Marisa and I wanted to provide a little update of our lockdown situation. Sadly, our crew of five has whittled down to three. We said goodbye to Lucy over two months ago, and a couple weeks ago Leo flew back to the States.

Now it is just Braden, Marisa, and me bunkering down here in Kampala. We would much rather be back out on the road, but we are thankful for the time that we have had here. We were able to participate in the Arm Chair Festival and had a blast talking with The Sidecar Guys. In a time where international overland travel has been halted, it was great to participate and to be part of an event that so many world travelers were involved in. Keep the adventure spirit alive!

We also were interviewed alongside Sam Manicom, who as an author and an adventure traveler, is one of my biggest inspirations. It was truly surreal to be on a live interview with him via a magazine that I had been subscribed to in the years that led up to our own adventure.

Marisa and I also made cameo appearances in two Adventure movies that have been released in the last couple of months! Christian Vogal's “Whatever May Come" and Dylan Wickrama's “When the Road Ends". Christian's movie is about his around-the-world motorcycle adventures, and has a love story that is mixed in with some hair-raising moments, all beautifully documented since he's a videographer. Dylan's movie is about his insane journey on a raft he built out of his motorcycle to cross the Darien Gap. We thought that we were crazy, that was until we saw his documentary.

Needless to say, it has been a fairly active past couple of months. In less exciting news for the general population, I bought new pants, pajamas, and a shirt! Marisa bought a dress and some flip-flops, these are luxury items that we often are not allowed to carry with us. We also have a pair of guitars that help strum away some of the day's idle moments.

We now spend our days working on our different projects. I have completed seven chapters of my third book, with the working title of: “Blood, Sweat, and Notiers"!

Marisa and I play cards, guitar, and watch crappy Netflix shows as the days go by. We celebrated my 38th birthday on June 17th, and our first anniversary on the 22nd!

But it hasn't been complete bliss, I went to a dentist and was informed that I needed a root canal... that's awesome... Back-alley dentist in Uganda...

The dentist actually did an amazing job, and for just around $300 USD it was a steal of a deal! I just had my Ugandan crown put on yesterday, and I'm back to chomping on ramon noodles and tuna salad like a pro.

One last call to action, I would be forever grateful if you left a review on Amazon for either Maiden Voyage or 2Up and Overloaded! Reviews really help the book get in front of more potential customers, so if you liked it or hated it, please do leave a review that can just be a couple of sentences long. 

- Not a fan of Amazon? Shoot me an email at NotiersFrontiers@outlook.com and I would love to get you a PDF of either book for $9.99 via PayPal. When using PayPal, please be sure to put your email address and what book you are after in the comments so we can promptly send it to you!

For everyone that already has left a review, THANK YOU so much for the support!!!!

Marisa has a blog post on Rwanda in the works. Even though it was somewhat in the past, things got a little crazy here for a while. 

That's right, while the Coronavirus makes its rampage around the world, we are in Uganda. The US State Department has just emailed me their last alert notifying any US citizens still in Uganda that there may be one final “care lift" flight out that will head back to the USA. This would be our last chance out, and our last chance to get home. It sounds dire and certainly scary, and the situation in the world is dire and scary, but after weighing all of our options, we have decided to stay in Uganda.

This has not been an easy choice, as it seems that finding a perfect “safe haven" no longer is a reality for us, or anyone for that matter. But I will try to convey in this post a sense of what life is like here in Uganda, and what our reasons are for staying. Plus, we'll give you a little tour of our new home.

Amazingly, Uganda and most of Sub-Saharan Africa (except maybe South Africa) has not been hit hard yet with the Coronavirus. As of today, Uganda has had 33 confirmed cases and nearly all of these have been from people who were immediately quarantined after flying in from other countries. So far, three of these cases were from one Ugandan transmitting the virus to his family members. But besides that, it has not spread within the country itself. 

​That we know of.

Will it be contained to these isolated cases? Well, it's nice to be optimistic, but if there's any indication from other countries of what this virus will do, the realistic answer would be it will probably spread.

So now the real question is how will Uganda handle an outbreak?

As of today (March 31), Uganda is on a 14-day lock-down. The reason for this is because three of the institutionally quarantined travelers who tested positive for Coronavirus escaped a few days ago and interacted with the public. Therefore, all non-essential movement and most person-to-person contact will be suspended for two weeks in order to locate any new cases before this virus spreads.

Yesterday, life here continued more or less normally. Most people still went to work, and there was still plenty of traffic in the streets. Some things had been closed, such as schools and religious centers, the tourist industry had dried up, large social gatherings had been canceled, and the little mototaxis that zip around town had been forbidden. But besides that, daily life went on.

