First 24 hours in Uganda

Hey everyone!

I've made it to Kampala! There's a lot of good and a tiny bit of bad: My host family is incredible and very nice, it's beautiful here and it looks like I won't start working until next week so I have some time to acclimate...but my luggage is lost. Yikes. Luckily I packed a change of clothes and toiletries in my carry-on bag so I'm surviving, but I'm a bit worried about never getting my luggage back. I barely made my flight from Dubai to Kampala, which is probably when it got lost, which is totally normal. The only thing I'm freaking out about is that now if/when it finally does get here it it will be sitting in the airport for a while just asking to get stolen.
buuuutt let's think positively! hopefully all will go well and i'll get everything by tomorrow. And other than that Uganda is great!

We already drove through Kampala, Makarere University and by Lake Victoria. Kampala was very busy and crowded and really interesting and Lake Victoria was absolutely beautiful, Makerere had a really big and sprawling campus up on a hill which was also gorgeous.

Uganda is obviously completely different from the US- basically organized chaos! The roads are ridiculous- everyone weaving in and out all the time (and driving on the left hand side which still freaks me out) and basically no official crossings so everyone is just darting through traffic, but no one goes very fast and it's pretty entertaining. It's also a lot of fun just driving around because there is so much to see. Lots of different people, cute kids running around, bunches of chickens and goats and occasionally a cow or two. Another random detail that is very different- the dirt is red here, which to me is pretty cool.

Right now, I'm really wishing I spoke Lugandan. Everyone does speak English, but the language at home and in casual conversation to other Kampalans tends to be Luganda, which means I miss out on a good amount of what everyone is saying to each other. This is especially weird with my family's two maids who don't speak much English (or at least they won't to me). While it is pretty awesome having two "girls" to help out, I also have no idea how to deal with it.

That's probably the biggest challenge so far- cultural custom- Because the culture is so different here, I don't know when people are being rude/polite/normal/extremely generous here and it makes it difficult to know how to respond. For instance, my host family is obviously being so generous, but I have no idea when it is okay to offer to help, or to pay etc. Same with the maids- I have no idea what im supposed to do myself and what im supposed to let them do for me! But I'm sure with time I'll figure everything out and hopefully until then I won't be too unintentionally rude or make a complete fool of myself.

There's a ton more to say about Africa, but I'll wait until the next post, I just wanted to get out my initial impressions!

PS You'll have to wait a bit for my post about Ireland, since I'm using an office computer right now and I have it saved on my laptop.

PPS I haven't had a chance to take any Africa pictures yet, sorry! but here's the link to some Ireland photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047898&id=1322040101&l=5afd7b0a4e

-Kaitlyn

Hey family!

I'M STILL ALIVE!

Really though- were you worried yet-I'm still only in Dublin.
I'm really loving it and having a great time here- I'll post more later about what I'm up to and upload some of the many pictures I have already taken.