Written by Kate Bishop-Williams PART 1
On January 27th, 2015, we embarked on the journey of a lifetime, headed into fieldwork in Uganda for 7 weeks. Vivienne Steele, Sheri Harper and I, left Guelph at 6:00 PM, for a 10:00 PM flight to London. We travelled on a red-eye flight into Heathrow, for a short stop-over, and very shortly after we were headed to Entebbe, Uganda!
It was late when we arrived in Uganda, but when we retrieved our bags, we were greeted by our Ugandan partners from Makerere University in Kampala. They took us to the hotel we were staying in, about 40 minutes away. My first impression on leaving the airport was the incredibly beautiful, floral smell of Uganda. It is green and vibrant, and the flowers are always in bloom here!
The next morning, in Kampala, we met with our researcher partners again. We met at the University, and found a table under the shade of a tree for our meeting. During the meeting, Vivienne and I explained our tentative plan for the fieldwork, and happily accepted any insights, wisdom and advice that was provided to us. We were also invited to see our research partner’s office, which was very important for us. From there, we spent a busy day in Kampala preparing for the rural area we would be working in. We needed to purchase internet dongles, telephone minutes and SIM cards, a power cord and adapter and so on. It was a very full day, but we got what we needed and headed back to Entebbe for the evening.
On the way to Entebbe, we passed Lake Victoria, a
nd it was as beautiful as I had imagined! I was excited to see the lake, and had looked forward to it for weeks. Once in Entebbe, we arrived at Karibu Guest House, a beautiful boutique hotel for the night before we embarked to Kihihi in the morning.
We were so excited to leave for Buhoma and begin our adventures in our new home!