Nyero Rocks

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Our last full weekend in Africa. This morning we all woke up and relaxed. A group of us played cards this morning. We are a little addicted. I taught everyone how to play hearts and so the other night we had all nine of us playing with two decks. It was a ton of fun and hilarious. It's so funny to see how competitive some people get. Basically we have a ton of super competitive people playing the game. It's hilarious to watch people jest each other all game. We've all gotten really close so everyone seems to argue over cards like brother and sister.... Especially Kristi and Andrew.

After a long game of hearts, I went into Kumi by myself. I went to explore, buy some things at the super market, use the internet and to just have a day of some healthy alone time. A bunch of us split off to do our own thing and all planned on meeting back up around 6pm to hike the Nyero Rock Paintings. Of course the internet was down. Power in East Africa is an issue. It is very common for Kumi and Ngora to not have power all day. We even see that at the hospital. They are not very big places and Uganda is notorious for power outages. At the end of the day I decided to walk from Kumi to Nyero which is around 3 miles, give or take. It was hot... around 95 degrees but I was craving a change and wanted the sun and the heat. Often most of my days are spent behind a bota-bota, in the hospital, or in our place at Okorum Guest House.

The walk was wonderful. I got to meet all kinda of people from Uganda and actually do the trek that they often do everyday. Many people walk everywhere. Bota-botas are few and basically no one has cars or motorcycles, too expensive. Foot is how you get around.

When I was around about a mile out from the paintings, I was stopped by a man and asked where I was going. I was somewhat confused on what he was asking me so after awhile he asked me if I was going to the Rock Paintings.... I'm assuming I was out of place because not a lot of white people walk that way unless you are going to the rocks. I said yes I was and he proceeded to tell me he was the caretaker and the place was closed. I was surprised because it was only 5. He then said he would walk back with me and take me through the cliffs even though it was closed. It was really nice of him to offer seeing as he was already walking home. We walked the rest of the way, and all the while he asked me questions about the US. He was interested on how our governing body works and all these really political questions. I waited till around 6:20 for the group to show up and then went in.

The Nyero rock paintings ranged from 1500 years ago to 5000 years ago.... So 3000 b.c. They were drawings of canoes and alligators which he said represented the biggest predator for people during that time. There were also sun worshiping drawings because during that time the people worshiped the sun and stars and then different crop circles with different meanings. It was very basic but fairly interesting.

As I was leaving I found out the rest of the group had arrived and were just starting the tour. I decided to leave seeing as I didn't want to walk through it again. I headed out towards town and the next thing I knew Dr Stephen showed up on a bota with a friend. He ended up getting off and walking with me back to Nyero which is his home and there I could get minutes.

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