356 lines
18 KiB
Markdown
356 lines
18 KiB
Markdown
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layout: post
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title: "Uganda: eighteen days in Africa"
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subtitle: "Travel journal "
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date: 2022-09-10 00:00:00
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permalink: uganda-trip/
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categories: travel
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---
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I and a friend of mine from Iran decided to go to Uganda to explore the country,
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culturally and ecologically. This is our first trip to Africa so we learned a
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lot and had a lot of new experiences! Our idea was to volunteer to have free
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accommodation and food as much as possible and also to be able to experience the
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local culture of people more closely. We wanted to talk their language, dance
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their dance, follow their customs and also see the beautiful land and animals.
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# A day in Kampala
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We arrive and into the airport and from there we take a Matatu (public taxi)
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towards Kompalla and it’s a packed car and every five minutes the driver is
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banging on the horn away asking people on the street if they want to join the
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car and there is a conductor who is a person constantly hanging by the side of
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the car and jumping down to ask people if they want to join.
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Once we get to Kampala then the main mode of transport in the city is Boda Boda
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which is basically motorcycles, and there is absolutely no rules of the road and
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they seem more like suggestions so you may see your Boda boda going on the
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opposite lane even when there is a dividing line or concrete between the two
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lines they just go to the other side if their own side is blocked by traffic. In
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a way boda boda is very efficient timewise and also cost wise, but it is not for
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the faint-hearted. It’s very easy to find boda boda as they are everywhere and
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as soon as you just walk to the side of the road, motorcyclist will start asking
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if you need a boda somewhere.
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<p> <video src="/img/arts/uganda/traffic.mp4" controls playsinline></video> </p>
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We find our way to a hostel in Kampala called Bushpig (a good backpacker’s
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hostel) and from there we take a walk to exchange some money for Ugandan
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shillings but on the way we get stopped by police who is sitting beside a kiosk
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and they start shouting at us why are you smoking in the public since my friend
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was smoking turns out smoking in public is illegal in Uganda and you can be
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charged for now in this case as I had anticipated they actually wanted a bribe
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and didn’t really want to take us to be charged legally. In this case we end up
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paying $100 which is a lot of money specially in Uganda to get away from the
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situation boards afterwards after talking to an expat from Canada who was living
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in Uganda for nine years he said that you could have got away with 40,000
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shillings which is about $10-$15 in this case we were afraid that they might
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actually take us to be charged and we didn’t want that to happen. The advice
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from the expat was that once you give them a little bit of money then you can
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just leave because if they try to stop you and actually take you to court or
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something then you can counter them by saying that they took a bribe and in
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reality they really just want to a bribe, they do not really want to act on the
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law.
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We were going to have transport from Kabale to a lodge in a village close to
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Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Rubuguri village. When we asked our contact
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he said $150 per person, however after haggling and clarifying that we want to
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do a budget trip, we ended up with the price of $35 per person! This price was
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not exactly the same service of a full private-car hire from Kampala to
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Rubuguri, instead we would take the private car to Kabale town, a town close to
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Rubuguri, and from there we would take a boda boda (Mororcycle taxi) to
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Rubuguri. This boda boda leg of the trip was not easy, but we were happy to do
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it even if hard.
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The lesson is, make sure you clarify you are not going to pay for “luxuries” if
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that’s what you want, and haggle until you get a sensible price.
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We went to the art craft market in Kampala, which was amazing, and bought some
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Ugandan crafts and some Congolese masks. If we had more space we would buy even
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more of the masks, they are amazing!
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# Road to Rubuguri
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We had already seen Ugandan driving in Kampala, which in a way is similar to
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Iranian driving but I would say a bit worse and challenging, but we saw more of
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it on the way with trucks coming towards us on the our lane and motorcyclists
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going in all directions.
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On the road to Rubuguri our car had a small failure and we stopped in a roadside
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town to get it sorted by a mechanic. While we were stopped for that, two young
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boys who also worked with the mechanic came to me and told me I look like
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Mohammad Salah the football player because I have a beard. 😂
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We saw the equator line on the way which was interesting! You can pass through
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the equator. They told us compasses have some weird behaviour on either side of
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this line but we didn’t see it ourselves.
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On the way, specially close to Kampala there were tons of shops and houses just
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beside the road with some space between them, and if you stop in those places
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chances are you will be brought some fruit or food or something to be sold to
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your car window.
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We arrived at night at our lodge and went to sleep, the place to sleep was nice.
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We met the other volunteers on the next day as well as the lovely staff that
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worked there, Kajura and Tabitha. They were both very good to us.
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# Dance with Batwa
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I expressed a lot of interest in learning the local dances and dancing with the
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people, and so our host arranged for some of the Batwa people (a community of
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people who used to live in the Bwindi forest but since the conservation programs
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were started, they were evicted and marginalised) to come and dance for (and
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with) us. This dance was easily one of the most amazing nights of our lives,
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such a lovely group of people with such a good energy, and we got that energy as
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well and joined them and had a great time!
