The trip started off inauspiciously, with a slight delay between the turning of the key and the starting of the engine. That delay was more than slight after our first stop at the equator to top up on coffee. So we did what we have done three times before when driving along this road: break down in Lukaya at the shop of mechanic Sam. In 35 minutes he had rebuilt our starter and after another 30 of reinstalling and testing, we were back on the road. Our pockets $40 lighter.

Here the crew watches Sam work while the kids watch Paige change Odin in the front seat.

Today’s destination was Mihingo Lodge, a luxury wilderness lodge on the edge of Lake Mburo National Park. Other than two nights in Zanzibar, this was our first luxury experience in Africa. Having been to Lake Mburo five or six times before, we had no need to go for game drives or boat trips or walking safaris. We were here to relax.

Eating good food.

Enjoying the view of the landscape and wildlife at the salt lick and water hole from poolside.

Did I mention enjoying the food? We had almost decided against a luxury lodge for this trip because we weren’t sure if we’d be able to enjoy the meals, having to deal with Odin outside of a comfortable baby setting. He’s obviously free to make a mess at home and we eat out mostly at places where we’re not concerned about ambiance. However, Mihingo was decidedly kid friendly. They offered fish fingers before we even asked and had high chairs and utensils for kids. When we asked about dinner time, (we assumed that we’d just eat early, 6ish, then paige would put Odin to bed and we’d hang out in the room after that) they told us that dinner was at 8. Then they told us that one of the housekeepers could babysit Odin while he slept and call us on the cell if he woke up. Score. These two nights were maybe the second and third time that Paige and I have eaten out on our own since Odin.

Morning on the balcony of our room.

A view of the bathroom with the shower on the left and Odin exiting the toilet.

And here is the view back from the shower. Pretty sick.

We spent our mornings playing in the pool.

And the afternoons napping in our room. Not bad, huh?

Here is the view from our balcony. All the other buildings of the lodge are almost entirely hidden from view.

A closer look at the salt lick and water hole. Plenty of Zebra and Impala. And we got to see our first Eland in our entire time here.

Odin shows off the sign that he pushed over and broke. The rock broke right down the middle between the painted names of the rooms. Good boy.

From Lake Mburo we planned to drive direct to Bwindi, but when I turned the key - nothing. I was parked facing uphill but when I tried roll-starting in reverse as I had seen others do, I failed miserably. So they had to get the Land Rover to pull me to the top of a hill and off we went. Ugh. I found a mechanic in Mbarara who basically did the same thing that mechanic Sam had done but took three hours longer. We stayed at a guesthouse in Mbarara and continued on the next morning. The starter was sketchy but at least this time we were at the top of a driveway, so no issues. We drove the entire way to Bwindi without turning the car off, just in case. It was a long, bumpy drive and I was definitely glad to be done with it once we arrived.

Stopping along the way to nurse definitely attracts a crowd. Babies here tend to live on the mom’s breast until age 3+ so it’s kind of funny that they’re so entranced by a mzungu breastfeeding.

Odin likes children here.

And they like him.

Finally in Bwindi. And as an added bonus, someone has made a cancellation so we get our own covered tent. Not the one with the great view we had last time we were here. But it’s still a welcome end to the day. Odin unwinds on the deck.

Christmas morning we go for a birding walk on the main path through the park which decades back used to be a road. It’s a great way to view the forest. We serendipitously met a birding guide the day before who is friends with and worked for one of our best friends here in Uganda. He was an amazing guide. Paige and I were never quite sure if we were hearing his whistles or the bird’s calls. He found 15 new species for us. We’re up into the 450 range for our time in Africa. A life-list’s worth in 3+ years.

Odin found a bouncy log. In the background are the rangers that accompanied us on the walk.

L’hoest’s Monkey

The Christmas family portrait looking out from our tent onto the balcony and across the forest.

The original plan was to make it back to Kampala in one day, but we decided early on that wasn’t going to happen. And even if we had wanted to, there were a few factors outside of our control. Waiting for a lorry that was stuck to offload all its soda bottles, then get pushed out of the mud. This is driving in Uganda.

Stopping in the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park to let Odin play. He was a good sleeper, but the car seat was starting to get old. All the while the car is running because we don’t have a starter.

Once we got underway again, we discovered a lone bull elephant in the savannah to the right just past that second tree. Yikes. Maybe Odin knew it was there, and that’s what he’s pointing at.

Final self portrait in the Hotel in Fort Portal. Though wishing we were home, this night turned out OK, because it was Saturday and there were back to back to back English Premier League matches on TV. Got to watch my boy Torres and Liverpool. Odin, he supports Arsenal and Fabregas.

Who knows what the memories of leaving will be. Paige is working up until 48 hours before lift-off so she’ll have no time to think about it. We’re starting to go through our belongings, figuring out what can stay and what can go. It promises to be as hectic and sleep-depriving as the 72 hours leading up to June 26, 2006.

