So....I walked through a Forest....

Sunday, February 8, 2009

This past week has been very busy. On Thursday, my rural visit group-Anna, Suzy, Wes, and Eli plus Ryan-met Paul to spend the day with him and celebrate his first birthday party! He has never done anything special on his birthday…so we decided to bake him a chocolate cake, buy him lunch, and sing “Happy Birthday” to him a few months after…his special day is actually in November. Anyway, early Thursday afternoon we met up with Paul in the taxi park. It took some time until we finally found each other, but once we were all together…we jumped on a mutatu for a 40 minute drive to Entebbe. We were going to the beach for the day…it was actually Lake Victoria but felt like a beach. On the mutatu, I met a nice woman who lived in Entebbe.
Once we arrived in Entebbe, we got out of the car and headed to the zoo…we added another event for the day because Paul said there was one close by. However, the zoo cost $20,000 shillings, too expensive for us! Then, we saw a place for boat rides…again, it was too expensive. So, we decided to stick with our original plan and go to the beach. Since it was rather far away, we caught a ride on a mutatu and headed to Lake Victoria. The beach was awesome! We ate delicious cake, swam in the water, and hung out for the afternoon. I was kind of cold and didn’t really feel like going in the water, but the others convinced me to swim for a little…so I went into the murky water filled with dirt, snails, and mushy ground. Thanks to Ryan I got dunked a couple of times…the guys tried to get Anna in the water too, but she held strong. Ha, it was funny to watch! After swimming, we hung out on the beach and talked with Paul while he had his fish and chips…our treat J It was good to see and talk with him again…it might be the last time we get to see him before practicum. Oh yea, I forgot to say that I found out I am going to ETHIOPIA for practicum…I am so excited! I will be traveling to another country that is supposedly gorgeous! It is known for coffee and silver…it is also one of the poorest countries in the world. Suzy, Tessa, Roanna, and Eli are coming too…but I think our group will be split up. We find out more details on Tuesday. I’m excited to find out more details because, as of now, all I know is the country and people who are going to the same country. Next Monday, we will be traveling to our practicum site…
Anyway, back to my Thursday, once it was past 4:00 we had to head back to Kampala to see the comedy show with our professor. We traveled on mutatu and did not get back to the taxi park until 6. Our class already left for the show by the time we got back to Kampala so we decided it best to go straight to the theater. We walked to the theater and met up with our group. We walked around the theater’s market then went to get seats for the 7’o clock show. Unfortunately, we waited 1 ½ hours until the show actually started. Sandy and I had fun passing time just joking around…they also had a Ugandan soap opera show playing on at the same time. That was actually really interesting…the story was about an abortion and then another episode was about a lady having a baby. These weren’t the most uplifting stories. Anyway, finally around 8:30 the show started. I was kind of annoyed because I was tired from the busy day, cold from my wet cloths, and really hungry because we missed dinner. The show went until 10:00. It was pretty funny…kind of reminded me of a Ugandan SNL. After the show, we were to head home on the bus. However, our bus drivers accidentally locked the keys in the bus and were trying to get inside with a clothes hanger through the window. After much waiting, Eli gave it a try and got it! I was so excited….ready to go home. Once home, which was close to 11:00, I heated up some leftovers and started some homework….it was a late night.
On Friday, we had class in the morning and afternoon. Then, right after school, Tessa, Roanna, Suzy, Jenny, and I quickly packed our bags, ate dinner, and headed to Jinja for our camping adventure. We left around 5:30 and headed to the taxi park. There, we caught a bus going to Jinja…we were all stuffed in the backseat. Our bus got stuck in a jam, typical, so our hour or so ride turned into a 2 hour ride. We didn’t get to Mabira Forest until 8:15 at night…it was pitch black, in the boonies, and we had no idea where we were going. I was a little nervous and somewhat scared. A nice man on the bus thought we were going to the Rainforest so he told us to go up the street to the right. We headed up the road but it looked really sketchy…so, Roanna called the front desk of the campsite we were staying at and asked for directions. The owner said he would send someone to meet us. Apparently, we were going the wrong way, as we predicted, and had to turn around and cross the street. On the other side, we found the correct road. We started walking and a nice group of ladies helped us find our way…they led us to the woman who was taking us to our banda, our cabin. I was glad we met up with some women because I would not feel comfortable or trust a man leading us in the dark to somewhere we didn’t know.
