Finally Arrived!

So, its 2 or 3 in the afternoon and we are finally on the last leg of our journey to Kitgum, Uganda. It won't really hit me until I get back home just how messed up all this travel and time changes will make me. I think I'm pretty much going on adrenaline for the whole 11 days and then I crash when I get back. We're taking the road from Gulu to Kitgum--to call it a road is really being generous. Uganda used to be a British colony, so vehicles are supposed to drive down the left side. And in the cities, where the roads may actually be paved, this is possible. But once you leave town and the road is just dirt, well, basically you have to ride on the side of the road that is functional, whichever one that may be! There are HUGE ruts in the road, and when it rains, these get filled with water, and the roads also become full of red mud, which makes them nearly impassible. I am thankful we are not here during the rainy season. The few times it rains during our trip really throws a wrench into the transportation "system", if you can call it that, I can't imagine what its like when it rains all the time. So, we're riding on an extremely bumpy road, in a creaky old bus that has no shocks whatsoever. Your bottom is basically bouncing and vibrating the entire trip. You are pretty much numb from the waist down after riding in these things for more than a few minutes. I have no idea just how far it is from Gulu to Kitgum--we keep asking the bus driver how far and he says "20 km" or "10 km" or whatever. Doesn't he know we're stupid Americans and have no idea what kilometers means? It takes about 3, 4 hours to get to Kitgum. Its kind of hard to doze off because there's no way to get comfortable on the bus seats--they are cushioned, but the cushions are so thin you can feel every spring inside them, plus you are feeling every bounce the bus makes. We snack on Sour Patch Kids--I break them out much to everyone's delight--and everyone chats and I do snooze at some point with my head banging against the window...its a gorgeous day, bright blue sky and puffy white clouds...

It's funny, if it weren't for the road it would almost be hard to know you're in Africa. The open landscape around you could be anywhere--lots of grassy areas, trees, rock formations--pretty flat though generally. But then you go through a small town or village and any sense of normalcy goes out the window. There's so much to see! Once again, I am wishing we weren't going so fast so I could take some pictures. Women carrying large loads balanced on their heads, kids running around chasing goats and other livestock, village water pumps with bright yellow containers lined up for yards and yards, with a lone child standing there filling them up, women drying laundry out on the grass, cooking over fires...you pass a lot of schools and NGO buildings--mainly just a concrete rectangle with nothing I can see inside of them. Anytime you see UNHC or World Food Programme signs, you know you're in another world from America. Several times we pass LARGE signs warning of leftover landmines from the years of civil war--I really wish I could take a picture of these! Scary and yet fascinating, I mean, this is the stuff you watch on the news and here I am right in the middle of it! (Not in the middle of actual war though, thank God!) It is really exciting--the newness of everything kind of makes the distance between me and my family not so poignant. But I still look at the clock thinking "Oh, Julia's getting up for school now..." or "Oh, Kendall's at preschool", "Xavier's napping..." just wanting the sense of that routine I know so well. Because I do love routine and that is just one reason why this trip is such a big deal because it's throwing me totally out of my comfortable routine! Which is good, I need that! I get too comfortable sometimes. Anyway, back to Africa...kids are always running up to the bus and waving, waving...sometimes we have to slow way down to go carefully through a particularly deep rut, or to let another vehicle pass, and the kids will run up to the bus and wave and say hello and want to shake your hands...they are just beautiful, even in their dirty, raggedy clothing, their smiles are absolutely radiant. By the way, these close encounters with other vehicles are rather scary--you hold your breath because there is a hairs-width between you and you wonder how on earth you will make it past each other. Sometimes we pass HUGE trucks--they look like dump trucks on steroids--overflowing with men going to or from a job somewhere. In one village we pass a big soccer game going on--the field is just a big dirt patch by the side of the road, but the teams are wearing different colored jerseys and there is a big crowd cheering them on...wake up America, soccer is a big deal in the rest of the world, even in an out of the way village in Uganda!

Someone on the bus--Candace or Courtney I believe--has to go to the bathroom really bad. So does Rob. Since we can't figure out just how far away we are from where we're going, everyone's wondering if we need to pull over somewhere so they can go in the bush. But suddenly--here we are, entering the outskirts of Kitgum! The road becomes paved (slightly!) and there are more buildings, more people on bikes, motorcycles, walking...and then there it is, the Bomah Hotel--we pull into the driveway and it is such a relief to get where we will actually be settling for the next few days! It's a yellowish building, with red tile roof--kind of Spanish looking. There are three wings in a U shape, surrounded by a wall with an armed guard of course. There's a pool with some scary looking water in it--the wing in front of us is where we'll be staying--we go in and sit in the lobby while we wait for our room keys. The chairs and couches in here are actually cushioned with cracked vinyl, so they are considerably more comfortable than the ones at the Acholi. Since the lobby is open to the outside (all week I don't believe the doors were ever closed, even at night, which made me a little uneasy, even though our doors were locked) it is packed with mosquitoes, and I am PRAYING that our rooms don't have the same kind of bug population! Our "hostess" is named Pamela and she seems very frazzled and stressed and smiles very little. Later in the week we'll find out why. Eventually we get our room keys and Nancy and I are on the 2nd floor--we drag our bags up and get settled.

It's not a bad room--tile floor, 2 beds with 2 mosquito nets hanging above. A "hotel-y" picture hanging on the wall, a tv(!), a fan. The sheets on the bed seem clean enough, there's fuzzy blankets on each bed. The bathroom is small but not disgusting--honestly, it's a lot better than I was imagining when I was planning this trip! There's a closet and a chair, Nancy and I kind of claim sides and take out some of our things. Then it's off to dinner--well, to wait for dinner. We're sitting out at these tables--plastic white ones like you'd get for cheap for your backyard, and as it gets darker and darker we are still waiting for our meals...finally someone takes our orders and I think around 7:30 or 8 we actually eat dinner. It's really kind of nice out there on the patio--trees and flagstones, but oddly enough no lights. The light from the bar/restaurant kind of illuminates our area but I will come to get used to eating in semi-darkness. I have no idea what I order that first night, I am SO tired. I think it's baked chicken and the ever-present french fries. Did I tell you about Top-Up? It's Ugandan ketchup and it is SKETCHY!!! It looks like you took Xavier's red Fisher Price Farm and melted it down and put it into a bottle with a big tomato on it and claimed it was ketchup! It is gelatinous and translucent and totally scary! Some of the others love it, but I stay away, salt on my fries works just fine, thanks! The chicken is fine but really scrawny, not a lot of meat on the bones so you have to work really hard to get anything going. After we eat we have a brief meeting and then its off to bed until breakfast at 7...I totally crash around 10 even though Nancy's still up with the light on, I'm just too tired to care or even notice!