Out of Africa: Transportation & Accommodations

Starting light, I thought I'd answer a few trivial details of my trip: How did we travel? And what were our living conditions like?

We started our journey on Halloween night. Ben and I opted to get a hotel in Portland that would allow our truck to be parked there the entire time we were gone. It's always nice to be able to enjoy some alone time, all comfy cozy in your own vehicle when returning from a long trip, so we do this whenever we can. Plus, having to get to the airport at 6am the next morning doesn't seem quite as bad when you're next door, rather than an hour down the freeway.

I was a little fearful of how chaotic the process would be to check-in all 55 of us, sorting through all the extra baggage that needed to be assigned to everyone, which held all the ministry needs such as medical supplies, musical instruments, puppet show stages and boxes upon boxes of Bibles and notebooks that needed to be taken with us. We each had one personal check-on and one team check-on. Surprisingly, it went much more smoothly than I had anticipated and I quickly found myself through security and awaiting to board the first of three flights to reach Uganda.

The Portland to Minneapolis flight was a pleasant and uneventful three and a half hours. The four hour lay-over in Minneapolis was primarily spent eating and talking on the phone. Inevitably, there were several bits of information that I had forgotten to pass along to our moms who were taking care of our girls for us. Plus, I took the opportunity to call my sweet, Great-Aunt Ruth who lives there in Minnesota. She is 96 years old and is just precious! She prays for us every single day regardless of what continent we're on!

The eight hour flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam was, of course, long. The tv system was wonderful, however. Countless movies and tv shows on demand for everyone at anytime. I watched Hairspray and a couple episodes of the Office. And after a crossword puzzle and two Sudokus we landed in The Netherlands!

This statue was begging us to sit and snap a picture~our first picture of the trip. I have no idea what they are supposed to be.

After sitting for so long, Ben and I spent the majority of our four hours here walking the entire airport. Ben even made a friend:

We hopped on another eight hour flight that would take us to the airport in Entebbe, Uganda. Entebbe is practically on the Equator, in the southern portion of Uganda. Again, I was surprised at how smoothly things went at the airport there. Customs were light, to say the least. All of our luggage arrived pretty much intact and we made our way outside into the darkness of the evening to board the 5 awaiting buses that would be our transportation for the two weeks in the country.

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Ben and I opted for the large "luxury" bus for the 45 minute drive to our hotel in Kampala. This was our only time on the luxury bus, later named the "Wisdom Bus" because of the age of its most usual occupants.

We arrived extremely tired to our hotel in Kampala for a one-night stay before heading up north to Gulu. It was nice to arrive at nighttime, making it easier to fall asleep in this opposite time zone. The hotel was really cute. It reminded me of 1940's Europe. Everything was small and quaint, but very nice. We were exhausted and slept well.

Bed, at last!

Then the adventure truly began! We were told that we had a four hour drive to the northern part of Uganda to the city of Gulu where we would be staying for the entire trip (Uganda is roughly the same size as Oregon). Ben and I walked right on by the Wisdom Bus and onto what was later deemed the Party Bus. We were joined by all the high school students and a junior high youth pastor. Needless to say, we had a good time, making the best of the long journey and poor road conditions.

The four hour trip expanded into a nine hour journey that lasted well into the night. There were breakdowns, "bathroom" stops, gas stations, various "why are we stopped?" moments, torrential down pours, miles of speed bumps and more pot holes than I've ever seen in my life.

I will never again complain about a pot-hole here where we live. Check this bad boy out:

And that's IN the major city of Kampala. Once we got out of the city and onto the "open highway" they were much worse. There are no yellow dividing lines. It's basically swerve to miss pot holes, oncoming traffic, bicyclists and pedestrians as much as you can. I can't believe we weren't all vomiting an hour into the drive, but praise God, we were distracted enough in the Party Bus to keep it all inside!

Finally arriving at the Echoli Inn in Gulu, Uganda, was such a welcome treat for our soar bums and tired eyes. It was a nice hotel considering the city in which it lies. Having been on many mission trips, Ben said it was the nicest accommodations he'd ever had on a trip such as this. And yes, compared to the surroundings, it was quite luxurious and clean. For U.S. standards, it would be hard-pressed to earn one star, but we were just happy to have a bed and clean sheets.

The mosquito net was wonderful. It helped me sleep more peacefully at night knowing that I was all safely enclosed.

We had several crickets and a couple cockroaches that liked to visit our bathroom. By mid-trip I had rounded up some duct tape and taped over the gaping hole under the bathtub which is where the cockroaches would always run to hide. The last few days, we had to fill the toilet tank up with bath water so that we could flush it. And as for the shower, it was either ice cold or scalding hot, no inbetween. Ben appreciated that Biblical analogy~no luke-warm for us! It was a fun, camp sort of feel to everything, especially sleeping in the tent-like mosquito net~I liked it!

Everyday we would travel to remote villages to visit various displacement camps in the surrounding areas. The roads were quite the adventure, especially returning home in the darkness with raging lightning storms all around.

At the end of our time in Gulu, we packed back into all the buses for another nine hour journey. But this time, our destination was a one-night stay in a lodge in the middle of Uganda's wildlife sanctuary, Murchison Falls National Park. The journey was long and dusty in those little buses and we were even offered live chickens along the way (we settled for some green oranges). After so many hours of traveling dirt roads through the bush we began to wonder if there really was a legit destination or if we were on some new reality survivor show, about to be dropped off in the middle of the African bush to fend for ourselves.

But, lo and behold, out of, literally, the middle of nowhere appeared the most wonderful sight I'd ever laid eyes on: The Safari Lodge, a resort in the middle of safari country on the banks of the Nile River. The accommodations were simply unbelievable. It was a wonderful way to end our excursion, surrounded by the beauty and wonder of God's creation in this awesome country. Our rooms were spectacular, but not outdone by the view from our private lanai. I spent hours on that lanai praying, reflecting and just thanking the Lord for what He'd done in the past two weeks. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life.

But alas, morning came. And with it came the reality that it was time to go home. Ahead of us lay yet another nine hour drive down long, dusty, rut-filled roads. I am simply amazed that we only had one blow-out on these roads.

These were the dirtiest roads of all, and along with the privilege of sitting by the window for the benefits of the breeze, came the calamity of literally being caked with dirt from head to toe by the time we finally pulled into the Entebbe airport.

The traffic in Kampala was the craziest driving I have ever been in the middle of. I can't even describe it. As about what seemed to be 15 lanes would converge into an already crowded intersection, our driver would literally reach out his window and try to push other vehicles and motorcycles out of the way with his hand. It was something else.

We reached the Entebbe airport an hour later than we'd hoped. I ran into the restrooms to wash off as much of the dirt as I could and to quickly change my clothes for the plane rides home. Melting into my seat on the plane next to my husband was a welcome feeling and I was asleep before we took off.

By the time we got to Amsterdam eight hours later, we were exhausted but determined to get outside for a little bit, if only to say we did it. The frigid temperatures sent us back into the airport for some hot chocolate. But it was nice to walk around for the four hours that we were there.

Ben tried to hitch a ride on an earlier flight and I caught up with the friend that Ben had made two weeks earlier.

Eight hours to Minneapolis, five hours in Minneapolis, and three and a half hours to Portland and we finally found ourselves sitting in our awaiting Expedition for our one hour, smooth, dust-free drive home.

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Whew! I'm tired again just thinking about all this travel! My next post will be more restful (and shorter!) than this one! There's more Out of Africa to come.