Landed Safely, thanks!

Whoa! Long trip. 2 nine hour flights with a 9 hour layover in Heathrow airport. I made it safely to Uganda just one day after independence day (their 46th). My first wildlife sighting was a lizard about 12” long. It was bright orange on the ends which faded to gray and then white and then charcoal around the belly. My second animal sighting was D.o.g. He seemed pretty shaken up but otherwise fine so we loaded him up and started a five hour drive to Kampala and then Mbarara, our final destination and hometown for the next year or so.
Keeping pets is not commonplace here so the fact that we brought ours is strange even to the other muzungas (foreigners). It’s also become apparent that D.o.g. hasn’t seen many black people in his life because he’s afraid of them. Skovia, our cleaning lady, came in the other day and D.o.g. greeted her with a curious “maow”. She was startled by this and jumped a little. This made D.o.g. skeptical of her so he hid under the couch. His fear though, is adding a sense of security to Amber and I. Our apartment is in the staff housing complex of the University of Science and Technology Mbarara (MUST). We’re fenced in and have a security guard posted at the gate. It seems really safe here so we’ve let D.o.g. out to smell the flowers and eat the grass, some of his favorite activities. Every time someone walks by he runs into the house so he doesn’t have much of a chance to go far. The birds come gather by and check him out. I think they’re trying to decide if he’s friend or foe.
Everything is new to me here. This place is completely different to what I’m used to. You drive on the left. At least you do when someone else is coming. You can’t just drink from the tap, you have to boil or filter your water, so cooking has to be done carefully so as not to cross contaminate. The birds eating out of the dumpster aren’t crows they’re 4 foot tall Maribou Storks! A bus is called a coach, a smaller bus is called a matatu or taxi, a taxi is called a special hire and most times you catch a boda boda which is a scooter you ride on the back of. The boda drivers are notoriously dangerous. They don’t stop for anything except a fare. I wake up at 5:30 a.m. to the muslim call to prayer coming from the mosque across town. Actually I think there are two mosques calling at the same time. The moon is tilted a little more to the left and there are a few different stars to keep it company. But most importantly I don’t have to scrabble off to work first thing. I have time to think. A luxury I haven’t had in some time. I expect some songs to come out of this time as well as some changes in my outlook on the world.
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