Feel like I should change my blog's name this week...

So yea, I kinda feel like a weirdo typing this from Tanzania when my blog address is jamesinuganda...oh well. SO, dont know why that post didnt go thru last night...prob a bad internet connection at the motel i was at in entebbe, uganda. Frustrating. Well, it wasn't a very long one anyway...it was pretty much just tellin you about my plans or the next ten days.
First, I know I am behind by more than a week on my blog, but maybe if i get some time on here tomorrow, i can catch up up on some stuff from the first full week (sun-sat). If not, then I'll just start telling you abou t what im doin now and we'll get back to that week.

So yesterday afternoon i left kampala uganda, my home base, with my good friend and fellow unc nursing student jenna woodruff, who i've known for almost 3 years now. She has actually been here as a part of the same nursing school trip thing as me, but she came long before anyone else, back in midmay. So she has been here for over 9 weeks. Crazy! AND she has been travelin since ive been in uganda, so i just got to see her this tuesday (yesterday). The two of us have had this little side trip planned for several months, before she got here, for us to backpack and explore tanzania on our own, just us two. Well, let me tell u, working at mulago is very rewarding, but also very draining. After just our first three days there, we were pretty burnt out on it, just because of the bad sterility practices, the sad cases, and our feeling of not knowing what boundaries we can cross and how we can help. For instance, we will know that a certain way of putting an NG tube in is wrong...completely, and then the ugandan nurse will do it, and miss and go to lunch. We want to help the patients, of ourse, but we dont really have the moral authority to tell these full nurses how do to their job in their country and workplace. Draining is the perfect word. It doesnt make us want to ive up, i promise, but it does make you realize you have to take a break, you cannot work 5 days striaght there and stay sane. We have done our best to find the small things we can do and say to start making a little difference to some, even tho theres so muh to change we dont know where to start sometimes.

Anyway, back to this trip. I got to thinking about mulago hospital bc this trip is going to be good for both me and jenna, to get away from those draining things we've been around. Mulago for me, and a tough housing situation for her. Anyway, i was very ready for a change of pace, and we're gonna feel like collegiate backpackers for a few days!

As I write this, I am in Arusha, Tanzania, the safari capital of tanzania. Its a pretty neat little city, still dirty, and even poorer looking than the larger kampala. BUT, all up and down the streets are safari companies, obviously, and the are like piranhas looking for prey, tring to spot the foreigners who haven't yet booked their safari. The companies actually hire men to walk around on the street to talk to foreigners, give them their company card, and hastle us visitors by following like a shadow, talkin talkin talkin, until we agree to go to their company. They call them "flycatchers". Well let me say it was very overwhelming once we got into town and as soon, i mean as soon, as we stopped the car, ppl were already handing their cards to our driver to give to us, and when we stepped out we were swarmed. TIP: if you are looking for a safari and want to avoid this, tell them you've already booked and they'll prob leave you alone if they believe you.

BUT, we left kampala yesterday afternoon for a 45 min or so drive to entebbe, where the airport fot uganda is, and spent the night at a motel in that town. we needed one hat would be able to gie us a shuttle to the airport at 3am, sine our flight left at 5am (thats how they do it here, and these early flights are cheaper sometimes). The motel was sophies motel, and i recommend it if you just need one night stay in entebbe before a flight, especially if you want a free shuttle to airport. The rooms were basic, with comfortbale beds, a large curtain like mos net, that went around both beds, and bathrooms were ensuite and decent. The showerhead was more of a fast drip, but enough to wash under, and rooms were pretty clean.

anyway, we woke up early and caught our flights, first to nairobi then onnecting to kilimanjaro int'l airport, where we arrived, in tanzania at 9am! I saw Kilimanjaro from my window seat, on m side of the plane, and its tip was above the cloudl evel! so cool.

we had to take an expensive taxi to arusha town bc it was the onloy option, and then checked in at arusha backpackers, the cheap option but good enough loding for two nights. there are TONS of rooms here and tons of americns, euros, etc all staying here for about 8 bucks a person before they catch a safari or hike kili or mt meru (te slightly smaller mt. that is a little closer than kili). u can ataully see mt. meru from town, bc its in arusha national park, and kili is several kms away, east of here.

SO te best way to tell you our itenerary is to copy and paste an email i sent my parents and girlfriend detailing each day's plans, with a slight modification with what we've learned today.

So here's the email copt and paste, and hope to check in soetime on here tomorrow! Pray for us as we travel and that we keep allour valuables safe (not worried, just always hesitant in a new african city).

P.S> if oyu are from muirs chapel and your'e reading, i found out from world vision that i will be able to take a day trip to kasangombe on july 28th when i get back to uganda. so exccited. if you want me to deliver a message to your kid, comment on here.

email with itenerary in tanzania:

So, for both of ya'lls sakes, here's what i have planned as far as booked and set for the
trip:
July 15th - (tonight) we are here at Sophie's Motel in Entebbe, Uganda, a short 7 min
ride from the airport. which they have a shuttle booked for us for 3am.

July 16th - get up and after they give us a very early breakfast (their bringing it all
out for us at 230!) we get to airport shortly after 3, and our flight leaves at 510am our
time. we connect through Nairobi, Kenya, just like i did on the way into africa, and we
land there sometime around 6am. Then leave there and another short flight down to kili
airport (mom and dad know all this, but just for repeating's sake). Then we land in
Tanzania (both flights are only about 1 hour long) and get a short taxi or shuttle to
Arusha, some 30 min or so away i think. That day we explore arusha, find some cool places
that i think i might take Nikson on friday, and maybe get to visit the Rwanda genocide
criminal tribunal which is going on there and its free! SLeep that night at Arusha
Backpackers.

