Days One & Two

It is the morning after our first night in the house…our first night in our new home. It has been an interesting start to this journey. Our 26-hour trip to Entebbe International Airport in Uganda ended with Rachel and I waiting in line at the lost luggage counter. Joe, Melissa and Heather picked us up at the Central Inn yesterday around noon. We proceeded to Kampala from there.

Kampala is like nothing I have ever seen or experienced before…nothing. Complete chaos. People everywhere. Filth consumes everything. The smells are indescribable. We began the day at Café Pap where we enjoyed some fresh Mango juice, straight from the fruit. We proceeded to Owino Market to find paper for beads. Owino reminds me of the slums you see in Slumdog Millionaire. The smell of raw meat covered in flies, sewage, old fruit and vegetables, human bodies that probably haven’t seen a shower or bath in months, among numerous other unknown scents was enough to keep me in the balance between losing it completely and barely keeping it all in. We were carted around the city in an old, beat up mini-van of sorts. Then came rush hour traffic…We would literally sit in traffic (not moving) for 10-15 minutes at a time only to move forward all of 30 ft before the waiting continued. The traffic was bumper to bumper and in all directions. What I mean by this is cars, piki’s (motorcycles), bicycles, buses, etc. were stuck facing all directions, no rhyme or reason, facing 360 different directions like a puzzle, inches separating one vehicle from the next. Mass chaos. The 2-hour drive back to Jinja was nice for the most part. Speed limits are non-existent. Go at your own pace. Pass whenever you feel like it and hope oncoming traffic leaves enough room for you to squeak by. There seemed to be a consistent presence of flashing headlights; no idea as to why. I am still working on solving this mystery.

My sleep pattern is still working itself out. Getting to sleep is not typically the problem…staying asleep is. Over and out. RS