My Pictures Are Here

Well, yes, I'm not actually in Uganda anymore, so this blog is somewhat of a lie, but I did finally go through my pictures. They are now online for all to enjoy. So check them out here, or click to view them fullscreen.





There are some low quality videos somewhere in there too.
Thanks for reading,
Ali

The Home Stretch

Wowzers, so I guess we are almost done with our trip. We fly out of Uganda next Wednesday morning, headed back to the world of fresh vegetables, cheese, sushi, tv, movies, cars, highways, supermarkets, malls, walmarts... Well, I guess I digressed a bit there. I am pretty excited about some of those things, and some of them I imagine will seem a bit strange.

Jeffrey and I are currently in Jinja, Uganda, the "source" of the Nile River, which is pretty nutty. We've been to too many places since I last wrote to really do any justice to them. We made it Lamu Island in Kenya and spent a lovely 3 days wandering the narrow "streets," wide enough only for 2 loaded donkeys to pass, saying "Jambo!" to the friendly residents, drinking coconut water straight from the coconut in the market, sitting on a nearly empty beach, etc. It was a very cool place, like none other. From there we headed back to Mombasa, then made our way over to Hell's Gate National Park. We chose this park specifically because you are allowed to walk and bike through, so we biked and got to see plenty of giraffes, zebras, ostriches and warthogs. It was amazingly cool, and all the better because we got to do it alone, without a guide or a car, just us on our bikes, hanging out with the zebras.

Then back to Uganda, up to Sipi Falls, where I won't fill you in on the details of my time experience, just know that it was necessary for me to be near the bathroom consistently for 2 days. That brings us up to here, I'm sorry I don't have time for any more musings, or interesting tales. But there will be plenty of time for that next week, when I'm home!

The 24 Hour Bus Ride

June 15 3:30 pm - Board bus to Nairobi in Kampala
4 pm - Bus leaves Kampala
6 pm - Ali and Jeffrey each take pre-emptive Immodium tablets after eating some wierd falafel in Kampala and feeling concerned that this could come back to haunt them in a bad way on a bus with no bathrooms.
9:30 pm - Cross Uganda/Kenya border

June 16 5:30 am - Bus arrives in Nairobi
6-9 am - Wait in bus station, both because we are getting another bus, and because it's still dark and we are in a notoriously sketchy part of the city
9:30 am - Board bus to Mombasa
9:45 am - Bus hits another bus in Nairobi, breaking a back window
10 am - Board a new bus
8 pm - Bus arrives in Mombasa
9:30 pm- Jeffrey and Ali sleep

So we are now in Kenya, after quite a lot of busriding, as you can see. Luckily we had seats. And in fact, we managed to not be to cranky despite our lack of sleep/food/comfort. And, neither of us had any ehem..problems with the falafel and hotsauce we'd downed before boarding the bus in Kampala. Mombasa so far seems quite nice, and much more architecturally pleasing than Kampala, or really anywhere in Uganda. Tommorow we head up the coast to Lamu Island, where the only form of transport is donkeys and your own 2 feet. This requires another 6 hr busride, but will hopefully be worth it. I'll try to keep you posted.

Being White and RIch

It's amazing how often I feel guilty since I've been traveling here. Everyday I see scores of people who are drastically poorer than I will ever be. I see them along all the roadsides, outside of all the stores, in all of the taxis. As much fun as I may be having traveling about here in Africa, looking for elephants and drinking cheap beers, there is always this darker side wrapped up with it.

When Jeffrey and I were headed to Lake Bunyoni, our boda-boda trip took us past vast rock mining areas with men and women high up on the rock escarpments chipping away with sledges. At the bottom were more people, but mostly women and children, who were breaking the rocks into fist-sized and smaller chunks with hammers. Kids as young as 6 or so, spending all their days sitting on a never-ending pile of rocks, hammering them into smaller pieces. I can't really even imagine what the future must hold for these kids, nor can I understand how they still smile and wave as we pass by them on a motorcycle. You can here the shouts of "Muzungu!!!" echoing up the hillside as the kids pass along the message that we are there. There is the typical "give me money," from many of them, or the less correct grammar/funnier: "give me my money." To which there is really no good reply I can give. I give none of them money, both because I can't afford to give all of them money, and because it will only encourage them to follow all white people around begging. So it remains heartbreaking.

