Coming to an End

Well, here it goes, my last blog entry from Uganda. Tomorrow, I leave peaceful and relaxing Uganda for the craziness and heat of Cairo. This entry won't be a reflection, just because I want to take some time after returning home to look back on my Uganda experiences. Here's a short summary of the last two weeks.

I traveled back to the Uganda/Rwanda border region to climb another volcano, Mt. Sabinyo. I absolutely love this region of Uganda, with the volcanoes towering over the terraced hillsides and villages, shrouded in mist. While not as high as the last volcano I climbed, Mt. Muhavura, Mt. Sabinyo has its own appeal. This volcano has three separate peaks, with the climb up one peak being steeper than the last. All three peaks are along the Uganda/ Rwanda border, and if you are lucky enough to reach the steep third peak, you will be standing in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo all at once! Mt. Sabinyo is one of only a handful of peaks in the world whose peak is at the intersection of three countries. How cool is that!

Despite being lower than Mt. Muhavura and the weather being much nicer for this ascent, this was a much tougher hike. Right at the beginning, I knew it was going to be an adventure. My guide and I encountered a lone male buffalo, which then chose to stare us down, huffing and puffing, preparing to charge. Of course our armed ranger (assigned to us for exactly this type of situation), was lagging behind and far from us, providing us with no safety whatsoever. After a long detour to avoid the angry buffalo, we regained the trail and began the long climb to the first summit. The climb became progressively steeper the higher we climbed. After arriving at the first peak, and then making our way to peak #2, we began the tightrope walk along the ridge to begin our ascent of peak #3. This section of trail was crazy, and very lucky for us, it was dry at this time. I'll come back to this part in a minute. The ascent up to peak #3 was vertical in many sections, requiring us to use the rickety wooden ladders to continue our climb. After some slow and deliberate climbing, we finally reached peak #3, and I immediately jumped onto the highest rock I could find, standing in Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC at the same time! It was an incredible feeling!

After savoring the summit experience for several minutes and grabbing a quick snack, we began the long descent back down to the valley. Going down the vertical ladders was much more difficult and sketchy than going up, and the slow drizzle of rain that had begun to fall didn't help matters. So here is where things got interesting. The tightrope walk along the ridge between peak #2 and peak #3 now became even more precarious. The trail here was only about 3 feet wide, with a fall of a few hundred feet off of each side of the trail. A slip off the right side would result in a long tumble through the clouds below into Rwanda, while a person slipping off the left side would find him/herself falling through the clouds into the jungles of Uganda. The trail had become very slippery because of the rain, and the thirty minutes or so of hiking along this ridge were pretty stressful and seemed to last forever.

Finally, the ridgetop walk ended, and despite a few close calls and a huge headache from having to concentrate so much on every single step, everything was okay. Then the clouds really began to open up and let loose a great downpour, absolutely drenching us for the next 2.5 hours of hiking down. There were several harmless falls on the muddy trail on the way down, covering me in mud from the waist down. It was an awesome hike, but I was glad to get out of the rain and into some dry, warm clothes.

I left the volcano region of Uganda for the crater lake region, where I have spent so much of my time the last two months, and where I have really become part of the community. Unfortunately, this trip could only last two days because of my quickly-approaching departure. It was great to see my friends again. The mood was definitely bittersweet. We always have a great time together, but this time the feeling was overshadowed by the looming question of when we would be lucky enough to see each other again. Life is so hard here and possibilities seem limited. It is impossible to even imagine what their lives will be like in a year, or two, or even three. Things seem to happen much more quickly here than back at home. I pray that the future is kind and welcoming to these friends of mine.

There were many emotional goodbyes during those two days, and I received many wishes sent my way from various people in the villages there, as rumors of my impending departure spread. I think this will be my last time feeling like a celebrity for quite some time.

Well, my time in Uganda and in Africa has come to an end for now. It is a sad time, but also an exciting time for me. I am extremely anxious to get back home to see my family, play with my dogs, hang out with my friends, and catch up on many things. The next week and a half will be spent traveling back home. My next entry will be a reflection, looking back on these special months I have been lucky enough to spend here in Uganda. That reflection will come after a few days of some serious relaxing and pampering at home:) Weraba (goodbye) from Uganda!

Slowing the Pace

Welcome back to Uganda. The last two weeks have been pretty low-key compared to the previous two, but there was still no shortage of fun. I traveled back to western Uganda to visit my friends and see my students again. Although I only got to spend five days there, it was still a great little reunion. The boys at the campground where I stay were eager to show me the improvements they had made in their swimming since I last saw them. I could immediately tell that they had been practicing what I'd taught them, and I feel pretty confident that the boys who were afraid of the water just four short weeks ago, can now safely venture out into the "deep end" without any supervision. You should have seen their faces beaming with pride!

