Riding the Kampala Express

Sunday, February 6, 2011

OK, you know that drive that was supposed to be 4 hours?  Well, it was more like 7 hours and while there were stretches of good road, the areas that were bad were littered with massive pot holes, typically grouped together.  I think you could make a fun video game out of it!

Our lawyer, Mark, and I left Kampala shortly before noon in a 12 passenger Toyota van with our driver and went to Emolu Simon Peter's house, the children's paternal uncle.  I'd already met his wife, Betty, but I also got to meet his children and younger brother's family.  From left to right: Uncle Simon, Adeke Esther, Okapello John Collins, Aunt Betty, Akullo Stella, Aguti Sandra, Christine and Ongorok John Bosco.  Esther, Collins and Sandra are the children of Simon & Betty.  Bosco and Stella are married and Christine is the older sister of Alex and Maureen.

Simon & Bosco walking out from Simon's house

Leaving Kampala, we drove to Jinja to pick up Charlie and Jenay Brewer who had a court hearing in Soroti as well.  They were staying at the Redeemer House Orphanage run by Kathy Vaughan and will be adopting Esther.  Charlie and Jenay are from Oregon and while on a mission trip last year Charlie met Esther.  Kathy also joined us to go to court since this would be the first adoption from their orphanage.  From Jinja we drove to Soroti, crossing the headwaters of the River Nile. 

Charlie, Esther and Jenay

On our way out of Jinja we were stopped by the police.  I was sitting in the front passenger seat next to our driver, Badru.  The policeman came up and wanted to know why were driving with a cracked windshield - it was pretty bad!  Badru explained that where he drives, the road is under construction and a lot of stones get kicked up by trucks, so as soon as he fixes the windshield, it cracks again.  The police officer wasn't buying it but seemed a bit surprised to see a big, white guy in the car.  He asked me if I agreed with Badru and when I said I did, he let us go.  We were all expecting that a bribe was going to be required but he must have decided to play it safe since he didn't know who I was.

Along the way, there aren't any McDonalds to get drive-thru so we'd stop and get drinks and food.  Vendors would stick their food in through the window and negotiate a price.  There were grilled bananas (meh! kind of dry) and everyone's favorite - chicken on a stick!

Your choice - gizzards or leg + thigh!

As we approached Soroti we began to see many trucks bringing in NRM (National Resistance Movement) supporters dressed in yellow shirts.  President Museveni leads the NRM party and he was in Soroti campaigning for the upcoming election.  Nearing the hotel, we saw a tremendous military presence and once at the hotel saw all of the top Uganda generals and some of the Uganda ministry officials.  Later I found out that February 6 is Army Day, commemorating when Museveni was able to wrest control of Uganda from the opposition.  Simon recognized a number of district, county and sub-county representatives since Soroti is near where he grew up. 

Tomorrow is our court date!