The Way It Was

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsaKv0LkcAs

Last week Mom and I had arrived at our first night in the capital of Uganda, Entebbee. We woke up the next morning feeling no pain from the flights to get there. We had a need to get our legs moving so we took a walk around the gorgeously landscaped grounds of our lodge. We had a fresh fruit breakfast and found out then and there that Uganda was serious about their coffee. I should have known since Uganda is Africas leading exporter of Robusta and Arabica beans. Robusta is native to Ugandas forests grown at lower altitudes. Arabica beans are grown at higher altitudes, we would be visiting both regions and experienced the entire process of both. Later in the trip we picked beans, roasted them, ground them, sifted them and drank the coffee we produced, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Just knowing that we were in the worlds best coffee producing country was enough to put a skip in my step, I love good coffee.

After breakfast we met the people who we had been communicating with through emails prior to coming on the trip. We were briefed as to how they designed the trip for us according to the time we had and how they expected the trip to go for us. We also met Emanuel, our driver and guide and the person that we would spend every waking moment with for the entirety of our trip. Emanuel is the person who made our trip the best trip that it could have been. His biological knowledge, his long experience gained by spending time in the bush and guiding not only in Uganda but in Kenya, Sudan and Tanzania which he imparted upon us, his guests, was immeasurable.

Mom and I had a day to do whatever we wanted to do while getting our bearings in order after the briefing so we decided to visit the botanical gardens which we heard was a short walk down from the lodge. We got some directions that neither of us caught the gist of, but we did hear those famous words at the end of the sentence which always gives me the heeby-jeebys, “you can’t miss it”! Oh boy. We got out on the streets and had a cultural mingling beyond anything that we had imagined. It had been a while since I had experienced the fishbowl phenomenon. To say the least we stood out, way out, folks were amused by our learning the ropes on walking through their communities while learning to walk on the other side of the roads, learning that the scooters and motor bikes had to swerve and dip and dive to avoid potholes that make Jackson streets look pristine.

People offered us rides on their motorcycles, asked us if they could help us find our way, stared, laughed and some looked away in dismay. 2 hours later we made it to the botanical gardens hot, sweaty and happy. It felt good to move our legs and we felt like pros after navigating our way there. I think normal people would have caught a taxi but that isn’t what we were after, we agreed that it’s better to get on the ground with folks to better understand another culture, that’s what we were after. The last person to give us directions was magically a guide who, for a few shillings would be happy to guide us through the park. We had both heard this before but weren’t afraid to allow this young fellow a chance to earn a few bucks and become part of our experience.

We tried not to get to hung up on what a thing should cost and to realize that a few of our dollars were enough to make a huge difference in some peoples lives. We knew that the average annual income for Ugandans is $1,100. Yep, that’s $50 a month for the upper end of that average for folks in the cities and less for those that lived in the boonies which was generally the rest of the country, hard to conceive. It turned out that this young fellow was very knowledgeable about the plants in the park and knew about the history as if maybe he really was a guide.

It turns out that this park is where parts if the johnny Weissmuller Tarzan was filmed in the 50’s (perfect since that is what I was listening to on my book on tape during our flights and sleepless moments on the trip). They had native trees there but had also added trees that I recognized from the Caribbean like cinnamon and some from South America. It was well done and very established since some British scientist implemented its beginning during the British colonization of Uganda in the late 1800’s. The walk took a couple of hours and wound up on the bank of lake Victoria where a place to sit and buy some cold bottles of water was a welcomed sight. All three of us enjoyed some shade and discussed the biggest greenhouse operation I have ever seen across the water on a peninsula. He told us that it was Dutch operation growing roses for the export market. It certainly made sense since we were on the equator making the intense sunshine the perfect energy for rose production.

The Dutch are the best at all things agricultural and have set up all over the world. All I could think about was that if I had some extra time when we returned to Entebbee on the back end of our trip 20 days later I intended to wriggle my way over there. I exchanged numbers with our new friend in case we needed his help to make our way over there by boat. Mom and I had both had enough and told him that we were ready to start making our way back to the park entrance and back to the lodge. He said he had a friend with a taxi and asked if we would be interested in a ride back. It took us two seconds to do the math on that, the answer was yes, please! The guy was there when we reached the gate, we had a pleasant ride back while we marveled at how far we had walked to get there. We sat around the gardens at the lodge, had dinner and slept good.

The next morning we were to be breakfasted, coffeed up, packed and at the jeep at 6:30am for our first push into the journey. Emanuel was impressed with our being on time and so our eyes were opening as the sun began to rise in this entirely new and exciting place. We headed north for 5 hours towards our next lodge where we would stay for the next two days. On that journey we saw papyrus swamps, rice fields, markets full of recognizable produce, hustle and bustle towns and smaller villages and life in general. At one point Emanuel came to an abrupt stop and backed up quickly while instructing me to get my camera ready with the long lens. He told me to fix my eyes at one o’clock because there was a Shoebill crane standing in the swamp. I was so happy to get a photo of this

prehistoric looking bird. Apparently birders go to Nirvana when they get lucky enough to spot one of the very few left on earth, only found in this region.

