Welcome to Kampala

It's nearly 4 pm on a gorgeous, sunny day in Kampala. I have spent the past several hours sitting on the porch of my lovely house in the Nakulabye neighborhood, sipping coffee, eating mango, and chatting with Nelly, one of my housemates who will be interning at the Refugee Law Project this summer.

The porch of my summer home, where I will be spending much of my time.

The view of Kampala from my porch.

I arrived at the Entebbe airport in Uganda on Saturday afternoon.

Touching down in Uganda.

Saturday was a whirlwind of a day - getting to the apartment, unpacking, watching the Champions League final at an outdoor bar with my housemate Ssozi and his brother Richard, then heading to a couple of other bars to sample the Kampala nightlife (which, from my brief encounter so far seems much more lively than the Boston scene).

Yesterday Nelly and I ventured out to run some errands. After a short matatu ride and a bit of a walk we made it to Garden City, a shopping center where we equipped ourselves with maps of the city, cell phones, and mobile internet devices. Our journey home led us to both the New and Old Taxi Parks of Kampala, which were nothing like anything I have ever seen. A cross between Tetris and a Rubik’s cube, but with hundreds of taxis in place of pieces, the parks would have been quite impossible to navigate had it not been for the incredible helpfulness of people we stopped to ask for directions every ten yards or so. My short three days here have already overwhelmingly confirmed the glowing reviews I’ve read of Kampala, and I am eager to continue exploring the city.

Last night I had dinner with Hadijah and Rhona who both work with the Women of Kireka. It was great to finally put faces to names. We spent several hours getting to know one another and exchanging ideas about our work together this summer. Thursday I will visit Women of Kireka for the first time. Cannot wait.

The Summer Ahead

Four days until I arrive in Kampala, Uganda. Three months and counting that I have been excited about the opportunity that awaits me. I will be spending the summer interning with Women of Kireka (WoK), a registered business in Kampala, Uganda. Composed of internally displaced women from the north of the country, WoK makes lovely hand-crafted jewelry which it markets both locally and internationally. Working with WoK this summer I will be responsible for a number of tasks, all to meet the ends of helping the women grow the organization into a profitable business that is eventually wholly community-owned and operated. Having spent the past nine months immersed in academia, I cannot wait to be on the ground in Uganda and I have my fingers crossed that some of those lectures about collaborative governance and social insurance (etc., etc., etc.) will prove useful. (For more of my excitement riddled musings, read my introductory post on the WoK blog here.)

My internship this summer is generously supported by the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Nancy G. Klavans Cultural Bridge Fellowship. As a Cultural Bridge Fellow I have been given the incredible opportunity to work with an organization that is genuinely engaged in community-led economic development and am fortunate to be part of an impressive group of Kennedy School students working around the world this summer to promote gender equity.