Day 1 Africa

It has been several days since I posted and my world has changed dramatically. I arrived in Kampala, Uganda, late in the evening and met Stephanie, the young, energetic and capable site director. She prepared me for the exhausting journey to the border and on to the isolated Karagwe site in Tanzania.

The above picture, taken from my bus window, is a vivid reminder of the sea of chaos I found in my first day in Africa. Intensified by torrential rain and sloppy, trash-filled mud and wearing a heavy backpack, I slogged my way clutching my carry-on luggage through throngs of impoverished people. It was a scene out of a movie I was in, a tourist out of place and caught in a morass of strange world.

As the bus made its way past the outskirts, the magic of Africa began to reveal itself in a different light. Lush tropical forests and gentle rolling savannah offered scenes of local people dressed in colorful clothing working or relaxing by their homes or visiting in the market. I saw smiling faces, relaxed and living in a simpler world. It wasn't a romantic picture exactly because there was all the trappings of poverty. It was life here, accepted, predictable, and peaceful.

I can only with great luck upload photos so I hope to show a variety of scenes, but it is an incredibly slow process. It is hard to believe that there is connectivity at all.