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<p> <video src="/img/arts/uganda/dance-batwa.mp4" controls playsinline></video>
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</p>
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We would go for walks on the next days and people had different reactions, some
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kids would just greet us with a “Hellooooo” and a hand wave 👋🏼 which was nice,
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but sometimes they would outright come and ask for money or “sweetie”s. We were
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advised by our host not to give them money or anything to avoid encouraging this
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behaviour.
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Sometimes people would smile at us, at other times they would stare at us with a
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hard-to-read expression, but in most cases if you smiled at them, their stare
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would turn into a smile.
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While at the lodge we started slowly by slowly asking about the local language,
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Rukiga, and I ended up compiling some words and phrases and put them in a blog
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post: [Rukiga: An African Language](/rukiga-african-language/)
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# Gorillas
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The lodge we stayed in is originally a lodge that does tourism, specially around
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Bwindi Imepenetrable national park with the main activity of gorilla trekking,
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where you get to walk with mountain gorillas in a distance as close as 10 meters
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(officially), although practically you are sometimes 3 metres away from them!
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The trek is relatively expensive since there is a permit required for this trek
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which costs about $700 for a one-day activity (compare with a 3-day Safari that
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can be done for $570), however it was a unique experience to see the gorillas so
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close and watch them, specially the children, play and eat and move around!
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One thing that made me think was the children gorillas, two boys, fighting! The
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guides told us the baby boys start fighting each other early to start learning
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how to fight for when they grow up and need to compete and challenge other
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gorillas, and be able to protect their families. It makes me think because of
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how relevant it seems to how boys are brought up in our societies, sent to
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military service and expected to protect society during war.
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# Village
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We went to a Batwa village nearby where they were building houses for them, and
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we stayed there for 2 nights and helped the construction of the houses for the
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three days we were there. We learned from the engineer and workers there about
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their methods of building their houses with local material.
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On the first night we went to a nearby tiny town where we were looking for food,
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and we found a tiny *restaurant* which had only one food they could serve us, we
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didn’t even ask what it was and after sitting in the dark, smoke-filled corner
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of the room, with a drunk man talking to us in a language we did not understand,
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we got goat intestines and matooke (green bananas). Can’t say the intestines
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tasted good but the experience was pretty cool and interesting.
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The first called morning we were given the local porridge called Buhunga, which
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is made it maize flour, mixed with hot water and some sugar. In Iran we have a
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similar food called Fereni which is made of rice starch, hot water or milk and
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sugar, so the food tasted familiar and satisfying.
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The main problem for us was that we were sleeping on the ground with no net, and
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so we got bitten mercilessly by mosquitos and bed bugs and everything in
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between!
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An interesting experiment of this section was my friend building a water
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collection point using a simple plastic bag and water bottle to collect
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rainwater, and it worked very well!
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# Some weird events
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Once we went back to the lodge, one of girl the volunteers staying at the lodge
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who had been at the lodge longer than anyone else (about one and a half months)
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told us that she was not being treated well and that the host was growing mean,
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and at times threatening to her, specially after she had mentioned she wants to
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leave and do her internship/volunteering elsewhere. We had plans to leave the
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next day but she wanted to leave on that day, the trouble was she had bought a
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motorcycle in Uganda in the hopes of using it but given the state of the roads
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she ended up not using it at all, and now she wanted to sell it!
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So we arranged for a car to take us and our luggage, and a motorcycle driver so
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that we can take all we had to a nearby town, Kabale. Once there, we asked the
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driver to stay the night with us and help us sell the motorcycle in this town.
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The same evening and the next day we were trying to sell the motorcycle by
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riding it to places, asking people and haggling our way, but in the end we ended
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up selling it for half its price. Unfortunately she had bought a new motorcycle,
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from a brand that was not the people’s favourite, and most people were not
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interested in it. It also seemed like they had sold it to her at a much higher
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price than it really was worth! So she ended up losing about $700 because of
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that… The lesson was, buy second-hand, buy cheap and buy the favourite!
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I and my friend wanted to go to Lake Bunyonyi from Kabale but our new friend
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wanted to go back to Kampala, so we asked the driver about it and he said it
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would be $300 to go to Kampala from Kabale! This was a crazy price given that I
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and my friend had got transport from Kampala to Kabale for much less! She ended
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up staying at the hostel and finding a cheaper deal at $200, but the prices are
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just crazy. They keep saying it’s because of fuel costs but in reality it
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doesn’t cost more than $80, and that’s pessimistic! For us, we used public taxis
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(matatu) and boda bodas to get around so we ended up spending a lot less money,
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but it’s understand that one may not feel safe as a solo female traveller to
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take such means over long distances, not to mention she had a lot more luggage
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than us.
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# Bunyonyi, the boat hire and work
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With the troubles behind us, we left to go to lake bunyonyi and stay there for a
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week with our host, Tutamuzongoza. We had to take a boat for about 20 minutes to
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cross the lake and land on the southern part of the lake at Kashenyi village.
