RUAIRÍ’S ADVENTURES IN AND ON THE WAY BACK FROM UGANDA (Part 3)

Please note that VSO is in no way connected with or responsible for the content, comments and observations in this blog: these are solely my own in a personal capacity.

Wednesday 8th April – Friday 10th April

Wednesday
Amy and Eric were heading off so I decided to move to the Backpacker’s Hostel. The Luzan was Ok but there was nothing there or in the near vicinity and the way my leg was feeling, the Backpackers Hostel sounded a lot better – nice grounds, a bar and food, books – the kind of place you can just hang around and chill out if you don’t feel like doing anything. And a nice place it was too! Nice grounds, monkeys and cats and birds wandering around, managed to get a single room rather than a dormitory (only 20,000 shillings as opposed to 15,000 for a dorm - €8.50 per night instead of €6.50) and settled down for a coffee. The only slight drawback was there were about a dozen other VSO Rwanda volunteers staying there! On the way in the gate I met Soraya and Els; after an hour Bruce, German Tina and Epi turned up. Then I met Sarah and Amalia who were off to meet another six or so who were also staying there. I felt I should be in a seminar somewhere or taking part in one of Chris’ famous warm-ups! Soraya came back later and appeared to have bought her own weight in clothes, and not for the first time!

I hung around in the garden having a beer and reading an interesting book I found: When Hens Begin to Crow by Sylvia Tamale, a study of the role of gender in Ugandan politics in the eighties and nineties. Really interesting if somewhat depressing. Ugandan papers today don’t suggest things have really improved since she wrote the book, where women do at least seem to be taken a lot more seriously in the political arena in Rwanda!

Anyway, it was nice to just chill out and be there and not have to worry about the leg. I had rung Pamela Uwakwe the previous day (a former pupil of mine who is married to the Irish Ambassador here in Kampala and works for Tullow Oil in Uganda) and she said to call around for dinner Wednesday night. Great address: 1, Malcolm X Avenue! I went into town, changed some travellers cheques and then met up with Amy and Eric in a fabulous café called One Thousand Cups of Coffee (or something like that). Really nice place and really good coffee. Then I got a moto out to the Ambassador’s Residence!

Needless to say, Kevin and Pamela’s place is absolutely stunning, really beautiful house, pool, lovely high ceilings and loads of bookcases and bookshelves, all full! First time I have seen that since I left Ireland, made me feel homesick for my sittingroom! It was a really wonderful evening – fabulous food (including smoked salmon on brown bread – talk about one thing you definitely can’t get in Rwanda!) and wine and great conversation. It was great to get a chance to catch up with Pamela again.

The fun part came when I needed to go home. Needless to say motos/boda bodas don’t trawl the embassy district at night hoping to find an ambassador or consul walking around looking for a lift. So the unfortunate guard was dispatched off to see if he could flag down a taxi somewhere, which he eventually did. Apparently I am the first caller to the house that hasn’t had their own transport! (I also noticed that the guard was smart enough to ask the taxi driver for his card which he put away carefully in his wallet).

The only slight downside to the timing of everything was that I missed Chelsea’s amazing 3-1 victory over Liverpool at Anfield – the result was on the screen when I arrived back in the Backpackers’ Hostel. Ah well, never mind, I can always catch the formality of the second leg.

Today was also the day the doctor had recommended changing the bandages on the main wound but I figure I’ll do it Thursday as I need to get some additional bandages etc. Also one side of the bandage seems a bit greyish looking – wonder if I’ve caught an infection or something?

Thursday
Noisy night! The trouble with a Backpacker’s Hostel is that people are coming and going all night, arriving on late flights/buses or getting early ones. It’s not that people were being noisy, just that noise really carries in this place. Got up and looked at the bandage. One side definitely doesn’t look too good but it is incredibly well strapped on with acres of sticking plaster. I’m afraid if I rip it all off I might start the wound bleeding again (Alfred: avoiding the excruciating pain is, of course, nothing to do with it!). I’ll head into town and get scissors, proper shiny bandages that don’t stick to wounds and whatever else I need.

Breakfast: ah!! I ordered The Works Breakfast. It was (wait for it): two rashers, two suasages, two fried eggs, baked beans on toast, grilled tomato and some pineapple. Oh, and half a banana and a grilled onion as well. I have annoyed so many people back here by telling them about this (Alfred: sorry Andy!).