July 17th - this day is pretty free. don't have anything planned for sure, but we'll
probably get a short ride over to arusha national park or maybe the slightly longer ride
to kilimanjaro nat'l park, and do some short day trip things and get back to arusha for
the night. staying at arusha backpackers again.

July 18th - wake up a get picked up by compassion int'l at 8am at arusha backpackers to
go meet nikson! they tell me that we'll go see the student center first, where all the
kids are schooled and everything by compassion, and then we'll go see his home. I have
all his gifts with me in a bookbag that im giving him, and in fact, thats gonna be my
carryon tomorrow, so that im sure i dont lose it. Then we go to lunch and maybe an
afternoon trip in town. Then we'd like to be done around 3pm so that jenna and i can
catch a ride to Tarangire Nat'l park, one of the "smaller" in tanzania's standards parks
in the north whcih is usually onlg given a one day trip. I met the lady who owns a ldge
here, so we're hoping for a discounted tab.

July 19- wake up in Tarangire and see some sights, maybe pay for a safari vehicle if we
can find ppl to go in with us on it, bc they're expensive and we want to save most of the
money for a safari in Ngorongoro Crater. Try to make it up to Ngorongoro Crater
Consevation Area for the night this day and sleep in a tent there in a secure campground
(mom and dad).

July 20 - nothing is planned beyond this point (in fact, i haven't booked a spot at that
last campground either, but you usually dont do that in advance, and there should be
opeinings in one of them. SO we could choose to stay an extra day at Tarangire lodge, or
to go somewhere else, but right now we both think we'd like 20th, 21st, and 22nd in
Ngorongoro park bc its bigger and supposedly one of best places to go this time of year
for wildlife and hiking stuff.

july 23 - probably use this day as travel day, getting on a busline like dar express or
scandinavian express and drive down to Dar es Salaam. Or, we might get to Dar, and if
there's enough daylight, get a ferry to Zanzibar, and island of the coast in the Indian
ocean, which is a big tourist spot because of its beautiful beaches. spend night either
in dar or on zanzibar.

24th - probably most of the day in zanzibar, maybe some in dar

25th - get back to dar is we're not there, see the city in the daytime, get to airport
before dark, and wait for flight out which is pretty late, dont know the time right now.
get back to uganda around 1130 or midnight, prob at same time as the large group from
duke (neurosurgeons and meg and other nurses and docs). in fact, we found out we might
even be on the same flight as them for the last leg from nairobi to entebbe. Cool!

SOOOO the only changes from that email are that19-22 we have actually booked thru a safari company (actually booking tomorrow morning) , bc even tho i think theres a way you an organie your own transportation and food and everything, it prob ends up being cheaper (i know i didnt believe it either) to go thru a company, bc its all inclusive. If we did it on our own, we would have to get lodging every night on our own, food and water on our own, and pay for a vehile almost every day (bc they dont let you walk in any park, except maybe one, so you hae to hire a vehicles, which is expensive already. anyway we're looking at a four day three night safari over those dates, sat morning to tues evening, and we'll join another group of 2 or 3 to filla car, and all epenses paid. We'll be taking the camping route, so its a little cheaper and we stay in tents that are provided for us with sleeping bags that are provided. I'm really excited. Jenna has already seen some wildlife since being here, but since Ive just been in kampala, the huge city and jinja, ive only seen maribu storks (big 4 foot birds that eat meat, like vultures) which COVER the city...its weird...and some small monkeys in jinja. SO im excited that i coulod see all the big 5 animals. we'll hit lake manyara national park on 19th all day, sleep there that night, go to serengeti inthe morning after breakfast (the cook travels with you) and spend the day, night, and the next day in serentgeti (20 ad 21) ten spend nght of 21 in ngorongoro crater conservatiopn area, and all day 22 in ngorongoro and return to arusha that night (tues). so im excited. then we'll pick up the shecule with traveling on 23 and so on.

SO pray. I got my luggage, no problems (hakuna matata, which really means no worries here). p.s. its reeeealy cold here. we're in africa, not too far from equator, but the elevation is around 1300m so its below 60 here, ...im cold. but ill be fine in my blanket tonight.

Miss ya'll. Try to update some this next 9 days, but cant promise much, aespecially arond 19-22. Asante Sana!

T

Settling-In Weekend

So, when I left off, we were traveling into the city of Kampala just fresh off the plane, in the bus with Joel. After about a 45 minutes drive, about half of which was spent, within the city due to traffic, we arrived at the place that has been my home base for my trip thus far, Makerere University. I know, looks like its hard to say. Sounds a little like this, I think: Mak – eh – ray – ray (but when an Ugandan says the r’s it sounds almost like an L. The group of us seven are staying at the Makerere University Guest House, which was built as a kind of hotel for people visiting the university, like professors and such, but will really accommodate anyone who is looking for a hotel in the area. It has turned out to be quite a little hub for ex-pats in the area, as it is well-maintained, on a campus that is a little separated from the bustle of the city, and has good security. In fact, even though the university students are on break right now, the guest house is busier with occupants, and also with hosting parties and functions, another source of income for them. Several times we have come back to find a business party, outdoor cocktail, or wedding reception outside on the lawn which is being hosted by the guest house.

