An Introduction

Hello from Uganda!

For those of you that I haven't told, I'm here working for the summer as a clerk for the Ugandan Commercial Court. Pepperdine sends 10 or so students to Uganda each summer to work for a variety of courts in their judiciary system. This is the sixth year of our partnership with the Ugandan Judiciary.

After driving with my dad from LA to Temple on Monday and Tuesday, I flew out of Austin on Thursday around noon to Detroit, then to Amsterdam, and then to Entebbe, Uganda, which is about an hour or so drive from Kampala. A recent Pepperdine graduate by the name of John lives in Uganda full time and works with the Commercial Court as a mediator. The Court provides him with a driver who picked us up in the airport in a big passenger van, sort of like what a church might use. The airport was smallish with four or five gates, but it was far nicer than what I expected. My first impression upon landing was sheer amazement at the number of advertisements in the airport. Cell phone ads are EVERYWHERE in Uganda and the cell phone stores are always packed. Most of Uganda is on Facebook too and the big craze right now is getting a phone that has access to Facebook. Kinda odd to think that UVa was one of about a dozen schools on Facebook my first year and now the majority of an East African country is on it too.

My second impression was of the Ugandan people - they're all remarkably well dressed. Slacks and button downs are the only thing that men wear and the women dress quite lovely as well.. Also, the Ugandans all speak English and English is the official language here. It's hard to pick up at first because they speak very softly and with a different inflection than we do. It's basically like talking slower and super over enunciating. The Americans talk to the Ugandans in that style of Africanized English that I hope to pick up soon.

After the initial 'I'm in Africa - who woulda thunk that?' moment when the plane touched down, my second 'who woulda thunk that' moment was the traffic. We didn't move for 15 minutes because of the sheer volume of the cars on the road. When I envisioned Africa, I didn't envision traffic that puts LA traffic to shame. The road from Entebbe to Kampala and the roads near my apartment here downtown are perfectly fine. Last night we went to old Kampala where the streets aren't as nice, but even then they're nicer than I thought. More about that later. The third 'who woulda thunk that' moment was when we passed a gas station for the first time. They look EXACTLY like our gas stations, except instead of selling America's beloved Natural Light, they sell Nile Gold, a malt beer that tastes like Mickey's. Another stray observation is that there are constantly people absolutely everywhere. For the entire 20 or so mile drive from the airport to our apartment there were constantly people walking around the streets, shopping at markets, or generally milling about and socializing. Today seems to be different though - I've been told the city really slows down on Sundays for church. (80% or so of Uganda is Christian and the entire flight from Amsterdam to hear was full of Americans on mission trips.)

After getting to the apartment and settling in some, I did exactly what I knew my dad, uncles, and deceased Grandfather would want me to do - I went to find the nearest place that sold cold beer. I found a bar about 50 yards from our apartment that sells Nile Gold for 3000 Schillings, or a $1.50. The conversion rate is 2000 Ugandan Schillings to $1. The bar was playing Jingle Bells when we first walked in, so I've named it the Jingle Bell Bar. It won't replace the Virginian (and is more like Coupes, seeing that they don't card and has an outside patio and a place for a band), but it will do. Unfortunately, Jingle Bell Bar BLASTS the same awful pop music that 13 year old American girls listen to on 97.5 out of Waco at a decibel level nearing that of a jet engine. Something tells me that listening to Rihanna sing Umbrella (ella, ella, ay!) at 4 AM every Friday and Saturday night might get old.

That said, our apartment is remarkably nice. I live on the sixth floor of a six story apartment complex downtown. In front of me is an office building that's about twelve stories tall, to our right is another apartment complex that's about 10 stories tall, and nearby is a new Sheraton and an under-construction Hilton. From where I'm sitting the area doesn't look much different than downtown LA, albeit with smaller buildings. My apartment complex looks like a motel, except the first three floors are commercial property and the top three are residential. The 10 of us are living in essentially adjacent rooms on the same floor and we each have a roommate. The front door opens to a living area of sorts with a dining room table, a couch, three nice wooden chairs, and a sitting chair of sorts. The room has tile floors and is about 18 x 8 and includes a sink, microwave, coffee maker, fridge, and pots and pans. The bathroom is small, but fine. The water pressure in our apartment isn't very good, but that's getting fixed tomorrow, as is the hot water heater. Rent is $400 a month and if we have any trouble whatsoever we go talk to one of the receptionists, who, along with the security guards, are around twenty four seven. Our bedroom is about 20 x 10 or so and has two beds, a desk, a chest of drawers, and a closet. You'll all be glad to hear that everyone that walks by our side of the building is now graced by a Texas flag hanging in my window. Truth be told, this apartment is probably nicer than my actual apartment in LA and far nicer than the dorms I lived in for three years at UVa.

On Saturday morning John picked us up to get breakfast, buy cell phones, and get an internet connection. Most food in Kampala that any Westerner would want to eat is fairly inexpensive - $4-$7 a meal - and tastes pretty good. They served a standard breakfast - pancakes, eggs, waffles, sausage, etc. I got a cell phone and an internet connection, which is simply a modem that plugs into your USB port, in about 45 minutes or so. Both of those stores were packed with people. Uganda is ripe for economic development - people are snatching up technology left and right. Later on, we walked to a mall that's about a 15 minute walk from the apartment that sells flat screen HD TVs. I say all this to represent that Uganda, or Kampala at least, is far more modern than any of you probably expect.

As to the weather, it's fairly warm and humid but not uncomfortably so, particularly when there's a breeze as there always is in our apartment. There's no air conditioning anywhere, so you sweat quite a bit, but it's not awful. Our beds have mosquito nets over them, but no one around here uses them because there are so few mosquitoes in the city.

This morning we walked to the mall again to buy groceries, hangers, etc. The mall is on a golf course and is constantly packed with people. It's a bit of a white people hangout around town too. There are far more Americans than I anticipated here, so the Ugandans don't really react to us walking by because it's a pretty common occurrence. Some of the younger people will point, laugh, and call us "Mazungus", which means white person, but it's not racist or anything like that - they just think it's funny that our skin is white.

In the mall is have a grocery store that reminded me of an older Wal-Mart, except hopped up on crack. They had everything you could possibly ever imagine for sale, and yet it was still very organized. Food, clothes, DVDs (including last season's 24), booze, sports equipment, you name it. And, unlike back home in the States, every single one of their checkout lanes were open! Take note of that, Walton Family. When I checked out, I accidentally handed the lady working at the store a 10,000 schilling bill instead of a 1,000 schilling bill. She immediately stopped me, handed it back, and told me to be careful of the difference going forward.

The Ugandan people are like that - they're incredibly polite. In fact, for those of you that are worried about my safety, here's a quote from a British authored guide to Uganda - "Uganda enjoys one of the healthiest reputations of any African country when it comes to crime directed to tourists. The level of day-to-day hassle faced by independent travelers is negligible. And Ugandans as a whole genuinely do come across as the most warm, friendly, and relaxed hosts imaginable." Thus far, I've found that quote to be quite accurate.