I’ve been on quite the series of adventures over the past couple of months. I knew there wouldn’t really be time to blog before I hit the skies bound for the other side of the world, but I had no idea how busy things were going to be when I returned to the United States. The treadmill already moving at full speed seems to have found an even faster setting, and the random incline setting has been turned on.
When I last wrote, EntreFest had just finished and I was in the middle of coaching at the Hawkeye Summer Accelerator, preparing for the trip to Africa. I still hadn’t finished much of the curriculum, and the itinerary was only starting to come together for my nearly five weeks overseas. Originally, I had planned to teach nine classes and then run a demo day at the very end – I decided to cut things down to eight class sessions, so I could recover from any jetlag and get used to my surroundings before I had to teach. I had built that same break into the return trip already, with nothing planned for the few days before the kids went back to school in August.
The only major event between EntreFest and my departure to Africa was Startup Weekend Iowa City. I had a great team assembled this year, and without them, the event probably would not have gotten off the ground with all the other things on my plate this year. Normally, we end up with around 25 participants and five or six teams. This year was a struggle to pull in a dozen participants. It seemed like we were fighting the tide of lost summer vacations – many people hadn’t had the chance to take family trips since the summer of 2019 and based on the chaos that I experienced at the airports, everyone was taking those trips this year. When you’re planning an event, you can’t fight a force like that.
Even with the reduced number of participants, we still had a great event. Three teams formed around some of the best ideas I’ve ever had come out of a Startup Weekend. A number of the participants this time around were Startup Weekend veterans, so that might have increased the quality of the teams. In any case, I’m hoping we can duplicate this kind of quality among our teams in the coming years – it would be great to keep producing a number of viable startups each year just from this event.
Usually, I take the day after a Startup Weekend off, just to recover from the long weekend of work. There wasn’t the option to do that after this year’s event, because I had to be at the airport for the first of three flights to the other side of the world – first from Cedar Rapids to Chicago, then on to Doha in Qatar, and from there to Entebbe in Uganda early on Wednesday morning. Two days of travel is quite the journey, even with losing 8 hours on the flight between Chicago and Doha. My plan for the potential jetlag was to let time “float” while I was in the air – take naps when I felt tired, read or watch videos when I wasn’t. The layover in Doha until after 1 am didn’t help, either.
The flights were pretty uneventful – no major turbulence, no mechanical issues. The flight between Cedar Rapids and Chicago was only about an hour, and I had a few hours at O’Hare to get from the domestic terminal into the international terminal. This was the first time that I’d ever left the main terminal in that airport, as I’ve only ever flown on domestic flights. I had no idea that there was a train between terminals! However, if you board the train, you have to leave the security bubble and go through the TSA screening a second time – this was the beginning of a recurring theme on this trip, where each airport required multiple security checks.
I had a few loose ends to tie up over the phone before I boarded the plane to the Middle East, so I took care of that while I sat in Chicago and still had reliable cell phone service. It took a while to board the plane to Qatar – the planes flying across the world tend to be a bit larger than the planes servicing the airport in Cedar Rapids. I hadn’t been on a plane anywhere close to this size since I flew to Hawaii in 2000 with the rest of my high school’s marching band. Unlike the plane in 2000, this flight had touch screens at every seat loaded with TV shows, movies, games, and because it was a Middle Eastern airline, the Quran. I opted for episodes of the UK version of The Office and Mahjong solitaire for a while, in between multiple naps.
The food on the Qatar Airways flights was fantastic. On domestic flights, you get a tiny bag of pretzels and a can of pop. On a 14-hour international flight, you get two meals and a huge snack. The food on the way over to Qatar seemed vaguely Indian – it had the same kinds of spices and flavors but wasn’t designed to melt your face off with the quantity of spice. I went with the chicken option both times, and it was paired with rice and vegetables. Each time I ate something on this trip, I assumed it was going to be much spicier than it actually was. Even in Uganda, the food wasn’t as spicy as I expected – from what I was told, most of the spicier stuff is found in west Africa. In between the meals, they also gave us this savory pastry thing, and if we wanted coffee, tea, pop, or water, we could request it.
The long flight between the United States and Qatar was really a surreal experience. I’d never been on a plane that length of time – I’ve spent a period like that on the train between Mount Pleasant and Denver, but in that case, I could get up and walk around or go to the observation car with my laptop and get some work done. With all of the naps, it felt a bit like a haze. It was nice when we finally landed in the Middle East just to get off of the plane. However, there was quite the walk ahead of me, from the gate to the first overseas security checkpoint. All of the checkpoints outside of the United States looked like the kind of checkpoints we had in American airports pre-9/11. They were all equipped with metal detectors and X-ray machines – none of those body scanner things you have to use here. Once through, it was on to the rest of the airport.
