Kampala to Kabale to Kibungo

---

---

Rwanda
Tomorrow I will most likely leave Rwanda. This country has been a highlight on my trip. The people are approachable and the countryside is stunning with steeply sloped hills springing from cultivated valleys. The usual Mzungu bullshit is tempered here as lots of people seem to be to surprised to shout when they see me. I stayed with a friend named Mdi in Kigali for 3 days. He is employed as a mototaxi driver and appreciates my company as he wants to practice English. He gave me rides to the embassies and must-sees and provided a rough guiding service. I got to see the city and how some locals live and he got to show me off. I am certain most people see whites as rich and I believe most prejudge me as being educated, smart and important as well. Someone worth knowing. Many are unemployed so to hanging out with the locals one often does that and nothing else. People are accustomed and comfortable with just sitting and shooting the shit and when the there is nothing to talk about sitting or standing, if no chairs are advailable, in silence idling away the hours. This can be challenging for me, after watching people talk or not talk for over 20 minutes I start questioning what it is that I am accomplishing.
The common language is Kirwanda with french being learned in school. Engish is also quite common as it is the language of social and economic mobility. People have finer features and there dress is more often traditional, or western with a personal style, contrasting with the mishmash of 2nd hand clothes I often see in Uganda and Kenya.
Even when living in a mud brick or concrete cell people are very clean and careful to be hygienic. Washing their hands before and after meals and washing there feet before bed. They regularly sweep the dirt floors and yards or wipe it down if they are concrete. Toilets and the walls of there dwelling never seem to be touched though. Years of smudges are allowed to accumulate and the toilets can be quite fearsome.
Kigali is the most livable city I have seen in Africa. It is an amalgamation of neighborhoods, connected by boulevards spread out over the hilly terrain. It is also relatively cool, safe, green and clean. All the things that Nariobi isn't.

I have done some good riding. Straight from Kampala to Kalabe averaging 120km per day.
A mountain range called the Rwenzoris demarcate the DRC and Uganda. I followed the eastern slopes south from Fort Portal to Kalabe. This has been the highlight. I have enjoyed the high country, cattle pastures, well tended farms tidy compact towns and sturdy housing set amongst dense forest that turn to pine over 2500m.
Cycling has been quite good, actually the highlight of my hours. Getting solid food and sleep can be a challenge to accomplish on the cheap. I am paying for my policy of eating what ever is available and my guts are protesting

Money
For example a cop wanted 15000 shillings to "buy air time so he could call his CO" to inform him that a white was seeking "accommodation." He want a payment and I am not giving no crook twice the rate of a budget hotel so I can occupy 2 by 3m of ground. Nothing much is free. I latter pushed to a church were after much confession of faith I was permitted to camp on church grounds. I want doing this for the sake of adventure. I was to exhausted for that, there simply was no hotels with 20 kms. In the morning I was guilt-ed into handing out money to the kids for "books and pens" and roped into bible reading. The Rev. was essentially kind man with a practiced smile and twinkling eyes. Over bible reading he told me how he was trying to build a house of his own and it was already built "over window level" and if he could only procure (perhaps the rich white man?) the fund he would be able to finish it.
Kids if they know anything in English it is the ubiquitous "how are you?" "or give me my money!"
In Uganda there is a push to get people educated, so they are. Lots have degrees, few have jobs. As well English is the official language here so folks are very informed via local and foreign press. Chatting with a fellow pedaling a rusted bike loaded with potatoes that he was going to sell at the market, I am reminded that still, I am "just a dumb mechanic." Most are aware of a world outside of their sphere of daily activity (unlike Canadians?) and are able and willing to compare and contrast the different lives lived by the rich and the poor. As best I can tell people are also fully cognizant of European and North American understanding of conflict, disease and poverty ridden Africa. Still may see a way of making the most of this perception by shaming and guilting a nameless Mzungu for money.
This with the constant attempts at fleecing the rich tourist with guilt, cons, corruption and overcharging that colors so many interactions with the locals has completely put an end to all my compassion and generosity. I don't give any more. If a dirty kid on the road demands money I tell him to go to hell. I a person tells me a long sad story I tell them I will pray for them. I can fault them for giving it a shot, though. The disparity is very real, we are crazy rich as they are insanely poor.
In Latin America, I had to be careful not to take. The people were poor and rural as well but they had a completely different mentality. Experiencing this I questioned all the "aid" and missionaries that would flood in to the Andes to save the "poor farmers." I saw people that may have lacked cars, microwaves and Crest tooth paste but I didnt think of them as poor. They were much richer in many of the ways we are poor in the "developed" world. What I know of Africa, it is different. All the aid and intervention, being economic, social, religious seems to be a vital component of these communities. It is accommodated and expected, Simon a fellow I met in some town couldn't start a his business without my and my non existent colleges "sponsorship."
Being white
I have been feeling a bit harassed by the constant "wheh MZUNGU!" or " howare-YOU!" A pack of dozen scrubby little kids will go absolutely ape-shit. Its like Jesus descended out of heaven to greet the believers. Totally bonkers. I would dread it, endure it and then regret it. But yesterday I found if I shout those few magic words first people seem quite pleased. So now, if I meet a lone woman/old man/ group of teens on the road I will swerve in there direction, smile like a mad man and shout at the top of my lungs "how are YOU?" They say, like always "I am fine," and everything is peachy. If I pass a bunch of louts at the bar shack it will be me who whistles and hollers "HU MZUNGU!" "where are you going mzungu?" pumping my fist in the air. It works, every is all smiles!
Food
Chai is commonly available and great. I have finally broken down and started drinking the stuff. I haven't had a cup of coffee since leaving. "African tea" as marketed to those who have dealt with tourist before is a horrible milky, weak tea bag boredom served in dainty tea cups. This is usually accompanied with white sandwich bread and margarine. A horrible breakfast that blacks assume whites want.
National Parks
Getting close to National parks the language gets wonky. Restaurants become "canteens," stores are "trading posts," any mention of travel on my part is interpreted as a request for a tour, and if I ask "where can I find drinkable water" they respond "yes there is lion safari."
Camping
One evening while searching for a place to camp I spotted this debilitated old colonial farm house structure down some lane. I though, well what the heck, lets try asking a farmer for a place to stay. It has been a mainstay through the Americas. It proved to be a prison farm and when I asked to camp on the periphery the warden asked why: "why do you wish to sacrifice your live in this way." There is such a lack of security in the country side that this man was convinced that if I spent a night in the bush I was at best going to get robbed. He gave me a patch of land beside his house.
Newspapers
There are a number of English news papers pointedly remind me that I am on a different continent.
-A car thieving goat has been arrested in Nairobi
-Call back question: should female genital mutilation be banded?
-Editorial comment: Child sacrifice should be illegal because God told Abraham not to sacrific his son Isaac
-111 died scooping fuel from a overturned petrol truck
-Former Ugandan security minister under Obote II, Chris Rwakasisi was pardoned by the current president for crimes I can't determine. Chris has seen the light and joined the Mukono Evangelism Team and will campaign for the President in the upcoming election
-Dr Buturo the chief minister of health fingers pornography as the cause of immorality in Ugandan society and politics

---