So if you haven’t heard or missed my last few blogs I am in Rukungiri, Uganda this month working with an Anglican church. Three times a week we are going door to door visiting with church members and other people who run out into the streets wanting to meet the white people. We are also speaking at different schools in the area. On Saturdays we go and work/play with Compassion International children which is a lot of fun, but this blog isn’t going to really be about what we are doing but about the journey we had getting here.
It all started out September 3 we all got on a bus in Siaya headed for Busia, Kenya. There was barely standing room, there were people literally hanging out the door of the bus. There was no need to hold on because it was impossible to move an inch. After a few stops I was able to get a seat and a local girl sat down next to me. She decided she wanted to be my new best friend and sat as close as possible next to me… it was a great ride. Luckily the ride to Busia was only 2 hours long. We met up with the rest of the squad at a local’s house who let us all crash there for the night. The floor of the entire house was covered in World Racers sleeping even the kitchen. The next morning we all got on a bus headed for Jinja, Uganda. We got to the Ugandan boarder in about 5 min. and then sat there for three hours while Kenyans and Ugandans tried to sell us water and soda and snacks threw the windows. We all sat on the bus making pb&j’s for lunch and seeing who could haggle the best for something to drink. At one point someone tried to trade their hat for a case of water. Once we got threw the boarder we only had a 2 hour drive to Jinja. We spent 2 nights in Jinja right on the Nile (If you haven’t seen my blog about Rafting in Jinja check it out).
On September 6th we left Jinja for Kampala (I think it is the biggest city in Uganda). So the entire squad crammed into two matatus, which are a little bit bigger than 18 passenger vans. It took 2 hours to reach a bus station that we thought would take us to Rukungiri. Turns out we were at the wrong bus station and had to hike through the city with all of our stuff to another bus station where we found the right bus and were told it would leave in about an hour. The way buses work in Kampala is they leave when the bus is completely full and not on any type of time schedule. During the 4 hours we ended up just sitting on the bus waiting for people, I learned a little bit about Ugandan buses. First, no matter when you ask, the bus is supposedly leaving in less than an hour. Second, Buses are the Walmarts of Uganda. Here is a list of some of the things people tried to sell to me:
- Soda/water
- Crackers/ Cookies/ Candy
- Plates of cut up fruit
- Shoes
- Portable radios
- Newspapers
- Clothes
- Solar Chargers
- Phones
- Kerosene Lanterns
- LED Lights
- Books
- Calculators
- Purses
- Wales
- Sunglasses
- Belts
- Hats
- Perfume
- Lotion
- Jewelry
- Soccer Balls
- Cow Liver
- Phone Cards
- Photo Albums
- Hair Brushes
- Pens/Pencils
- Toothbrushes
- Ground Nuts/some kind of other nuts/ seeds
- Mystery meat on a stick
The bus was running the entire 4 hours that we just sat there, so of course once we finally left the bus station at 6pm we had to go get gas. Right after filling up the bus broke down. We waited at the gas station for another hour for a new bus. So finally at 7:30pm we got on the road to Rukungiri. We sat for about 2 hours in traffic before we even got out of Kampala. We were all about to lose our minds and our cool. The bus was completely packed and the speakers were blaring the entire trip. At 4:30am we arrived in Rukungiri.
This is one travel day I doubt I will ever forget.
