Author: Yellow Duckie
•17:37
Gliding few thousand feet above the African continent heading towards Uganda, fever was the last thing I wished to have on me. As much as I wished to express my excitement in visiting an African country for the first time, I was totally drained out by the time I arrived at Entebe, the International Airport of Uganda.

Anticipating the heat and humidity that will embrace me when I arrived, I was quite surprise to find that the weather was particularly pleasant, 22 degree Celsius without the humidity. That night, the sky was cloudless, revealing millions of stars which decorate the heaven and mesmerize anyone who lay eyes on it.

It is absolutely difficult to miss the fact the poverty is written all over this place. Street light is sparse and there were a lot of shops along side the road which was poorly lighted with only 1 candle. I could hardly make up what goods they carry in their tiny space.
There were however, a lot of people and it seems like it was a busy night with a lot of trading activities going on. I was overwhelmed by the sight of life in Uganda. Being pampered with easy access to luxury shopping malls, it got me wondering about the simplicity of life in Uganda.

I admit that I was so relieved with we arrived at the hotel. With a 5-star environment and the smell of mint that greets you as you enter into the hotel you would have totally forgotten that you are in Uganda at all.


Although this is a short business trip, I was exposed to some of the African culture, at least from business point of view and one notable thing about Africa is hard to be missed: I would call it the relax culture and it didn’t take long before it got on my nerves. Lunch time in Uganda is never a half an hour affair, not even a one hour affair. It is usually at least a 2 hours affair. Agenda: Order – WAIT – eat, the WAIT portion takes up 80% of the duration of the entire affair. According to my colleague customer meeting can be equally annoying as it usually never on time and always being postponed and it didn’t take long for me to experience that as our meeting was postponed 2 hours. Perhaps it’s their relaxing culture that gives them such a cheerful heart. Sometimes I wonder what is it that they have which keeps them smiling and light hearted all the time!

Word of advice for Shoe lovers: Forget about wearing your best shoe there, you may end up having it covered with red mud, so flat plastic/pvc shoes are the best.



I was a little disappointing when I did not get to see the silhouette of Giraffe by the runway when we land, so when I was informed about the Marabous in Uganda, I was all set to search for it. Apparently you don’t have to look for it, however, I didn’t know why I didn’t see them at all until it was pointed out. These birds were scavengers according to Helen, my dear colleague. They eat not only garbage but dead bodies as well. Having the “vulture” characteristic, these birds usually position themselves high above the ground: on top of buildings, trees and lamp post. One gets easily intimidated by its size and looks (quite awful looking).
This entry was posted on 17:37 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

0 comments: