Overland Tour 25-27 of 35

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Nothing super special about Kampala, yet, but the internet was pretty alright at the campsite. The next day we arrived at Lake Bunyoni after a million hours and I was feeling quite under the weather. Our guide was ill when we started the trip from Nairobi and I was the first to catch what she had. It was also New Year’s Eve so being sort of sick was extra not fun. We had gorilla trekking permits waiting for us when we arrived and my name was on the list to trek in the am. This again was not conducive to my sickness because you are not allowed to trek if you are sick as the man monkeys have 98% similarities to humans so they can catch our diseases too. Buuuuut I traded with someone else and hit the New Year’s tea infused gin hard during a round of Factfrica. Remember the game of Christmas past? Well the name changed but the idea stayed the same; state a fact about Africa and take a pull from the bottle. I believe the tea really helped my sickness or maybe the dancing did, but either way when I went to bed around 4am (right when the trekkers were getting up, hehehe) I slept like a log and arose 4.5 hours later with a clear head ready for the day. There was an option to visit an orphanage or something but from the description of our leader she made it sound like a house of horrors. Quick example: she said women would put their unwanted children in plastic bags and throw them away. So I was under the impression that I would be walking into a zoo of half alive kids unattended to and obviously in bad shape. In the end I decided to go because I didn’t need to recover from the festivities the night before aaaaaand I was bored lol. First stop along the way was to visit an old lady. Rumored to be 87 (she changes her age with every new group) she had a unique way of deciding how much dowry you should receive when getting married. A simple squeeze of the breasts and a firm slap on the butt she would call out a number which signified how many cows (for the dowry) you should receive/not settle for any less! Hahaha fun for the ladies! She also was said to freak out, in a good way, towards beards so I was dreading the moment. But after honking the girl next to me I simply got a “nice beard” and she actually returned to the same girl before me for another round of guess my cup size. I kind of wonder if this was an old lesbian getting her rocks off with all these white devils. Either way she was pretty funny and also showed us how to use a grind stone to mill sorghum for making breakfast porridge and sorghum beer. I got to try my hand at it as well. Fun! A bit more up the hill and then back down towards the water we found the destination in mind. Oh. By the way. Best decision ever. Seriously! It wasn’t really an orphanage of such carnal practices as described by the dummy with a job(our guide), but a school for needy children. Children from families who couldn’t afford to send their kids to school had the option of sending them to the Little Angels School for something. There did happen to be orphans there, but these kids were all learning in classes from, what would translate to a system practiced in the US, preschool to 4^th grade. This organization was founded by a guy named Duncan who was sponsored as a child by a British couple who paid for his education through high school. At the age of 19 he started a school and passed the running duties onto a friend of his and at 22 he started Little Angels. He is 27 now which means in only 5 years he has had enough support to make an entire grade worth of kids, teachers, rooms, books, pencils, etc every year. By the end of this year (2016) grade 5 should be up and running and only 2 more years to go to finish primary school in Uganda. So before he will be 30 he will have created a whole primary school-get this-by donation of tourists only. Wowowowowow!!! I actually enjoyed the heck out of seeing their classroom and participating in teaching a lesson as well as all their singing and dancing done clearly just to impress the mizungus, but the kids were enjoying it too. After helping pass out their lunches (2 pieces of bread, a banana, big mug of porridge) we had the option of donating some money or going all in and sponsoring a child for an entire year. $600 was the amount requested for the whole year which unfortunately was out of my price range but not for this young Aussie couple. So cool that they had the commitment powers to make it happen for one lucky child and to promote this African dream that was becoming a reality for Duncan. This stuff is straight out of the movies and I was happy to give what I could and see someone go the full bore and sponsor a child in need. Such a good time and the couple was invited to visit the family of the girl they sponsored the following day. I asked if I could tag along to experience this a bit more and was giddy when they said of course. The husband’s sister came along too and we all set out with good intentions of learning exactly to whom the money was going to. Turns out the money is used to buy supplies like food staples for the fam and school supplies for the child. Before visiting the home we decided to make an extra donation of pretty much the first month’s money in food, toiletries, and gifts which we bought in town at various markets. Once we arrived and went through the formalities of meeting everyone and seeing where they all came from (the family’s house washed away in a storm and they were staying at a place donated by a church) we were absolutely gob smacked when they brought out lunch for us all. Whaaaaat…..these people are really on the brink of daily survival which also included only one meal per day and they happened to make enough to feed 5 extra people. Holy guacamole….floored. We had some rice, greens, beans with potatoes and a ground nut sauce to the stars! So good and filling we went outside after the meal to see where the Little Angels foundation was building a 4 bedroom house for another family and were again surprised beyond all words when the mom handed over a huge bag of potatoes and beans that she grew herself. Too much! At the construction site the mother of the family that would be living in the house gave us all a stick with many tiny dried fish on it. What an immensely selfless culture this seems to be. I was really at a loss for words about the generosity given by so many who had so little. Touched me in a way that I decided I need to come back and do some work there. The day was not over because Duncan invited us to a really sweet viewpoint of the whole lake and then out for a drink afterwards. Lake Bunyoni is something like 26 km long and 7 km at its widest with 29 islands in the middle. It is also to be tested at a depth of 650 meters making it the deepest lake in Africa, potentially the wooooooorld. Gorgeous at the lookout of some fancy hotel we visited. After we went to the Lake View Café and had a beer. Tusker Malt is apparently different from regular Tusker and maybe my favorite in East Africa. Then we all decided it was ok to skip supper with the ATC group and go to town on Duncan’s recommendation to his favorite BBQ joint, The Boss. We had some spicy grilled chicken and roasted green bananas (plantains) and washed it down with some more Tusker Malt. We gave another ring to the tour guide like she was our mom or something to let her know we would be staying out a bit later cuz Duncan wanted us to see his favorite watering hole, Bubbler. The beers were tasty at this hole-in-the-wall of a place and I was immediately bombarded by a rasta presumably because of my hair. Turned out he was a really funny guy and I was enjoying deciphering his charades cuz he was NOT speaking English. Also turns out he was mostly deaf because someone hit him on the head with a bottle which also left him blind in one eye and again, Duncan was there to help. His dance moves were impeccable and we all learned his steps. After a great night we got back safely to camp to see this mom of a guide angry with Duncan that he kept us away so long. This lady is annoying. Duncan is awesome. When the tour is over I will be coming back to help out in any way I can for about 2 weeks. For real. Amazeballs. 100%. I cant wait!!!

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