Home, At Last

Hello everyone! I am back in the US, safe and sound. After a 37 hour trip from Africa, I arrived at my mom's house. Awaiting me was the best shower in a month, followed by a lovely salad and a glass of milk. I have missed dairy products and fresh vegetables so much; pasteurization is not really integrated in the production of dairy in Uganda and it was not recommended to eat fresh fruit or vegetables unless they had a peel or some sort of protective covering that could be removed. My salad last night included lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms.....oh it was so delicious. I think between the my two flights (Entebbe to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Chicago) plus upon my arrival, I might have drank an entire gallon of milk.

I slept on a nice soft bed with a pillow that had no lumps and was equally as soft. I don't think I ever commented on the pillows in Uganda. They were as hard as wooden boards, but somehow extremely lumpy, as though they were filled with stones. I used a makeshift pillow that I crafted from my own clothes that I had packed, which was more comfortable than the pillows provided, but left me with awful pains in my neck. Needless to say, I got the best night's sleep in a long time. I feel refreshed, and overjoyed to be home.

On our flight from Amsterdam to Chicago, I was so excited to look out the window in the very back of the plane, to see US waters and land. 2 of my fellow student nurses sat with me in the very last row of the plane (row 45) and as soon as we spotted the Chicago skyline and the airport during our descent, we were overjoyed. We began cheering as the wheels of our plane touched down, and I have never been so thankful to be in the Midwest. I wanted to push open the window of our plane and both inhale the smog and dreariness that we arrived to and roll around on the ground of the Chicago streets. I think if our bus hadn't been waiting, I might have dropped to the ground outside of the airport and kissed the street. Gross, I know, but I was just thrilled to *finally* be home.

I have taken over 1,000 pictures, which I will try to post as soon as I can. I can't wait to see everyone again! I did keep a written journal as well, so I will try to fill you in on the last several days of travel now.

I haven't been able to update since we left Mum Resort last Wednesday morning. We traveled across Uganda on Wednesday to Lake Mburo National Park which is in the very southeastern part of Uganda; near Rwanda and the Congo. It was a 9 hour drive by bus; through Jinja, Kampala and across the Equator. We drove into the park grounds around 1700 and saw a herd of Zebra, several groups of Warthogs and one very large Rhinoceros hiding behind trees prior to entering the park. Despite warnings to not travel anywhere past dark, we entered the park grounds and proceeded to Lake Mburo. We watched the sunset over the Lake, saw little streams of water being shot in the air by Hippopotamus in the distance and got very close to a group of Warthogs grazing by the lake. We then traveled almost 2 hours in the dark to Mbarara to stay at MUST (a University) to stay overnight there. We arrived to the screeches of birds; or so I thought, as it was pitch dark. In the morning, it looked like it had rained outside of our room (which was totally a creepy little place....) and as it turned out, the screeches that kept me awake overnight were actually bats. Thousands of them. They were gigantic. One of the beds in our room had mouse poop on the rug like comforter blanket and then sprinkles of poop on the sheets, so AP and I had bunked together under the mosquito net that was crawling with geckos, spiders and more. She seemed to get a very nice night of sleep with her earplugs in. I "slept" in a fit; tossing and turning with every shriek outside, every time something scurried about in our room, and every time the mosquito net touched my skin. There was also a mangy cat living on the University grounds, which stalked us while we ate breakfast (I told my travel doctor that I thought I should be safe and get the Rabies vaccine; he said it was unnecessary) so I was again, jumpy over breakfast. We departed only 2 1/2 hours late for Queen Elizabeth National Park (once again, the lateness was never the students fault, but the fault of our fellow travelers from the University in Iganga who insisted they join us on our trip).

