Monday December 18: Jinja

On my first trip to Uganda, I visited the source of the Nile in Jinja. There, for a moderate fee, a motorboat will take you up the river and into Lake Victoria thus crossing the very source of the world’s longest river. I missed taking a boat that day because David, my co-traveler, was sick. Since, I haven’t had any cohorts who were brave enough to get into one of the tiny boats and head upstream against the stiff current. But Jim had agreed to go, and Jon was even showing interest, so today would be the day!

The day started out badly. Joseph had told us to be ready at 7:30. I had turned my alarm off when it buzzed, so I was just waking up when Jim knocked on the door at 6:30. I dressed quickly, and went across the hall to see if Jon had gone down with Jim. He was still asleep.

So I went down and had a good breakfast, got ready, and was downstairs by 7:40. But Vincent didn’t come. He wasn’t there at 8:00 or at 8:15. I finally called Joseph and got his number. Joseph said Vincent was on his way. Vincent confirmed this.

But it was still 9:00 before he arrived. He said he didn’t know Joseph had told us an earlier time. As we got in the van (yes, it was freshly washed, seats and all, though the seats were not nearly as bad as some times), Jim said something about his sunglasses. And I remembered that I didn’t have mine. It was a very clear, bright, equatorial day, so I hurried upstairs to get my glasses. The cleaning lady was in my room. I tried to ask her about the money and she got scared because she thought I was accusing her of stealing. I finally learned that the downstairs girl had worked for her on Sunday, so I went and found her. I thanked her and gave her 2,000 shillings for her honesty.

First, we picked up Grace at the church. Then, we drove across town to get Michael. Jinja Road was busy and we made slow time. After about an hour, we turned off north on a decent paved road. We were going to check on Mutebi, a teen who was struggling when we last saw him.

The drive to his place is incredible. The paved road goes through several villages and one that is almost a city. All were filled with shoppers. We also went through a swamp that had a small lake behind it. There was even an ancient bridge.

Then the pavement ended and we entered another world. The houses here are mostly mud and they are white on bottom and black or dark gray on top, or vice versa. There are many round thatched roof mud huts. As we drove further and further into the bush, we realized this area was even more remote than Mpigi!

We finally made it to Mutebi’s school where he had stayed during classes. The head master said he had gone home and he told Vincent where to look for him. He also reminded Vincent that Mutebi would need a new school next year because this one only went through S4.

We drove back to the last village, which actually covered the crossroads in all four directions. Mutebi came out of one of the small storefronts. The last time we’d seen him, he had a strange rash on his face. It has now turned into an infected mass that covers one side of his face and neck. It looks like a huge cluster of lumps under the skin and it is spreading to the other side of his face now. His father was letting him sleep in a tiny room in the storefront. He had a small cot and all his clothes hanging overhead. He had a piece of jackfruit and a popo on a table. The room was dark even at midday and it smelled.

Mutebi was worried and knew he needed a doctor, but he could get no help even though his aunt (Monique) runs a clinic. He asked us for help, and I gave him the money to get to Kampala later in the week. He said he would go to the clinic at the hospital and have them call us when they had examined him. He seemed very tired. He said he couldn’t remember the names of the schools he’d applied for next year. His friend, the headmaster at his old school had helped him pick. Mutebi has no one in the world. His mother and grandparents are dead. The father or uncle who is responsible for him ignores him completely.

While I was working with Mutebi, Jon decided to give out toys to the kids that had descended on us when we parked. A large drunk decided to help and he started slinging kids around while telling us all the kids deserved several toys and he deserved two for his kids. The group of kids had grown to more than 20, and when they charged the van, it was rather overwhelming. We finally broke free, and headed on to Jinja.

Vincent, of course, knew a back way so the drive didn’t take long at all. We were soon pulling across the Nile!

Our first stop was to visit Immaculate and her brother. Both have been with the project since its earliest days, and both have had very loyal sponsors. When Immaculate needed to move to boarding school because it was too far for her to walk each day, the sponsor stepped up and paid for her. Last term, we received a letter from her mother telling us Immaculate had a new sponsor and was leaving us. We asked Immaculate about this and she said she didn’t know anything at all. She is still in the same boarding school, but someone else is paying for her. In retrospect, I was a bit rude to her, but it is very discouraging when these kids leave the program for no particular reason.

