First days in Uganda

I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE FOR HOW LONG THIS IS…. So much has gone on!!  Thanks for taking the time to read :)

It’s been a couple days since my last update, and it has been a nice break from technology. ;) The only thing I truly miss is being able to talk to my loved ones any time I want… As I am sitting here typing this, I am listening to country music and feeling right at home for the most part! I’ll try to update each day and then post this all at once.

Saturday

Since the last update there has been a lot going on!  After our brief stop in Amsterdam, we headed off on another 10-hour flight.  For some reason, we flew past Entebbe, Uganda (where the airport is) and made a pit stop in Kigali, Rwanda.  There was not much to see, since it was around 9 pm and pitch black, but I couldn’t help remembering the movie “Hotel Rwanda” and getting the chills of the nation’s history.  Flying over Africa was one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced.  For almost the entire flight the sky was cloudless, leaving the scenery below in full view.  I fell asleep for the first five hours of the flight, it had been a really weird day and it felt like it never ended because we flew ahead so many hours.  Once the sun had set it felt like it rose just two hours later!  So some sleep was much needed.  I woke up in time to look out the window just as we were passing over the mouth of the Nile- so amazing.  As the sunset, it was another very beautiful sight.  Watching the sun fall over the desert from 35,000 feet in the air will always stay in my memory. 

Once we finally landed in Entebbe, it was HUMID!!!!! (compared to the MN weather I had just come from).  I quickly peeled off my sweatshirt.  Customs took a long time, especially since we were seated in the second to last row on a flight holding a couple hundred people (a guess?? There were a lot...).  Once we finally got through, got our baggage, and some much needed bottled water (water in Uganda has bacteria in it that our immune systems are not accustomed to), it was so amazing to finally smell the fresh air… And oddly the first memory the scent of the air triggered was my grandparent’s farm in the summer!!  I don’t even know how but I swear it was the same smell (fresh warm air with a breeze…).  It wasn’t soon before we got the scent of burning garbage.  Ugandans burn all of their garbage- let me tell you it smells like crap when this is going on.  Literally ;) We crammed our entire luggage into a tiny bus and a small SUV and then piled on top of each other for about a half hour drive to Kampala and the Mildmay Center.  It was cool driving around Lake Victoria; smelled like the cabin on a summer night.  The Mildmay Center is a facility that provides treatment for children with HIV/AIDS.  A gate and a guard surround it so I feel pretty safe. :) The first night here was pretty scary in all honesty.  It is not like a typical night in America that is for sure…  For starters, it is so DARK!! There are few streetlights and none of the homes were lit.  It looked like a ghost town and every once in a while you would see a person walking out of an ally… Haha so sorry to say I was a little uncomfortable when we first arrived.  Our rooms are really cute, two beds, desk, and we even have our own bathroom in the room!! Not so bad :) After getting all settled in and taking a much-needed (ICE COLD) shower, I started to head off to bed when all the sudden this music started BLASTING! 

My roommate Kenzie has been on this trip four times and she has helped me learn a lot fast.  She told me that the music is from the club down the street and is usually on until around 4 am every night… Ok I could not believe that the club was down the street the music is that loud!!  I love that about Uganda so far though, pretty much all throughout the day you can hear music around you, along with the birds chirping.  Luckily, I had earplugs and sleeping pills.  

The next day (Saturday), was the day we all set up the dental clinic.  It was a lot of work and a lot of hands were thankfully there to help! We were done by mid-afternoon.  Lunch was my first meal here, and to say the least it was interesting.  Rice, potatoes, “beef”…, and some veggies.  I tried to eat as much as I could but I admit the meals they served us on the airplane were 100 times better.  We at least had ice on the plane!  Something I take for granted every day but would really enjoy right about now.  Dinner was the same pretty much… there were rice, potatoes, vegetables, and “lamb” or liver.  I ate more this time but I am so happy I brought breakfast bars, granola, and chocolate bars- a real treat.  After dinner a group of us went down the road to the gas station/grocery store to buy water and whatever else we needed.  I got a 1.5 liter of water and when converted over, it was only barely 50 US cents… unbelievable the conversion rate.  One USD is equal to about 2400 shillings.  At the store it was really interesting, we were just stared at by just about everyone in the store.  I have never known the feeling of being a minority until now, and I will admit it is a really different feeling!  People here are very proud of their country, and their husbands/wives!  One man came up to Kenzie and I while we were making bags of toothbrushes/toothpaste for the kids, and after saying hello he pointed to a woman a couple yards away and proclaimed, “that is my wife!!” as she waved.

