56 hours of pure....zen practice

i left jo'burg without much hassle. i was bothered by delta's inability to throw me any bones. the jo'burg skymiles executive lounge wasn't sure my platinum status was enough to get me in the door. so nuts. i talked my way in because i was zenned out. but there were a couple under the breathe swears.

i got to uganda without much of a hassle. i started reading jesus land, which i ended up finishing in one day. it was good but disturbing...

i got to entebbe only to find that they don't have very many transfer passengers. they kinda didn't know what to do with us. we asked if we need to stand in the long line for visas and they said no. so we walked out to where the luggage was coming and we were told to stay right where we were or we could get arrested. that was an awesome possibility and i considered going for it. i have wondered what it would be like to go to jail. but i was too tired and decided not to. they took us into a room which proudly displayed the following sign:

we learned that this was only partially true

this is what welcomed us to into the transfer lounge.

the lady standing in the sweater here had helped us through most of the process. of getting to the transfer gates, getting boarding passes, etc. she had told me earlier that the ticket i had may mean that i can't get on the flight because it was a stand-by ticket. i was certain that it wasn't but she insisted that if there wasn't enough room, i might need to get a hotel for the night. i knew that it wouldn't happen like that and tried to stay zen.

she showed up with all the passports and documents and boarding passes and came to me and this table of friends from unicef last. she looked concerned and distressed. she told me that they couldn't accept my ticket and that i would have to spend the night. i asked her to repeat herself a few times. she did. and then started laughing and told me that she was kidding...since when do aiport people joke??? for heaven's sake. but i am glad i kept my cool

i found this to be a nice example of truth in advertising

making it on the mini-prop plane

i ended up in seat 9E which didn't make any since since there were only 4 seats across
i asked to be sure that they really meant 9E.
"what does this say"
"9E. it is the seat in the middle in the very back"
sure enough. i sat in the aisle.
it was like being on a bus, next to a drunk and very schmoosy rwandan

i woke up at 5:30 am to a cacophany of monkeys, birds, and dogs. i went out on to my deck to see what was going on. this is what i found. no gorillas, lots of mist.

this is the same place in the sunlight