It
was booked for 3:00pm but after I found out that the president was flying in to
the Kimaka airstrip (where we were taking off from), I started to doubt that it
was going to happen as security is pretty intense and it’s a single gravel
strip airport. After checking my email repeatedly and hearing nothing, we
decided to keep the appointment and just hope we didn’t get shot driving
towards the airfield.
Luckily,
getting in was surprisingly easy and after explaining why we were there to a
few security guards, someone went in to find the pilot while we conversed with
the pilot of Museveni’s huge army helicopter which was parked nearby. This guy
was rough; fatigues unbuttoned and untucked, malicious looking scar from the
corner of his mouth up the side of his cheek. Despite his appearance, he was
very friendly and laughed genuinely when I asked if he could take us up in his
helicopter; next time, he said…right…
When
the pilot came out he apologized profusely and explained that he hadn’t known
of Museveni’s coming. Fortunately we could still go up, we just had to wait for
him to leave. So we went back to the house and waited and about 2 hours later
we heard the propellers fire up and made a mad dash for the car. It couldn’t
have worked out better as whet we got was a beautiful sunset flight…
