Arrival at Mengo

The plane from Amsterdam to Kampala had more white faces then black – holidaying families, sports teams, groups of AIDS workers, and UN representatives. But, these faces moved out of the airport quickly and into waiting Land Rovers, the preferred vehicles of NGOs, before disappearing among the 1.2 million people living in Kampala. One of my first questions to Nicole, the girl giving me a tour of Owino, the largest market, was where are all the white people that I flew in with? She brought up an interesting point – you don’t find them at Owino or many of the other outdoor markets. They prefer to go to shopping malls and stay in high-end hotels.

Although by the standards of most Ugandans JaJaGwens Guesthouse at Mengo Hospital could be a four star resort because we have running water (both hot and cold), beds, toilets, electricity, and a generator for the many power outages. Not to mention our stove is half electric and half gas, so we can still cook when the power is out!

Persis, our friend (and housekeeper), also lives on the hospital grounds. She has a mat on her concrete floor for sleeping, uses lamps and candles for light, uses a shared latrine, and her water (for cooking, bathing and cleaning) is collected from the shared tap outside.

Besides the accommodations Mengo hospital is home to a dental clinic, eye clinic, maternity ward, paediatric unit, AIDS clinic (called “Counselling”), and several patient wards. Luke and Catherine are the male and female wards respectively, for those people who do not have much money. Those people who can afford more stay in single rooms in the Sir Albert Cook building. Luke and Catherine are 80 bed dorms where families bring food to their sick relatives. Also in the compound are armed guards ensuring people don’t leave before they pay their fees, oh and the garbage heap. Regularly circling the garbage, or perching in a nearby tree are about 20 – 25 of the largest birds I have ever seen. Standing at 1.5 m tall the Marabou Stork put our scavengers, like seagulls, to shame.


Outside the compound all bets are off. Looking both ways before taking any steps prevent you from rapidly becoming roadkill. Every street corner houses a booth, in the most rudimentary sense of the term, where you can purchase minutes for your cell phone, or make calls from the one they have set up. Suzanne sits right outside the gates of the hospital, all day, everyday, and she is where I purchase my minutes.
Across the street is a little corner store that sells some western type products mixed in with the beans, rice, and cartons of milk that doesn’t always have to be refrigerated. Down the street about 8 minutes, just past Maggie’s bar, an excellent place for beer and a game of soccer, and the internet place, is Mengo Market. This is an outdoor market with bananas (called matoke), pineapple, most vegetables, ground nuts (peanuts) and a great place for rolexs. A rolex in Kampala is an egg omelette with tomatoes (and sometimes onions) rolled up into a hot chipati. They are rolled eggs, hence the name rolex. (If you still don’t get it say rolled eggs then rolex out loud).

In fact I am responsible for dinner tonight, which means I need to head out to the market, now.
Next post will have more on the AIDS clinic and the African Heart Boys (Bakuli Boys).

The view from JaJa Gwen's Guest house. (Jaja is grandmother).