International Travel, Hot Showers, & Getting JB To Try New Foods

October 29^th -30^th: Thursday & Friday

My plane left Tanzania at 9:45 an unsurprising half hour late. The flight took just over two hours with short stop in Mwanza before continuing onto Uganda over Lake Victoria. That morning I had finished packing, found my bible, and hugged my goodbyes. Unity drive me to the airport where I checked on my action packer (weighing 20.3 kilos, only 0.3 kilos over the required limit. A fact I am proud of since I guessed not having a scale) saying goodbye is always a bitter-sweet thing. Sweet that I love these people enough to miss them but bitter, because I am leaving.

I landed in Uganda shortly after noon. It was raining. After passing through customs I loitered outside the airport sheltered from the rain by an overhanging ledge until a security guard said I couldn’t wait there any more. He led me away from the other dozen travelers waiting in the relative dry around the door and into the parking lot where he kindly brought me a plastic chair to sit in, though not a umbrella.

Jim found me thus some ten minutes later. We embraced and then drove to a hostel/restaurant where we met Derrick for lunch. I had amazing lasagna and coffee and chocolate ice cream for dessert. Derrick is the administrator for CURE hospital which treats kids in Mbale. After lunch we toured an impressive catholic hospital between Entebbe and Kampala. Afterwards Jim and I met JB (John Bosco) a Karamojong Translator from the clinic who Jim had invited to come down and spend a few days with us in Kampala. JB is a tall, thin, married with a young son and 19. He is incredibly good natured, with a smile almost constantly brightening his face.

We met Derrick then for Coffee in the most western place I have ever been here, Café Java. There we spent several minutes persuading JB to try some of our iced coffee, a theme which would persist through out the weekend.

That evening after checking into to the guest house where we would spend the night we met Derrick again for dinner at Krur, a Thai restaurant. There we persuaded JB to get a basic rice dish. I tried red Dahl something which was pretty good. It was my first time having Thai food and I though it was pretty good. Shortly before ten we went to the movie theater in Garden City where we watched Inglorious Basterds. Altogether not the best choice. A strange mix of violence, history, and dialogue, it was never the less not a good choice. That evening Jim took a look at my still swollen foot which not required painkillers regularly each day and more to sleep. He declared it puss free after some minor surgery although the dinner was doing a number on my bowels.

The next morning I took a hot shower and loaded our stuff in the car. We would be staying the next night in another GH in Kampala due to Jim’s inability to find cheap accommodations more than two nights in a row. That morning we ate breakfast in Café Java (pancakes for me. God bless panned cakes). Then we took a long walk through down town Kampala. While endowed with skyscrapers and traffic lights (shish no one follows incidentally) Kampala still is distinctly African. We say many large storks, looking like bald, sun-spotted old men of dubious intentions.

After that we wandered around Garden City for a short time, cigar hunting. Unfortunately we were unable to find any in sealed packaging capable of making the strenuous trip to Karamoja. For lunch we again met Derrick and a group headed by Jim’s good friend’s mother. The 11 of us ate at an Italian restaurant where I ordered a four cheese pizza with four un-pronounceable named cheeses which was delicious. Despite our best efforts to get JB to try something else new he ordered chicken and chips.

After lunch Jim and I went to a local gelato place for dessert where we bought JB a blueberry flavored scoop which we finished for him. We returned to the GH where earlier we had dropped the bags and while Jim napped JB and I watched Mr. Bean The Movie and I checked email. JB greatly enjoyed the movie. Still full from the late lunch we left the guest house in search of pool table. we found one in a bar where Jim and I were the only Whites. Jim and I began a game which soon revealed our lack of skill and threatened to end at dawn. However JB stepped in for me and brought about a swift completion to the game. Jim soon left because the cigarette smoke was making him ill. JB and I stayed and ordered more drinks. The bar had now filled with Africans all of whom seemed to know each other. JB and I played several more games against the locals and lost every single one, although I almost one but I missed the clincher shot. Jim came back several hours later and we departed and returned to the GH and slept soundly.