The following is an entry by Michelle and myself taken pretty much straight from Michelle's travel diary.
"16/11/2006
Trapped for 4 1/2 hours (10.30 -> 3pm) in a town on the way to Orchha from Khajuraho(Ma who ra ne pur??) [sic]. Tried to leave 3 times -> didn't work, got our tyres slashed and a brick in the windscreen. Eventually left when they started letting buses through -> don't know why. Our guide Naresh said the mob was due to a religious statue being beheaded and no one had been caught. He then said it was an area with lots of crime and the fact that we were tourists made us look like easy targets for robbery, so we spent the 4 1/2 hours in the stuffy bus with windows closed and curtains drawn (except for toilet breaks).
Our first attempt at freedom involved convincing the mob that Sandra was ill and needed medical attention. A few young boys from the town were riding shotgun, screaming "Patient! Patient!" to the mob. They had barricaded the road with a bus and a truck and when we slowed to get around, they set upon us and started banging on windows and shouting at the bus forcing us to turn back.
We stopped and waited, curious youths crowding around our bus. Naresh informed us that he had called the embassy and they had spoken to the town leaders. We tried escaping again, this time with an older man who i assumed was some authoritative figure (we later found out he was the town's mayor that the embassy had spoken to). We had gotten our tyres slashed in our first attempt and had to change two tyres. Our second effort was no different. Naresh went outside and dissapeared into the crowd. We later learned that he was assaulted by someone who ripped his jacket, hit him in the back of the head and told him to stop trying to be smart! Our tyres were slashed again so we sought refuge in the guarded petrol station to change them and to make toilet runs.
After more waiting around, Naresh gathered an auto-rickshaw full of armed police and a policeman rode shotgun in our bus (actually I think it was probably a semi-automatic rifle!) for our third attempt. We tried leaving the same way we came in, but the mob seemed incensed by the police presence. One guy shaped to throw a brick and when I looked back up he was hurling it at our windscreen, right towards the armed cop! Luckily it hit at the base and only partially shattered it. We were freaked out completely by this stage. We limped back to the petrol station and waited again. The hour or two that passed was very tense indeed! Gina started arranging her immediate flights out of India, Susan sent a cheerio sms to her family, and I sat there wondering how much of a fight I would put up if it came down to that...with countless scenes from Bruce Lee movies drifting through my mind!
When the flood gates eventually opened, on our way out of town we saw others that had fared even worse than us, a government bus parked across the road with every window smashed was probably the worst. No idea what happened to it's occupants, we were just relieved to be out of there and on our way to the Orchha, with hearts in our mouths every time we passed through another small town and saw a crowd in the street!
03 April, 2007
02 April, 2007
Mzungus in the Mist - diary entry from 8/10/2006
The following is taken pretty much straight from my travel diary that I struggled to keep up-to-date during our African adventure.
"8/10/2006 Mzumbus[sic] in the Mist. Traveller's Rest Inn, Kisoro, Uganda.
Another once in a lifetime day today. We spent the morning tracking mountain gorillas in Parc Nationals de Volcans in Rwanda. There was uncertainty about the length of time we would need to trek before seeing the gorillas...so much so that we placed bets on it the night before. The winner gets free banana gin all night. Michelle was extremely optimistic at 45 minutes, and I figured 6 1/2 hours would be a fairly bad days trekking! As it turned out we only had to walk for just over 1 1/2 hours before we were told to put down our backpacks and take out everything we would need for the hour we were to spend with the family.
The trek in was reasonably hard. The first part was through some potato fields that backed on to the National Park, before eventually ascending one of the many volcanic peaks in this spectacular part of the world. The bamboo forest paths soon gave way to thicker vegetation, vines, stinging nettles and a fair chunk of mud thrown in for good measure. We were accompanied by the gorilla tracker/guide Francis, (who had, the night before, given us a detailed and moving history of Rwanda, the genocide, and how they are dealing with the consequences of it now, as well as some stories about the mountain gorillas), a couple of other trackers, some Rwandan army dudes, packing sub-machine guns and a machete wielding guy I dubbed "chop-chop". The trek in was definitely worth it.
After putting down our packs and grabbing our cameras we were led around a corner into a clearing to be face to face, literally only about 3 metres away, from Ubumwe, the huge silverback....the dominant male of the Amohoro group of gorillas. It is so incredible to look straight into his deep black eyes from this distance. I have heard it described as looking into our own past, and I agree that there is a certain humanity to their gaze. The new camera started working overtime, the 12 x zoom getting some great shots (although I later found out that I must have accidentally dropped the resolution to 3 megapixels?? So pissed off!!).
