Post #2: One week later

First week in Kampala!

 

Kampala slums as seen from  Lexie and Julie's house

Just like the city itself, the learning curve is steep in Kampala. Things I learned very quickly: Walk on the left of the hill to get to the Hospital, the other side is where the sewage runs down; Shower whenever the water is hot, you never know when there will be a blackout; Everyone introduces themselves with "You are welcome," don't say "for what?"; Barter for everything. People even do it for medical care...

Kampala is a mix of dirt poor slums right next to gorgeous compounds/mansions. I'm currently staying with a friend in a very nice house about 30 mins matatu (bus) ride from the hospital/lab where I work. It's a very high standard of living for us expats. I went to the expat gym, where for $5 I got access to a beautiful pool, classes, gym equipment etc. At my friend's house, we have a maid, Justine, who cleans and does washing every single day. She is lovely, and took me to her house in the slums to meet her son who had malaria (he was fine). She is also trying to teach me Lagunda, it's a losing battle.

Justine washing

The living room

I'm about a 20 minute walk (uphill both ways) from the hospital and lab, where I "work." The hospital itself is divided into "New Mulago," which is relatively modern and "Old Mulago," where I am. Old Mulago is a huge, sprawling, outdoor hodgepodge of one-story buildings intermixed with people's huts situated on (like everything in Kampala) a steep hill. This way there are sort of floors. I'm lost most of the time. Of course, the lab is at the top and the food is at the bottom. I spend most of my time in the lab or blue metal container in the hospital. Called "the container." It can get pretty hot.

Work at the lab is slow, waiting for samples to come in. People don’t seem to work all that much, but I learned all the Kampala gossip (mainly pastors knocking people up). Lab hygiene is lax, as in there was a woman breastfeeding her child at the lab bench today.

Ugandan scaffolding

Kampala is an interesting mix of Africa and Indian influences. For instance, "traditional" street food includes samosas and chapattis. Many of the Indian people kicked out by Idi Amin were repatriated in the 1980s. This means there is shampoo. Also the expat influence ensures some necessities: Heinz baked beans, marmite, cadbury's, galaxy, hp sauce. I realize this paragraph is mostly about food, I had meant to talk about culture...but it's me. 

More to come, I have to upload more pics, such as me drinking local warm millet beer through a bamboo straw in the slums...