Anyway, that first day, Joel just dropped us off, and told us to get some rest, and settle in, asking us not to leave the university grounds until he was able to take us around in a car tour of Kampala the next day, when he planned to arrive at 3pm after some work at the hospital.

We went straight to our rooms, showered for the first time in two days of flying, napped for a bit, walked on a few streets around the camps, got some Uganda Shillings at the ATM, and got a table at the restaurant housed in the guest house for dinner. We sat outside, since the air was so very nice at night, probably in the sixties, and ate, talked, and listened to the sound of the evening prayers being sang from the mosque, as they were broadcast over a loud speaker over the whole city (which happens multiple times a day…and makes me feel like I’m in Africa). After dinner: we all crashed.

And…about 11 hours later, I was up around 9am. My body felt rested, and I didn’t get up because I felt I had to, but because I was just ready to. A few others were up already, and soon, all of us students were up and trying out first included breakfast at the guest house. It was Saturday, July 5^th.

. Us three nursing students from UNC also knew that our professor (who is administrating our summer online course that is involved in this travel experience) was in Uganda, having arrived a few days before us and setting up contacts for us at the local hospital and nursing schools. We called her when we got a chance, and made sure she knew how to get to us, so that we could have an Indian dinner with her like she had requested a few weeks earlier, since apparently Uganda is supposed to have the best Indian food outside of India. So she was set to meet us at the guest house at 2pm that afternoon.

A few more hours of sitting around, reading travel books and figuring out the guest house’s internet café, and our teacher arrived. We caught up, found out who she had been meeting with over the last few days, and met with a neurosurgeon named Sam who wanted to meet our team. As 3 o’clock came and went, we were wondering where Joel was, but remembered about Africa time, so we just waited. Joel came in his personal car, and his friend, another neurosurgeon we had yet to meet, Hussein, came in his car at around 4pm to pick our group of 8 up for our tour of Kampala.

Split up into these two cars, we had a little two-car caravan around all the major parts of the city, trying out best to learn the streets between our guest house and Mulago Hospital, and other general important places to know about. They also took us all to Garden City, a local shopping center, that was very much like what we would call a mall. You cannot believe how surprised we were to see this mall and parking deck, because up to that point, the only shopping and restaurants we had seen were just local markets and all blended in with the typical poorer-look of much of Kampala. It was really quite odd. At first you feel a little excited to know that there might be some good restaurants in here that you feel safer eating at, and a grocery store to buy some essentials and snacks at, but then you just realize how economically different Garden City is from the rest of the city, and you feel kind of wrong to be going there. Then you see the large number of foreigners who shop there, including more white people than we’d seen thus far in all of Uganda, and you understand the kinds of people who can afford to shop there, people like you. It’s just a really strange mixture of feelings for me about going there.

Anyway, Joel and Hussein took us to Garden City so we could all get mobile phones that worked in Uganda. It was one of our few erquests for that first day, to get phones, so that later we could keep up with each other at the hospital, etc, whenever we weren’t all together. After the confusing nature of buying Chinese built phones, and sim cards from Ugandans, and loading Ugandan calling credit onto those phones, we all left and continued more of our tour. I wasn’t really able to put to memory much of the directions and roads they were teaching us, since it was all so fast, but it was just nice to be able to see this city I’d be living in for a few weeks.

We timed the rest of this touring so that we could arrive at an Indian restaurant, Haandi, right when they opened for dinner service at 7pm. The eight of us sat down to dinner at his restaurant, which was definitely upscale for Kampala dining, but even thought their prices were higher than most places in town, its was still only a little over ten dollars for us, including a few sodas or waters each, since in Uganda, sodas are always delivered in glass 300ml bottles (not much). I had my first Indian, here in Uganda, which I think was a pretty cool place to do it, and I ate Chicken Tikka Butter Masala. The dinner conversation was good, varying from Uganda culture when talking with Joel and Hussein, to plans for the hospital and surgery work, to plans for us nursing students and engineering students, to the safari at the end of the month, and so much more. It was just all-together exciting. And with African time, this already large dinner, lasted pretty long, and became a really cool social event for us to get to know each other. Already, after only 3 days of knowing Tamara and Ryan, the two students from that terrible university down the road from UNC, I was learning a lot about them and becoming their friends.

Before Joel left us, we were sure to talk with him about options for where to go to church the next day, since everyone in our group of seven was interested in going to a worship service for our first Sunday in Uganda. We knew we would be going to one of the mega-churches later in the trip, once the large team arrived, so we asked him if he knew a smaller church that would be good to visit. He told us to come to his and his family’s church, All Saints Cathedral, and even drove us by there so we would know how to get there in the morning. Joel also gave us the name and phone number of a taxi driver that he knew and trusted well, Ssozy, so that we could get our own personal pickup from the restaurant and get back to the guest house. Ssozy would soon get added to my phonebook, as we built relationships with this cab driver, and we have continued to call him whenever we need to get somewhere and give him our business since we have been networked with him and he’s such a nice guy. Back to the guest house for our second night in country, and some more welcome sleep before our church service the next day, which we decided we’d attend the middle service at 9:30am.

