June 15th, 2009
Travel to Kampala / Kampala

After what seems like a very long time, we have finally arrived in Kampala, Uganda. Before I get into detail about traveling here and our first night here; I just want to let everyone know that we are all safe, happy, and having the greatest adventure ever. The group of people that I am with are incredible and I already feel like I have known them for years. Each and every one of them is unique in their own way, and because we have been traveling for so long, we have all gotten to know each other well.

After a long, sleepless flight from JFK to London, I made everyone’s day after disembarking from the plane. On the plane we received, among other free things, a toothbrush and toothpaste. To make a long story short; I ended up accidentally brushing my teeth with hand soap, much to the delight of Michael and Matt who were on both sides of me. I am sure you will hear a much more detailed version of the story on my fellow travelers blogs because they thought it was so funny, but, I will spare myself any more embarrassment and let them enjoy my blunder.

London was a good time. We went to Buckingham Palace and saw the guards. We got some fish and chips and a beer at some cool London pub, then a few of us just went to crash in Hyde Park for a little while to take a little nap. I will be back there in 6 weeks and will surely do much more sight-seeing, but we were too wore out to be walking all through London.

The flight from London to Uganda was pretty rough because at that point I had only slept a total of about 2 hours since I left Rhode Island. I slept during the take-off, and for like the first half-hour of the flight, and that was about it. Last night I got about 4-5 hours of sleep and I feel great. For those of you that know my sleeping habits, I am sure you are amazed that I feel great after 4 hours of sleep, but it was the longest I slept in a while and it is now 5 in the morning here, and Mike and I are wide awake, sitting outside, hanging out with the monkeys, listening to the call to prayer from the Muslim temple.

Yesterday we went to exchange our money. The current exchange rate is 21.20 Ugandan shillings per dollar. Matt, Big John and I all exchange over $600 US Dollars and are now official Ugandan Millionaires (Shillionaires). I got 1.2 Million shillings and will probably be out of money by Friday at the rate I am buying Nile Specials for everyone.

Yesterday we also went to Lubiri School in Kampala. Lubiri is one of the best schools in Uganda, and we observed the classrooms and got the opportunity to meet and talk with some teachers and students. We also got to meet Jacob, the boy from the Invisible Children video. He was such a great kid, and very modest in his “celebrity stutus.” He gave us all a hug, and snapped a few photos with us. We did get him out of class, so maybe that is why he was so happy to see us.
We had a great day yesterday, and there is much more that happened, but since this was my first post and I had to talk about a few days at once, I will stop. We are leaving for Gulu in about 5 hours (about 10:00am our time and about 3am US time.) Oh, last night we slept in our mosquito nets for the first time.) There was 7 of us in our room. Mike, Big John, John, Matt, Catherine, Annie, and myself. We all had to share a mosquito net with someone because our bunk beds were all touching. They worked pretty well, we slept with the door open and Mike and I only had one mosquito in our net that we noticed.

OK, that is all for now as we are getting into the shower now because the men just filled up the hot water thing and we will be the first to use it. I will try to attach some pictures soon. I hope all is well in the States and that everyone is having a wonderful summer, or end of the school year. I PROMISE that we are all safe and happy and are forming bonds with one other that will last a lifetime. We are all looking after one another. I am very thankful that I decided to take on this adventure and that all these people did as well. So, rest assured, we are doing great. A bit of advise for group 3. 1) Take a sleeping pill on the plane from London to Uganda. Yesterday was THE longest day ever and we all looked like Zombies. 2) Get a Tusker Beer at Sam’s restaurant. It is absolutely delicious. 3) PACK LIGHT. I packed WAY too much. Not clothing, but other stuff that I thought I was going to need, but didn’t. Email me or any of us if you have any specific questions before you leave next week. See you soon.