Uganda has had a rocky political history over the last few decades, ranking only 154 out of 177 on the UN’s Human Development Index.  Once the rampant corruption in the government is curtailed this country is a land full of promise.  The leery citizens have suffered greatly and are only now slowly recovering.  As always keep informed on any changes in the political situation before venturing to remote corners or city centers of ANY country worldwide. 

Just as the poor youth of America turn to the military in an attempt to escape the helplessness of their situation, we were surprised to learn that thousands of young ‘mercenary’ soldiers from Africa are employed to fight in the armies of the United States.  We met several such young men who had spent 5-10 years training first in the US then fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.  Paid less and lacking benefits these young guys get chewed up and spit out, many suffering from the side effects of war.  Will the negative devastation of war ever become a thing of the past? 

Adding injury to misery, erosion from over logging, caused the side of Mt Elgon to give way near Bududa, burying hundreds in mud and causing 300,00 to lose their homes.  Instead of replacing forests with strong rock and dirt terraces for crops like in Asia, temporary gardens are scattered along the steep slopes, just waiting to be washed out in the next torrential rain storm.  With drought, natural disasters, hunger, poverty, unemployment, Aids, malaria, an average age span in the 40’s a way of life in Central Africa, it is common to hear people mourning the loss of a loved one.  Most stories are about how many family members have died of Aids.  Wooden coffins decorated in bright purple or black, some with intricate golden hobnail designs, line the side of the road; often transported on the back of push bicycles.  We were told that when the Aids epidemic was at it’s height, rows and rows of coffins marked the beginning of each town.  A sign of the times.  One of the first countries to be hit with the Aids epidemic the rate, thanks to education, had dropped from 25% in the 80’s to 4% in 2003 in Uganda. 

Unfortunately President Museveni and his outspoken wife, spurred on by their Evangelical Christian beliefs has reversed Uganda’s policy on condoms, pushing abstinence instead and the result is, not surprisingly, a rise in the infection rate to 6.7%.  With the median age 15 and a total destruction of the environment, this same administration is pushing it’s citizens to have more babies, resulting in an annual growth rate of 3.6%, one of the world’s highest.  Several educated young men offered a possible reason: “The  government needs a class of poor slaves to build the country, also if the people live in poverty they are more easily controlled.”  We were amazed at their insight. 

President Museveni has promised free primary education for all but still many large families can’t afford to even buy the notebooks or uniforms needed ($1.50 a semester) and 1/3 of the country remains illiterate.

Yesterday while riding in the back of a ‘saloon car’ (shared taxi) the young man squished in beside me shared that he was going to visit his 14 year old brother in the hospital, sick with malaria.  When arriving at our destination he received a call informing him that his dear brother had just died.  Death is a way of life here.  My tooth broke in Ft Portal and I made an appointment with the Head of Dentistry at the regional hospital.  After a delay of over an hour in his less than clean office, all the while sweating and gazing cautiously at posters of mouth lesions in Aid’s patients, I bolted upon learning from this head dentist that the sterilization machine for the hospital was broken.  What of the 60 plus patients lined up moaning with aching teeth in the lobby?  Possibly like the volunteer surgeon told us in his remote outpost hospital, “When the sterilization equipment fails, we must do the best we can; leaving the patients in the hands of Nature.  Upon returning to our guesthouse in Entebbe to make a quick visit to a reliable dentist, we learned that Irene had suffered from malaria while we were up north and the 2 year old baby of Diane had just died overnight from typhoid.  Few doctors are available and prescription drugs are too expensive.  The well known homeopath we got to know in Dar es Salaam claimed a 100 % cure rate for typhoid with cheap homeopathic remedies, after 20 years of practice.  Plus there is low priced MMS 1 available (see our Thoughts on Health page) if only the health education was available.  Even with education old superstitions die hard.  We were talking with 2 well educated young men when a mentally disturbed woman went running down the street.  They said convincingly, “Oh, she is the third wife of a man in town.  The other 2 wives cast a spell on her and now she is crazy.  Beliefs such as these are slow to change.  But they will.  Such hardships in life here.  The smiles radiate even brighter once we understand the realities facing Ugandans. 

