Wednesday, July 14 and Thursday June 15 On the Road Again

Wednesday, July 14 and Thursday June 15
On the Road Again

The 7 hour van ride from the Field Station to Entebbe was brutal. Most of the ride was on tarmac roads but not all. Even the main road between Fort Portal and Kampala is under construction. Unlike the US where they might repair one lane at a time, here in Uganda the entire road is ripped apart and what is left is barely navigable by vehicles, which often must come to a complete stop. And don’t expect a state police officer to be directing the traffic, we saw plenty of Ugandan police, but they were too busy looking cool with their shades and AK47s sitting by the side of the road.

Speaking of guns, it has been Christie’s goal for this entire trip to get her picture taken with a guy with an AK47 while holding a copy of Improper Bostonian magazine. This we accomplished late in the day yesterday. When we arrived at the Field Station after teaching, there was a British woman visiting and she was accompanied by 4 park ranger. One of those rangers by the name of Alex was carrying a good-sized gun, so Christie ran to her room to get her magazine. Alex was more than willing to have his picture taken with Janis and Christie and put on his most serious face for the shot. Christie plans on submitting this photo to the magazine for publication. My guess is that this picture has a good chance of making it.

The ride was extremely tiring, but using Pam and Cindy’s room at the Boma as a day room was inspirational, and we thank them for thinking of us. We spent some time at the pool in the Boma while the travelers took showers and rested for about an hour. Dinner at the Boma was one of the best meals we have had all trip; tilapia, lasagna, cheeseburgers, it was all available. We ate on the veranda with the East African Yellow Billed Plantain Easters calling in the trees overhead. Entebbe borders on Lake Victoria and has a huge variety of bird life as we learned about 20 days ago.

We left early for the airport and arrived at about 7:00 for a 9:50 flight. Plenty of time we thought. But KLM’s system was down and they only had 3 agents dealing with two phone lines (the computers are on dial-up) to be able to check us in. The long wait, however, allowed Christie to do some more bead shopping and she leaves Uganda with out a single shilling. After 2 hours in various lines we are finally ready to board our flight to Amsterdam. It’s about 7 hours to Schipol Airport where we have an 6 hour lay over. That could be interesting.

We arrived in Amsterdam about 20 minutes behind schedule. We checked in at the self-service kiosks and then found this area where they have these serious lounge chairs where we can get a quick nap before our flight leaves 5 hours from now. Janis, Chris and Christie still have plans to visit the spa here. This is a full service airport. They have lots of ways of taking your money.

The girls report that the spa was expensive but well worth it. They all started with the massage chairs and then went to the manicure and eventually pedicure. Chris and Christie boarded the airplane to Boston still wearing those paper sandals that are given to allow a pedicure the dry properly. I imagine some pampering is in order at this point for all of us.

We have plans for a get together sometime soon after this trip is over. We have collected video and still pictures in different places and will distribute these on disks once they are organized. When we were at dinner at the Boma (it seems so long ago) Pam asked us each to talk about the trips highlights. Many things were mentioned, Kanyawara Primary School, getting to know Koojo Mathew, Chimp tracking with Zarin, getting close to the Lions of Ishasha, Mugusu Market with our defenders, football at Kigarama and meeting our scholars.

This trip is hard to summarize, because there are so many rich and wonderful parts to it. We are happy and proud to continue to build the Weston-Uganda connection with our students, and keep it strong within the Weston Public Schools. We know also that there will be more teachers to follow. We hope this blog will serve as a resource for them as it will remain for us as we reflect on a life altering experience.

Mwebale muno to all our followers and readers.