Weekend in Entebbe

This weekend we made our first real Trip to See Uganda, and trekked back down through Kampala to Entebbe. Entebbe is just 45 minutes south of Kampala located on the shores of Lake Victoria, and was the British headquarters during their stay in Uganda ("entebbe" means headquarters!).

We traveled to Kampala Friday afternoon after working in the hospital in the morning, so we could spend the night there before heading to Entebbe with other friends Saturday morning. We surveyed everyone in Kiboga who speaks English about the best way to get to Kampala, and decided we should get on a bus (like a big charter bus or greyhound) that runs from Hoima to Kampala rather than take a mutatu (oversized vans than serve as the main form of "public" transportation here, both in the country and in the city. They have loose routes, and don't run them until they're crammed beyond capacity). We asked when these buses run, and where they stop in Kiboga, and could not get a definitive answer. So after we left the hospital and ate lunch we decided to go ask at the nearby police station because if anyone knows of an actual bus schedule, it would be them.

Side note: we're a wee bit afraid of police. They walk around with AK-47's or sawed off automatic weapons, we've heard countless stories of corruption, and we've been asked for bribes at multiple traffic stops.

At the police station a very nice police lady told us to just go sit under this tree with some 'boys' (men of 30-40), and they would wave down a bus for us. We tried multiple times to explain we wanted to ride the 2 o'clock bus, and would love to go to a bus stop if they told us where one was, but she insisted a bus was coming now that we should get on. We told her we had to at least change and get our things, so we ran back to our place to change and quickly pack for the weekend.

We hustled back to the police station within 20 minutes, and are again told the bus is coming any minute and to go sit with the boys. So we sit down, panting and sweaty, on the stools the men have evacuated for us, and end up waiting for almost 2hrs before a bus comes. Being told every 15 minutes or so that one is imminently arriving. Of course. We ended up talking to lots of police officers and police-associated people (detectives? accountants? no idea) which was interesting, and out of respect for us they changed the music they were blasting from their cell phones to dated American pop, so at least Britney, Shania, and the Backstreet Boys helped us wait.

It was good we'd waited at the police station, since when the bus rolled by it was full to capacity already. But since a policewoman waved the bus down it HAD to stop, and she intimidated the conductors into giving up their seats for us, so we got on! And paid the correct price! (Which did not happen on the way home :( :( despite our hardest attempt at bargaining they would not let us on the bus for less than 1.5x the price everyone else was paying...ugh. Mzungu tax sucks).

Anyways, all we did in Kampala was sleep and  stuff our faces with mzungu food, which was wonderful!

And Entebbe was gorgeous--look at the view from our hotel room! We stayed at a place outside of the main downtown area and north of the Botanical Gardens, so it was secluded and peaceful.

It was just across the road from the beach, which had several restaurants on it (that we of course stuffed our faces at later). Don't worry, we didn't go swimming--the facts about schistosomiasis were still too fresh in our minds.

We did LOTS of walking in Entebbe (probably a billion kilometers, however far that is...), and at first it was a million degrees and we were sweating buckets. Then it decided to rain buckets after lunch, but we walked on to the Wildlife Education Center, which is a combo zoo-rehab center. We are going on a safari in two weeks, but we've been in Africa for several weeks and we wanted to see some animals!

There were lots of beasties at the park, and they aren't as concerned with tall fences or trenches or anything, so we could get as close as we dared to most animals. Ostriches are big! And kinda ugly. I didn't get too cozy with him.

This nile crocodile was also pretty sweet (as were his friends). Thankfully we were up above them...on a rickety wooden bridge!

You know how at most zoos the wild animals are in enclosures, and then local animals like squirrels and seagulls roam freely looking for french fries and ice cream cones? Well this is Africa, so the local animals are monkeys. Tons of monkeys. Running around the park, hanging out in enclosures, hanging out outside of enclosures, having personal grooming sessions (or GYN appointments?) on every patch of lawn. We were careful to steer as clear of them as best we could, but local kids would run away screaming when they got chased or dive-bombed by monkeys jumping out of trees.

And even with all the lions and chimps around I still was one of the most interesting creatures at the park. A group of young kids followed us around for awhile until I stopped and talked with them and let them pet my arms and feel my freckles and arm hair (and laugh uproariously of course).

Other tourists wanted to take pictures of me and/or with me, because I'm soo exotic (this didn't happen to the other Americans with me). I told them all no, but I'm sure they snapped pics when I wasn't looking. Sigh. I wasn't even doing anything weird at the time, like hugging the GINORMOUS Elder Tree!

Since I can never get enough of lovely giant trees, we took the 2km route through the Botanical Gardens on the way back to the hotel, and got to see lots of awesome plantlife (that were labeled!) and more monkeys that would harass tourists and try to steal food. It's not totally their fault, since we saw some dumb mzungus feeding them out of their hands--we left before we were called in to treat monkey bites...

Back at the hotel we learned we were sunburned (especially me) since we forgot to reapply sunscreen after the rainstorm. It wasn't too bad (I'm already better!) and we went out for pizza dinner on the beach. We managed to eat two large pizzas and a garlic bread between the three of us, so clearly we were starving/really love and miss pizza. Mmmmmmm...

Sunday was mostly a fail day. Shalina and I tried and failed to find coffee in Entebbe (REAL coffee, not tinned coffee. We wanted cappuccinos!!) and so went back to Kampala to get breakfast. We went to a place we KNEW served espresso, but their machine was broken! Heartbreak. So we ate brunch and headed to the bus terminal to figure out when buses leave, which is when we got crowded by a million men yelling at us and got screwed on our bus tickets home. And since they lied to us about when the bus was leaving we sat on the sweltering bus for 90 minutes and were both pretty ill by the time it left. But we made it home safely in the afternoon, and took showers and naps instead of doing any work, so the day wasn't completely yuck.

I think we shocked the whole town of Kiboga last night though--it was POURING down rain from 5-730 here, and at 630 we were so starving we knew we just had to go out in it. So we put on rain coats, running shorts, and flip flops and ran through ankle deep mud and up and down the main road (surprising everyone out or on their porches) until we finally found a place that was serving food on a dark, stormy, electricity-less Sunday night. We are definitely the crazy mzungus in town!

Epic long blog post...that's what you get from a full fun weekend!