After walking through the mud and trees, we found our banda. It was a fairly nice room…we had 2 bunks for the 5 of us. It was a small room, but just right for the weekend. Our latrine was nearby and we had a wash bucket to bath…no one took showers the whole weekend. Friday, we talked in our room for a little bit and then got ready for bed. Because there were only 4 beds, Suzy and Roanna decided to sleep together. However, a few hours into the night, Jenny-who was sleeping in the bunk above me-creeped down, scared me, and asked if she could sleep with me. There was a lot of noise outside…lots of things falling on our roof and making a lot of noise, we later found out that we had a fig tree growing up above us. I was having trouble sleeping too so I didn’t mind the company. That was interesting…small bed for 2 people with a bad smelling mosquito net falling down all the time, kind of annoying. I didn’t get much sleep that night.
Saturday, we woke up around 9, got ready, and went to market to get food for the day. We brought fruit from home and then bought some bananas, mandazi-a bread donut for breakfast and chipatis for lunch. Plus, a few huge water bottles. After we were all set, we headed on our journey…what we were anticipating to be a 3 or 4 hour hike but turned out to be a 2 hour hike. Hiking through a forest is very different than hiking a mountain back home…it took me awhile to adjust. The ground was very wet and muddy, the forest was dense with trees and bushes…and there were animals making sounds that we didn’t recognize. In the forest live monkeys, bush pigs, and large snakes…at one point, we heard I think either a monkey or bush pig? make a noise that sounded like we were in its territory…we walked fast and clapped our hands and started to talk/sing loudly to quiet the animal. Some of the girls didn’t get scared…but I sure was! We also had to walk through some parts that were somewhat swampy…gushy mud that literally engulfed my whole shoe, it started to leak into my sneaker. At the end of our hike, we ended up on this dirt road leading back to our campsite. On the road we met these two men who were like, “Hello, do you have money? Our country is poor and your country is rich…can we have some money?” We said no and instead offered chapatti, but they just walked away smiling.
We walked back to our banda and, along the way, passed children who would run up to us saying, “Muzungu, how are you?” and then they would either wave, hold our hand, or run up to give us a hug. They were very cute! For a break, we ate lunch outside and then read our books for lit. class and took naps. In late afternoon, we headed out on another hike. This one, in my opinion, was much more enjoyable. I knew what to expect, the sun was shining, and we didn’t hear near as many animal noises. Our group talked a lot more on this hike and had fun looking at the huge trees that were some of the forest’s main features. This time, our hike was about an hour to hour and ½. We, once again, appeared at the market place. We were swarmed by the market sellers as we bought another water bottle…they were shoving beef and chicken sticks in our faces…not the most comfortable. Anyway, we passed through all of the children again and returned to our banda to finish our books and play cards. We also collected firewood for a camp fire.
Around 7, we headed to the dining area which was outside for dinner. Fairly quickly to when dinner was supposed to be, we got our food…I ordered an omelet and then we all shared rice and chips. We sat around the table talking for awhile and then headed back to camp to start our fire. Unfortunately, the wood was too wet and wouldn’t light. So, we lit our lantern and talked in our banda til 10…we made ourselves stay up until then, ha! Got ready for bed in our lovely smelling latrine and caught some zzzs. Leopards also live in the forest and usually come out at night. I always got nervous when waiting for others outside of the latrine…kind of scary. Saturday night, Jenny and I slept together again…we switched beds though because of the mosquito net. I was worried I wouldn’t get much sleep again but, fortunately, I got a descent amount!
Sunday morning, we got up around 8, packed our things, and headed out. We bought some more mandazis and caught a mutatu going to Kampala. We were packed in the bus. There was a 12 year old girl riding in the seat in front of me. I felt so bad for her…she was sick on the ride-looked like she was holding back her throw up-and the conductor kept making her squish into a small corner so that we could fit more people in the vehicle. She looked so uncomfortable and I felt bad for the way he was treating her. He was mean. Thankfully, someone got off and she sat on the seat for the rest of the trip. The time went by quickly, no jams today! We returned to the taxi park in about an hour and then got on a mutatu going to Muyenga. We arrived home around 11 and it felt wonderful! Kampala has become my Ugandan home…it’s nice to be back. We all took showers since we were gross, smelly, and I hadn’t showered since Thursday night! It felt so good to get warm and clean again. After putting some laundry in the washer, I was able to enjoy a cup of coffee and finish my homework. Later in the afternoon, Eli, Jess, Joy, Danielle, and I went to le Petite Village for coffee. The bakery/coffee shop was closed so we decided to try the restaurant beside it…very nice place! The rest of the day I have been reading and writing for school…this week is very busy. It is our last week of classes in Kampala and we have some last minute books to read and papers to write. Dinner tonight was good…each dish group makes a meal every Sunday night…tonight we had kabobs on the grill! Then, we started watching “Good Will Hunting.” Anyway, those are my stories from this weekend. Hope you enjoyed reading….I miss you all and hope everyone is doing well! Love, Kristen