Wednesday - September 15^th, 2009

            I have to admit, I was very nervous about my flight to Entebbe.  I had visions of being the only white person on the plane…everyone looking at me…etcetera.  It was really no different than the plane from NYC to Amsterdam.  A 50/50 mix of people.  Most of the white people on the plane were (yuck) missionaries.  They stuck me as very self-righteous and arrogant almost.  They used terms like “spiritual poverty alleviation” and “delivering religious humanitarian aid”…yuck.  I wanted to remind them that the wars between the Anglophile Protestants, Francophile Catholics and Muslims have ravaged Africa since the 19^th century, but I bit my tongue.  They all wore matching shirts…the women all wore long cotton skirts…the kind of group that probably subsists off of nothing more than granola.  They travelled in large groups and seemed to be in a spiritual pissing match with each other – lol.  I hope I don’t look like one of them.

            The other takeaway from the train is how absolutely BEAUTIFUL the children are.  The ones on the plane were coming back from some sort of competition in the states (I actually think they were on my plane coming from NYC) but they all had shaved heads and the nicest skin I’ve ever seen – really striking.  The only way I could tell the boys from the girls is that the girls had earrings…

            My plane flew over Germany, Austria, the entire length of Italy, the Mediterranean Sea, Libya and Sudan.  The Sahara desert was mind numbingly VAST and PLAIN.  The flat, gentle plain meshed against the bright blue of the sky creating an odd visual effect whereby it was impossible to tell where the desert stopped and the sky started.  It blended together in a massive collage.  There were a bunch of large crop-circlish-looking-things in the desert…not sure what they were.

            Flying over Sudan was weird.  It’s possible that the worst humanitarian chrisis’ in the past couple of years have occurred there.  But I never saw anything other then desert…a couple faded roads…a few rock ledges…everything is burnt tan.  We flew directly over Darfur and it was offsetting to think that if the plane had mechanical problems and we had to land – we’d land in a place VERY hostile towards the US.  Sounds dumb to think about – but I think that’s the first time I’ve ever flown over a “hostile” country.

            I was oddly calm the entire trip – but two hours before I was to land in Kampala I became ridiculously nervous.  Maybe because the sun was about to set…maybe because the reality that I’d be landing in Africa was about to set in…whatever it was I found myself nervous to the point of being nauseous.  As the sun fell the landscape below began to change from a burned-tan to varied with dark green splotches and mountains and (oddly) strips of insanely bright red dirt or rock.  For the first time there were feathers of clouds in the air…It had been a ridiculously clear day until we started our descent.

            NOW THE INTERESTING STUFF!

            We landed and I rushed right through customs…they didn’t even bother to check my bag.  I’m not sure why.  There were a ton of people waiting to get their stuff checked and they ushered me straight through.

            Emily and Angelica were there waiting for me.  That was my biggest fear by the way – getting to the airport by myself and having nobody waiting for me.  I said a few prayers that they’d be there waiting for me…and…they were!  After I got in the car I was a little freaked out because they both had commented multiple times about how wild it is driving on Entebbe Road at night (it’s the ONLY road connecting Kampala and Entebbe Airport).  So I was on zero sleep for over 24 hours (I cant sleep on planes) and I was unnerved because the woman in the drivers seat had her leg up and was texting the entire ride.  Finally, I commented to her “you must be really good at multi-tasking.”  Both girls looked at me like I had 2 heads.  She was like, “why do you say that?”  I thought it was quite obvious why I was saying that…foot on the dashboard, driving, texting.  So I repeated myself.  She was like, “I don’t understand – I’m just texting my friend.”  I was like, “Yeah, and driving.”  They both looked at me again like I had two heads…finally I realized why.  The driver sits on the right side here…they drive on the left side of the road.  The girl I was talking to was sitting in the passenger seat and my sleep-deprived self didn’t notice she didn’t have a steering wheel.  Hmph!

            They took me to a mzungu Italian place and I had a cheese calzone that was pretty decent.  A cheese calzone, coke, bottle of water and package of gum was 16,000 sherlings ($8.00).  Everything here is so ridiculously cheap.

            Afterwards we came back to the “compound.”  It’s a walled in compound with guards, BUT (don’t worry Mom) the guards are mainly a way to show the Ugandans that we are happy to employ members of the community, as opposed to fighting off armed bandits.  I met “Frenchie” who’s a (guess) French dude who’s working here for another week.  Also met Maggie who’s a girl from Colorado (and also my roommate, poor girl).  The compound is, umm, quite different than anything I’ve stayed in before (I’ll get to that).

            I hung out on the internet for a bit…wrote some emails until midnight and then tried to go to sleep.  I hadn’t laid down more than 5 minutes when I heard a scuffling on the floor.  Then I heard something tearing into some “crinkly” wrapping when I realized there was a mouse in my bag.  Yes, people, apparently there is a pet mouse in the compound named “Ruthie” or something like that.  Anyways, good ol’ Ruthie terrorized me throughout the night.  Eventually I learned to ignore the sound of her scuffling on the floor beneath me.   Just when I was starting to get used to the mouse and sleeping under a mosquito net – I heard a racket of dog barking.  Yes – there are packs of wild dogs in Uganda (think Saint Martins Kerin & Danielle) and what I heard was very disturbing.  It sounded like they might have been feasting on one of their own…  :o(  Apparently the “dog choir” is a nighly occurrence and something I need to get used to.