Uganda, here I am

We are finally in Uganda!  After 18 hours flying on Emirates and an overnight hotel stay in Dubai, we arrived at the Entebbe Airport.  As we disembarked the plane, I got my first glimpse of the so-called Pearl of Africa – lush, green rolling hills covered with palm trees and purple flowers as far as I can see.  If this is what the rest of the country looks like, I could definitely get used to living here for the summer!

A Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP) driver picked us up at the airport. I have absolutely no idea how he managed to tetris our luggage into the van but somehow he did and then we started our journey towards Kampala.  Along the way, he pointed out the old Entebbe airport where abandoned and ancient-looking aircraft were resting on overgrown runways.  The infamous airport is most well known for the 1976 Israeli raid on Entebbe during a hijacking incident. There is a very powerful scene in the “Last King of Scotland” in which the former military dictator Idi Amin (as played by Forest Whitaker) storms through the Entebbe airport during the raid – if you haven’t seen it yet, you probably should. 

The rest of the ride to Kampala was a bit…overwhelming, to say the least.  People in Uganda seem to have a different idea of what the proper distance between cars should be. There were so many cars, matatus (mini-buses), boda bodas (small mopeds most notable for how dangerous they are), and bicyclists all vying for space on the road.  I grabbed the door handle a few times in panic as a boda boda weaved in and out of traffic directly in front of us. As someone who lives and occasionally drives in New York City, I feel like I’ve seen my fair share of pushy, crazy drivers but this particular drive to Kampala showed me a whole new level of insanity.

Fortunately, we arrived safely in Kampala about an hour later.  And I promptly fell asleep from a combination of jet lag and terror.  More to come about our first days in Uganda once I fix my sleeping schedule.