Story Ki?

I went back to Live Journal

2007-02-01T01:40:00.000-08:00

To Anyone who stumbles on this and is still interested in my crazy life in Kampala Uganda, I moved back to Livejournal and I post there every single day.

http://kellyuganda.livejournal.com

Sorry for the lack of posts

2005-09-09T06:55:00.000-07:00

Still been trying to sort out my situation. I don't think the job I had come back for is going to happen it seems their business isn't doing to well and the woman keeps giving me the run around. I am going to come back to Virginia if nothing happens around November 1st. I'm pretty frustrated with Uganda at this point. Still keeping busy and looking for other jobs, but it seems everything would require me to move to Gulu which I'm not wanting to do. I will try to post more frequently. I am going to another wedding tomorrow for an American girl and a Ugandan friend of Paul's.

I also got a room mate, Makayla, the other white girl in the wedding photo is living with me now which I'm very very happy about!

On a sadder note, Katie left Uganda Sunday. We threw her a big going away bash at our apartment. Great fun. Going to another going away party tonight. Maybe I'll post some party pics next time I am on the net for longer.

fun weekend, unfun job situation

2005-08-23T03:47:00.000-07:00

I went to a fun wedding this weekend for a friend of Paul's. Weddings work a lot differently here, aside from the introduction ceremony difference, which I wrote about before, the weddings are different in the way they are organized and financed. Instead of the father of the bride paying, the friends of the bride and groom organize groups, which compete with each other to see who can raise the most money. They have events called wedding meetings, usually at bars or restaurants and people to silly dares, stunts, and pledges to raise money, also a good excuse for Ugandans to have a "polite pint" or two as they say. In addition, at the weddings there are endless speaches by all the bride and grooms family and friends. It was kind of like a roast. Thankfully, this time in English. We left around midnight but everyone else probably stayed untill 5 ot 6 in the morning. Weddings, like all other nightlife in Uganda, run late. So here are some pictures. The location was beautiful. It was set at a resort that Paul's uncle owns called Ranch on the Lake, midway between Entebbe and Kampala, deep off the main road by lake Victoria.

Here is a picture of Paul when we first got to the wedding

A picture of the wedding as it got dark.

A picture of all of us before we left taken in my apartment by Meddy, and yes the rules are different here, it is acceptable to wear white to a wedding. The other two people in the picture are my friend Makayla, from Boston, and Paul's cousin Pasquali Don Bella, who just got back from doing university at Rutgers in Jersey.

On a less happy note, Victoria has told me I have to wait two more weeks, as of yesterday. I feel like she is not the type of person I want to work with, so I have started applying to other jobs. I have so far applied for a project officer position with

We shall see how that goes, and I have leads to go check out Unicef and USAID, If I don't start working or find something after another month I'm going to come home.

finally got to the web

2005-08-12T04:38:00.000-07:00

Ok I have to apologize for taking so long to get another post up. I have just been busy trying to sort out my living and work situation. I have finally found a place. The flat I was staying in temporarily changed owner ship, an American friend of mine bought it and we were able to come to a very very reasonable price agreement so I could stay. Right now I have the whole 5 bedroom place to my self!

This is a shot of my living room

The building from the front, as you can see I am above a Danish restaurant and bar called La Fountain

Here is the view from my balcony onto an area called Kisimenti, as you can see I am walking distance from lots of grocery stores, restaurants, etc.. no internet cafe's though

Finally, the perks of living above a restaurant, I went out and bought a bunch of fresh fruit and this lovely waitress made it into juice for me using their blender. This mix was mango, orange, passion fruit, and bannana! They also made us fresh baked bread which was delicious,

Ok I know two of these pictures are not rotated but I didn't realize untill right now and I am sure as ... not going to upload them again with this slow internet connection.

As for my job situation, I haven't started yet, there have been delays. If things don't happen soon or work themselves out I may be back to the States sooner than I thought. I will keep everyone posted on my progress more often I promise!

house hunting

2005-07-29T06:10:00.000-07:00

It seems like it has been so long since I last posted! I have been busy looking at flats and houses and meeting with brokers trying to find a place to live. The places Paul had found for me got snatched up before I could put money down on them. Since I arrived I have been staying in a shared 5 bedroom furnished flat above a restaurant called La Fountain in a really nice area called Kisiminti. My roommates have been 2 girls from Harvard doing research and an American guy I never ever see. Right now I am negotiating with the owner of the flat to lower the price enough so that I could stay longer and give me say over who rents the other rooms. If this works out it would be great since the place is already furnished.

I have also found two other decent places in Kansanga, one house and one kind of town house wich is connected to two other houses in one compound. The place I really wanted was in Ntinda, but I got out bid.

