Holiday travel is never any fun because there are always
flight delays, bad traffic and people are generally in a bad mood. Holiday travel in Uganda, however, is much
worse. Taxis raise their prices and the
traffic in Kampala makes the 405 Freeway during rush hour look like a
breeze. I have finally made it to Paris, after a series of unfortunate events, but I can now enjoy copious amounts of cheese and bread.
The day of
my flight, I made the trek out to Kampala since my flight wasn’t scheduled
until the evening. The ride was actually
fine (no gasoline filled grocery bags!) up until we were just outside of
Kampala. When we reached the outskirts,
traffic started to get really bad. We were literally at a standstill, and of
course I was on the sunny side of the taxi.
I actually got sunburned on my arm, which is going to make for a sweet
farmer’s tan. The last 15km (about 9
miles) took almost two hours. I finally
got out of the taxi, and just walked to the Sheraton Hotel.
I hung out
at the Sheraton Hotel in order to kill time until my flight. I worked out, went to the pool, showered and
then watched TV on my computer. Robyn
texted me that her flight was on time, and I decided maybe I should check up on
mine. I typed in my flight information
on the British Airways page only to be told, “Error! No information available for selected
flight.” I thought maybe I typed
something in wrong, but after a second try, I was given the same message. I started to get a little irritated because I
thought the British Airways website was just being touchy. I located my reservation number, and tried to
find the information that way. I was in
for a surprise!
“FLIGHT
CANCELED.” Actually, this flight was
cancelled quite a while ago, and it no longer existed. British Airways was nice enough to book me on
a different flight that left at 12:40am the day before, but failed to tell me
of this change. So, obviously, I had
already missed that flight. I called my
parents in a panic, and they took it from there. My mom called British Airways, but the next
flight was not until Sunday. So she
asked for a supervisor, and I can only imagine how that conversation went. Maybe we will be enjoying free flights for
the next few years… We all know what
Brenda is capable of!
Meanwhile,
my dad called American Express (much more helpful!) to find me a new flight out
of Uganda. He called me and said they
had a flight leaving at 11:30PM, but I needed to get to the airport two hours
before the flight departed or they would not let me on the flight. It was 8:30PM, and I knew I had to get moving
because of the traffic. I threw my
things together and asked the Sheraton to get me a private hire as quickly as
possible. I got in the car, and as soon
as we left the parking lot, all I saw was a line of cars. Traffic.
I told the
driver to get me to the airport as fast as possible, and he said he would
try. However, there was not much he
could do in the bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Meanwhile, I was in the backseat texting everyone I know, “Ugh, Uganda”
and “British Airways sucks!” I thought
it would get better once we were out of the city, but it did not. By 9:30, I was still 30 minutes from the
airport, but Caroline texted me, “I’m on the KLM website. Flights out of Africa, you need to be there
60 minutes before.” I breathed a sigh of
relief and told the driver to “step on it.”
We finally
reached the airport at 10PM and I booked it out of the car. My driver, unfortunately, took his precious
time to unlock the trunk. He then had to
have me sign a paper, but he could not find the piece of paper. I was hopping from one foot to the next, telepathically
begging him to hurry up or to just forget about it. Finally, he found the paper and slowly got
out a pen for me to sign. I scribbled a
line, and then made a dash for the airport entrance.
To enter
the airport, you need to go through an initial security check. Usually the line isn’t that long, but that
night, it was. I couldn’t figure out the
hold up until I saw the guy who was screening luggage talking on his cell
phone. Really? The world was against me! Finally I made it through the line, checked
in and got to my gate with 5 minutes to spare.
Then, I was informed the flight was delayed. Sheesh.
I barely
made my connecting flight in Amsterdam because of the day, but I was lucky that
KLM held the plane for us! My luggage
even made it safely to Paris, yay! Not
that I had anything of real importance since my mom is bringing me clothes from
home – I don’t think the village, hippie skirts would cut it in Paris. Especially since it’s so cold! I cannot wait to spend the week with my
family and my grandma. There is a pool going
of “how many croissants will Aubrey eat?”
I have already had one chocolate!
(Technically, it was half though because Robyn and I split it).
I am going
to digress from my travels and tell you all a (disgusting!) story about
Maggie. I will start off by saying that
most of us Peace Corps Volunteers do not wash our workout clothes
regularly. When you have to hand wash
clothes, it’s annoying to add more to the pile.
I usually wash mine every two weeks, and the same goes for Maggie and
some of my other friends. We hang them up
so at least they’re dry when we wear them.
Not that it does anything for the smell…
Anyway, the
other day I saw Maggie, and she pulled up her shirt for me to check out these
flesh colored spots she had all over her chest and back. I could not figure out what it was, so I
thought we should ask a medical professional.
Lauren’s dad is pretty much my go to man for all of my medical questions
– Dr. Cutler knows it all! So I texted
Lauren a picture to show her dad, and we were given the prompt diagnosis of “fungal
infection.” Gross. So Maggie basically gave herself athlete’s
foot of the body because she doesn’t wash her workout clothes. I think I’m going to start washing mine a
little more frequently, like maybe once a week now. Or not…
I hope
everyone has a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
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