Uganda has him now.

     Well, I have arrived! Our plane came in last night around 11:00 pm. After almost a whole day in the air, it was refreshing to step off the plane. My flight was interesting because I slept for a majority of the time. I basically slept (uncomfortably), and woke up every time as the food cart passed. Eat, sleep. Eat, sleep. That is basically how it went. On the first flight I was also lucky enough to get free beverages from one of the flight attendants because she liked the sound of the program I was traveling through. Needless to say this contributed to my sleepiness. After switching planes in Brussels, and then picking up other passengers in a nearby town, we safely arrived in Entebee. Enoch, one of our supervisors, greeted us after we obtained our visas. It was not difficult to spot him in his white Wisconsin T-shirt! He briefly greeted us and then he and our driver, Samson, drove us to Kampala, which is the capital city of Uganda.  On the way we passed terrain and infrastructure very different than what I am used to seeing. This was very exciting for me.

      We arrived at Makerere University at around 12:30 am where we checked into the guest house. After a long day of travel, it was not that difficult to fall asleep. I woke up at 5:00 this morning and laid in bed until about 7:00. I didn’t want to get up and wake anyone. After a hearty breakfast consisting of hardboiled eggs, potatoes and vegetables, pineapple, and coffee Enoch brought us downtown Kampala to exchange money. We had to go to a few different places before finding somewhere to exchange because it is a National Holiday celebrating the transition of power to Museveni. We actually passed the property where he lives on our ride through Entebee yesterday. We only exchanged a small amount ($50) because Enoch said the rate was low. $1 U.S. dollar was equivalent to 2600 Ugandan shillings. We also walked around a store much like a Shopko and looked at how some items were priced. Most products were quite similar in price to American purchases. One that stood out to me was a six pack of Carona, which I believe would have cost about 3 American dollars. Currently it is raining and we are back at the guest house until later today when, well….we are not really sure what is taking place. Here are pics of the guest house and my first view of Uganda in the daylight.

My First Daytime View of  Uganda

Makarere Guesthouse