From there, we went to visit the Garret’s two kids, a brother and sister who live in a large compound of mud and basic brick structures. The boy came rushing to see us, but the girl ran away and it took some time to find her. The rest of the clan brought out chairs and we rested while a group went searching for the frightened girl. She and her brother are doing okay, but bother were filthy and neither was wearing shoes. There toes were cracked and infected by the small worms known as jiggers. The boy climbed a huge tree and cut down two jackfruits for us!

Monique’s mother lives almost directly across the road from these kids. Jovan, the small boy we sponsor came to us at once. He was laughing and friendly. While we waited for Monique’s mother, I told Jon about our last visit here for the funeral of Monique’s brother. I told him it was a strange experience and we’d probably never see another one. Monique’s mother came out after a while. She was far from friendly, but at least cordial.

Samuel and Regan lived at then end of the road, but when we pulled in, we learned that their grandmother had died that morning. Samuel was visiting relatives in Kahmpala, but Regan was at the wake. A woman climbed in the van to show us where to go.

The house we were looking for was nearby, but it was a winding, twisty drive and it was good that the lady had come with us. We were given seats outside with the mourning men, a combination of old and young, Muslim and not. The brother of the dead woman was very kind to us and we sat quietly with them while women inside the house moaned and cried. Finally, someone came out of the house with the news that Regan had been sent to spread the news about his grandmother and wouldn’t be back for a while. We decided to visit our last Jinja child, then go back and check on Regan.

Mulondo Christopher has been in the program for some time. Our last visit with him was at his school where the head teacher asked our permission to keep him at his house rather than letting him return home. He said that conditions in the home were horrible, and Chris desperately needed help. We had said it was okay with us, so it happened without even notifying the grandparents where he lived.

We were driving on a narrow dirt road when Vincent suddenly stopped and turned the van around. We were beside a small crew cutting sugar cane, and I though Chris was there with them. When Vincent pulled off the road and onto the edge of the field, I thought he was parking and started to get out. But he yelled at a man who motioned him forward, but there was no forward! Ever since we began, Vincent has pushed on when roads became parallel tire tracks in the mud. This wasn’t parallel tracks. This was a single track, as though it had been made by a rampaging bull! There were places so narrow between towering trees that I believe everyone in the van would tell you Vincent can somehow make the thing bend!

We stopped at the terrible mud house where we first met Chris years ago. It was tiny and very dark. There was coffee spread on the ground drying in front of the house (which will make that Nescafe a bit harder to swallow tomorrow). A woman saw us and came out with a bench, which she covered with a robe. Then she brought out a small wooden chair, and finally, an upholstered chair that had no padding in it at all. The red vinyl covering hung in shreds over plain wood.

We took seats and waited while Jon gave presents to the collected kids. An elderly man came out and introduced himself as Moses’ father. He looked like Moses, and his English was perfect. He talked to us a bit, while Jon wandered off to watch them cut sugar cane. Michael came back with a bit of cane, and he proceeded to carve off a piece for Jon. Grace had a fit because she said this wasn’t the kind of sugarcane for eating. It was for processing at the plant only. It was too hard and it would cut. We watched Jon with anticipation, but he managed to eat without cutting his mouth!

Chris finally came in from the field. He was barefoot, and he also had a bad case of jiggers. He hasn’t grown at all, still very skinny and unhealthy looking. He is now 12, and in grade 3. He wouldn’t talk to us, he only smiled and nodded. He desperately needs a boarding school!

We checked on Regan again, but he still wasn’t back so we headed on (at 3:00) to Ling Ling, a Chinese restaurant in Jinja where we had eaten before. We took a table in the garden, and I proceeded to spill rice, carrots, and my Coke before all the dishes arrived. The food was very good, though my hot and sour soup had chunks of something orange in it and it left a bit to be desired! I ordered for us all, and all the dishes were quickly consumed. It was Jim’s first Chinese meal, and he liked it!

There was a functional toilet there, though there was no light at all, which made the process rather interesting. I can honestly say it looked no worse than any other toilet in Uganda!

The break did us all good. We were all very sleepy today, and each kept dozing off. But the food refreshed us and we drove along the Nile to view the waterfall. Although at $14 for all of us, it was a bit expensive, we felt it well worth it!