It was also wonderful to see my students again. I was only present for two class days, but it was like we had never missed a beat. We resumed our math lessons, but I quickly found myself bored with teaching math, considering I only had a little time with them, so we ended up playing soccer instead. I also had the children teach me six of their traditional dances (if you're lucky, I might just show you when I get home:), while I taught them some American dance moves (crazy stuff, like disco, Michael Jackson, breakdancing, the robot, and some other personal favorites). I know I must have looked funny performing their dances, but there is no way that I looked as hilarious as they did doing the American moves! I will try to get a video next time. As you can tell, we had an incredibly fun time.

After entertaining a few invitations to have lunch at some of the homes of the community elders, I had to say goodbye to my friends and students. I hope to see them one more time before leaving Uganda.

Unfortunately, I also experienced something that I thought might come, but was hoping wouldn't. Since I made several donations to the school and started the livestock income-generation project for the school and community, people have looked up to me, almost like I have some sort of supernatural powers. This trip back to the community, I no longer felt like the people looked to me as a superhero, but rather now as a savior. It was a more uncomfortable feeling for me, as I know I am not that person. I was bombarded with inquiries about other possible projects and requests to donate more money to start up these projects. While the community would clearly benefit from some of these projects, the beneficiaries of the others were less obvious, and I believe people started believing that I would help them, personally. I also received letters from a few students, asking me to sponsor them and their education. I understand that the people are desperate and see me as a means to a better life, especially considering that I am the only person whom most of them have ever spoken to who makes more than ten or twenty dollars per month. However, it was difficult to help them realize that I am not made of money, and that twenty dollars in the U.S. is much different than twenty dollars in rural Uganda. It seemed to me that the community members wanted an immediate relief from their poverty without having any responsibility. They were somewhat impatient with wanting to wait to see the positive effect of the income-generation project I started. I respectfully had to tell them that I cannot donate more at the moment, and also had to tell some students whom I have grown very close to, that I cannot sponsor them. It hurt me to do so, but I also realize that I am not their savior and can't solve all their problems. This situation got me thinking though, if this is one of the main problems with Africa, and with developing countries in general--are they always expecting handouts to fix their own problems? It is a difficult and controversial question, and one that I cannot answer, but one that I think is worth thinking about.

You all know me--I never like life to be boring, and am always looking for my next new adventure. About 90 kilometers east of Kampala lies Jinja, the adventure capital of Uganda. I chose to get my adrenaline fix by going whitewater rafting on the Nile River (called the Victoria Nile here). The source of the Nile River is in Jinja, so basically I could have just continued rafting for the next few months, through the war zones of southern and western Sudan, and then through the deserts of Egypt, in order to reach Cairo, where I start my journey back home. I know I am adventurous, but that is just slightly a little too much for me to bite off at this point. Maybe someday though:)

This section of the Nile is rated a Class 5, which means it is pretty gnarly. Most professional raft guides rate this section of river as one of the top rafting destinations in the world, ahead of the world-famous Zambezi River near Victoria Falls. I happened to be placed with a group of four Chinese guys, whom I immediately started disliking. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Chinese people, but these guys really pushed my buttons. For one, they very rarely listened to our guide, despite the fact that they had never been rafting before. They were constantly yelling in Chinese, never wanted to paddle, and had some very bad manners. One situation sums it up pretty well: we were just floating in a large, flatwater area, needing to paddle in order to reach the next rapid several hundred meters ahead. After the Chinese refused to paddle, they asked if they could jump in the water to cool off. Our guide said that they could get in the water, but that they had to hang onto the raft because we were floating over a crocodile pool. Not only did the Chinese guys jump in and swim about 20 meters away from the raft, but they also took off their lifejackets before doing so. They refused to come back to the raft before swimming and splashing around. Now I am generally a nice person, but I have to admit, a small part of me (actually, a pretty big part of me) wanted to see a crocodile attack at that point. What can I say? I must be honest, right? Well, no such luck this time.

The river was pretty low after about a week of little or no rain, so the rapids and waterfalls we traveled over weren't as large as usual, but they were still pretty crazy and we ended up flipping our raft twice (awesome!). We also had to bypass two or three sections because only kayaks could pass through safely. Overall, it was an awesome experience. There was only one bad part-I got incredibly sunburned. I am always very careful with my sunscreen use (most of you know this), and this time was no different. However, at the end of the day, I found myself suffering with the second-worst sunburn I can remember. Like the worst sunburn I've had, I can only attribute this one to some crappy sunscreen I bought here that is obviously not waterproof (I know, I bought a French-made sunscreen, not Ugandan, so I thought I was safe; this is just one more thing we can blame the French for:). Unfortunately, it was a painful end to a fun day.

With a little over two weeks left here in Uganda, time is running out. I only have one more "big" thing planned in my time left, and that is hiking to the top of another volcano. Besides some shopping and a few goodbyes, relaxing and enjoying every minute here will occupy my time. So adios, ciao, arrivederci, do zobaczenia, a bientot, weraba, and auf wiedersehen until my farewell to Uganda.