I left home on Dec 27 2012, and after a delay in Detroit, an unexpected trip to Canada, New Years in Amsterdam, and a transfer in Cairo, I finally landed in Entebbe Uganda at 3:40 am on Jan 4th.
Landing in Entebbe at night felt like landing in the stars. Looking out the window, first it was dark blackness, then, one by one as if the clouds parted below me, I saw one, then two, then many little lights scattered in the dark.
Unlike Chicago and Amsterdam, there were no grid or web-like patterns of lights to spot and identify as ground. Instead, like stars, each small light stood on its own. With nothing on which to base my perception of space I was not prepared for the jerk of landing. The wheels touching the ground startled me as the heavens met earth.
When I walked off the plane towards the airport I was released from the body odor smell of the plane and met with the aroma of open air and dust.
With the only light source in view being the airport building in front of me, it was hard to fully realize where I was. Assured by the red earth beneath my feet, I began to let the travel tenses settle: 8 days after leaving home, I had finally arrived in Uganda.
After receiving my visa and searching for my bag, I was met by someone from the school, a welcome face among the all the signs and taxi drivers. A blur of a car ride later, I found myself tip toeing through a hallway of a Convent, trying hard not to wake the other students.
When I finally laid my head down it was after 4am. I had some how figured out how to set up the mosquito net around my bed, and yet had failed to figure out a way to cool myself off. Encouraged by the crowing of the first rooster of the morning, and the foreign chatters and squabbles of the birds, I eventually, finally, fell asleep.
Landing in Entebbe at night felt like landing in the stars. Looking out the window, first it was dark blackness, then, one by one as if the clouds parted below me, I saw one, then two, then many little lights scattered in the dark.
Unlike Chicago and Amsterdam, there were no grid or web-like patterns of lights to spot and identify as ground. Instead, like stars, each small light stood on its own. With nothing on which to base my perception of space I was not prepared for the jerk of landing. The wheels touching the ground startled me as the heavens met earth.
When I walked off the plane towards the airport I was released from the body odor smell of the plane and met with the aroma of open air and dust.
With the only light source in view being the airport building in front of me, it was hard to fully realize where I was. Assured by the red earth beneath my feet, I began to let the travel tenses settle: 8 days after leaving home, I had finally arrived in Uganda.
After receiving my visa and searching for my bag, I was met by someone from the school, a welcome face among the all the signs and taxi drivers. A blur of a car ride later, I found myself tip toeing through a hallway of a Convent, trying hard not to wake the other students.
When I finally laid my head down it was after 4am. I had some how figured out how to set up the mosquito net around my bed, and yet had failed to figure out a way to cool myself off. Encouraged by the crowing of the first rooster of the morning, and the foreign chatters and squabbles of the birds, I eventually, finally, fell asleep.