Adventure: Ugandan Style

Our time here is about half way through and so far the journey has been unforgettable. I want to take a moment and recount a couple of the highlights from the trip so far.

I have already blogged about my birthday, it seems like so long ago but it is still one of the brightest highlights of my time here. Not many people get to experience of turning a year older in a foreign country. It was like being the center of attention at a party where you weren’t sure what was going to happen next yet there were surprises around every corner and everyone there spoke a different language. If my visit ended the day after my birthday I would have been satisfied, but instead I get three more months to make connections with people, learn about their culture, see the country and spend Mike’ birthday here too. (I am sure he will blog about it after the fact and given he has time and internet connection.)

The native language in Bududa is Lugisu, it is beautiful and rhythmic and I am working on learn a little bit of it. “Mulembe” is hello/greetings/peace, “wanyala” is thank you, “wakinyala” is well done. “Ulryena” is how are you, and “bulayi” is I am fine. The use of their language is very interesting because it is very respectful in some ways and direct in other ways. For instance they respond with “thank you” and “well done” to everything, but when they ask you to do something they say it as a command, not a request. The funniest is when Mike and I go running and random people on the road thank us for running, we are puzzled by this because we don’t understand how us running is helping them but they are actually saying thank you for the work because that is what they see running as, not as recreation. I also recently learned how to say “Your country is beautiful” which is “uli ni shibala shilayi”.

“From the Slopes of Mt Elgon” is really a perfect title of this blog for so many reasons. Mount Elgon is relatively close, even though I have never viewed the summit and it takes about three hours to drive around to where we would hike it from in Mount Elgon National Park. Most of the mountains we can see here do not have names; they are just considered the foothills of Mount Elgon because it has the broadest base of any freestanding mountain in the world. Not to mention Mike and I are adventure seekers, which the universe must have know because we didn’t consciously decide to volunteer in an area with endless possibilities for adventure. We have been on a few remarkable and breathtaking hikes in the area and we have a lot of pictures to prove it. Our first hike was to the area that had the mud slides last year. It was sad recounting the events and seeing the aftermath and devastation that was caused but it was a perfect day, the hike was fun and challenging at times, we were in awe of the beauty and we appreciated that it was off the beaten path.

We have also taken two trips to Sipi Falls. The first was a reconnaissance mission for the second trip (the one that we took the Children of Peace on) and both were adventurous in different ways. During the first trip to Sipi we got bombarded by locals who wanted money in exchange for being our guides, maintaining the trails or passing on their land. It was annoying and sad because there is no regulation and there is no way of knowing where that money goes. Many white people come to this area for tourism so the locals are begging for money or jacking up the prices because they know we have money and tourist pay it because they don’t know any better. The first trip costs us 15,000 Ug. Shillings per person and we saw one waterfall and the second trip cost us 7000 Ug. Shillings pp and we hired a guide and we saw two waterfalls. On our way back from Sipi the first time we hitch hiked to Mbale in the back of a lorri (a large mactruck with an empty bed in the back). It is a bit like riding in a convertible and a roller coaster at the same time – the wind is blowing in your hair, there are no seat belts and at the end of it you are covered head to toe in dust and gravel. I think Mike has already written about our second trip to Sipi with the Children of Peace so I won’t be redundant. But I do want to say that sharing that day with the children, being part of their experience and making it possible for them to see more of their country is what makes all the stress, planning and money for this trip worthwhile.

Last weekend Mike and I went on a crazy adventure just the two of us. We took a motorbike to a town called Chuhoro and from there we set out to hike a mountain called Nusu. We didn’t hire a guide, we didn’t know the best way to go, we just started hiking. It was gradual at first but the closer we got to the summit the steep it got and the closer a thunderstorm got to us. There are no designated hiking trails only paths that connect plots of land to roads and towns. So we were walking through people’s land and their corn fields, but no one lives near the summit since it is so steep so the last 500 ft we were just bushwacking. The locals thought we were crazy but we knew what we were doing and we were having a blast. Unfortunately the thunderstorm turned us around with probably only 200 ft of elevation left, but neither of us were too disappointed because our goal was an adventure and we got it.

The pace of Bududa is slow, relaxed and peaceful (unless you are on a piki-piki or matatu) and that is the way I like it. So when we were in Kampala a few weeks ago to say goodbye to our friends and fellow volunteers we felt like we were a 1000 miles away. Kampala is busy, crowded, loud, and dirty, it didn’t even look like the Uganda I know because there weren’t any banana trees, sugar cane or fields of maize. There is a place called a “taxi park” where you can go to get a minibus to just about anywhere within an hour of Kampala. Driving a taxi in NYC is a piece of cake compared to driving in this city and especially the taxi park - imagine a Walmart parking lot filled bumper to bumper with only one way in and one way out – it’s a labyrinth of minibuses. To get to the minibus we wanted we had to navigate our way through this labyrinth, a journey that required us to climb up and over several minibuses.

Everyday is an adventure here because you never know what exactly is going to happen, where you are going to end up or who you are going to meet. At first I was somewhat aprehensive about where this journey was going to take me, but with my best friend by my side and the wonderful and generous spirit of the locals I have learned to embrace every moment.