I got stuck in Chabacuza and taxis were scarce. An hour goes by and a truck carry cows pulls over and asks where I am going. For the same price as a taxi I sit in the front of a cow carrier with a few others. As we drive by other trucks carrying bovine the driver slows, honks, and flicks his lights in a specific manner. Occasionally cow and truck slogans are yelled out the windows to fellow drivers in the night.

Taxis, Again

"The sign on the side of the taxi says "Licensed to carry 14 passengers"

A late night taxi road home made for a cramped ride when 25 people were in a 15 person van.

There are generally two staff in a 15 person van. The driver, who drives, obviously, as well as a second person who does everything else. Sitting behind the driver, they open the sliding door, organize passengers, look out the window to alert the driver either when to drop off, or pick up passengers, as well as deals with the money. The cabs go over long distances, and like buses in Victoria, the have a start and stop point, and the right cab gets the passenger where they are going. Distance matters, going from Village A to village B costs a certain amount, while A to F costs more. The taxi I take from Kyetume to Masaka generally costs 4000 shilling (I'm being overcharged, but as a mezungu it's to be expected). This is less than 2 dollars for a 40km cab ride. It costs approximately 15,000 shillings to get to Kampala, which is about seven dollars for a 4 hour drive.

When taxis are at over capacity people cram in beside each other, or in some cases sit on top of each other. I had a man behind me standing and leaning over me, while a person in front of me sat on the secondary worker. The problem I have with the taxi is that I am so tall that my head hits the ceiling, and my legs push into the seats in front of me, regardless of how I sit.

Nazareth

Sundays are spent at Nazareth Orphanage, which I've mentioned in earlier posts.

The children vary in age, but are all very excited when we visit. In addition to playing with them, the children are helped with homework, read to, and we play a number of learning, counting, and reading games.

One of the games consists of hiding bottle caps we've collected over the week. When all the bottle caps have been collected the children come to one of us, and count the caps they collected. As we arrived one child approached us excitedly to show the bottle caps she had saved during the week.

The children do not have much, and make do with what they can find. One child found entertainment with a stick and some mud, this I can relate to. Others played with wheels nailed to sticks. One toy was 4 bottle caps, attached with nails like wheels, to a cut up juice containter to make a vehicle attached to a rope. The alphabet poster on the wall has words, and pictures attached to each letter, but shoes is spelled shose.

There is a store affiliated with the orphanage that sells a number of African made products, as well as eggs that are produced at the orphanage by their chicken coop.

I intend on purchasing souvenirs for friends and family here to support the orphanage, for those of you interested in helping out the orphanage and receiving something cool feel free to message me on facebook (Gregory Forsberg) or my email at ( gforsberg@gmail.com)

Photos from this day start here:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=374524682570137&set=a.363651723657433.79688.235272539828686&type=3&theater

Homestay

A homestay is where a day is spent with a family and the volunteer helps around the house with chores, homework, whatever needs to be done.

The student I partnered with is named Kayesw Betty, and she lives in Bugonzi B. I had been in the are a few weeks before on an issue regarding a water collection system.

Each morning Betty leaves the house at 5am, walks two hours to get to school without breakfast. She leaves school around 5pm, and walks the two hours home.

From Kyetume we climb on a boda and drive over a dirt road that gets worse before it gets better. There are more holes, bumps, and gaps than there is road. The road eventually turns into a path, and my legs are so long that my knees are going through brush. Half an hour or so later the path evens out a bit and we arrive at her house.

No one is home. Mother is out herding goats and the grandmother is somewhere else. We sit down in the shade of the house and I show her photos of my family.

Jaja (grandma) Kabgera Elizabeth shows up and unlocks the front door. Inside two small calico cats run past us and then outside. There are two small couches and a table. A laminated paper with the ministry of Galilee hangs from a nail on the wall. We sit and Betty asks me to show Jaja my photos. She speaks Luganda, Rwanda and another language, so Betty translates as we flip through the photos. This was followed by a couple of albums of Betty, her family and friends.

