Today as I prepared for my trip to Rwanda I took out my money belt and looked at my passport and US money that I hadn’t seen in about 3 months. Now, I haven’t been away for THAT long BUT 3 months is far and away the longest I’ve lived outside the US (the previous record was a 2 week backpack through Europe). Anyways, I did SUCH a double take when I looked at the US money. The Ugandan money is very large and ornate and the US money looked like it was monopoly money. So weird. If that was a pseudo-shock I cant imagine what it’ll be like to be back in the developing world in 2 weeks. I can’t wait.
For thanksgiving we went to Tim Kreutters house. Tim Kreutter is the founder of a non-profit called “Cornerstone” which teaches vocational skills to out-of-school youth. He’s a white American but was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (his parents were missionaries). He has a son and a daughter and a wife and although they are all white and were schooled in America – they are basically African. Very interesting family.
Anyways, the Kreutters always host a HUGE thanksgiving dinner for American expats in Uganda. There were probably about 30 people at the event. The Kreutters made us all pick numbers so we were seated randomly and I ended up sitting next to Evan, a guy from Atlanta who was visiting cornerstone in Uganda but was training to be a priest at a seminary somewhere in the US, Grace who was bizarrely from Jackson Heights Queens (for those of you who don’t know the geography of Long Island – Jackson Heights is 15 minutes from my house – small world). The food was good, conversation was interesting but nothing, I mean NOTHING, can replace being surrounded by people you love and are comfortable with. Most of the dinner I engaged in conversation but secretly wished I could transport myself back to NY and be with the family. Alas, I could not.
After dinner we went up on the Kreutter’s roof. Mr. Kreutter came around and told the girls that they needed to be careful. Tim told us that in the last two weeks 2 American girls were abducted outside of Iguana’s (very popular mzungu bar) by boda boda drivers. I don’t know the details of one girl, except for the the fact that she was raped. But the second girl was someone Tim Kreutter knew through a friend of a friend – apparently she got on a boda boda after a night at Iguana’s, the boda boda driver took her to an abandoned field where he and another man raped her, then they beat her until they thought she was dead (she wasn’t). Finally someone found her (I don’t know details) and when the police questioned her they thought she was making the story up. The poor girl had been gang-raped (with a decent chance of contracting AIDS) and beaten till the point the peretrators thought she was dead – and then the police didn’t believe her. Unbelievable. Finally the US Embassy got involved and started an investigation. Apparently the poor girl was only in Uganda for a 2 week Rotary rotation.
The two boda boda incidents were so serious that I got the following emails from the US Embassy:
Subject: URGENT: Warden Message - Security Notice
Warden Message - Security Notice
Kampala, Uganda
November 23, 2009
This notice is being sent to address the serious dangers associated with the use of public transportation in Uganda, specifically motorcycles for hire, commonly known as “boda bodas”.
Boda bodas are inherently dangerous at all hours of the day given the combination in Uganda of poor roads, poorly maintained vehicles, and erratic driving behavior. Boda boda customers and drivers are frequent victims of serious auto accidents. As a result, the Chief of Mission discourages their use by American citizens even in daylight hours.
Additionally, in the past two weeks, there have been two serious late-night attacks on private American citizens by boda boda operators. According to reports, one or more boda boda operators were “staged” at the same bar/restaurant in the Kisementi area of Kampala waiting to pick up passengers. In both attacks, the boda boda operators then took the female victims to secluded areas to sexually assault them. RSO Kampala is actively assisting the Ugandan Police to identify and bring to justice these perpetrators.
Effective immediately, due to the inherent danger and general criminal activity associated with riding boda bodas, U.S. Mission employees under Chief of Mission authority and their dependents are prohibited from riding boda-bodas after dark.
Additionally, U.S. citizens and their dependents should avoid arriving and departing alone from bars and restaurants anywhere in Kampala after dark. The two attacks reported above targeted females who were traveling alone after leaving bar/restaurants in the early morning hours.
