First of all, we hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and we wish you a blessed New Year, from Mukono, Uganda. How on earth did we end up here?
Allison has a special attachment to Uganda, after spending half a year there studying abroad at Uganda Christian University and her internship with Off-Tu, a home for street kids, in 2013. During this time, she lived with a Ugandan host family, and developed a special bond with her Ugandan mother, sister and two brothers. Henk had the privilege to visit them for a month at the end of Allie's time and also grew to love the country and our friends there. When we left, we had promised to try and visit if ever we had the chance in the future. So when Henk's study led us to Burundi, we determined to try our best to visit Uganda. The two countries are only a few hundred kilometers apart!
As we wrote in our last post, things weren't moving along very quickly with Henk's research, but logistical issues were finally coming together. Henk was anxious to start going full-speed with visiting the farmers' houses and fields and conducting interviews. However, in late December it was time for Christmas holidays and for two weeks, there would be no one at the office. We had few connections in Gitega or in Burundi for that matter and didn't really have a family to join in celebrating Christmas. And so we decided to visit Uganda for the holidays. We called our 'mama' there a few days in advance, and fortunately she didn't mind the short notice! We packed our bags, traveled to Bujumbura and booked a bus to Kampala!
Now, overland traveling in East Africa is not like an average road trip through America or Europe.
There are 2 public bus companies running directly between Burundi and Uganda: Jaguar and Gagaa companies, and everyone seemed to have an opinion on which bus to take. Gaaga has the main advantage of being faster (beating Jaguar by about 2 hours), but speed comes at a price: it has known several deadly accidents in the last year. We chose Jaguar, the safe, slow alternative, which takes nearly 18 hours to cover the 800 kilometers. That is - sitting 18 hours in a cramped bus seat with the aroma and sounds of puking, and windows which must be kept closed due to fellow passengers complaining of the cold (!!).
We were off to a good start early on a Sunday morning, and enjoyed the beautiful Burundi mountain scenery. The problems started at the border crossing into Rwanda. We had informed by the embassy and the official website that entry into this country would be free, but unfortunately the law had changed a few weeks earlier, without any warning or updates made to even the information board at the border. Now there was a 30 dollar fee for the transit visa, be it only for a few hours. We complained loudly and tried to consolidate our rights, but the border officials would not budge and were quite rude. When the equally rude bus driver threatened to offload our luggage and leave us behind, we finally resorted to paying the fee and getting on our way.
We thus entered Rwanda with a sour mood, and were hardly able to enjoy the beautiful scenery or appreciate the smoothly paved roads. In fact, we were quite overjoyed when we crossed the next border a few hours later and entered Uganda, and the roads which suddenly became terribly bumpy and pothole-ridden made us feel warmly at home. Even though it was another long 8 hours ahead of us, the anticipation and excitement grew steadily. When we finally arrived at 'home' at 1:30 in the morning, our mama and sister were still up waiting for us and it was a joyful reunion.
Naturally, Christmas in Uganda is different than at home. Instead of cold weather and potentially snow, there is the hot sun and a lot of dust. Henk missed a piano to play Christmas carols. Fortunately, he brought a guitar which was a worthy substitute. We brought a string of Christmas lights and bought a small fake Christmas tree at a local store. And together with our Ugandan family we decorated the room and gave it a cozy atmosphere. We enjoyed sitting together with the family singing Christmas songs, reading the Christmas story, sharing stories from the past year and watching the Chronicles of Narnia together. On Christmas Eve, we cooked some foods from home like mashed potatoes and sausage.
On Christmas day we enjoyed a roasted chicken Uganda style, which turns out to be quite the exciting process!
The rooster arrived at the house alive and well Christmas Eve, traveling via true Ugandan style compact transport.
Mama, with her kind heart, let the Rooster go free in the yard to enjoy his last feast of corn, before a night in the chicken house all to himself. However the rooster had other plans...
As we sat on the back porch peeling potatoes.....
Mama decided it was time to lock the Rooster up for the night...
however, it quickly turned into a game of cat and mouse as Mama ran around the yard chasing the Rooster. Before long, our sister Jenni joined the chase. For a few minutes Henk and I enjoyed the show as we peeled our potatoes. However, it eventually became obvious more man power was needed. And so Henk joined the chase. Not wanting to slow dinner down too much, Allie continued peeling potatoes and watched as Mama, Jenni, Henk and even Sam ran around the house, not two, but three times, chasing the chicken like a bunch of Wile E. Coyotes.
Taken and edited by Joa Matovu
Then the rooster made his ultimate escape into the neighbors' yard. Things were getting serious now, and we tried to close in on the rooster as it popped through the hedge. However, its strength, speed and agility proved too much for us. But the rooster's pride became its downfall. It spotted the neighbor's rooster, and the two "haantjes" squared up for a fight. As they jumped up in the air, clawing and pecking at each other, Henk was able to sneak up behind our distracted friend and snatch it from the fray. Its competition was over before it had truly started, and the rooster's fate was sealed.
Christmas morning, we awoke to the "cockadoodledoo!" of the neighbor's rooster who had come to our yard, hoping for a rematch with his new-found competitor. However, his friend did not return the call, as it had already landed in the cooking pot.
It was a good Christmas because we could share it with our family there, and we were even able to talk with our families at home through skype. For our host family it was also a special Christmas. We gathered that they had not done anything significant to celebrate it since the passing away of the father of the family 12 years ago. They expressed their joy that we had come and shared this time with them, and we couldn't have been more thankful for this opportunity.