At the end I gave her and her friend some native art design cards.

Two small children show up to visit. A book on Uganda is brought out and Betty explains a number of the photos.

The radio is turned on, but something is not working properly with it, so it is turned off. I then ask her if she would like to listen to some of my music.

Fast punk seems to hit a chord with them, Ugandan music, from what I've heard, is generally upbeat, fast, fun music.

Jaja then asks me, through Betty if I like eggs, and goes into the back. She comes back with two raw eggs to say thank you for coming to visit. I was quite touched.

Photos start here.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=374348279254444&set=a.363651723657433.79688.235272539828686&type=3&theater

Transportation

Walking

This is very common, people will walk long distances, with great loads of things.

Bicycle

Large loads are carried via bicycle, endizi, trees, jerry cans of water.

Boda Boda

A number of years ago an influx of motorcycles arrived in Uganda. Quick, and cheap they flooded the market. The number of traffic accidents due to Boda's are very high. Due to the sudden introduction most of Uganda's infrastructure is unsuited for them. Boda drivers are quite fond of mezungus and will stop pedestrians frequently to offer rides. It is important to establish a price beforehand otherwise it will be significantly more.

Public Taxi

This is the mode of transport that I use the most. A 15 person van that has up to 19 people in it at any given time. The vans have a alternating black and white square pattern to indicate it is a taxi. A brightly lettered religious slogan is usually seen on the top of the front windshield, with one exception. Chelsea FC. A hand wave from the side of the road is all it takes to catch a taxi.

When taxis stop in villages for passengers the van is approached by meat, banana, and beverage vendors.

Special Taxi

Unmarked, unlicensed cars.

February 25-March 1, 2012

February 25

There is no power, so I taxi into Masaka after hanging my clothes to dry.

As I get back it starts to rain. Torrential downpour for the rest of the evening.

February 26

We visited a village called Kajjalubanda to participate in a medical camp. The goal of the camp is to make medical visits affordable and convenient for those who need it in rural areas.

A doctor comes from outside, and volunteers measure weight, check temperature, record medical history, the doctor consults and a nurse administers prescriptions.

This is about 5 times cheaper than visiting a clinic or a doctor, not including the trip to town, this is also one of the benefits of having a clinic at Hope Academy available to the public.

A child, too small to ride a bike normally, puts his leg through the middle to reach both pedals, avoiding the seat entirely. Other children run by, pushing sticks with wheels screwed into them, while others use sticks to push car tires. A child kicks a deflated soccer ball, while another kicks an empty pudding cup.

February 28

Health camp at Bugonzi C/U primary. We drove far off the main road to speak with Primary 4-7.

Bugonzi B, we attend a village meeting regarding concerns over a planned water accumulation project. The goal is to build a water collection container in Bugonzi A to distribute water to the locals. The major concern was where the container would be located. The nearest water sources aside from this are a local dam, and a well, both located a distance away. In most cases in the survey I read most water is collected by younger, able bodied people, but in some cases children as young as five, or the elderly go fair distances to carry jerry cans of water.

February 29th: Aka Leap Day

We dug up the garden where we were building a kitchen.

I spoke with the Senior 1s and 3s about starting a year book.

On my way home from Kyetume a group of children had left school across the street from me, running across the street to catch up to me. They did not say anything to me at first, and because my stride is so long they had to run every once in awhile to catch up.

March 1

The morning's endeavor consisted of a trip far off the main road to build dry stands.

March 2

The driver of the boda taps the sticker of the Virgin Mary covering his mirror as he puts on his helmet. The road is steep and the dust cloud straight ahead gets bigger and envelops us. The incline turns from pavement to dirt and rock as the sunlight breaks through the bottom of the clouds. A gorgeous orange and pink illuminate the horizon as the driver stops in Chabacuza. A grey twilight quickly follows as I switch to a taxi.

I find out that the pig at home has been eating the baby ducks. There is now only 1 out of 8 baby ducks.