Nyakabande

We walked back to Uganda! This is after a full day of activities at Red Rocks.

Yesterday Harriet had taken us along with this other girl to tour around the different homes and families their organization was helping. It was pretty much a bunch of village home visits because this other girl was starting her own organization with homestays and wanted to check out what they had running in the local community. We were just bored so we joined.

So today for our cultural walk, we said we wanted less of a house tour and more of a cultural experience. Instead we got more of a nature walk, with milking cows at the end (to my request). It was funny, we were asked what kind of experience we were looking for, so we expressed that other then the recent history of the genocide, we haven't gotten to know the true Rwandan culture, and that's what we wanted. Along our walk, we didn't talk to a single local person. Just walked through their town to get to the fields behind it, walked through beautiful greenery and nature, visited a power plant from the river waters, and that's about it... We actually really enjoyed it, we got to ask the guide a bunch of questions about their education system, their politics, they have quite a few women in the government, on coming elections in Uganda, their alcoholism problems, etc. We got followed by quite a few kids on our way back. I had asked to milk the cows because they had mentioned it as an option yesterday. It's a very odd, intimate thing to milk a cow... As you get wacked in the face by its tail...

Get back, sweaty and hot, take a classic cold bucket shower, eat, and learn to make some banana beer! It's a local classic in Rwanda. You basically crush a bunch of bananas into a log with the help of long grass. Eventually you get quite an impressive amount of liquid out. This almost clear liquid taste really sweet, and obviously quite banana-y. Mix in some freshly crushed sorghum, and voilà! In 5 days, you get beer. Really sweet, strong (13%) beer. Not a fan, but meh. Like Uganda, Rwanda has its fair share of drinking men... They like their banana beer. Our guide from this morning was saying, as an example, the women work all day long and make 1000RFr. They spend 300 at the market to feed their family. They save 700. Their husband take 500 to go drinking. Only 200RFr left at the end of the day. Men. Pft.

Once all is done and drank, what else does a girl due but cross a border the day before elections! This is, believe it or not, a different yet smaller boarder then our first border crossing. Quick minibus ride drops you at the gate separating Uganda and Rwanda. You walk across to the Uganda side where the "exit Rwanda" stamp office is right next to the "entry Uganda" stamp office. 5 minutes and we successfully walked across. There's a funny car gate with Rwanda written on one side and Uganda on the other. There was one armed security guy standing at the "gate" (rope across the dirt road) asking to see your passport. Then one armed army guy on the Uganda side once you get to the other rope across the dirt road. Very official business people!

Kisoro is the closest town to the border and yet already we see so much more life and excitement. The difference is striking. Ugandans are all smiling and laughing and enjoying themselves. We hear music coming from the shops, street food being sold (it was illegal to have street shops in Rwanda, only legit store fronts). We went for a beer, and elections were being talked about all around. We'll keep our heads low and political opinions to ourselves for the next few days until the winner is announced and we see what that brings. If anything, we'll avoid Kampala. Easy. I for one am quite happy to be in Uganda again.

We didn't know if we would spend the night in Kisoro or make our way to Kabale tonight, from where we could head to our next destination easier. By the time we were done exploring the town, and eating diner, it was 5.30pm, sun going down, so we decide Kisoro for the night, and Lake Bunyonyi for the morning via Kabale. It's been super easy to find accommodation during our trip - so it being 530pm, easy peasy. There's tons of options, our waiter gave us a suggestion which turned out perfect. Every second door seemed to be a bar and hotel. How they make money, no one knows.

FYI : we're half way! If you make the quick count, we left on January 7th and are coming back for March 29th... We're half way! I feel a mix of excitement for what's to come, pride for what I've done, wanting to continue for ever and yet missing my people and wanting to see them... A whole mix!Read more