July 20th: 1:20pm (Entebbe time)
Hey guys - please forgive the boring blog.. strictly documentary.. very brain dead from lack of sleep..
Made it to Entebbe last night after the sun had set. A tall African man grinning ear to ear holding a piece of paper with my name on it greeted me as I walked out of the airport & drove me to the Ugandan Wildlife Education Center. We drove through the gated entrance, past armed guards, down a dark dirt road for at least a couple miles before we got to the bandas, which I had reserved. The bandas were very secluded from the rest of the park, it was totally dark and silent out there.. I walked into my hut, with a tiny lightbulb on for light and immediately asked if there were beds available in the dorm. Luckily there were, so we rode back to the dorms, and I was able to set up camp there in a bunk with everyone else. Once I got my stuff settled, I took an ice cold shower and then drank a warm beer with Lawrence (one of the co-directors). Wish the temps could have been reversed, but it was still nice after a long day of travel!
Although I barely slept at all last night (I think I'm still not adjusted to the time change), I've had a great day.. wandering around and exploring with my new buds. The UWEC is right on Lake Victoria, so even though it is pretty hot, we are getting a nice breeze coming in off the water. We ate breakfast this morning at a little cafe with a open deck over looking the water.
You guys wouldn't even begin to believe the amount of insects here. Especially at night, when they crowd around lightbulbs, you can't even see the bulb itself because of the millions of insects around it. I guess I was somewhat expecting that, but even so, when I got out of the truck last night my eyes got about as big as saucers when I saw all of them. Although I slept with a mosquito net, those little flies still found a way in and when I woke up this morning, there were dead flies all over my sleeping bag and clothes. Yum! Apparently their life span is just one day. There are also some spiders that have spun enormous webs right outside of our dorm.. their webs are filled with insects as you can imagine.. but the disturbing part is the SIZE of the spiders! They are by far the largest spiders I have ever seen.. about the size of tarantulas I guess, just that their legs are a bit skinnier. Their bodies are as large as a man's thumb though! You have to be extra careful every time you leave the dorm not to walk right into them.
Well enough of my uber-exciting blog entry.. I gotta go try to take a nap before dinner (It's one of the staff members birthdays today so we're all going into town to celebrate).. Love you guys! Will post photos soon!
