In England I go for a walk because it is
good exercise but also because it allows space to think and reflect. During my
time in Uganda there was not a lot of space on my own so I decided to go for a
walk one Sunday along the dirt roads alongside the Nile. It was a hot, sunny
day so I didn’t have the problem of huge amounts of sticky mud forming part of
my shoes and making my feet weigh four times more than they did at the start of
the walk as they would on a rainy day.
I decided to take one road that goes to the
Nile and then go back and onto the village of Bujagali Falls, which is
gradually starting to be called Bujagali Lake following the recent construction
of a second dam in this part of the Nile for hydro-electric generation which
drowned the Falls.
Any thoughts of a quiet, reflective stroll
were quickly dismissed. Firstly there is the importance of greetings and since
almost everyone else is travelling by foot or bicycle or are busy in their
yards in front of the house there are a lot of people to greet. I am limited to
“Jambo!” (Swahili but accepted here from foreigners) or a somewhat sing-song
“Hello. How are you? I am fine”. Secondly “mzungus” (white people) stand out
just a little and generate a lot of excited interest from small children and
most of the school age children will recognise my face at least from school
“Teacher Joanne”. There are lots of children and so lots of attention. Neither
of these allowed for long enough to switch off into reflecting mode.
However, when I swapped notes on my
experience with a volunteer couple at the school on my return, they were
surprised at just how many people had engaged me in conversation in addition to
the basic greetings. On the way to the Nile Eva started walking alongside me carrying
her 6 month old daughter who she said had malaria, her elder child a 3 year old
girl was at a neighbour’s house. She walked me all the way down to the edge of
the Nile where her mother and other family members were planting grass in a
field along the banks of the river. I had been told there was a nice spot to
sit and read but I quickly realised that I would be too much of a novelty to be
left to read so I headed back the way I came, thanking Eva for showing me where
to go, but she insisted on walking back some way with me. Her nephew Brian, who
is a pupil in one of the lower years at the primary, joined us. My cynicism was
waiting for the request for something, after all she had a sick baby, however I
was wrong and I was just being offered friendship. Eva explained to me she had
continued at school until Senior 2 until finances meant she couldn’t continue.
She also pointed out several different crops to me and explained the process of
cultivating beans.
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| Beautiful blue dragonfly that sat beside me |
As we walked Anthony, the young man in one
of the yards who had advised me that the river Nile wasn’t much further, came
out to greet me and find out where I was from and what I did. We chatted for a
while and he told me that the following day the President of Uganda was coming
for the inauguration of the new hydro-electric power, which explained the
helicopters we had heard overhead in the previous days. Eva explained as we
walked on that Anthony’s mother had died some months earlier.
Finally Eva decided she’d come far enough
with me and turned back. Shortly afterwards Brian reappeared and I realised he
had been sent to give me Eva’s phone number.
A little further Fiona and Sandra, who
turned out to be Primary 5 pupils greeted me and took it upon themselves to
walk with me and try and teach me some Lusoga words (the local language) before
inviting me to their home, which I hope I politely declined.
Having barely got 5 minutes further on my
walk Aminah a Primary 3 student greeted me and we went through introductions to
her younger siblings and an older sister. Aminah said she’d like a friend in
England and with some extra input from her sister I came to the conclusion she
may have heard about the letters that had been written to pupils in one of the
volunteers schools in England and she was looking for a pen friend. By now I
was close to the entrance to the restaurant I was planning to visit and after
explaining I’d be in school on Monday and promising I would be passing back
that way later she reluctantly allowed me to continue.
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| Lunch overlooking the Nile |
The minute I emerged more than two hours
later Aminah came running over to me calling her friend who it turned out had
written me a very nice letter on her behalf, explaining that Aminah had lost
her mother and she would like me to sponsor her and be her new mother and take
her to my country signed “Your pen friend, Aminah”. Clearly the concept of a
pen friend was a little different than mine! I tried to explain that she had
all her brothers and sisters here with her and that it wasn’t very simple to
just take someone to my country.
My final encounter was with a man and two
women who had obviously just left their Sunday morning church service at the
local “born again” church. I think that the man was the preacher and one of the
women was his wife. The preacher greeted me and then immediately wanted to know
if I was a Christian and if I was saved. When I replied in the affirmative he
got very excited and said how God had convicted them that they assume white
people are Christians and don’t check they have faith and preach the gospel to
them. I was quite glad I was the only one of the 4 volunteers on the project
that had this encounter as I doubt the others would have been so able to feel
comfortable with it and honestly it was probably more likely to put them off
God. Since we were all walking in the same direction I was part of this
conversation, although a fairly quiet participant, until the pastor and his
wife turned off to make an important visit. The third lady continued on which
me until we reached her home and she told me about the President’s visit the
next day and how she had been invited to the event along with some of the other
villagers and was clearly very impressed with the President.
