A Second Home

The airbus A330 was designed and built to compete with the Boeing 747. With capacity to hold up to 335 passengers, and the capability to handle 150,000 pounds of weight, it has become a popular choice among major airlines. A two engine plane, the Airbus has 311 kN of thrust, which means it takes approximately seven hours to fly from Brussels, Belgium to Entebbe, Uganda via a brief layover in Kigali, Rwanda.

When I took this plane ride with eleven other GSSAP students, I had had no sleep in the past twenty-four hours. However, this was a leg of the journey that was very important to me. For me, it was my first time outside of the United States. Stepping on the plane in Brussels I knew the journey ahead would shape my life. I was going to change continents, I was going to fly over the world’s newest democracy, I was going to land in a historic site of conflict, and finally I was going to enter into my home for the next six weeks—Uganda.

For many of us in the GSSAP program, our day began in the early hours of July 5 2012—for me it was 5:30am Eastern. By 2:25pm, we were in the plane, on the runway, already with a delay. At 2:57 the wheels were up and we officially began our journey. Landing in Washing D.C. went smoothly. However, getting our bags off of the plane did not—the bay door was jammed. Our next flight would be taking off at 5:30pm and our nerves intensified when mine, William, Josh’s bags were being held by the airport workers. They had not been tagged in Knoxville and due to “security reasons” they were not allowed to be handed out. We would have to go to the main terminal. We would have to wait. We were most certainly going to miss our international flight. With the help of both Dr. Hepners, the workers—out of pure kindness—allowed us our bags and we excitedly continued our journey.

We chased the sunrise across the Atlantic and landed in Brussels at 1:35am Eastern.

We landed in Rwanda at 1:30 pm Eastern and finally arrived in Entebbe, Uganda around 3pm Eastern, 10pm local time. Well over 24 hours of constant movement.

Stepping out into Entebbe was about the most disorienting thing I have ever done.

Between the lack of sleep, jet lag, and the language barrier, I didn’t think I could properly communicate where I was going or orient myself to get there. I began to think things were completely different in Uganda than back home. I wasn’t looking around, I wasn’t talking to people; I was simply staying as close as possible to this person I almost certainly couldn’t communicate with and whom I found myself prejudicing with contempt.

On the way to our hotel (for all I hoped) I relaxed, I saw our driver as a person not too different from myself, and I saw Uganda not as I had imagined it to be, but as it is—a second home.