Uganda, part I

October 29th, 2007

I am tired like ice is cold, but I’ve got to write some things down before I forget them.

First and foremost: happy birthday, Tania! I am unable to get to internet, nor does my phone currently work, since I am currently in Middle of Nowhere, Uganda, but I’ll call and sing to you when I can.

As I said, I’m currently in Uganda. These past five days have been all blurred together by too many bus rides and hotels and early, early mornings, so I’ll do my best to recount these past amazing days.

After an all-day bus ride from Nairobi to Busia, which is on the Uganda border, we piled into a rented matatu and headed to our hostel in Mbale, two hours north of Lake Victoria. Mbale was nothing but eating dinner and going to bed, as we had been traveling since 5:30 in the morning, but we had hot showers and clean sheets, so I was happy.

ALSO: almost as soon as we crossed the Ugandan border, we pulled over to a spot in the road and fed baboons bananas. I DID THAT. I stuck my hand out window with a banana in it, and the baboon took it right from my hand. Who DOES that? I did. Holla.

The next morning, we visited TASO, which stands for The AIDS Support Organization. They do community-based AIDS care, and are huge in Uganda, being one of the organizations responsible for the comparatively low prevalence of HIV in Uganda. A quick side note: Uganda is always hailed as the “AIDS Success Story” in Africa. Back in 1989, President Museveni (who is, undeniably, a dictator, so therefore not a saint) proclaimed that HIV/AIDS was here in Uganda, and was a problem, and began to use his government to fight the epidemic. As a result, HIV/AIDS is more under control here than almost anywhere else in sub-Saharan Africa, although the situation is far from perfect. If you look at a graph of the average life expectancies in Africa from the 1960s to now, all countries begin to climb from the mid-40s to the mid-60s, and right around 1990 absolutely plummet back down, often lower than 40. Uganda does the same thing, but right around 1996, their numbers slowly begin to climb back up.

After we visited TASO, we left for Sipi Falls. This has to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve been in my entire life, period. Uganda in general is beautiful: lush, green, hilly, fertile and cool. Sipi Falls are a series of waterfalls, as the name suggests, and our hostel looked out over the hill to the view of the waterfall. I must upload some pictures soon, because the ones I have from this entire trip are stunning.

We then went on a four-hour hike (hike! I don’t hike!) down into the valley to the base of the big waterfall, then back up the mountain, then back to the base of another waterfall even higher up. Let me say this again: I am not a hiker. I was slower than everyone else in the group and probably sweated more than I have ever done before in my entire life, but I honestly think it was the elevation getting to me. I wasn’t tired, I just couldn’t catch my breath in a timely manner. That’s what I get for never living at altitude and trying to climb a mountain with a bunch of Denver-ites. But the views and the experience were utterly spectacular. When we got to the second waterfall, we all took off our shoes and rolled up our jeans and descended into the slippery basin and bathed under the waterfall. It was incredibly cold, it was amazingly strong, and it was absolutely perfect. Standing under a waterfall and looking out over the mountains that you just hiked in Africa = perfect. Just perfect. When we got back to the hotel, I was beyond exhausted and soaking wet, but entirely happy. We wrapped ourselves in khangas and made one last hike up the hill and sat on the rocks with an absolutely gorgeous panorama of the sunset in the West. Those are the kinds of moments that you simply can not forget.

In the morning, back into the matatu. We stopped at the equator and took touristy pictures at the monument marking the different hemispheres, and stood with one foot in each at the same time. More driving, then we got to Jinja, where the source of Nile is. We took a quick boat tour and saw that point, which was pretty cool – it’s a combination of an underground spring and Lake Victoria. We also have pictures of the giant stone that marks the point. It takes 90 days for the water to go from the source to the Mediterranean sea, which kind of blows my mind. Several more hours of driving later (are you getting the theme?) and we arrived in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.

Kampala is actually very nice. It’s much cleaner and much more developed than Nairobi, which is odd because you always hear about how advanced Kenya is. I think the problem with Kenya is that it developed in the 70s and hasn’t been touched since – it’s grown without developing. As soon as we crossed the border into Uganda, we all were shocked at how nice all the roads were. The difference is noticeable. Soon after arriving at the hotel, a bunch of kids from the SIT Uganda program came over to take us out for the evening, which was very nice of them. There were five girls and a guy at first, although I daresay that their group isn’t as cool as our group.

Except – and this is a big except – they have a Tarheel! He joined up with us later in the evening, and we had a great time extolling the virtues of Carolina when he showed up. His name is Sevalt, and we had both seen each other around campus but couldn’t place a connection. He showed up with a Kenyan-American who is also in SIT who goes to school in Durham named Moses. Moses was beyond attractive, good Lord, but the boy also knew it. I said to him, “Now, wait a minute, Moses. You live in Durham – but you’re not a Duke fan, right?”

He smiled apologectically and said that he was. Cue Sevalt going crazy – “What?! I’ve been your friend for two months and you never told me you root for DOOK?!” They had an epic series of pool games, the last being for Dook v. UNC, and Sevalt came from behind to win the fifth game, and thus all the glory, for Carolina. There may have been some singing of the fight song and a great deal of gloating. I loved being back with someone who understood how amazing Carolina is and how much we Tarheels adore our school. Adore.

After dinner and pool, we went out dancing. This was pretty fun, except that we were all dead tired from having been traveling all day. And I got groped SO MUCH. It got rather annoying, as I stopped counting once I had been molested seven times within 20 minutes of arrival. Apparently, it’s not yet culturally acceptable for women to dance in Uganda, and I found that to be very true – the vast majority of the club was single men, and the few women who were there all seemed to be there with someone. Only one guy made to grab my boob, however, and I was able to grab his wrist and literally throw it off me, somewhat forcefully, because I was rather fed up by that point. But no harm, no foul, right? It was still great to dance, especially with Moses (who was so, so hot).

The next day, bus tour around Kampala and visiting the Kasubi tombs, which is where a few of Bagandan kings are buried. Three of the girls had to put on khangas to enter the grass house, because they were in pants, and even the boys had to sit a certain way (with their legs folded under them, like for prayer). It was nice to see the boys be culturally impinged upon, finally, and to get a small taste of what the girls here go through every day. I must admit I enjoyed seeing them struggle to stay sitting the right way. We also saw an original version of mancala and the king’s old pet leopard, which is now stuffed and in a glass case. Oh Africa.

That evening, we went to go see the Ndere dance troupe, which was both awkward and awesome. It was awkward because it was totally a muzungu heaven – you buy a ticket and dinner, and then sit there eating your roasted pork while the Africans perform traditional dances for you. So that felt a bit weird, but at the same time, that money is keeping those dances and those songs alive when they otherwise would have died out by now. And the dancers and the performers were all insanely talented. One song involved the balancing of clay jars on the head, and some of the women were able to stack SEVEN of them on the heads, one on top of the other. I have it on video, so don’t worry.

Back in the matatu the next day and headed to Bushenyi. That day was mostly travel, although we did visit an herbal medicine complex in the afternoon. So tired, so more later.

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