Uganda, Day 1!

We’ve finally arrived here in Mbarara after about 30 hours of traveling by taxi, plane, and personal driver! 

Mine and Anem’s journey started out by taking a taxi from C’ville to Dulles airport.  Other than getting slightly carsick, the ride wasn’t too bad.  Once at Dulles we flew out on Turkish Airlines, which I must say is the nicest airline I’ve ever flown.  We were greeted on board by a chef (in full attire!) who served the three meals we ate – all of which were pretty decent!  We also were spoiled by hot towels, free socks and sleeping masks, and Turkish delights pre-flight.  We flew straight from Dulles to Istanbul – a 10 hour flight!  Not to worry my medical friends - I took a full-dose aspirin for DVT prophylaxis. 

We arrived in Istanbul’s airport right on time for our layover.  The airport there was a bit, how shall I say, disorganized?  Mostly on our parts as in the hub-bub of the airport we were trying to figure out how to get free wireless and how to make our international phone work … unsuccessfully.  But we did manage to enjoy some hot tea and lemonade before disembarking again to Africa.  Interestingly our flight took a brief detour to Rwanda to stop and pick up some more travelers – so I guess I could say we had a layover there as well.  Our travel marathon finally came to a close (at least for the airplane part) in Uganda.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to step off a plane!  This is the first long trip I’ve taken in several years, and unfortunately my body can tell I’m a bit older this time around.  I have a cramp in my shoulder from sleeping in weird positions, and halfway through the first flight I had to stand up because my knees were getting stiff!  Oh well.

Once we landed in Entebbe, Uganda, I felt the first humidity and heat I’ve had in several months, and also caught my first whiff of Africa.  Memories of Tanzania came flooding back instantly!  Africa, or these two countries at least, have a distinct smell to me.  I can best describe it as a mixture of two smells: one being how the Earth smells after a summer afternoon rain, and the other being how my dad’s backyard trash pile smells when it’s burning (which is a good smell, I promise).  We went through customs and got our visa – which I’m pretty sure we got overcharged for.  Unfortunately arguing a price is not something I felt comfortable doing with a customs officer!  Our luggage arrived safely and then we exchanged our dollars for shillings.  $1 = 2,400 Ugandan shillings.

After changing our money we went to find our driver.  Unfortunately since we had been unable to use our phones/wireless until that point, we weren’t able to communicate with him to ensure he was picking us up.  A very slight panic set in, and then we realized that – miracle of miracles – the Ugandan airport had free wireless!  Moses (our driving company) had emailed me and said he would be a bit late due to unsafe driving conditions in the dark (our flight arrived at 4am).  So we enjoyed some breakfast at the Crane Airport Café – fried egg sandwich and super milky hot tea – and listened to Kenny G and gospel hymns be played over the airport loudspeaker while we waited.

Our driver, Lucas, arrived a bit earlier than we expected, and we hopped in his Toyota 4WD to make the 5 hour drive to Mbarara.  Honestly the drive should probably take about 2-3 hours, but due to the poor condition of the roads it takes much longer.  We drove briefly in the dark, dodging folks on motorcycles (bodabodas) and bicycles, and lots of children setting out early to walk several kilometers to school.  Once the sun rose we had a beautiful view of dawn over the Ugandan hills, and an unfortunately close view of crazy third-world traffic.  Needless to say I could never drive successfully here.

Our trip was interrupted three times.  Once for a stop at the equator, where we of course took pictures.  Another time was for some mango juice and fresh-made veggie samosas (Ugandan version of a hot pocket) at a road side stand with a militant-appearing armed guard.  I considered taking a potty break there as well, but alas there was no TP and only the “toilets” that are a hole in the ground with foot pedals.  I figured I could wait.  Then lastly, we stopped on the side of the road to view some ZEBRAS(!) that were just roaming around on the side of the highway!  We also got a complimentary African massage during our journey – unfortunately not as relaxing as one might think.  That’s a joking term for driving on a dirt road full of potholes and speed bumps.  Our driver took a detour down one such road to avoid the traffic in Kampala.  It was fun, but a bit jarring to say the least.

And finally we arrived in Mbarara.  It’s definitely a hustling and bustling town and so far we seem to have everything we need here…. But more on that tomorrow!