Even with the above facts Uganda remains a safe country for visitors and promises to overwhelm you with smiles.  Very polite and genuinely friendly, these complete strangers will often greet you as you pass and even ask how you are doing?  Expecting you to do the same, often when you say, “Hello” you will be met with the response, “Fine”.  Show some empathy towards these wonderful souls and you will be rewarded ten fold.

Booted out of the SUV at Karenga, we stared at our surroundings as we were told that the bus doesn’t come until tomorrow through this dusty widening in the road.   Due to recent drought conditions it was one of the first villages we had visited in 7 years that didn’t have vegetables for sale – only onions and sweet potatoes.  It was a start.  Determined to let events unfold, I found Sabella and proceeded to patch together our cooked meal of the day.  With much ingenuity and scrounging we were sitting down to a tasty meal of boiled yams, beans, plus fried cabbage and onions.  We paid Sabella for her charcoal and left behind all the remaining food we had unearthed.  She and her 4 children were alone after her husband had been killed by raiders.  We were deeply moved as she offered that we could spend the night on the cement floor of her tiny restaurant if we were stuck in Karenga overnight.  She who has nothing was generous beyond words, while the well set “Christians” who dropped us off had forgotten the meaning of helping your neighbor.  Again are westerners here to teach or learn?   Eighty five percent of Uganda is Christian, with an emerging new culture of ‘wanna-be western’ church goers.  It is the land of the ‘Glory to God Guesthouse’, the ‘Lord’s Shepherd Butchery’, the ‘Praise Be God Cheap Shop’, the ‘Hope Driving School’ and our favorite ‘Miracle Anti Corruption Coalition’!   

We spent several days in Kitgum and Gulu, both towns looking like miniscule dots on the map of northern Uganda upon arrival but now seeming to be BIG towns compared to the places we had visited over the last month.  We were able to get to know many young victims of the violence hanging around the market, now living in safety on the outskirts of town.  Still suffering from the pains of recent terror by the Lord’s Resistance Army, it was heart warming to talk to optimistic townspeople looking forward to a better future.  A large bowl of vegetable curry and naan, prepared by a recent returnee from Hyderabad, India was just what we needed to put a wide smile on our face, in these sometimes disturbing surroundings.

Taking the bumpy dirt roads south through Hoima we arrived in the pouring rain and ran into our room in Masindi.  When the clouds parted we were walking down the road and someone yelled from across the street, “Are you from South Africa?  Would you like to share a jeep to Murchison Falls” We responded, “No, Hawaii.  Yes, we would.”  Scottish born Ian and Laura were public bus travelers on fast forward, chalking up countries they have visited, 180 to date.  We enjoyed their company and recent tales of western and southern Africa.  Benlo from Montreal, Canada rounded out the circus as we feasted our eyes on stately Rothschild’s giraffes, a crafty leopard, families of elephants and a cousin of the kob, definitely a prototype for a ‘Star Wars’ character.  The afternoon was spent boating up the Nile River surrounded by endless blobs of floating brown and pink hippos, crocodiles dozing wide mouthed in the sun, flocks of exquisite water birds and herds of elephants having a drink next to thousands of buffaloes and antelope.  Following chunks of foam upriver we heard the roar as the mighty Nile exploded through a narrow gap in the Rift Valley escarpment, plunging 43m below into a churning pool.  Uganda’s largest reserve has had many famous visitors over the years such as kings and queens of Europe, Winston Churchill in 1907, Theodore Roosevelt in 1909, and Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn while filming the “African Queen” in 1951.  The least appreciative visitor was Ernest Hemingway in 1954 whose plane clipped an old telegraph wire while flying over the Falls and cart wheeled into the forest below.  He and his wife were taken to Butiaba where their rescue plane crashed on takeoff.  Some trips are better than others!

