Patty and I left Gulu at 4:50 am on Friday so we could make our 1:50 pm flight from Entebbe to Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania. Driving at night is no picnic for Ugandans--the road to Kampala is filled with gigantic potholes for the first 1 1/2 hours of the drive, there are no streetlights, and robbers can stop you on the road, although the police patrol the highway in the north regularly and our driver, Bright, said he wasn't worried. Mostly the only vehicles on the road were the tractor trailers going to and coming from Sudan.
We had no problems although we did see a tanker tractor trailer that had gone off the road down in a ditch. The tractor trailer that had flipped on its side when we drove up to Gulu was still there on its side 5 days later. About a third of the way down the roads improved significantly and except for road work about 20 miles north of Kampala, we sailed along.
We flew Precision Airlines from Entebbe to Kilimanjaro and the flight was about 1 1/2 hours. It was cloudy so we couldn't seen the terrain beneath us. Kilimajaro airport is a small but quite nice airport. A driver picked us up and took us to the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge outside of Arusha National Park. The countryside is green and lush and clearly this is a wealthy area because of tourism and many government offices are here. Arusha is a growing city of 830,000. Patty and I were both impressed by how good the roads are and how modern the city is, at least that part of the city which we have seen.
We had no problems although we did see a tanker tractor trailer that had gone off the road down in a ditch. The tractor trailer that had flipped on its side when we drove up to Gulu was still there on its side 5 days later. About a third of the way down the roads improved significantly and except for road work about 20 miles north of Kampala, we sailed along.
We flew Precision Airlines from Entebbe to Kilimanjaro and the flight was about 1 1/2 hours. It was cloudy so we couldn't seen the terrain beneath us. Kilimajaro airport is a small but quite nice airport. A driver picked us up and took us to the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge outside of Arusha National Park. The countryside is green and lush and clearly this is a wealthy area because of tourism and many government offices are here. Arusha is a growing city of 830,000. Patty and I were both impressed by how good the roads are and how modern the city is, at least that part of the city which we have seen.
Because it is the rainy season, the skies are mostly cloudy to overcast most of the time. The Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge is right at the base of Mount Meru, a smaller version of Mt. Kilimanjaro and we have not been able to see the peak because of clouds. However, around 6:00 pm we went to a deck that faces Mt. Kilimanjaro (which is about 90 miles away) and through a break in the trees we could seen the snow covered peak. It was quite beautiful and I feel fortunate to have seen it.
This morning we checked out of the lodge and headed for Arusha National Park for an all day safari there. It is a small park but absolutely beautiful. There are no lions, rhinos, or elephants in this park, but we saw most of the other typically African animals except for panthers. Of special note were the giraffes and the flamingos. We drove by a section where there were about 12 giraffes standing by the road we were on. They are one of my favorite African animals because they are so graceful, so fluid when they move. There are seven small lakes in the park and one of them was filled with flamingos--there were hundreds. I had never seen one fly or land before and it was fun to watch them take off and land. When they start to fly, they flap their wings and start to run on the surface of the water for what looked like 20 yards before they were airborne. It reminded me of a turboprop airplane taking off on a runway.
Our safari ended around 3:30 pm and our guide dropped us off at East Africa Hotel in the center of Arusha around 4:30 pm. James, the World Vision Tanzania (WVT) staff member came over around 6:30 pm to welcome us to Tanzania. We spent about 45 minutes talking over some African Tea, and then he left. He will be taking us to church tomorrow and then to lunch. We talked about the schedule for Monday and Tuesday.
By the way, "habari" means "hello" in Swahili which along with English is the national language. The response would be "mzuri" meaning "fine." "Kwaheri" means "good-bye" and "asante" means "thank you." I like Swahili--it is much easier to pronounce than Luo which is what the Acholi tribe speaks in Gulu.
I'm looking forward to worshiping with James tomorrow and will let you know how that goes.
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