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A road trip through the streets of Rwanda

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And the story continues :)

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2018

Hey,

I was going to continue on as if nothing happened, but 2 whole years did go by. Nothing bad happened, just a lot! I wanted to properly process everything I experienced in Uganda and Rwanda and I want to ensure that what I share has context and comes from my heart. Also, I happened to take some very relevant and applicable courses both at Makerere and SFU so I am going to incorporate a lot of what I learned which really ties together what I experienced and how I understand it. I share this not only for friends and family to share my experiences but hopefully it can help raise some awareness, clarity, and understanding to a lot of the issues in the world that have not only shaped how I now see the world and society but on a very large political scale too.

My trip wasn’t all too serious and I had many fun and amazing experiences, which you will soon see, but I did want to make that statement as my commentary will come from a very political, public health, and anthropological perspective. I now can safely say, I have a degree in Health Sciences which is a very political and public-health-oriented field. So, that has led a lot of my position and perspectives on my experiences over the past several years. And overall, I am so incredibly grateful that I was able to absorb it all to the most of my capacity and I am so beyond happy that I got to live this, and I cannot wait for what the future brings!

Why didn’t I post as I was there?

Not only was the access to internet not the most reliable, I also had limited funds and had to be very selective on my limited data and how I spent it. I couldn’t just upload tons of photos and videos as it would use up all my data, and believe me, I tried and learned that real quick when I maxed out right away in the beginnings of my stay. A lot of my data then went into ensuring I was secure wherever I went, so I made sure I had enough data in case of emergency situations; a lot of it was used up in navigation and ride sharing. And a lot of it was used on my work, school and research projects. OK, and I must admit a lot of it was used on the rare treat of Netflix here and there. So rather than posting everything I had every moment I could, I wrote it all down and saved it to post when I got back to Canada. Ultimately, I collected a lot of thoughts and experiences along with those photos and was unable to give the time I wanted to explain and organize my trip to share with others. So, I had to write everything down and wait until I could make sense of it all. It took about 2 years for me to finish the rest of my undergrad, and here I am. Sharing the second half of my time in Uganda.

I hope I can share and convey as much as I can as if you were there with me.

Rwanda vlog coming soon!

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Murchison Falls National Park

Absolutely lush and thriving with wildlife. I’m very happy to have experienced this part of the country. Murchison Falls National Park is a major park in North-Western Uganda consisting of about 3,840 km² of land, established around 1952. It is currently maintained by the Ugandan Wildlife Authority and in my opinion has done a decent job so far. 

“Murchison Falls National Park lies at the northern end of the Albertine Rift Valley, where the sweeping Bunyoro escarpment tumbles into vast, palm-dotted savanna. First gazetted as a game reserve in 1926, it is Uganda's largest and oldest conservation area, hosting 76 species of mammals and 451 birds.

The park is bisected by the Victoria Nile, which plunges 45m over the remnant rift valley wall, creating the dramatic Murchison Falls, the centerpiece of the park and the final event in an 80km stretch of rapids. The mighty cascade drains the last of the river's energy, transforming it into a broad, placid stream that flows quietly across the rift valley floor into Lake Albert. This stretch of river provides one of Uganda's most remarkable wildlife spectacles. Regular visitors to the riverbanks include elephants, giraffes and buffaloes; while hippos, Nile crocodiles and aquatic birds are permanent residents.

Notable visitors to the park include Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway and several British royals.” - UGA Website

This is my video:

“Murchison Falls became one of Uganda’s first national parks in 1952At Murchison Falls, the Nile squeezes through an 8m wide gorge and plunges with a thunderous roar into the "Devil's Cauldron", creating a trademark rainbowThe northern section of the park contains savanna and borassus palms, acacia trees and riverine woodland. The south is dominated by woodland and forest patchesThe 1951 film "The African Queen" starring Humphrey Bogart was filmed on Lake Albert and the Nile in Murchison Falls National Park” - UGA Website

The Devil’s Cauldron

Now, in my next video you can clearly see the Devil’s Cauldron but I must also warn you, it is about 5 minutes of video footage of raging water. Watch part of it or all of it, if you’re into that sort of thing. I, myself, was completely mesmerized by it all and could watch it for hours.

