Little Miss Sunshine tours Kampala

The past several days half our team has been driving around Kampala meeting with different microfinancing companies and clean energy experts. (The other half went to Gulu, more to come later). This has been great way to get away from the office for a few hours, see a little bit more of the city, and eat something different for lunch (Cafe Pap). As always, the trips have been an adventure, especially since we have been accompanied by Pene-lope (Pene) and our work driver Haddis.

To get the morning kicked off right, Pene and Haddis arrive 20 minutes early (TIA), and call us and tell us to come downstairs right away (please note it is only 7:10AM). Inevitably one of us is always still in the shower, and seeing as we are all such morning people, and there is no such thing as coffee here, this puts us in a great mood. However, in our hurried state to get ready, we did not have time to dry our hair, which was a blessing in disguise. It was the only cooling system available to us the entire ride today.

We get in the van - a 70's style van with 4 side moonroofs, which only crack open, two enormous windows in the back which don't open, a sliding door which falls off the hidges, a front seat that lifts up to display to motor below (which Haddis does every time we stop) and no A/C. Haddis wore a flannel shirt our first day and doesn't open his window. Today he was wearing a full suit jacket. Meanwhile, Courtney, Whitney and Jess have become melted Madame Toussad wax figures in the back. Apparently it was a brisk morning though, because the Boda drivers were wearing winter jackets fully zipped up. The heat of the car and the jostling of the road is enough to make anybody feel a little car sick. Jess wasn't feeling well during one of the rides this morning:

Jess: "Whitney, please tell them to stop the car, I feel really sick"Whitney: "Pene, Jess feels really sick, can you please pull over"

Pene: "Hee hee hee hee"

Van keeps driving

Whitney: "No, Jess feels really sick, please pull over"

Pene: "Hee hee hee hee, Chewing gum may help"

Nothing. Jess is grasping the door handle about to hop out into the highway.

Whitney and Courtney in sync: "PULL OVER THE VAN!!!!"

Phew.

On most of our drives, Pene and Haddis have no idea where we're going. This is probably why we usually leave 1 hour and 15 minutes prior to our meetings starting. We leave this much time to get to the meetings no matter how far away they are, even if they are next door to CARE.**

**Note, the addresses of some of our meetings are as follows: "Microfinance Company. Location - After Metropolitan Hotel". End Address and directions

Today, we did not leave ample time to get to the meeting. We only left 45 minutes, and it ended up taking us 2 1/2 hours. Why you might ask. Nobody knew where we were going, even though we had a full address (and apparently somebody had a map that we weren't given). We drove back and forth through the same slum 3 times to the point that people knew when we turned the corner that the Muzungu's were coming. We stopped to ask some locals where we were going every 12 feet. The first time through it was interesting, but after the 3rd time when a bus driver looked in our window and pointed, we knew we had to do something about the situation. Every time we stopped in order to get air we would open the sliding door (which would almost fall off the car) and try to drive with it open. Pene was afraid we were going to fall out. Unlikely going at 4km/hr, but more likely because we were driving over moguls, bottoming out the van, and peeling out down the mogul hill.

After hours of driving around the neighborhood where the meeting was, Haddis did a 50 point Austin Powers turn, peeling out down the road, and telling us we could go meet with the company tomorrow. At this point we asked Pene to call and get directions. Nobody was available to come and meet us, so we got out of the car and starting walking around the area, yelling the name of the man we were going to meet until we found the place.
Some highlights of our visits:

- Meeting the former VP of Uganda, "Mama" as she referred to herself.

- Increasing whitney's list of beau's in Uganda. Godfrey who stopped to help us would really like to see Whitney again

- Meeting a man whose name is Wilson Wanambwa Wamatsembe (3 Dubb)

- Meeting a random German man, Germany who sold us his own 'clean energy candle' which burns a toilet paper wick that you have to make yourself, and floats on an oil/water mix and lasts 8 hours. We all bought one. Conversation with Germany:

Germany: "I have a contact you can have"

Us: "Ok, can we please have it"

Germany response 1: Crickets

Germany response 2: "Your contact is the man is your pocket"

Please note - The man in our pockets was a business card of his OWN that he gave us. He was referring to himself as a contact man in our pockets. Also, Germany (and many others) have dual sided business card, each side displaying a completely different set of information.

Us: Crickets

Pene and some of the team is pictured above, as well as the front side of our van. Notice the moon roofs on the van. We will have to put another picture with the seat flipped up, exposing the engine.