Mud Mud Mud (to Kampala)

George took a picture of me at 5 AM this morning. As you can see, between the time and the sunburn, I am happy and excited. After packing up and saying goodbye to all the incredibly nice workers who hosted me, we headed out. I wasn’t sure how long it would take, because it is 3 hours to M’bale, then another 3 to Kampala, and anything can happen in between. It was a great morning to be outside.

As we left, since we had 9 people between the truck seats and the back, I asked George if we needed a tractor escort again, since it rained so hard last night. He said we wouldn’t get stuck so not to worry. He was half right.

As soon as we left the slightly manicured dirt road that we built, we hit the mud again. There’s really no right way to drive it – if you stay in other people’s tracks, you slide up against a ridge and land in a ditch (obviously something I would do) but if you try to stay between the tracks, you end up sliding down anyway. Well, needless to say, we got stuck. Bad. About 6 times.

One or two people got out to push and told me to stay inside because it was hot and I would get dirty. Considering I was in Africa, and already both hot and dirty, I couldn’t miss this. First, all 9 of us got out and pushed, which got us through the first few hurdles. As we hit bigger ditches, George decided we needed traction. So, all 9 of us got in the back up the pickup, and started jumping up and down. Mohammed, who was with us, is about 220 pounds alone, and he was leading the effort.

Now, despite all the things I’ve said before, there is nothing funnier than the following: stand as 1 of 9 people in the back of a pickup truck flatbed as it fishtails at 40 miles an hour through mud while all 9 grown men jump up and down like 5 year olds. Also, try and hold on while you do this, then be the only white person as you drive past villagers huts. We were all hysterically laughing, and although it took an hour to drive a mile, this was probably the most fun I had the whole trip.

Notice the angle of the truck

This is when we finally reached the end of the worst part

I wish I took more pictures, but I was either helping or holding on for dear life. This is (L to R) George, me and Mohammed after surviving the first mile.
Right before we got back in the truck, I asked one of our guys to hand me some water to wipe off. He misunderstood me and dumped a bucket of water on me instead. Somehow George caught me on camera as it was happening (I think he was in on it). Blow this up if you love looking at mud.

The way back was probably the nicest drive we’ve had so far..here’s a sample

I think this is one of the best pictures from the trip

On the way home, we passed a huge expanse of land that George told me was a prison farm. This was probably 60-70 km from our farm. Apparently, someone escaped (there aren’t really buildings, just huts and the work farm), so he ran away. However, when you are hours from anything, this is not the most well thought out plan. By chance, the guy ended up at our location after walking for three days, then collapsed right at the entrance to the farm in front of our soldiers, which probably saved his life. They let him stay overnight, and then took him back to jail. He only had 2 months left on his sentence, but now he has 2 more years. Oops.

One other thing worth mentioning - I don’t remember if I did. The entire country of Uganda smells like a BBQ. Everyone, city or otherwise, uses fire pits or small charcoal stoves to cook. People are always either cooking or selling food, so wherever you go, it smells like BBQ smoke. It’s actually sometimes more prevalent in rural areas because entire villages will be doing it.

Running low on battery so I will spend the next 5 hours without the comfort of the blog. When we get back, I have about 2 hours more of work, then I’m grabbing dinner with Marcos (our CEO) and his wife at an Italian place here. That will be immediately followed by passing out in a real bed.