Saturday, June 11, 2011
I've been meaning to update for a while now, but I hope I can get caught up with this post. First off...
Dubai
I left New York the evening of my birthday, which was both awesome and crazy. Awesome because it's the first and probably only time I'll be able to say that I went to Dubai for my birthday, and crazy because I was trying to get everything ready and say good bye to people and accept all of the wonderful birthday surprises from friends and family, all in a few hours. I met up with my friends Hilary and Justin and we made our way to JFK. The Emirates flight from JFK to Dubai was 13 hours, filled mostly with movie-watching and pseudo-sleeping. We got to Dubai the evening of May 26th and checked into our hotel - Hilary and me in one room and Justin in another. The rooms, which were fairly cheap, ended up being suites. The suite that I was in had two bedrooms, one with a California King bed and the other with two full beds, 2.5 bathrooms, a kitchen and living room. Moral - you can definitely live like a king for cheap in Dubai.
Hilary at the hotel.
For our one full day in Dubai, we met up with our friend, Sarita (also traveling to Uganda) and her relatives who live in Dubai. Sarita's relatives were great hosts - we first went to old Dubai, to the spice and gold markets, then took a boat tour down Dubai Creek.
Spice market
View of the Burj Khalifa from the boat.
From there we went to the Dubai Mall, the world's largest shopping mall. It was great to get in the airconditioning, since it was 100 degrees outside, and the mall itself is pretty spectacular. The mall is also right next to the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest structure (it seems Dubai is all about having the biggest, tallest, etc of everything). We had lunch at the mall and then went to Jumeirah Beach, where the Burj Al Arab hotel is located. The water from the Arabian Sea was so warm and clear; we were all wishing that we had brought our bathing suits with us, but it was nice to dip our feet in for a while. We then went back to the mall, since they have a fountain show in the evening (very much like the one in Vegas). We parted ways with Sarita and her family then, and spent some more time at the mall. I managed to breeze through the day (and the 100+ degree weather) with only a minimal sunburn.
The next morning Justin, Hilary, Sarita, Alicia (who was also in Dubai, and also Uganda-bound), and I caught an early flight to Uganda, by way of Ethiopia. The seven-hour trip somehow ended up feeling longer than the trip from New York to Dubai, but I had finally made it to...
Uganda Pt. 1 - Fort Portal
After what felt like a long flight into Uganda, we had a 6.5 hour drive from the airport in Entebbe to where we would be visiting in Fort Portal. Most of the people in my Uganda summer field program had decided to take a trip to Fort Portal for a few days because our friend, Sadira, had friends there who offered host us. Fort Portal is absolutely beautiful and was a great introduction to the country. On our first day we visited a local school and met with the staff and students, then in the afternoon we drove to Semliki Park to see the hot springs. The drive through the mountains was breathtaking, even though we were stopped for a bit by a landslide caused by construction on the roads.
Drive to Semliki Park
The next morning Justin, Hilary, Sarita, Alicia (who was also in Dubai, and also Uganda-bound), and I caught an early flight to Uganda, by way of Ethiopia. The seven-hour trip somehow ended up feeling longer than the trip from New York to Dubai, but I had finally made it to...
Uganda Pt. 1 - Fort Portal
After what felt like a long flight into Uganda, we had a 6.5 hour drive from the airport in Entebbe to where we would be visiting in Fort Portal. Most of the people in my Uganda summer field program had decided to take a trip to Fort Portal for a few days because our friend, Sadira, had friends there who offered host us. Fort Portal is absolutely beautiful and was a great introduction to the country. On our first day we visited a local school and met with the staff and students, then in the afternoon we drove to Semliki Park to see the hot springs. The drive through the mountains was breathtaking, even though we were stopped for a bit by a landslide caused by construction on the roads.
Drive to Semliki Park
The "female" hot springs in Semliki Park
For our second day in Fort Portal we went to Queen Elizabeth National Park. We took a game drive through the park, where we saw warthogs, elephants, buffalo, monkeys, and all varieties of birds. My favorite part of the day was the boat ride through Kazinga Channel, which connects Lake Edward and Lake George. Seeing hippos up close in the water pretty much made my week.
Hippo!
Hippo!
We were only in Fort Portal for a couple days, but it was still emotional when we had to say good-bye to our host family. Hopefully I'll be able to visit Fort Portal again, if not on this trip then at some other point in the future.
