Murchison Falls National Park

This weekend we were at Murchison Falls National Park for a vacation in the middle of the trip. We left Kampala on Friday and drove north in four vans. On the way to the park, we stopped at a restaurant for lunch, but we ended up spending four hours there. The service was terrible, but we were able to spend time together and hang out before continuing our journey.

The drive took about six hours total and when we were about an hour away from where we were staying, it started raining. Really hard! Once we arrived at the rest camp, we got out and quickly ducked under a roof so we didn’t get wet. Then we got our room assignments. Emily and I decided we wanted to stay in a safari tent. The tent was on a tarp and under a covering so we didn’t get wet. The tent had two beds in it so we did not have to sleep on the floor. Emily and I had a lot of fun in the tent with the lantern and animal noises. The first night we were in the bathroom and heard warthogs outside the bathroom and got a little scared, but then we looked and the warthogs were just having dinner.

Saturday morning we got up early for a 6:30 game drive. Our vans that we rode in converted into safari vehicles with a popped up roof. We had to take a ferry across the Nile to get to where all the animals were. The game drive was so fun! We saw baboons, elephants, birds, giraffes, and even a leopard in a tree! It was a gorgeous day with the sun shinning and wind blowing; it was so nice I rode on the roof (I don’t know if I was supposed to, but I did anyway!).

Then we went back to camp for lunch and rest time. For lunch I had a really good bacon cheeseburger with fresh pineapple on it! It was delicious! Then Emily and I went back to our tent to take a nap, but it was so hot in the tent, we ended up outside relaxing and hanging out until it was time to go on the boat drive.

The boat drive was on the Nile and we saw a lot of hippos, elephants, water buffaloes, and many birds! The boat ride was relaxing and really fun. Eventually we arrived at Bugagali Falls, which is a waterfall on the Nile that sprays water everywhere. It was very pretty to see from a far!

Today we had breakfast and left camp to begin our drive back to Kampala with a minor detour taking a hike to see Bugagali Falls. Before we even made it to the falls, my van had a flat tire, so another van stopped to help change the tire and we got back on the road towards the falls. Once we got to the falls, we took the short cut so we could get right to the falls. The falls were beautiful! With all the spraying water, there was a very pretty rainbow that went from cliff to cliff! Once we took all the pictures, we continued down the road to Kampala, but my van got another flat tire! So we stopped once again and changed the tired and made it back to Red Chilli without any other problems.

Tomorrow we head to Jinja to see the source of the Nile!

The Past Week

The past week has been full of many different talks by different organizations.

Monday we went to Opportunity International and learned more about microfinance and how it benefits the clients it serves. We split up into different groups and went out into the local community to visit different branches. My group ended up going to a meeting and speaking with many different local business owners. It was really interesting to listen to how microfinance has helped them in their businesses.

Tuesday began at the Ugandan Stock Exchange where we learned more about the financial markets of Uganda. Then we went to Mulago National Hospital and talked with one of the doctors there and took a little tour of the hospital. The hospital was full of people, but it was not as full as it has been. The waiting time at the hospital can be 12 hours!

Wednesday was the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative. Then we went to The AIDS Support Organization where a drum group performed for us and we listened to a testimony of one of the members of the drum group. After that we were going to go downtown, but we had to change plans because the President was in town, so we went to a different restaurant. The restaurant was still really good.

Thursday was a relaxing day; we started off by visiting New Vision newspaper and listening to a presentation and then taking a tour of the plant. It was really so cool to see the process of how they make the newspaper. Then we went downtown to a craft market to shop and look around. After that, we went to a nice resort on Lake Victoria for dinner. The resort was on really tight security because the UN was having a meeting there. Because of the UN, we had to eat at the outside restaurant, which was still pretty good. I had tilapia, which was huge and they gave me the whole fish! It was really tasty!

Special Needs Orphanage

Yesterday we went to a special needs school, but it was not what I expected it to be at all. I was told it was also and orphanage where parents abandoned their children with special needs, but this was not the case. The goal of the school is to create and atmosphere where special needs children are integrated with abled children. They want these children to return back to their families and hometowns for holidays and once they are done with school.

There were some children there, but they did not all have a disability, some were just boarding there, so we were able to spend time with some children, but not all of them were there because it was a Sunday. I did meet two girls. One was blind and the other had not arms. They were best friends. The girl without arms was the eyes and the girl that was blind had the eyes. It was so sweet to watch these girls interact.

Once we were done at the school, we went to Lake Victoria to eat lunch and spend time there to relax. Then we went to the Chairman of MUBS' country home for a nice dinner and reception.

Tonight we have another reception where we will probably be meeting the Prime Minister!

