The Journey

Because of the difficulty of accessing internet and the traveling I still have to do, I do not know when this post will be uploaded. However, it was written on Sunday, August 25th 2012. The day I arrived in Uganda.

Air travel has never been a problem for me; I grew up flying back and forth between Mexico and the US, which made me very used to airports, airplanes, and the like. The breathtaking view of factories and smog that you can see landing in both Newark Liberty Airport and the Aereopuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de Mexico make me feel right at home every time. Still, I have to admit that I felt way in over my head going from Mexico City to Uganda. I took four flights, across three days, on three different airlines, with a twelve hour layover in between on my way to Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
I’m happy to say that everything went well, except for a lost suitcase that I hope will turn up soon. In fact, I must have been wearing my lucky underwear and not realized it, because my trip ventured from one happy coincidence to another. First of all, I originally had to fly through Cairo on my way here. After watching the news for a couple of minutes last week, I thought that might not be my best option. I called the airline ready to fight until the end to change my flight at the cheapest rate possible. Instead it took all of two minutes, cost me absolutely nothing, and I even had a pleasant conversation with the agent on the phone. Happy coincidence number one.
Then, the day of my flight, I decided to take an earlier bus to Mexico City just in case I hit the insufferable traffic that the city is famous for. I didn’t. At first I was a little annoyed that I had to wait three hours at the airport before my flight. Then I realized that the terminal was empty and heard from my parents that all accesses to the airport had been seized by protestors from Mexico’s teachers union. Hundreds of people missed their flights, and they were even threatening to shut down the airport entirely for the day. I slipped in about twenty minutes before that all started and made it perfectly to my flight. Happy coincidence number two. When I talked to my dad on the phone, he joked that peace and conflict studies, which I will be studying here in Uganda, are going to come in handy, given the revolution I dodged in Cairo and the never-ending strikes and protests I skipped in Mexico City.
Later on, when I boarded my second flight from Houston to Istanbul, my good luck kept on coming. I made my way to the very back of the enormous Boeing 777 and looked for my seat in what seemed like row 768. Right next to my aisle seat was every honest traveler’s worst nightmare: a very small, energetic child. I reluctantly started to take my seat when the child’s father said: “I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse.” He explained that he had one seat in business class and another back in economy for his son, and said that he would trade me his business class seat for mine way back by the bathrooms. I thanked him profusely, snatched the ticket stub from his hand before he could change his mind and bulldozed through the huddled masses walking to the back of the plane. From there, I had 12 hours of free champagne, a three course dinner and enough legroom for Shaquille O’Neal. By far, the happiest coincidence of all.
Everything was pretty normal after that. I jumped on a plane from Istanbul to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where I had to wait twelve hours. I had planned on walking around the city, but quickly changed my mind when I realized that I landed at midnight and that apparently I speak zero Amharic. Instead I slept at the airport, woke up and left for Entebbe. I landed in Entebbe, which is a city about 45 minutes away from Uganda’s capital Kampala, at around 1 pm today. Like I said at the beginning, one of my bags was lost, but I was so desperately excited to leave the airport and see the city that I didn’t care. I reported everything in it, was told that it should arrive later today or tomorrow, and bolted.
Outside, the driver who picked me up, Joseph, laughed at my excitement and at the fact that I got in on the drivers side of the car. Who knew Ugandans drive on the left? I have only been here for a few hours, but so far I am loving it. Kampala looks enormous when you are landing, and the green landscape is never ending. On my way to the hotel where I will be staying until I leave for Gulu with the group, we passed Lake Victoria, the world’s largest saltwater lake, and the presidential residence (not as big as the lake, but also pretty huge). I apologize if this first post dragged on a bit, but the truth is I am the first of my group to arrive and had a long time to write.