The Pearl of Africa

24 hours down and I have already accomplished the all-important goal of seeing a monkey during my Dialogue trip! We arrived to the Entebbe International Airport around 10:00pm last night and traveled by van to the Mekerere Guest House at Mekerere University in Kampala. The drive to the hotel gave me my first look at Uganda. There were cars, bikes, and people everywhere, surprising since it was so late at night. The areas around the airport were more rural and definitely less wealthy than the areas as we got closer to the main city of Kampala and the University. My first impression of native Ugandan’s is that they are friendly and curious. To get acquainted with the area in and around Mekerere University, we went for a walk around the University. I was very surprised to find that the University was very similar to schools back home. We saw a school of business, school of psychology, school of engineering, as well as residence halls and a library. Similar to Northeastern, there were groups of students studying and socializing in different areas of the campus; however, the students were dressed much nicer than students in the United States and were not carrying large backpacks or textbooks.

As an orientation, we had two natives, Natasha and Julius, lead us around. They brought us to a bank to exchange money, to a cell phone store to buy local sim cards, and to a good restaurant for our first dinner. The bank we went to was right on the University’s campus and was extremely busy. We were able to exchange our U.S. dollars for Ugandan Schillings at a rate of 3,290 shillings per USD, which was comparable to other banks that we passed. The cell phone store was right across the street in a big mall with nail salons, a supermarket, some food vendors and a movie theater. We will probably visit the supermarket frequently for water and snacks! In order to get to the mall, we had to cross the extremely busy road. I always thought the streets of Boston were busy and difficult to cross, but these streets are unlike anything back home. I am sure that watching us cross the road was similar to watching a game of Frogger! After we were all set with phones and money, we walked about 15 minutes to a restaurant called Café Java. They had more American style food like sandwiches, pizza, and burgers, but was delicious. It was great to sit down with everyone to eat a nice meal as a group. After going to the bank, the cell phone store, and our first group meal, I definitely feel more acquainted with the area and the group.