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Published: August 13th 2007
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Kampala Temple
Are those swastikas at the bottom? No clue what religion/sect/thingy this belongs to. Kampala, it appears, decided to give me a break for the rest of my time there. The only other "fun thing" that I was offered while walking the streets of Kampala were cigars ("Real Cubans, my friend! Real Cubans!" Yeah, right.)
I spent the last two days going through every single art shop and artists' village in Kampala trying to find some "unique" stone carvings for my dad. Sorry dad, but these people aren't that kind of artist. They make pretty trinkets for tourists, and they all look the same. I ended up choosing one or two pieces that I thought that were pretty and interesting enough to make up for the fact that you can find a hundred of them anywhere you look.
On both Sunday and Monday the skies opened up in a torrential downpour over Kampala. On Sunday I was inside when it started, so I just stayed there until it stopped. On Monday, I was outside, and got REALLY wet. And all that I could think of was the God is ready for CHOGM. Lat me explain.
Kampala is not, by any means, a clean city. Yes, I am sure there are worse (Mexico City, Tokyo, etc),
Lubo
They guys playing this game (mostly Muslim by dress...no idea if that is significant or coincidental) took it really seriously. The object is to get all your pieces around the white blocks and up to where it says home. but that doesn't make Kampala cleaner. However, there is a big meeting of some sort happening in November called CHOGM (no idea what it stands for), which HRM Queen Lizzy II will be attending, along with the Presidents of many ex-colonies of England. So the government has started a campaign to clean up Kampala in preparation for CHOGM, and one part of the campaign (the PR part) includes massive billboards featuring famous Ugandans (Radio jocks, Olympic Gold Medal winners, musicians, etc), which all say "I/We are ready for CHOGM." Kampala, unfortunately, is not. So seeing the rains washing away garbage and dirt and other nasty stuff, I thought, "well, at least God is ready for CHOGM". Moving on.
On Sunday I got to attend another Morning Prayer Service in the Baha'i Temple, which was amazing. I am going to miss the Temple a lot when I leave Kampala, as I most likely won't get to go back for many years.
After the service was finished I found Nancy and Patrick again and we chatted for a while, then headed into the city where we each had some stuff to do. Unfortunately both Nancy and Patrick were very busy and I
The Ugandan Parliament
I had to convince the police guards to let me take this pic. They checked out my camera and my passport before letting me take it. only got to see them for a couple hours that afternoon, which culminated with them having to ditch out of lunch to go a meeting of some sort, but they kindly paid for my lunch first. I tried to pay (honest) but Nancy wouldn't let me. I'm really going to miss them too.
On Sunday evening a British lady named Margaret showed up (though she had earlier attended the prayer service, but I didn't notice her), and the director of the Temple told me that she was going to be staying in the little house that I was in with Irene. I later discovered that she was going to be serving at the Temple for a month, and they had arranged for her to stay there before they knew that Irene and I were coming. Oh, well. No biggy, its only two nights. Since there are only two bedrooms in the house, and it was decided that the ladies would each get one, I ended up dragging a bed out of one of the rooms and bunking down in the common room beside the breakfast table. Since Margaret is English we were able to have some good discussions and I learned some news from the outside world, which was nice as I have most certainly fallen behind the times since coming to Africa.
On Monday night, my last in Kampala, Irene, Margaret and I went up to the Temple at about 8pm just to look at it, since it is closed at 5:30pm. It is quite beautiful at night, lit up with powerful lights that make it visible across the city. Unfortunately it was a bit foggy so my pictures didn't turn out too well. I wish that I had had more time to spend there, but my busy summer schedule beckoned me back to Kigali.
The trip back to Kigali was, to say the least, horrendously long. The bus kept stopping in little villages to let people on and off (its supposed to be express from Kampala to Kigali, stopping only at the border and once or twice for breaks and gas), and we took a different, much longer route than usual, which added at least two or three hours to the trip. On top of this the border crossing we went to was in the middle of nowhere, so we were the only bus there (good, yes? Get through faster? Nope.) This meant that the border guards and customs officials were not in a hurry to get people through and took the time to REALLY search our bags and ask lots of questions about where we are coming from (Kampala, duh), where we are going (again, Kigali, duh), what we were doing in Kampala, what we are doing in Rwanda, and so on. Then, once everyone was finally through the border and back on the bus...we wait for another hour while customs officials check all the cargo that the bus was carrying (which included a large amount of commercial goods to be sold in Rwanda), and while the bus driver bought at least 15 massive bunches of plantains (like bananas, but not quite) and loaded them into the bus to be sold in Kigali for his profit.
By the time we reached Kigali we were more than five hours late, all five of which Faustin had been waiting for us to arrive. Poor guy. The funny thing was that he gave up waiting and left about twenty minutes before we arrived, so when we showed up and called him to come pick us up he was almost back home and had to turn around again. By the time we got back to the Anderson's property and our respective abodes, Irene and I were exhausted, annoyed and ready to sleep for the next four days. Yup, like that would happen.
There is a Baha'i Youth Conference here (on the Baha'i Land next to the Anderson's land) from the 2nd to the 5th, and preparations are heading into the desperate final stages. The thing is, since the Andersons have a pickup truck, ideal for hauling stuff around, and I am the only person around with a valid driver's license, I get to drive around Kigali all day today and tomorrow, helping prepare for the conference. I don't mind, as I volunteered to help, but it kinda kills my idea to sleep for four days.
But one must sacrifice and persevere in the face of mild hardship! Go forward! Press onwards! and all that jazz.
Safe Journeys
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