First Night in Uganda

As I write this, I sit on the small twin bed in my 51,000 UGsh (about $25/night) hotel room, shared with my research partner, Tegan. I have made it: I am in Uganda. However, let me start from the beginning of my trek, about 18 hours ago…

First, let me say that travelling internationally is nice. Maybe I’m naïve (this is actually my first time venturing outside North America!), but I couldn’t believe the amenities when compared to domestic flights. Free beer and wine, what seems like never-ending food, and lots of great on-demand movies. I even met an extremely generous Turkish guy on my flight to Amsterdam who pitied my cologne-ness future and gave me a small bottle of Gucci :o

Detroit to Amsterdam actually went by in a blur, thanks to The Hurt Locker, Whip It, and The Blind Side. Our flight arrived late but we actually had a 3-hour layover so everything was fine. I started to get a little more restless – and began to feel the annoyances of jetlag – on the Amsterdam to Entebbe flight, which was also about 7 ½ hours. Surprisingly, the flight was only about ¼ full, meaning everybody sprawled across multiple seats. I originally had a window seat, so I kept it and got to see some nice views of the Italian coast and African topography. Darkness settled in throughout the last hour of our flight (quite early – we landed at 7:30 PM) and I began to notice the stark absence of light below, a shocking contrast to home. But walking off the ramp and into the airport really let me know I was in Africa…

The first thing that hit me was the air… the damp, warm (though not overpoweringly hot) sticky smell of it travelled through my nostrils immediately. I looked up at the indoor lights and saw more mosquitoes swarming around each set of them than ever in my life. I was struck by how different the airport was from what I was used to. Sure, I didn’t expect another Detroit Metro - but this was something completely different. Very small, less lighting, amenities, staff, and very simple… some signs were even posted with tape and looked like Microsoft Word documents. We actually breezed through customs thanks to our pre-arranged visas and found the ATM to get Ugandan shillings (FYI: $1 = roughly 2,000 Ush). Thankfully, Bank of America has an affiliation with Barclay’s, which is extremely prevalent in Uganda, so only the minimal international fees will apply. Afterwards, we found our driver from our hotel holding a sign with what resembled our names and headed with him outside. We loaded up in his van and were off to Kampala, our overnight destination.

From the airport in Entebbe, it’s about a 25-minute car ride to Kampala – and for me, it was my first scenery of “real” African life. The sunroof was open and I couldn’t believe the sights, the smells, the constant sound of insects - my senses were overloaded. The road from Entebbe to Kampala is lined with various gas stations, shops, and shacks. During the entire ride, there was a constant stream of people outside – many walking alongside the road in pairs of 2 and 3. It almost resembled the feeling of driving through a party school’s campus… of course, with obvious differences. The constant stream of people went on for miles and miles and one room shops with the dimmest of lighting seemed to never end. Cars, taxi-vans, and boda-bodas (motorbikes) all drove quickly and carelessly (and the middle of the 2-lane road is apparently game for whoever decides to utilize it). Some of the potholes almost took up the entire width of the road. The smells would change from tropical to moist to dirty and back. Everything felt unreal...

We are staying at the student lodge at Makerere University in the capital city of Kampala. With 1.2 million residents, Kampala is by far the largest city in the country (no other cities even surpass 200,000). We'll actually be staying here an additional night due to our 3rd partner, Lindsey, not making the connecting flight until today. My final destination is the city of Mbarara (population of about 90,000), an up-and-coming city located in the southwestern corner of Uganda and about a 4-hr car ride from Kampala. Mbarara is the home of Mbarara University of Science & Technology, the school that has partnered with U-M to conduct the research we will be doing this summer – much more to come on all of that…

So, now, under a mosquito net, starting to sweat even though I just took a shower (which was HOT because I couldn’t figure out the cold knob), I can't help but wonder to myself if I made the right decision. Am I really cut out for this for 3 MONTHS? Time will tell - but in the end, exposing myself to something new and what I feel to be necessary can’t be wrong...

I can't wait to post pictures and share more of Uganda with you all. Take care everyone. You are all constantly in my thoughts.