Kampala, Nutella and Beaches

So last weekend I went back to Kampala because the thought of spending that weekend in particular with people that I barely new in a town that is still new to me made me sick to my stomach so I went home to Kampala.

And going back to Kampala was very much like going home. I hadn’t been gone for very long but even still I felt like I was coming back for fall break or something after having been away at school.

The whole bus ride all I could think about was getting to Kampala and wishing the bus would go faster…although this could also have less to do with my excitement and more to do with another incredibly long bus trip.

But I finally got there Friday afternoon and was able to go see some friends and stopped by both my host moms and brother’s shops, then spent the night in town with some friends who had also come to Kampala for the weekend talking about all that we had experienced since our time apart.

There’s this one guy who is teaching at this school in the village and he’s the only teacher for like 250 kids. The guy who is actually the teacher sometimes doesn’t show and other times just sits in the back of the room. It’s a private school run by an aid organization that’s waiting to get funding for the government so while they are waiting for funding the kids are in limbo and not learning very much. My friend has to run from class to class putting notes on the board and then to the next level’s class to put notes on their board so on and so forth. He was starting to wonder if it was really worth it. I haven’t heard of a school that bad yet.

Nutella and other Saturday stories

Anyway I decided that I was going to treat myself to whatever I wanted this weekend. So I bought Nutella something I see all the time in the supermarkets and have up till now resisted buying. I immediately opened it and ate it with a spoon…yum. Saturday morning I went to this restaurant at a gas station that has what I’ve heard is the best breakfasts in Kampala…and I can now say that they do and its better than a lot of places in the U.S. I got Cinnamon French Toast with bananas and pulled out the nutella and spread that on too. There was also a strawberry served with it. I don’t know where the strawberry came from (they don’t have them in Uganda anywhere). I was totally stuffed.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Read the paper over tea and then wandered around with a Ugandan friend.

Oh but that night was a total AWA moment. I was going to go home from town but first stopped at my moms shop and she told me that it was her sisters birthday and they were having a party for her that I needed to go to and that I needed to go to my brother’s shop before I went home to tell him about the party then go home to wash and change then come back to town to meet my brother at the shop and go to wherever the party was going to be.

So I do all of that. I even go back into town at night by myself…something that I have had yet to do because I was too scared. I get to my brothers shop and we leave and he calls his mom. She tells him that they are at the family’s hotel for the party. The hotel by the way is right by the family’s home aka I was had just been there. So naturally me and my brother where slightly ticked; me because there had been no reason for me to take the taxi into town and him because he had planned on staying in town and meeting friends afterwards.

So we get in the taxi and are in the taxi for an hour and a half because there was a big jam. So we finally get to our stop and go to the hotel. No one is there. We wait for a half hour and still no one. So we go home to wait there. Nothing. So the night was basically a bust. AWA

Just another day at the Beach…kind of

So Sunday came. The day that I was scared about and my reason for coming all the way back to Kampala. And it was a really good day considering.

My host mom cooked lunch. The house girl used to do the cooking so I had never had my moms cooking and it was so good. She’s a much better cook.

My brother new that Sunday was going to be hard for me so he suggested going to the beach in Entebbe. Without knowing it I’m pretty sure he chose the best place in Uganda for me to be on that day. My dad loved the beach and I have all of these memories of us at the beach in Michigan and Florida and even at the visitation we handed out cards that had a picture of a beach on it. So it was really fitting.

The beach at Entebbe was on Lake Victoria at this resort type place. It was beautiful. The lake is huge and you could see some of the islands out in the distance and fisherman in their small boats. There was music and a dance floor and food and a bar and families and a park. It was so alive and happy. We just hung out at the beach kicking sand into the water and attempting to throw a Frisbee.

Oh and do you know those things that when you put them in hot water they turn into sponges of different shapes…well I had some of those which were Chicago themed so we tried those. However since the water wasn’t hot we ended up just pulling it apart in the water and tried to discern what each shape was.

Maybe the best part of the day was riding on the boda bodas. I even rode one at night which was so cool.

Anyway it was a good day. And it helped me to realize that I have really good friends. I was worried about how I would handle being away from my family and friends back home and thought that I was going to be all alone to be miserable by myself with my nutella. But that wasn’t the case. My home-stay family was great, especially my brother. And my friends from my program were amazing. They texted and called me throughout the day to make sure I was ok. It felt so good to know that even though I was away from home that I had found people here that cared and were looking out for me.

And to those of you back home thanks for the emails and thoughts I really appreciated them.