Travels in Uganda

The day after Christmas I took a bus from Kisumu to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. My perception of time when it comes to traveling has become so relative lately. The bus ride took about 8 hours which seemed easy in comparison to some of the other trips I've taken. I wasn't feeling well the entire bus ride which is always scary because the bus rarely makes stops. The bathrooms are of course really dirty and you have to pay to use them (equivalent of 6 cents US). When I was in the bathroom, I heard a guy pleading with the guy at the entrance to let him use the bathroom because he didn't have any change with him. The guy was refusing to let him in so when I paid, I gave enough for me and the other guy and said "no one should be refused the right to go to the bathroom." I didn't even realize the guy from the bathroom was on my bus and he found me when we got back on the bus and kept thanking me.

I was sitting across from this guy on the bus who looked really familiar. I sat there for a really long time confused as to how I knew the guy and then I realized that he was a guest lecturer for one of my classes in Nairobi. I asked him hesitantly what he did for a living because I still wasn't sure if it was him. He said he was a teacher and then I asked him if he knew Dr. Jama from the University of Nairobi who is the director of my program. He started laughing and said that he did so I told him how he taught one of my classes. We talked for about an hour after that. He's originally from northern Uganda but knew Kampala really well so he gave me great advice about where to stay, what to do, etc.

I arrived in Kampala around 8:30pm. I had arranged through a family friend from home to have a Sister (nun) pick me up from the bus stop and bring me back to their hostel for me to stay the night. The Sister was about 15 minutes late because of traffic and thankfully that teacher offered to stay with me until she came. The taxi ended up being really expensive and I'm pretty sure the Sister didn't negotiate at all since I was the one paying for it.

I spent the night at the Sisters hostel but still wasn't feeling well. The shower was ICE cold and I got to the point where I would put water in a bucket to "warm" it to room temperature.

Rachel arrived the next day. Sister and I took a taxi to go pick her from the airport and she once again didn't negotiate for the price so it was really expensive. Rachel brought with her essentially a belated Christmas for me. I got some cards from people from home and presents from my family including the much anticipated Christmas cookies.

The day after Rachel arrived we wandered around Kampala all day. We tried finding the booking office of the bus company to go to Kigali, Rwanda but the "African Map" (walking around asking people directions until you find where you're going) failed us miserably. We didn't want to look like naive tourists carrying around our Lonely Planet book so we memorized the directions but just needed clarification since none of the streets were marked. The first woman who we asked for directions told us the wrong way which subsequently led to 45 minutes of walking around a crowded bus/matatu stage getting turned around and lost. We eventually gave in and took a motorcycle to the booking office instead of walking.

We ended up booking with Jaguar Executive Coach to go from Kampala to Kigali. I have a history of booking with companies that have cool-sounding names, but this one was also based on the recommendation of the teacher from the bus from Kisumu to Kampala. African bus companies make me laugh - the guy at the booking office told us that if we took the 7:30am bus it would arrive at 6:30pm or we could take the 9:30am bus and arrive at 4:30pm. So somehow if we left two hours later, we'd arrive two hours earlier. Evidently there are two border crossings into Rwanda and the earlier bus takes a longer route. I found that out later.

On December 29th, we met up with Fr. Mark who is a friend of my family's. He is from Uganda but has been a priest in America for over ten years. My parents sent some things with him so I got a mini-Christmas all over again. He took us to his village where his nieces and nephews still live. We drove for about an hour and a half and Fr. Mark showed us all around the area he grew up. He showed us the church where he was baptized and the different churches he worked at. As we were driving through one of the villages he saw a guy he knew so we stopped and talked to him. They hadn't seen each other in 3 years. Rachel of course gravitated to the cute kids and made friends with them by giving them Jolly Ranchers. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant Fr. Mark knew but I still wasn't feeling well so I didn't eat very much.

We eventually made it to his home and met his nieces. His sister died a few years back so the oldest niece now takes care of the other children. St. Barbara's, my parish at home, has supported his family and the community for many years. When I was in grade school, we raised money to buy goats for his village. The goal was for the women in the village to raise the goats and then give the offspring to neighboring communities. While I was in the village, I took a picture with some of the goats to send home. Rachel once again gravitated to the cute children and gave out the last of our Jolly Ranchers that we brought with us. We've basically learned to carry sweets with us where ever we go to give to the kids we encounter. I thankfully received a 3.5 lb bag of Jolly Ranchers before I came to Kenya which has proven very useful.

On December 30th, we departed for Kigali the capital of Rwanda in the morning.