Africa: Day 5

Saturday April 15

We woke up early for another game drive. We are so glad that we got up so early, because we saw so many animals. The best times to see the animals, we were told, are in the early mornings and in the evening.

It was so early that the sun was still down and there were hovering clouds. There were way way more animals. We saw the crested crane (Uganda National Bird - video featured below), a HUGE hippo bum, a giant steroid Eland, a ton more topi, antelopes, impala, cape buffalo, cows, warthogs, baboons, zebras.

The craziest part about the morning was the track. Since we had such an intense rainstorm the day before, the tracks were huge mud puddles. We were taking a few tracks that hadn't been

taken in a while and they were difficult to navigate through.

Lou did an incredible job driving the truck and getting us through the huge puddles. Down one stretch, there were such deep pools of mud that we didn't know what was beneath them. Lou tried going through drier patches to avoid them, but ended up being a MASSIVE mud bog. We could have been stuck with no way to push out of the bog, but he just kept plowing through.

We almost ran over this poor turtle, and luckily Lou swirved right in time (as you can see the deep tread marks from the tires of the truck). We were happy he didn't, because well, obviously it saved the little guys life, but also, we hadn't seen a turtle and were beginning to wonder if they lived in Africa. And next to the turtle, that may look like a huge divet/stick in the middle of the rode...but it's not. It's a massive entourage of ants. Gross. We still loved the safari though! It was such a blast and incredible to be so close to the animals!! We sat on the door and took pictures out of the window. Love!

So we saw a bunch more animals, clearly, and then we went back to the lodge. We had some breakfast and packed up or bags and parted with the awesome Mihingo Lodge.

This is the awesome zebra gate to enter/exit the park. We didn't take a picture when we went in, but we did when we left. So, here it is! The crew! Lou, Jeri, Me & Collin. On the way back, we stopped at the Equator again and got smoothies, but not like the thick ones from Jamba Juice. They were made of fruit like bananas and pineapple, but they were super thin. The funny thing is I got full way before I even reached halfway. Back in Kampala, it was getting late, so we just stayed inside (it can be kinda dangerous if you're out late at night). We watched a family video and then Collin's sister's wedding video. That helped us relax, so then we went to bed. Even though we thought we got over the jetlag at Mihingo, our sleeping schedule was totally off and were lucky to get a few hours of sleep.

Africa: Day 4

Friday May 14

(This tree doesn't have any special significance, other than it's an awesome African Tree!)

We woke up early to get on the road for Lake Mburo National Park/Mihingo Lodge. Lou drove us in their Nissan truck, we took the Northern Bypass (one of their "highways") and we saw all the hustle and bustle of the town. People walk, ride bike, drive "boda bodas" all along the roads. No matter how busy the street is. There aren't many laws, hardly any lines on the road, and its pretty much a free for all. A lot of swerving, braking, getting cutoff, cutting off, accelerating and the like.

Everyone is dressed so nice though. They may only have a few things to wear and live in a tiny shack without electricity, but they sure do take care of themselves and always look presentable with nice clothes and hair done. It's amazing. There are tons of people selling things on the side of the road too. Gourds. Baskets. Fruit. Veggies. Fish. Trinkets. Shoes. Clothes. Everything.

We passed a ton of people that would just wave to us and smile. They have a name for "white faces" ... "Mzugu." So the little ones would get a huge smile and say "Hi, Mzungus." We bought a bushel of bananas of 2000 shilling ($1) so that we could take a picture of an adorable 8 yr old boy who was selling them. Then anytime we passed by kids working on the side of road, we would give them bananas (and take a picture). We wanted a picture of this man selling huge talapia fish out in the open, but he said he wanted 4000 for it. we gave him 1000 (50 cents).

We came to the town where the Equator crosses through. A man gave a demonstration how the water flows clockwise on the North, then counter-clockwise on the south and just straight down when right on the Equator. Apparently you weigh 3% less on the Equator too. He gave us some fun facts!

In that little village, we went through some shops and then went on our way. A few hours later we arrived at Lake Mburo National Park. We took the windy clay road to a huge zebra painted gate to get inside the park. The road got windier and windier. Then we started seeing animals. Everywhere. Pumba warthogs would cross the road right in front of the car on the road. We also saw some cape buffalo, cows that wouldn't move out of the middle of the road. It was amazing to have so many right in front of us with just the car separating us. I loved it.

We got to the Mihingo Lodge and were greeted by Katie (the manager's wife) and a worker who took our bags to our rooms so that we could go to the dining room for lunch. There, we were met by more people who served us passion fruit juice and gave us a warm towel to wash our hands and faces. It was such a classy thing, and it set the tone for an incredible stay at this place. Everything was so nicely put together and organized.