And last but not least...

The Big Five Safari

“The park supports four of the "Big Five", only rhino being absent. Buffalo and elephant are particularly common. There is a very healthy population of lions that like to prey on the abundantly available Uganda kob. Hyena is present but rare but zebra is absent. The Victoria Nile is a magnet for wildlife and it teems with crocodiles and hippos.”

This was incredible! All bruises aside, (the road was bumpy, let me tell ya) it was absolutely incredible. Our driver took us on a tour throughout the park and we stopped by any animals that crossed our paths! We visited the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary where it is the only place one can see rhinos in Uganda. The grounds were heavily guarded by armed soldiers and any use of GPS or tracking devices was strictly forbidden during our visit. We hiked for a little while (under the blaring sun, I must add. Must’ve been 30+ something degrees...) through the bush and came across a few pairs of mothers and baby rhinos. It was awesome. And on a separate occasion, on the road to Rwanda, we came across some zebras on the road side. Here’s the video, and photos will follow :P

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Road Trip

Headlights flicker as the truck drives straight towards us head-on, full speed. Patrick swerves out of its way in the last second.

Patrick is by far the best driver I have ever met. He drove us over farms and state-lines to Rwanda and back over four days. He drove almost tirelessly over all kinds of road conditions imaginable; except snow, but I bet he could drive that too. I’ve been on my fair share of road trips. My mom and my uncles have taken me across the USA and Mexico both, and are by far impressive drivers. I have seen how exhausting long-distance driving can be and how much energy and attention it requires. But Africa seems to be a whole other ball game. The terrain is unpredictable and rapidly changing, not to mention the variety of people or animals that can jump on the road at any moment. Driving requires your full undivided attention and a second pair of eyes wouldn’t hurt. Throughout the weekend, we drove over paved and un-paved highways, speed-bumps in all shapes and sizes, constantly changing weather conditions, inclined hills and valleys, cities and road-side towns. Throughout the entire weekend, the shortest time he drove us was 2hrs to a memorial in Rwanda, and the longest he drove us was 12hrs on our first day from Kampala straight to Kigali. Patrick handled it all with ease but we could tell by the fourth day, it was taking a slight toll on him.

All of The Lights

“You’ve got to know that language to survive” he said, as he explained to Aaron the multitude of hand and light signals that composed the truckers’ language on the roads across Africa.

Aaron sat shot-gun throughout the weekend, and I must say although I slept comfortably well during the majority of the trip, Aaron got the best of Patrick’s story-telling and advice. I had major FOMO (fear of missing out) as my roommate Alyssa would say, but I am also thankful they kept each other company as the roads got tough. Luckily, the short times that I was awake, I was able to listen in or partake in some of their conversations.

In Uganda they drive on the left side of the road with the wheel on the right hand of the car, this practice was taken due to the country’s British colonization. As a truck approached us on our right, it flashed its headlights once and the driver made a hand motion beginning with opening his hand wide and touching all his fingers together, like a talking hand. Almost instantly, Patrick put his hand out and motioned with his hand as if he was horizontally slicing the air back and forth. Patrick told us that those who drive professionally, such as truck drivers, charter bus drivers, tour and expedition guides, they all have a universal language in which they communicate. The language consisted of combinations of hand signals and headlight flick codes. The signal that the truck gave us asked, “are there police on the road?” and the response Patrick gave meant “no”. Patrick proceeded to describe the possible responses such as the hand signal pointing straight to the ground indicating that the police are right around the corner.

