Friday 5/16/2008- Sunday 5/18/2008
Next thing we knew, the two and a half hours cruised by, and we were on our flight to Entebbe, Uganda. We couldn’t believe we were flying over only two countries, as four hours went by before we landed in Uganda. We bought our $50 (ouch) each visas and made our way to find our transport into Kampala, Uganda’s capital. The gentleman greeted us with a sign that read “Katie & Burnet & Dermont”….somehow we knew they were for us. The drive was similar to other developing countries with much traffic, people and animals in the road. We arrived about an hour later to our guesthouse, conveniently next to what looked like Fort Knox…aka: the American Embassy.
We had a makeshift dinner- pineapple, bread and bananas… very protein filled. We met a few of the others staying at the guesthouse building housing for local teachers in the community with a group called Watoto. Everyone went to bed after we were done eating, so we followed suit. We felt safe inside our mosquito nets and although it was a bit warm, we fell asleep without too much trouble.
The next morning we got up and had breakfast around 9:00 a.m. We met the only other person staying at the guesthouse. Her name was Sharon and she was volunteering in the area. She was in the process of finalizing an adoption of an orphaned local boy named Steven. She gave us the low down on the area and gave us a map. We headed over to the internet café across the street with her to check e-mail and figure out our future activities and accommodations. After this we walked into town to get lunch. On the way we picked up a Ugandan SIM Card, which proved why everyone text messages here… about $0.50US /per minute to call. We had to top up after one 4 minute phone call.
For lunch, we got a recommendation from the Capital Bar Pub…but the meat dishes in the local shops looked a bit scary, so we wussed out and went to the pizza place. The pizza was good except for the fact that the dough was stale. We realized that there is ice cream EVERYWHERE here, because the bigger and plumper you are…the more wealthy! Katie was excited to EAT UP!!
We ended up chatting with a very cool Aussie couple from North Queensland—right outside Paranella Park (where we visited in Oz)…small world! They recommended a great place to eat just down a few ‘short cuts’ from the guest house. So off we went, down to “Le Châteaux” for one of the best pork tenderloins we have had on this entire trip. Back at the guesthouse, we waited up for our fellow houseguests to hear the reports of whitewater rafting the Nile…. They all looked as if they had been beaten up by the River. It made Katie incredibly anxious…. As they all reported that they are ‘glad they did it, but wouldn’t do it again.’ Yippie. Can’t wait until we go…tomorrow.
Up at the crack of the sun—we grabbed breakfast and hit the road to wait for our free shuttle to Jinja to white water raft at the start of the Nile River…the longest River in the world.