Day 1: Animals on the Windows

We made it! Charlotte turned her stopwatch on the moment we pulled away from Luke and Christine’s house (my nephew and his wife put us up in Brooklyn the night before our flight from JFK. We are so grateful and it was great fun to catch up a bit). When we got to Uganda Charlotte’s  phone  read 23 1/2 hrs. Yikes! We felt tired, dirty and excited to start this adventure.

We had a layover in Kenya and in the Nairobi airport I was charmed by the huge paintings of African animals (or were they decals) that decorate the terminal windows. I loved seeing zebras, elephants and giraffes gracefully wandering through abstract savannahs. Though we still had another four hours before setting foot on Ugandan soil this set the stage for our three country African trip and made me feel it was really happening.

How wonderful to see my dear friend Phoebe. We fell into each other’s arms at the Entebbe airport and couldn’t believe that once again we had made this happen. We decided to head for Kampala to exchange money but with the rush hour traffic changed our minds midway and went to a restaurant in Wakiso instead. From the 3rd floor window high above the street traffic we had a great view of what was going on outside. I had been telling Charlotte about the cargo that the bodabodas (motorcycles, like taxis, for hire) carried. We saw impossible towers of crates, long tubing that extended  eight feet in front and behind the driver, furniture piled

high, and drivers with 2 adults and a baby hanging on nonchalantly. The number of cars, people and bodabodas that crowded the street made for endless entertainment. Every possible traffic violation happened right in front of us with some being too extraordinary to believe.

We fell into bed in Phoebe’s newly finished guest house. She has created a charming spot for visitors and we both slept like babies; happy to be horizontal.