Mondays in Kampala are certainly the start of the week.  What I thought was a busy day in the market yesterday now looks like a lazy Sunday afternoon.

This week I am volunteering with an NGO that is setting up a  residential facility project in Northern Uganda and moving towards operations.  I had a couple of meetings set up with local organizations to discuss the project and help facilitate some of the legal logistics.   Luckily, an intern with the NGO was accompanying me to these meetings.   She was helpful in describing the project, the objectives of the project, where it is in the development stage, what community connections have been made.  She was; however,  indispensable,  when it came to her ability to facilitate with Uber Uganda.

Yes, Uber, as in the car service Uber.   In Kampala, it works well, in theory.  The challenge is that most Uber drivers don’t have GPS on their phones.   And most addresses in Kampala have nothing to do with where the destination is actually located on the road.  There is no WAY I would have been able to navigate the directions: “the office building, on the top of Kivvu Road, across from the unfinished building, down half a block from the Top Hotel”.  Seriously.  Those were the directions to one of our meetings.   Luckily, Stephen, our first driver was outstanding and made sense of those directions, and actually got us there early!   The next two drivers, couldn’t even find us to pick us up.   I guess because we couldn’t lead them to “the office building, on the top of Kivvu Road, across from the unfinished building, down half a block from the Top Hotel.”

In the end, after 46 phone calls to one driver to lead him to us, we found our way.  Had a successful day and returned happily to our hotel.   Only to be told my bag isn’t arriving until Thursday now.  Hrmph.