I guess I'll start this series with a brief history of Kampala and some general facts and try not to bore you too much.  

Kampala grew around a fort that was established in 1890 by Captain Lugard from Britain.  It is 30 minutes from the equator, Lake Victoria and the airport.  Kampala is set on 22 hills, which makes for beautiful views,  and its name is derived from the Luganda expression "Kosozi Kampala" which means "Hill of Antelope" because of the many impala or antelope that once lived here. 

After independence from the British in 1962, Kampala was the showpiece of East Africa:  a spacious garden city with a cosmopolitan atmosphere and bustling trade and tourism.   In 1971, the Commander of the Ugandan Army, Edi Amin, overthrew the government and declared himself President and became a notorious and brutal dictator.  I'll let you look him up for all the gory details.  When he tried to take a piece of Tanzania, the Uganda-Tanzania war started and Amin was overthrown in 1979.  By 1986, when the last of any civil war ended, Kampala was in complete chaos: skeletal buildings were scarred with bullet holes, shops and hotels were boarded up, there was widespread looting and unemployment, and public services ground to a halt.  Yoweri Museveni became President in 1986 and remains the President today.  Museveni  has brought relative stability and economic growth to a country that has suffered from decades of government mismanagement, rebel activity (still going strong in the north) and civil war. 

Kampala has been slowly climbing back to an active and modern city.  Lately, there has been a lot of change because Queen Elizabeth and 3000 delegates from the commonwealth countries will be here in Kampala in November to have their Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings.  They call it CHOGM here and the joke is that many think CHOGM is a person and can't wait for him to come.  This has prompted a huge amount of construction, road improvements, a few traffic lights and stop signs, new hotels, upgrades to a big park, some good restaurants etc.  One of the hotels is rumoured to be putting in an indoor skating rink and go karts.  It is hoped that CHOGM will create some much needed awareness and boost tourism in Uganda.

 Two million people live in Kampala but it is fairly spread out and is only really congested right down town and at the rush hours.  Driving is on the left and can be crazy, with pedestrians, goats, motorcycles, bikes, taxi buses, and lots of other cars really close to each other with lots of made up rules that take time to understand.  The altitude here is 4000 ft, so the weather is fairly consistant and moderate, around 26 degrees in the afternoon high and going down quite low at night, sometimes as low as 5 or 6 degrees.  Just like at home, there is a rainy season in the early fall and late spring.  The warmer season is from December to February and I have to say, I'm looking foward to it, it has been a little chilly here lately. 

 Uganda is lush with beautiful palm trees, flowers, fruits and veggies.  English is the official language here but you would hardly know it, almost everyone speaks Luganda, their local (Kampala area) native language to each other and I am told it is a very difficult language to learn.  Ok, now that the basics are out of the way, next time some more interesting stories about day to day life in the capital.  Please click on the youtube video to see "Driving in Kampala".