Finally in Uganda

Written in my journal on Wednesday 10/12/11


I slept almost straight through the night. Thank you God for your hand upon this debilitating jet lag. I awoke to a thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. I was trying to figure out what kind of machine it was that I was hearing when I realized that it was large African raindrops falling on the metal roof of our guest house right above us.


After landing yesterday, our driver helped us make stops to exchange currency, buy a phone, buy an orange stick (air card to access the Internet), and stop for lunch. It took 5 hours to reach our hotel just outside of Jinja. Of those 5 hours, approximately 4 were spent driving. The pollution from the cars is smellable, tastable, and visible. There are black clouds emitting from everything with an engine. Cars, vans, motorcycles (more like dirt bikes), bicycles, and pedestrians all share the same space. It's an insurance adjuster's worst nightmare in action. (If you don't know this about me, I work in insurance claims. So I say this literally. All you can do to make it less frightening is not look).