We arrived near the park around mid-day on Thursday, later than we wanted to, as the best time to see the animals is mid-morning when they gather at the watering holes. As we were speeding into the park region, we passed a herd of Elephants in the distance. Despite our rather loud pleas to stop the bus so we could watch the Elephants and take pictures, we were ignored and then rudely scolded. We were informed that we needed to reach the park gates to pay our entrance fees, and then pay for a Safari Guide who would assuredly take us to see all of the animals before we could take any pictures at all. This was dictated to us by two of the men who accompanied us; and once again, the culture is of male superiority, and as females and students, our wishes were constantly ignored and put down. So, the pictures I have of Elephants are from quite a distance and were taken out of the window of our bus, traveling close to 60 mph. When we reached the park Lodge, we were informed that we would have to wait until 1530 for a Park Guide. We had a few hours to look around the Lodge, gift shop and explore in the immediate areas surrounding the Lodge. A small group of students came across the most beautiful Restaurant, attached to the Lodge accommodations. Each private hotel room opened out to a private Veranda overlooking the two lakes in the park; the students were all unanimous with our desire for one night at this paradise. We were not surprised later, however, to find that our accommodations for the evening were far less luxurious than the one's at the Park. The BU people in charge did not want us to have lunch until after our Safari trip (which would have been around 1900) so we pled with our US instructors who said we should most definitely have lunch there. At last! Real food! I enjoyed a hamburger (a real one!) with real french fries and real ketchup. The cost was less than $10 for the meal, including my Coke Light, which as the restaurant ran out of chilled glasses to serve our beverages out of, the waiter insisted I drink from a Wine Glass. Fine by me! Over lunch we saw many birds, who flitted around us as we ate, plus a group of Hippopotamus drinking and eating by the edge of the Lake. Our tour of Queen Elizabeth Nat'l Park began around 1530; we saw African Kob (similar to the Wisconsin Deer), Water Buffalo, Wild Cows and Warthogs. After two hours, our tour guide hopped off our bus, and we were off to our accommodations for the night, which were disappointingly not at the QENP Lodge. There was almost a riot in the back of the bus, as we were promised to see Elephants from close up, Giraffes, Zebras, Lions and more. We saw none of them. Several of the students were near hysterical at this point. I was just disgusted.

We arrived at the Rwenzori Hotel just before 1930. The hotel appeared rather sketchy from the get-go; our meager expectations were smashed upon entrance. I believe I will borrow a phrase from one of my friends to describe the hotel: a "shady sh*t-hole". The dimly lit staircase with two flights of narrow stairs led to tiny rooms with two shared bathrooms for the entire floor (over 1 dozen people in our group, plus additional travelers). Our room (shared again with pal AP) featured two tiny beds separated by a tiny area to walk between the two; one bed again had visible mouse poop. AP and I did more than our share of bunking, as neither of us were going to sleep with the mouse poop. We didn't see any poop on the other bed, so we set up to get cozy again. I was so disgusted with our "vacation" I gathered a small group to head straight to the bar. My thoughts were "skip the dinner; hold the goat and chips, please, just get me a damn drink..." so our group enjoyed several drinks at the sketchy bar attached to the restaurant where several men were already slightly intoxicated, and still drinking. We (the students) each took a shot of Bond 7, which is a Kenyan Whiskey. That was a very pleasant burn going down, followed by an almost immediate hot flash lasting the remainder of the evening. Holy Cow. We did eat dinner at the attached restaurant; the choices included chicken, goat or fish. I selected the chicken, as I was sure the fish would be served whole, complete with eyes and brains (I was correct in my assumption, as another student ordered the fish). I ate a little, and then turned in for the evening. During the night, there was an awful pounding on several of the students' doors; the men spotted earlier in the evening were also staying at the hotel, and they were in search of prostitutes for the night. Noooooot kidding. Bright and early in the morning, we were getting our suitcases down the stairs to wait for the bus and I dropped my heaviest suitcase on my foot. Beautiful music then flowed from my mouth, but in reasonably quiet tones. One of the men began pounding on the wall and yelling "Shut the f*ck up" and then I heard a loud *bang*. I froze and whispered to AP "was that a gunshot????" Turns out, it was just a door slamming, but still. The sketchiness of the hotel was so extreme, and the lack of gun control laws did not leave me any confidence to believe that it could be anything else.

