Day 8

Sunrise at the Maria Flo

I am King of the ...National Park

Father's Montgomery Catholic Holy Spirit Shirt

Day 8

Ooh early morning.  It is a good thing that I packed last night.  I am tired, and just for giggles, I tried to take a shower without being electrocuted – thought maybe it would wake me up….and no surprise, it did.  I will try again tonight and hopefully succeed.

We raced out to a national park this morning.  If you do not get out to a park like this early, you will not see anything.  And when you rate national parks, apparently there are the Big 5 (the elephant, cape buffalo, leopard, lion and black rhino), the Little Park 5 (giraffe, cheetah, zebra (saw), hippo (saw), crocodile (saw)) and then you could always go to a jungle preserve to see mountain gorillas.  Consequently, they also have the little 5 which are top 5 small birds and insects, and the Big 7 which is the Big 5 + The Great White Shark and the Southern Right Whale and those tours are done in South Africa.)

The 25 runners up to the top ten are:

Top 25 runners-up

Here's my alphabetical list on the must-see animal honorable mentions:

Baboon
Bat-Eared Fox
Velvet Monkey (saw)
Bushbuck (saw)
Civet
Dik Dik
Eland (saw)
Grant Gazelle (saw)
Hartebeest
Hyena
Impala (saw)
Jackal
Kudu
Mongoose
Nyala
Red Duiker
Reedbuck
Serval
Springbok
Thomson Gazelle
Warthog (saw)
Wild Dog
Wildebeest
Topi
Waterbuck

Now the idea of a safari is nice, but I am kind of like, “As soon as I see it, I check it off, and boom, let’s go.”  I am not one to want to go around and look at the same animals over and over, especially when time is running short and there are still things that we could be doing.  On the way to the park, Nap asked if anyone had any sweeties for him.  “Ahhhh, breakfast.” And to be honest, a piece for breakfast and one for lunch is the way that we have been going at this point.  It provides a little sugar and keeps your mouth from drying out.  We had the trail mix I brought one night for dinner, and there was one pack of that left, and I still had a few protein bars, but I was sure those would be gone after the park tour.

When we heard, once we were inside the park, that there was a boat tour that lasted 1.5 hours, I was less than happy.  Antsy really.  Once we were on the boat and in the lake, I had wished I had brought my tablet, or notebook or something to do.  Lucky Ol’Nap just kicked back on the back bench and took a nap.  Jealous.  I had a French couple in front of me that talked incessantly and acted like they had never been to the zoo.  Honestly, our Montgomery Zoo had more animals there than I would be able to see on a boat tour, and from all of my time at 6 Flags Marine World, I had already fed and pet dolphins; fed, ridden and bathed elephants; fed and pet tigers.  We all tried to be open minded, but the road to the safari was bumpy, and we were sleepy, and the air was very cold this morning with a cold breeze to boot.

Once we were out on the lake, Nap and Jeff kept me entertained with their quips like “Weav-a behd (pronouncing it like a South African)– check, let’s move.”  We did end up seeing lots of hippos and 2 baby crocs and 1 big daddy croc.

We left after watching Nap, Fr. Michael, and Jeff try to chase, pet scare wart hogs.  It normally ended up with one of them jumping back as the thing threatened to attack them, but I think we got the best of them.

When we left there, we had to drive the 1.5 hours back to Masaka to say good bye to Maria, and pick up Father Michael’s clothes and things.  Then we took the 2.5 hour trip back up to Kampala.  We will stay there over night, and then leave for Entebbe, after Father’s 5 hour Mass and celebration for the graduates.  The road back to Kampala was under construction was AWFUL.  I have complained before, but those were shirt little trips.  I kept trying to go to sleep and my head kept smacking the window.  I finally just woke up  - that whole self-preservation thing.  They have been working on this one road for  2.5 years, but people can be so corrupt that nothing ever gets done like it should.  All of the materials are literally just sitting there, and trucks moving in and out, and it just seems unnecessary.

Oddly enough, we are staying at the same place where we were treated so rudely and had $500 stolen from one of our safes.  I guess that is why people are corrupt, because they steal from you, you cannot do anything about it, and this is a very nice hotel, so you have to stay here again for lack of a better option.  Well I went up to my room to check on the shower situation and get my gear put away and Jeff and Nap and Father met with the radio mast guy.  Apparently the meeting was great.  From there, we went down to eat dinner.

We put the man who knows food best in charge of ordering, Jeff taught the bartender how to make me an amaretto sour, and I just sat and soaked it all in.  We ate at an outside restaurant, that had a Euro-Asian theme (weird colored lights, colored metal panels hanging from the ceiling at different angles and in different shapes, etc).  They specialized in Thai cuisine, so Jeff and I were a little nervous about what Nap might try to feed us.   And it was so dark outside that we used our cell phones to read off of the menus and see what the food looked like before we ate it.  All we know for sure is that Nap gave us something with shrimp, carrots, chicken, peanut sauces, spicy sauces, and mushrooms – the rest is unknown and probably should stay that way.  There was a fried rice that was really good with this super spicy mushroom dish, and there was a veggie stir fry that was good, but bland in comparison.  Nobody sells desserts, and Nap tried to order some off of the menu, but of course they were all out.  We got a fruit tray with pineapples that finally cut the fire that was in my mouth. 

You spend a lot of time waiting in a restaurant.  Americans always want to eat fast and move on, which we certainly do, so sometimes the wait for everything is a killer.  We spent our time going through notes from the trip, talking about the future of Anawim, our mission, our big 20 year plan, etc.  You can go to www.anawimuganda.org to see what we do now, and if you check it out now, and then again in a few weeks, you can see all new staff photos, pictures of the buildings, updates on projects, etc.

We really went upstairs and did nothing.  I showered without my fingers burning, but I traded being electrocuted for having everything covered in tiny sugar ants.  Hey, at least they are not fire ants.  I went to bed early 11 PM ísh and woke up at 4 to check to see how my kids soccer games were going in Decatur.  They are at Governor’s Cup which is their State Cup for their age groups.  Kolbe’s and Gabe’s teams are undefeated in their Friday/Saturday games, so they could finish in first place after tomorrow’s games.  Kolbe scored 2 times as a defender, so I am sure he is happy.  Michael is at home with Grandpa and Grandma, Anna and Matt.  They stayed home because the Families of the Year award banquet is Sunday at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, and we needed to have someone from our family actually present to show that we were grateful for being nominated and for having won.  I am blessed with wonderful friends like Beth Worthington who definitely over-appreciates the tiny things I do for her, and for all of the people she used as references and such.  You guys are so very generous with your praise and appreciation.  We just like to love, and you make it easy!  Beth nominated us, and she will be introducing our family on Sunday.  Hopefully Paul and the kids will make it back in time, but there is no guarantee with a tournament like this one, and it being so far away.

Good night world!