It is 9:30pm Ugandan time... I just crawled into my mosquito net for the night... when I realized I should probably write down the events of this monumental day in my life. I have officially moved to Uganda and am spending the first night in the village.
Even thought this journey technically started well over a year ago, I am going to start from yesterday. After sitting in London Heathrow airport for 10+ hours, I boarded the British Airways flight at a little after 8pm on Sept 10... left at 9pm... and arrived into Entebbe at 7:30am on September 11th. For those in Hawaii, I think I am 14 hours ahead of you.
Went through immigration and was able to get a 90 day visitor visa then will work on an additional 6 months. Collected all my bags and found Hannington waiting for me outside of customs. We drove the hour to Kampala to get a Ugandan sim card to the cell along with airtime... had to buy internet for the clinic and apartment... (you pay for internet here by the GB so we bought 3 GB that is good for 3 months. We will see how long it lasts. Then went to Nakumatt to do supply shopping... you know the basics.... bleach, dish soap, flour, sugar, salt, water, toilet paper, etc. Spent 150, 000 UGX which is about 60 $. Items are equivalent in cost to MKK prices. Then stopped at the local market where Hannington got the rest of the items on my list... pineapple, 2 huge avocados, carrots, tomatoes, onions, irish potatoes, and bananas... all locally grown... for 15, 000UGX or $6. Definitely will be eating a lot of the locally grown produce as it is easy to come by and super affordable.
Drove the remining hour and a half back to the village where I seriously cleaned all the produce and put it in the baskets in the kitchen... cleaned up the counter tops and floors before setting to work on trying to unpack... went until I logically couldn't think and laid down for a 3 hour nap. Thanks to Hannington and Jackson forsetting up my phone... Uncle John was able to call and checkin... got internet established... and had a peanut butter banana sandwich for dinner... got the gas cook stove hooked up and boiled water to make coffee in my new coffee press. Tried to skype with John but didn't have a clear connection. Allen (one of our lead teachers) "moved" in with me as it is safer to have a local Ugandan able to answer the door in case someone comes to the clinic inthe middle of the night.
I did find it sweet that all of our Ugandan staff stopped by at some point to welcome me and "chat" even though most ofthem speak very little English.
Well it is 10:15 now and I am finding it difficult to not fall asleep while writing so it is off to bed.
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