The further we walked into the clearing, (probably only about 15m x 5m), we could see more of the group, which consisted of the silverback, some young blackback males, some mature females, some adolescent females and about 4 babies. They were all in various states of just chilling out. The silverback (Ubumwe) was just sitting by himself, keeping a casual eye on everything around him. Others were sleeping, (completely slabbed out in some cases!), others were playing or feeding...it was like we'd stepped into their family room! One of the young males surprised us by coming out of the bushes behind us, pushing Craig out of the way and picking up Ingrid's gloves before sniffing them and tossing them away! We continued to move around the clearing to either get out of their way or just to get a better vantage point. As they got more comfortable with us they began to interact a lot more. The silverback started getting a fair bit of attention from some of the babies, and then one of the females started getting really friendly....and we were lucky enough to actually see them mating....quite a surreal experience....and all captured on video with running commentary (see below). We got to spend an hour with them before we had to head back, slightly exhausted, but with huge smiles and a thousand memories."
Click here to watch the video!
"8/10/2006 Mzumbus[sic] in the Mist. Traveller's Rest Inn, Kisoro, Uganda.
Another once in a lifetime day today. We spent the morning tracking mountain gorillas in Parc Nationals de Volcans in Rwanda. There was uncertainty about the length of time we would need to trek before seeing the gorillas...so much so that we placed bets on it the night before. The winner gets free banana gin all night. Michelle was extremely optimistic at 45 minutes, and I figured 6 1/2 hours would be a fairly bad days trekking! As it turned out we only had to walk for just over 1 1/2 hours before we were told to put down our backpacks and take out everything we would need for the hour we were to spend with the family.
The trek in was reasonably hard. The first part was through some potato fields that backed on to the National Park, before eventually ascending one of the many volcanic peaks in this spectacular part of the world. The bamboo forest paths soon gave way to thicker vegetation, vines, stinging nettles and a fair chunk of mud thrown in for good measure. We were accompanied by the gorilla tracker/guide Francis, (who had, the night before, given us a detailed and moving history of Rwanda, the genocide, and how they are dealing with the consequences of it now, as well as some stories about the mountain gorillas), a couple of other trackers, some Rwandan army dudes, packing sub-machine guns and a machete wielding guy I dubbed "chop-chop". The trek in was definitely worth it.
After putting down our packs and grabbing our cameras we were led around a corner into a clearing to be face to face, literally only about 3 metres away, from Ubumwe, the huge silverback....the dominant male of the Amohoro group of gorillas. It is so incredible to look straight into his deep black eyes from this distance. I have heard it described as looking into our own past, and I agree that there is a certain humanity to their gaze. The new camera started working overtime, the 12 x zoom getting some great shots (although I later found out that I must have accidentally dropped the resolution to 3 megapixels?? So pissed off!!).
The further we walked into the clearing, (probably only about 15m x 5m), we could see more of the group, which consisted of the silverback, some young blackback males, some mature females, some adolescent females and about 4 babies. They were all in various states of just chilling out. The silverback (Ubumwe) was just sitting by himself, keeping a casual eye on everything around him. Others were sleeping, (completely slabbed out in some cases!), others were playing or feeding...it was like we'd stepped into their family room! One of the young males surprised us by coming out of the bushes behind us, pushing Craig out of the way and picking up Ingrid's gloves before sniffing them and tossing them away! We continued to move around the clearing to either get out of their way or just to get a better vantage point. As they got more comfortable with us they began to interact a lot more. The silverback started getting a fair bit of attention from some of the babies, and then one of the females started getting really friendly....and we were lucky enough to actually see them mating....quite a surreal experience....and all captured on video with running commentary (see below). We got to spend an hour with them before we had to head back, slightly exhausted, but with huge smiles and a thousand memories."
Click here to watch the video!
Meeting our sponsor kids in Uganda - diary entry from 6/10/2006
The following is taken pretty much straight from my travel diary that I struggled to keep up-to-date during our African adventure.
"6/10/2006 White Horse Inn, Kabale, Uganda.
It's so hard to believe that we've only been in Uganda for 4 days. We have done and experienced so much that it feels like much longer.
Meeting our sponsor children has to be the highlight.
