The trip started immediately after work on Friday, when my co-worker Dennis called me the minute I arrived home and informed me that I needed to be at the bus station right away. The taxi that we were taking was on a "first come first serve" basis, and it was filling up quickly. I made my way to the bus station and took my place on the last seat left. Or so I thought.
We were in a 10 passenger van, 14 if you count the folding seats on the end of each row. Just as I took my seat, squeezed between two grown men, the taxi driver managed to somehow add a few extra bodies to the van. We took off, and I tried to contort my body in such a way to accommodate the number of people sitting in each row of a very small vehicle. Well, we stopped on the side of the road, and just as I thought we were going to let some people off, we did the opposite. Yes, that's right, we continued to add more people to the already tightly packed van.
At one point during the journey, I counted 21 adults and 5 children. That makes 26. I believe the terminology is...packed like sardines.
About 3 hours later, we found ourselves in Kigumba, an hour outside of Masindi where Julie lives. It was there that we were told we had to get off the taxi and find our own way to Masindi. Dennis and I were dumbfounded, since they had originally promised to take us to Masindi. Well, they refunded us both 5,000 shillings, as if that was going to compensate for the inconvenience (we found out later that this was NOT enough to get to Masindi - yes, we had been cheated) and off we went.
So, we walked about 10 minutes down a road, and I suppose during the day this wouldn't have been a terrible thing, but by this time it was almost 10 o'clock pm. Because of the late hour, we were not sure if we were going to be able to find transportation to our final destination. It took several attempts and several more vehicles passing by until we finally found a vehicle heading to Masindi. To my surprise, it just so happened that this vehicle was a lori. As the rain began to fall, Dennis and I boarded the the truck and made ourselves comfortable amongst the bags of beans and dried cassava, and made our way towards Masindi on the bumpy, dark, and narrow dirt road. I finally made it to Julie's house at 11 that evening. What an adventure!
The ride back, unfortunately (or fortunately?) was not as eventful. The most exciting thing was fighting for leg space with the two chickens under the seat. In the end, the chickens won. I can't beat a chicken that pecks. No, sir, I cannot.
Thanks Julie for the awesome weekend and a shout-out to your kitty! And now, PICTURES! I mean seriously, what's a blog post without pictures? And yes, I realize that there are more cat pictures as there are human pictures, but it's just because this cat is so darn cute!!!!!
LOVE
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