We took another another drive to see animals. We saw topi, baboons, zebras, warthogs, cape buffalo, antelope. Every time we saw something, we would point it out and then try to be as quiet as possible so that we wouldn't scare the animals away. The zebras were the most keen because they would hear something and immediately run off. It was a great game drive. We saw way more animals then than when we were driving into the park.

We still had time after that drive to go to the pool that looked out toward a watering hole for the animals. It was awesome. But then, like clockwork after a worker said it was going to rain in 20 minutes, sure enough, it started to sprinkle.

So, we got out of the pool, and instead went on a walk to the "Hide" viewpoint. It was a rather long walk to this little shack they made to seem camouflaged so that visitors could watch animals at a watering hole at a closer prospective.

It was really neat to get a closer look, but just minutes after we got there and sat down inside the little building and on the couch, it started pouring an African rainstorm. POURING! Absolutely incredible. So we were stuck inside this little place, and all the animals at the watering hole took off.

Once it stopped, we made our way back to our rooms through the bush, but before we got there, we came to a huge boulder that looked out across the land to the Lake Kacheera. The view was magnificent.

We got ready for dinner, and waited on the back deck while watching bush babies. One of the workers feeds them bananas at night so that visitors can see them. The bush babies are the cutest little monkey guys with big eyes. We couldn't take any pictures, because we didn't have a night mode, so I just snagged this one off google images.

Dinner was nice and elegant (we had soup they they apparently serve this a lot) and other yummy food I can't remember.

We headed back to our rooms and went to bed. This resort was absolutely phenomenal. I couldn't believe it. Honestly, a paradise right in the middle of the African jungle. The rooms were like adobe huts with tents inside. The beds were great too, each with its own mosquito net. All the rooms are spread out quite a bit, giving more privacy. Ours was names "Lake Kacheera" after the huge lake that was our view out the back deck. I must say, I was a tiny bit nervous, because all the windows were wide open (no curtains/coverings), even the shower and the toilet could be seen from outside.

We had our best nights sleep that night. We were so exhausted but the jetlag didn't get the best of us that night.

Africa: Day 3

Thursday May 13

First bit of information: DO NOT DRINK THE WATER. This was something I had been used to! It was the same situation when I lived in Mexico. I actually don't remember it being this hard though, maybe because I only showered once a week back then. Anyway, back to Africa. We were told not to drink the water. AKA Don't open your mouth in the shower and certainly do not brush your teeth or drink anything from the sink. Good to know.

It was so much harder!

We had a tough time adjusting to the time difference, even though we suffered from serious sleep deprivation from the flights. We woke up at 4am and couldn't sleep, but luckily I purchased some sleeping pills in the US before, just in case. We popped some of those, and then we were out until about 10. Lou and Jeri went to the mission office to work for the first half of the day so they could get some things done before taking time off to take us around the country. Here's what it looks outside their apartment!! And this too!! (It took me forever to upload these pictures and finally had to just put them on youtube)

When we woke up, they had left instructions for breakfast while they were gone. We got ready for the day, ate, and then Lou came back to pick us up. We went to the office to pick up Jeri. We met a slew of missionaries who had been at the office, and also a few people who work there. Susan. AP's. Victoria. Veronica. Some sister missionaries. One of them said "I have a disease, I can't shake hands, I must give hugs to sisters." It was so sweet.

After leaving the office, we drove through town to the International Market. It sort of looked like a secluded area off of the road with a large grassy area in the middle of a row of small shops. There were about 25 or so, and each of them had pretty much the same type of thing inside.

They had painting on fabrics, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, animal statues. All sorts of things. Just a little variation from store to store. When you saw what you were interested in, you'd ask the storekeeper "What's your best price?" and the bargaining would begin.

We found some great things. Everything is made of ebony, mahogany, or soap stone. Well, those are the most popular. Their currency is the shilling, but the exchange rate is crazy. About 2000 Uganda Shilling is equal to $1. We bought all these great animals for about 8000 Shilling and it really is a deal. There was 1 lady who really wanted to sell us some bracelets. It was one of the first stores we went in, so we wanted to look around. She kept trying to sell before we left. I didn't know what to do, so I told her we'd come back. In her lovely African accent, she said "You won't come back." It was kind of funny, but she was right. We spent all our shilling we had exchanged for the day and didn't go back. We said "you won't come back" the whole trip, and it became a little joke. Sad, but funny.

