My first day in Uganda

After an hour long stay-on-the-plane (scheduled) stopover in Rwanda, we arrived at Uganda’s Entebbe airport around 2:45am. With my fresh 90 day visa in my passport, I waited with baited breath until my bags finally showed. After heading to the exit, I discovered that my name wasn’t displayed on any of the signs being held up against the door. Panic. I waited half an hour and figured my guesthouse had either forgotten me, or left early for some reason. I (thankfully) found an open phone shop and bought a SIM card. A European woman approached me and asked if I needed a ride because she had noticed I’d been waiting for a while. It turns out that she also lives and works in Masaka for a similar agency! After calling the guesthouse though, they assured me it would be best to take a taxi to them. At 4am I finally arrived at the guesthouse and immediately went to sleep (I had to be up by about 8:30).

Robert (the international volunteer coordinator for FSD) was to meet me at 10am that day so I got up, ate some breakfast and sat chatting to some of the guesthouse employees. At 10:30, I was informed the FSD staff would be a little late so I set off to the lake with the chef to buy some fish. Lake Victoria is massive and there are many women set up along the shore selling fresh fish. We made our selection and chatted a bit about what I first thought about Uganda.

Robert and Anita (the program director) finally arrived at noon and we were on our way to Kampala, the capital, to meet the only other intern with me, Renate. We met her at a popular hostel there and went for lunch. We had a mini-orientation chat and a delicious meal and then went back to the hotel for some more orientation (culture shock and living with a homestay family preparation). Most of the night we switched between orientation and staring at the news blaring on the TV updating everyone on the attack in Nairobi. A Somali group, anxious for Kenya to pull out of their country, attacked a popular mall and endured a four day stand-off with hostages and over 70 dead (including 2 Canadians). Kampala was put on alert and the second day we were there, there were noticeably more police about. Robert told us we’re likely in no danger and that this group has threatened this attack for awhile.