Krikey, it's cold in Kampala!

Arrived on Sunday 12^th to a cool and breezy morning in Kampala. I was met at the airport by Bruno, a tall Ugandan driver for NACWOLA, with a bassy laugh that humoured my many questions en-route to the hotel. As we passed along good tar roads I noted the typical red African earth and the vivid greenery of a landscape that seemed permanently dressed for Christmas.  Lawns were well manicured, the shrubbery on the sides of the street trimmed and neat, and the many small shops and shacks appeared well swept and kept, many newly painted in the canary yellow branding of MTN, the countries main mobile phone network provider. I checked into the very homely Royal Impala Hotel near Lake Victoria in which Pepal had reseved all the participants who had travelled a room for the week. Marvelled at the climate and slipping on another laying of clothing, I climbed gratefully under the mosquito net and into bed for a long awaited sleep.

Spent the afternoon with another of the participants with whom I wandered along to the swampy shore of lake Victoria, aka “the beach.” There we had a strangely British lunch of fish (pulled fresh from the lake) and chips (cassava and potato) that were bubbling away in great vats of oil. Many women were had gathered there to cook and sell to families on their Sunday stroll to the lake shore. Young boys relaxed in moored fishing boats, music beat softly from large speakers and a great and greying stork observed our lunch with hope.

Moving onto one of the most expensive and beautiful resorts, the speke resort, we enjoyed a Nile special beer, watching Uganda’s richest families relax, play football, fly kites and, as one boy did, ride around repeatedly on a motorised 4by4 scooter on the expanse of lawn by the lake.

We returned before sunset and in time to meet two other participants who had just returned from a gruelling and eye opening field visit to the North, where they hope to establish a women’s agricultural cooperative farming peanuts. This would offer livelihood strategies for 1600 women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) in the remote and difficult to access area of Amoru. This is the other project in which NACWOLA staff will form a team for, and that I will possibly join too.