Safe and Sound

Well I am here in Uganda now. I arrived last night at about 8 pm and it was relatively uneventful. The only real glitch in the whole thing was that my suitcase was 9 lbs overweight. I told the lady at the counter that I would just pay the extra amount and leave the extra 9 pounds in as it was too much effort to squeeze anymore in my carry-on. She then told me that it would be a base cost of $150 ($50 for each airport I was passing through), and I figured that I could find a way to jam a little more into my carry-on. It meant that my carry-on was so full it wouldn't fit in the overhead things but it was worth the lack of foot space for $150.

Here in Uganda things are great but still a little surreal. Maybe its the little bit of jet lag or maybe it's just because right now I am staying in the noisy unfamiliar capital with my friend Titus and his family. His uncle is a very generous man who has a whole bunch of his orphaned nieces and nephews staying with him. Last night was a tough sleep as I am just not used to all the sounds that are going on outside. There was so many cars and horns as well as people going in and out of their gated compounds. Because the city isn't overly safe Titus's uncle has a place that has a locked gate complete with broken glass along the top of the fence to keep people out. Everytime that I heard someone rattle their gate I thought someone was coming into our compound and I would look out the window. I was also greatly distracted by the world's largest cockroach which was hanging out right next to my head and I was worried that it was going to end up crawling across my face at some point! I didn't sleep very well or very long but I am hoping that tonight I will just crash and have a really good sleep. I plan to head to Mbrara on the weekend as I would like to do a few things in the capital Kampala yet.