Oh man, its been a long trip. Much longer than we expected….

5/27/11

Our last two days in Amsterdam were wonderful. On Tuesday, we actually gave ourselves some down time. We had a picnic in the park picked up a few items that we knew we would need in Uganda. We made a friend at the hostel who was Australian and he joined us at the park. I’ve never been to a park that got so much use. It was like the whole city was having a picnic together. That night we splurged and had a fantastic dinner at a restaurant recommended by Anne and Char called the Supper Club. It was wildly fun and the food was divine. We were so full that we walked all the way home so that we could sleep comfortably.

On Wednesday, our friend Sonja came from Germany to spend the day with us. We originally met her last summer while we are in Uganda. She and her boyfriend, Moses, has started a nonprofit in Uganda for slum children to play soccer. Moses also worked for us some last summer. In any case, they have become very close friends, and it was wonderful to see her again. We were crying over each other on the tram from the train station back to the hostel (approximately 15 minutes in).

I also think Nicole had a great time meeting Sonja. We were reminiscing about our adventures in Kyngera for the soccer party and Bulisa when we got stuck in the game park at the Nile, slept in a hut where goats were coming through the windows, and ran out of gas on the way home. It is actually one of my favorite memories from last summer.

We sat and drank coffee, walked around, picked up some last minutes items. All around it was a perfect last day in Amsterdam. We gave Sonja “a push” as they say in Uganda, and saw her off from the train stations. Again the tears were plentiful. That night we had snacks for dinner and spent most of the time repacking our now large disarray of souvenirs, gifts for people in Uganda, dirty clothes, clean clothes, electronics, etc. It was a lovely night, and I spent some time out on the balcony over looking the street. We were directly across from a musical hall, so I watched the people enter the hall dressed elaborately for the show.

And that’s how it ended, in what I feel was a European fashion. Sitting, enjoying the evening from a balcony, listening to beautiful music, and watching the people on the street while conversing with the people in your direct presence.

The next day we decided to spring for a taxi to take us all the way to the airport. Which turned out to be a really great investment given the amount of luggage that we had accumulated now that Meagan had her bags and Nicole purchased another bag while we were there. We didn’t have that much trouble at the airport, although they charged us for having two bags which is crazy, and I have every intention of writing a letter of complaint to every relevant party in that endeavor. I might call too, but I haven’t decided.
The flight itself was fine, although as we were taking of it was announced that we would also be stopping in Kigali on the way. We didn’t really have a choice, so we went a long with it. Getting through the Entebee airport was actually easy. I couldn’t believe how quickly we got through; however, when we called Rev to see where he was, he thought that we weren’t coming until the following day. Thankfully, he was still able to come and get us after a couple of hours. It gave us time to relax and take a soda.

At about midnight we left the airport and headed to Kampala. There were numerous road blocks along the way, which was interesting because the president was recently re-elected. I’m sure it wasn’t by an honest democratic vote, and there has been some civil unrest due to inflation. The men where in fatigues and wanted to be able to see in the car. I’m not sure what they were looking for, although I would suspect that they aren’t really looking for anything. The whole performance is more like a symbolic act of control rather than a specific action toward a specific goal.

There was a nice smokey haze over the neighborhoods from people burning their trash. It was a nice welcome to Kampala. We got to the compound with bottoming out only a few times. The poor car was laden with bodies and luggage. Of course no one was at the house because they didn’t think that we were coming till the next day. After knocking on the door for some time, we decided to stay at a hotel for the night. It was a relief to finally get into bed. By this time, it was coming to 2:30 and we had be traveling since 7:30 the previous morning.

We managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 9:00 a.m. to meet with Rev who had been by the house again without any luck. We took a quick breakfast, which was exciting because it was the first time that Nicole got to try some of the fruits that we rave about constantly.

We finally met up with Grace at the house. She was pretty upset, which I knew was going to happen. It was really nice to see Grace and Annette again. I brought her some Tony’s and I can’t wait to give it to her. She already had some fresh juice made for us. They got a few things in order and left us to take naps. I have since slept several hours, took a shower, unpacked, and had some dinner. I finally feel like I can recompose myself. I was so tired of living out of a suitcase, and having so many things. Nicole and Megan took a brief trip to the store. We decided that we would let Nicole have the single bed to herself for the first couple of weeks so that she has time to adjust. She is pretty excited though. The double bed is so large that Meagan feels far away even though I know she’s in it, so I think we’ll be ok sharing.

It’s good to be back. It doesn’t feel like I have been away for very long. I feel myself falling back into the pace of things more quickly this time. It is nice to have Meagan, who is experienced and confident, helping to run things. It is also nice to have Nicole, who is new but eager and easy to travel with. She is so smart, I know that she won’t have any trouble and then she’ll have the “I love Africa” bug the way that we do. She’s already ruined on the bananas, mangos, and pineapple.

The power and the water just went out. Welcome to Uganda.

5/28/11

We got invited to a wedding reception by our Eritrean friends. Very exciting. I'll report back to tomorrow on how it went.