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Our host welcomed us and we had a room there in their house, and we found
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ourselves helped a lot by our lovely host family. They provided us with their
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amazing local food (and in large quantity!) and a room to stay in.
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On our first day, Tutamuzongoza and his brother Tumwijukye briefed us on their
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plans to build a library, a playground and guest houses for their community, and
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explained how we could help and of course we were excited about it!
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Tutamuzongoza also prepared a timetable for us which was great, gave us more
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clarity on what we would be doing.
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That same night we had some children coming to our house and doing a dance to
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Christian songs and no doubt we joined them and had a great time.
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<p> <video src="/img/arts/uganda/dance-bunyonyi.mp4" controls
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playsinline></video> </p>
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Since we had arrived on Saturday, and on Sunday there was church service, we
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didn’t work on Sunday but instead I joined Tutamuzongoza to go to church to
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experience their religious experience. This Protestant church was much more
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interesting than I had anticipated, there was a lot of dancing and singing and
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laughter! The preacher would crack jokes in between his preach and people would
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chuckle, which I found to be nice. Tutamuzongoza taught me how to introduce
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myself with these phrases:
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Eizina ryangye ...: My name is ...
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Ndaruga Iran: I’m from Iran
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Nashemererwa kubanimwe: I’m happy to be here
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Webare munonga: Thank you very much
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I got a round of claps (a very rhythmic one!) from the people once I introduced
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myself as was the custom for them to clap in this rhythm when people spoke and
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during transitions.
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With the help of Tutamuzongoza and Tumwijukye, I was able to expand my Rukiga
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dictionary and finalise a first version of my blog post: [Rukiga: An African
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Language](/rukiga-african-language).
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Starting on Monday we helped on the site to prepare the land for construction by
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digging, slashing and uprooting, we had a great time and it was a good exercise.
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We also hired a motor boat and went on exploring the lake, first together with
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our hosts and then just the two of us. We ended up diving and swimming and
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having dinner in one of the islands and just lying down at night under the moon.
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On Tuesday evening, the children of the village invited me to play football with
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them so we joined and had an amazing time, playing football with the kids is
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always great. Once we were done I saw some of the kids doing some handstand
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practice and one of them suddenly did a back handspring!! At this, I knew I had
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to give them something from my parkour practice, so we ended up improvising and
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finding a bump and doing some parkour vaults and some basic flip practice, and
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it was great fun. The children were really talented all of them!
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On the last day I asked our hosts if they knew of any books in their language
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about their culture, and they introduced us to one of their legendary writes,
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Festo Karwemera, so we set on a search to find his books when we were back in
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Kabale and we ended up in the writer’s house, and his wife came to us and
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allowed us to see the library and buy the books even though the librarian wasn’t
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there, it took some persistence! She was lovely and ended up giving us her
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signature on the books! I hope to expand my Rukiga understanding through the
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books and share them on my blog.
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On a last note, I found Tutamuzongoza on BeWelcome, but it was a much better
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experience than our host that we found on Workaway.
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# Safari
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After Bunyonyi and Kabale we went to Queen Elizabeth National park to do a
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safari and our first awe was the sunrise of the savannah.
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We started driving through the park and saw a lot of buffalos and antelopes and
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birds at first, and at some point we saw some hippos in the river. We stopped at
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Kasenyi village, a community inside the park beside the lake and there we got to
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see a lot of hippos basking in the beach, and we got to get as close as 5-7m
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from there, they are pretty cool animals.
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We then drove to the Kazinga channel to do a boat cruise and some some animals
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in the water, predominantly hippos, and a lot of them! We also got to see some
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elephants and a crocodile and some birds and lizards including a fish eagle.
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After the boat cruise we went back to the park in search for lionesses, but
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instead we found a leopard resting on a tree, it was hard to see the leopard
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without a camera or binoculars but it was amazing nevertheless. We unfortunately
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didn’t get to find a lioness, apparently they were hard to spot during some
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periods. 
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The most fun part of this safari was being able to sit on top of the car, on a
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very uncomfortable top rack. Me and my friend usually find satisfaction and fun
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when things are a bit harder than the usual!
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At night we went to another small resort to have our dinner, and as we were
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sitting beside the campfire, a hippo casually started walking towards us, hippos
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were like stray dogs in that park, they were everywhere!
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On another note, Queen Elizabeth passed away on the day we were in Queen
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Elizabeth National park. Oops.
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The next day we took a few matatus back to Kampala, and on the first matatu, at
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some stage there were 22 people inside a minivan with 13 seats, it was quite an
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authentic experience! Apparently if you take matatus from official taxi parks,
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they do not overfill their van and it’s more comfortable but the first one we
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got was just one going past us.
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# Final Words
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This first trip to Uganda was amazing, we had a lot of fun and we
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were really happy to have experienced the country together with the local
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people, and we learned a lot from them and we got to see some animals for the
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first time. This trip only makes me want to visit Africa more, and I’m sure I
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will! You can find more pictures of my trip on my [pictures](/art) page.
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