Stopping for "Short Calls"
Trip Start
Apr 21, 2008
1
15
225
Trip End
Apr 20, 2009
Jinja,
Jinja,
Uganda
Sunday, May 4, 2008
My bus to Jinja had a planned departure time of 7 pm. I wanted to get to the bus terminal in Nairobi before the sun went down as the bus terminal is in a very seedy part of the town. I arrived at 6 pm and decided to just sit down on the floor by the ticket office. After about 10 minutes of me staring at the chaos on the streets, a bus station official suggested I go wait in the waiting room. I totally forgot they had one.
When I walked into the waiting room, there were about 60-70 Kenyans already there. In walks in this white piece of flesh. Again, no one really paid a lot of attention to me. I was disappointed :). Nothing more than a few glances. Instead, people were focused on the small TV sitting in the corner of the waiting room. There was some kind of long distance running competition being televised. People in the waiting room were cheering on as the action was being televised to them. After some races were done, most of the people in the room burst into applause. They were quite excited with the outcome of most races. I never realized watching long distance running on TV could be so exciting for some people.
Our bus left 90 minutes behind schedule. No big deal. Prior to boarding the bus, each passenger was frisked with a meta detector by the "bus bouncer" who would be accompanying the driver the whole way to Uganda. I later found out that this was a recent security measure introduced by the bus company given what was going on in the country.
When I arrived at my seat, I introduced myself to the guy sitting next to me. He ended up being a very nice guy and we talked with each other for most of the 12 hr drive to Jinja. Like me, he did consulting type work and was on his way to Kigali (Rwanda) to complete some work for the Rwandan government.
Getting out of Nairobi was a bit difficult. Lots of traffic. But once we got out of the city centre, it was smooth sailing for about 3 hrs. The road we were on was in great condition. For the rest of the way, the road was horrible. Bumps and potholes everywhere. Most of the time you felt you were on an amusement park ride as the driver kept weaving to the right or left to avoid the bad portions of the road. It was pretty difficult to sleep on the bus as you can imagine.
I couldn't see much outside as it was dark. However, I did notice police or military men with machine guns every few miles. I learned that the government had security across main roads so the public could feel comfortable about traveling at night (given the recent political situation). In fact, the bus company I booked with only re-started the Nairobi-Jinja night route on March 13. Prior to that, it was considered too unsafe to travel that road at night. Seeing the guys with the machine guns didn't make me feel more secure though.
While attempting to catch some sleep during the night, our bus suddenly stopped. I asked my new friend next to me what was going on and he said we were pulled over by the police. He said it was nothing to worry about and that perhaps the drivers would need to pay them a few dollars so we could proceed. It was taking longer than expected to "escape" the police. I asked if it was possible that the police come on board and question the passengers. I was told that they were not allowed to board the bus. However, 30 seconds after hearing that, a Kenyan officer boarded our bus and demanded that we all get off while they searched the inside. Furthermore, we weren't allowed to bring our bags with us.
When I went outside, I looked at everyone to see if they were concerned about what was going on. They seemed more annoyed with the police than concerned or scared. I asked the one other foreigner on the bus, an Aussie girl, about what she thought of this and she said she has seen it plenty of ties during her travels in Africa and that no one needed to worry. When the policeman was done searching the bus, he came outside as frisked each person as they entered the bus again. Myself and the Aussie girl were the last ones in line. When the policeman reached us, he just smiled and said "Good evening my friend. Just go inside the bus". He didn't pack me down or the Aussie girl. Things are different here. I was told that this was also a new security measure placed by the existing government to curb any potential violence as a result of the recent election scandals.
When we all returned to the bus, it was pointed out to me that the "bouncer" of the bus placed a huge piece of cement by the bus entrance to prevent potential undesirables from storming the bus. Nice! Why did I come here again?
We made frequent stops during the night so people could stretch their legs, buy food or make "short calls" as my Kenyan friend described. I assumed short calls meant going to the bathroom. After our 3rd scheduled stop, I decided to go make a short call. The bathroom facility was a cement closet big enough to hold two people. A drain was in the corner of the closet. You basically pee-ed against the wall and your output would find its way to the drain. I noticed that there weren't any facilities if someone wanted to do a number 2. I guess "short call" only referred to peeing. That was too bad as I really needed to make a long call.
