Lost (and found) in the middle of Uganda
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Kampala,
Uganda
Thursday, May 8, 2008
It has been an eventful 24 hrs. Here is the low down on my trip to Bussi Island.
I met Claire, the Aussie girl, at 9 am in the morning on Wednesday. We convinced a boda boda driver to take both of us on his motorcycle so we could save some money. The guy agreed and took us to the matatu station in Kampala for 5000 USH (3 US dollars). From there, it took us 2 hrs by matatu to get to a town called Entebbe. Once we arrived in Entebbe, we climbed into a piece of junk Nissan and headed to a town called Chigungu (I know - lots of transfer points for a 60 km drive!!!)
Chigungu was very slummy looking. We walked around and everyone was staring at us. I was a bit nervous but Claire has been traveling Africa for 3 months and she said this was typical. I was glad she was with me as she made me feel more comfortable.
What was strange was that there were no other white people in this town. If this was the town where everyone grabbed a boat to get to Bussi Island, where were they? We knew something was up when people seemed so surprised to see white people. I started thinking about the write up in the Lonely Planet book. There was a very brief write up about this island. I re-read it and it almost seemed like the writer himself didn't visit the island. All the information was very vague. Also, our Lonely Planet Book was now over 2 yrs old. Was it possible that the only hostel on the island was now closed? We decided to call the hostel from this town but unfortunately the number in the book was wrong.
To make matters worse, no one was able to give us a straight answer on how to get to Bussi Island from this shit town. The locals either didn't know or gave us conflicting answers. Fisrt we were told that the passenger boat would come at 5 pm. Then it was 4 pm. Then they said 2 pm. No one knew what the hell was going on in this town.
There were quite a few cargo boats along the shore. Some of the guys who owned the cargo boats offered to take us to Bussi for 30-40 dollars but we knew it should only cost 2
dollars. After 4 hours of being stranded in this shit town and being stared at by the people, one of the cargo boats agrees to take us for 5 dollars total. I had Claire to thank for this as she went walking around to see if any of them were going in that direction anyway.
We jumped on this long but wide wooden boat. We first had to visit another island to drop off some supplies. The island looked very poor. It amazes me how sme people are forced to live. After this stop over, we headed towards Bussi Island. When we arrived, we
were greeted my dozens of kids. We found out that we stopped in front of an orphanage. The people running the orphanage said that we were on thewrong side of the island and that we would find the hostel on the opposite side. So we had to gove our driver another US 4 dollars to get there as needed to buy more fuel. The other option was to walk 3 hours to the hostel but this was too much of a haul for us. Besides, it was going to get dark in a few hours.
We were finally dropped off in a small community on the island. Again, everyone looked very poor. We were told to follow a path and from there we would find the hostel. When I asked how long we would be walking for, I was told it would be about 10 minutes. Not that far at all. I was so glad that everyone knew about this hostel.
Of course, we walked 10 minutes and we were in the middle of the woods. Then we walked another 10. Nothing in sight. Then another 10. Nothing. We walked for about 45 minutes to an hour. Along the way we would see some Ugandan farmers. We would simply ask "Where are the other Muzungus (white people)?". They all would tell us to continue walking. Each time this was there response. This place had to exist.
I was really glad Claire was with me. I couldn't have imagined myself alone in the woods on an island in Uganda having no friggin clue where I was going.
Finally, an older man who speaks perfect english comes over to us and asks if we were looking for the hostel. We said yes and he responded that it closed last year. Oh my God! Why didn't anyone tell us along the way? It took us 8 hrs to go through 60 kms and now we had no place to stay. I didn't think it was an option to go back as we would be on Lake Victoria in the dark and that didn't sound too safe to me. Besides, there may not even have been a boat leaving until the morning.
Things worked out in the end. The owner of the hostel had a guard (regular civilian) looking after the place. Although the place was gutted, the guard offered us the floor. We agreed. We really had no choice. I gave him some money and he went into the village to get us some food which turned out to be fresh pineapples, bananas and sweet bread. While he went to get food, Claire and I put on our swim suits and took a bath in the lake. We were told that there were hippos around. That scared me a bit. My eyes never left the surface of the water as I was washing myself. It was a quick bath.
Once the guard (Tony) came back, we all had supper together. He was a really nice guy. Claire and I took turns asking him questions about the hostel and about him. At one point, I asked him how he met his first wife. He looked at me like I was an idiot and said "I just go to village and I find her." How easy they have it. When I asked him how he met his second wife, he just said "I just went back to the village and found another one my brother told me about". Good for Tony. Two for two.
After supper, we went to bed. Our bedroom was the second floor of the hostel which actually had no roof. Tony found us a small and very dirty mattress. It only fit one person. Claire and I had to make the best of it and squeeze in really tight. I know what you are thinking. There was no romance.
Thankfully, I brought my mosquito net, DEET mosquito spray and flashlight. They really came in handy. The mosquito net was great but I probably still got bitten about 50 times. I hope none of those mosquitoes were carrying malaria.
We got up at about 6 am. It was impossible to sleep with all the noise coming from the birds in the woods. Tony boiled some water from Lake Victoria and made us some fantastic tea. Shortly after breakfast, Tony strapped my backpack at the back of his bike and walked us to another part of the island where a boat would take us back to Entebbe. Along the way, people from the village would wave at us. Some would approach us and want to talk for a few minutes. Such amazing people! So kind and warm. The kids were excited about seeing 2 Mazungus. We were actually told that we were the first 2 white people to visit in over a year. The island really enjoyed having the hostel opened as many foreigners would but food and crafts from the people. More money was coming in for them. They were all really disappointed when it closed.
When we got to the shore, we waited about 15 minutes and some guy who owned the boat agreed to take us to Entebbe for 3 US dollars. From there, we took a matatu back to Kampala and then another one to our hostel. Our journey was finally over.
In the end, I enjoyed my experience to Bussi Island. We didn't do much once we were there but the journey turned to be somewhat fun and adventurous. I told Claire we were now friends for life after going through an experience like that together. What was next for us? We became facebook friends :).
I did get good news at the end of the day. Tomorrow was Friday and someone cancelled their spot for the Murshison Falls trip. I was able to take their spot which meant I did not have to waste another day in Kampala. So tomorrow I am off to my first African safari. I will tell you all about it when I get back.
Dino
