After dancing the night away for my "host mom's" 34th birthday celebration (i decided it was a good idea to stay up all night and then hop on my 5 am bus) i spent a lovely 9 hours on the bus to uganda. some gems of the trip that cannot go unrecorded include the following:
1. I was told Jaguar was the premier bus to take to uganda. So i was expecting a greyhound with maybe a slightly older decor. I was not expecting 12 inch seat allocations, sans bathroom, an older man next who repeatedly spit on the floor 2 inches from my flip flops, or the women sharing her seat or rather my seat with me continuously falling asleep on my shoulder.
2. The 70 man in front of me reading in an english newspaper and article entitled, "how to give your woman the ultimate orgasm." Not bad for a country with a history of Female Genital Cutting.
3. The toothless "doctor" with a kermit-esque monologue who spent the last hour of the ride pacing up and down the bus selling such useful remedies from anything for headaches, to worms, to some sort of stomach remedy that he gave to the woman across the aisle from me who was quietly vomiting into a bag. (!!) It involved rubbing a chap stick type liquid on her palm and her licking it. Pleased to report it seemed to work, but was i a little concerned when the woman next to me bought the worm pills. (how's that for a squeamish public health practitioner. but in my defense, she was taking up 3/4 of my seat and who knows what other little parasite we were sharing during the 8 hour drive.)
4. When people were lining up (10 minutes before we actually arrived at the station) jamming into the 6 inch aisle one woman repeatedly wacked me in the head with her purse. luckily another kind woman interjected (i'm assuming) "hey watch out. don't hit the muzungo" very polite these people.
5. When looking for my luggage upon arrival, they opened up a flap containing the gas tank and out popped 4 chickens who apparently had came along for the ride-even though they may have been slightly baked.
Anyway, I arrived safe and sound, albeit exhausted, and classes start tomorrow...
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Observations from a summer intern...
3 comments:
are you in entebbe or kampala? if you can YOU MUST GO to khana kazana - an indian restaurant in kampala - every time my family gets together we might reminisce about it. maybe.
Each of your learning experiences reminded me of Bdesh (except #2). Be forewarned if you ever end up working there! Your summer sounds much more fun (and infused with learning) than mine. Have fun in Uganda!
PS - Gogol Bordello at HOB in Sept. Troy's already got you a ticket!
I thought of you gettig on your bus when at 4:30 am we made our 2nd (and by no means final) attempt to leave the house party that took over my night, and then as the sun was comming up I wished you good sleep on the bus...but that was unlikely in the best of circumstances, much less on your Jaguar. Hmm...Maybe I'll fly over next weekend.
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