Memories of Uganda

(dedicated to those special folks I traveled with)

Do you remember?

Do you remember when you landed in Uganda? what were you feeling at the beginning of those two weeks  in the Land of Beauty? What did you think of Kampala? For some of us this was the first time we traveled in a continent different from that in which we were born. For me it was the first time in Africa.

Do you remember the first meal together, how we were trying to plan everything and how everything tuned out to be always different from what planned?

Do you remember that huge amount of pasta cooked in a very small pot in the kitchen of Nuno's room?

Do you remember the mouse running in the room of king Gomesi the first? 

Which of the thousands smiles you have seen will you remember? Do you remember the one of the girl after seeing sunspots? or the laughing while translating from english to a local language? or the happiness of hugging each other after a day spent speaking about the sky?

Do you remember the serious conversations we had, when each of us was speaking her or his own language? The Babel-GalileoMobile Uganda edition in Portugues, Brazilian, French and Italian.  Il était muito legal, davvero.

Do you remember when Phil gave birth to the 

"Istrunomy Under The Same Sky" ?

Do you remember when we were sitting with one foot in the southern hemisphere, and the other in the northern?

Do you remember when we had to depart and that feeling " this is gonna happen again."? Nobody spoke it, but we all shared it.

Do you remember "When are you going back to the moon?" "How long does it take to go to Mars?" "Why is the sky blue?" "Why is the night dark?" "What does GalileoMobile mean?"

Do you remember the Matoke?

Do you remember the camaleont  walking on our hands and harms in the forest near Sipi Falls? He would have liked to be one of us, one of those guys who try to change color every day, one of those guys who try to adapt themselves to all the students, schools, people encountered day after day.

Do you remember Pati showing the "Pale Blue dot"? Nuno explaining how long bacteria can survive on the rocks on the Moon? Phil and Fabio playing flute and drums in the courtyard of Manafwa college? Maria Serena and Domenico giving filming lessons?

Do you remember how important was to be a team, to feel and rely on the support of all GalileoMobile?

Do you remember those little models of the Solar System we placed in Uganda? Look, if the Solar System were so small, and if it were really be placed in Uganda, the closest star to the Sun, Proxima Centaury, would be sitting somewhere on the coastline of Brazil, or in Kathmandu. Do you think we can believe in the possibility that some human will cross half Africa and an Ocean, one day in the future? 

Do you remember how extraordinary was the time we spent in Uganda?

Will you remember to keep sharing your life with the most exceptional among the people you have met under our unique sky?