I'm here and it's lovely. The two day journey via Dubai was also great due primarily to an old friend's generous hospitality and Emirate airlines incredible amenities. After the first leg of my trip on the best airline I have yet to experience, Shannon Gubanich picked us up (I was traveling with a colleague) and took us on a tour of the old and new city (the old much smaller than the new and getting comparatively smaller every day). Dubai lived up to my expectations and then some. 100 plus story buildings are the norm. Fountains and light shows a la Vegas every 20 minutes in various locations. Air-conditioned bus stops. A place of extremes. Everything was the biggest and the best. We met a group of people who had just broken the world record for playing soccer for 45 continuous hours. I'm serious.
After 12 hours in Dubai, we boarded our last flight to Entebbe, Uganda. I met up with the other 4 students from my program traveling with me and our driver, Billy and began the drive to Kampala. Uganda is an equatorial country meaning green, balmy, and gorgeous. On the way to Kampala we passed Lake Victoria, which is also shared by Kenya and Tanzania and is so enormous it appears infinite. Two hours of driving (and at least one of napping) landed us in Kampala.
Kampala is chaos. No traffic lights, sporadic street labeling, rogue motorbikes. It was sprawling and intense. Billy stayed with us to ferry us to several meetings with UNDP officials and other collaborators on the project. We were warmly received everywhere we went but all of us were anxious to get to the field. On Wednesday we met with a health official at Mukono University right outside Kampala who introduced us to four Ugandan students pursuing similar degrees. It was great to meet our local counterparts who all had distinct and inspiring stories motivating their professional aspirations. They also have a field study component and are interested in coming to Ruhira!
