I be this badman
I'm back in Mbale from my initial stretch of traveling, it has been a great week or so. I went to Kampala to ring in the New Year in style with my roommates. We made some fresh off the tree sangria and pregamed in the hotel before going out to an outdoor concert at the Sheraton hotel. We had a great time, we saw all the usual Ugandan pop stars, including one His Excellency the Ghetto President Bobi Wine who was the one musician I really wanted to see before I left Uganda.
We showed up to the concert fashionably late of course, and by the time we arrived the line at the door stretched for easily a quarter mile around the block- probably thousands of people. For your average crew this may have derailed the night, but luckily we had my roommate, the resourceful Young Caitlin in our midst. She strolls right up to the front of line line- sporting towering heels and a saucy party dress of course- and smooth as you like convinces the bouncer to let her and her 7 friends just skip the line and come right in, no bribe necessary. Being White in Africa is a funny thing, some days it really works in your favor. I guess we should have been a little ashamed of ourselves for exploiting the situation, but the way I see it this is the reward we get for being charged double for everything because of our skin color. As we were being whisked through the line we walked past two random white girls who I overheard talking as we passed. They were like "How come they get to go straight to the front of the line? We've been waiting here for over an hour! They must be important. C'mon let's squeeze in behind them." Haha, score one for us. Turns out these girls were PeaceCorps, from Washington and living in Mbale. Small world. It was a fun night, they even had fireworks at midnight.
Also while I was in Kampala I went to the US Embassy because I had to get additional pages added to my passport, a fact which I take no small amount of pride in. The embassy was odd, kind of the perfect storm of American bureaucracy and apathetic African service. I half expected to be served budweiser and bbq at the door, but I was a little off. Keep in mind I was one of like four people in this office.
9:45- Arrive for my 10:00 appopintment (I was scared that I'd be late to the Mzungu time) 10:00-10:45- wait to see the big man, only to be told to fill out form 1045A (on the internet it said I didn't need to)
10:50- 11:30- wait to hand in form 1045A
11:30-1:30- wait here, it should be 15-20 minutes.
In the end, I was succesful and met some interesting people along the wayincluding a Ugandan dance troupe that will be touring the US for the next couple months, check out EmpowerAfricanChildren.org to see tour dates if anyone is interested.
That plus...
(Matooke Joe Camel going for a little stroll, taken from my bus window)
I bought a new camera!
(I gotta plug this video every chance I get, for some reason Pat and I absolutely love it.)
We showed up to the concert fashionably late of course, and by the time we arrived the line at the door stretched for easily a quarter mile around the block- probably thousands of people. For your average crew this may have derailed the night, but luckily we had my roommate, the resourceful Young Caitlin in our midst. She strolls right up to the front of line line- sporting towering heels and a saucy party dress of course- and smooth as you like convinces the bouncer to let her and her 7 friends just skip the line and come right in, no bribe necessary. Being White in Africa is a funny thing, some days it really works in your favor. I guess we should have been a little ashamed of ourselves for exploiting the situation, but the way I see it this is the reward we get for being charged double for everything because of our skin color. As we were being whisked through the line we walked past two random white girls who I overheard talking as we passed. They were like "How come they get to go straight to the front of the line? We've been waiting here for over an hour! They must be important. C'mon let's squeeze in behind them." Haha, score one for us. Turns out these girls were PeaceCorps, from Washington and living in Mbale. Small world. It was a fun night, they even had fireworks at midnight.
Also while I was in Kampala I went to the US Embassy because I had to get additional pages added to my passport, a fact which I take no small amount of pride in. The embassy was odd, kind of the perfect storm of American bureaucracy and apathetic African service. I half expected to be served budweiser and bbq at the door, but I was a little off. Keep in mind I was one of like four people in this office.
9:45- Arrive for my 10:00 appopintment (I was scared that I'd be late to the Mzungu time) 10:00-10:45- wait to see the big man, only to be told to fill out form 1045A (on the internet it said I didn't need to)
10:50- 11:30- wait to hand in form 1045A
11:30-1:30- wait here, it should be 15-20 minutes.
In the end, I was succesful and met some interesting people along the wayincluding a Ugandan dance troupe that will be touring the US for the next couple months, check out EmpowerAfricanChildren.org to see tour dates if anyone is interested.
That plus...
(Matooke Joe Camel going for a little stroll, taken from my bus window)
can't wait for the duet with his younger brother, lilly wayne
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