Parting Words, Spurned Boda, & Night Jam Session

Today was only mildly interesting. I got up past 10am as usual, waking up intermittently to the sounds of screaming Jesse (2-year old son of Isabel). I had a lot of good dreams, filled with cute guys and travels and such.

This is Jesse (yes, he's a boy) and one of the helpers.

The morning was kind of confusing. I had intended to go to Entebbe Airport with everyone, but Hirome and the others (Calvin and Josephine) weren’t arriving for a long time and with Davy in the equation, there didn’t look like there was going to be much space for me. Still, I thought at least I could get a ride to Red Chili’s or at least the city – and delay the time of having to say goodbye to everyone. It would be so convenient for me and my luggage as well.

At the end, the Mbale and Busolwe troupe didn’t arrive until past 12pm – I said a tense greeting to the three and then we all sat down for one last meal together. At first I wasn’t going to eat anything, thinking it was just matooke; but when I found out it was actually sweet potatoes, my appetite returned!

What happened next really, really sucked. It sank my spirits completely. I had been totally prepared to leave with the others in their spacious SUV and rushed to pack everything in time to leave with them. Just as I was finishing and hurrying outside Sharon started calling for me in a really loud voice. “Yeah, I know, I’m almost done here!” No, she told me, actually I would be unable to go with them at all. After all, David had to come along with them to use his ID for a gas discount at the station (what in the –??) and they were afraid of police inspeection if we were to overload. I was so pissed at hearing this that I almost wanted to turn around and storm out of there without saying anything. I barely said goodbye to Mr. Hirome, who I may never see again. Sharon hugged me, Calvin wished me a safe journey, and then Sharon also said “I love you too many.” And then they disappeared…

One last time: the two of us fooling around in Uganda.

Getting to the city wasn’t easy. No one knew Red Chili’s. I eventually took a slow taxi for 1k, then (after a lengthy and arduous process of bargaining) had to transfer to a boda for 5k roundtrip. Red Chili’s (a backpacker’s hostel that was organizing our safari tomorrow) turned out to be totally ghetto (no bed linens provided, even!!) and it was in the worst, most random location. Getting there was no fun because we basically had to ride through some kind of industrial sector that persistently smelt of burning rubbish and had enormous smoky trucks passing through all the time. I checked in and used the free Internet available there for 20 minutes.

When I got back to my boda guy, damn was he pissed. He demanded 10 000 for the “long” wait. As if boda drivers have anything else to do anyway! He dropped me at the Kampala Serena Hotel (best hotel in Uganda) and proceeded to launch into the most aggressive boda tantrum I’ve witnessed as of yet. Seriously, it was like as if I had personally and deeply offended his dignity or something. Even though we had clearly agreed that the price was including waiting time. Eventually, I handed him 5500 and allowed the numerous and sympathetic security guards there to haul him off. Whew. That was actually my idea in choosing to stop at this hotel… I knew the security there would protect me!

Swimming pool at Serena Hotel.

After that, I kind of just wandered. First ate another sub at Debonairs. A club this time, with bacon, salami and chicken. For only 5500 it was utter perfection.

Fresh fruit market in Kampala.

Of course I found the forex right away but still kept wandering for the sheer heck of it. I bought a Bic pen, a hairband, and this very notebook. I didn’t leave that area until past 8pm, and only on the insistence of Claire and Andrea, who I’d agreed to meet in a restaurant somewhere. I truly love wandering there and almost dying dozens of times!

Kampala market at night. I love it.

After that, we headed to the live music jamming session at the National Theatre, a sort of place where artists from all backgrounds meet. It was pretty sweet. I sat in the front row (ie, the lowest step of a small stone staircase in front of the outdoor “stage”). They were mostly Ugandan guys wearing wacky hats jamming on guitars, keyboards, drums and there was one very short guy on a trumpet. At one point a really hyper, super-intense Swedish girl (who spoke English, of course) took the stage with keys and vocals, and also a man with no legs but a beautiful voice! We didn’t leave until around 11:30pm, and only because we have to be up by around 6:30-7am tomorrow.

Jam session at National Theatre.

-Valerie

The Royal Treatment at Nanjing Restaurant

Today was a surprisingly boring day… at least, until the evening came.

I slept in till around 11am (no joke) since Sharon was gone to Jinja and I had absolutely nothing to do while alone here, at Isabel’s house. When I finally got up (after receiving, throughout the morning, numerous messages from Sharon, Andrea, the kissing boy Swaibu, etc., and also an awkward call from Swaibu) there was a “deluxe” breakfast awaiting me. Disappointingly, the Milo cereal was almost already gone. But there was passion juice and cut up watermelon pieces.

I took a beautifully hot shower (well, it was hot for the first 10 minutes, then became stone cold – but I’m used to that now) then after a bout of messaging back and forth with Andrea, finally set out for my next destination at around 1pm. I thought I was late and needed to get out ASAP, but due to faulty planning, I didn’t end up meeting anyone until past 4pm. Geez! The amount of messages, phone calls, etc., between me and Sharon, me and Andrea, me and Davy, was just ridiculous. I got escorted to Kampala city by David (that is, we just rode together in a taxi bus) and he talked a lot with me about all sorts of things – university, future plans, travelling, the UK, etc. At first I minced my answers so that he would be able to understand me clearly, but I soon found that his English was surprisingly fluent and I could just talk naturally!

We went to Steers for lunch; actually, I ordered a hot sub (sweet and sour chicken) from Debonairs Pizza next door while David didn’t eat anything at all. Actually, at first I think he was expecting me to pay for his share. I didn’t order anything for him, though. Then he quickly escaped the scene by telling me he had to meet some friend somewhere else. “Ah, that’s fine, I don’t mind at all.” Oh well.

My delicious sub!!

Uhh... Nice stick there, security guard. Very threatening.

After leaving them, I boarded a taxi to Garden City and met a girl who was riding on the taxi just behind me. She was so friendly, it was like we had been best of friends for a long time when in fact I had no idea who she was. She asked for my info as well and told me she used Facebook – cool!

At Garden City, I met up with the others; shortly after, two guys from a group of whites came over to greet us. From Georgia, they were obviously enamored of Andrea or something like that. Eh. It was an interesting conversation.

