At the border

Monday, May 12, 2008

I'm writing this from a bus on my handheld Pocket PC at the Kenya-Uganda border. It has been important to me not just to "fly over" Africa but to be with the people, in their homes, seeing and experiencing their lives -- the joys and the frustrations -- from their perspective as much as possible. Buses are a really great way to get some of that perspective, believe me. You can't believe how bad the roads are. We've been rattling along for about 12 hours now on this bus, and we've got about 3 more to go. I honestly don't know how this thing is still in one piece given the kind of beating it has taken today. It's Japanese built, that's why. It's through the miracle of modern technology that I'm able to do this at all -- but I'll bet you're getting some typos with this one. It's dark, and it's bumpy here!!

Typos are the least of one's concerns here. A revolt on the bus against the driver last time we all hit our heads on the ceiling is a little more like where I am right now. I'm going to have a sore neck tomorrow, I'm sure.

We just finished sitting at the border for well over an hour, part of it through a downpour. I brought a slicker with me, but of course it's not in the bag I have inside the bus with me. We had to get off the bus twice -- once to go through Kenyan immigration as we left the country, and once a slow mile or so later, waiting in long lines of trucks making their way through enormous potholes with torrents of muddy water rushing through them at Ugandan immigration. I had to get a visa for Uganda, which was a surprisingly simple, non-bureaucratic process. The officer put one of those full-page sticker-type visas in my passport, filled it out, collected my fifty dollars, handed it back to me and said proudly, "Welcome to Uganda." No Homeland Security checks, nothing.

Back out into the rain to make my way across the huge potholes (fortunately I have some sturdy workboots on.), find my way to our bus, and wait on the rest of the passengers, so we can wait some more for all the trucks in front of us to move. Now we're on our way again, and the Ugandan roads seem to be a lot better than they were in Kenya. Well, the driver is driving a lot faster anyway.

The sun has just set, but I can still see the huts near the road amidst the banana trees while a beautiful sunset looms in the distance. We'll get to Kampala late, then an hour taxi ride to Frank's Hostel in Entebbe. A nice cool shower to wash the day's grime away, and then a few hours of sleep before our 6:30 am check-in at Entebbe airport fr the flight to Sudan with the NESEI folks.

Another day full of sights, sounds, and experiences that will forever be a part of me.

Note: When I pressed "send" on the above post from my handheld, nothing happened. Apparently, the miracle of modern technology is not a miracle at all -- it's all very dependent on electrons doing the thing we want them to do, which they did not do for me last night. My phone service is not working in either Uganda or Sudan as I was told it should, thus this slightly late addition to the blog. Turns out that that additional 3 hours to Kampala was more like five. The taxi we had arranged had left when we got there, and we had to go looking for one at midnight outside the Kampala bus station. The driver, though, didn't know Entebbe as well as he promised us he did, so we didn't get to our hotel until the middle of the night sometime -- had to wake people up to let us in, etc. We did get that shower, however. I said to Martin that a good shower after a day like that nearly solves all the world's problems. Slept like a baby.