By the time the sun came up, we were about 2 hrs away from the Uganda - Kenya border. It was beautiful outside. It was lush green everywhere. The earth was red. I definitely felt like I was in Africa now. As we were driving, we would see farmers taking care of their land, fisherman in knee deep water trying to make a catch, people riding their bicycles to work or school, and several people just walking to wherever they needed to be. It was awesome. It was the first best moment of my trip.
When I reached the border, I got my visa processed without any issues. I was really glad to see a bathroom though. Not the best toilet in the world but at that point any hole in the ground would have been find. Unfortunately, the guy running the bathrooms said he had a co-worker run out to get toilet paper as they ran out. So close but yet so far. I couldn't wait. I grabbed my Lonely Planet book and ripped out some pages. I knew the section on the Democratic Republic of Congo would come in handy on this trip.
After leaving the border, a man sitting on the opposite side of the aisle started telling me about Uganda. You can tell he was very proud of his country. He was pointing out things on the countryside, telling me about the history and a lot about the past government. You can tell this man was a well educated man. I asked if he worked for the government and he said he did for over 30 years. He worked directly for the Minister of Information and Broadcast. His role was to prepare media reports and communicate them to the people. He was also a foreign correspondent for ABC News in the early 70s - the Idi Amin years. Prior to me getting off the bus, he offered his phone number and email address to me. I took it. When I made it to the hostel, I googled him. To give you an idea of how interesting this man is, here is an article I found:
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-24919008_ITM
I may call him up when I reach Kampala if I have time. You never know who is sitting next to you on a bus.
I arrived in Jinji around 10:30. I was the only one to get off. 4 kids on motorbikes spotted me right away and rode over. They knew which hostel I wanted to go to - the most popular one in town. The problem as that I didn't have any Ugandan shillings or small US dollar bills. So they offered to take Kenyan dollars instead - which I had. They quoted a price of 500 SH. I did the math in my head that was about half a US dollar. Wow - these guys didn't try to rip me off at all I thought. I said yes right away. About 2 minutes into the ride, I realized I was using the wrong exchange rate. I was using the Ugandan exchange rate (1 US = 1700 USH) instead of the Kenyan exchange rate (1 US = 60SH). The ride was costing me 8 US dollars!!! That's a lot here. Especially for a 5 minute ride. To give you an idea how expensive that is for a motorbike ride, my accommodations cost me 7 dollars a night. Anyhow, I was already on the bike and I made the deal. The little bugger was going to have a good weekend with that money.
When I got into town, I immediately went to the ATM machine. I tried for 1 hour to get my VISA card to work. I was sweating as I kept getting Failed Transaction message. My friggin VISA card still wasn't working and I had no cash. It was a weekend so I couldn't even find a bank open to change my US dollars. I walked back to the hostel unsure about what I was going to do. Then I walked back to the ATM just to see if my regular Royal Bank card would work. Bingo!!! I was so glad to see those Ugandan Shillings come out of the ATM. I later learned that the bank only accepted debit cards and not credit cards.
After the bank, I decided to grab a motorbike taxi to go back to the hostel. When I reached the hostel, I asked the kid to wait outside so I could get change and pay him. I suddenly got into different conversations with people and totally forgot about the kid. I realized I didn't pay the kid about an hour later and I felt horrible. The kid must have went to bed so angry that night. It could have been the only money he made that day. I went looking for him a day later (apparently they all have their own waiting spots in the city) but didn't find him. What can I do?
Hy hostel is really nice. It is in a rural area overlooking the White Nile which is one of the beginning points of the Nile River. The hostel is owned by foreigners but they employ so many local people. Sometimes you go to other hostels and they only employ other backpackers. This is so much better. The local people accept you a lot more this way if your providing them with jobs.
Tomorrow I am off for some white water rafting. Supposed to be one of the best in the world. A little pricey but I wont be able to do this again. I will let you know how it goes.
Dino
Comments
Cheers!
Hey Dino - just letting you know that we on the floor hockey team are very much enjoying the blog. It was a main topic of convo at the team potluck. That and whether we should rename the team 'Dino Alien Baby'. ;-)
Nick