Beautiful Lake Bunyonyi serves as the final stop in a whirlwind 48-day journey around Uganda.

If you like real and surreal together, then by golly, Gulu is the place for you. It’s dusty and proud and friendly, but not overly so. It’s also two distinct towns on a collision course.

After 10 days spent in Kampala, we were itching to finally set out into the field to begin our interviews in earnest. Our journey takes from the capital city over the Nile and on to Gulu.

We left town for the lakeside village of Munyonyo, stopping at Cassia Lodge (proclaimed the best view in Kampala). A momentous occasion because it was our first trip out of the capital–and–Alexandra’s first-ever ride in a matatu.

Our first Saturday in Uganda was spent walking around Old Kampala, viewing the mammoth “Gadhafi” Mosque perched on top of Kampala Hill, and taking a private hire taxi out to the Baha’i Mother Temple of Africa.

We spend our first ten days in the the capital city, meeting contacts, getting a feel for Kampala, and preparing for the six weeks of field research ahead.

26 days after learning that I would be spending the summer in Uganda, our Ethiopian Airlines 767 touched down in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) for a layover en route to Entebbe (Uganda).

This summer I find myself in Uganda, of all places, traveling around the country looking for answers.