Off with a (delayed and rerouted) bang!

[Warning--this doesn't have any substantive relation to my project...it's mostly just a travel update, so feel free to ignore! I promise, on the whole, to keep this blog as substantive as possible.]

In retrospect, I'll probably be happy that within the first few minutes of my journey things already seemed to be going off track.  Craziness at the beginning only trains one to remain calm in the face of future obstacles.

This was me...but not as cute.

A two hour flight delay shouldn't have been a big deal, but closely scheduled flights and a pre-arranged ride from the airport to Nabugoye (by someone coming specially from the village to pick me up) meant a full schedule of some thousands of miles of air and ground travel had to be reworked.  This process started off insane, with a likelihood of an overnight stay in a London airport hotel and an arrival sometime Wednesday, when someone may or may not have been able to pick me up.  As it happened, I chose to take a somewhat unconventional and illogical (but, as luck would have it, faster) route to my final destination of Entebbe: through Johannesburg, South Africa. Cons: 14 HOURS. Majorly overshooting my destination.  DID I MENTION 14 HOURS? Pros: Get to say I've been to more than one African country? Some interesting views from the window? More time to catch up on sleep? Beat my longest flight record?
In any case, while this morning brought me to the edge of crazy, I have now returned to a calm and collected (and slightly delirious) state.  Lesson? Traveling can suck, plans can fail, and you've got to just regroup and hope you can put the pieces together to the best of your ability. Usually, hopefully, you can. I'd best remember that for the next 7 weeks...

My future home (for five hours)!

(PS Credit goes to Allen Friedman (my lurvly Pops) for helping me clean up the mess and keeping me sane. And staying calm. And answering my 6 AM frantic phone calls. :-))