A Quiet But Busy Day in Kampala

Today was a rather mellow day in the shadow of a busy and significant day yesterday visiting Paul in the village.So we relaxed in the morning, actually got to have three cups of coffee! We’ve been running a caffeine deficit since coming to Africa.
And after a leisurely breakfast at this Namirembe Guest House, we went for a walk. Our primary destination was a local nearby Candle Light Foundation workshop for young girls at risk. I had seen it during my morning jog and told Fiona we should visit there.

So we did and discovered another impressive (on a small scale) operation for young Kampala city girls that have few prospects. They do a wonderful ministry to the locals and have a variety of crafts such as candles and baskets. We bought a few for Andando and had a good discussion with the folks that run the place. This is another great opportunity for partnering with a local ministry. You just can’t see this stuff from America, there is no substitute for going and seeing this kind of thing first hand. I’m always thankful that Fiona and I can do this sort of travel with a purpose.

Then we went to visit a large old cathedral on the hill near where we are staying. It’s an impressive structure that you would not normally expect in a place like Uganda. It was cool to see inside and it was an island of tranquility in an otherwise hectic African city.

After that we came back to the Guest House and had some lunch, and this was a surprising event because they were going to have nice outdoor buffet on the patio of the dining room and the skies opened up and there was a tremendous (and I mean radical) rain storm that hammered down on the city for 45 minutes. They fled inside with the food so we ate inside. It must have rained two inches, and the city was kind of flooded. But this is not unusual in the tropics.

We had an appointment in the afternoon to go visit the offices of the Compassion International headquarters in Uganda. It was a long and torturous adventure getting across town in the afternoon after the big rainstorm.
This was the outfit that runs the program that Paul is part of in Kaboya that made a big impression on us. They invited us to visit their office and again, these guys are special.
This is a great organization. I’m surprised more people are not aware of the good that they do and the incredibly efficient and organized way they do it. This would make a great case study for business schools or government on how to do things right.
After that we came back to the hotel, but it was still kinda early, 4:15 pm so we went for a walk around our end of town. We discovered yet another shop and bought some more cool stuff from Uganda (yes, our luggage is swelling to capacity) and we went for a very funky tour of the parliament building of Uganda. The reason I say this is because it was an old dude who had the keys and the “official” tourist offices said, if you pay him a little money, he will let you look inside. It was fairly hilarious. The picture above is Fiona in the Parliament Hall where they meet and make laws.
Then we went for a light dinner snack at a “curbside” café and watched the traffic noisily pass by. Traffic here is pretty much pandemonium. Across the risky street was an internet café, and we were hoping that this one would be working because we have been almost unable to connect online since we got here. Pretty bad internet access in Uganda. This one worked reasonably well after they fiddled with it for a while, and I was able to finally do a blog posting.
So then we made our way on foot back to the guest house where it was time to pack for the next leg of our journey. Tomorrow before the crack of dawn we head back to the airport and then to Johannesburg and then off to Botswana!