Wow! Has it really been a month since I have written? Shame, shame. Well, I have some stories to get off my chest before I finish packing for tomorrow’s flight to Mombasa. If I hadn’t already been burned to a mzungu-crisp by the Ugandan sun, I’d be warning myself to be careful of the coast’s beachy rays… but I’m jumping ahead a little.
Last Monday I set off on what became probably the best short trip I’ve ever taken. I woke up waaay too early (afraid to death I would miss my ride) to catch my 7 am Akamba bus to Kampala. After 13 hours of popping my endless supply of pumpkin seeds and shifting my weight around the largest, and somehow least comfortable bus seat I have ever encountered, I arrived in Kampala around 8 pm. Within five minutes of getting off the bus, I had been reunited (involving much jumping and screeching) with Gennie, had met another volunteer with KACCAD (please don’t ask me what it stands for), Lori, and was on the back of a boda-boda, being whisked through town to the New Taxi Park. Yes, all of a sudden I was riding my first motorcycle, chatting with the driver over his shoulder about the upcoming election (never a dull topic if you’re an American traveling in East Africa). After a long taxi (or rather legitimized matatu) ride spent catching up with Gennie, we arrived in Bulenga, I met the other volunteers, and settled down on a foam mattress on the floor of the tiny room the four girls occupied.
The next few days I visited two schools with Gennie and other KACCAD members (including a Peace Corps dude), where I saw the “tippy-taps” they had built for handwashing, the murals they had painted for HIV/AIDS and health awareness, and participated (minimally) in a lecture on first aid. The second school we visited, Gennie and Lori facilitated a handwashing experiment and then answered questions about health, HIV, safe sex, etc. That class gave me the Lugandan name Namubiru, which apparently means “longfish.” Shveet. Gennie already had the name Nasolo, which I think means princess of the lion tribe or something equally awesome.
When I didn’t tag along with Gennie on her school visits, I hung around the KACCAD compound studying my GVI training manual. Funny story: I came to Kenya with the 2006 training manual, which GVI had sent to me in August, claiming it was the most recent copy. Turns out about 3 weeks ago, I get an email saying that my training manual should be the 2008 copy. Grrrreat! So I get emailed the new version, get all 79 pages printed at Sarit Centre, and read the whole thing in Uganda. In the first week or so of my Global Vision International program on the coast (specifically on Wasini Island in the Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Protected Area) I am going to be tested on my ability to identify and differentiate 8 dolphin species, 5 sea turtle species, 6 primate species, 13 avian species groups, and 6 Lepidopteran (butterfly and moth) species. I also have to understand the basic survey procedures GVI utilizes in the Kisite-Mpunguti MPA. I’m so excited, but a little nervous at the same time.
Halloween was eventful. We ate candy and watched Little Miss Sunshine.
Now, the morning after Halloween, Gennie, the three other volunteers, and I set off early for Jinja, which is the small-ish city at the source of the Nile River on Lake Victoria. By 10 a.m. we were clad in life jackets, helmets, and not nearly enough sunscreen, and floating down the Nile in a big red raft with Ben (the British geophysicist), Janet (the American who was not as succinct in describing her line of work), and Jesse the Australian, our Nile River Explorers rafting guide. We were on the Nile until 5 p.m., braving Class Five rapids (including a 4-meter waterfall), lunching on pineapple (YUM) and biscuits whose wrapper had a picture of Gennie’s 5-year-old doppelganger on it, capsizing and flipping, getting burned by the sun and battered by the water (and in my case, beaten smack on the nose by a stray paddle). I still have a bit of a bruise from that incident, actually, although I like it because I almost look like I’ve been in a fight.
OK… I think I’ve scared you enough. I need to stop procrastinating this packing job.
Will finish my Ugandan tales soon. :)
