The latest adventures...

More adventures, and we're back to blogging, but I'm moving it over here:  http://erilu3.wordpress.com/2014/06/20/the-gr10/

Cheers!
E

Where I lived

Me and Stephanie, clothes line, and unfinished guest house.

Living in Uganda was excellent.  We lived in a town called Lugazi, with the family who was the head of the organization we worked for.  The house was being built as the family's home, headquarters/office for YOFAFO(the organization), and housing for volunteers - as I understand it, this is all donated by a previous volunteer.  The volunteer housing was still being worked on while we were there - so we lived in the house with the family - which had a 2 year old boy and baby girl, bahahahaha- I am not used to little kids!  They were great and a wonderful family, but by the end I was kind of over the whole screaming small child bit ;)

Mama and baby Beth

Joe.

There was a cook/house-cleaner, and a couple of ladies that did the laundry - pretty awesome actually.  We were getting spoiled!  The don't wash underwear though, you have to wash your own; and it can't go on the line outside, so we would have to hang it up in our room - kind of odd, and funny.

Doing laundry

cooking in banana leaves

The kitchen

Along with the volunteer quarters not being finished, neither was the kitchen, so they cooked outside at the side of the house.  To cook they have multiple smallish square metal boxes that the charcoal goes in, then the pot or kettle or pan, etc will either sit right on the coals or on a screen.  To cook most things they first wrap it in banana leaves then put them in the pots, and they cook for long periods of time.

Construction, a more finished guest house.

A ladder. I've never had a problem climbing these, but I'm not sure you'll catch me on this one!

Congratulations United, you've lost me

I have been flying on United Airlines my whole life; I would have to say that my family - my entire extended family - are pretty loyal United customers, the whole Mileage Plus card and all that, everyone has 'em.  (which I must say, has worked out pretty good for me and my travels, and I'm appreciative of that)  Up until this year I don't recall having any really terrible experiences to speak of.  Over the last few years it has seemed like everyone has had a bad experience to share about United, and I've always "stuck up" for them, so to speak, as I've never had one.
Unfortunately, my last two experiences are basically negating all of that.  Over the last two weeks I've spent so much time in the Dulles/Wash DC airport I may as well have just set up camp!  On my way home from my Africa trip two weeks ago, my stop was in DC with a 3 hour layover.  At the boarding time there were mechanical difficulties so they delayed us.  After some deliberation they decide to board us, we then false started twice and sat on the airplane for 3 hours!  Then we de-planed, were moved to another gate waited another hour or so, boarded another plane, and waited for another hour or so on the plane.  This whole ordeal was about 6 hours, for a grand total of 9 flippin' hours!  As you can imagine my patience was toast.  However, I was more or less willing to forgive this as one of those 'shit happens' occasions, as mechanical issues just happen and need to be taken care of.  Though, making us sit on the plane for 3 hours really is not cool.
But, then today happened.  Which actually happens to be the exact same flight on the same day of the week, so maybe flight 251 on Thursday is just cursed, I don't know.  I'm on my way home from North Carolina, and tipped off that there may be trouble when I check in at the Raleigh airport and they can't give me my boarding pass/seat assignment for the 2nd leg of the trip.  In DC all looks fine with the flight, it's on time, I check at the gate and they tell me to come back in an hour.  An hour later they tell me they'll call names for the seating assignments, fine.  But, then they start saying the flight is full and asking for volunteers to give up their seats, still not too concerned as I'm thinking "no problem, I booked this a long time ago, no reason I wouldn't get a seat." Oh, but how wrong I was!  Normally I would take advantage of this deal - yay for free travel, but I need to be home on Friday during business hours, not the evening.  They get down to final boarding, and I still haven't been called, seriously getting concerned now, oh, and the door closes, boarding is OVER.  W.T.F.  I am astonished, in complete disbelief, what is going on; I was booked on this flight, not on stand-by, booked...months ago.  How am I not sitting on that plane right now?  This happens when you're on stand-by, not booked!  Then they just hand us (yes us - it wasn't like there were two people, there were more like 10) voucher info and tell us to go see customer service.  Um, excuse me, but you just didn't put me on my plane - I require more explanation thank you very much!  Turns out they down-sized our aircraft and then couldn't fit everyone they had booked on it!  I'm willing to forgive 'shit happens' scenarios, and weather issues, obvious things that are out of our control, but seriously airline - you chose to do this, so now I take issue.  I then wait 2 1/2 hours in the customer service line to sort out getting home.  First try gets me home Friday night - no, that's too late, second try is Friday night again - I just said that was too late, I have to be home during business hours.  There isn't anything - bullshit, don't tell me there isn't any way you can route me through San Francisco, you have two flights going there still tonight and there are tons of SF to PDX flights everyday!  Oh, and we get one - fly to SF tonight, United puts me up in a hotel and I fly to Portland on an Alaska flight in the morning.  Plus food voucher and $400 travel voucher. Fine.  I get into SF at almost 1am and have to go wait in the customer service line again, only to be told that there are no hotels, they're all booked right now, but I can go try to find one myself and United will reimburse me up to $65.  I'm sorry, is this a joke?  United bumps me off my flight and I have to pay for somewhere to stay?  Or stay in the airport?  Not to mention it's 1:30 in the morning and I have to be back at the airport at 6am.  Holy balls!  And the answer to all of the above is Yes, but not an apologetic, good customer service yes; a short, snarky, too bad, I need to take a customer service class yes.  At this point it's like 1:45am, which is like 4:45am east coast, and I haven't slept at all and am so frustrated and pissed.  So, I end up telling her how disappointed I am in United these days, which is something I kind of hate when people do - customer service reps for big companies are usually so removed from any decision making about this that they can't help you and it won't get to the people who matter anyway.  But, I did it anyway and got more snark! "Well I guess it's good that your flight in the morning is on Alaska". Seriously, I think my jaw dropped.  Are you kidding me?  United, how about you work on some customer service training instead of your new logo with Continental?  Fuck.  Yes, F-word; it's 3am, I'm sitting in an airport overnight, headed toward 24 hours without sleep, my teeth are furry and my contacts are glued to my eyeballs, I'm entitled to some swearing :)