The smell of Africa (and other basic descriptions)

So, the seven of us had all arrived in Uganda by about 2:00 in the afternoon. Entebbe airport was very different than I had expected. All I knew of this airport was that it was the same airport which had been held captive by Idi Amin when the Israeli flight hostages were waiting in Uganda, and the Israeli army was forced to storm the airport. So I expected it to be older, maybe run down…but it wasn’t noticeably so inside. I mean, it wasn’t Heathrow either, but still, pretty nice, just small.

Well, ever since last year, when a group of neurosurgeons, anesthetists, and nurses from Duke first came to Mulago Hospital for the neurosurgery clinic, communication between the two sides has been kept open. One of the neurosurgeons who most warmly welcomed the Duke members and who has been influential in continuing the partnership into a second year, is a man named Joel. Joel is a Ugandan, born and raised here, and one of the very few neurosurgeons in Uganda today. His father was actually the first neurosurgeon in Uganda, maybe even the first in Africa, I can’t remember (crazy). Oh, and he is one of the kindest, most hospitable, and most gracious people you will ever meet. Anyway, Joel has been excited about the group coming back, and so, he has become a sort of host for us, and our primary contact and networker here in the country and at Mulago Hospital.

So, Joel was ready for us seven, the early group, to arrive, and he was to be the person to pick us up at Entebbe airport. He actually expected all of us at 930am, but because Jenny, Steve, and I got held back onto the next flight, he was only greeted by four of the seven at that time. So, being the gracious guy that he is, even though he was taking so much of his own personal time to pick us up at the airport already, he welcomed the first four, took them out of the airport into the city of Entebbe for lunch, and even to see a local zoo (sad that I missed that). And, sure enough, he and the four were waiting for us as we stepped out of the airport at about 2:30.

Joel had a sort of large van with big, clear windows ready for us, and a driver, to take us and all of our luggage from Entebbe (the city on Lake Victoria which contains the international airport) to Kampala, the capital of the country and the city in which we will be staying and working. This drive is about 45 minutes, on a road that runs through the countryside between the huge city of Kampala (more than one million people) and the lakeside Entebbe. However, you wouldn’t really be able to tell it was countryside just by looking at the area directly surrounding the edge of that road. I guess that, even though there is a little bit of rural area between the two cities, people have grown up around that road because of the heavy traffic, which provides one of the best marketing opportunities around. Up and down almost the entire stretch of this roadway, are people who make their living off of those who travel on that road, but not like you would expect in a developed country. These aren’t tourist trap areas, or nice little shops. These are buildings which are falling apart, or old dumpsters which have been turned into a “store” or some sort. But mostly, its just piles of anything that could be sold or used to make a living off of, often with no roof whatsoever. For instance, one large stretch had nothing but couches and chair, laid out and someone walking around trying to sell them. Another just had loads and loads of used tires, while some people simply sat on a blanket and sold trinkets.

Along this road, there were also hundreds of men on small motorcycles (called boda-bodas here) who make their living by giving rides to usually just one, but sometimes two people who need to get somewhere quickly. This seems to be the second cheapest mode of local transportation around here, with matatus (large vans filled with up to 14 people) being the cheapest. Still others were forced to live in the slums surrounding this road, but were just going about daily chores, like washing clothes and drying them in the sun, or cooking over a fire.

So, needless to say, even though I wanted to look at all the green around me (which I had seen out the window of the plane as we landed) and to turn back and see if I could still see a glimmer of Lake Victoria in the distance, I could not pull my eyes from the desperateness of the situation: the people who sold anything because they had to survive, the broken and run-down nature of every structure, and the fires. Africans seem to burn about anything. There are fires going all the time.

Thinking about these fires makes me immediately think of that one sense that I was most excited about before I landed in Africa: the smell. We had many of the windows open in the van, in order to see better and to take pictures, but I was also excited that the smell which I had gotten a scent of as I stepped off the plane’s steps, was amongst us. Here’s how I can describe the smell: It is so different than what you smell in western cultures. It is a smell of soil, and land, and definitely of fire. In Kampala or other busy areas, this smell is mixed with strong exhaust and pollution, so the two can be easily confused; but exhaust is not the smell of “Africa” that I speak of. The fire part is strongest, and comes from the many fires that you see smouldering among the poor class everyday, either for cooking, destroying trash and land, or for whatever reason is needed. It is a smell that I describe as very “raw” or “primal”…a smell of the earth, and nature, and fire, which fits Africa very well. So if you ever get to Africa, enjoy the sights you see, but first, just take a deep breath, and enjoy the smell. Of course, I cannot categorize this smell as literally “the way it smells in Africa” because Africa is a large and varied place, but it is the smell of this part of Uganda and the surrounding area.

Oh, and something else basic that is just very striking about this area in Uganda: the dirt is a rust orange, very much like the red earth found in North Carolina, but dry and dusty, not clay-like. So, in the background of the bright greens of the vegetation, this orange makes for quite a picture. The dirt covers the city as well, every inch of it. The pavement forever has an orange tint, and people sweep the dirt from the front of their store, or mat, or street corner, as if it has anywhere else to go, or as if there won’t be more to replace it in just a few minutes.

Well, back to the Entebbe-Kampala road. Seeing so many people living, and working, and selling, and begging along this road, was a very big shock. And then, Joel announces about 20-25 minutes into our ride, that we are NOW approaching the edges of Kampala. Wow, all those people and all the traffic that I’ve just seen aren’t even in the city. Well, as we started to drive into the city, the orange and green land gave way to this orange-tinted pavement. Soon we could see the city rising up in front of us, a mass of poorly built structures and shacks at its base on the lower reaches of its hills, with slightly nicer buildings and flats on the hills, and topped off, as if some morbid bourgeoisie cherry, were expensive, upper class homes and businesses, all situated at the upper reaches of the hills. Kampala is spread over seven hills, which I have not learned the names of yet.

