Kampala --> Gulu

This is me, crammed into a tiny coffee shop with six other SIT students, each of us typing furiously away on our laptops. We could not look more like tourists.

That's alright, though. In fact, it's expected. And as long as you buy a bottle of Coke, your Internet is free, no matter how slow it may be (and slow is as good as it's going to get). No complaints here.

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. So much has happened in the past five days, it'd be impossible to put it down here. So, I'm going to try my best to get the highs and lows down, and you can use your imagination to fill in the rest.

The actual flights I had to take to get here were completely ridiculous. I have never been more exhausted. I flew out of Chicago at 5:30 in the afternoon this past Saturday, to arrive in Boston three hours later and fly out at 10:30 that night. Then there was the overnight flight to London. I couldn't get any sleep at all, and arrived at 10:30 the next morning facing 12 agonizing hours in Heathrow until I could board my plane to Kampala. The plan was to meet up with another girl from my program who had a similar layover, but with no method of communication, I was hoping to meet her at our gate so we could spend some time exploring London. Unfortunately, Heathrow doesn't post departure gates until an hour before the flight is supposed to leave, which left me alone in Heathrow for the foreseeable future. I managed to get some sleep, sprawled out over my things, but it wasn't particularly restful, so I decided to watch a movie on my computer to kill some more time.

Then I discovered I had bought the wrong converter. It only had holes for two prongs, not three, like my computer cord had. There was no possible way I could go without my computer for the duration of the program, and because I knew I'd be living with families and not able to use another student's converter all the time, I knew I had to find one. The only one that would work in the entire airport, it seemed, was 35 pounds at a Brookstone store - the equivalent of roughly $70, from all accounts. Awesome.

I sat myself down my the departure board, determined to wait until my gate was announced. It was here another girl from my program, Bethaney, recognized me from Facebook, and flagged me down. We quickly found a third student, Charlotte, who attends the same school as Bethaney, so waiting wasn't so hard after that. At the gate, we met up with three more girls, two Annies and Lily, and we all boarded the plane for Kampala together.

Eight hours later, we landed, where we met up with two more members of our program, Noah and Sam. We didn't have to wait at the airport long, and soon we were driving past Lake Victoria, the biggest lake in all of Africa, and through Kampala, headed for our hotel.

Driving in Uganda is completely insane. There are no traffic laws, no speed limits, and no cops to enforce safety - if anything, the cops are only looking for illegal goods or a bribe. We skidded around pedestrians, motorcycles, and other cars going upwards of 50 or 60 miles an hour on narrow, poorly paved roads, listening to Heart and Phil Collins on the radio as we went (I know, right?). All I wanted to do was shower - after two days of travel, I felt disgusting. I didn't get a chance to do so that night, after we met with our program director and had lunch and dinner, mostly rice, plantains, and beef and goat meat.

We met Joe and Samantha that night, each of which had been in Africa for a time previous to the start date of our program, and the next morning we met the rest of our group - David, Jamie, Chelsea, Karen, and Jared - all before boarding a bus for the five hour ride to Gulu, where we would spend the next five weeks.

Everything went really well, at first. Traffic getting out of Kampala was a nightmare; our driver often turned off the engine we would be sitting still for so long. In these traffic jams, vendors would approach the bus and offer to sell us anything from brooms to questionable-looking meat on sticks. Morgan, one of our program advisors, bought us some sugar cane to eat. Basically, you take a bite out of the stick (which is way harder than it sounds), chew the piece until the sweet juices are all gone, then spit out what's left.

We stopped for lunch two hours after we had been on the road, which consisted of beans, rice, and mango juice, and then continued on. I dropped off for a bit, sleeping with my head against the window, but was jarred awake an hour later by a sudden drop in speed of our bus. We had broken down.

Apparently, this happens a lot, so often that the standing rule is that if your vehicle breaks down while you're in it, you don't have to pay the driver his whole fee. If you crash (a very real possibility), you don't have to pay the driver at all. Morgan and our program director, Dr. William, found two taxis to take us and our things the rest of the way to Gulu, just as we had been ready to break out frisbees and playing cards to pass time on the side of the road.

We crossed the White Nile an hour before reaching Gulu. We weren't supposed to take pictures, since the Nile and the bridge we crossed are guarded by the military, but a few of us, myself included, managed to sneak a few shots. From inside the grimy windows of the taxi, the pictures don't really do the view justice. The river is massive and awe-inspiring. Even though the water is a muddy brown, the river cascades down huge boulders, creating huge rapids. It'll be great to go back and see it in person in a few weeks.

Not even a mile past the bridge, we got our first glimpse of real African wildlife, outside of the cattle and goats which seemingly roam free about the countryside - giant baboons sat and walked along side of the road, only feet from our taxis. There were so many, and then watched as cars drove and people walked past as though it were nothing! I didn't even think to pull out my camcorder, which is a huge bummer, but I'm sure we'll see them again, and I did get some pictures.

It started to rain just as we got into Gulu, long enough to soak the luggage we had strapped to the tops of the taxis. Gulu is much smaller than the city of Kampala. It's only considered a town, and only a few buildings have electricity. I'm rooming with Lily again, on the fourth and top floor of the hotel. We had to lug our fifty pound suitcases all the way up, and that's when my suitcase decided to break, right then and there, on Day Two. One of the wheels just completely snapped off. As I was coming into this cafe today, I saw a place that sold luggage; it looks like I'm going to have to go and get a new one. Hopefully they'll be as cheap as everything else here in Uganda seems to be (huge bottles of beer come out to be only about $1.15!)

It was nice to finally relax today, without the thought of more impending travel. We were able to begin orientation today, which mostly included giving Dr. William our extra money and passports for safekeeping at the SIT office, and talking about program rules and expectations. We have all of our afternoons free this week for exploring, which is great; there's an IDP camp not even a block down from our hotel that a few of us would like to visit, so that we can begin getting a real sense of what it's like to live in this country, not to mention all the shops and people who live in Gulu normally. Lessons in Acholi begin Friday, and we go to live with our homestay families Saturday afternoon.

Right now, that's what's causing me the most stress. I am really nervous to go off by myself and have to depend solely on my own merit to interact with a family. I really hope they have kids, I think that would make me feel so much more at ease. I'm just hoping my homestay gift is enough - since Jelly Belly originates in Illinois, I brought a big 2-pound bag for the family (Thanks, Mrs. Steinsdoerfer!).

I think that's it, for now. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a little more often, now that I'm in Gulu, so that each post won't be so long and can be a little more insightful. But, for now, I'm off - dinner is in a bit, and I want to explore Gulu town some more. And tonight, a bunch of us are going to go out for drinks at a local bar, which sounds awesome (don't worry, we'll be safe and stay in a large group!).

Pictures soon!