Final Thoughts on Uganda

In my 3 months I saw pretty much every area of the country. The bustling capital of Kampala, Jinja where Speke found the source of the Nile, Mbarara (The doctor works here in “The Last King of Scotland”, Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls National Parks, Kabale and the beautiful Lake Buyoni as well as my home for 3 months Uganda Lodge in the village of Ruhanga between the towns of Itojo and Ntungamo.

I also met some wonderful people, with who I hope to stay in contact with and visit again.

Denis was the owner of the Uganda Lodge Project. Several years before, he had met Ann and discussed with her how he wanted to do something to help the community where he lived. He had some land in the area and together they discussed how to use it to increase the amount of Mazungus visiting the area and therefore the amount of money coming into the community.

After this discussion they set to work, first came the Lodge, allowing people somewhere to stay in the area, then came the school which was developing fast while I was there and then future projects including water supply to the homes in the village and mosquito net distribution for the district.

Zake was the first person I met when he picked me up from Entebbe airport. He always made me feel welcome whenever I visited Kampala, a true Rasta man with peace and love for the world. He also had land that he was looking to develop into shops, houses and also a farm that he was looking to develop for tourism.

Sharp was somebody that everyone liked immediately due to his permanent smile, relaxed attitude and great sense of humour. It was strange then when he described his days as a soldier, fighting in the Congo to help remove Miton Obote, who was president both before and after Idi Amin.

My best friend had to be Alex. When I first met him, he didn’t speak much English, he was 19 years old and wanted to make enough money from making bricks to be able to fund a mechanics course, eventually with the hope of owning his own garage. During his 19 years, he had never been any further than the next few towns, but when talking to him about traveling, you got the impression that he had a desire to see more of the world. When I next visit Uganda I hope that I can at least take him to see Kampala and hopefully at some point he has the opportunity to visit the UK and will always be welcome in my home.

Some of my saddest memories included the young children begging in Kampala, holding out their hand’s crying “Love me! Love Me!”, hearing of children dying of malaria, parents with HIV or being killed in road traffic accidents on the main road. There were several road traffic accidents which happened close to the Lodge while I was there.

I had many highlights which included Martyrs Day, this is a day to commemorate the slaughter of Catholics by the Bugandan King on 3^rd June 1886. Catholics from all over Uganda walk from wherever there homes to the martyrs hill in Kampala where there are days of religious ceremonies, dancing and music. Some set off weeks in advance because they have to walk the whole way, no matter which part of Uganda they come from. People now visit from all over the world and the current Bugandan King and the President also pay there respects by visiting. After Martyrs Day I was presented by one of Zake’s cousins with a Bugandan Royal robe.

Another was my birthday spent with 6 beautiful young ladies Helen, Catherine, Alison, Melanie, Alice and Kelly at the stunning Lake Bunyoni. Lake Bunyoni is the only lake in Uganda that you can swim in as it does not contain any parasities. As well as swimming we went canoeing on the lake which was actually more difficult than a little boy in a boat had made it look. Alison and me managed to perfect our stroke so that we were not always spinning in circles and eventually managed to reach a paradise like island in the middle where we recovered over a relaxing drink before setting back.

Also on both of my safaris there were many highlights. These included seeing Obama the young rhino, named because of his Kenyan father and American mother. The parents were donated from Disneyland and Kenya to help reintroduce rhinos to Uganda’s national parks, there are now 2 families of a mother and father and both have produced babies, Obama being one of them. The hippos visit to our camp at night. The time when as I came out of the toilet I spotted in the darkness what I am sure was a crocodile just 10 meters away from me, then for the rest of the night we could see the creatures eyes lit up by the campfire as it circled us. Also the tree climbing lions, it was incredible to see huge lions just relaxing in the early evening on a branch of the tree. As we were watching 1 with the window down so as to get the best shots with the camera and were just contemplating getting out of the car to get even better shots another appeared out of the undergrowth. She didn’t really pay us a lot of attention, just strolled leisurely up to the tree, started to climb and then find a comfortable branch on which to relax.

Each time I went hill climbing in the rolling hills surrounding the lodge, admiring the beautiful views of the small villages, farm land and matoke trees.

Visiting the dentist in Ntungamo having lost a filling and having it filled without having an injection, I think I made permanent marks in his dentist chair I gripped it so hard. Also the day that I had my hair braided by about 6 or 7 women, so of which were customers or just passing in the street!

My mattatu record, each time I used a mattatu (12 seater minibus) I would count how many people they would try to cram in. My previous record had been about 19 or 20, although I started cheating and counting children, babies, goats and even chickens. This one night though they managed to squeeze in 29 grown adults including the conductor who had to crawl in head first through the side window.

And finally the leaving parties including when the Lodge was turned into a nightclub and the leaving meal prepared for me by Alex and his family.

It was a sad moment when it became time to leave as my little banda had become my home and I had made so many great friends. However I new that there were a lot more adventures to look forward to on the rest of my travels.