Before I write about my days here this first week in detail (in subsequent posts that are coming soon), I will just describe a few more general things about this place. Next major culture point: traffic is SO different than the U.S. Even though New York and other similar places are congested, there are still boundaries. People stay in a certain place, and cars in another. You don’t see them overlapping, people walking on the edge or into the street and cars hugging the dirt on the side. In the U.S. you don’t have free will to choose whatever speed you want (even though in Kampala, the congestion doesn’t let you go very fast anyway). You also don’t see cars pass and weave into and around anyone that is going to slow, at any whim, which is just the way driving works here. Boda-bodas are so popular because it is the best way to get somewhere quick, because of their ability to squeeze between cars, and fly past traffic jams. However, the fact that about 75% of neurosurgical patients on the ward the other day were there because of boda-boda accidents, will keep me from EVER riding one. Just stupid. Oh, and intersections are QUITE a thing to see, or to ride through. There are no traffic lights, except maybe at one intersection that I’ve seen so far. So instead, cars that are crossing paths with another direction of travel or who are merging, just put their front end out in front of the incoming car, and usually someone else next to you joins, and brakes are just used. The traffic moves so slow that it just fits. Drivers just have to push their way into a new road, and if you get far enough out, the cars you’ve stopped have no choice but to let you in. And this is how EVERYONE drives. No waving the other person on, not even slowing down for pedestrians that have crossed in front of you. If someone squeezes in front of you, then you just brake and accept defeat. People DO NOT have the right of way. Drivers may even continue to accelerate if someone walks out in front of them, trusting that they will get out of the way in time. And car horns are hit like it’s a musical instrument. The first time I road in that van…I was astonished. You think that your driver is just terrible, and must be incredibly impatient, but its not that way, its just the way you are expected to drive in Kampala.

The outskirts of the city were more of what we had seen on the road form Entebbe to Kampala, but just more crowded and more closely grouped together. Markets, street people selling bananas, cell phones, steering wheel covers, passport holders, tires, etc etc. In some traffic areas where the cars are often in stop-and-go traffic, markets hire workers to carry large amounts of merchandise (fruit, steering wheel covers, whatever) up to car windows and hold them out for transactions made on the go. From an Americans point of view, this is aggressive selling, to walk among lanes of traffic, holding out merchandise, and it feels very uncomfortable and invasive at first. But in the description of this by a Ugandan made me see it differently. He described it this way: some people in the city do not have time to go shop at the markets, so stores hire these men to go out and sell to the cars so that people can purchase items on-the-go, which blew my mind when he said it. That this was actually these men’s job. They were expected to walk up to cars. It wasn’t just our white skin that attracted them, because they were going to every car around us. Interesting.

I started to become very depressed for this town if the entire thing was going to look like this…dirt roads and markets and street people. But then, we entered the more central part of Kampala. The buildings became bigger, although not many became nicer or newer. Streets and sidewalks were both present, and they were entirely paved and concrete. But don’t get me wrong. The city doesn’t ever really like nice, like a downtown anywhere in America would. Its always cracked, old pavement and sidewalk, old run-down buildings, a drainage system following the edge of every road, full of sludge, mud, trash, and some water run-off, etc. And of course, the ever-present orange dirt. Though there are some very lofty and super-expensive luxury hotels, they are not on the main roads, and are usually set off to the side, and they sometimes even look like a sore of novelty and beauty upon a city which is mostly falling apart.

Oh, and Africa time. You’ve probably heard this already from someone, but its not a joke. Time in Africa is seen completely differently. If a meeting is set for 8am, it could be that everyone is there at 7:50 or they could not show up until 8:40. Dinner can be ordered and not brought out for 45 minutes or more. Then you eat, and the bill may never be brought until prompted, and even then it takes awhile. Its crazy. Things are taken care of as people come to them. Its literally just a list of things that need to be done, all in a certain order, and if on time, then great, if not, then they’ll get to it when its turn comes

FYI: Uganda uses “Ugandan Shillings” for currency. Prices seem to be always in denominations of at least hundreds (coins, like change) and usually thousands (paper cash, like whole dollars). The average exchange rate now, we think, is about 1,650 shillings per dollar. So something that costs 1,000 USh (sodas and bottled water in our guest house) is less than a dollar, and 5000 USh is slightly more than $3.

Oh, the people who told me that almost everyone I speak to and run into in this area will speak English: you are kind of wrong, especially once you leave Kampala. When I’m at the guest house, on the University campus, then yes, most people can speak English well, some very well. But, in the hospital, or on the street trying to make conversation or say hello, etc, it is rare to find English besides what people have learned just to help them sell things to foreigners. Almost everyone who is from the Kampala area can speak at least Luganda, if not both Luganda and English. There are also several other languages among the people of Uganda, but these are by far the most used in the Kampala area.

Lastly, some translations for you that I’ve learned since being here:

-Afrian tea = dark black tea with warm milk mixed in (I think)

-Theatre = operating room

-Chips = French fries (British influence)

-Sausage = small, fried hot-dog like things

-Coke Light = Diet Coke

-Mzungu = white person, or sometimes, even a darker skinned person that is known to be from the U.S. or somewhere western; kids love to greet anyone white by saying “Hi mzungu!” of “Mzungu, How ah youuuu?”

