Our Getaway Weekend

We got to take a break over the past weekend, went to Kampala hoping to stay in a nice, but economical, hotel with A/C and a swimming pool. Easier said than done! We had looked online and thought we found something, but a friend told us he had stayed in a nice one with a pool and he would let us know where it was. We got to Kampala at about 11 am, I thought the hotel I saw online was close in the area we were, so we decided to follow the google map and go there
. It took us to an empty lot, 20 minutes later in heavy traffic. Okay. Call friend. Friend doesn’t know the name of the hotel but he does remember the vicinity. He tells our driver, our driver has to stop twice to ask boda boda drivers for directions. Their answer was usually “You don’t know the name of the hotel?” Like we were crazy! Finally, we actually found the hotel. It would be an hour before a room would be available, time now is 12:30, so we go eat. Then the fun really begins. I was a little stressed on top of the stress we were trying to relax from, and we get to a shopping center that has a food court. Now, I know you are envisioning your local mall and food court – stop – this was nothing like that. Can’t even tell if restaurants are open, so we sit at a table and a guy pushes menus in our faces. All I see is Goat this and Goat that. No thank you. I get up and walk to one doorway that has pictures of Chinese food on the door, specifically eggrolls and rice. So I ask, could I get eggrolls and point at the picture. The lady is confused, “you want eggs in chipotte bread”, uh no, the picture, eggrolls and rice? She is still looking very confused and says can I wait 5 minutes for the man? I told her no thank you, I didn’t want one. I sit down and am brought another menu, open it up and it says Burgers. Okay, cheeseburger please.

The waitress sat this down in front of me, and I looked at Chris and he looked at me and with a serious face said “I bet there’s an egg in that roll” We both burst out laughing and so i cut it open
and guess what? There was, an egg in the middle! But the outside wasn’t a roll or biscuit, it was mashed potatoes. And it was REALLY good! I have to learn how to make this! I didn’t realize I actually ordered this, but was glad I got it!

Then, as I was finishing up the delicious Egg Roll and coleslaw, a waitress sat another plate in front of me. My cheeseburger…well, a bun and lettuce and tomato and cheese but the burger was missing. More laughter! I wait and wait and finally the waitress comes back and I ask here where the burger is. She looks at me – now I AM the crazy mazungu – and says, “You ordered the cheeseburger” Yes, I did, I just didn’t realize that was different than the Beef Burger with cheese! I told her I didn’t want it because anyway I got an eggroll that I didn’t think I ordered and was full anyway. Yes, we still paid for it, and honestly it wasn’t much cheaper than the beef burger!

Where’s the beef?!!

Back to the hotel. Our driver said goodbye and headed back to Iganga. We went in to the room and guess what? No A/C. I cried. Raelee put on her suit and said she was going swimming. We went to the pool, it was filthy all around it, I cried. Christian called for a taxi and we left. He took us to hotel #2, it looked beautiful on the internet, and actually on the outside was beautiful. It was a bed and breakfast. It was filthier than the first, again no A/C, this time no pool. The crying got a little out of hand. Poor Christian, he is on his little phone that barely has internet trying to find another place. Another taxi called, the lady was very understanding and thankfully neither place had charged us anything. (The taxi’s on the other hand were a little expensive). They say third time is a charm and in this case it was. Beautiful hotel, reminded me of the French Quarter and I finally quit crying and felt a little less homesick for our old way of life! We had a great time, stayed an extra day because it was after 6pm by the time we found this hotel. Got to relax, rest and get a little more perspective on our experiences here and going forward. We visited our new friends (which will be another post because this one has gotten a little long!), a not so new friend who is there at school and had steak dinners – real steak! It ended up being a more expensive weekend getaway than we planned, but I think it was worth it for the refreshing and renewal, and probably won’t happen again anytime soon!

Selma was so excited to see us…especially Raelee!