They didn’t really decide which gate was being used for any of the flights more than an hour or so before the flight was to start boarding, so I spent the bulk of the layover in what appeared to be a luxury mall rather than a standard airport. I strolled through the duty free store and couldn’t believe how many different giant bottles of liquor and cartons of cigarettes could be had at reasonable prices. Also, gold watches and chains as far as the eye could see. Was this for the benefit of the people flying between lesser developed countries through Qatar? I saw no need to purchase any of this stuff going in either direction, but there were a lot of people from what looked like a number of different countries moving around and buying things.
This mall slash airport is where reality seemed to invert for the month outside the United States. A lot of things must be imported into Qatar, because the already ridiculous airport economy was even more expensive than in America. A Burger King combo meal was $17. A tiny bottle of Coke Zero was $7. Coffee, however, was $2.50. Also, I would pay in dollars and was given change in Qatari riyals, roughly 3 riyals for a dollar. One time, I was given both dollars and riyals, so they didn’t have to deal with coins. For a short time when I first arrived in Uganda, I was dealing with three different currencies in my wallet, none of which involved coins. One dollar translated to roughly 3600 Ugandan shillings, so after I exchanged $1000 at the beginning of the trip, I was a Ugandan millionaire. I was a bit nervous walking around with such a large wad of cash in my pocket, but there was no way around it – credit or debit card usage is nearly non-existent in a large part of Uganda.
The flight from Doha to Entebbe left at about 2 am and landed first thing in the morning, around 8 am. I got a couple more hours of sleep on that flight – I was hoping to sleep most of the flight, but I was woken up for breakfast around 4:30 am. I’m glad I was, because the breakfast on the flight to Uganda was probably the best meal of the bunch – it was this pancake thing with strawberry jam and custard. I would have requested that for every meal had it been an option. I wasn’t able to fall back asleep after breakfast, so I asked for some coffee and followed the plane’s flight path on the screen in front of me. We were crossing the Red Sea and entering Africa over Eritrea by the time breakfast was over, and it was fun to watch the approach, catching glimpses of the outside world through the window several seats over as the sun was rising.
Entebbe Airport sits right on Lake Victoria, with the ends of the runway right on the lake shore on either side of the peninsula. We approached over the water, and I got my first in-person glimpse of where I’d be spending the next month. I guess I really didn’t know what it was going to feel like when I got there. I’d seen plenty of pictures from that part of the world, but actually seeing the place in person, breathing the air, and touching the soil is totally different. I couldn’t believe that I’d actually made it to another country after two full days of travel. Now, two hours of waiting in line at customs was ahead of me, as all of us from the plane had to go through that process. The airport was pretty toasty, and I hadn’t had a shower since I left Iowa, so of course they needed to take a picture of me on entry and stick it in my passport along with the entry stamp.
Once through customs, with bags on a cart and a wad of Ugandan shillings in my wallet, I set out for the parking lot to be picked up by Gerard, who was somewhere between Kampala and Entebbe. I sent him a picture of where I was and found a shady place to wait. Once I was collected, we started right in on our itinerary, with our first stop in Entebbe town to meet with Joel Aita, the owner of the Arua Hill Sports Club soccer team and mastermind behind the Arua Hill Stadium project, which I got to tour later in my trip. We had a great meeting, and I got a lot of insight into entrepreneurship and business in Uganda. It was actually a great first stop in the country before we made our way to Kampala for the mandatory check-in at the U.S. Embassy – although, it would have been nice to take a quick shower beforehand.
Gerard found an AirBnB just a few blocks from the embassy, so we could walk there if need be. It was also within walking distance of a number of restaurants, so we could order and pick-up food relatively easily. They don’t number their houses and buildings the same way that we do here in America, so it’s harder to find things on Google Maps there. Most of the roads of a certain size had names, but the thing that I noticed was that addresses tended to be relative to a large public building or a landmark, like a hospital or office building. Our AirBnB was at the end of a long alley, but the map put it in a completely different place. Really, the entirety of Kampala was a labyrinth. I usually don’t have trouble finding things, but I’m glad I didn’t set out on my own during our time there – I would still be wandering around to this day.
I scheduled the meeting with the security staff at the U.S. Embassy on Thursday, so I’d have a day to recover from two days on planes and in airports, and so that Gerard and I would have more opportunity to see Kampala, since we’d be in Arua the rest of the month. The meeting was scheduled for 9 am on Thursday, so we got dressed up and hired a driver to take us to our destination. There was an entire process before we could enter the embassy – no cell phones allowed, our passports exchanged for visitor badges, and a security screening both outside the building and as we entered the complex. It took longer to make our way through the maze of buildings to the meeting room than it did to actually have the security briefing. The security official, who we lovingly referred to as “The Guy” the rest of the month, really didn’t understand why we were there receiving the briefing, since I was only going to be in the country for a month.
You and me both, guy.