From Ft. Portal we spent a day driving around with Jonathan checking out some of the scenic crater lakes in the area.   Lake Nkuruba reminded us of Puna’s Green Lake on the Big Island of Hawaii.  By minibus ‘taxi’ we headed west towards Lake Albert. No vehicles in site at the junction we finally climbed aboard the open back of a large cargo truck for a surreal trip in the wide open air through Toro-Semiliki Reserve (no charge) past antelopes, elephants, warthogs, baboons, and buffaloes.  Covered in dust, the road just stopped abruptly at the lake and Joseph found the Garden of Eden on the water.  What’s in a name?  Far from paradise, this secure compound was the lone hotel on the lake but oddly had only a cement wall facing the beautiful water view.  Without running water or electricity this small dusty fishing village was far from Eden, but an interesting place to walk the shore and observe the fishermen and throngs of water birds.                  

In search of Pygmies we jumped on a local minibus ‘taxi’ and headed toward the Congo.  Just past Semuliki Hot Springs, where the Semiliki River forms the Congolese border, extending over Congo’s vast steamy Ituri Rainforest, we were shoved out the door in the middle of nowhere.  Seems to be one of our favorite scenarios while traveling.  Following a dirt road through the forest we happened on the village of Ntandi; home of the Bakonjo & Amba people.  One km further (you must ask the way) is the shabby little village of the Batwa Pygmies.  Hunter gatherers of the rainforest, these tiny folk were only forced out of their ancestral forest homes into a village 4 years ago, when their home was turned into a National Reserve.  The Batwa are an extension of their natural surroundings, totally self sustaining and non aggressive.  They have much to teach about living in Nature, spirituality, family values and survival.  As man distances himself from our origin in Nature, love of money and aggression for gain surface.  Possibly this is why these marginalized tribes are looked down on and called lazy.  Take Batwa King Nzito, put him in a business suit with a brief case, a cell phone constantly ringing and working 50 hours a week shuffling papers and we would call him modern or successful.  How can we judge what we can’t understand?

Like all their brothers of the forest, animals, birds and flora with whom they are one; life has changed forever.  These strong small ancient inhabitants are to be admired.  Not wanting to impose we sat with the villagers, showing photos, blowing up balloons for the kids, looking over their pipes and musical instruments made from the forest.  One stringed instrument was being crafted out of a turtle shell, sinew strings and carved wood by the man sitting next to us.  Tiny 67 yr old, Asta Jona, a real character, never left my side, fascinated by her new ‘muzungu’ colleague, rubbing my white skin and soft hair.  All the women were thrilled as I handed out little bars of fancy hotel soap to take a coat of dust off.  I’m sure the kids screaming through their baths the following day were wishing it had been sweets or ‘bonbons’ instead.

They explained that the 10,000us each fee went towards food for the village and we gladly donated as they proudly did a couple of dances for us, spurred on by our moving and clapping.  I sat talking with the women as Joseph spoke to tiny King Nzito and his brothers about possibilities for change, now that life in the forest is gone forever.  They are very strong willed and determinedly chase missionaries away, knowing Nature as their God. 

As the Batwa Pygmies mix with surrounding tribes, the height of the off spring is increasing.  Only the elder members or royalty are still (PC) ‘vertically challenged’.   The same height standing as we were sitting one Pygmy asked, “Why are you so tall?”  We replied that, “God made people in all sizes to make life interesting.”  Joseph also gave them ideas on how to attract more visitors, set up a cultural center for education and to create awareness of their plight; making the tourists feel welcome and at ease being a main goal.  As with the Mountain Gorillas the Batwa Pygmies are nearing extinction.  Over a puff of ganja in their unique gourd pipes, they also discussed ideas such as growing crops to feed the whole village in the small center area.  Allowed to still hunt with their tiny bows and gather in the forest they need to supplement the villagers food supply.  Adamantly they stated, “We have never grown crops!”  We all end up doing things in life that are new.  We retold the wise words of Lao Tse to these brothers of the forest and Nature:  “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the rest of the world calls a butterfly!”  Ahhhh!  They understood.

And so it goes…………………………………..Next month tracking endangered mountain gorillas.  Until then lets remember that when change brings an end to things as we know them, it is really only the beginning of something new and exciting.  Thanks again for sharing this website with your friends.  We count on you to help get the word out what a great world we live in!  Keep Smiling!   Glad you stopped by.   Thanks for keeping in touch!  Take care!