Adventure time!

What to do on a day off in Kampala? Go to Jinja, of course!

On Saturday, Kirsten (another St. Mike’s student) and I were sitting at breakfast, talking about the possibilities of things we could do on our only free day in Kampala.  First we talked about maybe going to a mosque in the city where, for a small fee, you can climb to the top and see and amazing view.  But what about the rest of the day?  Or maybe we could go to Entebbe to see and orphanage that one of our professors knows the owner of?  Probably not enough information to actually get there.  What about Jinja and Canaan Children’s home? Perfect!  So we set off with Emily and the three of us bodabodad to the bus park.  That’s where our adventure started.

I had gone to Canaan Children’s Home in July of 2009 with the First Congregational Church of Litchfield.  Even though we did projects in other areas and traveled around a bit, the 11 other members and I always considered Canaan our home in Uganda, and that’s exactly what I felt going back.

Canaan Children's Home School yard, complete with new fun toys!

So on Saturday morning we did a little research in a Lonely Planet guidebook to know that we shouldn’t be spending more than 5,000 shillings to get to Jinja.  However, when the bodas dropped us and people quickly scooped us to the nearest Jinja bus, the driver asked for 20,000!  After intense bartering, we got to 10,000, but still, more than we wanted to pay (and good thing because we would need to save our money for later on).  We decided to then go find the taxi park instead.  Its funny because everyone knew we had no idea what we were doing, no matter how sure of ourselves we tried to look, and they would just scoop us and bring us where we wanted.  So this man with a trusty smile swooped in a said he would bring us to the taxis.  It ended up being just a couple streets up, and when we got there, he found someone he knew to bring us to the right section.  Best of all, he didn’t even ask us for anything for helping us.  It was such a relief to encounter someone like that in this city; it always seems like someone has a motive that’s with their best interest in mind.

So then this new friend brought us through these packed taxis. Good thing we had someone to direct us because we were weaving in and out of this huge park for about 10 minutes through  thousands of “matutus” until we came to the right place.  There, taxis and mini buses were fighting over who would get these three muzungu girls on their ride and we only ended up paying 7,000 (a little more than $2US) to go on a small bus.  Good deal!   There, they cram 5 people across a whole row with seats in the isle that fold down.  It was pretty crazy.  I had to close my eyes a few times because of how fast we were going on the road, thank goodness it was tarmac. 

Busy taxi park, too afraid to take out my camera so photo cred: chrisguillebeau.com

To avoid going all the way into Jinja, I kept my eyes out for familiar sights to try to remember the road that would bring us to Canaan.  Its funny how in three years you can forget so much, and how much a place can change.  However, when we crossed the Nile and stopped at The Nile Delight, I knew we had gone too far.  So we hopped out, jumped on some bodas, and told them to bring us to Canaan.  No problem, they told us, they knew the place.  However, when we started driving away toward Jinja, I started getting nervous.  Canaan is on the other side of the Nile, why were we going this way?  Maybe I was just remembering wrong.  When we showed up at a dilapidated house though, I knew this was not the place, so I directed them back across the Nile hoping to remember something when I got there.

Turns out, I was right.  We found another boda who actually did know the place and brought us there.  Once we were on the right road, it all came back to me.  It was surreal though how much it had changed. Canaan now has a huge new primary school built and so many new structures I hardly recognized it.  Once we reached the corner store, where we used to go for our daily snack of Cadbury and Coke, the only thing that stood in our way of seeing my Canaan family was getting rid of the bodas.  I’ve been here long enough to have heard some absurd prices, but never anything above 8,000.  Maybe not the appropriate reaction, but we couldn’t help but to burst out laughing when they asked for 20,000.  For a 15 minute ride?  After getting us lost?  No way.  I told them 4,000 at the most.  After arguing and arguing, it was clear that there was nothing we could do to get rid of them, so ended up paying them off with about 9,000 a piece.  It was ridiculous!

The new primary school at Canaan

But so worth it.  Angel and Ester scooped us right away and took us to Mama Rebecca at the store down the road.  It was so good to see her again, and to my surprise, she recognized me!  We chatted for a  while, got a tour of the new developments in the area, and just hung out with some of the kids.  Unfortunately most of them were off doing their own thing during the day so I didn’t get to see any of the boys that Emma and I had become friends with 3 years ago.  Angel did give me the low-down on some of them though (she knows all the gossip) saying many have moved away and started lives of their own since they are now over 18. 

Angel and me hanging out at Canaan!

It was funny to see how much Ester and Angel have grown up too in that time.  I remember them both being very quiet, serving us food but never really talking.  Now, it was almost hard to get a word in myself.  Ester is 18 now and taking a full course load of science and history classes this term in a nearby secondary school.  Angel 11 years old and is in Primary 5 (I got to see her classroom and where she sits) and isn’t shy to say what she’s thinking.  It was great to see that they are growing up to be independent girls.

Angel showed me where she sits in class

Sadly, we had to take off after only a couple hours, but Ester got us on a taxi all the way to the Jinja taxi park for only 1,000 a piece.  Then it was only another 5,000 to get to Kampala!  Much better luck on the way back.  Aside from traffic, everything went smoothly, up to the bodas who brought us back to the hotel.  When a man on the street came up to me and tried to convince me that I’m his girlfriend, the boda scooted away quickly to save me from an awkward conversation.

All in all, this was I think my best day on the trip so far.  It was strange going back without the group I was with last time, and made me miss them all even more.  I'm hoping we can all go again together sometime soon!

Check out canaan online at http://www.canaanchildrenshome.org/

Next stop, Rwanda!