January 12th – 14th, 2019

I arrived in Uganda around 2:50AM and took a taxi into Kampala, getting to the hotel around 4AM. I slept for a few hours then met up with the other PM from Construction for Change, Robin, who had already been in Kampala for a few days. We walked to a nearby mall, grabbed lunch and a SIM card. After we went back to the hotel and I napped before dinner. For dinner we went to a nice outdoor restaurant, Faze 2, and ate some yummy Indian food (also a large Indian influence in cuisine here, at least in Kampala). The band was good, very lively.. a lot of hip thrusting dance moves haha.

Robin was previously in Zambia helping to construct housing for doctors on close to a hospital. His girlfriend is in the Peace Corps, so last year they quit their jobs in NYC and moved to Africa. He studied architecture at NYU, worked in high end residential construction in NYC but has a passion for medical clinics in developing countries. He’s a cool dude. We get along well, which is great considering we will be hanging out a lot over the next few months.

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The next morning, we ventured out into the city. Since we’re both architecture nerds, we decided to check out some cool buildings. We walked to a craft market that had beautiful art and crafts. Afterwards we walked to the largest mosque in the city, Kampala Central Mosque. We took a small group tour. It was beautiful inside. We climbed up the tower and had panoramic views of the city. We were even able to see the tiniest view of Lake Victoria (the second biggest lake to Lake Superior). Right as we were leaving, there was a wedding beginning. They had drummers playing songs and elaborate dresses; very cool to see.

We learned a few interesting facts about the city during the tour. Kampala was originally a city of seven hills, similarly to Rome and Istanbul. Now it is much, much bigger. The city isn’t very tall but has a lot of urban sprawl. We learned that Kampala is named after antelopes since antelopes once roamed the hills. Antelope is impala in Swahili, ka means of.. ka+impala = Kampala.  They tend to names very practically here. They typically have 2 “weddings”. One is called the Introduction, which is when the man gives gifts to the woman’s family. It typically is a very big to do and has grown more elaborate over the years. The second wedding is in the church. The first wedding is more for cultural validity and the second is to be recognized in the church.

Afterwards, we grabbed lunch then headed to a Catholic church to check it out. We then heading back to the hotel and relaxed. We tried some good local beer, Tusker. Great label and tastes pretty good too! We decided to go to a local Ugandan restaurant for dinner. The food was good but very different than anything I have had before. I’ll write a blog specifically on Ugandan food.. create a little suspense for everyone ;).

The next day we left for our new home for the next few months in the village of Nakaseke.