Arrived!

Landed in Entebbe at 4:04 AM today! We de-boarded the plane directly onto the runway, President style. Except not really. The airport was probably the smallest I'd ever seen. You go directly from the runway to a line for passports/VISA to the one baggage claim carousel which is just a few steps away from the exit.

Sam was there with a sign to pick us up. (The poor guy looked like he'd been waiting for a while..) We loaded our stuff into the Makerere University Van and drove 40 minutes from Entebbe to Kampala. My first thought as I was staring out into the dark Uganda night: I'm in Africa. No way. No. Way. It's still kind of surreal to me. We get shuffled around from Edge guest house (where we meet Nursing students from Sweden and get invited to "party party" on Tuesday afternoon) and  finally settle into our quarters at Makerere Guest House where I got my first mosquito net:  No malaria here, please!

Nicholas, a third year medical student at Markerere, showed up today to take us around town. Traffic is ridiculous. The streets are full of cars barely adhering to what appears to be a loose semblance of traffic laws.. but more dangerous than that are "boda bodas" which are motorcycle taxis that zoom between cars. One of the Swedish students even got hit in the face by one! :( Luckily for her it was just superficial bruising.

On a lighter note, I saw my first Marabou Stork! The thing is humongous...  Per Wikipedia: "A massive bird, large specimens are thought to reach a height of 152 cm (60 in) and a weight of 9 kg (20 lb). A wingspan of 3.7 m (12 ft) was accepted by Fisher and Peterson, who ranked the species as having the largest wing-spread of any living bird". I feel like it could eat me. Also, unlike what I mentioned to a friend back home.. not as "honky" as I thought ;). There are also dozens of them just circling the skies and walking the streets.

So my internet time is limited here but I will have more updates tomorrow!