First Full day...emphasis on FULL

So today was our first full day and it was awesome and veryvery busy, which, according to our schedule that we got to day, is going to be the case for the next 15 weeks (luckily you all know how much i thrive on being overbooked). First had a quite 5 minute breakfast and went with the assistant academic director to the Grand Empirial Hotel to exchange some money for Ugandan Shillings (their money is so cool!). Then we all went in two different vans (the group is 17 students and about 4 academic faculty) and went on a car tour of the city of Kampala. We saw where alot of the big banks are, passed by Parliament, a few Embassys including the U.S., just really drove around to different districts to get a feel for the city and see the differences between the various districts. We went to the top of one hill in a district that is very affluent and alot of government officials live so you could see a clear difference in their homes than other parts of the city which had tin roofs, as compared to their red roofs that look very mediterranean like. The view from the top of the hill though was increeeedible you could see almost the whole city! We saw alot of beautiful temples and mosques and churches. There was also a Bajai temple (i don't know if i spelled that right), but apparently their religion is kind of a hybrid of judaism, islam, and christianity and they just believe in peace. What's even cooler is that there are only 8 of their temples in the world and ones in Kampala! We stopped by the Presidents grounds for lunch...no big deal. Yeah it was pretty cool the restaurant was right next to the Presidents palace (there was obviously a huge wall and barbed wiring around his house) but still pretty cool. There were also two art galleries next to therestaurant that had alot of beautiful paintings. Alot of it was of wildlife, some had vibrant colors of red and blue of women doing various tasks. One of my favorites of the brightly colored paintings was called Women Among The Gourds. There were also a lot of portraits of the President and his family, as well as other important government officials and political events.

A lot of their food has kind of an indian spin to it. They make naan which is amaaazing and I could eat it all day. For lunch I didn't eat that much but I tried some goat meat (interesting) and Makote which was mashed up plaintains, which I THOUGHT would taste amazing since i love plantains, but sadly...not so good. But standard fruit and veggies were legit. Dinner was alot better I had chicken with sort of a curry sauce but it wasn't as spicy and I had rice and naan with it....awesome.

I really like the SIT staff. They're just so nice and funny and wonderful. Our academic director is named Charlotte Mafumbo and she's just like a giant teddy bear and I just wanna cuddle with her! She's also really smart and I like talking to her alot cause she speaks english really really well. Some of the other faculty speak very softly so it's very hard to understand them sometimes. We received our "SIT Bible" today which has our schedule, the entire SIT handbook, syllabuses, homestay information....just sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much stuff. And like I said before our schedule is JAMMED packed. WHen classes start next week we have class everyday from 9-4 everyday and it's usually like an hour commute to class since traffic or "jams" are reallyreally bad in Kampala. It's like every man for himself! There's one very busy street where alot of the taxis leave from and our driver, Mona, was saying that sometimes it takes a half hour to just go like the length of a football field or less...ridiculous.

The tour around the city was fun and got to talk alot to the other kids on the program which was nice. There are two guys from UMASS-Amherst so we talked about hockey and the UVM-UMASS-BU rivalry which was entertaining. There was one problem though because one of the guys apparently wants to marry KG like me so now we have to fight over him haha. But the other students are really nice and I think it's a good group since it's not alot of people.

The longest part of the day was a workshop we did called "Hopes, Fears, and Expectations." At first everyone was kind of hesitant, but then everyone was really open. My hope was to learn a TON about development since that's what i'm interested in (obviously) btu there's still SOOO much I need to learn. ANd my fear was getting from my homestay to SIT classes everyday by myself. Luckily I found out that I'm actually living the closest to the class, but still...it's three miles-two miles away, which is kiiiinda walkable i guess, but anyways. Basically what we talked about was how everyones in the same boat so we need to just rely on eachother and they say to ALWAYS ask questions and to just accept the fact that duh we're going to make like a balizzion mistakes a first week or so so it was good we talked all about that stuff.

That's all for now!

ARRIVED!!

Wooohooo!! FINALLY!! Arrived safely in Uganda. It took 3 flights and almost two days but I'm in Kampala, Uganda at the Jeliza Hotel and best of all it has free wireless! It was about a 45 minute drive from the Entebbe Airport to Kampala and boy New York City drivers are nothing compared to the driving in Uganda, but hey! It was definitely an adventure. It was already dark out when I arrived and I flew right over Lake Victoria, but unfortunately didn't have the best view since that was the one flight where I didn't get a window seat (sad face.) But it was still pretty beautiful and the sun was setting on one side of the plane. This week I'm pretty sure we get to go see some famous waterfall and also the source of the Nile River aka Lake Victoria. This week we're just staying in a hotel for "orientation" and then next week we'll start living with our home stay families. On the drive to Kampala the streets were sooooo busy everywhere! street side markets were still open and there were people walking, people biking, and people on motorbikes everywhere and ALOT of honking and swerving between lanes. I fell asleep for part of it even though I was trying so hard not to, but hopefully I'll be able to get a good nights rest tonight despite the fact that Uganda is 7 hours ahead of the East Coast...Good Afternoon everyone!!! The flight from JFK to Dubai was the longest (12 hours) but it actually didn't seem that long! I watched three movies and read 200 pages in a book so that maayyy be why I didn't loose my mind completely. Watched the new Karate Kid, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Pocahantus...kinda got into the disney classics and they were aaaaaaaweeesommeeee. Anyways, I'm beginning to fade so gonna try and get some sleep and can't wait for my first official Uganda day tomorrow!!

I'm off!!!

Todays the day!!!

busy busy busy! Fly out of JFK then a crazy 12 HOUR FLGIHT to dubai, then to kenya and FINALLY uganddaaaa!!!! the first week will be orientation then we start all our classes and what not. I also just learne we get to go to Rwanda for a field trip!!! As well as to see the source of the nile, queen elizabeth national park, and Ugandas parliament woohoooo!

Two Weeks and Counting!

Hello all!

So I decided to make a blog for my semester in Uganda since it'll be the best way to give everyone i looooveee glorious updates on my time in Africa! I don't know my exact day to day schedule just yet, but I do know I'll be at the SIT headquarters in Kampala almost everyday for classes where there's laptops. desktops and where I can just use my own laptop so hopefully I'll get a chance to blog 1-3 times a week cause they also say our schedule is caraaaaazy busy so we'll see!

I'm getting very excited and have been making loads of to do lists since the next two weeks are going to be hectic with packing and planning and moving out of my apartment and blahblahblah BUT I'm super pumped and love to do lists for some reason. Anyways! Just wanted to try out this whole blogging thing for the first time and can't wait to get to Uganda!

Currently thriving in anticipation,
Sammy Ethridge