On the Road

Jeffrey finally arrived in Uganda on the 25th of May, so we are traveling like crazy until we head home the first week of July. Our internet access has been spotty, so I apologize (again) for the randomness of this blog.

Last week we headed from Entebbe to the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria. There is actually a ferry that runs at set times and with set numbers of passengers, somewhat unheard of. We spent 2 nights at a campsite run by a crazy german couple. I think they were both either drunk, high or both the whole time. Very interesting people though, and friendly. Getting off the islands turned out to be quite the "adventure," as we decided not to take the ferry back, but to get off on the other side of the island using the public transportation. Not the best idea we've had. We first took a boda-boda (motorcycle) to a tiny town. Unfortunately it kept dying as we went up hills so Jeffrey and I would walk for a bit and then get back on with all of our bags. In all of this on and off-ness, I managed to burn my leg on the muffler of the boda, which was also not the best in that there wasn't anything to ice it with for miles. So I sucked it up, not much else to do.

From the boda, we took a matatu taxi to the other side of the island. This thing was probably the worst vehicle I've been in so far. I could see the road through a crack in the floor, exhaust poured in through the back windows, there were strange burn marks on the roof over my head and the sliding side door was either jammed shut or flying open when we hit bumps, which happened frequently.

We arrived at the other port of the island, only to find that the vehicle ferry wasn't running that day and we would have to hire a lake taxi. Long story short, it was an Ali/Jeffrey Rip-Off-Fest for all of the people there, and we both were pretty soured on the whole experience. We finally managed to take a boat across to the mainland and then a small car with 6 other people over to Masaka. It was a long and exasperating day.

From there we headed to our current location in the very southwest of the country, a few miles from Rwanda. (hitched a ride with 2 Ugandans who had a dvd player in their car and we all watched that terrible Tom Hanks movie, The Terminal...a bit surreal) I won't fill in all the details, this is getting long. But we are staying in Lake Bunyoni, which is amazingly beautiful and lovely. We will be here for a few days more before heading up the western edge of Uganda. Meanwhile, just imagine us paddling our canoe made out of a giant tree around a picturesque lake and eating pineapple and mangos that we got for a few cents.