Finally I can tell you what happened

Our trip. I have tried to include all of the important parts. Looking back now it was a long trip and I still think that I’m trying to get over it. Now some of the pictures may make more sense.

Thursday 6/17/10
Today was the day that we left for Hoima. Many of our friends were worried about us traveling around. I told them I would call them if we were in jail and needed help, but they didn’t think that was very funny. We took a coach bus to Hoima, which was about three hours away. It was hot and cramped, and the guy next to meet kept leaning over to read my paper. The landscape slowly became more hilly and as very charming dotted with banana trees and corn fields. We travel with two of Dr. Muhumuza’s siblings: Andrew and another that I had not met yet called Rachel. They were both very excited to go to Hoima and spend time with their father who resides there.
We almost missed our stop because we all fell asleep. We were all sitting so close together that we were propped up and didn’t have any trouble sleeping upright. Their father came to meet up with us, actually, at an organization called the Meeting Point. The coincidence was not intentional. The Meeting Point is an organization for people with HIV to engage in self help activities. It was a good fit for SAS and Meeting Point to work together since they are looking for sources of income for people who are HIV positive and SAS attempts to recruit people who are HIV positive. At the Meeting Point we got to meet many of the new mentors who had been recruited into SAS. It was really amazing how they were all very comfortable admitting that they were HIV positive and citing it as motivation to become part of SAS. The stigma surrounding HIV here in Uganda seems to be a bit different than that in the United States, but it is often difficult to put my finger exactly what those differences are or why those differences might exist.
The mentors were very eager for us to come and visit their schools. We ended up visiting five schools in a day and half, which by Ugandan standards is a great deal of work. That afternoon we walked to two of the schools. They were both interesting in their own right. I noticed that many of the children were not wearing shoes at any of the schools that we went to, but after thinking about it for a while, I realized that since the area is so much cleaner than it is in Kampala, it probably doesn’t matter that much.
By the time we visit both schools, roughly 5:30 pm we were both starving and realized that arrangements had not been made for us to have a place to sleep. That made for a relatively nasty combination. We stayed with the father, but felt bad for imposing on such short notice. He also took us to get something to eat. We each got fish, but it started to rain heavily and we were sitting under an awning. I didn’t realize that in this part of Uganda it is actually the rainy season, unlike in Kampala where it is actually the dry season. So anyway, as soon as they brought us fish, which turned out to be an entire fish with eye balls and everything, the power went out. We were left to attempt to eat a whole fish in the darkness. Eventually I gave up and started using my fingers because it was too difficult to maneuver my fork around the bones in the darkness. That is how most Ugandans eat anyway.
On a tangent, I find myself becoming detached from the need to use utensils to eat. Not that I will have any problem switching back when I get to the US, but now that I’m used to eating with my hands, it feels so much more normal where as utensils seem rather superfluous.
Coming back to the story, Mr. Tibagwa the father had two cars to bring us home in. One of them was a 1960 Toyota Crown. It is truly amazing that he has been able to hold onto something like that through gaining independence as a country, and three coups over the past fifty years. We settled in for the night at his home. It was modest but plenty comfortable.

Friday 6/11/10
The next morning we met Mr. Tibagwa’s wife, Jannette. She was very nice and very old. She ran a nursery school behind their house. She wanted us to come and see it, and the little children were just so cute. They were arranging colored bottle caps over numbers and letters.
We had a great breakfast minus one issue. We each had a boiled egg, but when I cracked mine open, there was a chicken inside. =? I tried to cover it back up, but it was so stinky. I didn’t know what to do with it. Luckily Janette took it from me and gave me a fresh plate and a fresh egg, and everything was cool. We had freshly roasted peanuts that were delicious, with fresh tea and milk. Of course the milk was boiled first. Here they make tea mostly with milk rather than water. I think it’s pretty good, but I can only drink so much because it’s so heavy. We put butter on our bread and then smashed the peanuts into the bread. Tasted just like toast and peanut butter.
We piled back in the car and rode back to the Meeting Point. Mr. Tibagwa didn’t come with us, so we said our goodbyes to everyone in the home. I told him that we kiss our elders goodbye in America, and so I kissed him once on each cheek and he thought that was pretty funny. I also said goodbye to Janette in the same way. At the Meeting Point, we met with a reporter who is interested in writing an article on the Foundation. I hope it works out well. From there we walked to three more schools. Each one was interesting in it’s own right, but repeated we heard that the Foundation was doing good work and that parents and teachers also wanted to get involved with the Foundation.
We walked a good ways this day and by the time that we got back to the Meeting Point, I was ready for a shower and to rest a while. We got a hotel room where we had gotten food the night before, but luckily this time we didn’t have any problem with the power. The hotel room was simple but comfortable. I don’t think that either of us cared that much at that point. We watched part of the American game on the TV. I was so excited that it was at least a draw.
That evening we met up with our friends, Richard, Sonja, and Moses who were going to be traveling with us up to Bulisa. Richard was from the town of Bulisa right on Lake Albert. We hung out long enough to have a beer and watch the next game. Sonja is an interesting person. She is German and came to Uganda to take an internship for a couple of months, but ended up deciding to stay. She’s now been in the country for over a year.
I was really tired by the end of the day and ready to go to bed. I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep.