We visited Michelle's sponsor child, Margaret on 3/10 in the Luwero district just outside of Kampala. The Plan representative Tony and our driver Eddy picked us up from Sophie's Hotel in Entebbe (where we were staying in the Sudan room! All rooms were named after African countries). We were taken to Luwero via "shortcuts" around the Kampala "jam". Being our first real taste of Africa it was both confronting and amazing. The sight of thousands of people walking, cycling or cramped into one of the hundreds of mini-van taxis through the suburbs of Kampala is a sight to behold. Dirt-track, pot-holed streets serve as the main thoroughfares, lined with market stalls and what at first appear to be makeshift shopfronts, selling anything that you could possibly want. Butcher shops are most impressive, with whole sides of beef/goat/pig hanging out in the open air. Beyond this were the somewhat quieter streets of Luwero where we visited the local Plan office and met the office manager Ellis and also the local representative Flavia, who would travel with us , Tony and Eddy to the community.
We were driven through narrow access tracks to Margaret's family home, a small, (possibly 2 rooms totalling about 6m x 3m) brick house that houses about 8 to 10 people! Meeting the sponsor child is quite overwhelming for all involved. The child is shy, we are nervous, etc...The initial greetings were quite awkward, but after being welcomed into the home by Paskali, Margaret's father and also Harriet, her mother, we were introduced to the entire family (and extended family). The warmth of the welcome and genuine thanks from Paskali was overwhelming. We exchanged gifts...Michelle gave Margaret and her family a skipping rope, a frisbee, some pens and some balloons. In return they gave us a chicken!! Michelle was shocked and didn't know what to do. She was told by Tony that it would be ok to give the chicken back to the family to take care of on our behalf. It seems that everyone is happy with this so that is what we did. After showing (unsuccessfully) Margaret how to throw a frisbee, and then blowing up a few balloons for her and the kids, they showed us how they used the skipping rope. I convinced Michelle to have a go and she did good for a couple of jumps but eventually got a good giggle out of the family. We sadly then said goodbye to Margaret and her family before visiting other projects in the community that have been created/assisted by Plan, including a medical centre and the local Primary school that Margaret normally attends. The reaction of the children to our presence was so incredible. For many of them, this was the first time they had seen a Mzungu (white person), so when I reached out to shake their hands, they practically swarmed in and around and all wanted to shake my hands with such joy and excitement!
I didn't think this could be topped until the next day when I visited my sponsor child, Alex.
We had to get dropped off in Jinja, the source of the Nile River, approx. 80 kms west of Kampala. This was quite a trip and we were extremely grateful to the Plan staff for arranging it. We stayed at a great little guesthouse (2 Friends Guesthouse) in Jinja, where they had a great little wood-fired oven (Pizza was a little average though...not that I expected it to be otherwise). The next morning we were picked up by the Plan rep for Tororo, Jackson, and the driver, Asaba, and driven to Tororo, about 120 km away through sometimes driving rain, on extremely pot-holed roads, (some potholes were across entire lanes!), and quite ridiculous traffic. Ugandan drivers are downright lunatics!
But anyway, we had a hilarious conversation with Jackson and Asaba on the way. We met Christine, who is the team leader for the Tororo Plan office and she introduced us to practically everyone, workers and volunteers in the Plan office. We met Godfrey, the local area rep who travelled with us to the community.
We started off by visiting Alex's school, which is where I met Alex for the first time. I recognised him straight away and introduced myself before all of the formal introductions by the school Principal (probably a bit rude in hind sight). We had the privilege of being allowed to sit in on one of their English classes, although the kids were more interested in us than in their lesson. I was allowed to address the class, and told them how happy I was to be there and how grateful I was that they had accepted me so warmly and with such beautiful smiles. After several photos, I gave the principal a gift of some pens and some tennis balls to be distributed to the children before we bid goodbye to all the kids, again getting practically bowled over by their enthusiasm to shake our hands.
We took Alex and went to meet his family at their house. Alex's family looked to be in a worse state than Margaret's family the day before. I was very happy that the Plan staff suggested we buy some gifts from town to take to the family, a blanket, some sugar and a mattress, on top of the soccer ball (Sydney FC supporter's ball), pump, frisbee and balloons we already had. The additional gifts seemed much more appropriate, although our original ones were quite well received too. I explained to Francis, Alex's dad, how the pump worked, and I showed Alex (successfully) how to throw a frisbee...they all got a few giggles out of my attempted trick throws and catches as well.
