The White Girls are Breaking Into the Van - Uganda, Africa part 4

May 8

Today, we all woke up sick. 

Caroline and Jamie had been trading off trips to the toilet all night. Sydney was sick as well since about 4 AM. Naid and I woke up with a fever and body aches coupled with severe fatigue and nausea. We all skipped breakfast and decided that sitting outside together would feel better than sitting alone in dark rooms without electricity or running water.
We were supposed to go to Bugobero, the neighboring health center, to do surgery, but Judy and Jim fell ill as well and they would be the ones taking us and running surgery.

There were emergency C-sections, so the new mother kits with large pads may have been worn as a diaper for some during …

            Meanwhile, the girls and I were sitting in the sun trying to 'keep it together.' We sat next to the water tanks and farm animals and our sleeping area.
We wrote a communal poem about our predicament and about an instance where one of us, in retrospect, should have been wearing a diaper too.

 Wilton was in surgery too that morning: a C-section on a mother in long-term obstructed labor. He was a little shocked because while he was doing a cervical check on the mother, the baby began sucking his finger like a nipple (while still inside the womb).
Wilton sent me a message that that the group wouldn't be going to Bugobero for surgery because we all were so...unstable... and asked me to relay it to the rest of the group.

I was so sick that I didn't stand up, I just weakly turned in my chair and said
"Jamie.....Jamieeeee... tell....the..others...we're.. not... going to.... Bugo-"
Jamie just looked at me and then projectile vomited at my feet

We then used all the remaining energy we had to laugh the day away. 

That night, we were all still sick enough that we were unable to enthusiastically participate in the goodbye ceremony that the nuns organized for us.  
They spent the day making a lovely cake, and all entered the room dancing in a line and then in a circle around it to present it to us. We were to cut the cake as a group, all of us holding the knife, while they continued to sing for us.
We gave them each our bags of gifts, and they in turn gave us each traditional African clothing.
They were so appreciative of the things we take for granted every day: a rain poncho for when they have to walk to work at the hospital in the pouring rain, a little tube of hand lotion, flashlights, etc. 
Below you can see this group of incredible and talented women. They each run a different service such as the school, the midwives, or the convent.
 I like to call them the "fun nuns" because they would drink the warm beer with us and play a viciously competitive game of Jenga or Gin Rummy.

 

9 May

Today we woke up to head to Jinja by bus and with a new driver. We planned to leave at 9 AM, so the van arrived by typical Africa time at about 10:30. The journey was supposed to take 2.5 hours, but really took about 5 hours. We were all nervous for the very hot and bumpy ride, as we only just had recovered from a full day of sickness.

We arrived at the ‘Nile porch’ where we would be staying, and it was so nice!
We were in shock at being among running water, a pool, and food that wouldn't make us sick. We sat among wild orchids and watched monkeys playing in the trees while we looked out over the Nile. 

the Nile River!

 We only stopped in for dinner, and then headed into town to souvenir shop.
 Jinja is this place in Uganda to buy baskets, paintings, African fabrics, and anything you would want to take home from the trip. 

The whole group! Naid, Sydney, Jamie, me, Caroline, Wilton, Jim, Judy

After a little time shopping, we all hopped back into our bus with our driver to head back before sunset. We had only gone two blocks before a boda boda (motorcycle) driver hit a pothole and skidded along the road to slam into the side of our van going very fast. The driver of the motorcycle (riding with 2-3 other passengers on his bike) was unconscious on the side of the road and bleeding.

We had been warned before the trip that locals purposefully get themselves hit by vehicles in order to have a mob attack the driver or to receive other payment.
So, when this happened our hearts sank because we really didn’t know what was going on or what was going to happen. A group of people began to form behind our van, and our driver got out of the vehicle to argue with the people who were taking the motorcycle driver’s side.

We sat in the van in silence, hiding our bags of souvenirs low to look less like easy targets.  I held my phone below the seat and sent Xavier our location and what was going on, to make sure that someone would know what had happened to us in case things really got out of hand.

Our van driver came up to the window and informed us that he was going to drive the injured man to the hospital on a motorcycle and “he’d be right back.” We pleaded with him to take the injured man in our van (with us) to the hospital, to take us to a nearby public place and we could call a taxi, etc. He was not okay with any of the options. I began to panic and wondered who our driver was working for. Did he know the motorcycle driver would be there? The motorcycle driver apparently was unlicensed.

