Psalm 28:7: You-gone-da

(This post is super long. I apologize/warn you in advance...)

Once upon a time, I boarded a chariot led by a sparkling white steed to the land of majestic Uganda, the Pearl of Africa. The time was eight o’ clock in the morn on September the twenty-fourth when Sir Celestine of Kigali declared “Alas! The chariot doth appear!” We all boarded the chariot, and began the journey to the Nyabugogo station, where the Jaguar bus was exuding exhaust as it waited for us to check our luggage and find our small thrones. After the chauffers checked our ports of passage and billets de bus, the next leg of our journey commenced. When the sun was almost to the highest point in the center of the sky, we reached the border of the lands of Rwanda and Uganda. (okay, as fun as this was, I’m stopping now because I can’t give the full details of the story by talking like this.)

So yeah, at 11:30, our bus reached the border. We had two forms to fill out, one for the Rwanda side, and one for the Uganda side. Coming out of Rwanda was super simple, and then we took the short walk from one gate to the other, getting our passports checked on both sides, with tons of people along the road trying to get us to exchange our money with them. Once we were in Uganda, we gave them that paper and our passports, got fingerprinted, got our passports stamped, and then were free to get back on the bus and continue on. At this rate, we had been on the bus for about two hours. As we continued, we expected to be on the bus for only 6 or so more hours. And we really hoped it would only be that many, because our bus ride was a little bit on the scary side… Our driver was quite the speed demon. He loved driving fast, passing other vehicles, and he may have run multiple motos off the street. Our bus was really tall, so swerving around was a bit scary, and the horn had a few settings: normal, super beep, and a long one which had the song like quality of a merry-go-round and the sound of an old car horn. First I called it freight train that we couldn’t get off, but Mikey accurately described the bus as feeling like being on the terrifying boat ride from Willy Wonka. But, thankfully, we finally and safely arrived in Uganda at close to 9 o’ clock Ugandan time, so 8:00 Rwandan. Unfortunately, due to traffic and just a crazy ride and borders and everything, a supposed 8 hour trip turned into an 11 hour trip. Rough. We got to the Catholic guest house where we were staying, grabbed some dinner there, and headed to bed, exhausted after a whole day in the bus (most of which I spent sleeping…).

Tuesday, most of the group went white water rafting on the Nile River. As cool as that sounds- and by cool I mean terrifying because I saw the pictures after- for someone who doesn’t know how to swim, aka this girl right here, I didn’t think it would be a good idea. So the group of the 6 of us students plus two of our leaders were joined Mama Grace’s niece Stella and her friend Bobby to bring us around Kampala, Uganda for the day. Let me start by saying Kampala is insane. We live in Kigali here in Rwanda, which is the capital, and it is nothing compared to Kampala, which is the capital of Uganda. Kampala has people who sell things to you while you’re in your car stuck in traffic, which is often, and people are just everywhere, and it’s a lot dirtier than Kigali. There are also these giant birds that are everywhereeee called Maribou Storks and they are basically their equivalent of pigeons in the state. They perch in the trees above you and it’s incredibly terrifying. Kat, our SLC, described them as a mix between a vulture and a velociraptor. So anyways, we headed off to two craft markets: the first was with tents in a large lawn and the second one had like 40 little booth/garage type things. The markets were actually a lot calmer than the one we usually go to here, as people weren’t saying “Sistah, sistah,” and pulling you over to their booths. They also had a ton of really nice craft things, and I spent a whole lotta shillings (the exchange rate from dollars to shillings is 1 dollar to 2515 shillings, so everything sounded super expensive, but it really was really cheap). All of the things in the markets were super beautiful; I can’t wait to show everyone the things I bought! Then for lunch we headed off to a mall food court, and let me tell you, Rwanda had this food court thing figured out. You sit down, and all the places bring you their menus, and you go through and figure out what you want, and then it’s just like a real restaurant. It’s minimal effort, which is like the American way, so I really want this to catch on in the US… AND THEN WE FOUND REAL OREOS IN THE SUPERMARKET THERE! And then we went out for pizza and ice cream and went to sleep.

Wednesday we were in a big group, and we did literally the same day again. So, I don’t need to write about that. But that night we went out to a Mexican restaurant, where my food was so hot I burned the roof of my mouth and it blistered, and then we went to a traditional music and dance show. They had dances and songs from Rwanda, Uganda, and other African countries, and there was even a bit of a comedy show thrown in when the dances were changing costumes. The guy came up to me in the audience and asked me if I knew that I had a serious medical problem, and I said no, and he said of course, because you’re not a doctor! And then he shook his little maraca, and told me it was with my eyes, because I was wearing my glasses. The dances were so impressive and interesting, and there was one point where three girls were balancing 6+ clay pots on their heads as they danced! It was so incredible. They pulled up a bunch of people from our group to dance in between their dances, and then we all went up on the stage and danced at the end (where my wrap skirt fell down- thankfully I had shorts on underneath).

The next day, half of the group departed to their practicums in Uganda and the rest of us had another free day. So, we did the exact same day again (at this point I was having déjà vu… same markets, same place for lunch, same walk…). We arranged to have a taxi drive us to the market and then pick us up later, so at 3:30, we called Irene, who ran our guest house, and asked her to call our driver. 1.5 hours, 7 calls to Irene, 4 false alarms with other taxis, and about a million jokes and laughs later, Ben finally showed up. He was stuck in traffic, and it took us forever to get home. Unfortunately, we had strict instructions to be home by 6, and we left and got into traffic at 5, and still needed to find food. But Ben led us through back roads and squishy trafficked roads, until we made it through and he announced “jam is finished!” We let him know we needed food, and he stopped and ordered us Rolexes, which are capatti with egg on the inside. My first street food experience- and it was delicious. And only 2000 shillings! And then we saw cows walking down the street- #soafrica. We got home, only a little after 6, and packed up and headed to the bus station. We loaded up the same type of bus, where I had the unfortunate front row seat, which means my feet got stepped on and my legs got smacked as people tried to walk around me- key word tried. We left a little after 9 at night and reached the border at 4 am Uganda time/ 3 am Rwanda time. Probably one of the sketchiest/funniest things in a while. Don’t worry though- once someone said it seemed like a scene out of a zombie movie, we were sure to be on the lookout for them. We got back on the bus, after the border folks checked we weren’t trying to smuggle in any plastic bags, and headed home. We got back home at 6 am, and went right back to sleep in our beds, which was wonderful. And thus, the end of our journey!

Tomorrow, I head off with two other girls to begin my month long internship at the Center for Champions in Rwamagana, Rwanda, about 45 minutes out of Kigali. There I will be the Evangelism Intern, but it sounds like I’ll just be helping with ton of projects they need done. Simple version: Center for Champions is a program started for the street kids of Rwanda between the ages of 15-24 where they can live, get 3 meals a day, go to school, and be in a Christ centered environment. I actually go to visit the center a few weeks ago for my NGO project I was doing, and I’m so excited to begin my time there. I'll definitely be talking more about this and what is happening there in my next post. Prayers would be greatly appreciated, and I will be thinking of all of you in my prayers. Hope all is well!

The terrible Maribou Storks. I don't think you can understand
how bad they are because this doesn't show how long their
legs are or their long gullet skin thing.
But here's one perched in a tree.