The first few days . . .

October 8, pm

Yes, it’s all a bit surreal right now, being back in Uganda for about two hours.
It hasn’t even been a year since I stepped in (and out) of Entebbe airport.
I remember wondering why it would take so long to get to Uganda going through Brussels this time. It’s because it didn’t say on my itinerary that it was Entebbe “via one stop in Burundi”.
I’m also asking the question all over again of whether or not its better to travel alone or in a group. If you know me well, I’m not a big fan of traveling with larger groups of Americans. Yes, I’m one of those people who think they are seasoned enough in the international scene to be embarrassed by stereotypical loud and obnoxious Americans, especially when I’m associated with them. It’s one of my more shameful tendencies, I promise I’m trying to work on it. (At least I’m honest.)
Tonight I’m thinking it might not be the worst thing in the world to be traveling with a group of people, even if its just someone to share in the absurdity. Everything went incredibly smoothly when I came in regarding buying a visa and getting my luggage quickly (mind you, there were a few tears in my bag upon receiving it, I hope it doesn’t completely fall apart before I leave.)
However, after walking out into the area where you look for that special sign with your name on it (my hostel was supposed to be picking me up), indeed, there was no sign saying “Dana”. Thankfully, there was an MTN (cell phone network) store open where I could buy a SIM card and some airtime. Unfortunately, my cell phone was so dead it was going to need a long time to charge. Meanwhile, all of these guys were offering me a taxi ride into town, which I am very used to saying no to, because surely, my hostel would be picking me up.
One of the coordinators for airport transportation saw that I was looking for a ride and offered an airport taxi. He said the driver would even let me use his phone if mine wasn’t charged and I needed to contact my ride. I was thankful for the offer and called the Red Chilli Hideaway.
“Yes, my name is Dana and I called earlier this week to book an airport pick up.”
“Uhhhh, can you get a taxi from the airport?”
“I’d rather not since I booked a ride from you and I was hoping someone was already on the way.”
“One moment.” *Lots of background noise for over a minute, keep in mind I’m still on the other drivers phone.
Another voice is there. “Yes, hello? Do you mind getting a taxi from the airport?”
I had no choice. Now this turned out to be a lot more legit than what I’m used to at Entebbe airport and the ride to the location went very smoothly. My taxi driver was very thoughtful and offered to stop and get some food on the way to the hostel, which I declined since I was still sort of full from the airplane meals. (Sick.)
If you’re traveling to Uganda, I wouldn’t really recommend the Red Chilli Hideaway. For some reason, it’s not quite as nice as I remember it being 5 years ago. Perhaps I’ll feel differently about it in the morning.
I walked into the reception area at about 11:45 and told the guy my name as he looked at the books. I booked a single room instead of staying in the dorm so I could spread my things out and have a lock on the door this first night.
“Yes, ahhhh, your room that you have booked has been having some electricity problems.”
Oh boy, Dana’s been traveling for 24 hours straight and is trying to be as civil as possible.“And what else is available?”
“Well there are the dorms, and there is a twin room, but that will be 35,000.”
Of course it will be. Charge me 10,000 more for a room upon arriving after not picking me up at the airport. Awesome. Oh well, at least I have electricity so I can plug in this phone and call home. That’s worth the extra.
Not the case. Electricity means there is a lightbulb, but no outlets.
I rushed back to the reception to try and quickly plug in the phone. They were trying to shoo me out because it was midnight and they were closing. I convinced them to let me plug it in for a bit.
So I finally plugged it in and it turned on and I tried to write a text to my parents because I didn’t have enough airtime to call. The T9 option was on, however, and I couldn’t remember how to use it nor how to turn it off. And then I couldn’t remember if it was just triple 0 to dial out of Uganda or if I was missing a step.

So hopefully my parents got a text message, misspelled, saying “I an here.” My phone died and they turned the lights off and now I’m back in my little room with no outlets, wide awake with a computer about to die. It’s 1:00 am Uganda time and 6:00 pm Michigan time and I’m hoping I’ve got some good books and that I don’t sleep past 10:00 because that’s check out time and they’ll probably make me pay more.

I’m happy to be back in Uganda but I’ll probably be happier to greet her in the morning. (And maybe I’ll also feel better about Red Chilli Hideaway.)

October 9 & 10
Its true, I felt quite differently in the morning. This is because I found the bathroom around the corner and it had warm water. Pretty wonderful. Red Chilli Hideaway, not so bad after all.

I spent the first half of the morning in Kampala running a few errands and then continually got more excited as I thought of going to Mukono and seeing all of these people from my semester that I grew to love.

I was not disappointed in the least bit. Seriously, I’ve been able to see so many people in the last two days here in Mukono, I had forgotten how many people I loved during my time here! The best part was shocking everyone, most people had no idea I was coming. Everyone was so dramatic in their own way.

My first visit was Divine, the girl I worked with regularly during my semester in Uganda. (Also the smiling girl in the orange, in the picture at the top of the page.) I worked with her on beginning the alphabet, counting, and English. Since I left she has joined the new daycare on campus and has been learning so much. I was walking toward her house in hopes that she was still there and it hadn’t been torn down to make way for the new library. And there she was, on the same step we used to sit on for hours.

“Divine!” I called as I approached and both her and her mom stopped. Then huge smiles. Then her mom, Peace, “I can’t . . . believe my eyes . . .” Divine was just giggling and saying, “Come, come!” It was SO good to see them. Divine pulled out her school work and started showing me what she’d been learning.

As I was sitting with her, my dear friend Brenda walked by. She was on her phone, stopped in her tracks pointed at me, quickly finished her conversation and came running. She spent some time with both of us and then told me she wasn’t going to tell the other girls because she wanted them to be surprised just like her.
I wandered over to the Dining Hall later on, looking in the general direction of where my friends used to sit and suddenly heard my name behind me, it was said with an unsure tone, like she was hoping she wasn’t wrong. (Which my friend Eve thought all along. She kept saying, “I was going to laugh so hard when you were calling her name and some other girl turned around!”) Shabaan and Eve were two of the girls I missed the most. Their surprise and reaction carried on the rest of the night as they ushered me around to surprise people and tell them the story of how they first saw me in the DH and they had just been talking about our USP group earlier that day.

. . . . Oh, and so it begins. I have five minutes left for internet (even pricey "fast" internet) and I've got to post this.

I wish I could tell you every story about the people I was able to see in the last two days, it was seriously WONDERFUL. I was able to stay at my Host family's house last night also. It was like coming home.

Okay, peace for now, love you all, and hopefully this updating thing happens regularly but from what I continue to hear about internet access in Gulu, this may be unlikely.

Til next time,

Dana