Monday September 7, 2010 – running errands and meeting friends

Monday September 7, 2010 – running errands and meeting friends


We’re all up early this morning – keeping our camping hours in the city. The Apartments do a pretty good breakfast on a terrace by the pool so we start what turns out to be a substantial eating day with a substantial breakfast with all the trimmings. Then its time for a bit more unpacking and organizing, and then a trip down the road to the Garden City mall, a major shopping centre, to change money and buy the last odds and ends we need or want in the grocery - including some Warangi – the local spirits to toast Uganda with when we get home. Alcohol is incredibly inexpensive here, except for imported wine which is a bout the same price as at home. Banana Boat curios next for a few final things, a quick trip to the book store, and then down town. IT starts to rain, torrentially, which sends everyone scuttling to protection under the eaves of buildings waiting for a break. We put the car in a small parking lot – parking is ridiculously impossible in Kampala. A quick pop into an antique shop, with some neat things from various countries, and then up the road to meet Roger Kirkby for lunch. Elizabeth is suffering big time with a headcold as well as her guts still sorting themselves out, but she soldiers on and we have a nice lunch –Sarah working her way through an enormous Greek salad complete with feta and olives!.
Back to the apartments to unload, and then Sarah and I make a trip over to the Predict office, 5 minutes away, to pick up my extra suitcase, sell the tent (yea!), return the stove, and say hi to my various colleagues there who are in the office. We don’t quite catch everyone, but make an arrangement to stop by a 6 and have drinks before we meet Herbert for dinner this evening. Our timing on swimming pools is definitely off – it’s a damp rainy day and no one wants to swim so we park inside doing some washing and sorting things to go home, things to throw out, things to donate to the maid or to Betty, who is now out of a job since the vet school hostel closed. With TV and internet it’s not hard to pass the few hours before we load up into the increasingly empty car and run up to PREDICT to meet up with friends and then head down the road to the Kisemente shops where we drink gin and tonics (or fanta) and catch up with each other. Lawrence, who organized our Ngambe trip is in town – he was supposed to have flown to Germany this morning to finish his PhD but they wouldn’t let him on as apparently he needed a transit visa to switch planes in Heathrow. Go figure. So he’s here for another day or so til he can get a flight. Felicia who used to work for MGVP, James who was in Congo managing a gorilla sanctuary, and my friend Dominic from the US here working for RESPOND. An interesting bunch.
A little after 7 we head out to meet Herbert at up the road, then follow him home to his flat for dinner. He lives up beyond the northern bypass, not too far away, up probably the worst road I’ve seen yet in Kampala. It looks like some of the really bad stretches we’ve been on out in the country. The sedan cars, taxis, and even a full size bus lurch back and forth trying to avoid the massive ruts and huge potholes. Old hat to us. Herbert lives in a small bachelor flat in a complex with a walled central courtyard for parking. His apartment is decorated with photos of his son, and a Kitchener Rangers calendar from Canada. We eat dinner in the lounge, which appears mysteriously from the kitchen where there is obviously someone else orchestrating the food. Turns out a friend of Herbert’s, Rachel, is the cook and she eventually joins us while we finish up. We had quite an array of local foods, and much better tasting than we’ve generally been served. Posho, rice, potatoes, matoke, peas, beans, vegetables, and meat in sauce accompanied by local passion fruit and orange juice. Followed up by fresh pineapple. We’re stuffed and Herbert will have leftovers to last him for a while. A suitable dinner for our last night in Uganda. Sarah is falling asleep on the couch curled up on Rachel’s lap and Elizabeth is struggling to keep upright so we make it a relatively early night, passing up on the tea, coffee, or Ugandan red wine offered after the meal. Goodbyes said we wobble our way back down the road into Kampala and home to bed.