As most of you probably know, Kampala was the site of a recent terrorist attack back in early July.  The bomb blasts that occured at a local rugby club and Ethiopian restaurant during the World Cup finals left almost 80 civilians dead.  Although the attacks happened just a few weeks before my arrival, I still wasn't really prepared for how much these attacks have affected everyday life in the city.  Growing up in a post-9/11 America, terrorism has almost become a part of everyday life back home.  You can rarely turn on the television or open a newspaper without seeing some sort of report on terrorists activities. 
     Dealing with the same issues in Uganda wasn't really something that I initially expected.  However, terrorism has become just as much a part of my everyday life here, if not more so than back home.  While I am constantly bombarded by news on such events back home, the threat of terrorism here seems much more real.   Everytime I enter a mass gathering place, whether its the bank, a shopping center, a restaurant or simply entering the campus gates, I am searched with metal detectors, patted down, and asked to open my bag.  Cars are also stopped before entering to be searched.  Today, one of the guards even openly asked me if I had a bomb in my bag.  I'm pretty sure that he was kidding but I was still a little taken aback.  People complain about having to go through security checks at airports back home, but imagine if you had to do this everytime that you entered any sort of establishment.  I haven't yet fully decided what my opinions on the matter are.  I've alway felt that all the searching and security measures are there to create a mostly false sense of safety.  Simply searching bags at the entrance of a building is not going to be enough to stop terrorists attacks from occuring in downtown Kampala or anywhere else, as scary as that is.  We can't search everybody, everywhere.  Yet, these measures have to be taken because everybody is always looking for some sort of response when these attacks do happen.  In the meantime,  I'll just have to keep opening my purse to be searched a few times a day. 
    An interesting side note, I was reading a Ugandan newspaper today,  New Vision, and turned the page to see a picture of South Carolina Congressmen Bob Inglis and Henry Brown.  It turns out that they were here to place a wreath at the Rugby club where one of the blasts occured.  It's funny just how small the world really can seem sometimes.  South Carolina's elected officials have followed me all the way to Kampala!

So yesterday I had the most amazing opportunity to go to a traditional Ugandan funeral.  One of the past presidents of a Kampala Rotary club passed away last week, and my host, Deborah, invited me to go with her and her family.  The funeral was out in the country, so I got to see parts of Uganda that I haven't yet seen.  On the way out of town, we had to pass through the slums.  I was completely unprepared for this experience and am still trying to process it.  They were absolutely massive.  You could see their tin roofs stretching out for miles.  My host was telling me that they even have towns within the slums with names like Chicago, New York, and Chocolate City.  In order to reach the burial grounds, we had to go down this long dirt road.  Deborah warned me to hold on, that we were about to experience the "real Uganda."  It was quite the bumpy ride.  I have a bruise on my shoulder from the seat belt and I think that our truck was even airborne a few times. 
   When we pulled up, I was a bit intimidated at first but Deborah is great about looking out for me.  There were hundreds of people there, all in traditional dress.  Because I was the only white person attending, I got quite a few comments.  Of course I couldn't understand most of them because they were all in Lugandan but Deborah translated for me.  I've already started on my quest to learn Lugandan.  So far I know how to say yes, how are you, and oh dear. 
    The funeral itself was nothing like our funerals back home.  It started at 11 with a eulogy that went on for hours.  People were just sitting around on the grass, either talking among themselves or reading the paper and not really paying attention.  Local politicians showed up to campaign amongst the crowds of people.  Finally, around 3, they started the actual service.  Meanwhile, there were a bunch of ladies in the background cooking huge pots of food over open fires.  It is tradition that the family feeds all of the guests at the service a meal afterwards.  The actual burial didn't start until 4, which is when we finally left.  I was surprised to see that absolutely noone left the service early.  That is definitely something that you wouldn't see in the States.  There is no way that you could get people to sit through a 5+ hour service. 
     Deborah's brother-in-law in getting married in October, and she's invited me to come along and experience a traditional Ugandan wedding, as well.  Weddings are apparently an even bigger deal than funerals here.  She has even promised to help me find a traditional dress to wear.  It looks like it is going to be quite the event.  Deborah has already proved to be an absolutely amazing host counselor!

