one month in Uganda

The very first impression

‘Oh really, are u going Uganda? One under develop country to another? If you are going overseas, it’s better to choose go Europe or America.’ These were the comments of my friends when I shared my decision to fly abroad for the exchange programs run By Fk Norway.

I was selected by College of Journalism and Mass Communication (CJMC) to work with Ugand Media Women’s Association (UMWA) in Uganda for 10 months. I found nobody on my side except my father who gave strong confident and inspired me.

‘If you scared of adventure, you learn nothing in your life’.’ This is my thoughts from childhood. I never afraid of walking alone, climbing trees and swimming in rivers. I always love to perform specially at anywhere with anything. That’s made me taking no time to decide to take opportunity to fly Uganda.

Settling with  new environment

Before my visit to Uganda I have been to Ethiopia for training for about 15 days. It  was to prepare the participant to be ready to work in foreign country. On January 22^nd I had reached the capital city Aadis ababa, where aadis means new and ababa means flower in Ethiopian language.  I found it very nice. We, the people  from different countries shared the ideas of individuals and culture of society. More over, I found the discussion between the partners and participant,  much fruitful.

I didn’t have much time to stay back in Kathmanu, as I have to fly for Kampala, the capitcal city of Uganda. I departed from Kathmandu international airport  to my destination  with excitement and some fears as well. By travelling with 17 hours of transit in Kenya and Bahrain, I reached Enteebbe airport at midnight of 21^st February. When I got out of immigration, I found somebody calling my name, Kalpana. She was Margaret madam, who is the executive director of Uganda media women’s association and mama FM 101.7 Mhz. I got on her car and went to her house but couldn’t see the beauty of city,it was a dark night.

Next morning, Maddam Margaret took me to office. I found the people in the office were welcoming. ‘welcome to Uganda’ they greeted me with smiling face. Then with Catherine and Alice I suddenly rushed to the apartment. I have had assumption  about the home, I found the home was nice.

It was a Hut type house, as most of the houses in Kampala.We three girls went to market for shopping like kitchen utensils, foods and groceries, bed sheets and stuffs of daily uses.

The first meeting in UMWA was impressive. Executive director Margaret and all the members of UMWA and staffs of Mama Fm were gathered in a meeting hall to introduce me and my friend Alice from Zambia. We shared our fears, expectation and excitements in the society. We started get into our job to be done. The first week went with knowing staffs, the market and the route of the busses.

Learning Luganda and knowing city

We started learning Luganda language with teacher Kiwanuka Moses, from the 2^nd week,. It’s a bit hard for me, but it is helping me to greet the people, to be close to them. From the second day of class, I started greet  people with  ‘wasuzze Ottya’ in morning and ‘Osibiya ottya’ in afternoon and so on. I found the Ugandans are very pleasant in behavior. I am very much sure, people don’t know me but the simply say, ‘Hi, how are you?’. So they keep me always cheerful.

In shopping center or wherever when I say ‘webale’ instead of ‘thank you’, the people feels happy and grateful to me. Teacher Moses gave lot of information about Uganda and its culture. Lots of internal conflict has made the country suffering, but now it’s on progressive way, its similar to my country Nepal.

In the 3^rd week we went to Buganda king’s official residence which is called Kabacas Palace. Nepal has just transformed from royal regime to federal republic. In Uganda though it’s federal republic with monarchism, very novel political system. I found people have respect and affection towards their king and queen. Kabacas palace is inside almost 58 hectare, we round the palace by boda boda, a motorcycles as in taxi service.

It was horrifying to see the tunnel, we visited, where people used to be tortured and killed in the regime of one of the ruler Idi Amin. One of my friend from U.S.A.  has asked me about Idi Amin when I told him that I am in Uganda, I was ignorant on this note. But after visiting the place, I notified him with quite confident and proudly, that I had seen the place.

We visited so many women and human rights organization, in order to have good relation with them to have necessary assistance about the issues. We went Kira police office and get introduced with the inspector and other policemen also.

In 4th week we went to Namugongo which is the historical place, where 45 young Christian believers were burnt alive by king Mwanga II. Believers from all over Uganda and from its neighbor countries gather here and greet with honor with due respect to Ugandan martyrs.

My seven wonders and pleasure

1. 1.     The Climate and weather

There are some wonders about Africa I stumbled upon. My first wonder is the atmosphere. There was chilly cold in Nepal at the time of my departure, but here I am a bit suffering from sizzling warm. I don’t know whether it’s only my contemplation, I found the sun rises earlier in the morning and it sets late in evening. Whole day the sun is almost the same hot. I came to know that there is no winter season here. Another thing is the time differences, its 3 hour late than my country. So in night, sometime I feel sleepy earlier, but getting habitual on this matter.

1. 2.     The Roads and transport     

I found the roads and transport are the biggest issues of frustration of the people here. Except the city centre, mostly the roads are not paved, so that everybody has to face the dust. Taxis which we used to call Micro bus, are also not in adequate service, people have to wait for long time. Taxi conductor charge the passenger according to the situation, not according to the rule. They take advantage of rain and peak time.

