safe arrival

here is what i wrote on word the morning after i arrived:

I have arrived safely in uganda. Other than being completely exhausting, the trip went very smoothly. As the plane descended towards amsterdam, my first thought was to look out the window and try to recognize the city beneath us. That when the realization hit me; I don’t know that city because im in a different country. A. different. Country. Of course, everything in the airport remained in english. The store signs in schiphol airport are the category of stuff sold in them. “chocolates” “holland gifts” “ice cream” “electronics” the obviousness of these titles left little doubt as to the merchandise. a situation which I found refreshing. I did not get to see any of the city or city skyline, but I did get to see the people. Tall, blonde people everywhere along with the middle eastern people. At the gate for the trip to amsterdam, a good half the women wore the head-wrap thingys. I should learn the name at some point. The airplane coming here to uganda contained half black people and half white; much more white than I had expected.

Why don’t people on airplanes talk to each other? Do we think that by not acknowledging the people sitting inside our personal bubble, their proximity will not affect us as much? Each one has a story, each one has beliefs, emotions, fears, adventures. On every plane, there is at least someone for whom this is the first plane trip. Would we all react differently if we thought the plane would crash? What would it take to jerk us out of our self-imposed solitude?

That’s why we have people like rob. As we entered entebbe airport, he recognized one of the names on the signs the airport people held as the name of someone he knew quite well. So he got the signholder to take us to the people this woman was to meet. The people were in the VIP lounge. So instead of waiting thru the visa line, we received VIP treatment. Of course, since we had redirected the signholder, the woman did not know where to go and several of the people we knew and rob had to go search the airport for her. After about an hour and a half, we found everyone, got checked in, found our bags, and got in a car.

Ugandan people drive on the left side of the road and deisel costs 2220. Not sure what the currency is, but arent you glad those arent the numbers you see in the US? Oh, and the lanes are more guidelines than actual rules. if someone on your side is slow, and the other side isnt being used at the moment, just drive over there for a bit. I would call the driving here daring and kinda fun, but that was the night traffic.

Little shops line the entire road to kampala, a 45 minute drive. Usually one room with open doors. The better ones look like garages with a door you can pull down. Others look like the bad section of a white trash neighborhood.

Traveling shows you how bad your social skills really are. At least, that’s the way it is for me. These people don’t make allowances for how I normally am. They cant. I should try to speak more and in better english than I nomally do.