Meghan: On Location

Meghan is an old high school friend of mine. I only found out the other week that she was off in Africa volunteering. She was in Nairobi for the first few weeks, now she is in Kampala, Uganda. Check out her latest report.

Things are starting to look up here in Kampala.

We've managed to finally find a place to live that is nice and quiet...crazily expensive, but we were getting pretty desperate. There's only so many prostitutes one can handle! We no longer live in the red light district...we've moved into a much more urban area...less tourists=less prostitutes! I swear some of these girls are only 13...its pretty disgusting.

Also started working at a TB clinic today. Its not as fun as working with children but at least its something to do. The clinic is part of the university here so we are helping with an ongoing TB study. Today was mostly just paperwork but next week we should be going out into the field to visit people in their homes and provide medicines and record more paperwork!

I've also gotten brave and started using Kampala's main mode of public transport...the boda boda. Its the cheapest and fastest way of getting around town considering that the traffic in kampala is pretty horrific and the roads are really bad. You pretty much just jump on the back of a motorbike/scooter and off you go. Its not as bad as I originally thought it would be its actually kind of fun...a little scarry at times though.

The food here isn't so bad but definately starting to get a bit tiresome. The main staples here are tilapia, meat of all sorts and matoke. Matoke is a type of green banana that they seem to eat at every meal, its stewed for breakfast, mashed for lunch, and roasted for dinner! Its kinda fun going to the beach here because every beach has a fish stand and they fry up entire fish caught fresh that day...its pretty good but definately not something you want to eat all the time. Fiona tried roasted pigs ears the other day and our friend Sylvia is trying to get us to try cows hoof soup, which is apparently very good for your joints!?! I think I'll pass, it looks and smells pretty aweful.

We're thinking of going up north to Gulu one weekend to visit an orphanage there. The town has been ravaged by Joseph Kony and the LRA over the last 20 years but is apparently pretty safe to go and visit now.