Saturday 6/19/10
We woke up pretty early so that we could get an equally early start to Bulisa. We got on a taxi, but had to wait for more people to get on, then pick up a set of tires, and then pick up one more person. Minus all that we were wizzing down the road pretty quickly. It was a dirt road the whole way and extremely scary given the speed that the driver was pushing the taxi. It took us about two and half hours at full capacity to get to the edge of the Rift Valley. When you could finally look out over the valley from the edge it was striking. You could see Lake Albert as well. But we only had a short time to admire the view before we were fearfully focused on coming down into the valley safely. And once we hit the bottom at least ten more people got in the taxi with us. Meagan gave a head count of 25 people including children and some fish. They were all going to Bulisa. Luckily it was only like another hour like that. Along the way we saw lots and lots of baboons, and I was trying to explain to the student next to me what a cactus was. The valley is semi arid, so it was filled with a variety of plants suited for dry weather, including cacti.
I was crazy thankful to make it to town. We were practically spilling out. We went to visit Richard’s family. I already knew one of his uncles because he works with the Foundation as a mentor. He was also visiting at the time. The grandmother was very picturesque in her traditional clothes, cropped grey hair, skin leathery from the sun, sitting on the porch giving advice and direction to people as they passed by. It was like even though her legs were tired, her arms and hands hadn’t lost their enthusiasm for giving orders.
We ate a brief lunch of rice and chicken broth. Sonja and Moses were vegetarian and Richard didn’t understand why they couldn’t eat chicken. Everyone was anxious to get to the park. Time quickly gets eaten up with family. We piled in the car that offered to give us a ride. Getting into the park was extremely frustrating. They charged us a ridiculous amount of money according to Ugandan standards. I felt bad because it was so obvious that normal Ugandans wouldn’t be able to enjoy a park like this. It reminded me of that series about the American park system and how America is unique in that parks are readily available to the public.
We got to the hostel and they didn’t have any rooms. My heart just sunk. Our driver had left us. Tensions were running high. The person running the desk directed us to some people who taking a river tour so we sort of pushed our way into the car with them. I don’t think they minded so much because they offered us some ginger snaps. I think they were Danish or Dutch. We also tagged along on the boat, but it wasn’t a private tour, so I think the people funning the tours were happy because we filled the extra seats and made them more money.
The tour itself was wonderful. We were able to relax and not worry about our troubles for a while. The wildlife and the water falls were beautiful, which I will leave the pictures to describe.
Getting back was another fiasco. When we got back to Richard’s families house, I think we were ready to call it quits for the night and have something to eat. We went through the same issue of chicken not being meat again. I was so hungry I didn’t care. I ate a lot. No utensils. We slept down the road in some huts that were made out of clay with grass thatched roves. It was actually pretty comfortable and I was excited to really be doing what anthropologists do.

Sunday 6/20/10
We woke up to the sound of goats. In the middle of the night a drunk guy came in and was looking for a place to sleep. Richard directed him to another place, but I was in such a deep sleep it was like a dream until he told me about it until the next morning. We got ready that morning and played with Richard’s little cousins. They would just sit and watch us write. Eventually we started drawing pictures for them, and then gave them pens and notebooks so that they could draw some pictures for us.
We decided instead of trying to go back to the park, we would walk to Lake Albert and try to put our feet in the water. It was a long walk, but it wasn’t hot yet. When we got there we saw the crested cranes and went to the fishing village. It was right out of a movie. The people were too shy to come and talk to us. They just stared. The Lake itself was just as beautiful up close as it was from far away. You could see the shores of the Congo across the lake. I loved the tons of periwinkle shells all along the ground.
We walked back and by this time it was pretty hot. I was thankful to get back to the village and rest under a tree in the shade. Some of the people came and started talking to us. One of them wanted to give Meagan a cow so that we would take him out drinking. Luckily we escaped the situation by going to get some lunch. At luch time we got to try a new food called calow, which is a sticky substance made out of millet. It didn’t taste like anything, but the texture of it was so interesting that I couldn’t stop eating it. We also had some fresh fish that was pretty good.
Then I couldn’t find my money to pay, I had left it at the house. Even then it took me a while to find it, and even though I was sure that it hadn’t been stolen I was getting really upset really quickly. Meagan found it for me. As soon as we packed up our things, the taxi arrived. We really didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, but we couldn’t miss the taxi because we weren’t sure when it would come again that day. This time we took a different route back to Kampala. Along the way the driver ran out of gas in the middle of a sugar cane field. He said that someone had stolen his gas. I was worried that we weren’t going to make it back to Kampala that day. Luckily someone walked back to the previous village to get a jerry can full of gas. Meagan had to volunteer a water bottle which became a funnel. Luckily we made it to the town where we had to make our connection with only a few minutes to spare.
We took another large bus back to Kampala, but right as we were coming to the city we had to get off early. We were stuck in a jam and I had to go to the bathroom so badly. Once we got off I had to go so bad that I used the men’s room on accident. Luckily no one saw me. Our friend Jude came and picked us up and dropped us off at home so that we wouldn’t have to find another sort of transport to get to the city. We crashed when we got home.

Monday 6/21/10 Tuesday 6/22/10
Not much happened on these days except that we tried grasshoppers, which tasted like soft shell crabs so we ate them with ketchup and called it a day. We can actually get Heinz ketchup here but the writing is all in Arabic. Pretty cool. The other thing that happened is that we went out with some friends to watch the world cup. Afterwards we tried to get something to eat. We stopped by a roadside stand, and I order what I thought was a Chinese egg roll, but instead I pulled something that looked and felt like a fried soft ball. Turns out that a Ugandan egg roll is a whole boiled egg rolled up in mashed potatoes and then deep fried. I think we embarrassed our friends a little because we couldn’t stop laughing and they couldn’t understand why we were laughing in the first place.