Blogs: bus trip from hell + more

Been a bit behind on this, but power is very intermittent, 1 hour of power 6-7 of none then 3 hours of power, etc, so it is hard to keep up and since everyday is so full of things that are done it is hard to pick and choose what to write about, so ill just give a few specs of the week.

Earlier this week Adam and I were returning from lunch and were approached three girls from primary school during school hours, first question we asked was, “Why aren’t you girls in school?” They answered, “we got kicked out because we couldn’t pay for this term.” Conversation went back and forth about payment and then when finished talking to them three more guys approached us and asked us for help with the same problem, paying their school fees; when we finished talking to them another two approached us, then another 3 approached us. It was crazy because these people are asking for help with their school payments, payments that are like 10-30 U.S. dollars for the whole year. And with the first girls we talked to, it cost them like 30 dollars to send 4 of them (they came back the next day with a friend) to primary school which Adam and I ended up paying for them in secret (we can’t give the money to them directly because people here in Gulu will think that all white people will give out handouts). It just blows that people are just so desperate to go to school to make something of their life and can’t make the payments of 10 dollars to attend.

The weather here is crazy. Massive storms, it makes me chuckle to think back to southern California and remember if there is one single drop of rain suddenly the news is “CHANNEL 5 STORM WATCH 2006!!!” If they have half of what we had here they would have news for the rest of the year…so what does one do when it rains? Naturally we build a slip-n-slide and not just any type of slip-n-slide…a massive one 10 meters long. To help with the slippin’ and slidin’ just add a little dish soap to the tarp with about the 2 feet of rain and you’re golden.

This past weekend we had plans to travel up to southern Sudan, Juba and try to catch a glimpse of Kony (very very very rare that that homeboy would come out of hiding, being he is the numero uno in the LRA) during the peace talks, but there was a major risk with traveling up there on the roads, major major rebel action in northern Gulu and even crazy action in southern Sudan, but the chance to be in the midst of history was a good enough factor to try and make the trip. The day we were to go we read report that people were shot in the head on the same road that we were to travel the day before by rebels, so after much debate we decided not to take the trip, this was a bit of a disappointment, but I obviously understand the concern so we instead went down to Kampala and did a little of R&R. How one get down to Kampala when one does is up in Gulu? Take a bus there naturally…but this was a pseudo bus, try to picture something like a VW wagon; that is how we traveled. So that is cool and all, but the driver thought it was a good idea to put 19 of us in there at once, 8-9 hour drive. But that wasn’t enough, the driver was falling a sleep while driving, and some of the people at the front said that he was also drunk too and his driving skills helped this theory (stuff like there isn’t really closely regulated by the police, to think of it…what police?). We would make random stops during the trip to pick up more people and people would buy things from the car and put them under the set. About hour 3 into the trip I felt something feathery at my ankle but I just ignored it…30 mins later something basically attacked my leg…yep live chickens fighting at my feet freaking me out, but of course I couldn’t do anything about it because I couldn’t move due to the other 18 people in the car that kept my wedged in my seat. That was a lovely experience to have chickens freaking out under my feet for the next 5 hours and if that wasn’t enough, they stunk like hell. Other than that we hung out at Lake Victoria and basically just chilled for the day (it was worth the drunk driver, crowed car, long drive, fighting chickens, smelly chickens ride).