Christine Bleakley's Uganda Diary: Day one - Arriving in Africa
| 12:26 UK time, Wednesday, 11 March 2009
In January I travelled to Uganda with Comic Relief to report on the work that needs to be done to improve the lives of the people there. This is my diary.
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Read all of my diary entries here.
Watch all three films I made for Comic Relief here.
Monday 5th January
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I'm sitting on a Kenya Airline Flight on my way to Nairobi and then onto Entebbe in Uganda. I've just had a lovely break at home over Christmas and I'm about to embark upon a journey that excites and unnerves me in equal measure.
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I sit looking at my little TV screen in the back of the seat in front of me. I'm transfixed by the animated aeroplane travelling across the various time zones. London, Rome, Cutra, Addis Ababa and finally Nairobi. Seven hours and forty three minutes and 6,846 kilometres later we'll have landed.
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The animated sequence has got me thinking. Regardless of family background, wealth, friends...what determines our start in life is entirely geographical. My Comic Relief notes tell me nearly 23 million adults and children in Sub-Saharan Africa are now living with HIV. It is too shocking to take in. And so it's back to the birthplace lucky draw; millions of children born with HIV because Africa is their land of origin.
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Sleep a little on the way, with Ricky Gervais in the movie Ghost Town keeping me company for part of the journey. Coming into land over Nairobi I see a really industrialised place. Smog covers the bustling city. I've never been to Africa before and so don't know what to expect, but for some reason this wasn't it.
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Now waiting in Nairobi for our flight to Entebbe. Justin Canning, our photographer, is with me. We checked our bags right through at Heathrow. If I see mine again, it'll be both a miracle and a welcome sight. Not least because my bloody malaria tablets are in it!
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Christine x
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* Read all of Christine's diary entries here
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* See a gallery of pictures of Christine in Uganda
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* Info on how to donate to Comic Relief
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* View all our pages on Comic Relief, where you can play our doodle quiz, bid on the ÌýComic Relief doodle book auction and watch all our Comic Relief videos.
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