Kampala days

On our first real day in Kampala, Heehyun and I went to get cellphones with Jade. We took a taxi to the city center, but taxis in Uganda aren’t what they are in the U.S. Instead of little yellow sedans with three, maybe four real seats, taxis here are vans – not the type soccer-moms drive, but the ones you might see outside a warehouse or a hospital back home. I can’t tell you how many seats there truly are in it, but if there’s space, they’ll try to fit another passenger in. Seats fold up and down, swinging back and forth so that the room for people to move in and out is also used. You never want those seats though because they make you get out every time someone behind you needs to get off. The back right corner is prime. One man drives in the front right, seated next to more passengers. The conductor sits in the first row behind the driver, all the way to the left. He yells out to anyone and everyone as you drive down the street, trying to get more people to hop on. The driver honks the horn constantly to let people know that there’s space. And there’s almost always space (or more precisely, “space”).

The taxi dropped us off and we paid the conductor what came out to around 50 cents. Then,we were in the heart of Kampala. We walked around a bit, ran some errands, and did some shopping at Kampala’s one true mall, Garden City. As we were looking around, we found a Luganda-English phrasebook that we thought would be useful, so we bought it. It turns out the book is a reprint from 1904. It’s really useful if you want to request that your friends join you in hunting wild hog, but not so much for the modern traveler. Some of the “important phrases to know” are ridiculous. It’s definitely something I can return to every now and then for a good laugh, and sometimes you find a phrase that is actually useful. I think weebale (“thank you”) is in there somewhere, after the section on words you need to know to be able to hire a new servant.

That night, I ventured back to Entebbe to pick up my bags with Moses, a driver who works for the hostel. It took 3 ½ hours of fighting through deadlocked traffic, horns honking the entire time, and people turning their engines on and off in anticipation of a lengthy wait to get my bags, but we did. And I was happy. We went back to Red Chilli where Jade, Heehyun and I sat down for Red Chilli Pizza Night, freshly baked in the outdoor oven, and we ate it all under a thatched canopy. Heehyun had bought a pineapple earlier and it was the best pineapple I’d ever eaten (edit: until a few days later in Nkokonjeru). I had a mediocre first experience with some "curry" on the first night, but truth be told it turns out all the food here is really good. I haven't even used the hot sauce I brought yet.

The next day, it was a lot of the same – traveling around Kampala, seeing some of the unique places it has to offer. We ate breakfast at the hostel, walked around a bit as I tried to find a new phone battery (failure) and then sat down for lunch at this place called 1000 Cups of Coffee. They make all sorts of coffee blends that you wouldn’t expect, like mint and cinnamon. They essentially take every flavor of tea you’ve ever seen and do that with coffee. It’s good. Real good. Not to make this post all about food, but the food we ordered was also great too – curry with all sorts of fresh vegetables and beef. I had mixed spice coffee, which the barista suggested to me. We’ve already decided to go back the next time we’re in Kampala, if that’s any indication of how much we all liked it.

After lunch, we went across the street to an outdoor craft market. Almost every shop had the same things as the next one, but we still went through and looked at almost all of them. It was fun and we had time to kill. Every now and then you find something new. We all bought some form of traditional clothing – Jade and Heehyun bought dresses and I bought a shirt. I’m not sure when I’ll wear it but I plan to before the end of the summer. A picture is surely to follow.

Then we met up with Jade’s friend from Duke, Alexis, and went back to Garden City to check for a phone battery there (also failure). Instead, we sat down at a little café, killed a little bit more time and then headed over to the National Theater to get tickets for that night’s performance. In between getting tickets and the actual show, we grabbed dinner quickly at a nearby Indian restaurant. Then, we went back to the theater and watched a Ugandan dance group perform a really awesome show. Unfortunately, jetlag got the best of me a couple times and I dozed off, not because I was bored but because I guess I hadn’t slept as much as I should have. The parts I saw were great. I’m sure the parts I didn’t see were good too.

Afterward, we couldn’t find a “special hire” taxi (private car, not the crazy vans) to take us back to the hostel. We walked around a bit until we found a club where some were parked outside. We got back to Red Chilli shortly after and Jade, Heehyun and I parted ways upon arrival. The next day, we were leaving for Nkokonjeru, and all of us needed sleep.