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| The view from my building's restaurant (5th floor). |
After living out of a suitcase for a few days - and repacking every single night - it was a huge relief to finally find a place to unpack, put my feet up, and walk around in my underwear.
My new digs are amazing. It's on the 7th floor of an apartment unit directly situated over a supermarket, money exchange and a place to buy cell-phone minutes. It's directly across from the university, has several interesting shops and restaurants around it, has a restaurant directly below with an amazing staff (who I have become friends with), and perhaps best of all, it is a 15 minute walk from where I'm doing my internship.
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| A part of the large Makere University campus; the view from my window. |
I got during the most intense session of haggling (over an hour), led by my security officer, Asaph (my Kampala hero). I stayed silent, as was hinted might be the best route to take, while he got me a really, really good price and made sure I got all the frills as well. Initially, I was going to get a place that is unwalkable and hard to describe where it is outside of drawing a picture on the back of a piece of paper (you probably never would have heard from me again ... as I would have taken a wrong turn on Kampala Road and ended up in Nairobi).
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My boda-boda helmet and one of the football scarves I take
everywhere with me. |
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The living room and dining area. Two full-length couches and
yes, that is a flat-screen tv. Combine with wi-fi and I am as
happy as a pig in shit in the evenings. |
Now a 15 minute walk which involves three turns - two right turns - should make it impossible for me to get lost right (particularly since I had driven by on a boda... twice!). WRONG?! Haven't you been reading my blog!! My first walk there, I was sauntering - literally sauntering - to work, proud that I was going to make it there on foot ... when I started slowing down, my shoulders slumped a bit ... and then an all-too-familiar feeling swept over me: I was lost. I was in front of the French embassy, when I should have been in front of the Nigerian one. Ugandans - bless their hearts - are really helpful if you ask them for anything ... however, their ability to give directions to a complete idiot (me!) is a skill that the nation really needs to work on. I got a lot of complicated gestures, which proceeded to get me even more lost (or so I thought). One lady after seeing my confused stare, just blurted out: just take a boda. I ended up going for my shortest boda ride ever and stopped a bit away from the gate, so I could saunter in and tell people that I had pretty much made it there. I was then informed that I was late, so I cracked like a witness speaking with Jack Baur and admitted I had taken a "wee wrong turn". The following morning, the security officer called me at an ungodly hour to tell me that he's going to walk the road with me to make sure I don't end up in Dar Es Salaam.
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No, this isn't the bed chamber of the princess from Aladdin.
This is my sleeping quarters, complete with moss-keeter net.
Take - faint - note of my Manchester United pennent
keeping watch over my head. |
The whole thing was made more amusing upon discovering the TBayNewswatch article which was written about me:
For those who haven't read it, it starts:
Conrad Koczorowski has a reputation for getting lost in his own hometown.
But that didn’t stop the 28-year-old Lakehead University political science graduate from trying his hand at a six-month internship in a foreign country.
To your right are some photos of my apartment - so nice, I just might never want to leave!
*Note: I actually did finish my MA, and was doing my PhD in Toronto, which I interrupted. Also, I am the only intern in Uganda. The rest are spread out over Ethiopia (3), Tanzania (2) and Kenya (4).
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