> Day 35, Part 1 - Leaving Uganda

Neither Candice nor I slept much last night. We were up at 4AM for Candice to meet up with her safari group. My private hire taxi came not too long after Candice's departure. There was no hot water today. It's only fitting for my last day in Uganda to be reminiscent of so many others. :-)

The drive to the airport was nothing short of terrifying! My driver, Fred from Rwanda, took full advantage of the lack of traffic laws in Uganda. The roads were bulging with pedestrians, boda-bodas, cars, bicycles and of course, chickens. And to make it worse, there was no shoulder. And by 'no shoulder' I mean that immediately off of the pavement were ditches 3-4 feet deep. Every muscle in my body was tense as we made our way through the Kampala neighborhoods.

When traveling in a foreign country I always love to see advertising signs. For example, "OMO. Dirt is Good." I have no idea what OMO is but these signs are painted on the sides of buildings everywhere! On the way to the airport, I saw this sign:

ANTS

All Nations Theological Society

I've been impressed by the Ugandan's creative use of business space. Why pay 2 rents when you could put all of the family businesses in one building? For instance, I saw an office with this sign: "Medical Supplies and Day Care Center".

And this space labelled "Fairway Barber Saloon Videography"...

And here, where Jesus is Lord of Warid Telecom where you can get your hair done and fulfill all of your computer service and photocopying needs...

This is where you buy your cell phone minutes.

Apparently we should all move our money to Uganda where the banks are paying 14% interest!

Sadolin and Zain must pay well to have their advertising painted on buildings because these two sites were extemely common:



Try paying $2,670 for a liter of gasoline.

I have no idea what this is:



I arrived at the airport in one piece but about 4 hours early for my flight. I have a completely different adventure ahead of me in Kenya and Tanzania, but as I sit in this airport, I can think only of all that I've seen and all that I've experienced in this beautiful country. Uganda has kept a part of me for herself and in 4 hours I will leave that behind. I take with me a few small treasures, 3500 photos, more memories than I can count and a profound love and appreciation for a people I knew very little of before this trip. I hope that someday I'll be able to return. I hope that in some way I'll be able to give back a little bit of what Uganda has given me.