An African Outing

Today was such an awesome day! We woke up early and left at 8 for Mityana. My group was Ty (one of the boys from Texas) and Joseph, a Ugandan. It was quite a long journey. First, we took a taxi downtown then; we walked to the taxi park. The taxi park is where the taxis going all over the country pick up customers. The way it works is each area of the park is going to a different town. I wish you could have seen it. It was crazy!

There are probably at least 200 taxis crammed into this little area. Many of the taxis get trapped in by other taxis parked all around them. Joseph told us that many times the taxi drivers will get into fights when they block each other in. Additionally, this part of the city is REALLy dirty. There is trash and dirt everywhere. This is also where many of the drunks in the town hang out. Many of the men there would yell things at me. Joseph wouldn’t tell me what they were saying, but I’m assuming it was pretty inappropriate.

The taxis hold 14 people and the drivers refuse to leave until their taxis are full, so we had to wait a while for our taxi to fill up. Then we drove the 3 hours to Mityana. It took extra time to get there because the drivers stop and let people out along the way and then refuse to leave until that seat is filled again.

I slept for some of the trip and the looked out the window the rest of the trip. The Uganda country side is so beautiful. It’s hilly and covered with trees and not developed so it’s beautiful. I tried to take some pictures of it, but I don’t think the pictures I took really capture the idea of it.

When we arrived at Mityana we had to take a boda boda to a smaller village outside of the village. Riding the boda boda was very interesting. You get on the back of someone’s bike, and hold on for dear life. It’s not as scary as it looks though. I think when you are riding on the boda bodas you feel like you are going much slower than it looks like you’re going. I’m not sure that makes sense.

Anyways, the boda bodas could only go so far, so they dropped us off, and we walked through the literal jungle for about a mile until we arrived at the boy’s school. The school was just basic straw and cement huts and there were tons of kids there. It was shocking. Our arrival disrupted their lessons. All of the kids stopped listening to their teachers and started staring and waving at us through the windows. They rarely see white people so us being there was a treat for them.

We filled out the required forms on the two boys, Tony and Keneth, who are brothers. We basically just ask them questions from the form and then write down what they say. After finishing that, we asked them questions about their life and stuff, I gave them some cookies I had in my purse, we prayed together, and then Tony and Keneth took us to their home.

Those boys literally walk 5 miles to school every day! It was a long and hot and dusty. When we arrived at their home, we got to see the mud hut they used to live in, and the cement hut they now live in, some of which was paid for by their sponsorship money.

We also got to meet their family. Tony and Keneth live with their grandmother (their dad’s mom), their dad died a few years and when their dad died, their mom left them. We also got to meet 2 of their aunts and an uncle. Their grandmother went on and on about how beautiful I was and tried to convince me to marry one of her sons several times. It was hilarious.

We helped the boys bring in water, which is one of their chores. We had to carry water jugs about half a mile to a giant tree where water collects at the roots. The water was so dirty and the jugs had mold growing on the inside. You couldn’t have paid me enough money to get me to drink or bathe in that water. I felt so bad for those boys.

Isn’t it weird how we take the simplest things for granted? Those boys walk half a mile to get dirty water. I complain when my iPod doesn’t work and I can’t afford a shirt I want. I’m so blessed and sometimes I can’t see it. I am such a brat.

After visiting with the family for a while and praying with them, we headed to the boda boda stop about half a mile away from the boys home. We had to wait forever for 2 boda bodas to come by. While we were waiting, one of the boy’s aunts gave us cokes from her shop. We also tried to teach the boys Rock, Paper, Scissors. They didn’t really get it.

Pretty soon, word spread that monzugus were in the village and a bunch of kids came out. We played with a few of them, but some of them were scared of us. Joseph told us it was because they had never ever seen a white person before.

I had some zebra gum in my purse and we gave each kid a piece and showed them how to use the wrappers to give themselves tattoos. They were fascinated, even the adults. It was so funny. I am amazed by the little things we take for granted that the people here are so surprised by,

We rode the boda bodas back to Mityana. This time, the boda bodas took us the long way around so we wouldn’t have to walk through the jungle, but that meant we rode on the dusty rode for about 15 minutes. It got so dusty when cars drove by that you couldn’t even see. I got so dirty.

Seriously, when I looked at pictures from today I look like I got a tan. Don’t be fooled. It’s literally a thin layer of dirt all over my body. I had dirt lines from my sandals and shirt. It was awesome.

When we got back into town we stopped at the cleanest local restaurant we could find. Ty and I weren’t brave enough to get anything besides chicken and chips (fries). They were pretty good, but the ketchup here tastes just like sweet and sour sauce.

By this time, I REALLY needed to go to the bathroom. Up until this point, I have been able to hold it until we got back to the house from outings. Not so today. I finally had to bit the bullet and pee in an African toilet.

Have you ever seen Slumdog Millionaire? You know the scene where the kid is in the toilet and he jumps into the poop so he can see his hero? It wasn’t that bad, so don’t get scared, but I say that to say that that’s what the toilets look like, only, lucky for me, the floor is cement instead of wood so you don’t have to look at what is underneath you.

It was relatively clean, but smelled horrible. Luckily, I was wearing a skirt which made the ordeal much easier. Also lucky, I had tissues in my purse for cleaning up. Overall, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. But thank God for hand sanitizer!

During lunch, we had some great conversations. We talked about where we see ourselves in five years. Joseph also told us all about child sacrifices here in Uganda. Apparently, whenever they are building a new building, it is considers good luck to kill a child, grind his or her body into little pieces and put them into the cement foundation of the building. Children are kidnapped on a daily basis for child sacrifices because people will also do them in hopes of helping themselves to become rich. It made me sick to my stomach.

On a side note, if you circumcised your child or pierce their ears, then they can’t be used for child sacrifices because they have already bled. If one of you uses that piece of trivia to win the million dollar question, I hope you’ll give me a part of it.

The taxi ride back to Kampala was awful. Because it was one of the last trips of the day, the taxi driver tried to cram as many people into the taxi as possible. There were 21 people in a 14 person taxi for the whole ride. It was awful.

Tonight we are just hanging out at the house and resting up for white water rafting tomorrow. I’m on dishes duty again tonight so I better get to it!

Today’s word: sula bulgi (sew la bu lun gee) which means goodnight.

Sula Bulgi everyone,
Jenna