Signs and Advertising 1

At this point, my narrative will begin taking a slightly less chronological approach.

The first things I noticed about Uganda, besides the pervasive lush green colour and the heat, were the signs.

Uganda's national languages are English and Kiswahili, but its widely spoken languages are Luganda and Ankoli. As a result, most English-speaking Ugandans speak English only as a second language, and they have developed a rather peculiar dialect.

English in Uganda is as verbose as it can possibly be made. The simplest words are replaced with their most complicated alternatives, and a sign that could consist of three or four words in North America would have as many as possible in Uganda.

I took this photo at Makarere University.

Ugandan signs are also rife with spelling errors. I found Ugandan speech to be difficult to understand at first because of its dialectical nature. At one point, somebody said, "I require your assistance," and it took me two whole seconds to understand that they needed my help! The accent contributes to this problem as well.

I'll leave you with this sign: one of my favourites.

A Little Bit of Uganda

We left Dubai in the morning, and boarded another flight to Entebbe, via Ethiopia. Despite being 6 hours in length, the flight breezed by, and I even met a nice flight attendant from Malaysia. He was a trained engineer, but decided he didn't want to be an engineer after he completed his degree. He signed a 3-year contract with Air Emirates as a flight attendant, and when it was up he was planning to return to Malaysia and run a touring business. He was very extroverted, and probably would have been good at it.
This is the best picture I could get of Ethiopia, as Chip, who was sitting next to the window was asleep and I didn't want to wake him up. Ethiopia was beautiful in its own way - dry and arid with flat-topped trees, exactly like in The Lion King.

Anyway, after continuing our flight, we landed smoothly in Entebbe and exited the plane into brilliant sunshine and 25 degree heat. I donned my sunglasses and shed my sweater, ready for anything. Actually, I felt drained, but I was extremely happy to be exactly where I was.

Dominic, the headmaster of the school/orphanage where we were going met us in the parking lot. He was equipped with two taxis and two drivers to transport our luggage to Tabiro. He gave each member of the team a hug and, because we have met before, he said to me, "So, you are in Uganda now." I was so zonked, and all I could think of to say was, "Yes. Yes I am."

What could I say? I was.

Dubai

Our plane landed in Dubai, and I staggered off, eager to pick up my bag and my toothbrush.
Compared to the US, the security was laughable. Security was the only job I saw being done by native Emiratis, and there were usually three or four to a desk, talking and laughing and paying minimal attention to the x-ray image in front of them.

The airport was a magnificent, sinister building. We were flanked on either side by palm trees and Grecian pillars; nearly everything was white or silver. Though the ceilings were high, sound did not echo, and I felt like somebody had forcibly turned down my volume. A few Emiratis walked past us, stately in their white and black robes, but mostly we were surrounded by mute Europeans. Despite being with a group of 8 people, I felt ill at ease.


Each of the washrooms in the airport had an adjacent prayer room. Their locations were also indicated by signs. I did not enter the rooms because I'm not Muslim, but I did find it interesting that prayer could be viewed as so paramount to a culture that prayer rooms are deemed as necessary as washrooms.


At 8:00 PM we boarded a shuttle. While the inside of the airport had been air conditioned, once we stepped outside, we were bowled over by a wave of 32 degree heat.

Because we had a long layover in Dubai, Air Emirates paid for our hotel and for our food, and I am happy to report that the food was excellent. The other guys on the trip went to the mall to see the ski hill and then to see the seven-star hotel, though I stayed to eat dinner and sleep.


In the morning, after eating some more delicious food, we boarded the shuttle again. This time we got to see what Dubai looks like during the day.

Though Dubai is a magnificient piece of engineering, I cannot say I enjoyed being there. It was partly because I read this article before I arrived, and I found it disconcerting to know how much of the luxury I was enjoying was the result of exploitation. Though the food was excellent, I was glad to leave.

The Long and Arduous Flight

The journey from Halifax to Entebbe is a long one at the best of times. Our route took us to New York, where we landed in JFK. JFK boasted an impressive array of airline loyalty, as well as an impressive array of terminals
This picture is taken from the train that links them all. The green plane is part of Aer Lingus, an Irish airline. The flight attendants for Aer Lingus wore green; I thought that was cool.



From New York, we boarded a plane to Dubai. It was the A380 airbus, which is a very large and very nice plane.

It was nice even in coach: they provided us with cool washcloths, a tooth brush and toiletries, and (mostly) delectable food. In front of each passenger there was a television screen, which boasted an incredible selection of movies and games. You could even see a video from the front and the bottom of the plane, so that people who weren't close to a window could still enjoy watching the ground. Each seat came equipped with a phone and, though it was $5 US a minute to phone people on the ground, it was possible to call between seats for free.

Coach was so nice that I couldn't even imagine what Executive and Saudi-Sheikh class were like, but when I came home I looked it up here.

Unfortunately, even the deluxe feeling of the plane could not really make up for the fact that we had to stay in it for twelve hours, and it was a difficult flight. I dozed off about halfway through, but about four hours before the end of the flight I began feeling nauseous in my sleep. To make a long story short, I ended up puking for the last few hours of the flight, and arrived in Dubai feeling disgusting. The flight attendants were very nice and very helpful, but nothing really beats being sick at home.

From the Beginning

The day before we were supposed to leave, our neighbourhood was set on fire. For those of you who don't know, I live in an area that had only been recently developed, and it is bordered by acres of forest. A few years ago, hurricane Juan took down a lot of trees, and I guess it was only a matter of time before something like this happened.

Murphy's law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and 12 hours before we left, I believed it. At its closest point, the fire was less than a kilometer away, so my family and I all had evacuation bags packed, just in case. We went to bed hoping the fire wouldn't head toward us, because they had stopped fighting it for the night.

By the time I woke in the morning, the fire had moved further away, and it looked like things were going to be alright, for us at least. Then, about an hour before we were supposed to leave for the airport, we got a call telling us that Uganda was barring entry to citizens of "swine-flu infected areas". Since there had been cases in Nova Scotia, my Dad and I became concerned that we would fly all the way to Uganda only to be turned away at the border. Quickly, one of the women on our trip arranged for her husband, an infectious disease doctor, to write us an official letter saying that we were swine-flu free. We hoped they didn't ask, but if they did, we hoped it would be good enough.

Once we got to the airport, we were joined by a few more members of the team. We went through the gate without a hitch, passed through a hallway with nifty colour-changing lights, and sat, and waited. We ended up sitting there for a while, because our flight was two hours delayed. We didn't have access to internet, and had no way of knowing what was happening with the fire.

Finally, our plane was ready for boarding. As we were preparing for takeoff, it began to rain. We took off, no longer really concerned about the fire because, in Halifax, rain lasts the whole day.

We were on our way.

I'm back.

Hi everybody,

I made it back in one piece. However, on my last day there, I managed to contract food poisoning, so I think today I will just focus on swallowing my rather appetizing looking drug cocktail, drinking cups of herbal tea, and lying in bed. I'm really excited to write about this trip, so this is a bit disappointing for me. Sorry! Make sure you check back in a couple days.

Katelyn