Shortly after that, we went to Nanjing Hotel and Restaurant (quite expensive place run by Chinese) and waited for Sharon to arrive (I thought you said you’d be back by noon, Sharon!). We sat and talked with drinks for at least an hour before she came at 6:30. Yep, she told me 1pm, and it was 6:30.

With her help however, we were able to get a totally free meal at Nanjing Restaurant! Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking bout! And even after I checked that credit cards were accepted and we had all been prepared to actually pay! Sharon talked to one of the owners, a lady she’d met when she got malaria, and immediately was offered the dinner on her treat. She and the owner talked for like 30 minutes nonstop in a “private” room away from us.

Our free Chinese dinner!

Everyone at Nanjing Restaurant.

Back at home, me and Sharon continued the tradition of talking for an age before sleeping, as well. It’s the last time we’ll ever get to do this here in Uganda, I guess…. It’s sad when I think about it. I’ll really miss these kinds of nights. Sharon will be leaving tomorrow… how sad!

(PS I found out today that Davy has a motorcycle license and drove halfway across Japan while he worked there for a year. How sweet is that??)

- Valerie

Today was a long, long day. Reaaally long. Last night, I didn’t get to sleep till past 11pm due to intense writing and packing of bags. Also playing with Coco (my black chicken) till very late – I let her sleep in the room last night, on a bed of newspapers.

Coco sleeping in my room.

“Time for get up!”
“Okay, okay, just a few more minutes….”
“The vehicle is coming.”
“Yes, I know it’s coming at 6. I already set my alarm.”
“It is coming.”

I lay back in bed for a minute, waiting for Rebecca to leave the room, but she remained inside for a long time, irritatingly enough. I couldn’t wait for her to get out so I could wake up in peace – my last morning in Busolwe – but she wouldn’t leave. I was getting so annoyed.

Then, suddenly, I heard the hum of a motor and tyres squelching through grass into our yard. Oh no, I thought, please don’t be it. A shrill horn sounded, cutting through the night air. I realized this had to be it and reluctantly got up.

I checked the time: 5:15. God was I pissed to wake up this early and find out a bus that was due at 6am had come 45 minutes early. When would I be able to say goodbye to everything and everyone? What about breakfast? I hadn’t even packed 100% of my belongings yet.

Then Ivan came in, and Hariet and Lucia (the maids). All rushing me to leave. I put a startled, just-waking Coco into Hariet’s arms and told them to take good care of her. I gave Rebecca a long hug. Then I took a banana and a piece of bread for breakfast on the road, and climbed aboard the mini bus (twice the size of a regular taxi bus – much more comfortable but still squishy, as everything here is) in complete darkness (idiots couldn’t seem to turn on the interior lights). I could hardly see anything and immediately sat down in a single seat at the front of the bus. Ivan and Hirome were coming with us, as were the church leader and the bakery business guy. I was very disappointed to learn that Rebecca wasn’t coming, as she had told me she would be yesterday – well, it was to be expected.

We were off by 5:35. We had to stop at another house for 30 minutes to load a ton of passengers also heading for the wedding – then we finally rolled.

Sunrise on the road to Kampala.

When we finally got out, it was raning and very cold! I was quite grouchy. No one was telling me what was going on and I was pretty confused. I wasn’t even sure when Sharon would be meeting up with us. We made our way down to breakfast (good rice plus very tough beef!), then eventually drove down to church for the actual ceremony. We ended up watching three weddings (the one before ours had a much larger crowd; ours was the wedding of Geoffrey and Ruth; there was another small one after that one, too).

It was nice but mostly just singing, talking in Luganda, and then Mendelsson’s exciting Wedding March (or “Match” as it was written in the program…). The newly wed couple was quite old (at least 30-35). I took a ton of photos – we met Juliet there, even – then at last we made our way to the reception back at the school. I was a little annoyed by the fact that Sharon had said she would be at the wedding ceremony, yet hadn’t appeared and wasn’t communicating anymore.

My newfound friend.

Reception was fun. There were four tents with dozens of chairs, a group of musicians/dancers, and tons of food. Sharon arrived shortly after we were mostly seated. She was actually dressed somewhat formally, which was surprising! We ended up having a lot of fun with the “cultural troupe” as they called it – taking photos with the young musician’s arms around me, smiling and waving coyly at them. There was one particularly cute young guy (only 18!) who I actually got to kiss me – three times! Yes, seriously. I have the pictures to prove it. He was totally effeminate-looking, very young, skilled in music, nice and mild-mannered – perfect! His name was Swaibu or something like that. I got to talk a lot with his friends and their band leader as well.

Wedding cakes.

After cake, there was a giving of presents (lots and lots of them!), then dancing under the flashy artificial lighting (it was now quite late at night). Crazily, Sharon had her mind set on going to Jinja tonight (to meet one of her new “friends” as well as to eat at Aaswad, the vegetarian Indian restaurant), so we had to leave with Isabel and Ivan the pastor at around 8pm. We said our goodbyes to librarian Ivan and the others from Busolwe and drove back in their nice car (it was a good ways to Isabel’s place!).

Her place turned out to be really nice with a super huge TV, leather couches, nice bathroom, lots of bedrooms available. Me and Sharon got a bed each in our own room.

Sharon really wanted to go to Jinja, even though it was past 9:30 by this point. Everyone thought she was totally insane, including myself. Against everyone’s warnings, Sharon decided she had to go and at least check if there were taxis heading to Jinja right now, so we set out, at 9:45, to drive to the taxi park. David (Hirome’s son), Nora (Hirome’s youngest daughter) and I accompanied Sharon just to see if there were any taxis for her. As we expected, there turned out to be none – thank God!

So after a good bowl of Milo cereal and a little bit of playing with Jesse (Isabel’s spoiled toddler son), me and Sharon settled down in our room to… talk for several hours about random topics? Yep. Not work on our report, which we still had made no progress on, of course.

I am so bushed. Let me sleep.

-Valerie

Cheerful mountain women!

So here we are at my last day in Busolwe – or rather, my last night only.

