Back from Uganda

My break in Uganda went really well. I arrived at the Entebbe airport Tuesday around noon. Since le boat to the Ssese Islands wasn’t leaving until the next day, I visited the animal orphanage that afternoon. I also wanted to visit Entebbe’s botanical garden. While walking there I struck up a conversation with a guy, and it turns out that he works there. So he went with me and gave me a great tour. In the middle of the gardens is a rain forest, and it is in this rain forest that the original Tarzan film was made! The gardens are right on the banks of Lake Victoria. They are beautiful and very interesting.

After that, I went looking for a bookshop. I didn’t find one, but another shop owner LOANED me two great books! The people in Uganda must be the friendliest people that I have ever met. That night, I ate in a Chinese restaurant. Goma, where I am in Congo, must be the only big city in the world which doesn’t have a Chinese restaurant, so I really enjoyed that meal.

Wednesday morning I took it pretty easy, and caught the ferry in the early afternoon to go to the Ssese Islands in Lake Victoria. (Yes, I finally decided to go there rather than return to Lake Bunyonyi.) I stayed in a pleasant lakeside campgrounds on Bugala Island. The food was great! The following morning, I decided to take a long walk - it turned out to be a 6 hours. That did me a great deal of good, but I also got a pretty good sunburn. I didn’t see a lot of animals – just some vervet monkeys and some beautiful birds and butterflies. For the rest of the time, my program was reading, talking with people, eating, drinking beer and sleeping. I was rather tired, and this part of my break really restored me.

Saturday morning I took the ferry back to Entebbe and continued to Kampala (after returning the books to their owner – he then gave me another one), about an hour away. There I met up with a really great guy, Timothy, who took care of me for the rest of my trip. We decided to go directly to his town, Mbarara (I had passed through there 5 years ago when going on my first mission with MSF). We took the evening bus, but the driver was a bit too crazy. We got off at the first stop, Masaka, and went to a club. There we met two other people who decided to continue on with us to Mbarara the next day. Like I said, the Ugandans are really friendly people!

Sunday, Timothy hired a motorbike, to take me to visit his home village. It was about 70 kilometers away. I met the whole family and a lot of the villagers. They don’t get many white people out there, and they seemed pretty impressed that I had come out to see them. While we were visiting, a big rainstorm occurred. Timothy’s uncle offered to put us up for the night, but we really had to get back to Mbarara where we had left the guys from Masaka. The ride back on a motorbike on mud roads in the dark was quite an experience. But Timothy pulled it off really well. That night, we all went to a bar and had a great time.

Monday we took the bus back to Kampala (this is a 5 hour journey not including the wait in the bus for it to fill up). I left Timothy to his occupations that afternoon. That night we went out again to a club and had another good night.

Tuesday, he took me into town again, to catch a motorbike out to the airport in Entebbe. The arrangements for buses, mini-buses and motorbikes are fairly complicated, and I really appreciated his help. I got back to the office in Goma around 4h15 pm, and I was already in a coordination meeting at 4h30! I also had 450 email messages waiting for me. I just got caught up with those today, so I am relieved.

In all, it was a really good time – 3 days of relaxation and 3 days of partying. I now have 3 months left in Congo before ending my mission. It’s going to fly!