Our Kampala Experience

For the sake of simplicity and because I’m writing this up a few days later, I’ll put our two-day (three night) Kampala writeup into a single, long post.

Our arrival on Saturday evening started with ditching Jeff and Tim at the Sheraton Kampala, while Liz and I continued on with Denis to his house. We had agreed to cook for Denis since he was intrigued by our vegetarian ways. So we first stopped at an amazing farmer/vegetable market called Nakasero. It’s worthy of a blog post by itself almost, but here are a few interesting tidbits: We dropped a few shillings on some local kids to find us a parking spot and watch the car while we were shopping. One of them tagged along and carried our bags as we acquired vegetable matter. There was a guy (ok more specifically a teen) there to whom we gave our shopping list, and he led us around to the “best” vendors for each items. I’m sure there were kickbacks and things like that involved with this, but it worked out well for us. Each transaction was a new negotiation, all handled by Denis in Ugandan, so we were not privy to the details! Before we knew it we had a dozen bags of local produce — eggplants, beans, broccoli, peppers, fresh herbs, tomatoes, garlic, onions, and lots more.

After a quick grocery stop for some items not found at the farmer’s market, we headed home. Denis lives in a nice neighborhood not far from the Baha’i Temple named Kasaasi. After we met Denis’ family (his wife Alice, son Elijah and nephew Solomon + two adorable dogs) we made a sort of eggplant + veggie ratatouille that we served over rice. It went over pretty well and we enjoyed cooking in a kitchen after a week or so of mostly restaurant meals.

We were justifiably wiped out (in my opinion) so we decided to clean up and head to bed early, but just after Liz got out of the shower we heard a huge bang that sounded like an explosion followed by a very strange fizzing sound. Not being from around there, we didn’t take particular note of it because nobody else immediately mentioned it, but it happened again and again and Solomon came running in to tell us to evacuate because there was a major gas leak. We quickly grabbed our passports and shoes and went outside to find this dominating the sky, less than a kilometer away:

We were hearing explosion after explosion, dozens of them, and nobody knew what was going on. Each explosion paired with a plume of flame in the sky hundreds of feet high. For about twenty-five minutes we were in the dark (literally for awhile, because the power cut out — Denis had a generator which Solomon turned on), until the fires were finally put out. For a description of what eventually happened, you can check this article out, but the TL;DR is that a shop selling propane tanks went up in flames and each explosion was a tank exploding. For us and the entire neighborhood, it was a terrifying half hour! Ultimately, it barely made a blip on the local news and we’re happy to report that nobody was seriously injured. [editor’s note, I have my doubts that there were no injuries, but that is the official statement!]

In the morning, Liz and I took some time to catch up on some things in our digital and laundry worlds, with both power, internet access, and time for the first time in a few days. Then after lunchtime we headed up to the Baha’i Temple, partially to get our bearings but also because it was a nice walk and one of the most visible buildings around. We had an interesting discussion with the people there representing the Baha’i faith and came away impressed. Do your own due diligence, yeah?

As we were leaving the temple, headed to the Uganda Museum, we were approached by a young man, who introduced himself as Joseph. We learned that he was a video blogger (vlogger) in Kampala and he was putting together a YouTube vlog about the Baha’i Temple. He had overheard us talking to the Baha’i and he wondered if we’d like to have a conversation with him about our experience.

Here’s his vlog post from that day — you can find us towards the end.

One thing led to another, and he ended up joining us on our tour of the Uganda Museum as well. We shared an Uber there, and at the museum we enjoyed a tour from a great guide named <forgot her name, sorry> and learned a lot about the history of Uganda, its people, and cultures. Joseph, a resident of Kampala, said that he had never even been to the museum before and it was just wonderful serendipity (my words). We really enjoyed our time with him and will keep in touch.

Next we Uber’d over to the Sheraton for dinner with Jeff and Tim. Yada yada, food, wine, talk. Finally, we Uber’d back to Denis’ for bed. For reference, 15 min rides were running about a dollar (3500 Ugandan Shillings), which is about the same as two boda boda rides. Great first day!

Day two in Kampala was not a typical sightseeing day. Jeff had suggested that we could do anything with our day, but also invited us to tag along with his business for the day if it was interesting to us. He had arranged to meet up with a colleague of his helping very poor residents of Kampala survive in extremely difficult situations, through their organization The Navigators. For me to try to describe the work they do would do them all a disservice, so once again, please do your own due diligence. It is what Jeff and Denis have been doing for decades and it is what our host for the day, hereafter known as “Young Denis” was working towards on the ground in the slums of Kampala.

First thing in the morning, we were invited to sit in on a bible study group for nine young men who were all “hustling” in the slums. Simply put, each day, working whatever needed to be done to get food to eat. Sometimes paying jobs, sometimes crime, sometimes they just went hungry or relied on the charity of friends. It turned more into a Q&A session where we answered questions and they answered questions. Young Denis was helping to give them the tools to pull themselves out of that bad situation.

Many of these guys had to get to work “hustling”, but a couple of them guys, led by Lawrence, took the time to give us a tour of where they lived. We walked for a few hours through the poorest parts of Kampala. It was eye-opening, even though we didn’t see anything that we didn’t already intellectually know existed (if that awkward sentence makes any sense!). While we were walking, we chatted with several amazing guys from the group (Ibraham, Gideon come to mind but there were others) and tried to understand their lives and struggles. We bonded over music, most of all. Some big Michael Jackson fans in the house! Afterwards, we met up with Young Denis and he and Jeff discussed some of their plans and goals and we sort of debriefed a bit about what we’d seen.

The truth is I have a lot more to say about this experience, but I’m having trouble putting it down on in writing. It will take some time to process, but it is without a doubt a highlight of the trip. We are complete outsiders to their world and come away with a more-complete picture of Kampala and Uganda.

Here’s a video showing these cool, but ugly, birds called Marabou Storks. They’re everywhere in Kenya and Uganda, so far!

Once things wrapped up, we were set to head our separate ways. We wanted to take Tim up to the Baha’i Temple to see what we’d seen the previous day, and we figured we’d grab an Uber to get up there. Lawrence and Young Denis would have none of that, and instead escorted us up to the Baha’i Temple themselves by way of four boda boda (motorcycles for hire, the quickest, but not necessarily the safest, transport in Kampala). Neither of them had ever been there and they were both interested in what was going on, enjoying a nice conversation with the greeter at the temple. Then they escorted us to [old] Denis’ house, despite our protests that we would be just fine. They insisted, saying that they could never leave us to fend for ourselves in the city.

After a brief rest, we put my dad on a boda boda and sent him on his way back to his swanky hotel. It was a bit nerve-wracking since he doesn’t have any cell phone coverage in Africa (only wifi), so he was truly on his own to get back if things went awry. We told the driver to go “slow and safe” and the driver laughed but nodded and he was true to his word. My dad enjoyed a great 25-minute ride back to his hotel!

A bit later, Liz and I showed Elijah our binoculars and then did a bit of urban birdwatching. Then Liz and I enjoyed a home-cooked meal of fresh beans (similar to pinto beans but not dried), rice, ground-nut sauce (like peanuts but not quite) and hot peppers. Hot peppers are something that Denis and I have bonded over during this trip; we often ask for extra plates of fresh chopped chilis with meals. This was the best food we had on the trip so far, to be honest, thanks Alice! Then Young Denis stopped by to see how we were doing and he grabbed a bit of grub too, so we chatted for awhile.

A memorable day, for sure! The next morning we would have a five hour drive to help process these experiences.