Once again, we waited for the BU crew to show. They did not stay at the same accommodations as we did, ever. After numerous lectures from them about how we all must leave on time so we don't delay (mind you, our student group has never been late) we were still hopeful that they would be on time. After an hour of waiting, again, several of us headed straight to the bar for a little something to add to the instant coffee served for breakfast. I felt much better then. The entire point of leaving early was to return to QENP in hopes of seeing Mr. El E Phant and family, or even a giraffe or a lion. Once we were back in the park, we did spot several glimpses of elephants, but they were hiding behind large trees, so I only caught a few looks of mainly the backside of the large creature. We then departed for another day of bus travel back to Entebbe, where we stayed for the next two nights. We arrived in Kampala as it was getting dark, and waited in Friday night traffic in the city. We finally arrived in Entebbe close to bedtime. We again were at Sophie's Motel, where we had spent the first night. AP and I shared a room; this time we were in "South Africa". We had two beds, running water and a working toilet. It was glorious. There was still squeaking in our room, so we kept our luggage sealed so that our food stash would not be found.

We slept in on Saturday, and had planned to leave our hotel around 0900 for shopping in Kampala. Apparently the male companion that was traveling with us from the University in Oshkosh (who really had been absent for most of our trip, and was from Uganda originally) told the BU hosts to arrive at 0800 to pick us up. They arrived at 0830, as there were now only two of them who had not returned to Iganga. I enjoyed eating my breakfast leisurely; after waiting every single day for them to pick us up, sometimes late by up to three hours, I was in absolutely no hurry to board the bus simply because they had arrived. When we did get on the bus, the two women were furious with us. My heart was so happy that they had to wait for us; even though it was a measly 30 minutes that they waited, it was still some of the best revenge that we were able to achieve for them dictating our entire trip and smashing our hopes every time we began to enjoy something. We shopped in Kampala for the entire day, which was so much fun. Nothing like a little "retail therapy" to lift our spirits. We watched the World Cup (USA vs. England) over dinner...even though it was a draw, it was still really cool to watch, as this year it is being held in South Africa. Sunday morning was going to be great; we were to check out around noon, and then spend several hours at Lake Victoria.

The bus arrived early, and we loaded our suitcases on. Once we were boarded, we were informed that we would be unable to go to the Lake because the bus had to be serviced on Tuesday. Yes, it was only Sunday. There was no reasoning with these two horrible women from BU, so it was off to the airport, where we were dropped off ten hours early. One final swift kick in the pants to keep our spirits down. I should not have been surprised by this behavior, after how they had treated us during our entire stay. It did make for a very long trip home, though.

Needless to say, despite the many obstacles that were in our way, I believe that we did a really good job of managing our difficulties. Our student group was a lot of fun to travel with, and I know that we each will take away so much in our future practice. I have not only learned to be much more flexible, but also more about what I value. I know I could never live with the oppression that we not only witnessed, but also were subjected to. I have never in my 25 years felt the extreme disrespect and daily oppression that was a constant throughout the trip. I cannot even imagine how the women live day to day, but perhaps why they still smile is because they don't know differently. Although our country is far from perfect on many issues surrounding equality and human rights, it is a far cry from what is lived around the world. I am glad that as a woman, I live in a country that I have a voice in politics. I am glad that I live in a country which values respect, which is earned not based on socioeconomic status but through morality and decency as a human being. I have the right to refuse sexual advances that are unwanted. I am glad I have the right to practice as a professional, and to be respected in my field through my actions and the care that I give to those I care for. I am glad that I have religious freedom, and that religion is separate from the laws that govern our country. I am glad to be home. At last.

Thank you to all who have been with me in spirit during my journey halfway around the world. Love, Rose