Headlights flicker as the truck drives straight towards us head-on, full speed. Patrick swerves out of its way in the last second. We were all stunned at the event, Patrick didn’t even flinch. He turned to us in the back, smiling he asked if we knew what the headlight flash meant, we shook our heads. “Get out of the way, I’m not stopping!” Patrick explained how this language was incredibly helpful and essential for communicating with other drivers. As a Canadian, we would’ve probably expected the oncoming truck to immediately reduce speed at the sight of another on-coming car in the same lane, as well as moving out of the way, but in Uganda such expectations might cost you your job, or worse your life. The truck gave Patrick a warning that it was going too fast and was unable to stop or move so Patrick acknowledged the fact that his immediate response had to be to move out of its way.

“You’ve got to know that language to survive” he said.

 The Snake

“Did you see that snake on the road with its head cut off?” Patrick asked Aaron. He explained that here, when locals see a snake they often slaughter it and throw it onto the road for the cars to squish.

The Cows

We slowed down as we drove by a road-side town. There were a group of young cows crossing the road. As we approached them, they moved out of the left lane but lingered in the right. Patrick slowly drove past the cows, but before passing them completely he extended his hand out the window and slapped one of the cows on the rear to spook them off the road. TIA. Also zebras. There were zebras casually on the side of the road, video to come.

Starboy – The Weeknd

Patrick turned the dial to max volume as we all nodded to the rhythm of the bass. Replay.

 Smooth Transition

The Uganda-Rwanda border in the town of Katuna was… underwhelming. It did not look at all like any border crossing I could imagine. We parked the cars on the Ugandan side and walked to a small office building where we had to get our passports “Exit” stamped. Then, we walked down the road across into Rwanda and into another office to get an “Entry” stamp into Rwanda. Patrick got the vehicle checked and cleared and met us on the other side of the border to pick us up. We loaded up the vans again and were soon on our way through the land of a thousand hills. Everything seemed as usual, which is why Patrick’s next comment was unusual, “look guys, we’re driving on your side!” It took a moment for it to sink in but we soon exclaimed, “we’re on the right side of the road!” as Patrick laughed. We gazed in awe out the windows as we watched cars drive past us in the opposite direction on our left. It’s interesting how quickly in less than two months our minds had already accustomed to the left-side driving that when we realized we were on the right side of the road it felt unusually strange. Rwanda was already starting to bring us home.

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Murchison Falls

“ Uganda is the pearl “

- Sir Winston Churchill, 1908, after visiting and exploring the kingdom of Buganda  

 Bright and early we left at 7:30am. We loaded up the van and hit the road. 6 hours of bright red bumpy dirt road. I wouldn’t have expected 10 people to fit in one car comfortably for that long but we did and it was cozy. We drove up to a north-eastern part of Uganda, towards the Congo and South Sudan by a town called Masindi. We pulled up to the shores of the Nile River and loaded onto a white boat. The lower deck was open air and had benches full of people; we were the last to board. A few of us moved up to the top deck where we grabbed a few chairs and copped some good front row seats. We didn’t really know what we were expecting. The boat began moving and our Nile tour began. Under the blaring sun, we began to reconsider the open top floor but as soon as the boat picked up some speed, the fresh breeze soothed the heat wave. The first we saw were hippos!

One of the boat tour guides gave us a brief description of the animals we saw and odd facts here and there, but I think I was too excited and relatively far from him, to retain any of that information. They were basic facts, we’re not missing out on much, and we were all told to be very quiet as to not frighten the animals away. I do remember them saying that when the hippos get open wounds, they sometimes get so infected by parasites in the water that they end up dying from them. It’s not a very forgiving river.

The jungle was thick, lush and full of life. After passing a lone elephant, a crocodile and a plethora of birds I had never seen before, we began to approach the waterfalls. Now this, this was out of a movie. The photos barely do justice to the majestic presence of these falls.

We pulled up as close as we could get and disembarked the boat. We hiked up for about an hour along the river, to multiple unique viewpoints that all had their own way of taking my breath away. It was surreal.

