Day 1 plan - stay awake, unpack, stock up on some groceries, dole out some gifts, and try to touch base with as many people as possible. The time here will pass very quickly before I know it. I ran across a group of students from North Dakota State University here with one of their professors, a Ugandan woman who was on faculty here some years ago and spent a bit of time with them - they have been off in the parks for several weeks and are here in Kampala to finish up with some lectures. The professor and I managed to have tea at the Makarere Guest House, where I spent my first night last fall and a definite step (or 10) above the vet faculty facility. It worked out well as the Dean of the vet school, who is a very energetic and dynamic man with a constant lineup of people outside his office, came by to meet with her. I got my 5 minutes of hellos in, important to pay your respects to the top guy, and gave him a Canadian flag that he had asked for last time I was here. Apparently he has a desire to have flags of the partner countries flying somewhere, so Canada beat out the US for first in the lineup!
On shopping for groceries.
One of my first activities was shopping for groceries. This time I cleverly brought cloth shopping backs to avoid the ubiquitous little black plastic ones that are used for groceries. The closest groceries are in Wandegeya - a commercial area just outside the boundary of the university property. One walks through campus to get there, about 10 minutes, and then pops out a break in the fence to a dirt lane lined by tiny shops, each the size of an average North American powder room, which see everything one can think of - clothes, shoes, electronics, phone card to-pups (more on phones later), housewares, and services such as hair salons (pronounces saloons). The lane curves down to Bombo road - which is filled with taxis and cars and motorcyle taxis called boda-bodas. The name comes from the English border-border as they were first used for transport between the Kenyan and Ugandan borders, apparently. I know of two small groceries in the area - one is very small and African owned - it has small stocks of most common groceries and foodstuffs. You leave your bags or packs in small cubbyholes at the entrance before entering. The cashes are run by African women - one does the cash, one bags the groceries. They have kind of basic cash registers that are more like adding machines, no receipts. A man stands by the door to prevent theft. The second is Chinese owned and has the same basic groceries, a bit more expensive, as well as a bunch of Chinese and arabic labeled products, including instant noodle soup - a good emergency food. Plus some booze and houshold stuff -kind of like a very mini-K-mart. The products are scanned into a very fancy cash machine which has all the LCD displays in Chinese, it prints receipts, and there is a bank of video cameras set to cover the whole store next to the cash. And then in the large malls in Kampala there are large Kenyan and South African chain grocery stores that look just like an upscale Zehrs at home, complete with deli sections.
For fruit and vegetables one must buy from the market, which I went to with Denis last fall but have yet to find again on my own, or from a vendor with a stand by the road. I took Betty with me Tuesday evening to give me some idea of what the prices might be - I have a feeling they increase for muzumgu. Just outside the campus gates near my guest house there is a lane similar to those in Wandegeya lined by small tables with women selling small pyramids of vegetables. For about 6,000 Ush we bought two huge ripe avocados, a big pineapple, and small piles of tomatoes and tiny African oranges. We went in the evening and there were people all through the street - sitting and chatting, buying and selling, cooking over small fires, sitting in small open cafes. Not a lot of muzungu.
On telephones.
I love my phone. I have a mostly hate/hate relationship with my Canadian phone, but I like this one. A mobile is the only way to be in touch with anyone. People are rarely where you think they might be, they rarely show up when they say they will, and there is virtually no such thing as land lines, even in businesses. When I got here I plugged my phone in and charged it and the number was still valid and I even had money on it. Unbelievable. I have been texting right left and centre. A text costs about 150 Ush, which is very little. On the other hand I have yet to figure out the price for calls. It depends on how long you speak for, the time of day, and the plan of the person you are calling. If you are both on the same plan I think it is cheaper than if they are on another plan. Thousands of shillings seem to vanish on phone calls. On the bottom of the screen the discounts are shown - most of the time it says 10% but I’m still not quite sure what that means, and then it somewhat randomly it changes to a higher percentage. Or at least it seems random to me. Someone told me it depends on how much usage there is on the system, rather than on the time. I suppose I should really figure it out. I think a lot of people must be on some kind of plan, rather than pay as you go, as they seem to spend a lot of time talking.
The smallest top-up one can buy is less than 1,000 Ush, which is enough for a few texts. So people without plans are always running out of time. You don’t pay to receive calls or sms, so this trick is to get people to call you back. Apparently if you call someone but hang up after one ring it still lodges on the person’s phone whom you are calling, but it doesn’t cost anything. This is used to let someone know they want to talk to you but they have no money. Popular with children calling their parents apparently.
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