The hardship assignment

I find it very awkward when I'm the subject of adulation for the 'sacrifices' I am making by living in Kampala. Usually I mumble something about it not being that much of a sacrifice but stop myself as it is often misconstrued as false modesty. I would like to talk about the joys of Kampala in the hope that people realise that I don't really need to fend off man-eating lions and bloodthirsty gorillas on my way to work everyday.

Life is Kampala is easy and comfortable. Here's how yesterday was spent.

I woke up late. Thursday and Friday were spent at the Rainforest lodge in Mbira forest for the CHAI retreat which were two long exhausting days. I had earned myself a sleep in. I joined Ann Marie, Liz, Lorne and Leah for breakfast at 11. Leah works in Burundi as a Global Health Corp Fellow and is in town to sit for her GMAT and the rest work for various NGOs around Kampala. We did a quick swing past the ATMs at Lugogo Mall and had breakfast at the Farmer's market. Zack makes the best bread and cheese in Kampala. I bought a baguette, some ricotta and home made hummus and sat down for a full english breakfast with a side of loose leaf tea and a glass of freshly squeezed juice. I met Nora and Hugo there who were relaxing on the grass after their Yoga class and Shira dropped by to pick up some supplies. 

We split up after breakfast. Few of us went to Endiro cafe to do some work while the other went to check out this new second hand book store in Kisamente, which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Next, we drove to the Bahai temple since none of us had been there. We relaxed at the beautiful parks surrounding the temple for an hour or so before meeting the rest of the group and going to FashionCore. An expat had this brainwave of buying the choicest clothes from Owino, the biggest and most congested second hand clothes market, doing a few alterations and re-selling them out of the her more muzungu friendly house in upper class Kololo Hill.

Frankie, Noorin, Lindsay, Ally and Faith met us at FashionCore and we made dinner plans. We met at Mamba Point Pizzeria at 8 and were joined by the Swiss crew, Lena and Alikhan's friends. Pizza and a few bottles of wine later we decided the night was still young. We dropped off Ann Marie's car at her place and went to Mayfair Casino. I walked away 10 bucks under from the roulette table but the free drinks got us all jiving. We moved the party to Cayenne at around 1AM. Everyone was there! Christoff, Emily and Aneri were all there showing some good form. We gave the floors a good polish with our badass moves before calling it a night at around 4AM.

Sacrifice? You're the ones missing out.