The Blog.

Terminal 5 of London.

It has been quite a while since my last post, and I feel like I have to cram quite a bit in now. I think it’ll be best to let the pictures do most of the talking.

Kids at Entebbe Airport.

Finally, after days of flying, we landed in Entebbe, Uganda after our last long redeye flight from Heathrow. Entebbe is just south of Kampala. The contrast between takeoff at one shiny, glitzy, epitome of a western airport and landing beside a cattle field was unbelievable. The Entebbe airport was also not very air-port-y. It looked maybe like a rail station in the US. Very small, very utilitarian, with some ads and a few shops. Kind of refreshing actually. At the airport we met with our driver, Patrick, who turned out to be some kind of superhuman for being able to maneuver our tiny bus through impossibly small holes at white knuckle speed. From that bus we got our first street level view of the country.

UN Hangars in Entebbe

Life and decay in Uganda.

Before heading to Rwanda for the beginning of our semester, our group went on a three-day safari in Queen Elizabeth game park in southwestern Uganda. The park is a couple hours south of the equator. We stayed at two hostels, Mweya and Simba, each replete with cold showers, indoor wildlife and, yes, squatty potties.

Squatty Potty.

It was amazing to see an equatorial sunrise morning after morning. Each one is so spectacular. The enormous red sun simply leaps into the sky. You would have to see it to believe it. The pictures do the experience absolutely no justice.

Just one of many epic sunrises.

The place is teeming with animals. I expected to have to at least look kinda hard to get a glimpse of things, but the place is like a city for animals. It’s straight up crowded with fauna. We saw zebra, cape buffalo (the most dangerous savannah animal), all kinds of antelope, mongooses, tons of warthogs (including those who just hung out around our hostel in Mweya), a baboon who also roamed the grounds scaring Laura, hippos… …mating… …which was awkward… lions (the main attraction which ended up being really boring), and FINALLY… the most exciting of all: HYENAS!

Up close with Hyena #1

Angry Elephants

Japanese Safety Instructions?

Hippos Bangin' ... and Noel

Friday, we crossed the border from Uganda into Rwanda. The drive was amazing. I pretty much just sat by the window quietly watching the rolling grassy hills become towering forested mountains. It is really difficult to explain the smells, sights, and tactile experiences in one country let alone the transition between them. The faces of people seemed to subtly change also. I can’t place just how, but they did.

Southern Uganda.

Getting through Rwandan customs as quickly as we did was miraculous. The drive through Rwanda was quite epic. Kudos again to Patrick for being able to switch to driving on the right side. The place is nothing but rolling mountains with wide grassy shallow valleys in between.

Through mountains in southern Uganda.

We have since arrived in Kigali, the capitol city of Rwanda, and my mind has had so much sensory input and my skin so much sun that it’s very hard for me to process it all. We were kindly shown around town by some students and teachers from the area yesterday. I went to church with one of them, Stany, this morning at a local Pentecostal church, which to my great surprise, was a little more toned-down than the Charismatic churches I’ve been to in the US. I wasn’t even asked to speak even though a) I’m a mzungu and I am expected to have all kinds of western wisdom and b) I was wearing a tie, which as I now know, are only worn by pastors. Phew. Even though the service was in Kinyarwanda, Stany was kind enough to write out the important points of the sermon in english and show me the scripture readings. I really enjoyed the message once I knew what it was, and the worship was fantastic. I might just have to go back next week.

Alright, this blog post has taken FOREVER on account of all the photos, so I should go do something off the internet, like play with the two dogs here, who by the way are in love like I’ve never seen two dogs. Au revoir! Murabeho!