Despite being so tired and not having slept more than a few hours since Saturday, I couldn't close my eyes for even a moment throughout the duration of the flight from Nairobi to Entebbe, because the view of Uganda from the sky was so beautiful! Lake Victoria never seemed to end and the lush green of the country was much different than what I had imagined; even much different than what I saw from the air as I landed in Kenya, which seemed a lot drier.

As the plane landed and pulled into the airport there was a big blue sign, which read "Welcome to the Pearl of Africa" and it dawned on me for the first time that I was actually in Africa!

After taking some time to locate both of my bags, I passed easily through customs to be greeted by an old friend that I haven't seen in about 7 years and some of her sponsored children. The children and the people here are absolutely gorgeous and so respectful. Children bow when they serve you. I noticed those traits during the drive from Entebbe to Jinja as well, everyone seemed to look their best and care a great deal about their appearance.

The country side is beautiful, but poverty is also very apparent. It seems to be on somewhat of a greater scale than what I had experienced in Guatemala, in a sense a little more desperate. As I looked around, I expected to see Spanish on all of the stores and street signs, but instead it was English. There are no McDonald's or Dominos Pizza restaurants here!

I decided to take advantage of the time that the drive allowed and began asking my friend, Kimi, all kinds of questions. I learned that it was normal to see people of the same sex holding hands and that it was only a sign of friendship, but that public display of affection between a man and a woman, even if they were married, was very offensive.

On our ride back, we crossed over the River Nile, but I never saw any crocodiles or hippos. All I could think about was how nice it would feel to jump in and enjoy the coolness of the water as the air here is so hot and humid. For the first time, I was looking forward to the cold shower that I was going to have once we arrived.

When we pulled in to Kimi's home, I was greeted by several of the children that stay with her as they are being sponsored to go to school. They were very shy and mostly stared. Before settling down for dinner, I decided to "bathe" and get cleaned up, but before I could, one of the children had to catch and remove a cockroach from the bathtub. It was the first time I've seen or been around cock roaches, but surprisingly they don't seem to bother me too much, still I won't touch them! Using the tap, a bucket, and some soap, I cleaned up enough to join everyone for dinner. We had beans and a type of root called "Casava" which kind of tasted like potatoes. I really enjoyed it!

Soon after dinner, I was too tired to do much else other than sleep. I let the down mosquito net over my bed and tucked it into the mattress. It was so comforting to know that in the "creepy crawly world", I was untouchable! That net gave me enough peace of mind to fall quickly into a dead sleep. The squawking of bats in the cupboard next to my bed and the buzzing of insects in the background quickly faded.