Maybe it was when the chicken laid an egg on Michelle’s foot, or maybe it was the six squawking geese roped together under the back seat, but either way our taxi ride from the Kenya/Uganda border wasn’t one we’ll soon forget.
A trip to Uganda wasn’t originally in the plans, but Khayanga’s brother Juma was headed that way, so we decided to tag along, if for no other reason than to collect one more stamp for the passport.
A Ugandan “taxi†is the same as a Kenyan matatu; a mini-van with rows of seats for passengers. They fill an important niche for efficient, low-cost transportation. Our four-hour ride from the border to Kampala was 13,000 shillings each (about $4). Of course, they tend to carry more than just passengers, and often that day’s market prizes join you for a ride; hence the egg-laying hen and goose brigade.
We spent one very full and enjoyable day wandering the busy streets of Kampala. There are people and cars piled in every direction, but the city nonetheless feels safe and welcoming. We stopped at a fantastic little coffee shop that specializes in local coffee and even offers an all-day “Coffee Safari†to a nearby coffee grower.
Getting around Kampala is fun! (And mostly pretty safe…;)
We also had a chance to visit the beautiful Baha’i House of Worship that’s built on one of the seven hills that make up Kampala—the only one of its kind in Africa, and one of only seven currently standing in the world.
We visited the temple on Juma’s recommendation. The family is Baha’i, and on Sunday before we left we had a chance to join the children of the compound for their own prayer service. The service takes place in a humble mud shed on the property. The children first decorate a makeshift alter with freshly-picked flowers, then guide themselves through a series of songs and stories. When the service was complete, they gathered outside and played in a dusty field, allowing us to join them. It’s hard to pick just one thing that we’ve loved most about our time in the village, but spending time with the children is certainly a strong candidate.
We left Kampala early today (although it still took an hour and a half to navigate the traffic out of the city) and headed for the town of Jinja, famous for sitting on Lake Victoria at the source of the Nile. We took a boat ride out to the marker denoting the official source: it was with a touch of reflection and a maybe even some feeling of accomplishment that we looked back northward to where our journey started a month and a half ago.
Our boat captain was educated and intelligent, but when he graduated from university there were no jobs of any kind waiting for him. After working odd jobs in and around Kampala, he returned home to Jinja to work for himself. He has his own boat and another he’s fixing up to attract more customers, but the tourism business is fickle and even at the best of times only offers a meager living. Sadly this theme is all too common and although we’ve heard it many times, it never ceases to break our hearts.
Our hotel here is lovely—if a visit to this part of the world is ever on your list, we can heartily recommend Gately on Nile. I’m writing this post from a balcony where the serene view of Lake Victoria has been swallowed by night and replaced with a chorus of animal sounds, some of which I can identify, but most of which I absolutely cannot. Geckos and other scurry-ers are darting along the stucco walls. Tomorrow will be an early-ish morning as we try to make our way back to the community center in time for the afternoon classes. We’re excited to get back to our friends in Musembe, but our brief taste of Uganda has left us wishing we could have spent much more time here.