Kampala and Culture Shock

What was initially supposed to be a Thursday night to Sunday trip to Kampala has now turned into a Friday morning to Tuesday afternoon trip. I think I'm slowly learning to throw out planning... Personally, I'm thrilled to have a couple extra days in a big city where beef can be purchased at the restaurants!

It's interesting though, because I'm experiencing more culture shock from being back in a Western-like city than I did when I first went to Gulu. I am definitely beginning to understand the extent of the poverty in which I live in Gulu. There is most definitely poverty in Kampala, but there is also wealth. There's some buildings with air conditioning, the roads are mostly paved, and the people generally appear healthier. I have yet to see a mud hut; in Gulu, that's almost all there is outside of the few mzungu houses, NGOs, or businesses.

I did almost die on a boda-boda again. We were driving on the wrong side of the road in VERY busy traffic trying to pass this truck. The truck starts drifting towards us, the oncoming truck wasn't slowing down, and then our boda died. Completely ran out of gas and we stopped moving forward. I just closed my eyes and put my head down until the driver started yelling at us to jump off and run to the side. It was quite terrifying. I'm quite confident that if I get injured in Uganda, it's going to be on a boda-boda in Kampala!

We are staying at the MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) in south Kampala, and I couldn't have asked for a better place. It's clean, cool, serves homemade meals, and is super cheap. The family I met in the Entebbe airport told us about it and we are actually staying here with them, as they are in Kampala to pick up their vehicle and supplies before going back to Gulu. I am SO thankful that I met them. They have four little girls that have been fun to be around and have been more than willing to help us out in any way they can. I feel like I've known them forever (even though I've only seen them twice before this weekend) and they are already great friends. If we were in America, it would definitely be totally weird to be friends already.

For those of you who have asked for pictures of the city, I really can't take any here or in Gulu. If the police or military see you with a camera, they will confiscate it, demand a bribe, and sometimes arrest you. This happens often, so I am not willing to risk that, as I would prefer to make it out of Uganda without being thrown in jail. I'll just stick to pictures of the village and my house when it's furnished! However, we ARE stopping to stick our feet in the Nile on the way back to Gulu and I will definitely take pictures then!