     So I have made it safely to Kampala, although getting here was pretty stressful.  After having to spend the night in Charlotte because of airplane mechanical issues, I made it to Uganda late Wednesday night.  There was a major gap in communication so my host Rotarians did not learn that I would be arriving until a few days before hand.  However, once they got the news, they went above and beyond to make sure that I was welcomed properly.  Herbert, a Rotarian from my host club (Rotary Club of Muyenga, the largest club in Kampala) picked me up from my hotel Thursday morning and drove me into downtown Kampala.  Although the country really is as beautiful as everyone says it is, the city itself is absolute, utter chaos. I have really never seen anything like it...even New York can't compare.  There are cars, buses, taxis, boda-bodas (motorbike taxis), bikes, and people absolutely everywhere with no organization to it at all.  I have only seen 2 traffic lights, no speed limits, no stop signs, no lanes in the road.  As you can imagine, its pretty congested.  Yesterday, there was even a point where my driver ran right into another car and just kept going.
     It took me awhile to really get used to things here, although I'm still far from being settled.  I pretty much locked myself in my room at the guest house for the whole first day, too scared to even venture out for food.  Finally, yesterday I started to explore more.  Daudi, another one of my new Rotarian friends, arranged for one of the drivers at his transport business to take me back to the airport to pick up my lost luggage.  Yesterday afternoon, I started to try to learn my way around the campus some.  Even the simplest of tasks here are far more difficult than they would be back home.  There are absolutely no maps of campus, so it took me about an hour to find where I needed to be. In the meantime, the view was beautiful.  Kampala is a very hilly area, and the campus itself is situated on the top of one of these hills.  One of my favorite things to do is sit outside at night, where you can see all the city lights and hear the sounds of the Call to Prayer in all of the local mosques.
     While walking around campus, I also had my first run-in with a Marabou.  These are quite possibly the scariest creatures I have ever encountered (They even beat grizzly bears in my book).  These are absolutely HUGE birds. Standing, they come up to my shoulders, are about 2 feet wide and must weigh at least 30 or 40 pounds.  Other than their pretty blue color, they are absolutely hideous.  The sounds that they make are even more scary...there's no chirping.  Instead, they make this croaking, popping noise in their throat.  I rounded to corner yesterday to see about 20 of them perched atop one of the trees.  The tree was almost bent over beneath all their weight.  Needless to say, I think I'm going to try to keep my distance from these things.
     Yesterday evening, Daudi picked me up to take me to a Rotary dinner that he and his wife were attending.  There, I received a very warm welcome from all the officials of my host club, including the President who gave a nice speech, saying how blessed he felt to have me here for the next year.  They then proceeded to order a feast of food which included naan, curries, sizzling beef, and roasted chicken, pork and goat.  Yes, I even tried the goat which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.
     This morning, I took yet another step in getting accustomed to things here.  I took my first boda-boda ride.  Bodas are the easiest and cheapest way to get around here because of all the congestion problems.  However, up until this point, I have been too scared to try them.  Ladies are supposed to perch on the back of the motorbikes side-saddled, which to me was terrifying.  However, I broke down this morning and hired one to take me to the local shopping center.  The first few minutes, I was so scared I thought about asking the driver to stop and let me off.  Once, I started to relax a little, it was actually pretty fun.  Just one more thing to get used to on my seemingly never-ending quest to settle down here.

So it's finally here.  It really seems like forever ago that I started this whole process, and now that it's finally time for me to head over to Uganda, I'm finding it all a little surreal.  It's still so hard to grasp that I'm getting ready to spend a year in Uganda.  Despite all the research that I've been doing on the internet, I still really have no idea what to expect.  But that's all just part of the excitement.  I'm flying out of Charlotte tomorrow afternoon, then on to Detroit and Amsterdam before finally making it to Uganda.  18 hours in a plane....ahhhhhh!  I can honestly say that I would just skip this whole traveling part if I could, but then again, who wouldn't?  Add in the fact that I've never been able to sleep on planes makes for one grumpy and exhausted traveler.  On the positive side, I've finally been able to get into contact with a few Ugandan Rotarians.  Apparently, they were never told that I was coming so they were quite surprised to hear that I would be arriving in just a few shorts days.  They have been scrambling around trying to get as much ready as possible for my arrival.  It will be nice to have a friendly face greet me on the other side!  Hearing how excited they were to have me also helped to ease some of my nerves.  In fact, every Ugandan that I have communicated with in my preparations has taken the time to tell me how much I am going to love my time there.  Now I'm ready to go find out for myself!  More to come soon...