Kampala, Uganda - February, 2014 - Arrival & First Day

It's been quite a while since I last posted.  I had intended to last year in Turkey and Paris, but life overwhelmed my best intentions.  I'll try harder this time on my first visit to Uganda.  I'm here to attend a week of meetings with the Country Managers for Harvest Plus.  I left on Tuesday from Seattle for the first leg to Amsterdam, and with just 75 minutes to catch a connection to Entebbe, with a short stop in Kigali, Rwanda.  I was able to catch three hours of sleep on the Amsterdam leg, and another three to Entebbe.  We were met by Ken, a driver for the local IFPRI office in Kampala.  Gene was on the flight with me from Amsterdam, as were two Harvest Plus staff, Benjamin and Olyn, both out of Washington, D.C.

Ken drove the four of us to our hotel in Kampala, about an hour's drive away.  As we arrived at about 10:30pm in Entebbe, it was dark, and the drive was quite the adventure.  No street lights, narrow roads, lots of motor bikes riding along the sides of the road, drivers with brights on seeming like they were all on a direct collision course, and of course, driving on the left side of the road didn't help my visual cues - I was sitting in the seat reserved for the driver (in the U.S. and Europe).

We were supposed to stay at the Metropole, but Ken informed us that they had moved us to the Golf Course Hotel, named so as it sits next to the only golf course in Kampala, and one of only three courses in Uganda.  The rooms they were to have ready for us were not available, so they put us in the Presidential Suite for the night.  As the elder of the group (in age only) I was assigned the master bedroom.  Benjamin took the room next to me, and Gene decided to take the first floor bedroom, the smallest of the three, and unfortunately, the only one that had no working air conditioning. What a martyr.

I set my alarm for 6:45 the next morning (which was actually only 5 hours away as I didn't to bed until after 1:00 am).  Breakfast was fine with a large buffet including an omelet station.  The room was outdoors by the pool with a view of the golf course.  As we had nothing planned for the day, I decided to go the course and try it out.  As a guest of the hotel, we have privileges at the Kampala Golf Club. As you can see from the picture, the course is pretty primitive, with fairways of mowed weeds, dry, rocky and, with no irrigation, hard as nails.  The greens are well maintained are obviously well watered. I was surprised at how slow they were - must be the type of grass which bears no resemblance to any greens I've played on before.

On the practice range, the assigned caddy dumps the practice balls and takes the empty ball bucket out onto the practice range.  He then, one by one, runs after each shot, retrieves the ball, and when finished, brings the filled bucket back to the practice tees. Interesting approach, although I don't think it will catch on in the U.S.

Finished the day with dinner at the hotel's grill restaurant, Silver City Spur. Had grilled chicken breast and a baked potato, both quite edible.  The local Ugandan beer, Nile Special Lager, was also fine. Gene and I walked over to the attached shopping center (and full casino). After walking through the large super market in the mall, we made our way back to the hotel, some finish comments on the blog, and bed.  Tomorrow begins the first of two meeting sessions. Looking forward to a (hopefully) good nights sleep.