Today did not start so well. I stayed up till almost 1:30am last night writing this journal and it started storming very hard around that time. So I fell asleep to the roar of pounding rain and the blast of crackling thunder nearby. I had low hopes of being able to climb on Mt. Elgon today.

I woke up around 7 due to my alarm, shut it off, then got a phone call from my mom a half hour later – the first I’ve heard or heard from her in at least two weeks or maybe more (that’s a long time!) Apparently she’s in New York right now; I told her about all my escapades, including driving a motorcycle, and she got really worried. Oh well. It’s not like I’ve even sustained a single injury or anything yet.

I got up twenty minutes later but took it easy getting ready. I wasn’t ready to leave until after my omelette and juice breakfast, around 8:45.

The trouble began around then. I thought my task was easy: head to the taxi park. I didn’t even take a boda, I was so confident. When I got to the park I learned of my folly. There were multiple taxi parks – of course! “Over there,” someone told me, waving vaguely in a general direction. “Is it near? Far?” I asked. “Not far. Very close.” Okay…

I walked in that direction… and ended up asking someone else for help, heading in another direction and repeating this process three times.

When I finally made it there (near the place we went to get a car for Sipi Falls – of course!) I realized just how much trouble I was in now. The most full taxi had only one passenger in it – and a very lecherous, totally gross, short older guy named “Vicent” (that’s what he entered into my phone contact anyway). As soon as he saw me, he pretty much launched into a full-scale barrage of “Marry me” lines. He said “I love you” quite quickly. (over the course of the day he ended up phoning me three times… I’m never giving my phone number away again!)

To make matters worse, the taxis appeared to be feuding over who got which passengers. As a result, I was pushed and dragged (quite literally at times) to and fro from one taxi to the next.

I realized I would be waiting at least thirty minutes to an hour if I waited for these loser taxis, so I decided to try asking a boda (motorcycle) driver. The last price was 4000 for Budadiri (town at base of Mt. Elgon). I was so close to getting on (as I should have!!) when another, more full taxi came barrelling past and I was practically forced to get on it.

This ended up being a horribly frustrating experience. I thought all was well and we’d be going straight to the mountain – but nope! Weended up stopping at another taxi stop… this time for an indefinite amount of time! I got off the bus at least half a dozen times to show my impatience and was tricked into reboarding as many times – I got so pissed when they told me they’d leave right away only if I paid 4000 (instead of the regular 2500). I got upset with them and stormed out of the vehicle – and onto a boda that surprisingly said “3000” immediately after I asked him how much to Budadiri. So we were off! See ya later suckers! (I actually said pretty much that to those asshole taxi people)

At first I was still flustered from that episode that had wasted nearly two hours of my morning. But as we drove on and I got into the rhythm of the movement, I forgot all that crap and had a truly enjoyable time!

The ride to Budadiri was a definite highlight. I love being able to do nothing but sit there and see scenery fly past in all directions: new lands, new mountains, new people, unfolding in front of me!

The way to Budadiri was so beautiful. It was just like a tropical volcano paradise. Mt. Elgon was visible at all times, a looming green wall swallowed at the peak by clouds. The villagers by the roadside were so friendly too, greeting and smiling at me as I passed by. The temperature and direction of sun were just right for riding here by motorcycle.

When I got to Budadiri, I was taken to “Rose’s Last Chance” (weird name, but okay…), a bar/campsite/hostel/guide pick-up area/etc… There I met a disappointment – I should have gone further if I wanted to see Mt. Elgon proper, past Sipi Falls to the Forest Exploration Centre. All the best day hikes were there. To get there would cost at least 10 000. And I didn’t have much time. At the end, I had them recommend this waterfall and a cave to me – to be reached by boda. First we were to do the falls because it would rain there soon and then be inaccessible.

So the guide picked a good “strong” boda for 10 000 (I ended up paying 8500 though, hehe!) and we set off! At first I thought this would be a regular ride on decently wide, solid roads. Boy, was I in for a surprise!

Yes, the roads were like this throughout.

Our destination was some waterfall nearly 1km up from where we had stopped with the motorcycle. Believe me, it was a strenuous climb, especially after having done nothing but sit around for ages. The climb was not only ridiculously steep but totally muddy, slippery and sometimes almost impossible to find a foothold. At times I think we were the only ones foolhardy enough to ever step foot on a certain slope of totally loose wet dirt! So many times I thought the ground would collpase and send me tumbling down – but surprisingly I made it without hardly even getting my shoes dirty!

The fruits of my labour.

We made our way down, having some very interesting enoucnter with local mountain women and children (almost all carry heavy loads of wood, grass, hoes, etc on their backs and still manage to agilely navigate the slopes!)

The ride back down to Budadiri was no less thrilling than the way up. It was mostly a roller coaster ride of rolling down, down, down very fast – across the most precarious, narrow strips of dried mud.

When we got back, it was already starting to rain – huge black stormclouds were approaching. My guide warned against going to the cave; I agreed and boarded a taxi for Mbale, paying the guide 3000 (he asked for 10000 at first!)

The rain came fast, and hard. We waited there for more passengers almost until the rain stopped (half an hour). The people on board were idiots who kept squishing me into a row of four or even five people even though there were other rows with only two passengers! Talk about idiocy! I ended up sleeping for most of the ride.

In Mbale I didn’t do much; ate a 4000 sandwich at New Elgon Hotel, picked up my bags at Mt. Inn (and took a “secret shower”), then left for Busolwe. The ride back to Busolwe was pretty average as well. Mostly listening to music – although I did meet this really quiet, cute guy with a funny hat (I bought another hat for 1500 as well).

The ride to Mr.Hirome’s was done by me – even though it was quite dark already, but I was not one bit afraid of riding anymore. I drove steadily and confidently – seriously without any fear!

Oh yeah, I got photos from photo guy finally. And said goodbye to “I love my job” guy (he wanted to keep my hat!)

Home life was pretty normal; I spent a long time playing with my sweet, sweet Coco and in fact, she’s sleeping in my room right now! How I miss her already! Because I know even if I come back someday, she won’t live so long to see me again….

I also played guitar one last time. Farewell to dear guitar as well.
Oh yeah, did I mention there’s no power? Yep, all this written by flashlight. And I have to wake up at 5am tomorrow – yay….