Rural Visit

I rode a motorcycle for the first time in Africa!! Saturday was the rural visit where we went about an hour outside of Kampala to visit rural farmers. The area we went to was actually where Dr. Senteza grew up. His dad is the main person who sets up the rural visit. The bus took us to the rural city, but in order to get to the farms, we had to take motorcycles, or as they call them in Uganda boda bodas. We all got our own boda boda and we jumped on the back and off we went into the country.

When we pulled up to the farm, our farmer was recording our arrival on video camera. Then he introduced himself as John and we heard his story. He was raised by his grandparents on a peasant farm, but he was successful in school and went to college and became a successful government worker. He decided to retire at the age of 50 and he wanted to return to life like his grandparents so he returned to farming.

John has 10 total acres, but they are divided up into 3 different farm lands. On one he grow different types of bananas, the other pineapples, and the last cocoa beans. On his property he also has free range chickens. While we were walking around his farm it started raining and I mean RAINING!! It started down pouring, so we ducked into a small little abandoned farm house for about an hour. It was a good time just to talk and relax.

Once we were done walking around his farms, we walked back to the city. Once we got back to the city, we went to his house in the city and had a feast. We had traditional food, but we also had little children sing to entertain us. It was a lot of fun!

The Past Few Days...

Hello from the Southern Hemisphere!! We traveled to Mbarara on Sunday. The drive was a long one, it took about 10 hours total, but we did make some stops along the way so it did not seem as bad. Our first stop was right after we stopped at the equator to do some shopping and take a couple of pictures, but we did not take a lot of pictures because it was raining and muddy so we decided to take more pictures on our way back to Kampala. On our way to Mbarara, we decided to drive through a small national park. There we were looking for zebras and elephants, but we did not see any, we did however see a lot of warthogs and kob, which are similar to deer.

Then on Monday, we had a laid back day where we drove two hours to the third deepest lake in the world near Kabale. We stayed for the day at a resort that was on the lake. The resort was very pretty with a lot of flowers and gorgeous views of the lake. The first thing we did there was a boat tour of the lake. We saw many different islands, some had schools, some had houses, and others were just landscape. After the boat tour, we had teatime with tea and crumpets. After teatime, we went for a little hike on the trail they have there. Then it was lunchtime. Lunch was more traditional Ugandan food, which I have become used to, and it does not taste that weird anymore. After lunch, we just had time to relax before the ride home. 

Tuesday was our African Safari Day. We drove two hours to Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is the second largest national park in Uganda. We were going to have lunch first, but lunch was not ready for us when we arrived, so we went on our boat tour first. The boat tour was really fun!! I saw a lot of animals along the lake bathing, drinking water, and just relaxing. The animals were really cool. I saw elephants, hippos, water buffalos, and so many different kinds of birds! It was really cool to see them so close and in their natural environment! Then we trekked up the short cut to lunch. Then after lunch we went on our game drive. We were hoping to see a lion, but they were all sleeping, but we did see more kob and baboons that were right next to the bus! It was so cool!! We went on the game drive around dusk because that was when most animals would be out eating.

Today was so fun! We went to a primary school to paint a building. I went over with the early group at 6:30 to clean the building up. I helped sand all the walls down, and boy did the walls need to be sanded! There were so many pieces of paper left over stuck on the wall that we had to get off before we painted. My arm is definitely sore tonight! But when the rest of the group arrived, we had an assembly with the school where we introduced ourselves and then answered any questions the students had. Then we had a time of interacting and talking with the students. The students were so fascinated with looking at the pictures on our cameras of themselves. After we took pictures and the students went to class, we painted the building. We painted the building that housed the library, the headmistress’ office, and the P7 class, which is like 6th grade. The building ended up looking really nice once we were all done! After we got done with our work, we went back to the hotel and a group of us went swimming. It felt so relaxing to jump into the pool!

Tomorrow we are driving back to Kampala and Red Chilli, which is where we will be staying for almost the rest of the trip.

The internet connection is not allowing me to upload any pictures, so I will post pictures as soon as we get back to Red Chilli.

Soccer and Birthday

Today has been a pretty relaxed day in Uganda. We began our day like we always do by going to MUBS for breakfast and then heading out from there.

We started out by going to the section of Kampala called Kololo, which is the wealthiest part of Uganda where 1 acre of land costs about 1 million US dollars. We went to a hotel there to meet with our speaker. When we arrived at the hotel, the first thing I noticed was how nice the hotel was in comparison to some of the other parts of the city we have seen. The hotel was built by one of the richest person in Uganda, entrepreneur Patrick Bitature. He spoke about being a successful entrepreneur and what it takes to be successful. It was really interesting to listen to all he had to say because he owns many different types of business in Uganda.