But today, things are supposed to change. No more driving around, even in private vehicles. No more going to work if you are not part of the allowed emergency and essential professions, and even if you are, you are supposed to camp and live next to your place of work for 14 days without going home. Unfortunately, I don't know how easy it will be to implement such social distancing and lock-down techniques here. This is a country where many people are used to living close together, sometimes with whole families staying in one room, and moving around is essential for many people to get their daily rice and bread.

​But we will see. I believe if this country puts their mind to it, they can do anything for 14 days. But if it needs to be longer... there is no financial safety-net here big enough to support all the people that will need basic supplies without their jobs and without movement. So let's keep our fingers crossed for the people of Uganda.

President Museveni has made many speeches to the nation about the situation, and he seems to be a respected and reassuring presence here. He speaks clearly and simply, and he does it all with a touch of humor. Also, the advice he gives is from scientists and specialists, as he's working hard to put into practice all the latest suggestions. He is also not afraid to administer harsh and economically-damaging measures in order to quell the spread of Coronavirus.

I hope that all of these precautions and measures work. We will see.

Besides Uganda having evaded a major outbreak so far, there are some real advantages for us staying here. Financially, it makes a lot of sense since life here is very cheap compared to life in the States, not to mention the cost of getting us (and the motorcycle?) back to the US.

But also we don't really have a home in the US to return to, since we quit our jobs and sold everything to travel the world on our motorcycle. This means that if we were to fly back, not only would we be taking a big risk of getting the Coronavirus on the several flights required to get us to Chicago (one of which is through NYC), but we'd have to stay with family and friends once there. Therefore, we'd risk infecting them, and this would be a nightmare situation for us.

The truth is, as far as prevention goes, it's much safer for us and everyone else if we stay here where we have a wonderful house to live in that we really never need to leave.

There are two very bad scenarios that could happen by staying here, but they are both unlikely. If we were to get the virus and need hospitalization, the health care system here is not up to Western standards. I don't even know how many ventilators are in Uganda, but I've heard three. I've also heard zero. Either way, it's not enough. It's almost laughable in a very sad, depressing way.

But there's no place on the planet right now that has enough ventilators, so like I said before, finding that perfect “safe haven" that will be able to care for and hospitalize everyone who needs it is almost non-existent at this point.

The other apocalyptic scenario that could happen here is if a lot of people die, and others are going hungry and are angry and need someone to blame, they may take it out on mzungus (white people). They already call this virus the mzungu corona.

But I see the chance of this happening on a large scale to be slim. We have found the Ugandan people to be extremely welcoming and understanding. Plus, the place we are at is well guarded with high fences all around, and the staff here are wonderful.

Thus, Tim and I are going to be here in Uganda for the long-haul. How long will that be? We don't know. But it will probably be a while.

​So in the meantime, let me introduce you to our new home.

We are living in a house that is connected to a hotel on the outskirts of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The hotel has a few live-in staff members, including the chef of the restaurant, the bartender, the gardener, and some 24-hr guards. So not only do we have our own kitchen that we've stocked up, but there's a restaurant and bar here as well (there's even a couple of pool tables).

The property is huge and has lots of lawn space for going for a jog, doing exercises, or morning yoga, or simply reading in the shade of the banana trees. It's pretty nice, I have to admit.

Despite being on the equator, the weather here is perfect every day. The sun is bright and hot, but the daily thunderstorms come to cool everything off. The plants and trees are vibrant and green from all the rains, and there are lots of interesting and exotic birds that hang out in the gardens.
​
But I think my favorite part of the place is Tom, the Red-Tailed Monkey with white whiskers. He's a wild monkey that steals bananas and guavas from our trees, but of course he's so cute, everyone just lets him.

We made some runs to the mall a week ago to purchase a few anti-boredom necessities before the shops closed, such as three guitars (Tim is teaching Leo and Lucy) and an old Nintendo set with over 400 terrible games. With the addition of a deck of cards, a few dice for Farkle, and Leo's portable speaker, we've actually had a lot of fun here.

At the moment, no one is going in and out of the complex unless it's for an essential purchase, and we try to have one person buy everything for everyone. Besides that, we stay here doing our best to enjoy and entertain ourselves, and I'm trying not watch the news every moment of the day because it makes me crazy. But that is the basic summery of our life in Uganda.

I truly hope that everyone out there is healthy and doing well. Please keep us updated on how you are doing through facebook or by commenting here.

Stay safe.