The Embassy, Ministry, & The Market

I know sounds a bit like “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.”

In a way it was!

The United States Embassy was quite interesting. Very pretty building and lots of nice people once you got in! First of you have to park about a ¼ mile down the road. You have to show I.D. at a window that looks much like where you would buy a movie ticket. They give you the go ahead and you enter the first security check point.

This is where you have to leave things like your cell phone, camera, and any bags. This would have been quick for us but the young American (I am only guessing because of the accent) was not prepared! His backpack would not fit in the locker and he had to take all the stuff out individually. Nightmare! Once through here you go in the next room one at a time to walk through the metal detector. Then we were escorted with one person in front and one in back of us.

One more metal detector and wand and two more I.D. check (with the final I.D. check at the Marine guard station) and we were in! We were shown around by the Political Officer. She showed us “where all our tax payer money was going.” The person that gave us the most usable info was Lisa Heilbronn, the public affairs officer. She gave us names of so many other schools that regularly come to Uganda. She and the P.O. Kathleen were very clear about how safe it is here in Kampala and Uganda. In their words Uganda is the safeest country in Africa.

On the way out of the Embassy building Kathleen showed and told us about a library that Americans can use when they visit. I thought that was pretty cool.

As Trevor collected our stuff Ardith and I walked back to the car. As we were walking we heard someone yelling a greeting at us. This was very confusing because we have only been Kampala 5 or 6 days! Turns out it was Jasper Allgawesa, the General Secretary of the National Council of Sports. He asked how our trip to the west went and looked forward to lunch tomorrow. I would not have been surprised if that had happened in Prattville, AL, Hattiesburg, MS, or Kennesaw, GA; but Kampala, Uganda!? Crazy!

After this we went to te Ministry of Education and Sport to meet with Honorable Charles Bakkabulindi. The meeting went as any meeting with a high level official goes. Grip, grin, Trevor and KKL/TKL are great and we look forward to having you here in Uganda. Every Ugandan has been very pleased to hear about the possibility of Americans coming. They see it as a chance to market Uganda and their culture. It was a good but short meeting.

We ventured back to KKL (every time you get in the car it is an adventure). Teddy (not sure if that is how you spell her name) and Kato took us to the national market. Teddy and Ardith were so slow looking that I had to negotiate to deals on my own. I think Teddy was impressed with the price that I got. Bre knows how much I like to shop and haggle over price so it was quite an accomplishment for me. Tonight we pack and prepare for a busy day meeting the Makerere University people.