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Our first day in Kampala is just about done – for all intents and purposes, even though it’s only 9 o’clock-ish, the day is done. Being on the equator, the sun rises at 7am and sets at 7pm pretty much year round. It’s 9:15pm and it’s black outside. We’re coming from the northern part of the world where the sun is rising early (5:30ish) and setting late (9:30ish) because it’s just days after the summer solstice. Subtract the extra sunlight and subtract electricity (we moved into our apartment today on the 24-hour electricity hiatus that happens every other day here) and suddenly our days are done at 9 o’clock. I’m not complaining, though – it’s kind of apropos to read the 25-year HIV/AIDS commemorative issue of the American Journal of Public Health by candlelight in Africa. Plus, Phil & I agreed that when we finally got to Africa we were going to live on Africa-time. After the whirlwind of activity that has been our lives for the last 6 months – get engaged, accept job offer in Africa, move from Seattle to Mpls, go to Africa for a month, coach Syzygy, get married, move to Africa – we’re ready to welcome a more relaxed lifestyle. Which isn’t to say the last 6 months haven’t been absolutely amazing (we wouldn’t change a thing!), it’s just that we’re ready for a break.

We started cleaning out our apartment and packing for Africa Monday, June 12, the week after our wedding, and we left for Africa the morning of Monday, June 26. Exactly 14 days of packing, preparing, storing, moving, packing, cleaning out…non-stop. 6 trips to the Goodwill plus a bunch of donated furniture to the woman who moved into our apartment. A 5×10 storage unit in downtown Mpls – organized, but packed to capacity. Yet, we were awake for 28 hours straight by the time we boarded our plane at MSP.

There’s a 70-pound limit on all checked luggage – soon to be changed to 50 pounds by British Airways, maybe other airlines to follow? We checked 8 bags at MSP, 3 of which scraped by the 70-pound limit by about 2-3 pounds each. We didn’t weigh anything before going to the airport, so there’s no question we got lucky. Granted our luggage luck has since run out considering not a one of the 8 bags we checked made its way to Kampala. Who knows if any of it’ll show up? Our lives are in those bags, but oh well, there’s nothing in there that’s not irreplaceable. Thank goodness. So far it’s been a minor inconvenience – we’ve been wearing the same clothes for 2 ½ days now – which could become bigger if we have to start from scratch, but we were kind of looking forward to a less materialistic lifestyle here anyway. So, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise?

Anyway, throughout the whole luggage adventure in Entebbe (Uganda’s airport city, about 40 km from Kampala), I looked over at Phil and we both laughed and smiled. Here we were having lost all of our material possessions and it didn’t matter because we were together and we were smiling. I knew then (as I know day after day) that I married the right man.

Total door-to-door travel time Minneapolis to Kampala was 40 hours. A number that could be decreased if you subtract our 12 hour layover in London Heathrow, and a number that could have been much worse if it wasn’t for our Club World business class seats on our British Airways flight Chicago O’Hare to Heathrow. Wow – business class is definitely all it is cracked up to be…fully reclining seats, food cooked by a chef, personal televisions, etc. We were much happier people because of it when we landed in London.

Our apartment is pretty amazing – a 2 bedroom, 2 bath first-floor flat in a “compound” in the Kampala neighborhood, Bugolobi. I say compound ‘cos there’s a swimming pool, garden/park space, resident German Shephard, 3 small apartment buildings and 3-4 houses…all in the same complex. When you walk through the entrance gate it’s obvious that you’re in a mini ex-pat community. It’s somewhat of a haven from the “real” Africa outside, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe after a while we’ll appreciate having a quieter, more American/European environment to escape to? Or, maybe we’ll resent the separation we feel from the Africans living around us?

As far as conveniently located, though, the apartment is awesome. All within 100 yards of our apartment: internet café, grocery store, market, restaurant/bar showing the World Cup games.

Tomorrow’s task: buy a cell phone. 101paige 101africa