-Valerie

The romance of the open road

Whenever I’m “trapped” with other people, or even when I’m given the choice to either be with others or alone, I always fear being on my own and usually opt to stick with safety (and thus, boredom). I always tell myself, “But you’ll be so much happier being on your own, doing it your own way.” Still, it’s hard to believe in my own thoughts. Yet it almost always turns out to be true. I think there’s nothing more beautiful and enjoyable than to make a plan all on one’s own and then to follow through with it, without the help or opinions of anyone but oneself. That is true happiness in life. Doing things my way. Succeeding on my own.

So I tried it today. I woke at 7:10 just as planned (Sharon was being lazy and I needed to call her twice) – Hirome kind of thought I wouldn’t be able to, but I’m reliable when necessary. We left before 8, I picked up my iPod cable in the library, and we were off to Mbale in the blue pick-up!

The ride took about an hour; we arrived at Juliet’s house at 9:15. The wholetime in the car I couldn’t quite relax – and it wasn’t because of being sandwiched with Sharon in one single seat. I felt extremely anxious about something: what if Soroti (town to the north where I was planning to go) was a waste of time? What if I screwed up? Got hurt? Now that I was so close to going back home without a single mishap, why tempt fate? I thought maybe Sharon was right; maybe choosing the “safe” route was more sensible. Maybe I was being needlessly headstrong. Anyway, I just felt nervous.

When we got to Juliet’s place, the fast Internet available there calmed my nerves considerably. After actually looking at some information on the net, I felt more like I actually knew what I was doing. I found out that I actually wanted Kumi, not Soroti. That’s where all the paintings were at. So, armed with info, I bid Sharon farewell until Kampala on Saturday, went to the Mt. Inn to book my room (had to argue a little for 15000 – they were ready to charge me 25000!), then walked to the taxi park. Well, at first I was simply going to take a boda, but I couldn’t really find any so I began walking up the slope.

Some random guy shouted to me. I responded. We started a conversation about Soroti and Mt. Elgon and Kumi – he said he was from Kumi and would take me to the taxi park. We talked the whole way (he told me he was 20 though he looked older; he kept on talking about “plans for our marriage” and “setting the date for marriage”), he helped me find a big bus to Kumi for 3000, then as we parted he held my hand for a long time and said, very distinctly and quite intensely, “I love you.” I sort of just said (without hardly blinking – I’m used to this stuff by now!), “Thank you, see you again,” and waved goodbye. Oh, and of course I got his name (Sam) and phone number.

The bus itself was extremely crowded. I almost preferred the taxi. I was in the aisle seat of a 3-seater row so I could barely see outside the windows. The entire aisle was packed full of people and packages, of course.

For the first part of the journey I was quite bored and almost fell asleep. Then I started a conversation with the well-dressed man next to me (he kept talking to his companion in English, so he must be well-educated) – gosh the people are friendly here. It’s almost impossible not to start a conversation with Ugandans. We talked quite a bit actually; it turns out he’s from a town right near the Sudan and Congo border! He told me that area is completely safe now; in fact the only unsafe area in Uganda is the Karamoja.

As soon as I got off in Kumi, a swarm of bodas came up asking “Where to?” One in particular had his eyes set on me. I trusted him because he had his own helmet and motorcycle jacket and everything looked in good condition. I asked what would be the round-trip price of going to Nyero rock paintings first, then Mukongoro Caves, then back. Everyone laughed when I suggested 7000. But he said, “Get on.”

So we were off. I came to really like this guy, Okadai, although at first he was just any old boda guy to me. I had no idea how far we would be going, though….

Nyero Rock in itself was a fair distance away. Maybe 20 minutes from Kumi – but my guy drove at a breakneck speed, much faster than any of the other bodas thus far. I’ve never actually been in a motorcycle without helmet at that speed before: at times he would go up to 80 km/h, which is quite a bit for a motorcycle, especially on non-paved roads (the max on the speedometer is only around 120). He would just race ahead with reckless abandon, honking everyone in his path out of the way. Needless to say, my hair was completely wrecked within 5 minutes of riding at that speed. It would not be the same for the rest of the whole day…

The roads there were perfect for practising motorcycle though – dirt roads, wide ones, with very little traffic and mostly friendly, polite drivers.

At Nyero, at first there was no one around, but eventually we met with two guys, one older, and a younger taller one named Emmanuel. They took me on a tour of the area (3 rock painting sites) for 5000 (started at 10 000). I decided to get the most out of my money by asking for photos all the time, climbing up the huge rock-hill-things there, and asking millions of random questions.

Me with boda driver at a Nyero Rock Painting cave

I was pretty surprised however, when I found out these “ancient” paintings were only 500 years old or less. Uhh… how is that ancient, again? In the West, 500 years ago they were painting Mona Lisa already! Anyway, I’ve heard that these paintings are the earliest in all East Africa: I was expecting them to be at least 2000 years old.

Anyway, so we went to see some various caves and walked through beautiful lush paths to places with amazing views of the surrounding countryside and the other nearby rocks and hills. On three occasions I insisted on climbing up these very unusual rock formations – very smooth rocks with astounding views on top. Of course I would insist that my guide take numerous photos of me in various angles – hee hee! I was quite the funny and charming one. The guide Ema was quite knowledgeable and good with English, so we struck up a nice conversation. He seemed to love taking photos of me, too. I sweated so much climbing those rocks, but it was totally worth it.

After I said an emotional farewell (and used the washroom – with a leaf as substitute toilet paper….), we were off again, this time towards Mukongoro (opposite direction nearly).

Oh yeah, I learned from Ema that the sun right now, when directly overhead at noon isn’t actually overhead but slightly to one side due to it being August (in spring it is the opposite side that the sun slants to, and on June 21 the sun is directly overhead). Weird! (it’s because we’re on the Equator)

Having fun at the market

The ride to Mukongoro was far. It must be at least 30km, since we were going at 60-80 most of the time and took half an hour to reach it. The ride was amazing – reminded me of Taiwan but almost even more romantic. The sun was beautiful but not hot. The surroundings were lush but there was little traffic or people, so photos and videos were easy to take.