Heading out on a swamp walk was our other choice on our off day when we decided to walk to the botanical gardens the day prior. Neither of our juices were flowing for that since neither of us are birders (or as we lovingly call them Nerders), dont get me wrong, I love birds and do everything I know to do to attract birds but I’m not a birder. We were thrilled to have photographed one while sitting on our butts. We came to a village where there is a yellow line that runs through the middle of it that is the equator. We had a nice cup of coffee and some photos of us on the yellow line. I noticed mom had gone into a shop to buy a souvenir but I didn’t think much about it at the moment.

We chugged further north. We arrived at our lodge in time for a wonderful lunch then headed out for our first afternoon safari with Lake Mburo always in our view. This national park is one of the smallest in the country at 143 square miles but the diversity was mind blowing to us especially since it was also our first. That days game drive was eye -opening as we saw Water Bucks, Zebra, Giraffes, Water Buffalo, Impala, Hippos, Wart Hogs, Baboons and so many different bird species that would make a birder drool. I got photos of them all, practicing with my camera and for my birding friends.

We came in to the lodge just after dark completely blown away and bushed. One of the ladies working there asked me my name a few times, I asked her if I needed to sign something and she said that she just needed to know. Not the weirdest question I’d been asked all day so I just let it go. It turns at that Allen and Rita (spelled Ritah) is not an uncommon name there. They roll the L’s to sound like R’s so it sounds more like Arron. `

Keep it in mind that that day was January 14th, two days before my birthday. It turns out mom had put the word out that I would be the birthday boy in the next couple of days. The next morning we were to ready to go on a walking safari so we could get up close and move with the animals in the same park we had driven through. During breakfast the ladies came out singing an African version of happy birthday with flowers a beautiful note and a cake with sparklers on it that said Happy Birthday Arron! I couldn’t stop laughing, we danced and hugged and I told Mom that from here on I want all of my future birthday cakes to say Happy Birthday Arron on them. Mom had purchased something back in that shop, it was for me. She found a Great Wall hanging or scarf with some beautiful giraffes. She got me good.

We parked the jeep and joined some trackers, some with AR-15’s strapped on just in case we needed one to scare off an unruly elephant, I think they are very rarely used but they wouldn’t take any chances when it came to keeping folks safe. We moved with the herds and it was really wild to be able to so close to some of the animals especially the giraffes. I clicked away with my camera and felt like a National Geographic photographer that night as I downloaded my pictures into my laptop. That evening we did another game drive in the jeep and saw even more animals. The evenings is when the nocturnal predators begin to rise and spotting potential becomes greater during the evening hours.

That evening is when the government of Uganda decided suddenly to turn off the internet for a week. Yep, just like that, apparently there is a switch that can be flipped that cuts off the internet. I’ve always wondered if it could be done and have always dreamed of it happening. At first the feeling is a little panicky. We needed to get word home that we were safe. We knew our family would worry if we went silent for a week with no warning. There was a presidential election so the government decided it would be more peaceful to do it that way instead of rumors and opposition rhetoric causing upheaval since the president was going into his 7th 4 year term wether anyone voted for him or not. I asked Emanuel if he had any tricks up his sleeve that would allow me 1 minute to call Mimi to let her know that we were fine but there would be no communication for one week. He came back 30 minutes later with what I guess was a satellite phone and said to make the call, he had about 2 minutes of “air”. Mimi answered the phone, I explained as quickly as I could without sounding nervous, assured her we were ok, I love you and gotta go. She got it and called all our people to assure them that all was well.I asked Emanuel what I owed him for that great gift. He turned around and looked me sharply in the eye and said “After all a brother would never charge a brother for a phone call home!”

After that it was surreal how nice it was to just leave our phones and devices right where they sat for 7 days, they were of no use to us in any way form or fashion, it was quite a thing to experience. I pray one day we can all remember the way it was. Your mind comes back alive in a way that is hard to explain, your self reliance comes back real quick even if you hadn’t realized that was slipping away minute by minute. I was a little sad when it came back on a week later, almost immediately I picked up my phone out of habit and saw the junk that has our minds clouded up and caused us to never be the same again, I actually felt sick to my stomach for a minute but hopeful that it can be done saving ourselves from ourselves.

We were up and at em on my actual birthday morning for a 6 hour ride up in elevation to the Bwindi impenetrable forest for our main purpose of this trip to see the remaining mountain gorillas. I am hoping that we all came out as well as possible from this awful ice and cold in the past weeks, I know there are people still hurting from the damage incurred. Mississippi got banged up very badly and Mississippi will heal as we always do.