I finally made it! What was supposed to be a 26 hour travel
time ended up taking an extra day. When I was on the flight from Minneapolis to
Amsterdam the pilot said that the plane was giving “some serious warning
signals of possible trouble.” Not wanting to go over ocean, we had to backtrack
an hour and ground in Detroit. After a 4 hour delay in Detroit, we took off and
arrived in Amsterdam 5 hours after the scheduled arrival date, which caused us
to miss our layover to Kigali, Rwanda. Because the route only flies once a day,
we spent the night in Amsterdam. Not a
bad place to be stranded! Troy and I headed into the city, got drinks, and
dinner. He treated me to probably the best meal I will ever have. 6 course meal
with paired wines at each course. Price tag: you don’t want to know. Troy
called it my last supper. Still grateful for the treat. It was a great time.
We flew out of Amsterdam on Friday morning and landed in
Entebbe at 11:00pm. We took a taxi to nearby hotel and overnighted so that we
did not travel during the night. Traveling at night in Africa is never really a
good idea. In the morning we had an arranged pick up from the Embassy and drove
into the city of Kampala. On the way there, I noticed that Uganda was very
similar to Tanzania at first glance. Every road had ample pot holes, speed
bumps, and not-so-cautious motorcycles (termed boda-bodas in Lugandan). All of
the shops and houses along the main road were painted bright colors that served
as advertisements for Fanta, Coke, Pepsi, or local telecommunications
companies. It felt good to be back J
When we got to the Mulago Guest House, where I would be
living for the next 7 months, I was initially impressed with the facility. It
was really nice! A large living room that is shared by the residents of the
house (capacity for 8, but only one other person is here right now). A shared
kitchen is available as well. My bedroom is probably about twice as big as my
room in the US! With ample closet space, a desk, a queen size bed, and a
private bathroom, the room provides more than enough to be comfortable.
Breakfast is included in the room rate each morning, and consists of eggs,
toast, fruit, coffee, and passion fruit juice. Everything I need, and more! Oh,
and there were monkeys hanging out on the front porch today, so that’s always
nice.
We are across the street from Mulago Hospital, where I will be spending the bulk of my time. It takes me about 4 minutes to get out the door and to the lab I work in at Mulago. Can’t complain with that commute. I will be working with Derrick Bengo, the head lab tech at Mulago. I have talked with Derrick for a good amount of time and I can say that he is going to be a pleasure to work worth. A 33 year old energetic guy, Derrick has two young sons and talks of all of his motivation coming from wanting to provide a better life for his sons. Derrick is also excited that he can show me around the town, some of the local spots, and show me his house, church, and family. Upon meeting Derrick, I became much more settled in my duties and project at Mulago.
Today (Monday) we went to Mulago and started to walk through the different steps of the project in the research lab. Everything is coming together well! I will write more about that, as well as my impressions of the town (very good) in the next blog post. Right now it is time for bed.
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| Mulago Guest House |
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| Monkey on the roof |
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| Shared living room |
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| my bedroom |
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| my bathroom |
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