Francis then welcomed us into his house and I could see that a chicken was being rounded up. No worries, I thought, I've seen this before and I know exactly what to do...I started explaining that we couldn't take the chicken back to Australia and that I thought that they should look after the chicken for me....Tony leaned across and whispered... "Ummm....no! Take the chicken!" After a quick about face, I think I managed to not cause too much offense by re-accepting the chicken and assuring the family that I will do everything I can to ensure Australian customs let it back into the country!! It was quite a tragically funny situation that I will find hard to get over! Tony eventually gave the chicken to his cousin in town...
Alex's brothers, sisters and cousins were all lining up for the balloons that I handed out earlier. We could only blow up a handful at first, so throughout the visit tiny little hands would reach out to us with deflated balloons for us to blow up for them...it was really special.
We had to drop Alex back at school and say goodbye. His shyness was still there, but there was a look in his eyes when he waved goodbye that hit me right in the heart. From here we continued on to visit some of the other community projects that Plan is involved in. We visited a centre that offered medical assistance, family planning advice, STI prevention and HIV/AIDS care, counselling and treatment. It was here that we met the Tororo Post-test club (PTC). In Uganda, and many other African countries, there is still a big stigma attached to people who have HIV/AIDS. Because of this, many people are afraid to get tested. The PTC consists of men and women who have been tested, no matter whether they tested positive or negative. They meet regularly to discuss living with HIV/AIDS, caring for others with HIV/AIDS and also to support each other. The strength and courage of these people amazes me. When I shook their hands in appreciation for welcoming us I pretty much broke down. Reading stories about the AIDS crisis in Uganda is what made me sign up to sponsor a child with Plan in the first place and so the moment had added significance for me. My only regret is that my tears may have been misinterpreted as sadness about their situation, rather than just an outpouring of genuine admiration for their courage and the realisation that in my small way I had helped them. In general, this feeling was the overriding emotion of the last two days. My contributions allow the numerous people we met make better lives for many others., yet for the last 4 tears, I had never truly, deeply thought about this. I hope to spread this feeling to as many people as possible, that such a small contribution from our point of view, is put towards such noble and worthwhile projects and is appreciated so, so much by the people implementing and receiving the benefits of these projects!"
"6/10/2006 White Horse Inn, Kabale, Uganda.
It's so hard to believe that we've only been in Uganda for 4 days. We have done and experienced so much that it feels like much longer.
Meeting our sponsor children has to be the highlight.
We visited Michelle's sponsor child, Margaret on 3/10 in the Luwero district just outside of Kampala. The Plan representative Tony and our driver Eddy picked us up from Sophie's Hotel in Entebbe (where we were staying in the Sudan room! All rooms were named after African countries). We were taken to Luwero via "shortcuts" around the Kampala "jam". Being our first real taste of Africa it was both confronting and amazing. The sight of thousands of people walking, cycling or cramped into one of the hundreds of mini-van taxis through the suburbs of Kampala is a sight to behold. Dirt-track, pot-holed streets serve as the main thoroughfares, lined with market stalls and what at first appear to be makeshift shopfronts, selling anything that you could possibly want. Butcher shops are most impressive, with whole sides of beef/goat/pig hanging out in the open air. Beyond this were the somewhat quieter streets of Luwero where we visited the local Plan office and met the office manager Ellis and also the local representative Flavia, who would travel with us , Tony and Eddy to the community.
We were driven through narrow access tracks to Margaret's family home, a small, (possibly 2 rooms totalling about 6m x 3m) brick house that houses about 8 to 10 people! Meeting the sponsor child is quite overwhelming for all involved. The child is shy, we are nervous, etc...The initial greetings were quite awkward, but after being welcomed into the home by Paskali, Margaret's father and also Harriet, her mother, we were introduced to the entire family (and extended family). The warmth of the welcome and genuine thanks from Paskali was overwhelming. We exchanged gifts...Michelle gave Margaret and her family a skipping rope, a frisbee, some pens and some balloons. In return they gave us a chicken!! Michelle was shocked and didn't know what to do. She was told by Tony that it would be ok to give the chicken back to the family to take care of on our behalf. It seems that everyone is happy with this so that is what we did. After showing (unsuccessfully) Margaret how to throw a frisbee, and then blowing up a few balloons for her and the kids, they showed us how they used the skipping rope. I convinced Michelle to have a go and she did good for a couple of jumps but eventually got a good giggle out of the family. We sadly then said goodbye to Margaret and her family before visiting other projects in the community that have been created/assisted by Plan, including a medical centre and the local Primary school that Margaret normally attends. The reaction of the children to our presence was so incredible. For many of them, this was the first time they had seen a Mzungu (white person), so when I reached out to shake their hands, they practically swarmed in and around and all wanted to shake my hands with such joy and excitement!
