Morning in Entebbe

Landed in Entebbe last night. Usually when I travel, I can find parallels between my destination and some place that is familiar to me; this was much more difficult when I landed here. Maybe it was the fact that I hadn’t slept in 24 hours, plus landing at night in a strange country, but it all felt alien. The smell is the first thing that hit me; rich, verdant. Uganda is apparently highly agriculturally based, and based on how it smells, it shows. It was not unpleasant; if anything it reminded me of a warmer, more humid Iowa. I assume some of the farmers burn off their fields, since there was a hint of smoke in the air.
Got out and got through customs quickly; apparently we could have bypassed a significant line if I had known that that line was to purchase visas, which we all already had. Of course, nothing was signed to indicate this, but oh well. Had the common feeling of panic until I saw my luggage come off the rack, of course it was one of the last out of the plane….
Glad we had a driver waiting at the airport to take us to the hotel- the lobby was filled with 20 or so young men looking for taxi fares. Nothing aggressive, with a polite no they were quick to turn away, but we had to wade through a couple rows of them when leaving the airport.
Apparently I thought I was going to drive the shuttle bus, since I tried to get in the right front side; for future reference they do indeed use the other side of the car and road when driving. Not much to say about Entebbe at night, aside from the sharply lit government buildings up on the hill. We had landed in a flat valley surrounded as far as I could tell with low hills.
Struck me that I was in an entirely different country when we arrived to the hotel, the BOMA in Entebbe. The driver pulled up to the wooden gate set into a surrounding fence, only to have the gate opened by a young security officer packing a rifle. I don’t know if I was more reassured that they were prepared for any trouble, or concerned that they thought they needed it. There has been some riots several weeks ago in Kampala; to my limited understanding something involving the monarchy of one of the main clans and restriction of travel of their leader. According to our driver, of course, they were small and not an issue, which does fit with everything I saw when looking through local news over the last several weeks.
The hotel itself is wonderful; of course after traveling for 2 days and lack of sleep, any place horizontal and soft probably sounded wonderful. Main lodge was done up almost lodge style, with open dark beams overhead and intervening stucco. Had a separate room set back through the lodge, passing through to the back of the lot and into a separate building housing Cameron and John’s room and my own. Bed was an enormous four posted construction draped with mosquito netting; reassuring, since I can’t seem to find the ones I packed…. And, best of all, plenty of hot water!
Promptly collapsed in bed, only to wake up 4 hours later. My body, despite being exhausted, apparently still wanted to function on Portland Time. It would almost be easier if it was a straight 12 hour time difference, since I could easily say four o’clock is too darn early to wake up, but having to do the math when I’m half asleep doesn’t work too well.
Today we get to travel more; 5 hours drive to Mbarara. Good thing I’m here for several weeks, since I would not want to make the trek from Portland anytime soon.