Luganda to English:

- “Wasuze Otyanno Ssebo/Nnyabo?” = Good morning Sir.Madam (or literally, how was the night?

This can be responded to by saying:

- “Bulungi, Ssebo/Nnyabo.” = Fine Sir/Madam

- “Weebale” = Thank you (to one person; to more than one, it is Mwebale)

- There is not word for hello, at least not that I’ve found. Which is why many English speaking Ugandans will, if you say “Hello” will respond with “fine, how are you?” because they have been taught that our greeting is “How are you?”

It's 2:35pm in Kampala, and I just got back here last night from two days in Jinja, Uganda where I went whitewater rafting on the Nile River! So crazy! I wanted to let you know that I am finishing up my journal on my computer about the last week (I know, it's been a week and I haven't posted, I'm sorry) so I will have something up by the time I go to sleep tonight (early evening for the east coast). This afternoon (just now) I am going ot Uganda crafts, so I may be getting gifts for some people, so just be nice and patient and you may have something waiting for you when I get home.
Love ya'll. -James

Half-way around the world in 44hours and 32 minutes

***Author’s warning: even though I have cut down this blog my from personal journal on my computer, it is still really long. If you don’t make it through it, its okay. Just about my two days of traveling before I got to Africa. If you want to jump straight ahead to my time in Africa, please see next post (up later today or late tomorrow afternoon)

So yea, the first few days in Africa have been a blur, and figuring out the best way to find and use internet here is also a bit tricky, so bear with me if you’ve tried to contact me or are expecting any sort of a response before, ohh, say, august 4^th! No, but really, I am going to try to look at email every few days while I’m at this guest house (there is about ten days in mid-July where I won’t have any internet access). But please, if you’d like to send me a message or anything like that, don’t email me, just comment on my blog here, that way I only have to go to one place to see what everyone wants to say to me. Right now, I’m focusing more on the blog than email anyway, haha.

Okay, so other than that quick note to let you know I was alive and well, I haven’t told you anything about the actual trip yet. So, like I said, I left Tuesday morning from the house in Greensboro with dad, mom, and jennifer at about 5:50am or so (ugh) because the trip coordinator that was going with us asked us to be at RDU at 7:30. We got to RDU a bit early, had some introductions, and checked bags. Well, because I only had a few things in my first bag (a backpack for hiking/camping), this caused me to stuff an inordinate amount of things (some of which I needed and some of which I know see I only convinced myself that I needed) into my other suitcase, which of course, came out to be over the weight limit for a bag. Rather than dealing with the pain of trying to move things from one bag to the other and make room and ditch things, we just paid the overweight bag charge. And on top of all this, the guy who was checking my bags…it was his first day on the job...or at least I would take a large bet that it was. After all that it was goodbyes right before security (which I made it through without setting off any alarms…I’m 3 for 3 so far on the trip!) and then I really felt like the adventure might be beginning.

So we killed about two more hours before our 10:30 flight, which was a quick one to D.C. Got there at 11:30 and had a 6 and half hour layover, in which I ate a sandwich, looked around inside a “Duty free store” (just because they intrigue me, not to actually buy anything expensive) and semi-slept (I say this because, as you know, it is not an easy thing to sleep while draped over three of those plastic connected gate 19 seats). So we boarded the flight (another United) from D.C. to London that evening at around 6:30.

The D.C. to London flight was supposed to last from 6:30 eastern time to about 6:30am London time (I think). Now, here’s a word problem that I’m sure my mother would enjoy (although I don’t know how well she’ll be able to do it, because apparently her mind is wired for Pythagorean theorem better than it is for simple subtraction):

If you are traveling on a 767 from Washington, D.C. to London, and your flight leaves at 6:30pm, and lands in London (where is it five hours later than D.C.) at 6:30 am, how long will your flight last? (mom…try this one…and you’ll have to tell me later whether you got it right or not)......the answer, if you’re a very logical, literal person, is seven hours. But, if you know anything about flying over the Atlantic overnight, when you’ve never been on a single flight longer than 1.5 hours before, then the real answer is FOREVER. I’ve never really had sleeping problems, but I’ve learned that I’m not good at all at falling asleep when there’s not an ability to lie down. Oh well. At least I had a really interesting and funny seat-mate. This is a pretty good story.

So, when I boarded the London flight, I was headed for my seat and was wondering who I would be sitting next to on such a long flight. Also, I had been praying that I’d be able to sit next to someone who would be willing to get into a spiritual conversation, and that God would pick out who he wanted to talk with me. I’ve never done this before, pray for who was sitting next to me on a plane, but it seems to be something that many super-spiritual people write about and stuff, so I thought I’d give it a whirl (I know, it sounds cavalier, and I’m not completely serious, I promise, but think about it…how many stories have you heard about people praying for who sits next to them on a plane, rather than praying for just the everyday people we will see). Don’t get me wrong, I really wanted to have a spiritual conversation with this person, and maybe even get to talk about salvation is it was God’s will, but why don’t you ever hear of people just praying for the cashier they’ll see at the grocery store, or the person next to them at lunch, etc etc but you always hear about praying for the person next you on a flight. I guess part of it has to do with the fact that on an airplane, the person has nowhere to run to if you totally freak them out. Anyway, something to think about.