When we got to Mukongoro, we went around asking a ton of people where the caves were. When we at last got there, there was no one around to show us – only an empty “resort” (it was not like I had imagined… a bit more ghetto). There was a little girl around though. We sat around waiting and sipping luke-warm soda for nearly an hour before anyone came. The place was interesting though – there were a ton of dogs there (later I was told they’re for keeping away monkeys that steal fruits).

A middle-aged man who immediately struck me as business-minded came up to greet us. He told me the route to the caves was “bushy” and I said I didn’t care. I didn’t exactly regret that, but I was surprised by what he actually meant…

It was bushy!! Basically there was no path whatsoever, and only by hacking away for several minutes with a machete were we able to “somewhat” pass through. That was the “bushiest” experience of my life, for sure! Ants swarming everywhere, thorns pulling at my hair, branches whacking me, entire plants crunching beneath my feet. I was in for something!

It turned out the caves were quite shallow and “crappy” in comparison with the other ones I was expecting. There were paintings also, and pottery fragments. The place afforded a spectacular view though.

We went through to another cave area, but it wasn’t that amazing. Later, the hotel guy gave me a tour of his “soon-to-be” resort. There were a ton of half-finished buildings, lots of fruit trees (I found out that mangoes start out as tiny little buds on trees!) and a clearly cut road. Other than that, it wasn’t really like a resort yet. But I could tell this guy was extremely proud of his work and this was his dream.

Afterwards he asked for 6400 to pay for both drinks and the guide fee! Grr… I paid 5000.

We left by 5:10 – I needed to be in Kumi by 6. Okadai took me there at top speed – another romantic sunset ride there! (my hair was caked with a layer of dust and dirt though!)

In Kumi, I spent some time looking at turkeys before we discussed the price of the driver’s efforts. Finally, I gave him 10 000 (I’d already paid 2500 for fuel – I’m surprised 1 litre lasts that long!). I really really wanted one last photo with him and his motorcycle (the lighting was perfect), but it seemed like the last taxi was leaving without me. I scrambled inside and didn’t even get to say a real goodbye to him. As I watched him leave on his bike, he peered through the windows of the taxi bus, smiled at me and called in the most genuinely caring voice, “Safe journey!” I felt so bad that I couldn’t take that last photo with him.

The ride back to Mbale was very sleepy for me. Although the distance is only 60km, the journey took over one hour. Still, I arrived at 7pm in Mbale and spent a while wandering the evening streets filled with food vendors – they even make chips right on the spot for you. Annoyingly, I got a phone call from Zahida asking a bunch of questions – I had no idea what to answer when she asked how I’d wrapped things up with the placement, or what an average day at the library looked like. I sounded like a fool in order to avoid telling the truth!

After, I bought a small fried tilapia for only 1000 – it was delicious! Geez, I should’ve bought 5000 worth of that!

Back at Juliet’s house, it was quite boring. Calvin was boring. Dinner was boring. Mostly watching TV. I used Internet briefly, got something done. Calvin asked me to buy “La Tormenta” (Spanish sitcom popular here) in Kamapal for him! I said goodbye to him and Josephine.

So I’m at Mt. Inn again, and I love it. Took a totally cold shower just now because my hair turned my hands reddish black when I rubbed it! My face made the towel brown when I rubbed, as well.

I watched this Decathlon games report on TV for a while. Very cool German high-jumping girl, Friedrich (last name) with blond hair, sort of tomboyish look, but she had such a great, sportman-like attitude!

I love this room – even huger than the last, with two windows – oh, it’s lovely! I could live here forever.

God, it’s raining now. Are my plans for Mt Elgon gone down the drain?

-Valerie

Wow, our experience here is really coming to a close. Really…. I can’t believe it. Yet I want to leave. Yet at the same time I wish this experience would never end – I really do love it here – the endless nights talking with Sharon (like tonight, actually), the slow, silent dinners where everyone eats together, the neighbour kids, the riding in the back of the pickup, my chickens, the beautiful cloudless nights and days… so many things. I feel like it’s time to say my goodbyes – I’m just not exactly sure how.

So, today. Woke up really late again (9:15) when Sharon suddenly told me Mr. Hirome was going to town and giving us a ride. Unfortunately, I was still in bed (coulda told me earlier!) so I told them to leave without me. After getting up and breakfast, I took many photos around the house and played with Coco (also received the news that Boco had died from sickness… Why?!), then finally made my way to the road to catch a boda going to Busolwe.

I actually saw an empty motorcycle passing right by me but thought it was full like they all are and ignored it – ugh! Finally I caught a bicycle boda and rode to town for 500. Sharon phoned me then saying she’d found some Japanese girl in Busolwe village! When I got there, I met her – Suzuki from Kanagawa. No offence to her, but she was extraordinarily short (definitely under 5”!) and looked very foreign, even for a Japanese. She even had brown eyes (totally brown). Apparently, she’s working here as a teacher for two years. Wow. That’s a long time to spend in the middle of nowhere!

When I got to the library, Hirome was waiting there; apparently we were going to Butaleja today.

Butaleja turned out to be where all the fun’s at (a district just 15-20 minutes away by car and larger than Busolwe). We stopped at some official council type building where I spied a number of sweet motorcycles parked by a tree. As soon as a rider approached, I pounced. Me and Sharon combined forces and managed to persuade him to teach me riding on his bike. At first he seemed really suspicious of my abilities, but later he proved to be a very warm and instructive teacher. The bike was a red Yamaha all-terrain dirtbike. It was much tougher to control than the regular straight-body boda-boda motorcycle. Also, the gears are switched upwards instead of downwards. Whoa! (I mean, I know that’s the standard and it makes sense to increase the gear by switching up – but pressing down is far easier to execute than lifting up)

First he rode the bike while giving me instructions; then, when we got to an empty grass school yard, he let me take the handles. The hardest part was going from neutral to gear one – whenever I released the clutch It was too “fast” and the engine would cut. However, after I’d mastered the gears the rest was a cinch.

Eventually, he let me drive on my own. That was fun! I rode circles and circles around the field, gaining “momentum” (confidence) as he called it. I did become quite confident and I really lost my fear almost completely. Finally, I told him I’d been gone too long from the others and should go back. He let me drive through a narrow dirt road back to the others – then he asked for money as we stopped to refuel. I was disappointed since he’d seemed very genuine and he’d said it was free earlier, but I paid without bargaining because I’d simply had such a good time and gotten such good instruction. I mean, $5. Big deal!

