HERE AND LOVING IT!!!

Looking out on Kampala from the top of the mountain where our guest house is. In the left of the pic is Lake Victoria.

The biggest birds I've ever seen! They were at least 4 feet tall!

That's a lot of bananas!

The kids playing outside that were so fascinated to see white people. Most of the younger ones didn't speak English; a few of the older ones spoke some.

The Kasubi tombs - the biggest thatched roof hut in the world!
The hut where we had our first class

Driving up the mountain - there are HUGE speed bumps every couple hundred feet

Our beds at the guest house-the mosquito net gets wrapped completely around to sleep at night

The guest house we're staying in this weekend (pic with the hut is the front yard)

I’M IN UGANDA AND LOVING IT!! We arrived at Entebbe airport at 8:15 on Friday night (7 hours ahead of Eastern time zone). The travel was incredibly long and frustrating, but already soo worth it!! To begin with, the woman who was supposed to meet us before our departure in DC from the program administration’s office was 45 minutes late. She arrived about an hour before our flight began boarding, and the line for security was out of this world. We were all pretty nervous, but she finally got there and we got through security fairly quickly. As always seems to be the case when you don’t have a ton of time to make it to the terminal, our departing plane was located in an incredibly far-away terminal. So, we basically ran to the terminal, sweating our brains off. Thank God we made it okay. The first plane ride into Amsterdam was 7 hour and the second 8 hours, which together sandwiched the 3 and a half hour layover at Amsterdam.
My first impression upon walking off the plane was the smell. Uganda has a distinctive smell, and the closest thing I know to describe it as is the smell of fire – the air smells like the land is burning. We’re staying at guest houses in Kampala (the capital city) for the first two nights. We arrived to our guest house around 11:30 PM. We all crashed.
This morning was breakfast and morning introductory sessions, in which we discussed what brought us to Uganda, our implicit and explicit expectations, and got to know fellow students and the faculty. We had morning tea, which is done everyday here. I certainly haven’t gone hungry with the food they’ve fed me!!! Food has been good – cereal, toast, egg, and bananas for breakfast, sandwiches, soup, and INCREDIBLE pineapple for lunch, and tender goat meat, vegetables, rice, and potatoes for dinner. They’ve certainly fed us well here.
The afternoon began with a trip to the Kasubi tombs, the royal burial grounds of four kings of the Buganda, the kingdom of the 52 clans which still exists in present-day Uganda. The tomb is a huge thatched-roof hut – the largest in the world! We heard the legacy of each of the kings (one of which made bad decisions for his kingdom; while the guide was telling this story he hinted at someone in the present-day that was similar – it was a not-so-subtle reference to George W., which gave us all a good laugh especially considering the way it was told (Jenn, you would have found it particularly amusing ;) ) The kingdom still exists and has a ruling king, who has no political power, as the once-sovereign Buganda is now a part of unified Uganda.
Outside the tombs were a group of children playing and eating strange-looking berries off a tree. As soon as they saw us the children were screaming “muzungu,” which is Lugandan for white person (Lugandan is the most-spoken language here; those who have been educated speak English). Everywhere we go people wave and children stare fascinated; they’re so excited to see white people.
Following that we went to center city Kampala, where we went on a walking tour of the area and learned where to get off a taxi if we come in from Mukono (where the university is). We also walked around Garden City, which is the hippest place to shop in Kampala. It’s very modern - a lot like our mall. I made my first purchase with Ugandan shillings – bought a bottle of water; I was so busy counting my change that I left the water on the counter J.
I’ll stop rambling and get to bed. I’m having an incredible time so far. The people in my group are awesome and Uganda is a beautiful place. Oh, did I mention that the weather is perfect?!?!?! It is pretty hot here (understandable since we’re on the Equator), but not uncomfortably hot. It’s not oppressive like Florida heat, but a totally different kind. It’s really nice, and they say this is the weather year round. I’m loving it here. Tomorrow we have worship together and get placed with our homestay. I’m so excited to meet my host family!!! Goodnight.
~Joelle~