First week in Uganda

16 – 23 July 2010
This first week we have been based in a hotel in Kampala very close to the VSO office. There are a group of 11 of us, 9 volunteers and 2 accompanying partners. Only 2 of us will be based in Kampala but there are already a lot of volunteers based here. We have had an intensive week of in country training and an introduction to the most appropriate local language for our placement – for me this is Luganda. We were taken to see a music and dance show in which the compare gave some very good back ground to the different areas.
Things that have struck me this first week in Kampala are:-
It is very dusty with a fine covering of red dust settling rapidly on everything
It is much colder than I had expected only up to about 22oC in day and dropping considerably in the evening
There are lots of birds around many of which are beautiful but also several are extremely noisy
The traffic system is chaotic but works until you get traffic police trying to organise it
People are very friendly if you take the trouble to greet them
The pineapples are huge and amazingly tasty
A meal is not a meal without boiled, mashed banana – motoki?

Leaving for Uganda

15 July 2010

Sonya had been home for a few days before my departure and both she and Steve came with me to Heathrow. This time the departure was much easier. We had all done it before, I was going to be so much closer and being placed in the capital can be home within a few hours if needed and finally this is only a 1 year placement. VSO had arranged charity/missionary tickets with BA so I had a generous luggage allowance and was actually under my weight allowance.