The face of K'La has transformed in the name of CHOGM, something that holds great potential for the countries future. Meanwhile Americans have no idea what CHOGM even means. The Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting is held (I think) every 2 years, hosted by a different member each time. For Uganda, preparing to host CHOGM takes on a very similar role as hosting the olympics. Roads have been paved, street lights installed, hotels and apartments and other buildings built, and security is unbelievable. It also means that they have the opportunity to dominate the discussion and possibly make lots of really good deals that could benefit their economy for the long-term.
When the Queen of England arrived something like 100,000 people lined Entebbe Road to see her pass--which is supposed to be the largest crowd to have gathered for her anywhere. (Actually, I was joking with some other foreigners that what the queen doesn't know, is that all those people are normally there anyway, it just happened that she passed through! Not really though, the Queens presence has been a very big deal). Many streets are blocked off, which has caused the town to empty out (it's very eerie). Apparently the government did a test run (closing off streets to escort diplomats through town) a couple weeks ago and it caused like 10 hours of gridlock. So it seems they successfully scared everyone away!
It's been interesting to watch the affect on the city, and it will be interesting to see what comes of the whole thing. There are some kind of public forums being held, so I may try to make it to some of them and see what I can learn.
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