Hello all! We just spent our first night at the URDT Girls’ School Campus in Kagadi, where we’ll be spending all of our weekends. Nestled in the rolling hills of the Kibaale district, the campus houses about 280 girls that study Technologies in Rural Transformation, a discipline which will in turn allow them to become leaders in their own communities back home. The school nurtures visionary thinking, giving girls the knowledge and tools to bridge the gap between their vision and their current reality. This morning we toured the campus, meeting some of the girls and viewing its beautiful gardens full of guava and jack fruit trees. The sounds of bird calls and celebratory music fill the air here, and the bushes are so bright that they seem photoshopped. While we walked, our project leader Catherine taught us the Runyooro phrases “warara ota” (good morning) and “oli ota” (how are you) to greet the various people we met, including the CEO of URDT. Hopefully we’ll pick up many more phrases throughout our time here!

Touring the URDT Campus

              Fresh guava fruit picked from the tree!

In addition to touring the campus today, we were able to see newborn baby goats (twenty minutes old!) and play a game of volleyball with the guys from the URDT Institute. We also worked on our budget for both the project and living expenses.

A 20-minute old baby goat learning to stand for the first time.

What we’ve done so far:

A little more than twenty-four hours ago, we had our first Ugandan market experience in downtown Kampala. Many people called us “mzungu” as we squeezed through the tiny corridors between booths, shopping for clothes and supplies for the next month. Merchants grabbed our wrists as we pressed forward, past bicycles with large bags of grain strapped onto them, onto stations piled with colorful clothing. It amazed us that some people were fast asleep amidst the commotion, content to rest among the shouts of vendors, clacking of the sewing machines and smoke from cooking pots. Catherine was our cultural guide, teaching us how to barter with the vendors and how to respond to the many people that talked to us. There is certainly a different sense of personal space here- whether in lines or at the market. Although it was a lot to take in, we had a wonderful day taking in the sights and sounds of Kampala!

Afterwards, we took a four-hour road trip to Kagadi. Our driver drove like a bat out of hell through the dirt road countryside of Uganda, at times going 120 mph. We narrowly missed many foot travelers, baby goats, and boda-boda drivers, causing one guy to crash his boda-boda. Thankfully, no one was actually killed in the process, but it was certainly a heart-pounding experience! Every time we stopped, street vendors would press against our windows, competing for our attention and trying to sell us fried plantains, cassava, and meat. If we left our windows cracked open, they’d even stick bottles of water inside the van! We did end up getting some cassava, plantains and chapati for the road.

The hut that we stayed in on the first night.

                                                   The view of Lake Victoria from the first house that we stayed in at Kampala.

Michael thought he was friends with caterpillars until we showed him this one!

Tomorrow, we are looking forward to traveling to the sister school called Kanywamiyaga and meeting our host family. We’ll be spending our week days there working on constructing water tanks and mentoring the school girls.

This post written by Katherine Davis