eyed and bushy-tailed, but we were excited to be there and awoke willingly. Pulling my mosquito net aside, I braced myself for  everything ahead of me. Two orphanages and a new culture to discover, not to mention so many new things to take in with my full range of senses...

First thing, Suzy and Shawn got out of the 24- bed dorm and into their own rooms. Shawn actually took the double room next to me to share with Joseph when he arrived, while Suzy shacked up in  Suzanne’s suite. Then off to a hearty breakfast, where we would be sharing the dining room with the Red Chilli’s two oversized (no – fat) dogs, which were lying around lazily on the floor.

Breakfast was fantastic, albeit a little slow coming. Ugandan pancakes (which are actually slightly tweaked Danish pancakes, or larger, thicker crepes), passion fruit juice (“100% pure fruit juice, with sucrose added”) and fruit plates, which included watermelon, passion fruit (which was good, because I didn’t know exactly what a passion fruit was) and some of the best pineapple I’ve ever had.

While the others were getting their things into the car to head out into the city, I took a moment to try and spot some monkeys in the trees. I had been told that there were monkeys. No luck. Try again tomorrow…

Driving into the city, several things struck me. First, the red dirt. Everything in Uganda is tinged an ochre red color. And, being the dry season, dusty…

Second, the birds. They’re everywhere. And not just small, colorful ones like I imagined in an equatorial country. (Note – Equatorial is not the same as tropical. Uganda is not tropical; it’s sub-Saharan bush. Warm year-round, but more like a beautiful lush desert than an island paradise.) Of course, there were small birds all around. I particularly liked the little black and white “love birds” that would fly everywhere in twos and “snuggle” when they landed on a power line. What really captured me, though, was the HUGE Marabou Storks. They’re 2-3 feet tall with long  skinny legs and enormous beak, and they’re EVERYWHERE! In trees, on street lamps, rooftops and, of course, circling in the sky.

I’m told the storks are Uganda’s natural garbage disposal, eating everything people toss aside – food, paper, whatever. Which brings me to my next observation – the garbage. In my experience, most people tossed their garbage aside rather than finding a garbage can. Come to think of it, I don’t think I saw more than a handful of garbage cans the entire week. This was tough for me to take, and I took every opportunity to silently pick up after others when they tossed aside garbage in my presence. (More on that later…)

Next was the traffic. Lots of traffic, although I discovered later in  the week that this traffic was nothing. And people walking through the traffic – salesmen, pedestrians and even children. Right down the middle of the road at times, asking for food. 

And bikes… It’s amazing how much stuff – big, bulky stuff - people can carry on their bikes and motorcycles (called “boda bodas,” or “bodas” for short).

And the women carrying things on their heads… Not just little things, mind you. Big things, balanced with incredible dexterity right on top. Amazing…

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Our first stop on day 1 was the bank, to exchange our U.S. bills for Ugandan. This was relatively uneventful, if you don’t count the security guy standing guard outside the bank with a shotgun. A bit shocking at first, but you get used to it, as most of the guards and police officers have guns (usually large ones, often AK-47s or other machine guns) in their arms.

Back to the bank… Exchanging U.S. money for Ugandan is simple – give them a few U.S. bills and they give you lots and lots of  Ugandan ones. The exchange rate is roughly 1 U.S. dollar to 2000 Ugandan schillings. It gets confusing sometimes when you’re dealing in hundreds of U.S. dollars to talk about millions of schillings, but we weren’t dealing with that amount of money at one time very often, so it wasn’t too bad.

Having exchanged our money, we were ready to dive headfirst into our Ugandan orphan experience.

Next up – a heartbreaking visit to Nsambya Babies Home in Kampala…