The Journey to Jinja

After some bittersweet goodbyes with Mom and Dad at the Louisville airport, I headed for my first flight to Dulles, the first flight I have ever taken alone. It went smoothly, and I met up with Avery at the gate after. Justice came shortly after, and we then headed onto the massive United long haul plane headed for Brussels, a flight that was shortly over 8 hours. That flight went smoothly as well, and we had time to grab some water and packaged Belgian waffles in the airport before Celia arrived from her flight to Chicago. Our next flight was on Brussels Airlines. They had a quirky music video to portray the safety procedures on all of the screens like they do on these big flights. It sure did the job of keeping my attention. The food was also great, and I was able to chat a bit with the guy sitting next to me who lives in England but was from Cameroon originally. This flight was around 11 hours due to the fact that we landed in Burundi for a bit to let people off and board more people.

After making it through customs and grabbing our bags, we met up with Fr. Prosper, the school we will be at's principal and our sort of supervisor. He led us to the truck where we loaded in and headed to Kampala for the night, driving on the left hand side of the road in a slightly more chaotic manner than would be typical in the US. After arriving at the Holy Cross house, we set our stuff down and enjoyed a dinner of rice, potatoes, and some other foods I can't quite remember the names of. Everything was delicious, and we enjoyed some hot showers after. I called Mom (and Dixie, my dog!) before heading to bed, crawling under the mosquito net and trying to get used to having no AC again, this time on the equator. It was hard to fall asleep as it felt like 7pm even though it was 2am, I was missing home, and the roosters were being noisy, but the melatonin gummies eventually did the trick despite the noise of the roosters outside.

The next day, we woke up to some toast, sausages, and eggs for breakfast, accompanied by some African tea and some incredible jam. The jam really hit the spot. We spent probably 4 hours waiting around--reading, updating our blogs, napping, and chatting--while Fr. Prosper filled out a visa. Eventually, we were on the road to Jinja, which Fr. Prosper said would take anywhere from 1-5 hours depending on traffic. We made it in 3 hours, a bit of a scary ride filled with dodging people, boda bodas (scooters/motorcycles), and other cars as we passed into their lane on the right side (they drive on the left here). The ride was really cool, though, with amazing views of Kampala. We also crossed over the Nile River on a bridge that vaguely reminds me of the Lewis and Clark bridge back home (Jinja is considered the source of the Nile!).

  We headed straight to get a tour of Holy Cross Lakeview, the secondary school that would serve as our base. It is called "Lakeview" because the school literally overlooks Lake Victoria, one of the biggest lakes in the world. We stared in amazement at how big it was not just from the outside but from the interior as well, where a sort of interior atrium/patio/courtyard filled the place with greenery. There wasn't near as much decor on the walls as is typical in many American schools, but the views from the windows made up for it. We also stopped by the fields and courts for basketball, volleyball, netball, and soccer (football). Celia and I then saw where we would be staying, passing Holy Cross Lakeview, on the way up the mountain. The house been constructed in January. We got our own bathrooms as well, something I have never experienced! The hot water doesn't seem to work, but the hike up (a gain of about 200ft from the school in just 0.2 miles) makes us sweaty enough that a cold shower is bearable, especially being that there is no AC in the house. Ammenities aside, the view was just absolutely gorgeous! The sun was starting to set, making the clouds appear as though there was pink cotton candy hanging over the lush green mountain directly in front of my room and Lake Victoria to my right. Incredible!

We stopped at where Justice and Avery would be staying next, a house further down in the mountain in a sort of village area off of a dirt road. They had their own rooms as well, and so many animals--3 dogs, rabbits with babies, and a turkey that wanders around the kitchen--that it was a sort of mini zoo. Priests, brothers, and seminarians reside at both of the houses we will be staying in. We headed back to our house where we enjoyed some dinner featuring some traditional Ugandan cuisine. Though I still know very little about what I am doing (which, as someone who likes to has a plan, is a bit anxiety-inducing), I am excited for the days to come.