The little mutatu that could

This past weekend, our teacher group took a weekend trip to a Rhino sanctuary, and let me tell you, it was a crazy excursion. We started the day out by piling ourselves into a mutatu, which is basically a van that looks like the Scooby mobile, with 5 rows of seats that have blue leopard print cushions, a picture of Manchester United on the back window, and nothing covering the floor…in parts, there wasn’t even floor, it had been rusted out (I could actually feel water spraying up from the road, through the floor and onto my leg). If there is anything crazier than a boda boda, it’s a mutatu. Imagine what it is like driving on a cobble stone road…at 60 miles per hour…with people in your way…and goats…for 3 hours. It was so ridiculous you had to laugh. Except about 2 hours into our drive, just after we passed over the Nile River and baboon territory (yep…wild baboons just chilling on the side of the road…red asses and all), we were stopped by the UPDF. I’m still not sure why we were stopped, but I had visions of having to give over all of my money at gunpoint. This wasn’t the case…we just sat there for about 10 minutes while our driver worked out some sort of "negotiation" with them. Anyway, we finally got to the Rhino sanctuary and it was such a cute, quaint little place…even had showers, flushing toilet…and PILLOWS! That’s luxury….ahh I miss having a pillow. The place is run by a family from South Africa, and it’s is an attempt to breed rhinos which have become extinct in most parts of Africa as a result of paching. When we got there, they had spaghettis ready for us (I’ve learned that "spaghetti" doesn’t actually mean spaghetti…it means some African version of spaghetti…same thing with pumpkin pie and cake), and the son took us for quite possibly the most amazing nature walk I have ever been on. After the hike, we had a BBQ, musical entertainment perovided by one of the teachers here who has a CD on iTunes and then lights out. The next morning, we went on the Rhino Trek which was SO cool. After about a mile hike through grass that was taller than me, we finally came across 3 pregnant rhinos…I am not kidding, these things were about 20 feet in front of me…no fence or anything…just me and 3 rhinos, separated only by grass and tree (and my other teacher friends which I was pretty sure I could out-run in the event of a rhino charge…:)…I’m just saying). It was so majestic…but only the beginning of the adventure. When we got back in the mutatu, it was dead…would not start. There we were standing in the middle of the brush of the sanctuary where just the night before we were told also housed a crocodile and 2 PYTHONS…somewhere. The men were in charge of pushing the mutatu back and forth until it started…which it did eventually. But then on the way home, the mutatu broke down again. After about 5 minutes of the LOUDEST pounding and grinding I have ever heard in my life, the drivers got the mutatu running again…for about 20 feet….then we had to repeat the process all over again….and then again one more time. Let me tell you how nice it is sitting in a mutatu on crazy-pants-driving road…with no air conditioning…in the middle of AFRICA. The only thing that made it worthwhile was our stop at a roadside store where I got shortbread cookies and water (I was STARVING!) only to find out once I had already gotten back in the mutatu and was on the road that my box of beloved cookies was SWARMING inside with RED FREAKING ANTS! BLAST!!!! Had to through the cookies out the window L. Just to give you a perspective on how little money the common class of people in Gulu have, the box of cookies cost 2000 shillings (~ $1), and if you don’t have exactly that amount of money, the woman at the stand didn’t have enough money to break a 5000 shilling bill—she didn’t even have the equivalent of less than $2 at her disposal. Anyway, we finally got home…had a shower…and then we were off to Tom and Rose’s house for dinner. Tom and Rose are this amazing couple with an incredible story (I’ll tell you about that later)…basically they fled Uganda right at the beginning of the war and have had just moved back from the UK. They are very wealthy (the dinner was for us to see a different side of Gulu) and they prepared such an amazing feast for us. We had such a nice night…good food, good company. As we were walking out the door, saying our good byes and thank yous, all of a sudden, and all at once, about 3 or 4 of the other teachers started jumping around and screaming…they actually had ants in their pants…HUGE ants! The ants were EVERYWHERE…and they were like 1.5 inches deep….ants on top of ants. As soon as I heard this, I started jumping around making very determined stomps with every step I took---I looked like a soldier on crack…it was ridiculous, but if worked because no ants up my pants!!!! What a strange ending to such an interesting day!!!!
OK…just a btw…
I promise that I will try to make the remaining entries shorter…I know these are ridiculously long!
I also know that you are probably wondering how the teaching experience has been going…to be honest, it has been really slow, and should be picking up here soon, so I’ve been waiting (and processing my experience so far) before I try to communicate what it’s like teaching here…it’s so awesome, and I want to make sure I get it across as best I can!!!