The First 24.

We arrived in Entebbe at 2:50am Friday, deplaned, waited in the Immigration line, got our visas and were stamped into the country, and then proceeded to the luggage carousel.  By the time we arrived, 3 of our team’s 25 trunks were already riding the endless loop.  We spread out–divide and conquer–to grab trunks as they passed.  Each time a trunk came, we yelled out something like, “Christina, I have one of yours!” And then silently–and sometimes not so silently–cheered when more and more bags arrived.  Eventually, no more trunks were coming through and only a box and a lonely suitcase rolled by.  Blaise and I had all of 5 ours–no small miracle given our short layover in Istanbul–but altogether our team was missing TEN trunks.  The man working at the airport said, “No more bags.  They are finished.”    

In the time it took to figure out the numbers on the missing trunks and determine who would proceed through Customs and who would stay behind to file the missing baggage claims, another truck arrived and 7 more trunks came out.  Once we grabbed those, the man once again told us, “The bags are finished.” 

Then the other three came. 

—

That same evening, Christina, Laura, and I sat in the back seat of the Pajero, while Blaise sat up front with our driver and friend, Mark.  In an effort to immediately begin practicing the Luganda words I learned when I was here in 2011, I began a conversation with Mark.

Me: Mark, to greet someone in Luganda I would say ‘olyotya’, right?
Mark: Very good.  Olyotya.  It means ‘how are you?’
Me: And to greet someone in the morning I would say ‘wesuzotya’?
Mark: That is correct, wesuzotya.
Me: And to say ‘thank you’ I would say ‘webelay’?
Mark: [hysterical laughter] 
Me: I said it wrong?
Mark: No, it is just that your accent is very funny.  [Mimicking my exact accent and nasal tone] ‘Webelay.‘  It is ‘way-bah-LAY’.
Me: [Laughing] Oh, ‘way-bah-LAY.’

All of us in the car were laughing pretty hard, and Laura and I were whispering to one another about how interesting it is going to be to learn a new language in Africa.  Where in America, we tend to sugarcoat things and never be mean to someone who is trying, it is not like that here in Uganda (and certainly in South Sudan).  If what you said sounds funny or is wrong, they will laugh in your face and tell you so.  Not to be malicious or hurtful, but just because it is amusing.  Thankfully, that doesn’t bother me, and I rather enjoy the banter…but it is a different experience than trying to learn anything in America.

Welcome to Africa.

A few other experiences during our first 24 hours were…

• Eating passion fruit for the first time (YUM)
• Power outage in the afternoon
• Large, crab-like spider on Laura’s shoulder at dinner