Hello all!
Thanks for all the notes about the blog and the happy birthday wishes. I appreciate both! I will try to write back soon to everyone…I spent about 11 hours at school every day last week, so there wasn’t time for much else.
I had a happy birthday adventure! I started the day with a run, which was a treat since I hadn’t gotten to run all week. The weather was perfect for running-cool and overcast-and I had, on a previous run, found some nice, quiet by-ways that are almost traffic free, so I ran along them. Then home, a quick shower and food, quick trip for groceries and produce, and at 1:00 my roommate Donna and I set out for a Kampala adventure.
Our destination, at my request, was the Old Kampala Mosque, located on Old Kampala Hill, which is almost in the heart of the city. I was curious about the mosque, having never visited one, and just wanted to enjoy the whole adventure of getting there and being in the city. We took the taxi (the minivan taxi) to the taxi park in the city center, and then plunged into the chaos/bustle/craziness of that space. We walked through the center, past Owino market, and then turned and headed up the hill into the Islamic section of the city.
The mosque experience was interesting. I felt a sense of relief in rising above the busyness of the city streets and entering a calm and quiet space. The groundskeeper, Yassim, volunteered to show us around, and so, after donning long-sleeved shirts and headscarves, we followed him, barefooted, into the mosque. Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator, funded the building of this mosque in 2003 as a gift to his friend Idi Amin who wasn’t able to finish the job due to his removal from power. It was an attractive building, built on a grand scale inside, with high domed ceilings and tall columns. I of course didn’t feel the same sense of reverence that I would feel in a cathedral, but it was interesting to see and to talk to Yassim a little about Islamic custom and thought. That’s definitely a foreign world to me!
We walked back down through the hustle and bustle of the city center and up the hill in the other direction, to a quieter, calmer, more prosperous side of town. In the space of about a block, the noise ceased, the sidewalks cleared, and the traffic suddenly sort of started following some rules (or there was at least a sense of order about it). We walked a long way down a busy, but quiet, street to Garden City, which is a western-style shopping center. We were going to meet friends for supper there, but no one could make it, so we hopped on bodas and traveled back to Kabalagala, which is a shopping/dining area fairly near my home. (Bear in mind that shopping and dining are significantly different experiences in Africa.) By night, Kabalagala is also home to lots of seedy nightclubs–a good place to avoid. I thought we were going to a well-known Ethiopian restuarant, but Donna led the way past it and down a sidestreet a little thatch-roofed hole-in-the-wall called Aminet. We ordered a mixed plate, and in 15 minutes or so our food arrived. It was so interesting! It was a round pizza-pan sized platter, with a white background and little mounds of different meat and bean stews on it. I thought they had forgotten to bring us our bread, but the white background WAS the bread. It was Ethiopian flatbread, called injera, which is like a big, spongy, sourdough pancake. We tore off little pieces of the bread and scooped up the stews (using only our right hands). Lots of good flavors! The meat stews were full of spices–there were cloves in at least one of them, and some were hot-spicy. There was also a mound of potatoes and one of cabbage. It didn’t look like a lot of food, but we ate until we were full and left food on the plate. We paid for two drinks and the mixed plate all for 7200 UGX. To put that in perspective, a carton of yogurt is about 1500, a pineapple about 2000, our boda rides were 4000 each, and a pizza is about 12-15000. So it was very cheap.
We walked home with full tummies in the lovely cool evening, and made it home before dark–tired, full, and happy, having experienced a lot of what Kampala has to offer: a taxi ride, the hustle and bustle of the city center, the more prosperous side of town, a boda ride, and a great meal with culture a-plenty! Who’s coming to visit??
Lisa and I just finished looking over your pictures and we are very impressed so far! I particularly love the classroom and Lisa likes your cute little house. I think the climate interested her more than anything ……you know how much she loved those snowy winters (ha!). We are excited for you and look forward to hearing more.