After that, we went to lunch. A very funny lunch since the people there admitted to not having 4/5ths of all the items on the menu. Upon questioning, they claimed that those were the items on the “future” menu (riiiight). I ended up taking their kitchen by storm and cooking my own toasted tuna sandwich by throwing two pieces of bread on a metal plate and sticking it on top of an open fire. I also ordered some eggs. Sharon managed to eat 2000/= worth of cabbage (wow!).

We stopped at some other places later and I tried to get some more motorcycle lessons in there, but due to various circumstances I couldn’t get any.

We stopped in Busolwe to buy my bag/backpack thing; photo guy wasn’t there again today!

Mr. Hirome had a burial to attend so we went there with him. There were a ton of people there – wow! At least one thousand people, no joke. There were piles and piles of bicycles, motorcycles, even cars and taxi buses, strewn all about the streets for yards and yards down. I just remember following Hirome into the ceremony area, where everyone was crowding, and getting swallowed up in a huge mass of people. Walking past a hundred eyes of scarved women in their finest dresses, kneeling on the floor in a great group. Swarms of people inside the yard of the deceased, and outside it. A little while later, people left in droves for a place a little farther down where the burial would actually be taking place. Many people there didn’t even know exactly who it was that had died, nor how old it was.

Hirome told Sharon to drive the both of us home, but I had other plans. I found the “I love my job” guy by recognizing the back of his helmet from a distance, greeted him and asked if I could drive back to Hirome’s. Of course I already knew the answer.

As I drove his motorcycle (even after all this he was still reluctant to believe I knew how to use the gears!), I went past Sharon in the blue pick-up and then I realized she had started up and was trailing behind me! Due to my driver’s carefulness, though, I had to stop by the side of the road to let her pass – geez!

It was thrilling to ride at last on the main road, but surprisingly, I wasn’t even one bit scared. That Bajaj’s (Indian brand motorcycle) is heaps easier to ride than the tall, powerful Yamaha.

When we got home it was quite early so we spent an age playing with the kids and taking a multitude of photos – particularly with my cowboy hat and sword.

Then around 5:30 it began to rain heavily – very, very heavily. We stayed inside not doing much. I actually felt sleepy for the first time during the day and nearly took a nap on the couches. Eventually, I got up for a bath.

Packing our junk away

Dinner was very usual; power came back on. Me and Sharon spent at least two hours packing together and telling stories and chatting. When we went to bed, we continued the same. A little too much chatting for having to wake up in 6 hours, if you ask me!

-Valerie

A day that started out horribly, continued getting worse and worse, and then – just as was about to give up on it, suddenly got much brighter.
I started the day in frustration; I woke up quite lazily around 9:20, surprised that Sharon hadn’t gotten up yet. Around 10am, she was still sleeping. I had been expecting her to say she was now sick (again), so I was quite aggravated.Also, no breakfast had been prepared for me and my entire Milo cereal had been devoured since I last used it (10 000 /= down the drain right there – thanks guys!) – doesn’t make for the happiest of mornings. Finally, Sharon woke up and told me she had no idea it was 10am (despite the cell phone right next to her pillow, plus all the noise me and the neighbour kids had been making) and got up after a little prodding.

Ahh~~ So I had to wait an additional 45 minutes for “Princess” to take a shower and get ready. I drew pictures of Fire Emblem characters (Marth anyone?) for a while until we finally left around 11am (yep). And then was the frustrating business of waiting for not one but two bicycle bodas to come our way. See, the good bikes had all been taken (mysteriously) and Mr. Hirome had left an hour earlier without us – yay!

We caught one unsuspecting boda (Sharon suddenly asked him if he was married. . . ?!) but waited 10 minutes for the next one. Suddenly a huge yellow van came barrelling down the road; Sharon waved at it and I jumped onto the road and did a little dance in front of the speeding vehicle. The van stopped – it turned out to be an MTN (mobile network) vehicle. We gratefully accepted the ride to Busolwe; we ended up chatting for some time even after getting out of the car – and taking some awesome photos with the guys!

After that, I made my depressing way to the library while Sharon used the Internet. I spent an hour or two writing up blogs. Something happened then that severely pissed me off as well: while writing my blog, I was half through one without saving when some girl suddenly thought it might be a fun idea to switch off the power to all the computers. Thereby causing me to lose all that I had written thus far. She didn’t seem to notice that she had done anything irritating or irresponsible at all. I tried calmly to explain to her that I had lost some work and was upset, but although she looked at me straight in the eye, she plainly didn’t care or understand at all. God, I was so pissed by that point! Some random guy had come up to me and started trying to get my address at the same time, so I was extra impatient.

Lunch was extremely unpleasant. I felt like a notorious troublemaker around the restaurant people now, all because I wanted to eat noodles instead of matooke and beans (is that so hard to understand??). At first they just outright refused to make water for me; then they just demanded that I pay first, since they were accusing me of not paying last time (this is not true!!!!).

I finally got my noodles, which were thankfully quite good, but damn that was annoying. It seems, in Uganda, the more you frequent a business, the more the people there can take advantage of you, overcharge you and treat you like scum.

On top of that, all the workers were watching some crappy home-video-quality movie on the TV and even when I asked, two hours later, if I could possibly pop in mine, two customers insisted they were enjoying the movie. To add insult to injury, some random restaurant guy suddenly came up to me and told me not to put my feet on the table, as if that was the biggest and most despicable crime ever (well, sorree!!).

After the regretful lunch, I had yet another conflict. The photo man was not around at his shop today; he was gone to Mbale. Meanwhile, replacement shop woman was insisting on selling me Mountain Dew at 600/= when it’s always been 500/=. No matter how much I protested, she wouldn’t give in. Goddamnit!

Then I took a boda ride – well, I had my 5th lesson. It was with the same “I love my job” helmet guy. I’m pretty good at riding now – not a bit afraid or nervous most of the time. I feel in control. I know how to use everything; I’m good. It still wasn’t as fun as the Jinja time because this guy wouldn’t let me operate the clutch without help (just how hard do they think that is??) or make a turn on my own (despite being fully capable of it). Still, I’m definitely improving and I had a ton of fun!