Sunday

Sunday started with an early breakfast, then some of the group and I loaded into the center’s bus and headed to Watoto Church… Some of you may have heard of it before, I guess it is really well known and the choir tours around the world.  The experience was amazing, and moving.  And it is only day two here and I am sick of being stared at… Everywhere we go everyone stares us at.  “Mazugu” (sp?) means “white person” and we hear that a lot.  After mass we loaded on the bus and half of the group went to a hotel swimming pool while I took the more adventurous route, for lack of a better description.  I went shopping in the black market with a couple other woman and one man (poor guy ;).  It was my first real go at haggling prices, even though I felt bad asking for lower when the most they would ask for was actually equivalent to about 12 or 13 dollars.  Got a lot of souvenirs though!

After the black market we walked into the main city part of Kampala for lunch at a “really nice” restaurant.  This basically means there was a little air conditioner in the corner, and we also got milkshakes and French fries!  After I finished half of my actually delicious sandwich, a baby cockroach climbed up onto my plate, I screamed super loud and jumped on top of my chair, causing a little entertainment for everyone else ;) Quickly lost my appetite, though.  After I went and walked to the bathroom where there was a huge dead cockroach on the ground in front, and it was pretty much five minutes of being frozen hoping it wasn’t playing dead.  When I got back apparently the waiter thought they were kidding when they told him there was a cockroach crawling on our food… Apparently they are that common haha.

After lunch we walked to the “shopping mall” which wasn’t really much but it did have a grocery store in it.  While waiting outside, I was playing with two little kids making “silly faces”.  I noticed one of the boys did not really want to play, so I told him to smile and he did.  

The finale of the shopping adventure was finding a taxi… While waiting outside, this man came up to Molly and me and offered us a taxi ride, we told him we had eight people… and he still insisted he could fit us all! So we told him we needed a ride to Mildmay, and he told us it would cost 50,000 UGX, which is a really low price for a taxi ride!  So we told him to meet us downstairs in 20 minutes.  We ended up getting done early, and he was no where to be found so we headed to the road to find a taxi driver and I honestly thought we were going to be mugged.  All of these men swarmed around us “Muzugus” and kept acting like they knew us! It was really scary and luckily a policewoman came over and helped us sort things out.  One of the drivers actually pulled his car, and I mean LITTLE CAR, up onto the curb as if he thought eight more people would fit inside.  Which actually makes sense, because that is just how it is here.  But we ended up finally all crammed into a minivan with no AC stuck in traffic… and the driver would randomly roll the windows up so we wouldn’t get pulled over by the police… Sketchy, but hey we made it back in one piece and almost killed a guy on a motor bike…

Monday

First day of clinic was today.  Ill add more details later but... Wow... is all I can say.  Today was very fun, but it was very emotional.  It breaks my heart into a million pieces and if you know me really well, I do not like to talk about things that make me upset.  Pictures speak a thousand words and I will upload them once I get to a decent speed internet (aka back to the USA).  One story that made tears pour from my eyes was one small 7 year old patient who looked like he was about 4 because he was so malnourished.  I had to help hold his arms and legs because he was so afraid... Once the Dentist opened his mouth... My heart broke.  ALL of his teeth were so decayed and he was in so much pain.  The did not have enough time to do the full work so they only worked on his right side.  They extracted all of the teeth on that side except for 2, which they crowned.  They are planning for something similar when he comes back in a week.  After spending the day with all of them you can not help but think of your siblings, or any other children you may know, and then you realize they are just like every other kid... They just want to play and have fun and be like every other child... Just say a prayer.  Goodnight.

            Well this quickly turned into a novel… Sorry :) Hope all is well back home.  Say a prayer today :)