Arriving in Uganda

Hello Everyone,

I apologize for the delay in updating the blog. While we were in Uganda we had limited time to use the internet and it seemed that every time I went to update this I would get kicked off after writing a long update. So, I chose to wait till we returned. Luckily I kept a detailed journal of the trip. I'll give you a day to day description in a little less detail.

August 17-19,2009
Shannon, Meghan, Teresa and I, along with 7 hockey bags full of supplies and underwear, all caught the 1:00pm ferry to Vancouver. We wanted to be sure that we had lots of time to make our 8:35pm flight, needless to say we had lots of time. We had an 9 hour flight to London where we had an 8 hour layover. We managed to find some chairs and sleep in them for a while, not the most exciting, but London is very expensive and we weren't willing to spend money there shopping. Our next flight was 8.5 hours to Entebbe Uganda. We arrived at 7:30 am on August 19th due to the time change. We were all very tired, but so happy to have finally arrived. We were greeted by Tanya (who had traveled a few days earlier to do some work), our Watoto host Harry and our driver Edgar. We waited for Teresa to come in as she was booked on a separate flight out of Heathrow. She came in at 9:30am.
So, we were off on our journey to our guest house. Along the way we see simple buildings, somewhat like how you would imagine buildings in the old west, however these were painted in bright pinks, yellows and oranges. Woman's clothing hung on racks outside the doorways. As we drive a long we see trucks filled with green bananas, these, I later found out are used for Matooke, Uganda's #1 staple food. As we carry we see roadside markets with a variety of fruit and other various goods. Stores with beautifully carved furniture and amazing metal doors line the roads as well. As we get closer to the guest house, now an hour from the airport, Teresa a doesn't feel so good. The roads have been very bumpy and the traffic very crazy. Lines, lights and stop signs are only suggestions here. This makes for erratic driving and when you are not used to it your stomach does funny things. After some air and a move to the front seat, Teresa feels better. We finally arrive at our guest house, Adonai #1. We were all overjoyed to see how beautiful this place was. It looked like a brick plantation house from the south. Large windows and verandas on the first and second floor, beautifully landscaped yard with a large brick fence and large metal gate to keep us safe. The inside was just as beautiful. Mohogany wood everywhere. A large common room, dining room, kitchen and a few guest rooms on the first level. On the second level were many more guest rooms. We were warmly greeted by the wonderful staff of Adonai with introductions and big hugs. After a long 2 days of traveling, this is just what we needed. We are all shown to our rooms(2 to a room), Shannon and I are assigned a room on the 2nd floor but soon discover that it does not have akey, so we are moved to the first floor and assigned "Alpha" room. We all rest for a few hours and shower (each room had it's own washroom)it feels so good to be clean. Dinner is at 6:00pm and so good! We finish dinner and then have a few games of cards before heading to bed. It was a wonderful start to our long awaited trip.