Humorous travel tip: don't wear all white when traveling (yes, this seems very 'duh', I know).  I happen to be wearing all white, (honestly I'm not really sure why as I wouldn't even do this at home) so of course I'm spending the night in the airport, which means I'm sure I'll be looking super clean and crisp in the morning; ahahahah, silly me.  And of course you'll inevitably spill on yourself; awesome, just awesome.

Ok, end of rant.

Uganda

Uganda is a beautiful place; it's been called the pearl of Africa - whether or not this is true I really can't say yet, but it is quite nice.  In fact it actually reminds me of Oregon in a way - lots of green, but Uganda has the tropical thing going on.  It's very lush and green, set off by the red dirt.  We were surrounded by trees, grasses, palm trees, various types of banana trees, sugar cane fields, and we saw pineapple plants, avocado and mango trees. I didn't see many flowers though, just a lot of green. There are also animals all over the place, farm animals.  Lots of goats and chickens, cows, some pigs.  As you walk down the road the goats and cows are tied up and grazing, while the chickens, chicks, and occasional ducks are roaming around.

First day, driving with the window down - not a tan or a burn, just covered in red dirt!

The people are pretty fantastic, whether you're in town or in a village.  In towns and the city they're more used to seeing mzungus, than in the village, so you get a slightly different response, but they're all usually very welcoming. Ugandans are proud of they're country and excited to share it with visitors, they hope we enjoy it as much as they do.  Everyone wanted to know where we were from and what we thought of Uganda, and share their favorite things.  Though we get some strange questions and some curious looks, it's all good. 

Goat

I had some women be absolutely in awe of my hair, some in the villages have never seen anything like it, and think it's the most beautiful thing (which, I assure you, by our standards it's a dreadful, dirty mess).  And the kids are in awe of the fact that we have body hair, freckles and moles, and tattoos!  This was pretty funny.  Africans appear to have very littly hair on their bodies, so my hairy arms (and yes, I'll admit it, legs too - shaving in a cold shower is rather unpleasant, and therefore did not happen often) were very interesting - which was funny until they started trying to pull it out!  Tattoos were a whole other crazy thing - they even found mine, which I didn't think they'd see. They pick and rub at them - I suppose trying to fugure out what the heck that is!

Stephanie getting examined

I spent all of my time in the southern part of the country, which was fantastic, but unfortunately did not have time to explore the rest.  I saw the capital city, Kampala, a bit of the up and coming Entebbe - where the airport is, rafted the Nile in Jinja, and spent time working and living in a few different towns and villages.  There is plenty more to see though - lake areas, mountains and forests in the west where you can go Gorilla trekking (heard it's amazing) and Murchison Falls and other important towns in the north, which I hope to go back and see at some point.  The conflict in the north has recently ended, so it is still coming back, but it's supposed to be fine to visit, just check before you go.  Kampala has also been experiencing some new issues lately, that started up right when I got there.  They weren't effecting anything outside of the capital as of the time I left - my fingers are crossed that it gets taken care of quickly and doesn't become something to deter people from visiting.  Uganda, and east africa in general, are an excellent introduction to Africa.

In Jinja, at the Nile

Uganda is a beautiful place, with plenty to do and see...you should go!

Boob attack

So, I have this sort of pet peeve at home, that totally slapped me in the face in Uganda.  As many of you know, I have a strong dislike for breast feeding in public - if you're covered that's one thing, but don't just whip it for everyone!  Well, in Uganda, boobs are no big deal; in fact I would say they are only seen as a means of feeding babies - and no one cares about them otherwise.  Women with babies will literally just pull them out anywhere, in front of anyone - family, friends, strangers, anyone, like it's nothing.  I look over, and suddenly there's a boob, with or without a baby attached, just hanging out.  I talked to a woman who just left it hangin' there, long after the baby was done with it; I had to resist the urge to be like, "so, ya gonna put that away, or what?"
Bras, especially amongst the ladies with babies, are like a maybe, sometimes thing.  And, oh, btw, they sell them in the Wednesday market on the side of the road (next to the Arsenal or Man U underwear, of course). Oh and I'm pretty sure the two year old I lived with is a bit confused now about what is public vs. private property, after seeing mom bust 'em out.  Whoa buddy, do NOT pull down my tank top!

