Geting here....!

I’m writing this whilst sitting in the sunshine outside the front of the guest house where I’m staying, listening to the drums and singing from the church just up the hill. I’m a little tired having stayed up until around 1am drinking tusker (Kenyan lager) in a bar in town and then being woken up at 5am by a chorus of the neighbourhood dogs.

The flight here was fine, though I did end up sitting next to someone who (briefly) worked in housing at Newham. Spending the first two hours of my time away talking about landlord licensing, community gardens and Games-time health and safety issues was not something I had anticipated…..

The journey from Entebbe airport to Kampala takes about an hour and I got a real sense of the area, how green the surroundings are and the chaos of the roads! I was quite excited when we stopped for the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, to drive past (along with about 20 cars). Apparently, though, this happens quite frequently.

I’m staying in an area of Kampala called Namuwongo in the south east of the city, where Hands for Hope is based. For the first month I’ll be living in the guest house that Hands for Hope uses for volunteers to stay before moving into a flat round the corner when Tammy (who is currently doing the job) leaves.

 

The guest house

Felicita who works in the guest house with her daughter Joselyn

There’s four of us staying here at the moment, me and thee volunteers (Dev from Devon and Danna and Einav from Israel) who are currently helping at Hands for Hope’s holiday programme.

Brian the dog also lives with us - !

I’ve had a little explore of the neighbourhood (whilst trying to dodge the traffic!). We found a nice coffee shop yesterday. There’s a fruit and veg market, a few shops and bars, the main hospital in Kampala is here, there’s a swimming pool nearby and a Mexican and an Indian restaurant (yet to be checked out!).

Namuwongo Road

Namuwongo Road

 

Last night I ate at the lovely sushi restaurant in the centre of town with about a dozen other people from Uganda, Australia, the UK and the States.  I’m now off to spend the rest of the day pottering around and maybe heading to the pool before starting work tomorrow morning.

 

Sitting on Tammy's balcony drinking a G&T (good for deterring mosquitos apparently)