February 5, 7:30 pm: Load the
bus at Milimani Backpackers to head to Kampala. Spread out through
the whole bus since the seats are not labeled. The entire staff
at Milimani comes out to see us off. God love them.
8:30 pm: Arrive at the Kampala
Coach station in Nairobi. Load the rest of the bus with East Africans
and an Indian trio. Bus departs.
8:32 pm: Commence argument
between Indian trio, bus conductor, and Racers in regard to the seating
arrangement, since none of the seats are labeled.
8:45 pm: Indian trio is seated
as they requested. Various Racers begin apologies for confusion.
8:48 pm: Take two sleeping
pills.
9:55 pm: Sleeping pills take
effect. Pass out for seven hours. No knowledge of anything
around me until the border crossing. God bless the inventor of
medical sleep aids.
February 6, 5:30 am: Arrive
at the Busia border crossing. Get off the bus and walk to the
Kenya exit office.
5:32 am: Approached by first
in series of shady Kenyan men with flashlights holding bundles of currency.
Politely decline. Make sure Joe and Grant are close by.
5:36 am: One of the shady Kenyan
men begins cackling loudly, as though in The Shining. Move
closer to Joe. Begin to fear for my life.
5:45 am: Stamped out of Kenya.
Continue walking towards the Ugandan immigration office.
5:46 am: Realize that the sleeping
pills have not completely worn off yet.
5:54 am: Reach a fork in the
road. The right fork is well-lit. The left fork is not lit
at all.
5:54:30 am: Begin asking other
Sofia members which way we should go. No one has any idea.
5:55 am: Directed by one of
the aforementioned sketchy Africans to go left.
5:55:30 am: Head left along
the darkest road known to man.
6:02 am: Reach Ugandan immigration
office. Continue to decline offers to exchange currency from sketchy
flashlight-bearing Ugandan men.
6:13 am: Learn that the cost
of Ugandan visa is 4000 Kenyan shillings, not 3800. Ask around
for extra 600 shillings.
6:35 am: Reach desk of cranky
Ugandan immigration officer.
6:40 am: Pay 12,000 Kenyan
shillings and $50 for 4 visas. Stamped into Uganda.
6:42 am: See a bathroom.
Ignore attendant and use it.
6:47 am: Apologize to attendant
and get back on the bus.
7:00 am: Bus starts up again.
Fall back asleep.
7:45 am: Bus stops for Oasis
and Phoenix to disembark. Watch them assemble on the curbside
as bus drives away.
10:30 am: Reach outskirts of
Kampala.
10:31 am: Reach outskirts of
Kampala traffic.
11:30 am: Arrive at Kampala
Coach station. Dismayed at force of rain.
11:40 am: Leave with Joe, Katie,
Danielle, Leize Marie, and Andrea to find the other bus park.
11:41 am: Regret leaving rain
jacket in pack.
11:52 am: Arrive at bus park.
11:52:10 am: Completely overwhelmed
at bus park by no fewer than eight Ugandans asking about our departure
time, date, destination, and marital status.
12:03 pm: Leave bus park.
Do not like Kampala.
12:13 pm: Stop at ATM and withdraw
currency. Extremely pleased with Uganda’s exchange rate.
12:30 pm: Arrive back at Kampala
Coach station. Joe proposes searching for food before attempting
to go back to bus park.
12:45 pm: Leave with Joe in
search of sustinence. Still raining. Have given up on possibility
of dryness.
1:03 pm: Ask some guy on the
street for the nearest grocery store. Receive directions to a
Shell gas station.
1:10 pm: Arrive at gas station.
Purchase nourishment.
1:30 pm: Arrive back at Kampala
Coach. Eat.
1:48 pm: Load up and head back
to the bus park.
1:53 pm: Give up trying to
keep feet out of mud and accept the inevitable.
2:10 pm: Arrive at bus park.
Similarly overwhelmed.
2:16 pm: Find a bus.
Load packs onto bus.
2:17 pm: Greeted with shouts
of, “My wife! My wife!” from bus next to ours.
Am less than amused. Joe intervenes. Officially hate Kampala.
2:20 pm: Climb onto bus.
Find seats conveniently located next to a window missing a pane.
2:21 pm: March of the bus vendors
begins. Man in front of us buys tape deck I probably had at age
10. Grant almost considers buying an electric razor.
2:25 pm: Ugandan asks me and
Grant to move back a row so he can fix the window. We oblige.
2:26 pm: Rest back against
bus seat and promptly realize the seat is broken.
2:27 pm: Bus conductor “fixes”
seat with a length of rope. Seat in front of us has been similarly
“repaired.”
2:30 pm: Man does not fix window.
Three other passengers sit in the seat.
2:35 pm: Bus leaves bus park.
2:37 pm: One of the seven children
sitting behind us pees on the floor of the bus.
2:44 pm: Am asked to move in
so another man can sit on our third seat. Rest daypack on lap
for the next six hours.
3:02 pm: Bus leaves Kampala
city limits.
3:03 pm: Bus turns around and
heads back into Kampala. Commence traffic jams for the next hour.
4:03 pm: Bus leaves Kampala
city limits again.
4:12 pm: Contemplate the benefits
of sitting behind a broken window for seven hours. Unable to think
of any, other than the pleasant dissipation of the smell of child urine.
5:42 pm: First stop.
Wide-open window is immediately swarmed by vendors holding up bananas,
sodas, and chicken on a stick. Man next to me buys one of the
latter.
5:45 pm: Realize we packed
our food bag under the bus. Break open several individually wrapped
packages of cookies and a jar of peanut butter (thank you, coaches).
6:36 pm: Next stop. Buy
nine bananas for 1000 shillings (about 50 cents). Reaffirm love
of Ugandan exchange rate.
8:00 pm: Bus arrives in Mbale.
Able to text contact before Grant’s phone battery dies completely.
8:10 pm: Commence drive down
the pot-holiest road I have ever ridden on in my entire life.
This includes the PA Turnpike.
8:13 pm: Notice that driver
seems to be taking the concept of a speed limit as a suggestion rather
than an issue of legal importance/safety/common sense.
8:46 pm: Launched at least
three feet in the air from the largest pothole known to man. Wonder
if the concept of shock absorbers was ever introduced in Africa.
Begin praying that we arrive in one piece.
9:06 pm: Begin noticing that
none of the houses we pass have electricity, or lights at all.
Dread possibility of doing finances for the month by hand.
10:02 pm: Arrive in Soroti.
Met by Jane. Pleasantly surprised by presence of electricity in
the town.
11:15 pm: Take hot shower in
house where we are staying for the month. Overwhelmed in the best
possible way by our living arrangements.
Ministry starts tomorrow with door-to-door evangelism,
which might terrify me more than the street evangelism in Coleraine
did. Let’s hope that I can shake my preconceived notions and fears
by morning.