After that, I had a frustrating time trying to write the “report” with Sharon. Only she wasn’t really interested in writing it, so it was only me working – plus the super loud music from her speakers wasn’t amusing me.

We didn’t really do much else before deciding to leave at 6:30. Oh yeah, there was a severe storm for at least 20 minutes. Serious torrential rains!

After we left, we were informed that Hirome would be coming to pick us up – great, but next time trying telling us a little earlier? I tried to buy a bag around town, but they were all closing up shop. I rode on the back of the truck in the dark, braving the pellets of bugs hitting my face at 60km/h, in low spirits. By the time we got home I was even worse. I just wanted to laze around and be alone for a long time, figuring out what I was so worried and stressed about. However, dinner was served early today (7:45) and after dinner, I had no chance to hide away. Me, Sharon and Hirome had a long long conversation – till 11pm at night in fact – about everything including China, driving, everything. Also, a bat flew into the house! My spirits became totally restored.

-Valerie

Right now I’m extremely disappointed and feel rather betrayed by Sharon. Not that what she decided was unexpected to me – I had suspected she would do this at the last minute since that seems to be a pattern.

So what did Sharon do? Well, all of a sudden she decided not to go to Kidepo National Park like we had planned to for the last week at least. What a quitter! In my heart of hearts, I knew she probably wasn’t adventurous enough to go for it, but I had hoped she would show a fierce courage at least this once. Well, looks like I was wrong.

(note: Kidepo NP is in the northmost part of Uganda against the border of Sudan and Kenya; travelling overland to this area is considered somewhat more dangerous than staying within the “highly secure” parts of Uganda. However, this NP is one of the best in Uganda as it’s the only place you’ll find species such as zebras, leopards, etc.)

The problem is when I place too much trust on someone who is not truly reliable. I should already know better – why do I let myself do this again and again? I’ve already experienced all this a million times over at the hands of a certain someone else; nothing’s changed!

As for today… it really wasn’t so bad. Sharon woke me up when she had to leave for Kampala at around 6am this morning. I couldn’t get back to sleep immediately but when I did, I ended up sleeping till 9:15am! Rebecca finally came to yell at me around 9:25. I didn’t get to work till at least 10:40. The ride there, alone, was quite nice.

I spent basically the whole day typing up blog articles. And I’m still not done after at least 5 hours of non-stop typing today! I write too much.

Lunch was a disaster of bad luck today. I tried to make Knorr instant minestrone soup but for some reason I was in a haze and thought 850mL might be about 1 ½ cups of water. The result was, as to be expected, horrible. Not only was it way too dense, but the bottom had got all stuck to the pot, the noodles were undercooked, the soup overcooked. I tasted the too-thick mess – way too salty! I asked for more hot water. It tasted better then, but I was a little greedy and wanted to add more – and ended up pouring milk tea into my soup by accident! Surprisingly, it tasted even better after that (but still horrible). My chips from London had turned totally horrid as well (from the heat, maybe?)

I had bad luck with the movies as well. Three guys were using the TV to watch some Schwarzenegger film, until some authoritative guy told them to stop watching TV and get back to work. Then just as I put my Avatar disc in – power outage! Luckily, after waiting another 30 minutes, it came back and I had my lovely Avatar!

I stayed there till nearly 5pm, then came back for more typing and didn’t stop till 6:45pm. I grabbed 3 mandazi from Ali (I had a huge stomach ache from the hunger) and pedalled as fast as I could home (sun sets around 6:50). Only one big, big problem: the seat had somehow aligned itself vertically, so I was literally sliding off as I pedalled and hanging on to the handle bars frantically to avoid slipping off! As you can imagine, it wasn’t exactly an easy experience. And boy did it start hurting down there! God. The seat was literally tilted at least 60 degrees from the horizontal, with no hope of fixing it without tools. Geez!

When I got back I had a shower then spent most of the short evening playing guitar, whistling, chatting. I was so frustrated when Sharon revealed she wouldn’t be going to Kidepo but I couldn’t show it in front of everyone. Ugh!

-Valerie

Today proved rather eventful, but it still wasn’t particularly exciting. Overall, I’m disappointed in today’s activities – still, it had its highlights and redeeming points.

I woke around 10am and took a shower; Sharon said she’d be out for a “little bit” using Internet yet didn’t return to the room till 11 – an hour after our checkout time! While I was waiting I went up onto the roof to snap photos of Jinja town and ended up running into David, the hotel guy in red who was always at the reception. We took a photo together and I even got his email address after some chatting (he wants me to send the photo to him sometime).

Finally, Sharon was ready to leave and we picked out a boda driver to take us to Mabira Forest Reserve for 5000 each, round-trip. I thought it was a little too cheap to be true. My suspicion were confirmed when we started heading towards Bujagali Falls – how could a huge forest reserve be in the direction of the Nile? I asked him as we were still driving at breakneck speed and I was frustrated to find myself correct: he had assumed we wanted Bujagali. Finally, after much persuasion and asking others for directions, we were on our way to the Reserve – and ominous black rain clouds.

As soon as we crossed the bridge out of Jinja my worst fears materialized: supersized, super-powerful, super-painful torrential rain! When the first drop hit my nose I swear I thought it was a pebble flung from the truck in front of us (even freaking out a little when I touched it and it was wet!). I decided to stop him as soon as we got to a gas station on the other side of the bridge; there we negotiated to go to King’s Palace up on a hill overlooking Jinja.

It was a reasonable distance – when we got to the hill it was quite impressive. The view was beautiful and the ride up pretty exciting (very bumpy). At the top there was a cluster of radio stations – and then we were forced to stop as a wall blocked our path. Some kind of construction was going on here, and we weren’t allowed in. “Where’s the palace?” we asked a worker. “We just want to see the palace, then we’ll leave.” He said we could take a look from the side, but not go in through the construction site. We peered in expecting to see an actual palace, maybe grand ancient one or one torn up by recent war… but it was just a bunch of concrete foundations and supports about a quarter way to actually becoming a building.