Back to my story: none of us seven who traveled together as a part of this early group to Uganda had seats next to each other on these flights, so it was always a solo adventure. So I got to 32G on the D.C.- London flight, and my seat, is a window seat (score!) but the cushion is misplaced, sitting out of the chair and has some ominous stain on it. So I walk a few feet to the stewardesses at the back of the plane who tell me that yes, they were looking for me, 32G because my seat had been vomited on on the previous flight, and they were waiting on a technician to replace it. Funny, I think, but I ready the travel-size hand sanitizer which I have already moved to my right pocket like it’s a pistol and I’m in Texas. Anyway, there’s an older man, probably early sixties, waiting back there too who introduces himself as Paul, 32F, my seat buddy. Sweet, I think to myself. An early chance to be forced into conversation with seat buddy, while we are both standing awkwardly at the back of the plane as the stewardess prepare microwaveable dinners for the 300 passengers. We both get some water and start chit-chat, the basic, why are you going to London, etc etc. He hears my story and I learn that he is traveling to London for business, and that he works for an NGO that operates in East Africa (mainly Tanzania, particularly Arusha, which I will be visiting in a few weeks). So our conversation goes well enough to not have any odd pauses until mr. seat technician shouts out the puke-stain or does whatever he did to make me feel better about sitting in 32G.

So, I know, you’re like, why all this detail. Well, because I learned a lot about this man on our flight to London together. After dinner we both stopped talking, he to do some work, and me to watch a movie on my personal tv screen on the “seatback in front of me.” Then we both tried to sleep. He was more successful than me, but we were both a bit annoyed with the large group of high schoolers, who, for the entire time the seatbelt light was NOT illuminated, were out of their seats, basicly doing arobics. And of course, their main hangout spot was somewhere between 33C and 35A. Paul even go annoyed enough to jokingly ask one of the stewardess if they could crush up some benadryl in the kids’ drinks. I learned later that this was only a tasting of the interesting and entertaining sense of humor that Paul had.

Well, in the morning, after breakfast, which was served about an hour and a half before landing, Paul and I talked straight thru until landing. First it was about how the steward had been curt with Paul when Paul informed him about their musical selection malfunction on the airline. This included a very funny anecdote from Paul which I wish I could remember completely so I could recite it. Maybe I’ll remember later.

But, the rest of the time, I got him to talk about his NGO, why he got involved, whether his catholic background or faith had played a role, and then we just talked about catholics, protestants, and the Christianity and its core beliefs in general. He said that he wasn’t very religious anymore, but that he had a good friend who was, who also happened to be an evangelical, and he mentioned that they had had a similar conversation recently. Even though we never got to an incredibly personal faith conversation, we did talk about faith, works, and salvation, and scripture, and I think God had a purpose in it all, at least I’m trusting he did, and I’m glad I was comfortable enough to keep pulling the conversation back to God long enough to talk in depth about Christianity.

Well, that conversation in the morning, plus my two cups of coffee with breakfast (because I knew I wasn’t falling back asleep), had me so energized, despite the fact that I hadn’t slept more than four hours in the last two nights.

LONDON TOUR IN 13 hours

Well, when we landed in Heathrow, we went straight to KLM, the dutch organization that covers many African airlines in Heathrow (apparently) to get our last two boarding passes for the last two legs of our flight (London to Nairobi, Kenya and Nairobi to Entebbe, Uganda). Some of my classmates had talked to those loud highschoolers from the flight the night before, and found out they were also on our London-Nairobi flight, and the next one to Uganda, but then they were going one more step to Zambia. Well, both our groups headed to KLM, got the boarding passes, and jetted downstairs to the desk where you can store “extra luggage” there in the airport, to be picked up at a later time. This basicly means you can pay for the airport to secure your carry-on stuff for you, in case you don’t want to take it out with you into London while you are on a layover, which is exactly why we used it. See, in the six and a half hour layover in D.C. the day before, Steve, a neurosurgeon from Duke and also Jenny’s (the lady who organized the entire trip for all 50-some people from Duke and UNC who will be involved in Uganda by the end of July) husband, had planned a whirlwind tour of London for us, since only one of the 5 students among us had ever been there before. He had told us we’d be walking fast, not staying anywhere very long, because he was trying to fit in so much so we could really see a lot of London. We said, okay, fine by us.

In London, we caught the Underground after getting off the Heathrow Express. Well, first, let me tell you what I learned about London which was unknown to me, and has completely changed my view of the place: London is FAST. Like, crazy, maddening, infuriatingly fast. I was really pissed off at Londoners in general by the end of the day. Down in the underground, its like a madhouse. People walk so fast that I’m pretty sure they must wear through shoes in like, a month. I could never walk the normal pace I would walk in North Carolina, and it’s even crazier than the pace I would walk if I was touring a city and had to walk fast. It’s way worse than D.C., Atlanta, Boston, or any other large city I’ve ever been in. Uggh. Makes me angry just thinking about how fast people walk and shove past you there. Very different than anything I’ve ever seen.

Sorry to you folks who really love London, but it really annoyed me more than anything. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the city. It’s a great place to visit if you ask me, I am VERY glad I went, I enjoyed it and think parts of it are absolutely beautiful. BUT, between the extremely high cost of living (and cost to my pocket personally that day) and the fast pace of the city people, I am not a huge fan. I’m a fan, I’ll give you that, and I would visit again, but definitely not on my top-ten list.

