Uganda Trip!

Days 1-3

Day 1
Left Lake Grove at noon. We quickly found out our driver was a conspiracy theorists . His theories included jet fuel as a coverup to distribute an agent orange kind of agent to the atmosphere , that politicians are trying to revert us to feudalism with a ruling class and peasant class ,etc. Good Times.

Flying
Flying and traveling was ...lengthy
Brussels was 6-7 hours / layover then "chilled on runway for an hour " / Brussels --> Rwanda  7hours / layover ( people get off , bug sprays gets sprayed , potties get used approx 1h) then land in Entebbe around 10ish. We stayed at Entebbe Backpackers (http://www.entebbebackpackers.com/) which was a nice little place . Cheap / mosquito nets/ your own shower

We slept over from midnight to 530a then started our journey once again, to our final destination of Mbale , Uganda . We drove in a van half-awake / jet lagged until about noon. Stopped in Jinja (popular tourist stop , site of rafting ) for breakfast @ http://www.enjoyflavours.com/  . Here I learned some rules for traveling abroad from Ashley :

Rules for traveling abroad
1. Eat what the locals eat , which is usually veggie unless you're in a touristy area . Street meats are usually out all day and likely to give you the diarrhea ,etc.
2. Don't order ice , usually . Unless you know the water us treated / filtered (that makes the ice ) .
3. The children will call you Mzungu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mzungu) which means white person / with the undertone of meaning someone with wealth / foreigner .
...more to come ...

We finally arrived at our new home around  noon  on Sunday , Palm Sunday .  Since we travelled so early , we got to appreciate Ugandans dressed in their Sunday best carrying palms as they made their way to church. ( kinda looked like below ( from google images ))

Casa del Turista
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g668276-d4367873-Reviews-Casa_Del_Turista-Mbale_Eastern_Region.html#

We were greeted by the owner and wonderful host at casa , Baker . Casa is  nice little dorm kinda of setup. Our rooms have beds/nets/ standing showers/ western toilets . We can actually see mount Elgon from the rooftop at casa. Baker is a wonderful host and helped us build a dinner menu and let us know about all the outreach casa takes part in from supporting two high schools to recycling straws to make purses which can be resold.