So I have made it safely to Kampala, although getting here was pretty stressful.  After having to spend the night in Charlotte because of airplane mechanical issues, I made it to Uganda late Wednesday night.  There was a major gap in communication so my host Rotarians did not learn that I would be arriving until a few days before hand.  However, once they got the news, they went above and beyond to make sure that I was welcomed properly.  Herbert, a Rotarian from my host club (Rotary Club of Muyenga, the largest club in Kampala) picked me up from my hotel Thursday morning and drove me into downtown Kampala.  Although the country really is as beautiful as everyone says it is, the city itself is absolute, utter chaos. I have really never seen anything like it...even New York can't compare.  There are cars, buses, taxis, boda-bodas (motorbike taxis), bikes, and people absolutely everywhere with no organization to it at all.  I have only seen 2 traffic lights, no speed limits, no stop signs, no lanes in the road.  As you can imagine, its pretty congested.  Yesterday, there was even a point where my driver ran right into another car and just kept going.
     It took me awhile to really get used to things here, although I'm still far from being settled.  I pretty much locked myself in my room at the guest house for the whole first day, too scared to even venture out for food.  Finally, yesterday I started to explore more.  Daudi, another one of my new Rotarian friends, arranged for one of the drivers at his transport business to take me back to the airport to pick up my lost luggage.  Yesterday afternoon, I started to try to learn my way around the campus some.  Even the simplest of tasks here are far more difficult than they would be back home.  There are absolutely no maps of campus, so it took me about an hour to find where I needed to be. In the meantime, the view was beautiful.  Kampala is a very hilly area, and the campus itself is situated on the top of one of these hills.  One of my favorite things to do is sit outside at night, where you can see all the city lights and hear the sounds of the Call to Prayer in all of the local mosques.
     While walking around campus, I also had my first run-in with a Marabou.  These are quite possibly the scariest creatures I have ever encountered (They even beat grizzly bears in my book).  These are absolutely HUGE birds. Standing, they come up to my shoulders, are about 2 feet wide and must weigh at least 30 or 40 pounds.  Other than their pretty blue color, they are absolutely hideous.  The sounds that they make are even more scary...there's no chirping.  Instead, they make this croaking, popping noise in their throat.  I rounded to corner yesterday to see about 20 of them perched atop one of the trees.  The tree was almost bent over beneath all their weight.  Needless to say, I think I'm going to try to keep my distance from these things.
     Yesterday evening, Daudi picked me up to take me to a Rotary dinner that he and his wife were attending.  There, I received a very warm welcome from all the officials of my host club, including the President who gave a nice speech, saying how blessed he felt to have me here for the next year.  They then proceeded to order a feast of food which included naan, curries, sizzling beef, and roasted chicken, pork and goat.  Yes, I even tried the goat which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.
     This morning, I took yet another step in getting accustomed to things here.  I took my first boda-boda ride.  Bodas are the easiest and cheapest way to get around here because of all the congestion problems.  However, up until this point, I have been too scared to try them.  Ladies are supposed to perch on the back of the motorbikes side-saddled, which to me was terrifying.  However, I broke down this morning and hired one to take me to the local shopping center.  The first few minutes, I was so scared I thought about asking the driver to stop and let me off.  Once, I started to relax a little, it was actually pretty fun.  Just one more thing to get used to on my seemingly never-ending quest to settle down here.