The waterfalls on the left were formed in 1962 after a massive heavy rain season. They were named Freedom Falls as their formation coincided with the year of Uganda’s declaration of independence. The falls on the right are Murchison Falls. I can’t even describe the power of these falls and how it felt to be up close to them. Looking up and looking down, they have a majestic presence. I felt so small, insignificant. How quickly would I disappear if I even came close to touching them. Like magic, a rainbow glimmered as it hovered above them. Freedom.

We drove to the camp chasing the sunset. We arrived and settled into our tents ready for the next adventure.

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Beautiful girl, you can do hard things

As much as I love it here, it’s hit me hard some days. I’ve had the most unique and amazing experiences of my life here and this day has definitely gone down as one of my most memorable. I shadowed my roommate Alyssa for a day, she invited Aaron and I to come see one of her field days in the neighbourhood. We took a boda to Namuwongo and met her co-workers Teddy ad Victor who walked us through the Soweto community. Teddy is a librarian at the Namuwongo Community Library where she works with Victor who runs programs there with the kids. This day we packed a bag full of books and went into the community where they hold a school-like program for children who (for various reasons) aren’t able to go to school. Here they get the opportunity to learn to read, speak English, draw, play games and sing songs. These kids had so much energy and enthusiasm for learning, it honestly filled my spirits. I stayed and watched and played games and sang with them. I wish I could take their laughs home with me. During one of the readings, I sat outside and had a conversation with one of the staff members that run the program. I asked about the age and pre-requirements for the children to be able to assist this program, she said the children can be of any age, from infants to young teens, they come here to learn while the other kids are in school. They have almost 100 kids signed up, but this particular day only about 40 were present. I gazed into the tiny room. The wooden-boarded walls reminded me of the villages in the islands. This tiny room, with tiny chairs, no tables, no windows, but full of hearts and smiles.

I closed my eyes for a minute and was incredibly thankful that this existed, and that I was here, and that these people love what they do and that these children have such a place to go and do what children do. I opened my eyes and saw some of the kids (but not all) holding worn-out little notebooks and little pencils. I heard a baby’s cry from the back of the room and saw one of the older kids holding a baby and trying to calm its cries. I nudged at Aaron so he could see, what I assume was a sibling interaction. He nodded and showed me another kid also holding a baby. I looked at the group. The little group with little hands and little chairs. There was a girl in a blue dress, can’t be more than 5 years old. She was paying full attention to Alyssa and Teddy as they began an interactive song and dance. As the kids stood up and began the hand motions, this girl remained seated with her baby sister clung on to her body like a baby koala. She participated in the hand motions as much as she could, her tiny fingers barely touching as she tried to clap with arms around her sister. Her baby sister (must’ve been no more than 9 months old) fussed and although the lesson continued, she got up and carried her sister on her hip and respectfully stepped outside while her sister cried. I watched as she held her sister as a mother would, and caressed the back of her head in such a sweet way it even soothed me. I exhaled. Hadn’t noticed I was watching in such awe and admiration that I forgot to breathe. I closed my eyes again. I breathed again. I was thankful that these girls had each other. I was thankful for the girls’ parents or whoever taught her how to love. I prayed that even through the perils they might experience in this life, this bond that I have seen them build will not be broken. I have never had a sister, or a sibling, or a child. But watching them, I can say it moved my heart in a way that for that moment, I longed for a sister I never had, or even a child I have yet to hold. I sat on the ground and gave them a smile, the older sister smiled at me shyly as I motioned for her to come sit beside me. I wanted to help carry the weight of her sister who was almost a third of her size, so she could participate more in the lesson. As she approached me, her baby sister began to cry more so they turned away. Her baby sister trusted no one but the girl who safely held her in her arms and with her entire body.

I went home that day with a heavy heart full of love. I had remained cool, calm and collected throughout the day that I just broke as soon as I stepped into my room. I couldn’t help but tear up as I shared with my roommates about my day. I told them how those kids loved school, and how their parents wanted them to go to school, but money was a detrimental obstacle. Alyssa told me that often and especially in families with multiple kids (as most of them are here), the parents can only afford to send one child to school so the mother chooses the most clever. The most clever. How do you send the one that is most clever? What happens to the self-esteem of the siblings that aren’t chosen? I can’t say, but it’s probably the norm here so they don’t pay much attention to this life altering choice.

