FRIDAY JUNE 8: MPIGI

FRIDAY, JUNE 8: MPIGI

There was a lot of rain on Thursday, which meant mud, which meant washing the van before the day started which meant our team was a half-hour late. But we were under way by 9:40.

Joseph and Michael accompanied us on the trip. Vincent drove. Grace worked on school fee payments at the office. Our first stop was the downtown version of Hot Stop. I didn’t realize our friend on Jinja Road had been so successful that he had opened a second shop! The selection was similar to the other store, and our selections were the same: a lot of meat pies and samosas, a couple of cheese pies, and Ray’s unusual hot dog. David decided to live on Power Bars.

The drive to Mpigi isn’t particularly long, but it requires a drive through the incredible traffic of central Kampala. This is something that has to be seen to be believed. There is no rhyme or reason to the number of lanes going in a given direction at any particular point in time. Every 3 foot gap between vehicles is instantly filled with a pedestrian, boda-boda driver, or bicyclist. Sometimes, tiny gaps are filled with men pushing huge carts filled with industrial materials. Other times, they are filled with bicycles stacked fifteen feet high with material. And many of the pedestrians are carrying loads on their heads. The most amazing of these was a man last week that had a stack of boxes on his head that stood taller than he did!

So cars in all directions. Motorcycles, bikes, and people everywhere. And almost no horns. Almost every vehicle has a diesel engine. No emissions are properly controlled. So in addition to the visual craziness around you, there are the stifling smells of the market and the overwhelming smell of diesel. Everyone cooks with charcoal or wood fires, so that adds to the mix. And there is always more dust than you would expect in a dust storm.

In a word, crossing downtown during the business rush (which lasts all day) is a bit like trying to drive through a smelly three ring circus!

Mpigi is south and west of Kampala, exactly opposite of Jinja. The terrain is much more hilly and incredibly beautiful. The hills are a green that must be seen to be believed: pictures simply don’t do justice. There are flashes of orange and yellow among the trees from various flowering varieties. As you leave the city, roadside stands for fruits and vegetables begin popping up everywhere. Every single tomato is stacked in a unique pyramid shape with an extra two tomatoes on top. And potatoes are also carefully stacked.

We followed the highway along ridgelines which yielded sweeping views. We eventually found a school. We had 19 kids to visit before we reached the church at Mpigi.

The kids out here were incredibly thankful because their parents were far too poor to help them at all. At a boarding school, we met Pastor Jimmy’s children (he is the pastor of the Mpigi church). Both have been recently moved to boarding schools and both are prospering well in their new homes.

Again, the children were simply amazed by us. They wanted to look rather than talk. Some wanted to touch. A few wanted to try to rub the white off our arms. All wanted to laugh. All wanted their pictures taken. When we showed them our digital results, their laughter was the purest you can possibly imagine.

The end of the drive to Mpigi is a harrowing thing. The paved road gives out about 15 miles before the turnoff to the church. This dirt road is not well maintained and there are potholes which caused our team to actually crack their heads on the van top.

Suddenly, Vincent turns into a path that doesn’t look wide enough for two bicycles, and it quickly is evident that it isn’t! But that never stops Vincent. He follows the track through a swamp and through jungle that touches both sides of the van. The tiny road winds past mud homes where mothers and their children come out to wave. It passes small coffee plantations and banana fields. And it suddenly turns up at an angle that is difficult for the van even when it is dry.

But the end of the half hour off road adventure is Mpigi Presbyterian Church. The building sits about half way up a steep hill. Getting from the van to the church is tricky, and we almost always have at least one fall. But not this year! I even made it without a wipe-out!

The church was waiting for us, but there were only about 10 adults there. This is one of the great problems of churches in Africa. In these rural areas, there is very little turnout for church services during the week unless you are willing to pay for attendance. That is a disgusting idea to most of us, but there actually is some logic in it. Many of these people live hand to mouth each day. If they don’t work on a given day, they don’t eat. So if you take them from whatever it is they do (farming, selling, gathering) they won’t be able to eat that day. You either have to pay them or feed them or both or they won’t come. I have a hard time paying, so I guess I’ll have to live with the results we are getting!

The numbers were small, but the ones who were there certainly made us feel welcome. They had several songs, then David preached. We visited a little longer after the service, then climbed back in the van.

We planned a detour to the equator on the way back to the hotel. Mpigi is very near the equator. The road, however, goes through national forests and it takes a bit to get there. The road is lined with drum manufacturers and sellers, as well as more fruit stands. It goes over hills which reveal sweeping views of the swamps in this area, and it drops down into the swamps for close up views.

Finally, we reached the equator. It’s easy to see, there are two huge circular white concrete ovals, one on each side of the road. The ovals are set to look as though a line passes through them – the equator. It’s the only silly tourist thing I’ve seen in Uganda, and it is worth the detour. There are craft shops here and a place to buy sodas. You can make a picture inside the ovals with one foot in each hemisphere. Since there is one on each side of the street, there usually isn’t a wait.

The amazing thing is there is always a man there with three funnels. For about $5, he will show your entire group an amazing thing. He will walk a few yards north of the equator and show you the direction water flows as it enters the funnel. Then he’ll walk a few yards below and show that the water flows the opposite way in the southern hemisphere. Then he will stop on the equator and show that the water doesn’t turn at all right on the line. He showed us that he could move only about a foot and we could see the water start to turn in one direction or the other depending on which side of the equator he moved.

On the way back, we stopped and at a drum maker and Ray bought a couple of drums. David used the chance to pass out some crosses. It is amazing to sit and watch these folks make drums. They are hard at work shaving out the drum frame, stretching and cutting skins, and attaching everything in a way that produces incredible sound.

Vincent made great time going back, but it was still well after dark before we entered Kampala. We decided to go eat at our favorite place in Uganda – an Indian Restaurant on top of the Garden City Shopping Center. The center is four floors of shopping, and it is being expanded to more than double its current size. On the top is this restaurant where you sit under the stars and enjoy not only the view, but also some of the best Indian food I’ve ever tasted!

I ordered once again, and we had everything from goat to chicken vindaloo and even a shrimp dish. The food was fabulous and the company even better. And the cost was under $8 per person!

On the way out, we stopped at an ice cream shop and everyone had ice cream. I had a scoop of tuti fruti (which tasted like vanilla ice cream with fruit cake preserved fruit in it) and crunch (which tasted like ice with an unidentifiable crunchy something in it that one hoped wasn’t bacon).

Even though we had everyone’s promise that our bag would be back on Friday, there was no word from British Air. Our hotel manager got all involved saying he would take care of this for us because he knew the driver. Whatever the case, he didn’t get it done and we still had a missing.

That night, the mosquitoes were so bad in our room that we had to stop using the overhead lights. Instead, we set up flashlights in the bedroom and in the bathroom, and it seemed to work. There were no buzzers at all that night.