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Published: February 25th 2009
Lucie and Lobb!!
It was very sad leaving South Africa. We had had such an amazing time and both felt that given the chance we would have definitely doubled the length of our stay, but we had other places to go and very, very different cultures to experience.
Paul, who is in charge of all the schools Luc is working at, Aleisha who is an American volunteer and a driver greeted us off the plane. The sign held up for us read: LUCIE and LOBB! Lobb, now that is a first for me, I get Tom and maybe even sometimes George but not Lobb! Haha
We drove from Entebbe Airport to Molly and Paul’s house, which took about forty minutes. We were hit by the heat coming off the plane, which I’d experienced in many countries before but you can really smell Africa.
Driving along you got the smells of the petrol from all the cars, which aren’t what you would say up to standard! There was dust in the air and the smell of food cooking on the side of the road. I was struck by all the branding. Everywhere you look all the shops are painted
by the national telecommunications companies or by Coca-Cola… The main road between Entebbe and Kampala is in pretty good condition but as soon as you turn off the main road the tarmac stops and the dirt track begins with mountainous ruts and potholes. We climbed the hill up to the house, which from the outside looked very big and majestic! Inside was a different case. Very basic but it still very much felt like a home I eve had an en suite! Paul and Molly have five or six of their own kids but because it is an orphanage organisation that they run they also have many “adopted” children. Aleisha told us that at one point there were about twenty people in the house and it wasn’t crowded at all.
As I had been swimming with my phone in Durban I needed to get a new phone so this was my main job for the day on Thursday. We also visited two of the Molly and Paul schools, one of which Luc was going to be working in the following week. The first school we went to was a senior school where Aleisha was working, teaching mainly science to
all classes from S1 to S7. Lucie and myself were introduced to two of the classes, the second class we were asked to talk about our careers as they were having a lesson on it. After explaining that we didn’t have a job we introduced ourselves and said what we were going on to study closely followed by applause from the students! It was a strange experience especially when we were told afterwards that they thought we were very good looking, they must have been looking at Lucie!
The other school was called Wheeling Primary. The ages of the kids ranged from about four to thirteen. They had five hundred pupils and the whole school was in grounds smaller than the average house in the UK. Catherine was the head mistress who showed us round each and every classroom. The children would stand up and greet us in English as all of their lessons are taught in English because it is Uganda’s official language despite there being over fifty different languages in the country. Songs were sung for us and we received special claps as we left the classrooms as well!
On Friday morning Luc and I parted,
very early at around seven in the morning. I was to get a minibus taxi towards Entebbe and get off at the Garuga bus stop. From there I hopped onto a Boda Boda (motorcycle) that took me to Banana Village which is a hotel that I had some posters and books to pick up for all the dental work ahead of me. Once I’d done this I headed back into Kampala.
The plan was to meet Dr Colin Watterson who is working in Kabale, where I was ultimately heading that day and we were going to get on a bus later in the afternoon, around four o’clock. I arrive in central Kampala at The Old Taxi Park, which I’d read lots about. It is a very chaotic and busy place. There is no organisation, well from my perspective there wasn’t. I got out of the taxi and immediately there were about ten guys grabbing at my bag trying to put it on their boda-boda and take me places. After a few shouts at them I got my bag on my back and started walking away from them. I obviously had no idea where I was going but I was
just going away from all the craziness that is the taxi park!
After finding out what direction Kampala Rd was I started walking. It was a very hot day and carrying well over 20kg on my back did not help the sweating situation! The plan was to try and find a hotel that would let me store my bag for the day so that I could walk around a little. In the end, after much discussion and a little bit of lying (I told them that I had stayed there the night before) I managed to blag my way to letting the Sheraton hotel store my bag for the day.
I sat having some breakfast and the next thing Colin was on the phone saying that the border crossing from Congo hadn’t gone as planned and that we’d have to go in the morning on Saturday!
That night I stayed in a really nice little guest house which was the Ugandan Protestant Medical Bureau. It was the nicest room I’d stayed in Uganda and was very cheap. Colin didn’t make it to Kampala until well after 8pm so in the meantime I’d gone for an Indian meal apparently
one of the best in East Africa, it was very good and I couldn’t complain for only £8 something.
The next morning we jumped on the post bus that goes from Kampala to Kabale, stopping off in all the major towns picking up the post and parcels etc. The journey was very interesting to say the least. There were men playing violin type instruments to everyone, people sticking meat sticks through the window and lots of little kids shouting, “Mzungu, how are YOU?” Mzungu literally means white person.
Ugandan’s believe that all Mzungu’s are very wealthy, intelligent and beautiful. You will find that all the kids will know about two phrases. The one already mentioned and, “Give me money,” or, “Give me my money!”…
Another thing that I have found interesting to hear is that Ugandans tell their children that in England and especially London there is money lying on the ground that you can just pick up!
Colin’s house was very nice by Ugandan standards. He had an amazing garden complete with its own vegetable patch with banana trees, avocado trees, carrots, passion fruits and loads of other fruit.
We watched the football, Manchester United
against Blackburn. The whole of East Africa is completely obsessed with premiership football so it was really fun to watch the game with about 100 other guys!
On Sunday we went to lake Binyoni, which was about a two-hour trek from Kabale. We got a boat to take us to the island of Basharu, which was really nice. We had a good swim and a play on the rope swing and also enjoyed a very good lunch (chocolate pancakes!)
On Monday we went into Rugarama Hospital where Colin works. The dental clinic there is really well ran, as is the rest of the hospital. I was taken on a tour of the whole place including the premature babies that are on life support machines.
The dental clinic actually makes money even though it will only cost you around £2 to have a tooth removed. Extraction is the most common treatment and some of the patient teeth are in dire condition. A lot of them are very scared about going to the dentists because of past experiences but Colin is actually renown in the area and we even had people coming all the way from Rwanda because he
had heard the was a very good Mzungu dentist! The photo of one of the patients is of one man who was in a motorcycle accident. He broke his jaw in two places, and it was a clean break one one side. He had to have is jaw wired together and his teeth were all wired together with his mouth closed. He was unable to eat for 6 weeks, and as you can see has a near perfect smile now!!
Kabale was an amazing place, set in the mountains and compared to other towns/cities in Uganda small and very friendly.
I really enjoyed my time there with Colin, but leave for Katuna (border of Uganda/Rwanda) and then onto Kigali and Ruhengeri for the Gorilla Trekking, which I am very excited about!!!
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Judy McBride
non-member comment
Hi there Mzungu
well done Todd - can just see you trying to avoid all the beggars and walking off with your 20k bag - keep on walking Mzungu!! Lots of love Gran xx