Ninasafiri : Hello Uganda!

Sipi Falls and Mbale

Arriving to Uganda included a whirlwind of events. After a long bus ride stopped short of the border, our contact, Rodgers, thankfully popped out of nowhere even on the Kenyan side a kilometer or so out from the border. Phew! We hadn't taken more than a step off the bus before experiencing the hustle and bustle of several locals competing to give us a ride to the immigration office. Rodgers instructed us to jump on a boda boda (basically a motorcycle taxi) and just like that I experienced my first boda boda with Corrine and our two large backpacks weaving our way through traffic as I couldn't help but grin by the freeness of it all! Weeeeeee!

Soon, after a semi hectic walk back to Rodgers car through crowds of people and tight walk ways with bodas streaming through (came within inches of being knocked over a couple times) we we were off into the night to Mbale from the Malaba border...one pot hole at a time. :)

Mbale Mbale Mbale - honestly have never felt so at home abroad in all my travels. Not even because of the city, but because of the people. Rodgers and Whinnie, a young couple with a new five month old baby, Divine Blessing, welcomed us into their home as if we were extended family and had a quiet way of making us feel like part of the household as we contributed with kitchen and water duty and of course, babysitting :). We were also greeted by Irene another young girl living at the Maple house. Just for info sake- Corrine helps work with the Maple organization and through her we have these connections and free stay in both Mbale and Lira in exchange for showing face at some of the savings groups. Maple works to build projects and groups in order to raise funds, create loans, and teach locals how to save and maintain money so they may start or grow their own businesses. They put on events like teaching women how to sew and even provided them with sewing machines. Really neat. I had the pleasure of accompanying Corrine on two village outings and interviewed groups on their Maple experience. All were thankful, warm and welcoming people who were almost as excited to talk about Maple as they were just to talk to some mazungus (white travelers).

Below: Some Uganda Faces :)

Rodgers, Whinnie, Corrine and I sat at the table and discussed our travels and thoughts for the next few days. Rodgers only 29 has this soft spoken, calm demeanor about him that reflects someone in their 60s while Whinnie is a little fire cracker, so confident and sure of herself and easy to laugh. Lovely people. We made a plan to check out Sipi falls, a three tiered waterfall about an hour away that Corrine got me really excited about. In the meantime, we were hungry and Corrine led me the half block from the house down the street to where a handful of small food carts waited on the corner...and there I was Introduced to my first chappati.

A chappati is really quite simple. We watched as a young man grabbed a ball of dough, rolled it out and put it on his frying pan. He used a ripped off portion of the flour bag, almost like an oven mitt, and pushed into the dough as he turned it around and around over the heat. The dough made of only flour, water, salt and oil turns out to be like a thicker but slightly crispier tortilla but better and its friggin addicting. You can also ask to have a Rolex - a chappati with an egg and vegetables (typically cabbage, tomato, and onion mixed in) rolled inside. Corrine had prefaced these amazing things saying she barely went a day without them when she was here three years ago...and I get why! They are sold for only 500 Ugandan schillings, equivalent to about 20 cents in the states (its about a 1:3000 exchange currently). We ended up having Rodgers show us how to make them at home and made breakfast for dinner one evening. There's this new song by Ed Sheehan called "shape of your body" that we played as we rolled the dough and laughed as we remixed the lyrics to say "im in love with chippatiiii"... yeah, we're obsessed. Rodgers chimed in too.

Corrine and I made family burrito bowls one evening and Whinnie had me sift through the rice.

Clockwise: Corrine, Rodgers, Whinnie, Irene, and Hyasinth at family dinner

The Maple House is small and simple but really all you need. The theme I have picked up from Uganda so far is that in general, people seem really happy and again, in general, have far far less than we do in the US. Whinnie informed us of a water issue they had been having so instead of using the shower she filled a huge basin of water each morning in the bathroom and we showered with buckets and used it to fill the toilet before flushing as well. I felt myself initially being a little disturbed by this.. but why! Because I'm use to my perfectly warm shower with strong water pressure at home anytime I decided to turn a knob? Because water access has never been a problem for me? I felt selfish and silly! These things clearly didn't bother them. Even when the electricity went out one evening at dinner, Rodgers just laughed and turned on his phone light. I ended up growing to enjoy the showering process and found cold water at the end of a day in Uganda was refreshing and the buckets so simple with little water wasting. I would watch Whinnie in the mornings fill the basin and put water on the stove to boil and then in the fridge for drinking water for the day. She would hustle around the kitchen unfazed as their chickens peaked in and out and baby Divine sat upright on her baby potty in their room. Super woman? I think yes.