Tuesday, February 23

>I am not sure whether Old Man Winter came just to test my “cutting it too close for comfort” preparations or to provide a counterpoint to the very warm weather that was going to await me upon my arrival in Uganda. Regardless, winter created more than a nuisance with the drive and at Pearson Airport. Our KLM flight crew was stuck in traffic and late to arrive. We boarded about ½ hour late and then queued up for a de-icing process which made us another 45 minutes late in departing. Looking at the snow and ice building up on the wings of the plane while we waited our turn made me ever so grateful for the technology that would make us safe through the dark night journey!

The rest of the flight to Amsterdam was uneventful and I had sufficient time for my connection for the flight to Entebbe, Uganda. The second leg of the journey was quite fascinating since the sky was clear and our flight path took us southward through the centre of Europe. The Swiss and Austrian Alps are magnificent from the air with their snow-capped ruggedness and snake like rivers. At that altitude there was no evidence of the human footprint which means that the canvas before me was purely a showcase for creation. With the beauty of snow and rock fading, a ribbon of human settlements started to unfurl. These villages or towns hugged the cream pink sand as it met the azure blue of the Mediterranean Sea. This was the eastern coastline of Italy. Creation certainly is beautiful, be it under the water, feet firmly planted on the ground or up in the sky!

As the southern flight path continued, we came upon a flat and mostly brown landscape marked by thin blue ribbons of water which I took to be the far reaches of a much larger water coarse, likely the Nile River. A quick look at the on board flight tracker told me that we were crossing Dafur. My heart sank and I became agitated… first, in recognition of the horrors of starvation that the people of this land outside my window have endured in the last decades; and secondly, I became acutely aware of my costly ecological footprint up here in the sky. Only unbalanced wealth can provide comfort for our desires while others suffer in need. What good were the tears that rolled down my cheek other than to mark this cruel reality?

My sombre mood dissipated as we began the descent to the Entebbe airport in Uganda. Stepping off the plane was cause for shedding the sweater that I had worn for the trip – it was 8:30 at night and the temperature was 25 degrees Celsius! The snow and ice back home seemed a distant, sleepy memory. Visa to purchase, immigration to get through and there waiting was my very adult son. A mother’s heart was happy again! I noted however the strange role reversal – he knew his way around, he arranged the taxi in the people’s native tongue, he looked so at ease here in a very different culture. It doesn’t seem that long ago, my five year son looked out a bus window watching the children playing with a rag ball and a stick in the vacant lot of a small town in the Dominican Republic. That was the first time of many where the ‘why’ question was asked that rose from a perception of differences within the common human state.

The ride from Entebbe, the historic capital of Uganda to Kampala, the now capital city was about 1 hour. The smells of the tropics, the nightlife along the strips of small bars and stores where people gathered in the cooling evening air, the billboards, the packed taxi vans, the multitude of small motorcycles, the architecture – all these sounds and smells and sights touched a familiar place in me. Much reminded me of the villages and cities in the Caribbean and Mexico where I have worked in one capacity or another. The familiarity hidden in the darkness of this last leg of my trip was pleasant and inviting and made the 30 hours of traveling more than worthwhile!