2/3 of the way there!

We are currently in the town of Entebbe, which is about 35 kilometers away from Kampala....our final destination. The driver for Health Volunteers Oversees will not drive the road at night because it is dangerous, so we had to stay the night at the Botanical Gardens in the city where the airport is. Believe it or not, we are in exactly the same room that we stayed in last year. It has a beautiful view of the hotel facing Lake Victoria that we finally got to see when the sun came up this morning.

The plane rides were very long, but pretty uneventful. From St. Paul to Amsterdam I watched 3 movies I've been meaning to watch; Gran Torino - didn't think it was that great until I realized how attached I became to the characters and cried for the last 5 minutes of it, Slumdog Millionaire - as great as I was expecting and more, plus it reminds me of the kids I see running around Kampala, and Madagasgar 2 - let's be honest, I needed to get my self in the mood for a safari! We slept on and off at the Amsterdam airport in the comfy lounge chairs and then for most of the plane ride to Kampala too! The flight was probably not even half full so we had plenty of room to sprawl out in multiple seats. I'm surprised I'm not more sore from all the strange positions I was crunched up into.

We already are feeling the affects of Jet Lag! Last night we went to sleep at 10 and planned on getting up at 6:30. The first time I woke up I thought it had to be close. When I looked at my watched I was happy to see midnight....I could sleep a little longer. It turns out all three of us woke up at least every hour and a half. By three thirty I was just mad that I couldn't sleep but the sun wasn't up yet! Once we finally feel back to sleep at about 5, we all slept until 7:20 - Ross turned off his alarm because we thought we would wake up, but at least we slept for a long time. Now we're headed down to enjoy a tasty buffet style breakfast (if it is anything like it was last year, it's amazing!) and then Anderson will come and pick us up in the HVO jeep and we will find out which of the three houses we will be staying in.

I love the people here! A guy at the airport came up and shook my hand to welcome me back to Uganda - I have no idea how he knew I've been here before. Rachel asked the woman from the hotel for the sign with our names on it and she said she couldn't give it to her. Then she walked all the way to the parking lot to explain to Rachel that she needed to give it to the people at the hotel when she came back because she felt bad. It is sometimes hard to tell if people are just that nice or if they are nice because we are American and they want to take advantage, because that does happen a lot. I like to think that people are just nice because they are that way. Call me optimistic, but I am going to try to keep a positive attitude with a only a hint of skeptism. I can't wait to get to Kampala and settle in for our next three weeks! I don't know if we will have internet access or how good it will be, but I will write again when I get the chance!