Made It

08/13/05

4am, headlights cutting through the smoke pouring from the buses, gaurds rifling through my things, cries over a loudspeaker calling the Muslim's to morning prayer.

I made it. Sitting in the café of the Hotel Amber in Kampala, waiting for a room to open up. The place seems safe and clean, I'm hoping for some food, a shower, set my shit down, hit the streets, find a bank to change some money, and find the internet to finish what I couldn't last night waiting for the bus (a rainstorm knocked out Kisii's network.) And God, maybe a cold beer with lunch. I don't have definite plans here yet, I'm actually pretty disappointed with the lack of response I've got from groups here. When I was emailing from home it was all 'yes yes come and we'll show you everything' positive, but since I got here, there's been no responses. (Time to start banging on doors!) It was an adventure getting here: door-to-door it took 19 hours. The bus here was a crazy as buses here in Africa seem to be: very late and trying to make up for it by hurtling its weight at breakneck speeds down bumpy hills. I honestly thought the transmission was going to fall out a few times from the noises I was hearing. I guess the border crossing was the craziest part: 4am, headlights cutting through the smoke pouring from the buses, gaurds rifling through my things, cries over a loudspeaker calling the Muslim's to morning prayer. It felt beyond the twilight zone.

Bread and tea are good. Is it ten yet? Last night I kept flashing back to past travels. Greece and China when I was a kid, Ecuador, Albania, Scotland. I've been around… For some reason traveling reminds me of traveling. But nowhere is quite like here. That said, I think I'm going to get bored and lonely fast if I'm not working. I want to be working. Its funny, I'm already anxious to get back to Keyna… Whats wrong with me?

When it hits your lips… Its just so sweet. Pilsner. Extra Strong. Its been 2+ weeks. Yum. And this nice view of the hustle and bustle of Kampala to boot. Go Step Up Pub. I'll get to first impressions as soon as I get some rice in my belly.

The bill: One dollar for lunch (boiled beef, rice, beans, yams, spinach, a couple of bugs), 90 cents for a half liter of ice cold Pilsner… Heaven. Kampala is a big city. I think I like it. Maybe because it seems to run on motorcycles, trucks and vans. (Okay, and the 90 cent Pilsners.) Separate from the normal shared taxi vans, there are rows and rows of guys waiting to take you around on the back of their scooters or dirtbikes. Its actually a bit tricky trying to walk. One of the first things I noticed is that most of the (adult) beggers are missing their toes, or their entire feet. I'm guessing a reminant of Idi Amin. Very sad. On my way to this internet café, I passed through a central market and my focus was stolen by a large group of locals playing a dice board game of chance. I ended up talking to a fellow Moses, and he explained the whole thing. It's a pretty simple but fun game, its called Ludo, they play it at lightning speed, there's two classes of games going on, low stakes and high stakes (on the low tables they are playing for a dollar or two, on the high tables you can walk with as much as $40 for one game. That's like a months salary in Kenya.) Anyway, I'm going to have to go back and try my hand at the low stakes tables on of these days. Everyone here has been super friendly so far.

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