ROAD TO ENTEBBE

Uganda Log: Sunday 1 November 2009

This morning we ate breakfast at the Guest House: Rwenzori View at 7 am. Nate went to an ATM but the machine “ate” his credit card. He never got it back, nor did he get his 700,000 Ugandan Shillings so I used my old VISA card so that we had shillings to buy gas to get to Entebbe. We discovered that again we were loosing brake fluid and had to jerry-rig another brake fluid cap at the service station where we got gas. The drama never seemed to end.

We pulled out of Fort Portal at 8:35 am and drove for five hours through some heavy rains then headed over to Entebbe via Kampala. The rain let up as we got into Kampala. Check out the cows in the middle of the road as we try to navigate through Kampala to get down to Entebbe.

As we drove aside Lake Victory on our way to the Entebbe Airport, Nate attempts to point our the Air France Flight 139 aircraft that was the target of the 1976 counter-terrorist Raid on Entebbe.

We stopped for a nice buffet at the The Windsor Lake Victoria Hotel in Entebbe. We arrived at the airport and bid farewell to Nate and P.J. who would be staying through until Thursday to finish up some business at Makerere University. We were an hour and a half early at the airport, only to find that the “system” was down and they had to do everything by hand but they promised to hold the plane. We lifted off an hour and a half late and didn't check in to the Millennium Hotel in Dubai until after 2 am. So Erin and I had to sleep quick and for only about 3 hours. But, as on the way there, the accommodations were very nice.

Uganda Log: Monday 2 November 2009

Erin and I flew from Dubai to San Francisco. It was a pretty smooth 16 hour flight. Marjolein, a bio-engineer PhD from the Netherlands who's doing a post-doc at Stanford and working at a gait clinic in Minneapolis, picked us up at the airport. We ordered a pizza , watched the 5th game of the world series, went to bed early, and slept through the night.

Uganda Log: Tuesday 3 November 2009

I took the last leg of my journey from San Jose Airport to O'Hare Field in Chicago, not without some additional drama, but not enough to mention on this blog.

Mary wanted to buy me a fancy camera to take with on this trip, but I told her I wasn't a photographer and if I were to bring a camera that wouldn't fit in my pocket, I wouldn't take it because I didn't want to lug anything extra around with me. So just about all the pictures and video clips (except for the few borrowed from Erin, P.J., and Blackie) were taken with my little Sony Cyber-shot camera. It was enough to capture enough memories to last me a lifetime and to share with all of my friends online.

Finally, I'd like to thank Nate and Erin for inviting me along on this adventure. It was a wonderful opportunity and I enjoyed every minute. My love for them and respect for their research has risen to a new level.