We are finally in Uganda, after a long and cool trip. I love it, and I felt at home literally as soon as I stepped out of the airport. We were picked up by a man named George that works at my internship site, Katosi, and took about an hour matatu ride (which is a mini bus) to our hotel in Kampala. Besides getting stopped by the police because we looked suspicious with most of our bus full of bags instead of people, I really liked just looking out the window during the ride from the airport. I saw an Obama Salon, which I tried with utter failure to take a picture of.
Uganda reminds me a lot of Rwanda, but of course they are different in many ways too. Kampala is definitely a bigger, and sort of more “international” city than the capital of Rwanda was. There are a lot more Muzungus (white people/foreigners) than in Rwanda, for sure. Kampala is also slightly less orderly, but even though it may look chaotic on the surface, I definitely don’t think it is. It has the same sense of orderly chaos as I felt when I was in Tanzania. Like there are not many rules, but at the same time everyone has a shared understanding of common rules. Traffic looks so busy and even dangerous, with motor taxis literally weaving in and out of cars (sometimes within inchesss) and with people going ridiculously fast but still trying to avoid the enormous potholes in the road. But it just seems to work, you know?
I did start feeling a little strange after being here a couple of days. I think I was expecting it to be as hard emotionally as being in Rwanda and hearing about the genocide and visiting horrible memorials with thousands of genocide victim’s bodies preserved in limestone and mangled in the actual position they died in. Or as hard as seeing people with machete scars on the faces. Although there hasn’t been a genocide in Uganda in the past 15 years, a lot of bad things have still happened here, and I think I was over-preparing myself for being sad and upset.
Perhaps a lot of why my time here hasn’t been as emotional is just the nature of what I am doing. I am not taking classes, and I have not started my internship yet, so I have basically been hanging out and with the other interns. It has been fun, and we have done a lot of cool things (like exploring a local, really intense market called Oweeno that is basically like a covered, winding maze with people selling second hand things). But at the same time, what we have done so far hasn’t been as genuine (maybe that’s the wrong word) as I was hoping. I think we have been living more of a westerner’s life in Uganda rather than actually experiencing a Ugandan’s life in Kampala. We have hardly made any Ugandan friends, and everyone pretty much seems to want to hang out and party with other Americans they have met rather than actually learn about Uganda and the people that live here.
Some of the Americans are definitely even rude and culturally insensitive. Like one guy thought he was like an expert on Kampala, but he would say things like “oh, none of the cultural rules and customs apply to Americans (like not wearing shorts or not having dredlocks because they are associated with the LRA). Americans are the highest class in Uganda.” I literally almost punched him in the face. Even though seeing what western life is like in Kampala is definitely interesting, I hope I can connect with Ugandan people once I go to the small village where my internship is!
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