So we all jumped in the truck just before 8:30am, cruised on down to the bus station, and found... well... not too much going on there. Seems all the big (read: safe) busses had already left. A mid-size bus was about to leave, but already full. That left one little matatu - basically a 15 passenger van. Not the most comfortable or reliable vehicles. But if we wanted to get back that day, that was our only choice!
Even in buying the ticket, the guy tried to cheat us - thankfully, Rhonnda was there to bail us out with Uganda Shillings. The ticket guy jacked up the price because we wanted to pay in the currency of THIS country! We climbed into the matatu and found two nice seats along the back bench. Everyone else clamoured in after us, and we roared off ... to the gas station. At the gas station, we witnessed a truck back into another, as they vied for a turn at the pump! Thankfully, no one hit us, and it was good entertainment to see how everyone tried to give their own version of what happened and what should be done.
Once we were all filled up, we went cruising out on the open road. The first big bump that we hit, I was rather surprised to hear a rather loud squack come from under Grace's seat. Who knew there was a rooster stuffed under her seat! I was too busy trying to keep myself from getting a concussion from bumping my head on the metal roof of the matatu every time we hit a bump, so I started to ignore the squacking chicken after a while!
There was also a nice guy sitting in front of us on the bus, thankfully, he wasn't sitting squashed on the seat right NEXT to me. He wanted to chit chat, and of course, had to ask me how many children I had. Silly me, told the truth... so had to suffer through his subtle proposal. It was one of the more clever proposals I've had, I must admit. He started off with, "You should marry a strong Southerner... then you'd have strong babies. And you should marry one from a tribe that's not hostile. You should marry a Kakwa... like me!"
We also had to make a few pit stops on the way. The first one was a smoke break so the driver could have a cigarette. It was actually quite a nice place to stop and get out of the van and stretch my legs for a few minutes.
The second stop was at an army post. There was a big general or commander of some sort in the front seat of the van. So he gets out, and trots off to some tukel somewhere, greeting all his buddies as he went. Everyone else, except for the one who asked for my hand in marriage who also happened to be a soldier (though he was wearing civilian clothes), stayed inside the van. I didn't think they would appreciate a couple of white girls getting out and checking out the army post... nor did I feel like getting checked out by all the soldiers who were loafing around! But goodness, it gets a little warm inside a van when you sit in the sun for even a few minutes.
At that stop, though, there was a little boy who was allowed out of the van to take a little toddle around. I was so impressed with this boy's father. He was a young man - one who looked like quite a fierce fighter type, wearing his wrap around shades and the whole bit. He was with a young woman, who looked very much like she had come from the village. The woman was holding a small baby the whole time. But I was really struck by this guy, because he was being so good to his family - he was helping the woman to hold the baby, he was helping to open the packet of biscuits, he was helping the little boy drink his soda. It struck me as odd because it's so rare to see a father taking such care of his family like that here. But it was refreshing to see that sort of behaviour from this guy, especially since he didn't really look the part. Perhaps I've been too hard on those young men that I see cruising around the streets wearing their shades and pretending to be so tough...
Anyways, after a little while, the general and the other guy came back to the van and off we went again.
Our next stop was when we hit an especially large bump in the road and nearly lost the spare tire from it's holder underneath the van. We all hollered to the driver, and he came to a stop... everyone piled out, and out came the tire inner tube to somehow fix the spare tire back to the van. Grace and I have started to call that rubber inner tube "African Duct Tape" because it has just about as many uses as our own Duct Tape does. It's truly amazing stuff. I don't even want to guess how many cars, trucks and busses in this country are held together by strips of tire inner tubes.
At this stop, I decided it would be a good time to run off into the bushes. I very carefully took off down the road, and around the next bend, hidden from sight from the van. I didn't want to go too far into the bush because of land mines, so I had to make sure I was around a corner from the bus so they couldn't see me...
But just as I was squatting, some guy came walking up the road from the opposite direction. I will never figure out why there are always people walking down the road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere in this country! But he saw me squatting in the bush, and he must have just been completely surprised to see a white girl squatting in the middle of nowhere that he just couldn't help but stare! Um, yeah, it was a little awkward as I finished my business and tried to hike my pants back up! He wasn't being nasty or anything, I just think he was trying to figure out how I had gotten there, since we were out of sight of the van that had brought me there, and there were no other vehicles in sight! I just ignored him, though, and ran back to the bus just as they were finishing up their repair job.
The next stop that we made was from a request from "my" soldier. Turns out his gun had slipped down underneath the seat, with all the bouncing around. So the lady with the baby was trying to juggle the baby at the same time as she was trying to fish this AK-47 from out from under her seat. Turns out we had to stop the van and open the door a bit to get the gun upright again! I really hope his bullets were in his pocket and NOT in the gun! Ah, you gotta love public transport around here!
With all those stops and so much good company in that little van, the 4 1/2 hour journey went really quite quickly! We were back in the city before we knew it. Kindly enough, both soldier boy and the nice father asked us if we needed some help getting to where we were going, but we were able to thank them kindly for the offer, but decline. The bus depot is within walking distance of our house, so we told them that we would be "footing" home.
I've never seen little Grace walk so fast as she did when we neared our gate! I think she was glad to be home! Or maybe she just wanted to wash the chicken feathers and Coke off her skirt and back pack (there had been a little explose
I was just glad to be near a real toilet and a shower with running water again :) The compound where we stayed was lovely and had great community... but no running water and only a single squatty potty! And here, to end this whole saga, is a photo our home sweet home during our trip.
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