The Road to Jinja

Thursday June 24
Jinja, Uganda
11:08 p.m.

The Road to Jinja – on Wednesday June 23

The journey out of Kampala and into Jinja was another shift in perspective for Uganda. We moved out of the city and into more rural, impoverished areas. The green of Uganda, a lush landscape, stretches far past the horizon with few mountainous hills. Along the roads, cows and goats graze, but among this beauty are conditions we do not see back at home. Trash fills the gutter systems alongside the roads, and streams of sewage pool and flow alongside the road and into the jungle. The city contains buildings, but as we travel east we see people living in shacks and clay huts, living off of less than bare essentials.

The open fields outside of Kampala slowly turned to the thick Mabira Jungle, and the road we traveled was the only path through this forest. It was a peaceful journey. Davids truly loves his country and spoke of the serenity of the jungle. He is always in his best place when traveling through the quiet and deep green heart of Uganda.

Along the jungle, stood out a local market place where we stopped to buy fruits and vegetables. There were hundreds of poor merchants that riddled the market anticipating every vehicle that came down the road. As we pulled up to the market and began to slow down, the enormous crowd rushed the car and dozens of hands thrust through the open windows. In each pair of hands were fruit, chicken, or water/soda as everyone tried to sell you their products. As we are white tourists, or as Ugandans say ‘mzungo’, we are the immediate target. I was sitting in the front seat looking back at Evan as a woman in the opposite window yelled, “Mzungo! Mzungo! Mzungo!” She immediately grabbed my attention and we stepped out the car to try our hand at bartering. As tourists in the bartering lifestyle in Uganda, the prices start much higher than the locals and we must try to barter down as best as we can. The funny thing about the bartering is, most prices for fruit will start at about 2,000 chillings which is equivalent to the American dollar. For us, the prices seem reasonable when in reality, in a society with unemployment rate of 60% and the average income of a family is less than $100 a month, the prices were raised for us. As strange as it was to barter for only cents, it goes a long way in the Ugandan economy.

As we left the market, we all munched on the freshly cooked plantains which begin with a dull taste that quickly turns very sweet and flavorful. I looked back only to see other vehicles puling up with the mass crowd surrounding them.

We continue through the jungle and made it to Jinja. Home.