Mubende!

I will probably eat my words later, but I will never again complain about the Purple Line on the El! Even though Mubende is only about 150 kms away from Kampala, it took a full day to get here. I left my house around 10:30 and took a boda to the new taxi park (there is an "old" park as well as a "new" park) where I found absolute chaos! It was pouring rain, my shoes were soaked through, and there were hundreds of taxis (huge vans) trying to get through a gate to find a spot to park. It took me almost half an hour just to make it into the park because the cars were so close together! Once I got in, it was a complete madhouse and took another 20 minutes to find a taxi going to Mubende. I sat down in the taxi and waited for it to fill up so we could go...although I had no idea how we would get out of the park as we were surrounded on all sides.

Being a muzungu in the taxi park caused quite the commotion! There is quite the market in the taxi park, with people running around selling everything from pots and pans to handkerchiefs to children's toys. Someone came to rap on my window every 2-3 minutes begging me to purchase something. I only folded for a snack after sitting there for 2 hours, and even then used my negotiation skills to haggle the price down 25%. Yes! After the taxi filled up, we then had to get out of the park, which took another 30 minutes or so--this is all before the 4 hour drive! Oyyyyy. I finally got into Mubende a little before 6 and was so happy to stretch my legs!

The "nicest" hotel here (it is very nice, but I put nicest in quotations because it costs $17.50/night) is fully booked tonight and tomorrow so I'm at the second-nicest hotel for a few days. The room is fine, but I am excited to switch to the hotel for the amazing view! The other hotel is called City View Hotel and sits on the top of a huge hill in Mubende and you can see on for miles...absolutely stunning. Prossy, my coworker, who met me at the taxi drop-off, helped me to my room and we went for dinner together at the City View to enjoy the sunset. It's so interesting to talk to her about her life--she's about my age, but it's so different to be in your early 20s here. She isn't allowed to have her own apartment yet and will stay with her uncle until she gets married (later this year, I am tempted to come back for it, haha) and moves into a house that her boyfriend is building for them! Anyway, I'm off to do some thesis work and hopefully have a call with my advisor. Tomorrow will be early morning survey reviewing followed by an afternoon of shopping at the local markets with Prossy-woohoo! I'm determined to squeeze as much fun as possible into this last week and a half in Africa :)