I came to know from a newspaper that Ugandans are spending 40 percent of their income on transport, as transport is expensive. Besides taxi, Boda-Boda is another means of transport in widely used. It’s motorcycle but in taxi service. It’s a bit expensive than taxi but fastest.

Motorcycles are for only private means and the helmet is obligatory in Nepal, but boda boda riders rarely wear helmet, and sometimes carry three or four people. Even some of the bodas are running on roads without number plate too. Why doesn’t government make the helmet and number plate compulsory ? It’s necessary for safety and security.  The young people are waiting for the passengers in Boda Boda, and the drive it in high speed without caution, so I don’t prefer to get on it.

1. The plated hairs and breeds

One day, Alice, my roommate from another country Zambia,  wanted to remove her plated hair. I was eager to go with her in saloon. We went to saloon in Ntinda, which is 3 km far from our residence Nalya state. During our walk on the way, we found so many saloons. I wondered what  a huge business is this ?

We entered in a saloon which was crowdie, some were plating new hair, some were removing. Actually its very tough to plate the hair, it takes whole day. I found mostly man are involved in this business.

One small girl, in my assumption she was not more than 5 year was removing her plated hair. She felt pain and cried so horribly. Its expensive, time consuming and painful but most of ladies prefers to plate the hair. They used different color lie pink, purple, green and brown which is plus point in their beauty. Some looks so beauty and dashing in plates if they are sensibly used according to their face cuts and skin color.

1. 4.     The office and working hour

Working days and hours here in Uganda are unlike to Nepal. In my organization(UMWA),office starts at 9 am and ends at 5 PM. Two days, Saturday and Sunday is off for office, but in Nepal  we have only Saturday to be off  and have to work from 10 to 5 Pm in week days. We don’t take luch to office, but have food stuffs in restaurants.

Here in Uganda,  We have to depart earlier from home and should carry lunch. For me to eat earlier in the morning is a problem. But in the new environment, adjustment is also sometimes enjoyment. Wake up earlier in the morning, making breakfast and lunch and walking to office quickly, a bit challenging for me but I am getting into the new lifestyle.

1. 5.     The dress and costume

Wearing jeans is most comfortable dress in Nepal, I prefer to wear skirts in Nepal but doesn’t comfortable as the most of woman wear it in Nepal. The women in Nepal (and India) wear  kurta salwar and sari which is long type and almost covers feet. In Uganda I found the women wearing skirts. I am taking advantage here. So I find myself smarter on these outfits.

In Uganda the woman have their nice outfit called ‘Gomesi ‘,but widely used by women from rural areas only. Women and ladies wearing skirts, they look beautiful. But wearing the miniskirts and travelling in bodaboda, looks a bit uncomfortable for me.

1. 6.     The food stuffs   

Rice, curry dal and pickle is our daily meal in Nepal. We don’t compromise other thing in meal except rice. Matoke which is made from unriped banana, is very famous food here. Apart from this, atap, poso, katoge are also on Ugandan dishes. This place is very favorable for agriculture. So there are lots of fruits like banana, pineapple, jackfruits, avocado etc. I am enjoying on these fruits. I wonder the size of fruits, they are very big in comparison to Nepal.

1. 7.     The currency and exchange

In the 2^nd day of my arrival, I went for shopping. I bought the kitchen items, foods and groceries, bed sheets etc. When I returned back to home and conveyed to my family members and friends that I spent about five lakhs in shooping and I had pizza worth of ten thousands, they could not even comment and dampened. Later I told them the sum was in in shellings, Ugandan currency. When I explained them that one US $ is equal to 2100 to 2400 shellings.  Our currency in Nepal is  rupees and note of 1000 is the biggest currency, we can buy so many food items. But here I have to paid 1000sh, 2000sh for travel within the city, I have to travel with thousands of shellings in bag.

In the initial days, I  used confused  many times, in shopping center when they asked to give 8000 then I used to start to count lots of five thousand notes. They have the coins of about 50,100, 200 and 500.

One thousand is called lukumi, 2000 nkumibiri and so on. Once I asked for pineapple, they told me to pay One thousand five hundred, I repeat it as 15 hundered, they became confused. It was really puzzling for me. The highest note is 50,000Sh here. But nowadays i don’t confuse. I have started to bargaining also, it’s amazing.

Last words

I am not going to miss anything here except my family. As the time passes, I am being very much habituated. I used to be scare on roads also, but now am becoming confident day by day. I feel myself as lucky because I got so nice office with good working environment. All my colleges are much helpful and co operative. My supervisor Sarah Muwanag, a positive minded lady, always inspires me, and wants to make me comfortable. I found UMWA has put great effort to up bring women to the front.

Now after a month, I can say firmly that I have done the right decision to take the oppurtunity. If I had given up, I would surely miss the great opportunity of learning life. Things are going very positively, so what about remaining nine months? Definitely wonderful, I believe.