He handed us a bunch of information in case I got into trouble, and the staff saw us back out to the outside world. The entire operation took less than an hour, so we spent the rest of the day touring some coworking spaces throughout the city. We also visited Makerere University’s student incubator program (which was housed in the computer science department, not the business school.) To round out the day, we spent some time at the Uganda Museum, where I got to learn a great deal about the different groups of people who make up Uganda, thanks to a guided tour by one of the staff. I could have spent all day in the Uganda Museum – something I’d like to build into the schedule when I return someday.
We returned to the AirBnB as evening approached, as we had a long drive ahead of us the following day. Of all things to order for dinner, we decided on pizza. I ended up getting a Hawaiian pizza, because who doesn’t order that in Africa? We had KFC the night before, so we thought that we might as well round things out with pizza while we were in Kampala. Pizza was the one American food that they did exceptionally well in Uganda, sometimes even better than what we get here at home. I wanted to eat local food while I was there, but there were a couple of times during the month where pizza absolutely hit the spot. Breakfast food was the next best thing when I was craving something western or American, if I didn’t feel like pizza. The burgers were okay, but there was always something either missing or experimental that, at times, took away from the experience. The fries were always great, though.
While we were out and about, we met up with Kenan, our driver for our trip from Kampala eight hours north to Arua. On the way up to Arua, we were going to pass through Murchison Falls National Park and see the falls along with the animals in the park. I wanted to see as much of the wildlife as possible, since we were going to be in urban areas the rest of the month. The detour through the park really wasn’t going to add much time to the trip – maybe 30 extra minutes due to the speed limit of 40 kph through the park. We wanted to see off early on Friday, so that we could get to the falls in the middle of the day. Kenan got to our AirBnB about 5 am, so we could get an early start.
The sea of humanity that is Kampala seemed to never sleep. There were people out doing things, moving around, buying and selling at seemingly all hours. Even at 5 am, as we drove through the center of the city and off toward the north, there were people on the move. People were walking, on motorcycles, and in vehicles of all sorts. As we drove around Kampala on Thursday and out away from the city on Friday morning, I noticed that the drivers all seemed to work as a hivemind – nearly no traffic control devices, and the ones that were there seemed to be optional, and nobody seemed to crash. There was just an ability by everyone to seamlessly take turns at roundabouts and intersections, with motorcycles moving every which-way and an amazing collection of 30-year-old Toyota vans lumbering about, full of people and things. Eventually, the urban area disappeared behind us, but the main road north was full of people going to work and kids taking long walks to school.
Every few miles, we passed through small towns or villages, slowing down due to the vast quantities of speed bumps. Businesses lined the main road, with houses and farms along unpaved side roads. Since we left so early, most of the businesses in the small towns were still closed for the night, but there were a few roadside stands up and running, most of them selling food. It felt like we were on the road forever before the sun started coming up, when we pulled off for some coffee, energy drinks, and a bit of breakfast food. A little bit later, when we were turning onto the road to the park off of the main highway, Gerard flagged down a roadside food seller for some cassava root, and suddenly we were surrounded by all of the other people selling things along the road. They were selling all sorts of things – packaged food, fresh food, bottles of pop and water, and other goods. We got a couple beverages as well, and then continued onto the park.
The road through the park is in amazing shape where it’s paved, but just a dirt path through some of the park, including the gates at both ends. We had to pay to drive through the park, and then pay an additional fee to see the falls – we didn’t know about the additional fee until we got closer to the falls and a $20 bill had to spontaneously fall out of my pocket. Shenanigans aside, the falls were absolutely breathtaking. To see Murchison Falls, you walk down a hill from the parking lot and perch on the side of a cliff (which, thankfully, had a railing) which hovers over the side of the falls. There were a couple of spots where amazing views of the falls were possible – I took pictures in both locations. If you ever have the chance to visit the falls, do it. It’s worth the potential for leaky pockets.
Once we showed the guard at the other end of the park our receipts, we turned northwest again and crossed the Albert Nile into the West Nile region of Uganda. Arua was roughly two hours away at this point, but it was two hours of crazy driving around potholes the size of cars. Because we had to drive more slowly during this part of the trip, I got to see some amazing scenery along the way. There were more small towns and villages along the road, but at this point, things were open for business. As we got closer to Arua, the sea of humanity seemed to reappear quickly as countryside faded into city. It wasn’t nearly as congested as Kampala, but the level of activity seemed to be the same.
We finally made it to Arua and stopped at the Blue Dove Hotel, the owners of the apartment where I’d be staying for the next month. We got the key for the apartment and made our way about a kilometer down the road, into the gated complex – most of the apartments, houses, and hotels had walls around them with gates – and into the apartment. It was an amazing place, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and living room with satellite TV, all for $600 for the month. We were only a couple of blocks from the venue where the class was to take place, and just a short walk from convenience stores and a few restaurants.
I had roughly four weeks ahead of me in a new town on the other side of the world. What to do? What to eat? What will the class be like? Continue onto the next post to find out.
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