So far I think the hardest part is going to be saying good-bye to our kampala staff. Two drivers, three guards, an office attendant, a gardener and our nanny. They are all Odin’s constant companions through the day and they love working together and for us. They’re not going to be happy to see us go, and that’s going to be hard.

We’ll miss the the garden and the house. Odin is going from his lush tropical world to an 800 square foot prison. Time to live up to his Norse roots and learn to play in the snow!

Have you seen my African packing list? You should really check it out. I don’t think I’ll do one for the trip home, but we’ll see…

More soon. I have ideas of doing some posts about the nuts and bolts of living in Uganda.

3 albums: Andrew Bird, Ani DiFranco, Arcade Fire, Fugazi, George Winston, Jay-Z, Johnny Cash, Madonna, Radiohead, The Samples, Sigur Rós, Smashing Pumpkins

4 albums: Led Zeppelin, Pixies, a Tribe Called Quest

5 albums: Beastie Boys, Dave Matthews Band, Jane’s Addiction, Midnight Oil, R.E.M.

6 albums: Greg Brown

9 albums: U2

One final family portrait in Kampala before we packed Uno and Ttaano in to their crates and off to the airport. It was really really stressful for me traveling with the cats. Makes me glad we brought them back to the states now and not together when we move home next month(!)

And actually, I was thinking about it later and realized that we wouldn’t have been allowed to transport the cats in December when we moved. The airlines have temperature restrictions and it would have been too cold. Here they are on the conveyor Detroit.

This was my second year playing with Surly. I played with them in 2007, my first year of eligibility (have to be 33 yrs) and skipped last year ‘cos I had a kid or something. It’s a great team and feels almost as close as the teams I was on at Carleton. Hmmm, maybe that’s because there are six of us on Surly (see pic below). Anyway, we made finals for the third year in a row, but couldn’t close the deal. Another in a long line of second places for me in various national championships. On the plus side, we qualified for the World Championships in Prague CZE this summer, so off to Europe in July!

I did some photo and design work while I was home and was errand boy for a weekend helping my mom out with the 50 on 50th art fair in Mpls.

Meanwhile, back at the bat cave, Paige’s mom had arrived to help out at home and play with Odin for four weeks. There was a work trip to Nairobi, a work trip to Ssembabule, Halloween in Jinja, and a wknd vacation to Mbale and Sipi Falls. Busy Busy! By all accounts, and photographic evidence supports this, a fantastic time was had by all.

Sipi Falls self portrait

Feeding the giraffe in Kenya!

Carving pumpkins (not actually pumpkins) in Jinja…

…and dressing up as a skeleton for trick or treat!

And the next day, mama jumped.

I spent a good deal of my time in Mpls house shopping, actually finding a good candidate pretty quickly. After the shopping and the inspecting and the offering and the accepting, things bogged down a bit so we won’t end up closing until some time in Dec. Lots of people have commented to me how crazy? weird? impressive? it is that I could buy our house without Paige ever having seen it. Hopefully it gets the seal of approval once we get back for real. :/ Here’s a shot of the place. It’s small, like us.

So we’re moving back at the end of the year. Not exactly sure when…depends on our holiday plans and work stuff. Once back we’re each hoping to put together a bunch of jobs. I’m working for the family business part time and am credentialed to shoot at the Olympics in Vancouver in Feb. Paige can do whatever she wants because she’s very much in demand in the intl development/academic/management fields she’s been involved in. But she’s also very much ready to spend some real time with Odin. So she’ll work as much or as little as possible and we’ll split time with the boy.

So that’s some of the news for now. be sure to check out the Anderson Bowen youtube page for lots of recent Odin videos. To finish, here’s some pics of the boy from the day after I returned.

we are okay in kampala.  most of the rioting was in the city center (which we are very isolated from in mbuya) or along the roads as you enter into baganda from other regions of uganda.  it was definitely sketchy.  we were in consult with the director of security for the UN so had a direct line to what was going on where. actually needed to adjust the travel of some of my staff so they didn’t end up accidentally in the thick of it.  people in kampala were laying low for several days and we kept our travel around the city minimal and to those areas far from anything happening.  we probably watched the same youtube vidoes that you did - it was not pretty.  we were also tracking things on twitter.  we don’t know anyone that was hurt, but friends heard gunshots in various parts of town.  supposedly things are under control now, but it is a good example of how quickly things can spiral out of control here.  people are not happy with museveni (our current president).  there has always been speculation that the next elections (2011) were going to be dicey - we’d always planned to be gone by then purposely to avoid it - but now there’s even more evidence that those speculations could be true.

thanks for checking in on us.  it’s nice to know people are keeping tabs on us here!

here are his three favorite albums:

sasha, involver

sharam, global underground dubai

garage city, disc 1