34 hours and one brokedown mess later....

I made it to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania at 1am.  This was supposed to be a 30 hour bus ride from Uganda to Dar, stopping to switch in Nairobi, Kenya which is crazy enough, but I figured, what the hell eh?
First bus was about an hour later than I thought it would be, I got on it and literally cringed.  Ok, fine, I'm in Africa, the second part is longer, bus is probably a little better....hahahhaha!  We get to Nairobi and about 5am, bus is supposed to leave at 6; 6:30 rolls around...7, announcement - your bus will be here in 20 min, 7:30 - your bus will be here shortly....and we finally leave about 8am.  The bus pulls up, you're joking right - it's totally shit, I'm thinking this bus is not gonna make it to Dar, but I'm in Africa and that's just how it is.  The seats were incredibly dirty (cringing again), but strangely there was plenty of leg room and they reclined nicely for sleeping without squashing the person behind you, um, cool.  We were barely outside of the city when, for some reason, we start turning around right after we pull off onto another road....um, wrong turn, wtf?  Mind you, this was like a crazy 18-point turn on a very small road (in a large bus) where either side of it sloped down to a ditch.  And, then the bus dies.  Awesome, yet somehow not surprised.  Driver and co-driver get out, then some male passengers....waiting, still no one comes back to tell us anything....then more passengers get off....a friend I met at the station tells me she thinks they're sending another bus for us.....NOT!  The repair truck shows up, after a long time and several tries it finally croaks to a start.  Yea/shit - it started, but that means we have to stay on this broke-ass mess of a bus, hmmm.  Oh, and the technician is riding with us the rest of the way :)
You know the sound your car makes when you're shifting gears and don't quite get the clutch in all the way - yeah, that's the noise it made...alot...and on a large bus scale...really reassuring.  Oh, and then we attempt to turn around again.  First, he goes backwards/sideways down this incline that actually makes it seem like the bus WILL tip over on it's side - even the Africans were worried, not a good sign.  We finally managed to turn around, but it was not pretty.  Enter the bumpy road from hell, that also feels like the bus will tip...thankfully this stretch did not last too long.
Next stop, border crossing, where they make you be in a big hurry to get through everything, only to wait for them to work on the bus for another half hour.  At this point even the other passengers are saying it will be a miracle if this bus makes it to Dar...and we are soooo behind schedule.  Showing up in Dar at 9pm, not ideal, but fine; showing up to Dar at midnight is very low on my priority list - especially by myself.  However, I did make plenty of friends on the bus that I'm fairly certain would not have let anything happen to me :)
We stop in Arusha at a gas station, which we thought was a quick snack and bathroom break, silly me.  After a bit we pull to the side of an entrance and suddenly there are a handful of guys up in the drivers area messing with the windshield.  Then there's some metal pieces, and a torch appears....really guys? we're ON the bus.  By the way, it's an older guy and two kids that look about 14, that start apparently trying to weld the windshield...? At this point I just start laughing and take out my camera because this has become straight comical; there's nothing you can do about it so you may as well just laugh.  The welding is not going well, then yet another guy shows up that seems to have a better grip on this business and takes charge.  He wants to bend these small metal plates, so how does he do it?  He places them on the buses hand rail and hammers them, duh, what else would you do?  Honestly, if I was this abused bus I would revolt too.

Driving along, horrible sound - like a metal panel has come off and bounced down the road.  Passengers - concerned, what WAS that?  Bus people - no reaction.  OK.  We pull off at a weight station - where they first adjust some of the passengers so we can pass - then we pull over and people are getting off the bus again.  Seriously? now what?  Oh, that noise...it was the tire!  We spend another half hour changing a tire, unbelievable.
Everytime we slowed down or stopped I was crossing my fingers that the damn thing would get going again, we did finally make it, against all odds.  Oh, and whenever it was accelerating it made this horrible jet engine noise, it's a miracle I'm not deaf now.
Spent the one night in Dar, walked down to the ferry port the next day and got my ass over to beautiful Zanzibar as quickly as possible.  It's been a bit rainy in the mornings the past couple of days, but it's all good.

I'llll be the-ere...

What's that from?  That's right, Baywatch!  They have Baywatch here, and I watched it, lol.Unfortunately this episode did not have Pam.  I have insomnia apparently, but last night I managed to find Sports Center, and realized I have no idea of what's going on.  And then there was the news this morning - all the tornadoes, shit!  Stacy are you back in Portland yet?  Please get out of Arkansas, same to anyone else I know in that part of the country.