RSO would like to remind the U.S. community that Kampala is a critical crime threat Post. It is imperative that American citizens use heightened security measures to avoid being victims of crime. Some of these countermeasures include not going out alone, avoiding poorly lit areas, consuming alcohol only in moderation, and having a solid plan to arrive home safely. It is especially important to remain “situationally aware” when consuming alcohol given past reports of drinks being “spiked” in order to induce unconsciousness as part of premeditated sexual assault or other criminal acts. Research indicates that the chances of being the victim of crime increase exponentially during evening hours.
WOW. When these embassy alerts pop up – you pay attention. I will tell you that, as always, its good to be an American citizen. The US Government REALLY has your back in the event something bad happens. Anyone with a US citizenship is lucky,
After we left Tim Kreutter’s house we (ironically) walked through the section of town where the two girls were abducted, but we were in a big group so it was okay. More often than not you are safe if you exercise caution – unfortunately a single woman (probably drunk) getting on a boda boda by herself at 2:00 in the morning is the definition of NOT being safe.
We took a special hire home and then Maggie and began packing for our overnight trip to Rwanda. We had tickets for a bus that departed Kampala at 1:00 in the morning arriving in Rwanda the following day at noon – a nice 12 hour trip. I was absolutely exhausted so I slept from 10:00 to 11:00 and then started packing. It was my first international trip in Africa, and the bus was leaving at 1:00 in the morning – yeah – I was definitely nervous.
Mad Max picked us up at 12:15 and drove us to the bus station. The depot wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting – I was thinking of New York’s Port Authority multiplied by a million…but they only let people with tickets in the bus terminal so there weren’t too many seedy characters hanging around (although there were a few).
We got on our bus immediately and asked the conductor where we could sit. Instantly we were dismayed – there were no seats together. Our worst fears of being stuck in the middle seat (the bus was configured with 3 seats the aisle and then 2 seats) of a 3 seater, but miraculously a man moved at the last minute freeing up a 2 seater for Maggie and I. Next problem – there was nowhere to stow our luggage.
“We can just put it under our feet.” Maggie said.
Umm – I wasn’t about to do that on a 12 hour bus trip.
We had to rearrange some bags (much to the chagrin of the other passengers) but finally were able to wedge out bags in the overhead bins.
Maggie and I patted ourselves on the back – phew!
The bus pulled out of the station and drove for 5 minutes, but then it stopped to pick up two people on the side of the road. They came onto the bus and, as luck would have it, came right up to us.
“Those are our seats!” They yelled at us, pointing at our seats.
Maggie and I were in no mood for this. “Well the conductor told us to sit here!” Maggie yelled.
“Get up!” They yelled back.
“We are NOT getting out of our seats until the conductor moves people out of our seats.” I exclaimed.
They yelled at us again but Maggie and I didn’t budge.
Finally the conductor walked back to calm things down. We explained that until he moved people out of our seats we weren’t budging. It was a scene.
Fortunately the conductor was able to move people out of our seats and we moved all the way in the back of the bus to our seats. PROBLEM – our bags were now in the front of the bus and we were all the way in the back. Thievery is RAMPANT on overnight buses – and Maggie and I were nervous as it was. To prepare myself for the trip both Maggie and I wore moneybelts (with our passports and major cash) underneath our shirts that were twisted until they were on our back (which was pressed against the seat the whole time), my smaller bills were in my right pocket, my cell in my left, my book and glasses and other stuff were in a bag that usually slings around my shoulder, but I wore it like a belt and left it zippered on my body. If someone tried to snatch it I’d be awoken instantly. On my bag in the front of the bus I had miniature locks to deter someone from fingering through my bag. Maggie and I kept all our more valuable things locked up. As we progressed into the night the conductor turned off the lights – I kept checking every 5 minutes to make sure no one was messing with our bags and then I realized that everything in my bag was just stuff. If it got stolen it got stolen – the only thing that really mattered was Maggie, me and our passports – everything else could go. It doesn’t matter. I relaxed and listened to Led Zeppelin as we drove through the sleepy African country side.
At 2:00 AM my family called me to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving. Dinner at the Kreutter’s was nice but speaking with my family and hearing my nephews on the phone was the highlight of my day.
There is no clear distinction between Thursday and Friday since I didn’t sleep on the bus – but lets call it a wrap there for Thursday.
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