Valerie's Uganda Blog 09

6th Week, Kampala Day 2
Sunday August 23, 2009
1:21am

The Royal Treatment at Nanjing Restaurant

Today was a surprisingly boring day… at least, until the evening came.

I slept in till around 11am (no joke) since Sharon was gone to Jinja and I had absolutely nothing to do while alone here, at Isabel’s house. When I finally got up (after receiving, throughout the morning, numerous messages from Sharon, Andrea, the kissing boy Swaibu, etc., and also an awkward call from Swaibu) there was a “deluxe” breakfast awaiting me. Disappointingly, the Milo cereal was almost already gone. But there was passion juice and cut up watermelon pieces.

I took a beautifully hot shower (well, it was hot for the first 10 minutes, then became stone cold – but I’m used to that now) then after a bout of messaging back and forth with Andrea, finally set out for my next destination at around 1pm. I thought I was late and needed to get out ASAP, but due to faulty planning, I didn’t end up meeting anyone until past 4pm. Geez! The amount of messages, phone calls, etc., between me and Sharon, me and Andrea, me and Davy, was just ridiculous. I got escorted to Kampala city by David (that is, we just rode together in a taxi bus) and he talked a lot with me about all sorts of things – university, future plans, travelling, the UK, etc. At first I minced my answers so that he would be able to understand me clearly, but I soon found that his English was surprisingly fluent and I could just talk naturally!

We went to Steers for lunch; actually, I ordered a hot sub (sweet and sour chicken) from Debonairs Pizza next door while David didn’t eat anything at all. Actually, at first I think he was expecting me to pay for his share. I didn’t order anything for him, though. Then he quickly escaped the scene by telling me he had to meet some friend somewhere else. “Ah, that’s fine, I don’t mind at all.” Oh well.

The sub turned out to be absolutely amazing. 10x beter than my expectations. I mean, it was huge for only 4700/= ($2.50)! The bread was deliciously fresh and crisply toasted, split in half and filled with a beautiful cheese, pineapple, roasted pepper and chicken filling. The cheese was so melty and absolutely perfect. It was far better than any regular sub in Canada and for only $2.50 USD or $3.25 CAD it was ridiculously worth it.

After that satisfying meal I literally wandered Kampala for 3 ½ hours waiting for messages from my “friends.” The worst thing was that everything was closed for Sunday. Less than 1/5 of the businesses were open today. So I went around talking to everyone I could (yes, I’m that type of person). Security guards who told me they used a stick instead of a gun on Sundays (???). Random taxi and boda drivers. I ended up wandering into a random “alley” kind of clothing shop run by a group of young college studnets (“partners” they called themselves) and they started an avid conversation with me about everything. What I was doing here, Canada, Uganda, uni, etc. I found out they were 22 and in 2nd year of university. They were quite nice, real with me, and not so creepy as some others. If only guys at home were this easy to engage! I kept on getting calls and messages while we were talking but I mostly ignored them (hehe). They asked me for email and phone number, both in Uganda and at home! Wow.

After leaving them, I boarded a taxi to Garden City and met a girl who was riding on the taxi just behind me. She was so friendly, it was like we had been best of friends for a long time when in fact I had no idea who she was. She asked for my info as well and told me she used Facebook – cool!

At Garden City, I met up with the others; shortly after, two guys from a group of whites came over to greet us. From Georgia, they were obviously enamored of Andrea or something like that. Eh. It was an interesting conversation.

Shortly after that, we went to Nanjing Hotel and Restaurant (quite expensive place run by Chinese) and waited for Sharon to arrive (I thought you said you’d be back by noon, Sharon!). We sat and talked with drinks for at least an hour before she came at 6:30. Yep, she told me 1pm, and it was 6:30.

With her help however, we were able to get a totally free meal at Nanjing Restaurant! Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking bout! And even after I checked that credit cards were accepted and we had all been prepared to actually pay! Sharon talked to one of the owners, a lady she’d met when she got malaria, and immediately was offered the dinner on her treat. She and the owner talked for like 30 minutes nonstop in a “private” room away from us.

Finally, when it was time to order we really went all-out. Sharon got 3 vegan dishes (4 counting the Western mushrooms we mistakenly got after I wanted Chinese ones); between the 4 of us meat-eaters we got three meat dishes (beef, cashew chicken and sweet & sour pork) and of course there was steamed rice, a spring roll and a bowl of soup for each person. We all ordered at least two drinks too (Sharon ordered 3 Stoneys!) Man, was it an awesome dinner! I was very sad to leave – wish I could there eating free Chinese food for a long, long time! We had a lot of fun chatting and joking around as well. And I talked to my mom and Swaibu again, at various points during the dinner.

After dinner, we took a whole bunch of pictures together and then made to leave. Only there were no bodas in that area (hardly any vehicles at all) – me and Sharon tried shouting “Boda!!” at motorcycles but they never stopped for us. We also tried to hitchhike, but only one guy stopped and he was asking for money. A long way down the road, the other three finally found a private hire charging 10 000 to Red Chillis. Me and Sharon waited until we found a boda driver and bargained him from 10 000 to 5000 for a ride back to Nakawa. We were both a little unsure of this as Sharon had whispered to me that she smelled alcohol and the guy seemed drunk, but we took our chances… The ride back was a little scary, but it was fun anyway!

Back at home, me and Sharon continued the tradition of talking for an age before sleeping, as well. It’s the last time we’ll ever get to do this here in Uganda, I guess…. It’s sad when I think about it. I’ll really miss these kinds of nights. Sharon will be leaving tomorrow… how sad!

(PS I found out today that Davy has a motorcycle license and drove halfway across Japan while he worked there for a year. How sweet is that??)

- Valerie