The whole process of looking for a house has been fairly frustrating. Not all brokers are created equally, and as a Tanzanian friend of mine said "the school of compentancy is not open to us all." I have told some people what I'm looking for only to have them try to show me something much larger and 4 times more expensive, or in a bad part of town I specifically said I couldn't live. One broker even climbed on a chair to get his pen out of a hole in the ceiling to take my number down because he didn't want people in his office to steal his pen. Without Paul helping me I don't know what I would have done, it would have been impossible. Regardless I should be making a decision and putting money down on a place by this Sunday! Wish me luck!

Safe and sound

2005-07-21T04:30:00.000-07:00

Whoo hoo!! I got to Kampala safe and sound. It seemed like forever but I got in late last night around 1pm. I'm meeting with some real estate people today to see some of the places I may move into. I am currently staying in a nice room with a shared kitchen above a restaurant in Kisimenti, very nice, very cheap.

Washignton

2005-07-19T04:57:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm in my room at the Grand Hyatt in DC enjoying the wireless! I had a lovely day yesterday with the parents. We got to DC early, then I went to the Bang Salon and died my hair a warmer brown with subtle highlights, no more blond streaks in the front. Then mom and I hit up another salon for pedicures and manicures. Good times.

This day of girly beauty was really part of my whole week since as a going away present mom treated me to a body polish steam treatment and facial last week at Cloud Nine Day Spa. It was my first time in a spa, of course I loved it!

Later in the evening we got all dressed up and went to a restaurant Paul had recommended just 2 blocks from the hotel, called the The Oceanair. The food was amazing. I had a Maine flounder stuffed with crabmeat, shrimp, and brie cheese, with mashed potatoes, and a strawberry and goat cheese salad. The waitress found out it was a going away dinner for me and took it upon herself to increase her tip for the evening by bringing an unsolicited desert which happened to be a 12 inch tower of pistachio ice cream covered in marshmellow cream on top of a brownie. The marshmellow cream was lit on fire at our table to toast the outside layer and then covered in fudge sauce... yumm
I am getting so fat. Mom's nose turned red from all the wine! It was such a good night.

I am so excited to be going back to Uganda! I can't wait to get there.
by the way, I am now armpit hair free.. Don't know how I feel about it quite yet, a bit of regret at this point, but it will always grow back. I had it waxed off, my god, it hurt sooooo bad, and I have a high tolerance for pain. Ouch!

Encore!

2005-07-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist putting up more Tanzania pictures! I swear, that country has so much to see! Besides all the animals living in the crater, the Massai also live there and are allowed to herd in most areas.

Here are some Massai women standing next to a house they made themselves out of cow dung

Some young Massai boys on their circumcision sabaticle, when they return to the village they will become Massai warriors and will be allowed to start growing their hair long and learning the skills of the warriors.

Fred and Stephen look like they're having a great time, bonding together in front of our safari tent, notice the large mosquito net wrapped around Fred's giant head, ha ha ha

How 'bout them giraffes...

How 'bout them cows...

Some fun safari pics

2005-07-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

I just put all of my father's Africa pictures on my computer. As I was going through them I started thinking about the Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania, the most magical place I think I've ever been and the serengeti, also a fascinating place. So I decided to put up some fun pics.

The view of the crater from the Crater Lodge

The wonderful, best best best most awesome hotel I've ever stayed at in my entire life, the Crater Lodge

My mom, oblivious to the elephant!

These are what we found inside the crater, trying to get a break from the sun by snuggling up to the safari vehicles

2005-07-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

Whoa, more awesome USA gadgets I didn't know existed... Oakley Thumps, I'm suprised my brother or joe doesn't have a pair yet.
http://oakley.com/thump/
When will oakley come out with the movie version. I guess after apple makes the itheater pod.

I've been on the computer a ton lately because in preperation for leaving I am importing a lot of my old cds onto my harddrive, this way I won't end up getting sick of a few cds like I did last time.

My second post!

2005-07-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

I'm getting super excited. There is less than a week now before I head back to Kampala! Another friend of mine is returning from Norway too on friday, awesome. I not moving back into this flat but, possibly another one in the same complex, though probably not. But here is a picture of the place I used to live since I never got it up on my other journal. The second photo is me cooking on the charcol stove I used when the power was out. Then the third photo is the back of my apartment. My bedroom was the second floor window all the way at the end. The last picture is a Ugandan dinner Margaret's son Rogers, Stephen, and I made the first full day we stayed in the flat. Enjoy

This is a test, this is only a test...

2005-07-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

This is only a test. This is a student I met at Margaret's school in 2002. She had a notebook filled with English words and spelling exercises. When I returned in 2004 I asked Margaret about the student's whereabouts, but she didn't know what had become of the little girl.

Blah blah

2005-07-12T03:42:00.000-07:00

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