After we finished at the hotel, we went back to MUBS for a quick lunch. We had more Ugandan food like yesterday, except today they had a meat that I did not know what it was so I asked one of the MUBS students and he said it was liver and it was probably from a cow. I was a little freaked out at first, but I told myself that I was going to try it anyway. I did and it wasn't too bad. It was chewier, but also had a smoother texture than beef. Then after lunch, we looked at some art work and then the professors went and got two birthday cakes for my birthday. The cakes were really good. They were sweeter than American birthday cakes, but they were still good and they had butter cream frosting on them which is my favorite.

After lunch, we quickly changed at Red Chilli and got back on the bus and headed to Mandela National Stadium to watch soccer. The Ugandan National Team was playing the Kenyan National Team. The atmosphere was so fun! The fans were all into the game and had whistles and noise makers and Ugandan Flags that they all proudly blew and waved. We had really nice seats. They were at midfield and had backs. Uganda won the match 1-0, so everyone was happy.

Then we came back to Red Chilli to have dinner and hang out! It has been a fun day full of friends and smiles and laughter!

Now we head off to the southwest region of Uganda tomorrow to visit a national park, visit a primary school, go over the equator, and so much more!

Yesterday!

Today started off with a little breakfast at MUBS and then we traveled into Kampala to visit the Ugandan Parliament. I thought we were visiting the Bugandan Parliament when we were at the Ugandan Parliament, so I was confused the entire time we were there because the Ugandan Parliament has a President and the Bugandan Parliament has Kings and Queens. After I figured out where I was, everything made sense.

We started the tour of the Ugandan Parliament with a security check, because they don’t want us bringing in any guns, and then we proceeded on into the buildings. The Parliament consists of four buildings: the north wing, the east wing, the south wing, and the President’s wing. The north wing is where we entered and has a lot of offices, and the east wing has more offices too. The President’s wing is for the President, but he does not use the building, so the Prime Minister uses it instead. Then we went into the south wing, which is where Parliament is held. We went into the chamber and it had a center table with microphones on it and in the middle was the chair for the speaker and on either side of him was about 100 couch benches. On his left side sat the opposition, and the right sat the government. Parliament was not in session, so we did not see any live action. Then there was a gallery for the public to come and watch the sessions. After we finished touring the chamber, we saw the gold mace that officially means Parliament is in session, and then we walked back to the north wing and eventually back to the bus.

We went back to MUBS for lunch. This was the first time that we had real authentic Ugandan food. The main staple of their diet is Matoke, which is mashed up bananas. Although I do not like bananas, I tried it anyways and it did not taste like bananas at all, it actually tasted like nothing. But we also had beans, chicken, a pasta dish, and a pancake roll with plum jelly.

After lunch we went and visited the Bugandan Parliament. There we looked around, and then went upstairs into the cabinet room and sat down. Then we were introduced to the speaker, which was the Minister of Education for the Bugandan Kingdom. He spoke on what the Parliament does in Buganda and how they are more interested in building community involvement and character. The meeting with him was very formal. It started off with the Ugandans singing the national anthem, followed by introductions by both professors from MUBS and Drake. Finally we were able to listen to what he had to say. Once he was done, we went back downstairs and briefly into the chamber where they meet once a month, with the king only having to be there three times a year.

Then, we went down the street to the Bugandan Palace. All the women had to be in skirts and if you weren’t, then they gave you a sheet to wear around your waist. We only looked at the Palace, but we did walk down to the King’s Lake and then went inside some chambers that were originally used as army barracks, but were eventually turned into torture chambers where many Bugandans were killed as a result of them not following the Bugandan Parliament. When we came out of the chambers, there were kids running around. These kids live on Palace grounds because their families help out in maintenance. The kids were so cute and adorable, we gave them candy, but they really wanted to take pictures with us. Once girl in particular came up to me right away and grabbed my hand and followed me around. We took pictures together and when it was time to walk back up to the bus, she walked with me and did not let go of my hand until it was finally time for me to get back on the bus.

For dinner, we went to a Chinese restaurant where we had a variety of different Chinese dishes. It was pretty good for being a Chinese restaurant in Uganda. After dinner, we got back to Red Chilli at nine and chilled out for the rest of the night.

Tomorrow we are first meeting with one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Uganda, and then we are going to a soccer match. It is the Ugandan National Team versus the Kenyan National Team. I am looking forward to the game and taking in the atmosphere there too.

