Adventures of the McJJ's Abroad: A Year with Fulbright in Uganda

Typical Kampala, boda bodas and KFC and t he McJJs about to head out on the town A truly international school and soccer practice We have been in Kampala for 3 weeks today. It feels like we have been here SO much longer as the days are filled with so many new sights, sounds, smells, feelings, and “ah ha moments” (Dr. Kathleen Roe 😊). At the same time, it is amazing how so many of our habits, patterns, and routines have been carried 7,596 miles with us from Grand Rapids to Kampala. I suppose there was some conscious effort of recreating routines to ease Zalina’s adjustment not only to a new and vastly different culture and setting, but also to a brand-new school and sub-culture within that setting. We buy and cook familiar meals with slight variations. The tuna and caper salad normally eaten with tortilla chips is now eaten with Pringles. The weekly pasta meal doesn’t include freshly shredded parmesan cheese and Texas Toast. Those items (except for Texas Toast) are certainly available...

Zalina at the Entebbe airport We arrived in Kampala Wednesday morning about 2am local time, after a long journey from Grand Rapids through Detroit and Amsterdam and Kigali to the airport in Entebbe.  We made it through customs fairly quickly and picked up 6 of our 7 bags, it turns out the 7th had arrived but was accidentally taken by another passenger (we got it back Thursday morning).  A driver from the US embassy picked us up and brought us to the AirBnB, our home for at least the first three weeks.  Surprisingly, we were not all that tired, so we stayed up a little bit, unpacking and checking out our place, finally getting to sleep sometime after 4am.   Our living room. The view from our balcony. Looking at the traffic on our road from our balcony. We woke up late Wednesday morning, with only a walk to a local grocery store on the agenda for the day.  It was about 15 minutes away and between the three of us we were able to purchase most necessities and c...

A little background:  In April of 2022, I received news that I was awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to head to Uganda for public health research and teaching for the 2022-2023 year. This was a career milestone that I had dreamed about for several years and I was elated about this success. Also, I had spent 3, life-changing years in Uganda from 2005-2008, so I was excited to return. My husband, Noah, shared my excitement. Our 11-year old daughter, Zalina....not so much. Fast forward to August 2022:   We are about a month out from heading to Uganda. The avalanche of "to dos" to get ready for this family adventure is definitely overwhelming. I find myself reflecting on 17 years ago, the last time I was frantically getting ready to relocate to Uganda. This time around I have the benefit of experience with Uganda and generally knowing what to expect. However, it is definitely a whole different experience doing this with a family! There are a million (ok, maybe a few less) sho...