First Impressions

After a very long an arduous trip that included two stops and three planes we landed in Entebbe, Uganda on Wed. at noon. Thanks to a very kind young Ugandan women we had litte trouble getting through customs and retreaving our luggage.

Father Fredric met us at the entrance with another Father and a sister. They had brought a truck with a back seat. The luggage was all wrapped and tied in the back and we all piled into the vehicle. Carolee, the nun and I were but check to but check in the back seat. I had my backpack on my lap because ther was no other room for it.

There is a feast of experiances going on as you travel around by car in Ugand and Tanzania. First they have the steering wheel on the right side of the car and drive on the left side of the road, most of the time, or should I say quite a bit of the time.

The streets are pretty much only two lanes but seems to not matter. I think that I would not of been as calm at I was if I had been setting in the front seat. We seemed to fly down the road swerving around other slow large vehicles, people on moter bikes, bicykles and walkers The problem is that the vehiles coming toward you are doing the same thing. So quit a bit of the time you are facing several cars, trucks and motor bikes coming right at you. Everyone seems to be able to sort themselves out getting around each other before the next layer of vehicles come at you.

Add to this experiance the outdoor markets that are open everywhere you are trveling on all the roads. It is like all the stores have been turned inside out. The bright color of the merchndise, the clothes that people are wearing, the kinds and veriaty of all that is for sale just a few feet from us as we make our road dance with the cars heading at us,

Now add to this that they use cows and goats to eat the grass because there are no lawn mowers. They do not need them. They have cows and goats to eat there grass. And the cows have big giant horns which they are fliping around when they move there head right next to the vehicle you are in driving down the road dodging the cars, trucks, motor cycle and people coming straight at you trying to get around slow moving everything else but you.

The roads in Unganda are mostly paved. Where they are not we travel on gravel roads and red dirt roads that hae lots of big holes in that you wonder how the vehicle that you are traveling in can even not fall in them, except I think we are flying over them.

Crossing the border was quit interesting. We were met there by the Asistant to the Bishop of Northwestern Synod of the Lutheran Church of Tanzania, his wife and a driver...in a jeep.

The road at the border was not paved. It had rained, the road is packed red mud and it was a forist of semi's lined up to cross in both directions. We weaved are way around the big vehicles trying to stay out of the big holes in the road.

We had to stop on the Uganda side, fill out paperwork and be approved to leave . Then we walked across the border while our vehicle traversed between the big trucks and entered the building for Tanzania. We fild out the information on the Tanzanian side had everything approved and had our fingureprints didgitally taken. I had that done three times in twenty-four hours. Interesting!

We then found place to have to two vehicles park so the luggage can be transfered from the truck to the top of the jeep. Then we all five piled into the jeep and finished the trip to the vocational school.
I am having a great amount of trouble getting on the computer and the phone..  trying to work them out.  Please share with Paul so he can also share with the rest of my family.  Got lots to tell.

Next will be about the school and the people.
love sharen