let us begin at the beginning, or should I say, the false start. after weeks of planning and anticipation, i spent the entire first day of my vacation stranded at baltimore-washington airport, suffering through one flight delay/cancellation after another. it was so incredibly frustrating and sad to have to head back home as the day came to a close, but i was up and back at t early the next day -- this time leaving from reagan and connecting through boston and amsterdam and, at long last, to entebbe, uganda late friday evening. the long and grueling trip faded away as i spied amber in the airport reception area, grinning from ear to ear, and positively glowing from the excitement of her month's work at the main assessment center at mulago hospital in kampala.
while our trip from entebbe to kampala was along darkened streets, i was awestruck by the roadside stands - fires blazing, music blaring, and locals gathered round - that stood end to end along the way. it would take daylight to reveal just how primitive these markets and eateries truly are, but they represent a substantial segment of ugandan commerce.
we arrived quite late to a very warm welcome from the assembled doctors, nurses, researchers, grad students and midwives who comprised the residents of the johns hopkins house. situated in a relatively affluent neighborhood in kampala, the house was clean, comfortable and approximated most of the comforts of western living (the razorwire and armed guard in the little hut driveway was a bit off putting but, as i came to appreciate, a necessary resource). this had been amber's base throughout her stay, and would serve the same for me, although we planned to hit the road and travel soon enough.
the hopkins 'compound'
we arose saturday morning with plans to finalize the details of our sightseeing excursions with our driver and guide, david. amber (or "julie the cruise director" as she came to be known) had done an amazing job of planning our trip and, with the exception of some uncertainty about the opportunity to track gorillas, everything was set! we confirmed with david an early departure monday morning, then set out on a walk around the neighborhood to begin to explore kampala. unfortunately, after spending an only an hour or so at our first destination - kisementi - the skies opened and the rain poured down. we tried to wait it out, but finally gave in and called for a driver to take us back to the house.
when we returned, we learned that our housemates wanted to join us for an outing on sunday, but there was much debate as to how that time might be spent. some of the group wanted to head up to jinja, while others were more interested in heading ngamba island's chimpanzee sanctuary. since amber and i had tentative plans to visit jinja at the end of our trip (and most of the other residents had already been there), we made plans to head to ngamba on sunday...
... more soon ...
