While waiting for my visas to South Sudan and Burundi to get ready I headed to the city of Entebbe, which is where Kampala Airport is located, less than an hour away from the Ugandan Capital.
Unlike Kampala, Entebbe is full of expats and tourists (aka “Mzungus”) probably for its reputation for being safer but also more quiet, laying conveniently next to Lake Victoria. I spent half a day relaxing at the Imperial Resort Beach, watching massive birds and locals swim in the lake, probably not even knowing that there was a risk of getting the deadly bilharzia/schistoaomiasis/snailfever, caused by a parasite living in many sub Saharan freshwater lakes.
During my days there I stayed with a shoemaker called Brenda in a village in the between Kampala and Entebbe. She had lost her father in the war and her mother in a car crash when she was 12. She had been taken in by her aunt but was now living by herself, as she had found a way of making her living by making sandals.
I got to watch and learn the whole process of making sandals which takes two days. She will make all types on demand and her biggest dream is to go to the market fairs in bigger East African cities like Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which I want to help her to achieve, so I will try to sell sandals for her online- more info on that in my next blog post.