Meeting MUBS Students, Lunch, and the Market

I woke up this morning to the noises of Uganda. There were different birds chirping and what I thought were monkey noises, but I have yet to see a monkey. We got up and got ready for the day. We began the day by meeting all the students we will be working with for the next three weeks at a breakfast at MUBS. The breakfast consisted coffee, sausage, toast, and this other thing that was in a egg roll shell, but it was in the shape of a triangle and filled with different vegetables like corn, carrots, and peas. I tried everything and they were all pretty good.

After we finished eating, we had a good amount of time where the MUBS students rotated tables and we were able to get to know all of them a little bit better. They talked about their majors, where they are from in Uganda, their family make up, and what they are most looking forward to in the course. Through all the conversations with the students, I found out that the students are in the middle of their finals weeks. Yes weeks, they have finals for two weeks, and they have to go into the classroom and sit for three hours and write essays. If they finish early, they have to sit there for the entire three hours, they can't leave early.

Then after getting to know they MUBS students a little more, they took us on a campus tour. The campus is only their business school, but it is bigger than the size of Drake. There is a lot of green space and the grass was all filled with students studying for their examinations. The buildings are also smaller and only one story. Most buildings have one or two classrooms in them on one level, so that means that there a lot of smaller buildings on campus.

Then we went into the city. We began with exchanging our money. I got 2,192 Ugandan Schillings per 1 US Dollar. After, we walked to lunch. We went to Nando's, and it had chicken, burgers, and fries. I got two pieces of fried chicken and french fries. The food was pretty good for being fried chicken. We sat outside the restaurant and ate lunch and the street behind us was always bustling with commotion of the traffic, people walking by, and people selling different items on the street.

After lunch, we broke up into smaller groups to walk to the market. The market was crazy. There were so many people in such a small space. Many of the vendors specifically yelled out to us because we were white. Some of them would try to grab out arms, or tell us we were beautiful. However, if you kept walking and ignored them, everything was okay. The market was hot and smelled, but it was full of different vendors selling anything from beans to fish to shirts to shoes. There was a wide variety of items there.

After the market, we walked to a gas station where we meet the bus to take us back to Red Chilli. After arriving, many of us grabbed dinner at Red Chilli, which was either pizza or sandwiches. I ate half a Hawaiian pizza, so I am good to go.

Tomorrow consists of touring the Parliament.

We Made It!

It is currently 11:35 pm here in Uganda and we are finally all settled. It has been a long couple of days traveling and it feels good to finally be settled into a place that I will call home for the next three weeks.

I started my travels on Tuesday at 11:30 am central time flying from Minneapolis to Detroit and it ended in Uganda today at 7:30 pm, but once we got off the plane, we had an hour bus ride to The Red Chilli. All the flights went smoothly with only a minor delay in Detroit.

Once we got to Uganda, we loaded up the blue MUBS bus to head over to The Red Chilli. When we got here we walked along the rock and gravel path with our suitcases to the cottages where we will be staying for a majority of our time in Uganda. The cottages sleep four with two bedrooms and everyone getting their own bed. We also have a living room, kitchen, dinning room, and a bathroom.

Pictures will be coming soon, but I currently cannot get my laptop working with the wireless internet, but as soon as it is working, I will load some pictures.

Tomorrow we are meeting the MUBS students at breakfast and then we are exchanging our money and heading down to the market. 

Almost Ready to Go!!

As many of you know, I am studying abroad in Uganda for three weeks this summer through Drake University and I leave tomorrow. A little background on what I will be doing in Uganda. The title of the course is "Sustainable Development in Sub-Sahara Africa." In the weeks leading up to the trip, I have been going to class and learning many new things about Uganda and its culture and traditions. I have also chosen a topic to research while I am in Uganda. I will be looking at Small Business in Uganda and how they differ from Small Businesses in the United States. I will also look at how regulations differ and how all these things tie into Sustainable Development in Uganda.

While we are in Uganda, our days will be full of many different activities. Some of the activities include visiting the Bugandan Parliament, talking with an entrepreneur, going to a soccer game, visiting a primary school, touring the Ugandan landscape, and much more.

Since school ended, I have been pretty busy with all the last minute preparation and packing. I am finally finished with packing and am officially ready to head to the airport tomorrow morning.

My first flight leaves tomorrow at 1:15 pm from Minneapolis to Detroit. Then I fly from Detroit to Amsterdam. My last leg is from Amsterdam to Entebbe/Kampala, Uganda.

As my time in Uganda goes on, I will post on what I have been doing in Uganda, pictures I have taken, prayer requests, and anything else that develops while I am there.

Prayer Requests:

• Safe flights tomorrow
• Emily, Loren, and myself would be accountable to each other
• The people in Uganda we will encounter
• Our classmates we will be spending three weeks with