The Road to Gulu

The Road to Gulu 6/20/07

We got up ane jumped into the Mutatus for our 6 hour ride to Gulu. After breakfast my lunch was a can of Pringles and a box of Ginger Snaps. I was in the luggage Mutatu with Hadley and Lindsay our married couple. If you want to read their
Blog you can do that at www.henschels.blogspot.com. Again an interesting drive as we left Kampala on a semi-paved road, all along the way there were shops and people conducting their daily business, hauling everything away from the shops from 16 ft. pieces of steel to pineapples and everything else imagineable. The pedestrians do not have the right of way, and it is amazing there are not more collisions, but the cars and mutates come within inches of the motorbikes and bicycles. The other amazing thing is that no one seems to get upset over near misses. They just move along without anger or frustration. On the first part of the trip, we saw a few goats and cows with giant horns. On the last part of the trip, we saw the roaring Nile and just past there some baboons
sat by the side of the road to say hi. Along the way vehicles were broken down, and there was a truck with a massively blown tire in the middle of the road, and the ten men who were part of that truck were sleeping under the shade of the truck in the middle of the road. I do not think there is AAA or any assistance here, although I did see two tow trucks on the way out of Kampala. Amazingly the trip went pretty fast, although we traveled not only on the left side of the street, but also a lot of time on the right. And when potholes were a problem, James, our driver, spent a lot of time, driving on the hard red clay shoulders, as there were often the smoothest part of the road. Gulu is a thriving little city with a lot going on. We got directed to the IC house, by Phil who is a Science teacher in the first group, and Adam and Scott who experienced their first boda ride. I was then allowed to go to a faculty roundtable at Gulu high. Along the way, we smiled and said hi to children and adults along the way. I don’t know the language yet, so I said hi, how are you or Apwoyo (pronounced afoyo). I also met David, a Ugandan hired by IC who kept laughing with me, because I was a “man of large mass.” I was real impressed by the dedication and the thought that were given to their students by the Ugandan teachers.
After meeting a lot of new people, Danielle, Josh, Margot, Kevin, Scott (who just got back from a trip to the Congo) we settled into just talking. It was time to go get some beer, so Amy and I went up to the Corner to buy some Nile Specials. It was to be my first boda ride. There are many bodas in Gulu, and for 500 shillings, they give you a ride on the back of their motorbike. Somehow they were all taken, so we walked the entire way there, which was really only a fifteen minute walk. We hired bodas on the way back, and my first boda ride lasted fifteen feet as we kind of wobbled and almost crashed into a tree. Then all of the boda drivers came over fighting for a chance to take the “Giant American”. Cisto was my new driver and we got back to the IC house with no problem. But an interesting start. By the way, it looks like I will not have the bandwidth to upload my pictures, so you may have to wait. I have set my iPod World Clock to St. Louis, Kampala, and of course Buenos Aires. So I am thinking good thoughts about all of you. I also met Jamie last night who is here at the IC house until September and has managed to join the choir of the Catholic Church. I don’t think my schedule will allow me to go to Church with him this Sunday, I will be going across the street to Holy Cross.