When the Homily is about Immunology

A Long Day

One day pretty much wasted traveling to get to Uganda. I left Tuesday morning and arrived at Entebbe at 8pm wednesday evening. Presently I am sitting in a screened porch of the early 20th century mansion of the colonial governer, sipping a native beer, surrounded by Geckos - of all things, listening to the distant sounds of African music, while chatting with Aaron and my fellow Kitsapper Greg.

The drive from Entebbe to Kampala was insane, cars all over the pace, pedestrians going in and out of traffic, motorcycles and mopeds weavin' in an out - all being done in the dark with little more than vehicle headlamps to show the way. Electrcity is clearly somewhat of a luxury item here. You know before you come that you are coming to a resource poor place, but there are some details you don't give much consideration to, like darkness.

I had to ask if the main road (highway?) was actually paved as we drove upon it. Drivers seem to pay little attention to the hard to see median stripes, preferring - it seems - to flash their high beams at oncoming traffic to let them feel safer in that you see them. And the crowds! Every little town you pass through seems to be having a festival with seemingly all the people gathering to do a little shopping, dancing, or just generally socializing. Candles actually mark most of the vendors humble little booths. But is was striking to see so many of the people out being with other people - even if it must spell a ridiculously high pedestrian vs. auto accident rate.

It occurred to me that these people have no television, and so they have little else to do for entertainment than to simply hang out. Which of course is terrific for building community. Our little eletronic gadgets like TV's, iPods, and laptops tend to isolate us from our immediate community.

Of course, nothing is a paradise. One of the scientists here told me that one quick way to slow the spread of AIDS in Africa would be to put a sattelite TV in every home.

Anyway, the bugs don't seem too bad...maybe those geckos are keeping their population down? They sure are cute little critters. I slept hardly at all on my flights, so I am hoping I will go to bed here shortly and sleep the night through...perhaps helping me adjust to the time change. Somewhere our there I lost an entire day and more.