Down ze NILE

Yesterday night we got back from our one big excursion in Uganda — our trip to Jinja, the source of the River Nile. We thought initially it’d be just the nine of us American students, Divinity, Ibra and a Ugandan youth leader (Sarah) making the trip, but we were really excited (though somewhat skeptical) when we found out AGYA baby mascot Taata would be joining us, to celebrate his birthday and another exciting event.

Background:

Taata is a rambunctious but precious toddler who lives next door to the current AGYA house in our slum-like neighborhood of Nakulabye. He abandoned as a baby by his mother and put up in an orphanage. When he 6 months old he was adopted by a British family that was staying in Uganda, but 7 mo later they had to live and because of legal red tape they couldn’t take him with them. So they brought him to his grandma (the youth center’s neighbor) and since then he’s lived with her and the 3 other grandchildren she’s raising alone. Taata shows up at the center early every morning and stays all day to play with Shanita, the cook’s granddaughter, and the other neighborhood kids. It’s about as close to a real home as he has. Taata’s real name is Arafat, but he got the nickname bc he calls ever man at the center “Taata” (dad) and every woman “Maama” (mom), probably bc he doesn’t have either as part of his life, and is, understandably, confused. A month or so ago, Taata’s father showed up at AGYA to thank Ibra for everything he’s done for Taata, and told him he’d like Ibra and Divinity to adopt him. This week they decided they are going to, and Taata will be moving to the new house with them on Monday! KIND of crazy, bc even though Divinity and Ibra are getting married this fall, they are still very much our peers and the thought of being a parent at their ages (23 and 26) is KIND of crazy by American standards. However, they (and we) love Taata and want him to have the brightest future possible. He’ll probably be the first of many kids they adopt over the years.

So anyway, with Taata in tow, we left for the bus depot in Kampala bright and early Thursday morning. The bus/taxi park is the biggest in East Africa, and it’s CRAZY. There are no traffic lines or people directing traffic or anything — it’s literally just a big dirt lot where taxis and buses pull in every which way and hawkers run around banging on windows trying to get you to buy their wares. We found a bus headed to Jinja and clambered on board. We had to wait a half hour or so for the rest of the bus to fill (they PACK these buses… it’s so insane/not legal in America) and then we were off.

Leaving the city was really eye opening. Kampala and the neighborhoods/suburbs surrounding it are really congested, so our vision of Uganda thus far had been one of traffic-filled dirt roads and crowded slums overflowing with discarded trash. Once you leave the city limits, however, it’s a different Uganda. There are the same shack-like stores and markets and vendors along the road, but there’s so much more space and GREEN. We passed rolling pastures and fields of leafy banana trees. Most of us ended up dozing off to make up for the early morning, but soon enough we were getting nudged awake by Ibra to find we were crossing the Nile. We all gasped and clicked away on our cameras and appropriately pondered its importance in the development of human civilization. I mean, come on. It’s the freaking NILE.

The first glimpse wasn’t nearly the best part of the trip, though. After the bus dropped us off in Jinja, we commissioned a gang of bodas (eek) and took off on a motorcycle ride through the countryside to the source of the Nile. After a bumpy but pretty ride past fields and schoolyards, we pulled off the main road onto another windy dirt road. We got off the bodas and walked down a steep hill to the edge of the river. At its beginning, the Nile is wide and its current relatively fast. There are alligators and hippos further down, but here the current is too fast for them to hunt (sadly. I would have loved to see a hippo.) As we sat and ate a picnic lunch of PB&J (SO ethnic, right?) Ibra hired a boat to take us to the source. We all climbed in and started moving up current towards Lake Victoria. Along the river, we saw monkeys jumping from tree to tree, and even a Monaco(?) lizard — a beastly thing that kind of looks like a small dinosaur ie, AWESOME!! There were also tons and tons of different species of birds (straight up Lion King style). The boat finally arrived at a small island right at the mouth of the river. Here, the water bubbles up from below in a constant and purposeful manner — this is the SOURCE, the underground spring that feeds the world’s longest and most revered river.

Cool.

After that little pilgrimage, we headed out to our lodging for the night, a little camp by Bujagali Falls, these beautiful rolling waterfalls further down the river. Most of the rest of the trip was spent laying on the grass and watching the falls. The next day, we headed out around 3pm and got to experience 5 hours of African traffic. If you think the US is bad — try rush hour in a country without stoplights or traffic laws. We finally made it home late that night, and today it’s back to classes and hanging out with the kids. Tomorrow, we have our last Sunday meeting here, where we’ll present what we’ve done with our classes over the past 3 weeks, and then on Monday we move to the new house. In less than a week, I’ll be on a plane to Senegal and Part II of my epic African summer.