Day 3

Greetings from Entebbe, Uganda. 

Where the weather is fine, the people are nice and the food is great. I must say so far Entebbe has not been a let down. I can see why people like to go here. But before I dive into that, I'll start from the beginning. 

Saturday at 21.00 my plane took of from Schiphol. Most of my family were there to say goodbye. It was a bittersweet thing. On the one hand it was the start of a new exciting and terrifying chapter, on the other hand it was heartwrenching to say goodbye to them for a year. That week I had been saying goodbye to a lot of people, but it never registered with me that I was actually leaving for such a long time until the moment I was stepping through security, watching back at my family wave.

The flight was fine. At first I thought I had one of those fancy seats with extra leg-space. The monitor on which I could see my seat suggested as much. But when I entered the airplane, I had one of the regular ones. Not that it was a big deal, at some point you get very crafty at stowing away your excess leg-length. 

I didn;t manage to sleep much during the flight due to the excitement. During the flight we enjoyed some turbulence. Watching an action-movie at the same time truly makes that experience infinitely better. Try watching a helicopter chase without a smile as your plane shakes ;). 

At 6.00am. I arrived in Nairobi. Greeted by an overflying pelican, I finally made it to Africa. (Obama happened to be in Nairobi at the same time, unfortunately I couldn't spot Airforce one anywhere, or I would have made a picture.) From there one it was straight to the lobby for me. I didn't manage to get to the luggage-belt to check if my suitcase would be properly transferred to the next airplane. As I mentioned in my previous blog, that isn't always the case. I had to go through 3 security checks before I was sent back with the warning that I might have to pay for visa and had been assured for the third time that my luggage would be on the plane. In the end, tired and a bit unsure on who to annoy next I conceded and went to wait at the gate. 

At the gate was a small restaurant where I had some breakfast (tosti and fries...) . After sitting there for 4 hours, (of which I slept maybe 1 in a corner), I boarded my plane with a short delay. On the plane I received my second breakfast (a mini sandwhich with a hint of chicken). Fortunately this flight only lasted an hour. The line at the bordercheck however.... took me about two.

Standing in line wasn't too uncomfortable. I had been sitting most of the day and my legs were craving for a stretch. The way we were being herded towards the counter was however lacking a bit in the efficiency-department. They created four lanes, mend to seperate locals from the foreigners. 3 of those lanes were for foreigners, of which one for people with a visa. The lane for locals was a bit of a high speed lane, ours was more of an inconvenience to everyone. The three slow lanes were funneled to one point where a lady pointed at someone and then directed them to the appropriate desk. She undermined the system a bit by not distinguishing between visa and non-visa, but nobody had the heart to tell her. 

After 105(ish) minutes it was my turn to be sent to one of the desks. I got the one with the grumpy lady. First she didnt manage to get my passport out of its sleeve and very firmly directed me to do it for her. When I handed her my visa she looked at me, looked back at my visa, looked back at me and asked very brisk; "Where is your UN-ID?". I tried telling her that I was here in Entebbe to collect mine. She just raised her eyebrow and tried scanning my passport again. She wasn't convinced at first, but I think it was the sight of building panic in my eyes that persuaded her to let me scan my fingers and make a picture. After that I was on my way out. 

As promised, I found my luggage on the belt. A bit smurged (the back is bright orange) but completely intact. Relieved  I went outside where there was a shuttle waiting for me to take me to my hotel. 

The hotel turned out to be a great choice. It is a bit like a small living community. There are two mainbuildings. The first one serves as bar and has several rooms. It has no airconditioning, but then again, that wouldn't work as there are hardly any walls in the bar and the rooms are so small that a fan is sufficient. My own room has everything, a bathroom and a bedroom. Neither of them are big, but that is something I have to get used to anyways. The service is great. The staff is really nice and they help me out a lot.    

For a first-timer like me, I must admit Africa seemed a bit scary. It is like being a kid going to a new school. You don't know anybody nor do you know any of the unwritten rules. I tried getting some info through other blogs, but the problem with those kind of information-sources is the extreme personal bias. Somebody can have had a good experience, or a bad one, and therefore not give a description that is actually representative of the country or culture. (Neither should you take my experience as an example. I am only here for 2 days so far, and hardly went anywhere, but that is about to change). But talking to the staff has helped me feel at ease. The people I met have been very mild tempered and gentle. I am trying to learn as much as possible so I start feeling even more at ease. With all the stories of malaria and little critters under the bed, I have to admit, I had some prejudices to overcome. (apparently those prejudices apply more on South Sudan then they do here in Entebbe). 

In the morning I was picked up by a bus, together with some other future colleagues, and we spent most of the day at base. Lots of great advice was given to me by people who were also in transit and I already managed to meet some of the security and military personel. It is nice to see how there is always an open culture in a multinational community. You could just sit somewhere and most people would either just start a conversation with you, or pick up on one you start. It makes you feel quite welcome. 

After my day at the base I was introduced to a type of taxi they have here. It is a small motor-scooter-thingy. At first I thought they were all part of a motorgang of some sorts. Turns out their gang is called "public transport". They are very convenient. You only need to haggle a bit to get the right price. Not that I am bad at haggling, but it is quite hard to indicate the right price if you have no clue about the worth of money in this country, nor the distance you actually need to travel. 3000 shillings sounds like a lot, but it is less then a dollar. After you get over the first fright of sitting behind somebody you don't know on a bike, it is actually quite comfortable. Turned out I hardly overpaid. After about 6 very entertaining minutes I arrived at the hotel.

After refreshing myself I started writing. Now the plan is to go away after finishing this blog. I intend to go to a restaurant not to far from the hotel called lakeview. Tomorrow I plan on going to the lake, after a day full of training. Unfortunately the lake isn't for swimming (booh!) but there are a lot of lovely restaurants there that I am going to check out. I'll let you know what they were like!

Fondest greetings!

JJ