Day 1

I’ve made it to Uganda!  It was quite the long trip, but it was overall good.  I was a little nervous about making the journey alone, so it was a pleasant surprise to find one of the UVA radiology attendings waiting at the terminal in Dulles when I got there.  We were on the same flight to Frankfurt, but afterward she was heading to Singapore.  And speaking of flights!  This was my first time to fly Lufthansa, and boy was I pleased!  First of all, the plain had stairs in it.  Apparently all 747s do, but that was the first time I flew in one and it was pretty wild!  I somehow got lucky enough to have a whole row to myself, my in-flight meal actually had flavor, and they had Nickel Creek albums on the in-flight entertainment system.  Can’t beat that.  I even took a pretty good nap, thanks to melatonin pills and a complimentary glass of wine with dinner.

The Frankfurt airport is pretty huge, but I made it through with a couple hours to spare before my connecting flight.  The second flight was to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by way of a stop in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  It took me a while to figure it out, but Jeddah is next door to Mecca, which explained why there were a lot of men in white sheets on the plane – they were making pilgrimage.  In stark contrast, next to me while waiting on the flight to board was a group of young 20-somethings traveling on holiday and drinking liquor straight out of a bottle … in the airport?!  Wild.  This flight was a little more crowded, and I wound up sitting next to this great couple (he was German, she was Ethiopian, and they had a super cool 4 year old with them) who actually used to live in Uganda and export flowers to the United States.  Chances are if you bought a poinsettia over the past few years, it may have come from their farm.  It was nice chatting with them and sharing Uganda stories.  The stop over in Saudia Arabia was interesting.  The flight attendings gave a warning that there were “strict rules” in the country, and they weren’t responsible for what would happen if you took alcohol or any magazine with any hint of nudity off the plane.  I tried to get a peek out the window, but all I could see was sand.  Once we took off again to Addis the plane had emptied out and I had a whole row to stretch out in and immediately fall asleep.

Each airport I went through got progressively more disorganized.  Once landed in Ethiopia, I couldn’t find my connecting flight on any of the monitors in the airport.  Somewhat panicked because I knew I didn’t have much time, I just sort of followed everyone else who looked like they might be making a connection.  Meanwhile the inside of the airport looked like a busy street with clothing vendors, and people cooking food right out on the walkway.  I wish I could have had the time to stay and sample some stuff!  I had to get re-screened through security and made it down to the “gate”, which was really just a giant open room with a lot of doors leading out to different planes.  I found an employee who said I was in the right place.  Unfortunately the news was on and that’s when I saw the story of the Lufthansa plane that crashed in the Alps.  So sad.  Then I realized my family might be panicked and tried to pick up wi-fi to contact them without luck.  Then my flight was called and half the people in the giant room moved in a big glob toward the door.  In a rather inefficient way I made it out onto the tarmac and to my plane.  Of course, after seeing those news clips, it was one of the most turbulent plane rides I’ve ever had.  But, the food was good!  I was able to freshen up in the tiny airplane bathroom before we landed.

At the Entebbe airport everyone again moved as a glob toward the entrance door, and we were all greeted by people spraying hand sanitizer all over the place.  You couldn’t get in without being sanitized, and then it was time to make it over to customs.  I had to fill out a form to state that I (a) didn’t have a fever,  (b) wasn’t bleeding from any orifice inappropriately, (3) hadn’t been to West Africa, etc etc.  Then when I made it through that line there was a thermometer waiting to check my temperature.  Thankfully, I passed, and then made my way over to the visa counter.  I always get a bit nervous when I check bags, and say a silent prayer for every miraculous time when they come out on that conveyer belt relatively unscathed.  I headed to the door and met my motel pick-up guy named Steve, and we were off into the city!

I woke up today after a surprisingly refreshing 4 hours of sleep in the Sunset Entebbe Hotel, and took what I figured would be my last real stand-up shower of the trip.  They had a real fancy shower head installed, but unfortunately not much water pressure, so the shower took way longer than anticipated.  But it felt so good to freshen up!  After re-packing a few things I went out on the patio for breakfast.  The Ugandan hospitality was just as I remembered.  As I was marmalade-ing my toast and pouring some coffee that hadn’t yet been tainted with milk (thank you, Lord!) one of the workers came up and asked me if I wanted an omelet!  Well of course I did!  Interestingly he brought it out and it was white instead of yellow, and I also noticed a hard boiled egg with a white yolk.  I’m not sure what that means, but all the same it tasted fine!  I had my breakfast while looking over some palm trees listening to the birds sing.  Not a bad start to the month!

My “driver” came soon thereafter to take me to Mbarara.  The roads were still full of potholes, but this time since the rainy season started yesterday, also full of mud!  That made for an interesting trip.  Halfway through we stopped to meet a physician named Martin at a roadside stand (directions were: tell your driver to meet me just past Lukaya at the junction in the road to Masaka).  My research mentor and I hope to collaborate with him on a project while I am here, so I was getting the details on if I think that is possible or not.  I will probably head over to Masaka for a few days next week to try and work things out.

On the second half of the journey jet lag started to set in a bit.  It was nice to see some familiar things along the way that jogged my memory from last time, but after a while it lulled me into an accidental nap!  I didn’t sleep too long, and the rest of the time my driver and I had lots of stimulating conversation on everything from why a lot of Ugandan children don’t go to school, to his theory on how HIV spreads so quickly.

Once we arrived I was welcomed into my “flat”, which I’ll be sharing with Emily, a UVA graduate heading to med school in  year or so.  She’s living here for 2 years and working on some research.  We’ll be roommates the whole time, and then another of my co-residents, Christina, will be joining us sometime next week.  We’re on the top floor of an apartment building which looks out over part of the city … as well as over a speed bump.  You may have heard me complain about this speed bump last year when I was here.  But this time I came prepared … with earplugs!

After getting unpacked I walked to the Golf Course Supermarket to pick up some avocados (YESSSSSSSSS) and some other things for breakfast and dinner for the week.  And in an hour or so I’ll be heading to the hospital for evening rounds!