Days 10 & 11: Closing the Uganda Chapter & a Joyous Reunion

Tuesday 17 & Wednesday 18 August

The music is back! At 7:30 this morning they were playing it again, though I still couldn’t pinpoint a source. Listening to that music in that context created a good memory for me.

Today we met again with the Ministry of Health. It was our way of coming full circle with the trip. Instead of meeting with The Guy this time, we met with several of his team members including his deputy and his right hand. They were all extremely attentive as we showed our demo for the last time in Uganda. At the end, the first thing one of them said was “magic!”. We talked through the perspectives in the room from finance to entomology and everybody was very excited to see what might become of this project. They are all on board to help in their respective spheres!

Yesterday I had told Dr. Acharya that I really like chicken tikka masala even though I know it’s not authentic Indian cuisine. I guess he’s out to educate me, because today he suggested that we visit another Indian restaurant for our lunch today, Khana Khazana, which roughly translates to “food treasure”. It would be our final meal with Joselyn and Winnie. They are our MVPs here in Uganda – they’ve done so much already to give this technology its best shot at success. Joselyn is even dedicating her PhD to this! Without them this project would not have real potential in Uganda, much less globally. We’ve become good friends, and we love them.

We said our goodbyes (for now) and made our way back to the hotel late in the afternoon. Our flight was scheduled for 2:45 the following morning, so we wanted to take some time to rest before staying up all night. This time, for the first time really, I took an actual nap during our designated nap time. A solid power nap at 6pm, which was good. Anyone who knows me knows that sleep has always been very important to me, and I’m pretty strict when it comes to my sleep schedule at home. This time in Uganda, for various reasons, has completely disrupted that schedule both in regularity and in amount. I am very surprised that I am still feeling quite good almost all of the time. Being flexible with sleep is a major outcome of this trip for me.

Anyway, I also spent a much longer than needed time organizing and packing my things between the CBID suitcase I was carrying and my backpack. This is because I had music playing from my laptop, some TMV that I hadn’t listened to for years, and I was really getting into it. It’s ~9 days into the trip and I’m officially out of clothes. I have two semi-clean pairs of socks and a clean pair of underwear. They will help me get to Ghana, but after that I am toast! Finally need to confront the laundry situation.

While I was packing Winnie called me and told me she got food poisoning from our lunch! She was so confident she suggested I take the antibiotics the Tropical Medicine doctor sent with us. I was pretty worried when I heard that because I would be spending the next 20 hours on planes and in airports, and I really wasn’t looking forward to experiencing that many strange restrooms at that level of detail. Yikes.

We left the Grand Global at around 10pm for our final ride with Shafiq, our exceptional driver. Because of the curfew, the streets were almost entirely empty. Being able to see the pavement was a completely different Kampala for me. Uninhibited by traffic, we flew down the dark streets. I was entranced by the lights – a stream of sodium, mercury, and fluorescent glows lighting little spheres on the side of the road. I am not usually one to find beauty in urban environments, but this was exceptional. Something about the juxtaposition with the day-state, something about the quiet. We shared excellent conversation to this scene, interrupted only by the stress of the occasional police checkpoint.

In contrast, the airport was full of hassle. They checked our papers 7 times before we boarded the flight, we counted. But we made it onto the plane and flew the 2 hours to Ethiopia. In Addis Ababa, everything was quiet and empty (it was the middle of the night). We found some lounge chairs and both of us quickly fell asleep.

Our next leg to Accra was 6 hours, and really not bad. Well, not bad unless you count the person behind me impersonating a tall guy and tricking me into keeping my chair totally upright! During the flight I was thinking, “alright, this guy is suffering and I uniquely understand his pain. I will handle the discomfort of remaining upright to give him a nice break.” Well, my surprise when we both stood up to deplane was probably visible on my face. An outrage! For shame! A pretender! This man was no taller than my lower lip! I guess even the luckiest of us can’t avoid the occasional blip of bad luck. But I was so excited to see the team again that I quickly got over it.

Arrival in Ghana was smooth and easy minus a broken suitcase and a nasopharyngeal swab for a Ghanaian Covid test. The Accra airport is pretty nice! At customs, the only questions I was asked were about Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Anyway, we’re staying at the airport Holiday Inn in Accra. It’s the closest thing to an American experience that I’ve had here, and I must say, it really makes me miss the Soroti Country Inn.

We got to the hotel much earlier than the rest of the team, who were flying in from the US. We took the time to rest from our travels. When we finally received word that the team was getting close, I went down to the lobby. I had been fully engaged by the emails on my phone when their shuttle pulled up to the door. I slowly looked up when I saw the white of the van out of the corner of my eye, just as they were beginning to pile out. My heart leapt! I had missed these guys so much! I went to them and squeezed them each in a hug. I was smiling so hard it hurt. Together again, at last! It was like a movie.