New School students with Fort Portal host family and friends
New School students with Fort Portal host family and friends
Other highlights from Fort Portal: eating delicious Ugandan food for the first time (matoke - boiled bananas; g-nut stew - peanut stew; passion fruit juice, to name a few); seeing swarms of grasshoppers at night that would later be sold at the market; telling riddles on the long drive in to Fort Portal; being surrounded by green hills and mountains in every direction and tea fields as far as the eye can see; and having warm, beautiful weather every day.
Uganda Pt. 2 - Kampala and Jinja
My time in Fort Portal had already made my trip to Uganda worthwhile, and I could have left for New York the next day feeling pretty content. But wait, I came to Uganda to work, and so I made my way from Fort Portal to Kampala for two days of orientation. Kampala is crazy and busy, like NYC, but in a more chaotic way. I didn't see much of the city, as we were basically going from meeting to meeting, but there is definitely a lot to explore and discover. When the orientation had finished our group split - half of the students would be staying in Kampala for their internships, and half of us were headed two hours east, to Jinja.
I was quite happy to arrive in Jinja - happy that I wouldn't have to do much traveling for a while (long flights and bumpy car rides had been taking a toll), and excited to explore the town where I would be spending most of my time for the next two months.
Jinja is beautiful - it is located where the Nile River meets Lake Victoria. It is apparently the second largest city in Uganda, after Kampala, but it is a lot greener and a lot less dense. I've definitely had to adapt in Uganda, and in Jinja especially - battling with all sorts of bugs and small animals, taking cold showers, and going without electricity (a transformer blew in our part of town five days ago, and won't be fixed for another few days) - but I think I'm adapting more so than I thought possible.
As for my internship, it is off to a great start and is keeping me busy. Justin, Alicia, and I are working as a group - we are with the Ugandan Slum Dwellers' Federation, which has created savings groups in different areas of Jinja. These savings groups have Health and Hygiene (H&H) committees, and we are working with the H&H committees of three specific areas to address sanitation, maternal health, and HIV/AIDS. We are going to take this next week to decide on specific projects and formulate a plan that can be started while we are here and continued after we have left. I've already gotten to meet several people from the Federation and members of various savings groups and I'm excited for what we will be able to accomplish together.
I haven't taken any photos of Jinja yet but I promise to do that soon. I will also hopefully update more often, so I'm not writing posts that resemble short stories.
Tuna labagana! (See you later!)
My time in Fort Portal had already made my trip to Uganda worthwhile, and I could have left for New York the next day feeling pretty content. But wait, I came to Uganda to work, and so I made my way from Fort Portal to Kampala for two days of orientation. Kampala is crazy and busy, like NYC, but in a more chaotic way. I didn't see much of the city, as we were basically going from meeting to meeting, but there is definitely a lot to explore and discover. When the orientation had finished our group split - half of the students would be staying in Kampala for their internships, and half of us were headed two hours east, to Jinja.
I was quite happy to arrive in Jinja - happy that I wouldn't have to do much traveling for a while (long flights and bumpy car rides had been taking a toll), and excited to explore the town where I would be spending most of my time for the next two months.
Jinja is beautiful - it is located where the Nile River meets Lake Victoria. It is apparently the second largest city in Uganda, after Kampala, but it is a lot greener and a lot less dense. I've definitely had to adapt in Uganda, and in Jinja especially - battling with all sorts of bugs and small animals, taking cold showers, and going without electricity (a transformer blew in our part of town five days ago, and won't be fixed for another few days) - but I think I'm adapting more so than I thought possible.
As for my internship, it is off to a great start and is keeping me busy. Justin, Alicia, and I are working as a group - we are with the Ugandan Slum Dwellers' Federation, which has created savings groups in different areas of Jinja. These savings groups have Health and Hygiene (H&H) committees, and we are working with the H&H committees of three specific areas to address sanitation, maternal health, and HIV/AIDS. We are going to take this next week to decide on specific projects and formulate a plan that can be started while we are here and continued after we have left. I've already gotten to meet several people from the Federation and members of various savings groups and I'm excited for what we will be able to accomplish together.
I haven't taken any photos of Jinja yet but I promise to do that soon. I will also hopefully update more often, so I'm not writing posts that resemble short stories.
Tuna labagana! (See you later!)
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