I didn't think this could be topped until the next day when I visited my sponsor child, Alex.
We had to get dropped off in Jinja, the source of the Nile River, approx. 80 kms west of Kampala. This was quite a trip and we were extremely grateful to the Plan staff for arranging it. We stayed at a great little guesthouse (2 Friends Guesthouse) in Jinja, where they had a great little wood-fired oven (Pizza was a little average though...not that I expected it to be otherwise). The next morning we were picked up by the Plan rep for Tororo, Jackson, and the driver, Asaba, and driven to Tororo, about 120 km away through sometimes driving rain, on extremely pot-holed roads, (some potholes were across entire lanes!), and quite ridiculous traffic. Ugandan drivers are downright lunatics!
But anyway, we had a hilarious conversation with Jackson and Asaba on the way. We met Christine, who is the team leader for the Tororo Plan office and she introduced us to practically everyone, workers and volunteers in the Plan office. We met Godfrey, the local area rep who travelled with us to the community.
We started off by visiting Alex's school, which is where I met Alex for the first time. I recognised him straight away and introduced myself before all of the formal introductions by the school Principal (probably a bit rude in hind sight). We had the privilege of being allowed to sit in on one of their English classes, although the kids were more interested in us than in their lesson. I was allowed to address the class, and told them how happy I was to be there and how grateful I was that they had accepted me so warmly and with such beautiful smiles. After several photos, I gave the principal a gift of some pens and some tennis balls to be distributed to the children before we bid goodbye to all the kids, again getting practically bowled over by their enthusiasm to shake our hands.
We took Alex and went to meet his family at their house. Alex's family looked to be in a worse state than Margaret's family the day before. I was very happy that the Plan staff suggested we buy some gifts from town to take to the family, a blanket, some sugar and a mattress, on top of the soccer ball (Sydney FC supporter's ball), pump, frisbee and balloons we already had. The additional gifts seemed much more appropriate, although our original ones were quite well received too. I explained to Francis, Alex's dad, how the pump worked, and I showed Alex (successfully) how to throw a frisbee...they all got a few giggles out of my attempted trick throws and catches as well.
Francis then welcomed us into his house and I could see that a chicken was being rounded up. No worries, I thought, I've seen this before and I know exactly what to do...I started explaining that we couldn't take the chicken back to Australia and that I thought that they should look after the chicken for me....Tony leaned across and whispered... "Ummm....no! Take the chicken!" After a quick about face, I think I managed to not cause too much offense by re-accepting the chicken and assuring the family that I will do everything I can to ensure Australian customs let it back into the country!! It was quite a tragically funny situation that I will find hard to get over! Tony eventually gave the chicken to his cousin in town...
Alex's brothers, sisters and cousins were all lining up for the balloons that I handed out earlier. We could only blow up a handful at first, so throughout the visit tiny little hands would reach out to us with deflated balloons for us to blow up for them...it was really special.
We had to drop Alex back at school and say goodbye. His shyness was still there, but there was a look in his eyes when he waved goodbye that hit me right in the heart. From here we continued on to visit some of the other community projects that Plan is involved in. We visited a centre that offered medical assistance, family planning advice, STI prevention and HIV/AIDS care, counselling and treatment. It was here that we met the Tororo Post-test club (PTC). In Uganda, and many other African countries, there is still a big stigma attached to people who have HIV/AIDS. Because of this, many people are afraid to get tested. The PTC consists of men and women who have been tested, no matter whether they tested positive or negative. They meet regularly to discuss living with HIV/AIDS, caring for others with HIV/AIDS and also to support each other. The strength and courage of these people amazes me. When I shook their hands in appreciation for welcoming us I pretty much broke down. Reading stories about the AIDS crisis in Uganda is what made me sign up to sponsor a child with Plan in the first place and so the moment had added significance for me. My only regret is that my tears may have been misinterpreted as sadness about their situation, rather than just an outpouring of genuine admiration for their courage and the realisation that in my small way I had helped them. In general, this feeling was the overriding emotion of the last two days. My contributions allow the numerous people we met make better lives for many others., yet for the last 4 tears, I had never truly, deeply thought about this. I hope to spread this feeling to as many people as possible, that such a small contribution from our point of view, is put towards such noble and worthwhile projects and is appreciated so, so much by the people implementing and receiving the benefits of these projects!"