Whizzing past the abject poverty of people who live just a few miles from a major tourist destination in Uganda, I can't help but feel terribly guilty.

I don't really know what the answer to all of this is. I know that we in the west, despite our financial downturn, have much more than we need. I know that giving aid is never as simple as it seems, and that so much done in the name of helping is actually hurting. I know that I came to Uganda to try to learn a bit, and to help where I can. But knowing all of this doesn't help me when faced with these thin, dusty children breaking rocks with their hands. In fact it leaves me even more confused than ever.

Notes

I'm nearly out of internet time, but here are some of the things from this week:

- Jeffrey and I took 2 taxis and about 12 hrs to get up Fort Portal on the western side of Uganda. On the way, the road passes through Queen Elizabeth Nat. Park so we got a free bit of animal viewing (elephants!) as the sun set over the Rwenzori Mountains. It was ridiculously picturesque.

- We hitched 2 rides and walked a bunch and finally reached the Lake Nkuruba Community Campsite, where we stayed in a little banda (round cabin thing) at the edge of a crater lake. The lake was beautiful and hidden amongst a jungle of trees and vines. We saw 3 types of monkeys around the camp and jeffrey blew out the camera batteries trying to get video of them.

- We met up with a couple that recognized Jeffrey's Common Ground shirt as a Maine thing and we proceeded to find out that they are a strange mirror image of us: she majored in ceramics, he's into agriculture. They both know Brunswick well and they just sold their house a few miles from Goucher. Very strange, we liked them a lot, obviously.

- We hiked through the mountains and saw a number of other crater lakes, as well as about a million kids asking us for money, sweets, pens or books.

- Today we hitched back to Fort Portal in the back of a matooke (plaintain) truck. We had a few unscheduled stops (matooke delivery, cassava drop-off, tea plantation detour, police pull-over, etc).

- Tommorow we head for the park to try to see some animals!

out of time! love you all!

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.

My Dear Mukeesa

Things are not so good here in Kyetume, in fact, I feel pretty disheartened with humans right now. Mukeesa is one of the dogs that lives at our house, my favorite dog at that. He's kinda ugly and pretty scrappy and extremely dirty. But I like that about him. Two nights ago he apparently killed 6 chickens. Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of someone beating him and him screaming. They were hitting him with a giant stick. We finally managed to get them to stop. But the witch-hunt was on--- all of the highschool kids that showed up during the day were told what he did and they all wanted to beat him. Scott found a bunch of boys that had trapped Mukeesa next to a woodpile and were attacking him with sticks Lord of the Flies style. He finally managed to get them to leave, but it wasn't easy. Mukeesa was terrified, he wedged himself under some sticks and wouldn't come out. By the time I found him I didn't think he was in very good shape, he seemed really hurt and could barely move. He did manage to come out after a while, Scott and I tied him up and hung out with him all afternoon.

I've never had to see animals beaten. And I guess that makes me lucky. But what happened yesterday will go down in my mind as a lasting memory, as something that powerfully turned my stomach and confused my heart. Everyone seemed to take such pleasure in beating him, there was lots of laughing and smiling. I don't know what would have happened had Scott and I not been here, everyone knew how upset we were about it, but I suppose they just added it to the list of what makes us ridiculous. We could come to no understanding with our volunteer coordinator (the first person to attack him in the morning) about how we felt and why.

At this point, Mukeesa's future is uncertain. we have him tied up now, which he hates and we are going to try to find another home for him. He is a sweet dog, despite the life that he's lived here. It's heartbreaking to see the way he cowers away from everyone now. I would bring him home if I could.