I told them about the sisters, and how in general, parents work all day and mothers can’t afford to take time off even for babies so the older siblings usually end up taking care of each other. In the sisters’ case, the oldest appeared to be a mere 5 years young.  

I fell asleep that night to the thought of a love as tangible as theirs.

^ This is posted on a wall at the Namuwongo Community Library where they are promoting gender equality and have a variety of empowering and inspirational posts all over the walls that show that women can be strong and successful

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Child’s Play

Hands up, on your knees. Like a scene from a movie.

Knees rough on the dirt, heads down.

What is running through their minds?

Pointer finger pointing at them

and the rest curled up in his palm

the other hand wraps around.

Hand gun.

He stands up straight over the two on their knees as they stare at his feet.

Execution.

We drive by, mouths hanging open

We don’t make a sound as we watch the children play.

It’s only just a game.

What did you play at the age of 8?

What did you know about guns and death?

Nothing.

I unintentionally wrote this poem as I was trying to write a new post. On the drive back from a day at a coffee shop, my roommates and I were awestruck by what we saw on the roadside outside our car window. Those mere 5 seconds kept replaying in my head and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. As I sat here trying to write about other days or other experiences, it kept replaying in my head like a vine loop. They were just kids. They were just playing. But what they were playing disturbed me and shook me to my core. Maybe I’m taking it in too deep, maybe I’m over dramatizing it. But what I know is that these kids could not be more than 8 years old and they were playing a game of massacre. They were playing with their hands and knees and nothing else. I just couldn’t stop thinking about what made them want to play like that. What kind of game is this? Where did they learn that? What life experience did they witness that eventually made them comfortable enough with that scenario that it turned into a game? Made me flash back to my childhood and question myself if I even knew what an execution was at that age, what it even looked like and even less, if I knew what it was to be on my knees with even a toy gun pointed at my head. I didn’t. 

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im not black so i won’t speak over y'all but i will gladly stand next to, behind, or with y'all. anything i can do.

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Today I shadowed my roommate Alyssa on her day with the organization Kid Central that works with kids from the Namuwongo slum; she interns in education and wishes to be a teacher one day. These kids’ parents don’t have the funds to send them to school so this organization provides them with activities, songs, dances, reading materials and tutors to give them an opportunity to learn! These kids had the biggest hearts and enthusiasm 📚📝 they wouldn’t let go of my hand and they definitely stole my heart

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Remember that crazy busy market I described because I thought I didn't have any pictures of it? Well what actually happened was that the market was so busy that I was filming while we walked through but I wasn't able to check if it actually worked. I thought I had lost the footage and I didn't have my DSLR so I was really disappointed about not being able to show you that experience. RECENTLY I actually found that I do have the footage!! So here it is :) enjoy one of the craziest businesses and products galore I have ever experienced! This is: Owino Market.

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Here's a little glimpse of culture in this beautiful city ❤️ Music: Indian Summer by Jai Wolf Camera: DJI OSMO

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Kamwokya, Kampala - Uganda

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The smiles of Kamwokya on an October afternoon 😬

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Today with Tackle Africa at TLC field in Kamwokya

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They asked her, "What is the key to saving the world?" She answered, "You. You are the key. Heal yourself, know yourself, make yourself whole and free. Release all limits so that your love can flow unconditionally for yourself and the world, this will open the heaven of your heart completely and it will guide you without fail."

Yung Pueblo | you are the answer

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Intro to Uganda - Part 3 (of 3) Last one of the intros, I promise :p this came late because I wasn't able to upload it on wifi before. Again, apologies for the jerky-ness, bare through it because I think the end of he video is the most interesting! Anyway, enjoy