Now, we were a group of white tourists sitting in an unlocked van in the dark on the side of the road in Uganda, with no driver, in front of a group of angry locals. People began walking by the van, and one of the men in the group standing behind us came up to the side of the van and yelled “you killed him!” and started to slide the side door open. Naid, quick on her feet, fought against him to quickly shut it. We were all terrified about what the people would do… and waiting and watching.
In this old and foreign van, we were struggling to find the way to lock the doors and were unsure if the locks would work anyways. Wilton had the keys, but driving away would look  suspicious and likely cause tensions to rise.  Additionally, we could be followed and couldn’t get very far driving on these crazy potholed and unmarked dirt roads while driving on the opposite side of the car. Judy called the place we were staying and they alerted the police to help dispel the people grouping in the area.

After what felt like an eternity, but was really just a short time, our driver returned the car window. He apparently hadn’t actually made it to the hospital with the motorcycle driver and there was more arguing in the street. We headed to the hospital, then to the police station so that our driver could report what happened.
Wilton went into the station with our driver and walked among people in handcuffs sitting on the ground. He said that they interrogated them and then took our driver's license from him. The police told him to take our group back to the Nile Porch, and then to return to them with money for a bribe.

The rest of us waited in the van and felt relief that the incident was over, although we were still a little uneasy as we were a van full of foreign women sitting on Main street at night in Uganda. We were baffled at how things go wrong when you least expect it.

None of us had our passports, we had only half charged phones, etc.
We thought this would be a quick trip into town!
I was trying to think about what we could've done to defend ourselves....and I laughed looking at Jim saying that we could have used all our newly-purchased grass-woven bowls as shields and helmets.

Judy pointed out the irony of the situation: if the man in the motorcycle hadn’t skidded into the side of our van, he would’ve continued out on the road into the oncoming traffic and been run over.
Of course, it began pouring rain- an absolute tropical downpour- while we carefully returned to the Nile porch on muddy dirt roads.  
That night, the girls and I all slept in one of the "family houses" and listened to the monkeys playing on the roof above us.

10 May

The next day we had the opportunity to relax a little. I woke up and worked out a little, which I had been missing terribly. The girls and I relaxed by the pool and had some homemade passionfruit juice.
At midday, we headed out for our adventure -- to kayak and paddle board from Lake Victoria to the source of the Nile. Our tour guide provided us with Ugandan beer, “Nile Beer”(of course) and some local Waranj (gin).

My beautiful and very tall roommate Caroline

We enjoyed going to the little shop/bar in the middle of the Nile river, at the source.

 

By the end of the day and while loading up the boats to drive back, we were exhausted. Since nothing runs smoothly in Africa, our trip leader realized while we were trying to leave that he had locked the van’s keys inside.
 Since this was a water adventure, we had left our cell phones behind and didn’t have the ability to contact the other members of our group.  The sun was setting and we were just wearing our bathing suits and our wet clothes.

We did have a camera, though!

            So, what were we to do?
Jamie looked at the African men who were carrying the kayaks and who lived in a little hut house next to the output and said “can you get me a long thin piece of metal.”
Jamie then began breaking into our van in a window-lock picking heist.

We actually got the van window open and were then on our way home.

            Imagine how puzzled the African men must have been by the 5 American girls enthusiastic about breaking into their van…..

11 May

We were on the road again… to Entebbe! This would be a long and hot car ride no matter what we did because we left at a time with traffic. On the road here, your clothes become covered with clay and your skin becomes orange tinted from the dirt that blows into the windows.
About an hour into the trip, we came to a stop as 5-10 trees were down in the road. Workers were clearing them with machetes and…. It would be awhile. We were all very hot sitting in the van in the heat at a complete standstill, but also couldn’t get out.

            Once we were finally moving again we headed to the terrifying traffic of Entebbe and Kampala. Kampala is known for their dangerous traffic jams.
Boda Bodas rushed in between cars that were only a few feet apart, trucks cut us off with only inches to spare. Workers rode on the back of loaded trucks with only a bar to hold onto, laying on a bed of bananas.

 

            Our final destination was a shop called Anna’s Closet which is Judy’s favorite place to buy gifts in Africa. It had a lovely garden and …cold drinks! 

Our next stop was the Entebbe Animal Preserve, where one of the men working there gave us all a free tour of the zoo.

One of the baboons there showed her 'behind' to any female she sees as a threat to her ‘husband.' Our tour guide would call her name and then point to any female he could for us to see her  territorial response.....


He let us throw apples to the chimpanzees, who would wash their hands in the river before they would eat a snack. One of the apples fell in the river, and the chimp used a stick to measure the depth of the water to see if he’d be able to retrieve it.
Another chimp was despondent in the high branches of the trees because she had been mourning the death of her partner a month ago.
We learned so much about the animals that we wouldn’t have otherwise.

this bird made me laugh...until I learned it's a carnivore

Our guide!

Our guide took us down to pet a very special animal….

We then said goodbye to the monkeys of Africa and returned to the hotel for a quick sleep. We had to leave at 1:30 AM for our flights out! I will miss this beautiful country, and I have learned so much. I think of my time there every day.