Morning in Zamunda

Today I woke up to see the view from the hotel, which bills itself as the best view in Kampala. After looking out on the balcony that's probably true.

The room is very nice, complete with a mosquito net around the bed and a shower that I'm convinced is either a time capsule, or the machine they used in Weird Science.

Last night we drove from the airport right to the hotel, which was about a 45 minute drive. Steve and Cathy showed me the suburbs of Kampala, which are slightly different than the ones in the U.S.. Most of the houses are one room, and could be anything from a small wooden building to a shipping container.

There were hundreds of people out and around on the way home, and lots of events going on for a Sunday night. Most of the buildings are identical, and are sometimes no more than a counter with a roof, but they all have different labels. There are some funny combinations that I've seen (Salon/Hardware store, Big Boys Video Rental/Doctors Office, and a table on the side of the road that said "Kampala's Finest Butcher and Bakery").

It's odd because the land looks so different wherever you go. The dirt has a lot of clay in it, so many of the roads and suburb areas are baked in red, and even the paved roads look less developed because of all the red dust. There's also tons of vegetation and green areas though..it's an interesting mix.

Everyone seems very happy, and there were lots of children playing and running around everywhere, especially once we were around during the day today. Lots of dancing too. There may be a correlation between creative fun and lack of an Xbox, but that's still open to debate.

Today I'll be getting a tour of the lab operations, meeting everyone on our team, and then driving around Kampala for awhile.

Corrrections: In an earlier post, Donna Moss was erroneously described as Donna Craig. This was likely a subconscious desire to combine the best looking and the smartest women of The West Wing into one person. I'm Not Home regrets the error.
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Africa!

I have arrived! After 15+ hours of flying I am happy to report that I am in Uganda. The first leg wasn’t too bad – KLM is a great airline and everyone was extremely friendly so that certainly made the trip better. We left an hour late – probably because of the rain – but we still got in on time.

In addition to several snacks, drinks and hot towels, several meals were provided. This is what mine looked like – the ant-like pepper on the rice and nuclear-colored chicken were actually decent.

Each seat comes with a mini-entertainment center, which had music, movies, some games and a few other things all for free. I got to watch 4 episodes of The Office, including the Diwali one, which seemed even funnier on the way to Africa. At one point, I attempted to switch from TV to music, and my seat reset. I’m not even sure what that means, but here’s a picture. When a chair has to worry about error messages I think that’s technology at its peak.

The Amsterdam airport was incredible. It looked like a futuristic mall, and everything was organized and brand new. It’s funny, everyone is so conditioned to everything being so state-of-the-art in the U.S., but the last thing I saw at JFK was water leaking through the ceiling at the international terminal. Rather than having one massive security line, each gate has its own x-ray and security personnel, which seemed to move things along considerably.

I met lots of people from the time I landed in Amsterdam to the time I arrived here, and each one had an interesting perspective on the trip. In the security line, there were two white American girls my age that I started talking to. The first one had been living in Uganda for 15 months, and was doing clean energy research. She spoke about Kampala extremely nonchalantly, and was talking about restaurants and neighborhoods she liked. Since this seemed so exotic, and a destination for me, it was interesting to hear someone American describe Kampala as home. The next girl was going to do AIDS volunteer work, and seemed genuinely excited about going back.

The third group of (white) people seemed extremely enthusiastic and was sitting in circles singing in the airport. As I suspected, they were on a religious mission. I spoke with one of the people going, and she was the most eager of anyone I had met to that point. However, it was interesting to contrast the zeal in her voice with the perspective of the people who were simply living and working there. It was an odd juxtaposition to see someone so eager to help, yet with that eagerness coming from a desire to “save” or convert, rather than just help or partner with the local population. They were going down to do some extremely good work, though.

The entire second flight, I was sitting next to a French guy in a brown leather vest and goatee, who looked like Donna Moss’ journalist boyfriend in Gaza (from The West Wing). I felt very generous sitting next to him, as I was providing him with my arm rest, shoulder, and rib cage as a place for him to get comfortable. He fell asleep on me at least 3 times, and refused to speak to any flight attendants. Needless to say, I was happy to land.

When we arrived, the Ugandan Children's Choir was on the plane sang and us a spontaneous landing song:



When I arrived, it had been 24 hours without sleep, so Uganda never looked better. I got through customs with no problem, got my bag (ed. note – when you are alone in Africa, seeing your bag come around the luggage carousel feels like winning the lottery 8 times), and found Steven and Cathy. They both work with our company here, and Steven used to be the president’s son’s bodyguard. They were both extremely nice and proceeded to give me an incredible tour on the way to the hotel.

More to come on that later, as I have to get over to the office, but it feels incredible to be here.
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