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| Getting ready to leave Salt Lake. Our last goodbye |
I am here!! Four flights, four countries, and one queen-sighting later, I am in Mbale!
We left Tuesday morning, which now feels like a week ago, and had a quick layover in Dallas. Wednesday morning we reached London and got to go thru extensive customs security screenings before we were allowed to traverse the wonderful city throughout our 12-hour layover. I love London! Even amidst the cold, rainy weather, we had a wonderful time jumping from tube stop to tube stop to try and see as much as we could before returning to the airport. Not even 15 minutes of being in the city, we saw the queen as part of the parliament opening day just outside Westminster Abbey. All the mounted horsemen with horns and carriages. Who would have thought it HAPPENED to be exactly when we were arriving into the city? After a fun-filled day, we returned to the airport for another 8.5 hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya. We reached Nairobi just before sunrise and caught another quick connecting flight to Kampala, Uganda. Once there, we received our visas and were met by our wonderful country directors, Holly and Rebecca. All 12 of us plus our country directors and 4 Ugandan friends, boarded a van for Mbale. It took us about 4 hours to get to our house. You can imagine how exhausted we all were from our long 36+ hours of traveling. Naturally, we passed out on that ride. We reached our house in Mbale and I can’t describe how beautiful the scenery is--beautiful green juxtaposed with the reddish-orange dirt of the roads.
Uganda is of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. It far exceeds my expectations and the scenery is quite comparable to the lush environment of Hawaii. Most people, myself included, think of the hot, dry savanna when they think of Africa. Not Uganda. There are many, green beautiful trees, plants and wildlife--yes, the bugs. I have yet to see the African animals like gorillas, elephants or zebras, but I have seen the bugs. Substantial bugs. In fact, I ate a LARGE ant tonight as part of a group initiation. Salty...but good.
We have an amazing backyard with an incredible view. The house is great, especially for Ugandan standards. We have electricity and running water. We’ve even been promised one hot shower every other week!! You can imagine my excitement at the news.
We all just finished putting our beds together with our mosquito nets. It looks like we all have cute little princess canopies over our beds. Hopefully in addition to the malaria pills, the nets should keep us malaria-free.
We have yet to explore Mbale but that will be part of tomorrow’s itinerary. I already know that I love the people here. I have had the chance to speak with a few of them and they are SO loving and eager to have us here. The woman sitting next to me on the plane told me, “You Mzungus (white people) are welcome here!”
This is only the beginning but I’m so excited to explore more and get to know these wonderful people!! Thank you for your love and support!!
Pictures to come!
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| Our bus that picked us up from the airport in Entebbe |
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| A little hot, and gross on our bus ride |
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| Trafalgar Square in London |
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| The beautiful Lake Victoria on our drive from Entebbe to Mbale |
You write so beautifully, you almost make eating a LARGE ant sound good.
ReplyDeleteFantastic Ashley!! A great adventure begins. Be safe and blog as much as you can! We'd love to hear the adventure as it unfolds. All The Best, Shawn
ReplyDeleteI spoke to one of my Daycare Dad's the other day about your adventure. He is from Senegal. He told me that Uganda is beautiful and the people are wonderful. I know you will have a great adventure.
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