first night in africa

After 21 hours of traveling, our plane has touched down in the Entebbe airport. I rub the sleep from my eyes, and grab my blue jansport backpack from the overhead bin. It is nearly midnight as my team and I make our way off the plane. We stop by the bathrooms, and then make our way to the line for customs. Humid air, mosquitos, and guards with guns are the first things I notice about Africa.

We make our way through customs, everyone so over-tired we are chattering and excited and talking nonsense. We find our luggage and walk outside. We meet the Africans who will soon become dear friends. They load our luggage into the bus and we all pile in, ready to make the 3 hour drive to Bugiri.

I stare at the clock at the front of the bus, it is 12:30 a.m. The Africans speak a language I do not understand as the driver starts the bus. I stare out the window. This is Africa. Reality hasn't really set in yet. The clock ticks as teammates talk. Someone in the backseat starts singing, and soon enough others join in. Molly sits on my left, Megan on my right. Alaina passes one earphone of her iPod back to Megan, and they listen to Alaina's boyfriend's hardcore music band (I would soon learn they'd do this lots throughout the entire trip).

It is 1 a.m. and Megan is falling asleep next to me. I look out of the window, staring into the dark. I smell Africa (a smell I cannot describe), wondering how I will get used to this smell. We pass small towns, and I see the small cement houses. I see the men sitting with their motorcycles. I see the bare lightbulbs hanging inside the small cement buildings that are painted yellow, inside people sit at the tables.

I am in Africa. I continue to stare out the window as we pass houses and trees and huts. I think of people back home, I think of all the family and friends who have supported me and encouraged me as I prepared to leave. I wonder if it's already possible to love a place, this place, even though I've only been here a mere 2 hours.

Time drags on, and I stare at the numbers on the clock. Somewhere along the way, I fall asleep, as does everyone else on the bus. When I open my eyes, we are pulling up to our house in Bugiri-- the place that will begin to feel like home. Our sweet African hosts unload the luggage (they're truly the greatest).

My team and I walk inside the house and sit at the table. I note the unlit lightbulb hanging from the ceiling above, the power has gone out. But somehow the bare bulb in the doorway is still lit up. My tired mind eventually comes to the conclusion that there must be a generator somewhere. The bulbs are connected by wires of some sort, one in each door way, leading all the way to our rooms (this is the only night they are there). Names are called and rooms are assigned. We bring our suitcases to the bedrooms, drop our stuff, and return to the front room.

Our hosts have prepared food for us to eat. It is now 4:30 a.m. We sit and introduce ourselves to the Africans, and them to us muzungus. I struggle to remember names and faces and family relations. We drink hot milk, we eat fried bananas, and other unfamiliar foods that we will be eating every day for the next 3 weeks. Finally we head to our rooms to go to sleep.

I rummage through my suitcase to find pajamas. I do not bother to brush my teeth tonight. Our room is the room with the door that leads to the bathroom. I shine my flashlight into the dark, surveying the small tile room with the squatty potty (the almost-flat toilet seat you squat over) and the small, little sink. Oh my goodness. Juggling a flashlight and toilet paper all while going to the bathroom proves to be a little tricky. Already I wish for my toilet back home, wondering how I will use this bathroom for the next month. Two days from now, the water will stop running. My team and I will have to use the long drop squatty pottys at the back of the courtyard-- the 'bathroom' that is a hole in the cement, filled with cockroaches.

I lay down in mine and Sara's bed. We tuck the mosquito net under the mattress. Are we doing this right? Everything is so new, so strange. Kasandra is already asleep in her bed when someone notices the spider in her mosquito net. We debate, "Do we wake her up and then kill the spider? What if we don't wake her up, and we miss, and the spider bites her? But what if, in waking her up, we scare the spider?" We end up waking Kasandra up, telling her not to move. She crawls carefully out of the mosquito net. Taking my bright pink flipflops, I smack the spider between them. Welcome to Africa.

We crawl back into our beds, re-tucking the mosquito netting under our mattresses. My eyes scan the green netting. I think of the now dead spider that was in Kasandra's bed, and my skin starts crawling. Keep us safe, dear Jesus. Please keep the bugs out. That dependency, it has started already.

I break out my journal, it is 5:30 a.m. A squeaking noise comes from the closed bathroom door, we wonder out loud what it is. We are just glad the door is closed, whatever 'it' is can stay in there. I stare at the ceiling, I cannot sleep. Alaina talks beside me, tired and shocked, "This... this is just crazy. I didn't think we would be living in this primitive of a place. This.. this is just crazy." I smile at her sweet Kentucky accent. I find comfort knowing someone else is slightly freaked out, that I am not alone. The lightbulb in the doorway stays on, but we do not mind, we are grateful to not be left in the dark.

I sigh. I am in Africa. Everything feels so unfamiliar, so strange. I wonder how I will get used to it. If you had told me, in that moment, that before long this place would feel like home, I'd of thought you were crazy. Laying on the mattress, I think of home and all the things I already want to share with the loved ones I have left behind. My eyes close as the night sounds of Africa (radio music playing, voices talking, babies crying) come through the window. The unfamiliarity, the bathroom, being in Africa, it doesn't scare me like I thought it would. My heart is slightly unnerved, but mostly at peace. This.. this is Africa.