This fall isn’t a fall like the one at Niagara. Instead, it is a quickly downward sloping series of drops and eddies. As soon as we started down the path, a young man came up and wanted us to give him 10,000 shillings (about $7) for two men to jump into the falls with only yellow 20 liter plastic containers for support in the raging current. While we were arguing with him, a man jumped into the water and shot through the rapids. At one point, he completely disappeared from sight. There was a large crowd of Ugandans there and we assumed they had paid so we started snapping pictures. The man became very rude because he said we had been able to enjoy his man without paying for him. Since we watched, we had to pay 5000 shillings each! It only cost 10,000 for two of them to go together. We laughed at him, of course, but he followed Grace for a while fussing at her about how badly he’d been cheated by us. He never said a word to the crowd of twenty or more Ugandans who shouted and whooped as the man disappeared in the surging current. For what it’s worth, I did get a couple of nice shots!!

We stood and soaked in the incredible beauty of the falls and the surrounding brilliant green countryside. Two men in a row boat fished near the shore at the base of the falls. Another stood on a narrow spit of land and cast a net into the raging water. Another man came up and offered to take us to a part of the river white people don’t see for only 8,000 shillings each. He then promised we would be back to the shore in less than 10 minutes!

We climbed back up the steep steps to our van and Vincent drove us out as we’d come in. I kept an eye out for the guy who wanted us to pay him in case he tried to cause trouble for us at the gate, but he had disappeared. But I didn’t really watch all that closely because I was too excited about my upcoming boat ride!

The mouth of the Nile is several kilometers from the falls. Vincent took us back to the round about that is the entrance to Jinja and turned out toward the source. We drove through a well manicured park-like area atop a steep cliff with the Nile rushing by far below. When we got to the gate, they were charging to go down. I know what’s down there: the boats, a small Gandhi memorial because some of his ashes were spread there, and a restaurant. You are still nearly a kilometer from the mouth of the Nile and even though you are much closer than where we now stood, the view wasn’t much better.

So I handed the guy a 5000 note and he wouldn’t take it. I thought he was asking for correct change because at 500 shillings per non-Uganda and 300 shillings per Ugandan, we would need 2100 shillings. So I got into our change and gave him correct change. “Sir, I have no need for those small coins. The cost is 21,000 shillings. You must give me bills.” 21,000 shillings is about $13, and for that, we would get a little closer to the Nile, get a look at the Gandhi memorial, and be given the privilege to pay at least that for three of us to go boat riding. It had been a long day and I had already paid 21,000 shillings to have a scam artist harass us, so I was less than kind to the man. Vincent turned around and we pulled away.

So I missed my boat ride yet again. I know Lisa will not be the least bit disappointed because she has always been concerned that the boats weren’t safe. But I’ve scheduled a trip with Michael on the day after Christmas to cross Lake Victoria on the ferry and go visit Scovia and her grandmother!

I guess this was a pretty stupid call in the end. Neither of the guys had ever been to the mouth of the Nile and that IS a pretty big deal. The fact is you don’t get anywhere close for the money they were charging and the view from up above is actually more impressive, but I should have shut up and paid and let them find out all of that for themselves!

The ride back was very disturbing. Jinja Road has always been one of my favorite drives. There are tea fields and a bit of sugarcane, and there are incredible forests everywhere. Now, there are huge stretches of clear-cut where the government is giving away tremendous amounts of national park forest for immediate development. From what I’ve read, this development is to stimulate economic growth, but the raped land appears to be slated for more tea and sugar cane. Some of it hasn’t been reclaimed at all and only scrubby trees and grasses now cover huge fields that were home to towering trees and monkeys and all manner of other wildlife.

And the final straw: we couldn’t find mango juice anywhere on the Jinja Road. We ended up settling for water and Miranda Orange.

Back at the guesthouse, we were all amazed at how incredibly filthy we were! A day in the dust with it blowing in through opened van windows produces a level of dirtiness that is all but unbelievable. And the most amazing thing about it is Jon chews gum while he is riding in the van. The gum attracts and holds on to every particle of dust that enters his mouth, which is bound to be a pretty large number. I’m afraid he’s going to destroy his teeth from gnawing on the grit-filled gum.

I stopped in their room to download Jon’s digital photos onto my laptop. Tomorrow is there last day. The leave at 11:00 p.m. and I begin my longest stay as well as my first time alone in Uganda.