Talk about anti-climactic. Turned out they were building a palace for a current king of this area (didn’t know there was one) – so we had actually only come up here to see the view. It was nice, but nothing remarkable. While Sharon was on the phone with her father again, I built rapport with the boda driver, who was 30 and rented his bike for 10 000 ($5) per day. He was hoping to buy the bike when he saved up 2.5 million. When she got off the phone, Sharon also managed to get him to agree to give me a driving lesson when we got back to town.

The ride down was a veritable roller coaster – definitely the steepest thing I’ve been down on a motorcycle yet.

When we got back to Jinja, Sharon got dropped at Flavours and I went with my new boda friend for a motorcycle lesson! Today’s lesson was actually much better than the others: wide roads, little traffic – potholes, ridges and bumps actually turned out to be fun instead of annoying – and the boda “teacher” was very trustful and helpful to me. I think I’m actually improving. Today, I felt confident enough to turn in a wide roundabout (with other traffic) without fear, swerve to avoid bumps, and change gears without being told. And boy do I love riding! I paid 2000, but it was worth every shilling!

Afterwards I went to Flavours, where Simon was already there – we three ate lunch together. I had the fish burger today – amazing value for 6000/= ($3)! Sharon bought me a hot chocolate as well (she agreed to in thanks for my awesome photos). We didn’t leave till 3:30pm, when we went back to the hotel and I had a tearful farewell with the hotel guy David. Then we walked to the taxi park and I bargained for a long time with this hat-selling guy. He was really into me, calling me beautiful, asking my age, demanding my phone number, asking when we should meet next, whether he could travel forever with me (. . . ), etc. He told me he had bought the hat for 4500 from Kampala, but through my charms I ended up buying it from him for 4500 all the same (he started at 10 000).

After that thrillling and moderately creepy encounter, we boarded the bus and said goodbye to Simon. Oh, I miss him now! He looked genuinely sad and very pitiable when it was our time to leave. He seemed a little bemused at how I could smile so gladly when it might be the last time we could see one another; I told him even if that was the case it was better that we remember each other with smiles on our faces, not gloomy frowns.

The ride home was fun at first, then increasingly uncomfortable as four people were continuously jammed into the back seats where I was sitting (Sharon chose a seat in the front).

When we got back, I played with Masage, Patience and Masa, then with Coco (what a fine chicken she is!), then dinner and chatting for a long time with Sharon. Oh yeah, today she told me something strange – that she used to be lesbian. I didn’t really believe her when she said it, and later she told me she had just lied to make Simon less into her (. . . ??)

Also, when I got back I had the sad news that my chick was eaten by a cat while I was gone. Damn it!!

Tonight was a little weird. We heard all sorts of rustling noises outside and cowered in fear… then we found out it was a very large moth inside our room!

-Valerie

A day marked by disappointment alongside some unexpected redemption. Even as we headed to Jinja yesterday I knew there would be moments for me of regret, loneliness, restlessness. We’ve stayed here so many damn weekends it’s getting a little old.

I woke up at 7:30, shortly after which Sharon got up, but I refused to rise from bed till around 9:40am. It wasn’t that relaxing though, due to an electrician coming in and fixing our shower’s hot water for at least half an hour during the morning.

Then came a predictable disappointment after my shower (which was now hot, thank God!) – Simon wasn’t available to “play” today like Sharon had promised me. I had already expected something like this to happen, so I wasn’t too surprised. Still, it was a total downer and really drills in the importance, to me, of being self-sufficient and never relying on others to keep one happy. I was so, so looking forward to going out for fun today… but no, it wouldn’t happen.

Me and Sharon had lunch at the Flavours café again – I’m beginning to love that place. I was in a pretty noticeably bad mood… sorry bout that. My delicious and totally worth-6500 smoked beef and cheese sandwich with chips and salad cheered me up a little. I found a guide book to East Africa in the library which further cheered me; however, despite learning dozens of important things about Uganda that I should’ve known before coming here, I couldn’t take any notes. Drat!

Sharon ended up leaving around 12:30 to the Chinese Medical Team while I stayed at the restaurant reading. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise however, when the sky suddenly turned torrential and kept me stranded at the restaurant while some of the worst rains I’ve ever witnessed poured down on everything outside. People gathered at the entrance of the place to keep dry. Good thing I wasn’t hiking with Simon or, worse, getting motorcycle lessons!

I stayed there until around 3pm, when the rains abated. Then I lounged in the hotel room watching countless TV programs on Discovery Channel (plus a great episode of Avatar!) until 6:15pm. One interesting program, “Mega Engineering” theorised on the future existence of an enormous self-sufficient, 1-mile-high building which would be its own city – planned to be built in Shanghai. I had no idea crops could be grown entirely from water!

When Nicklodean changed to “Global Guts” (annoying show where a trio of young kids from various countries around the world compete in strange athletic games) I decided it was time to get out of there.

I headed to Flavours again, quite grumpy once again. I hate not “doing” anything. It makes me unbearably restless and irritable.

I was at Flavours, ordered a half-price hot chocolate (yay for happy hour!) and a fish fingers (which I was charged 10000 for an “adult” portion instead of 6000… grr) – the power went out for at least 10 minutes while I was at the restaurant eating… could things get any worse for me? (Not to mention the East Africa guide book was missing as well! God!)

Still, the food was awesome despite the overcharging; the hot chocolate was outstanding. So chocolatey!! It might even be worth the original price of 4000 ($2).

After completing my dinner, some guys stole my seat at the café while I was in the bathroom, so I transferred to the library, where I sat around for an hour reading PCGamer and then Getaway, a travel magazine focusing on African destinations. It was quite inspiring and restored my spirits almost right away.

Then Sharon came over to eat a second dinner and use the Internet. I hung around with her for a while until I decided to head for the “Fast” Internet Café near the Caltex gas station. God, I’ll miss that place. I love the somewhat chubby, definitely effeminate manager there – he’s so adorable somehow! After using Internet for an hour (it was surprisingly fast!) I said a truly tearful goodbye to him. He was sad I’d be leaving – he said “I will miss you.” I told him I’d miss him as well, then walked back to the hotel in the 11:30pm streets.

-Valerie