By sun and fertile soil grown,
For our own dear land,
We shall always stand,
The pearl of Africa's Crown.
-National anthem of Uganda
June 9, 2010
I’ve made it to Uganda!
The flight was grueling, but I’m quite excited to be here and I think my brain is about to implode from everything it’s trying to take in at once.
We were met at the airport in Entebbe by Dr. Benon Mugerwa (founder of MMH and MMHF, the private hospital and foundation we’re partnering with) and spent the past night and day in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Our hotel, Namirembe Guest House, sits on a hill with a spectacular view overlooking the city. We couldn’t see anything except for the twinkling of lights (and stars – the night sky is beautiful here!) when we first arrived due to the darkness, but when the morning came and I woke up to the calls of a rooster, the view was amazing.
Don’t be fooled by the calmness of the picture. Kampala is a bustling city, even though June 9 was actually a holiday--Hero’s Day for those who fought in Ugandan wars. We were told that the city was even quieter than it normally is.
On the way from Entebbe to Kampala, one of my first thoughts was: Driving here is a scary affair (especially for someone accustomed to the order and structure of American roads). This holds true in Kampala as well.
First of all, the roads are absolutely chaotic. There are cars, motorcycles (lots of bodas, as they’re called here), vans, pedestrians, trucks, all sharing the road. Merging just happens, and you hope the other car stops for you. (There was one time when I honestly thought we were about to get into an accident with another van; it stopped about 3 inches from the left side of our vehicle.) There also aren’t many signs to help direct flow, but the drivers know how to navigate the chaos, thankfully. I saw a single traffic light during our entire time in the city and only a few stop signs, some which went unheeded.
As for walking on the streets, we quickly learned the important lesson that cars and motorcyclists do not yield to pedestrians. Crossing a road for the first time made me more than a bit nervous. I’m still in one piece though, so all is well!
More on our visit to the public hospital in Kampala in the next post.
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