There was another lady we met at the International Market who was an excellent sales woman. She would smile, and touch my arm, hold my hand, talk to Collin, and then to Lou and try, but not be pushy, to sell us. It worked though. We got a few things from her and went on our way to the next one.

Every once in a while, the vendors would call us brother, sister, mama or papa. It was funny to see their tactics to get us into their store. Instead of saying "come in" or "welcome," they all say "You're Welcome" with the same dip in their voice. It was great.

After hitting up both of those markets, we made a quick stop at the Mission Office again, and then back to L&J's apartment where Lou made us a homemade dinner that was delicious. He's such an incredible, creative cook. I need to take some lessons.

This was on the road to/from their apartment! Right in the middle of the road! This was a typical sight!!! So fun!!

They live in a nice apartment in a safer part of town. Their apartment complex has 4 levels, with 2 apartments on each floor. Three of the apartments have Couples from the mission living in them. The Barlow's are Humanitarian missionaries and the Beachley's are Perpetual Education Fund (CES/Seminary/etc) missionaries. And the AP's live in a smaller building right next door, which is like a duplex. They live on one side while the guard (Henry) lives, who also washes the cars and such. We always felt safe with Lou and Jeri. We never stayed out in town late at night and with a guard and big gate to enter their apartment, it was always secure.

Trip of a Lifetime: Days 1&2

Travel Days

Tuesday May 11-Wednesday May 12

Our flight plan was to travel from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis/St. Paul to Amsterdam to Entebbe. With international flights, we had to arrive early and we're glad we did, because not only did we not have to worry about getting through security and the mindless happenings of getting to our gate, but we also ran into a minor issue. Apparently I didn't read the fine print from Delta, but we were supposed to have brought the credit card with which we bought our tickets for security measures. Um, we didn't bring any credit cards. Ok, well, just 1. But not the one with Collin's name on it. My bad. So, it took a few extra minutes to get around that road block, but it was a success!

Our flight left on time at 10:50am and the first leg (SLC to MSP) we smooth sailing. Didn't last long at all. Then again, it was only a few hours. Our second leg was a different story. For no reason (or at least not one good enough to explain to the passengers), the MSP to AMS flight was delayed for about 45 minutes. But once we got in the air, it was a fairly painless flight. Even though it was the longest flight either of us had been on, it seemed to go by with ease, except for the tiny voice in the back of my head that worried about our luggage and whether we would get to AMS in time for our connection to EBB. Shortly after the plane got in the air, the captain mentioned over the P.A. that we would be extending the flight about an hour to make a detour to avoid the Icelandic Volcano situation. During part of the flight, we opened our window at the most perfect time. We saw the sun set over Greenland. It only went down for a half hour or something so it was still fairly light even when it was down. The colors were so vivid and gorgeous though. So, I guess we saw both the sun set and the sun rise.

While we were in the MSP airport before we left, we saw a European family with a cute 3 year old girl. She had the most adorable accent. We got on the plane (keep in mind, this is our long one), and her family was on the same row as us (we were on the side and they were in the middle row). She screamed all the time. And then she'd cry. I felt sorry for the little girl, but this made for a difficult time sleeping. We got through it by watching a bunch of movies (Invictus, Leap Year and Sherlock Holmes). We watched more movies on the plane rides than we have this whole year at home.

We arrive in AMS with just about 1/2 an hour to spare before our departure time for the 3rd and final leg to EBB. Luckily they had someone with a paper saying where all the connecting gates were, so we read that bad boy and booked it through the halls to our gate. We made it, and our last leg went by really quickly too. The final anxiety set in about our luggage, especially since 2 of our suitcases were full of food and such for Lou and Jeri. We got into Entebbe and it only took about 2 minutes at "customs" for a lady to look at our visas/passports. The luggage started coming out, and after only 3 minutes all 3 of our suitcases came out! What a relief. We walked around the corner, and there were Lou and Jeri waiting for us! (funny sidenote: before we deplaned, the flight attendant told us that picture taking was prohibited inside the airport, but right when we saw Jeri, she was taking pictures of us walking through...haha. loved it)

It was a joyful reunion, and I'm so glad we went, because Collin was elated to see his parents. It was about 7:30 pm on Tuesday evening by now, so we loaded our luggage into the Mission Van and the mission driver, Godfrey, drove us from Entebbe to Ntinda where L&J live right outside the capital, Kampala.

The drive was dark, and we couldn't see everything the towns and the landscape had to offer, but we could tell that people were everywhere. And tons of cars on the streets, even late at night. I gazed out the window, catching small glimpses of the lives of Ugandans, that would come to change my life.