This is just going to be a quick entry but I’m excited because I was able to purchase a USB Modem here today and now I have internet access at my fingertips.  Now I just have to find time to blog as I’ve had a really busy but very successful day here in Kampala meeting with a pharmacy faculty member and pharmacy student at Makerere University.  I’ll tell you more about that in a later post but first I wanted to fill you in on my trip yesterday and my first impressions.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

After a long 9 hour trip yesterday from Karagwe, Tanzania to Kampala, Uganda, I arrived safe and sound at my friend’s house.  It was nice to have someone waiting for me.  My first view of Kampala as we navigated the busy streets was kind of scary.  This is a city like no other I’ve seen before in terms of the number of cars, motorcycles (called Boda-Boda’s), and people.  People are just everywhere!  It is not even just the numbers but the way the traffic seems to have very little rhyme or reason.  Boda-boda’s weave in and out of the cars and the cars pull out from the curb without warning.  No one seems to pay attention to any of the normal traffic rules.  My pharmacy student, Joe, safely arrived in the late evening as well.  I was a little worried because my Tanzanian SIM card wouldn’t work and he did not have my new Uganda number yet.  I’m not sure if I mentioned it yet, but all the trouble I went through to get a global phone that would work in the countries in Africa didn’t actually work. The SIM card was fine in London, but once I arrived in TZ it didn’t work.  Luckily it only cost $1500 Tsh (Tanzania schillings), which is about $1USD to buy a new SIM card.  In Uganda today I was able to buy a SIM card for $3000 Ush (about $1.50USD).

As I mentioned, I’ll post more tomorrow, I hope, about Makerere and the information I’m finding out about but I did want to try and upload a picture or two from Tanzania.

Me, in the midst of banana trees in a skirt that I had made in TanzaniaStudents walking through the marketplace in Kyanga, Tanzania

Students walking through the marketplace in Kyanga, Tanzania