Anyway, I couldn’t even tell you the names of everything we saw that day between 10:30 (when we got off the last underground train onto a street in London) and 4pm (when we got back on a train to get to Heathrow 2 and a half hours before our Nairobi flight). I have lots of pictures, and I know we saw Buckingham Palace, a few minutes of the changing of the guard, the big park near the palace (James Park I think), Big Ben and Parliament, the London Eye (we opted not to take the ride because we were told there were views that we just as good at St. Paul’s Cathedral), St. Paul’s Cathedral (where we climbed the 297 steps to the very top where you can see all of London, even out to Heathrow and beyond), walked across Millennium Bridge, and a few other things. Because of our late start, due to some problems at the KLM desk, we didn’t get to the Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, or Tower Bridge, but saw them in the distance. At about 3:15 we went into a small pub on a back street and sat down, cooled down (it was decently warm, with only two short periods of light rain all day long…as all my pictures are of bright sun and clouds), and watched some Wimbledon. Oh, and lunch was pretty cool. I had crepes (French in London, I know) and tea with milk in it…getting ready for the British influence that I knew I was going to run into in Uganda.

After going back through security, and waiting for about another hour after we finished dinner, we finally got to board our 3^rd flight of the trip, from London Heathrow to Nairobi, Kenya, a flight that was about 8 and a half hours total (I will spare you the math problem this time). For the last two legs of the trip, we were on Kenya Airways, which I was excited to see, because I knew that the plane was going to be big, and nice, since it was such a long flight, but it would also have some African flavor to it, I figured. Well, I was right. I found out that I like Kenya Airways flight service even better than United. It was a 777 and it also had a personal tv with movies, television, and music for me, but it also had news, and a map tracker, that could show where the plane was on the globe at all times, its speed, its altitude, the temperature outside the plane, and its expected time of arrival. Very cool.

On this flight, I wasn’t near one of the sides of the plane. In, I was in the very middle of the three seats in the center group, which kinda stunk. The two guys on either side of me were both about my age, Brad and Jace, and were traveling in the same group, WorldHealth, and were headed to Uganda also, but to Gulu, in the northern part of the country. It was their first international mission trip too, and so we got to talk for a little bit, and they told me that they were flying into Entebbe airport too, and hoped to go to the U.S. embassy in Kampala that night for a fireworks show (it was the fourth of July now). I thought that was awesome, but figured that my group would probably be too tired to make it to the embassy that night.

So, we got to Nairobi airport just before 7am and when I stepped off that plane onto the tarmac (they don’t connect you to the terminal, you walk over the tarmac into the building) I got to step onto African soil for the first time! But, the funny thing is I was more excited about the smell outside than about touching the ground. This is because Jenny and Steve, who have both been to Africa several times, had told us about the unique smell in Africa, how its just different from home, not bad, not great, just different. So I was very excited about this, and probably looked like a bloodhound to all the Kenyan airport officials. The sun had just rose about 30 minutes before the plan landed, but I wasn’t near a window, but I had seen some of the thorn trees typical of Africa and it was just so surreal to think that my body was literally transplanted thousands and thousands of miles from home, over oceans, and now sitting upon the land that God created and called Africa. Although I didn’t see them, I knew I shared this land with animals that I had only ever seen in cartoons, on Discovery Channel, and eaten in my animals crackers in elementary school. It was just so mind-boggling.

Anyway, Nairobi airport, even though I thought of Nairobi as a pretty big city, was not very large, and was mainly like a long strip mall, but with an even skinnier isle than Oak Hollow Mall (those of you from the triad) and packed with craft stores, duty-free stores, and the like. The gates were simply yellow light up sings above a desk where some airport personnel sat, so when it was maybe an hour or so before your flight (sometimes earlier) you could start to line up at this desk, creating a line anywhere from 100 to 300 people long down the already small airport, while the desk people checked every boarding pass and passport by hand, only to let these people into another room with security scanning, and the actual airport-like waiting area, where you chilled for another hour or more before you actually got to walk out to the plane. Different.

So basicly, to wrap this up, we got to Entebbe airport, got through customs, and found out that one of my bags hadn’t come through, and had to sit for antoher 20 minutes or so to file a report about the missing bag. Of course, the one I got was the backpack, with nothing in it that I needed for the first few days of my trip. It was all stuff for backpacking, which didn’t come until later in mid-July, and the lost bag had all my clothes (besides the outfit I had been wearing for two days and the spare I had in my carry-on) and all the gifts I bought for the boy I sponsor. I was disappointed, but not angry or really “upset,” which surprised me a little, but for which I was glad. Because the only other big flight trip I’ve been on was to Florida with my family, and I lost a bag on the way down there too, right before my Make-A-Wish cruise, and it ruined my whole night. I think it was the fact that I was REALLY TRULY in Uganda, something I hadn’t even come to grips with until probably only a few hours before. Up Until after my day in London, I didn’t think for a very long time about the fact that I was less than a day or so away from AFRICA, my dream, my desire, and what I know is God’s call on me for right this moment. But now I was there, and though I was tired beyond belief an hour before, it all disappeared immediately, and became sheer excitement once I stepped outside the airport, saw the other four students and our friend who was picking us up, and drove out of the airport into UGANDA!

Will add more pics tomorrow, the connection is too slow now. And info about my first few days in Africa tomorrow too!