Murchison Falls

So I just returned from Murchison Falls. WOW... It was fantastic. I met some awesome people and I saw some AMAZING sights.

For those of you who are unaware I am not one to be speechless but really I don't know how to put the over all place into words. I can tell you some random things but the moral of the story is... I am very glad that God has an incredible imagination. How anyone could say that 2781 species of antelope all could live in the same place by evolution and each is the MOST adapted? That is just tom foolery. I am not here to argue with you though... that's your business not mine.

So I arrived at the Red Chili, the hotel/tour company I went with on Monday evening. The place made me dizzy. I walked in and it was mzungus from wall to wall. They were all eating and drinking and what have you... There was only one way in which this was slightly like my daily life of late... only about 5% of them were speaking my language in conversation amongst themselves.

I promptly retreated to my living quarters; shared with 17 people from Sweden who were leaving the hotel at 4 AM. That was AWESOME... then when I did wake up for real I wondered around awkwardly until the vans were preparing to leave for Murchison. We then left and in the bus load of 14 people the role call went as follows: 4 Germans (the two daughters had spent a year in Kumi doing missions work at a hospital and teaching a bible study), 2 French, 1 Norwegian (Doing humanitarian work mostly in Gulu, the area most hit by LRA), 1 Washington DC (doing AIDs testing in Mbale area), 5 Texans (their church partners with a feeding program, like an orphanage without the beds just the food, in Jinja), and one Iowan (I think you know about this guys shenanigans). The fellow who drove our tour van was Medi, he grew up in Jinja, has been driving these tours and does guiding of the Murchison falls tours for four years.

We there were 8 of us that hung out quite a bit of the time. Sarah from Norway, Thorston from DC, the Texans and I. We had a good time. My tent mate was Roger. He is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Archer City, Texas. We had some very good discussions at night.

We had some interesting encounters with tsi tsi flies. They hurt when they bite, not that I know first hand but that is the word on the street from the female type people who did get bitten. Medi told us that they don't cause African Sleeping Sickeness anymore. Thorston, Mr CDC himself confirmed that it had been 3 years since the last reported case.

I can't really describe seeing giraffes, elephants, antelopes, lions, etc. it was awesome but words can't really describe it.

The last day we went to the actual falls. It was fantastic. The falls are on the Nile. The river goes through a 7 meter hole. It therefore gets a bit excited as it does this. The water produces a rainbow or two. It was gorgeous.

We then came home. I think this is the lamest blog post in the history of the world.

In other news in the taxi to Mbale from Kampala I slept for part of the journey, and when I woke up the three ladies in the back seat were singing hymns in Luganda. It was pretty awesome.

To Katakwi and Beyond!

This weekend I went to Katakwi. That was an adventure. On Sunday I we went to a church about an hour from Katakwi by motorcycle. Robert drove us on the town PAG's motorcycle. There were 3 of us on it. That was cozy. When we returned to Katakwi we attempted to find a car going back to Soroti but there were none. So I rode a motorcycle for another 2 hours to Soroti. That was MOST fun. All this while I had about 10 kilos on my back. I was very tired and very dirty when I got back to Soroti, and Mbale. I then took a taxi to Mbale.

When I reached Kumi (just over half way back to Mbale) the farm manager got on my taki. That was quite the coincidence; of all the taxis going by she happens to find the one I'm in... ok no one else finds that interesting. I'll keep moving.

When we were about 15 kilometers outside of Kumi we came upon an accident. You see the remnants of many accidents as you move around, but this one was pretty fresh. We went by just in time to see a yong man's body being tossed into the back of a truck. That was ... abrasive to the mind... The farm manager had heard that the driver of the taxi had attempted to dodge a pot hole and the man was riding a bicycle and had also swerved and the two had collided. It is almost surprising that it does not happen more often. Sad day...

So about Katakwi...

This is the very edge of the Ateso area. This is relevant for a number of reasons. When the Lord's Resistance Army were doing the insurgency thing; this was the area that was hit. The LRA came from the north so there were more problems and things farther north but they got to Katakwi. They also border the Karamajong. In the past the Karamoja (and still some but it was worse in the past) would do cattle raids. I have mentioned previously that the Karamajong believe(d) that all the cows belong to them. Therefore if someone else has a cow they stole it from the Karamajong. So they would come and take all the cows, other animals, and what ever else they might desire and leave the people with nothing.

Robert (the student I was visiting) had to move because the place he lived was overrung by Karamajong. George William (resident of Kapalebyong, and I visited him a couple of weeks back) also spoke of losing all he had to the Karamoja. This is kind of a problem.... But they deal with it and move on.

In other news... Sara and I went to one of the lecturer's wife's schools this morning (Michael Nangi's wife Phoebe). That was interesting. She teaches P1... I think its P1... Anyways... Her students are ages 6-11. That would be fun... if she did not have 157 students in her class. That is just insane.

So we road bodas there. It was quite a ways... up a hill... a very bad road. I got a little nervous a few times. On a very steep portion my boda driver killed his motorcycle. Then it started to roll backwards. That was exhilarating, but we got there safe and sound. We then had breakfast at the guest house at the school.

The school was founded by Jews. There are still Jews there. Quite a few of them. They have an African Rabi and everything. When we were in the guest house -wow the biggest bumblebee (at least it looked like a bumblebee) EVER just took a vagabondage through my room- it was all decorated with Star of David's, all the door posts had scripture scrolls, and the people there wore yamakas. That was interesting to see. Then we greeted all the children in each of the classes.

That was interesting. You said good morning, and they all replied in unison "Good morning madam/sir" that was rather funny. We then sat in Phoebe's class for a while. She does have one other teacher helper person, but still that would be crazy.

Other facts about the school. They had 103 of the 157 students there today, and on Friday they had 98. Pheobe explained that it is difficult to get students there every day since they don't serve food there. They are there from 8 AM to 1 PM or 5 PM (I didn't really understood who stayed how long) and they get breaks for meals and for "break tea" but they didn't serve any. She also mentioned that students were more plentiful during mango season, because then they were more likely to find some mangoes to eat during the day.

I am leaving this afternoon to go to Kampala, and then Murchison Falls. This is the biggest game park in Uganda. I will be there until Thursday.