We got up early to beat the traffic just like you do in the ATL. The drive in was as crazy as ever. We came within inches...well millimeters of having an accident. Traffic rules, lights, and sometimes even the policemen are just there as a suggestion. Next time I will bring a video camera because the still will not do it justice.
We started our meetings out at Makerere University with the Dean of the Arts. His children are involved with KKL. We also met with Dr. K who is working with Columbus State on their study abroad and he also taught at Columbus State 2 years ago. We justgave them an overview of the program and opened a line of communication between the Universities in hopes of creating a Memorandum of Understanding.
Next we mt with Florence. She works for an organization that is an advocacy group for women,specifically focused on AIDs. Nice women and by the time we left her she was very excited about a few possibilities. While sitting with Florence another friend of KKL Peninah cameto speak with me. She runs the rec center and intramurals on campus. I had a great conversation with her about how they run their campus recreational activities. Most of their sports programs are managed day to day by students with university staff just supervising. Believe it or not Makerere has a 25 yard swimming pool! For those of you who do not know, Kennesaw has been without a pool for a few years now with a new pool “on the master plan.”
We also met with the Department Head of Sport Science. Their degree is a mixture of the things HPS offers with minimal specialization. The Sport Science degree has only been around for 7 or8 years. They started with 7 students and are currently revising their curriculum. They were very interested in just about any collaborative effort.
We also met with the Gender and Women's studies “boss.” (I cannot remember her title and it was common for people to use the word boss to describe people in power). She and Ardith had more to talk about than I did so to be honest I faded out. We crammed a lot of grip'n and grin'n in a short amount of time.
Funny thing was that we were supposed to meet Kato the TKL driver at 12:30. Some how we missed him and decided to meet briefly with one more person then meet him back at the lot. The “brief” meet and great turned into an hour and we missed him all together. I think they almost called the Ugandan National Guard equivalent because they thought we were lost. I had also left my Ugandan cell phone on the charger at Trevor's house. You got it the one day we needed it, I did not have it! Turns out Teddy and Kato got to the location of our last meeting about the same time we did, so all ended well.
We settled up on a few things at the office and headed back to Trevor's to pack up and eat dinner.
The Entebbe Airport is surprisingly nice. I would say is like a Gulfport, MS airport. Small and easy to navigate. Check-in was easy! We did make the observation that we were traveling back with the $8000 Germans and some of the same “Evango-tourists” we flew to Uganda with. We are sitting at Schipol airport in Amsterdam killing time before the final flight.
Just a not on Ugandan weather...I do not think the forecast change the entire 10 days. Sunny, about 85, with a slight breeze and the humidity was undetectable.
