The other side of the Ugandan postcard

Hi Julian

The positive side of the Ugandan postcard - I can wax lyrical forever about Uganda's positive qualities, in fact, I wrote a blog entitled 50 things I Love about Uganda.

In essence:
Incredibly friendly and welcoming people, sunshine and wonderful weather almost every day of the year, cheap beer, fabulous countryside, great life for expats, plenty of wonderful things to do in free time e.g. sailing on Lake Victoria, safaris, gorilla trekking and so much more. Brilliant nightlife in Kampala - best in East Africa, according to friends from Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC Congo! Kampala voted safest city in Africa recently.

The negative side of the postcard:
Bureaucracy and corruption. This can make it very difficult and frustrating to work here sometimes.
Terrible potholed roads in central Kampala, although many roads have been upgraded, esp. going from Kampala to major towns.
Public health system is pretty awful, e.g. if you were to have an accident, make sure you have private health insurance.
Not the best country in the world to be gay: the country's recently passed some repressive legislation - it remains to be seen exactly how this will affect gay expats, but I do know a few who have already left the country; not fearing that they will be physically harmed, so much as that they might be bullied or blackmailed. It remains to be seen how this actually pans out. Uganda has all the laws you can imagine, but implementation is a whole different matter!

What I can say for sure about Uganda is that virtually everyone who visits wants to come back and that almost everyone who comes here to work, stays longer... In fact I call Uganda "the lucky posting." I have met hundreds of expats who have ended up in secure compounds in other parts of Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sarajevo and elsewhere - but they all say that Uganda has been their favourite posting. Case in point: I came to Uganda for two years and am now in my sixth