Els is heading to the cinema today and asked if I wanted to come along – the CINEMA!!! Wow! We have no idea what’s on but it doesn’t matter, a real cinema!!! She is heading back to Kigali tomorrow morning so I said I’d go with her as, with my leg in this shape, I’d rather be back home than here in Uganda.

So off into town I went, wandered around some shopping areas, went to a bookshop and bought three books (two by Chinua Achebe, one by a Kenyan writer entitled The Last Plague (can’t remember his name) and then off to the cinema to meet Els and two American friends, Carrie and Mary. We saw ‘The International’ starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. It was crap – a kind of a ninth-rate Robert Ludlum plot which was either creaky or downright unbelievable the further it went on. I remember seeing Clive Owen in some weird King Arthur film (also the first time I saw Kiera Knightley) and thinking he couldn’t act. (Alfred: the script didn’t help. Lines like: ‘Some bridges you cross, some you burn. This is one you burn’ didn’t exactly help). Now I know it. But who cares!!! I was in a cinema for the afternoon (the fact that the projector was set up so that all the subtitles got chopped off the bottom actually made the film more enjoyable, IMHO).

When I came put I decided to head for a pharmacy and find some bandages. The Uchumi supermarket was fabulous – just like Dunnes or Tesco’s - but the pharmacy didn’t have the bandages I was looking for. They said they were out of stock at the moment but I might find them elsewhere. Coming out I hailed a moto and said I was looking for a pharmacy but then changed my mind and said I wanted to go to the craft market near the National Theatre. ‘No problem’ he said, ‘there is a good pharmacy just beside that too.’ However, no luck: this time the pharmacy owner told me I would only find bandages like that in a hospital. So I bought a scissors, Elsatoplast and some compresses. While we were talking he asked me where I lived. When I told him Rwanda, he asked me if I knew someone called Chris Harvey who taught in Nyagatare Secondary School! The pharmacist’s brother Steve had taught there with Chris but had recently returned to Uganda! What a coincidence – Chris is going to be a bit surprised when I tell him. I mean there are more people in Kampala than in the entire Republic of Ireland – what are the odds?

Then off to the market and I spent ALL my money on clothes (minus what I need for my hotel bill and bus fare). Three nice shirts and a two-piece caftan – the caftan was expensive but there was really only one I wanted and I think the shopkeeper recognised that and wouldn’t budge much on the price.

By now it was around 1800, my leg was aching and I was conscious that I wanted to change the bandages so I hailed a moto. He said iot would be 5000 shillings to the Backpackers because it was rush hour. After a lot of arguing I got him down to 4000 and off we went. Sweet Lord, this was easily the single most insane journey of my life. Right across Kampala at rush hour (actually, not that far across Kampala now that I think of it). It took ages, we drove on footpaths, abandoned building sites, parks, puddles, wherever. I was trying to keep my left leg tucked in which was hard as I could hardly bend it, but here the moto drivers only allow a bare few centimetres of clearance on each side so that is a powerful incentive!!

Eventually we got to the Hostel and I paid him the 5000 he had originally asked for – he had certainly earned it! Then I went in, unpacked and changed the bandage. Oh dear – I won’t give the gruesome details but it wasn’t good. The main wound seemed OK if still very deep and unhealed but a wound to the side which was only covered by sticking plaster and not by the bandage or antiseptic dressing had got badly infected. Anyway, cleaned it all out with Savlon, applied the antibiotic cream I had bought in the pharmacy and rebandaged the whole thing up.

Met a girl called Suse (?Suze) from Guilford in the bar. It was her 19th birthday today – she is working on a HIV/AIDS project for her gap year before heading back to England to go to University. Had a really interesting chat about what life is like in rural Uganda as opposed to Kampala. Answer: much like Rwanda actually, other than the population pressure isn’t quite as severe. Had dinner (good burger) and finsihed Chuinua Achebe’s A Man of the People which was good but not a patch on Things Fall Apart.

I also had a long chat with John Hunswick, an Australian guy who owns the Backpackers Hostel. Bhí John in Airm na hAstráile agus ag obair i Uganda i 1994 nuair a thosaigh an cinedhíothú i Rwanda. Fuair sé cead dul isteach chun cabhrú agus chaith sé cúpla lá in oirdheisceart na tíre agus cuardach trí na cairn corpanna le feiceáil an raibh aon duine fós beo iontu. Go minic bhí, páistí go háirithe agus in ionad filleadh ar Uganda shocraigh sé fanacht agus dílleachtlann a oscailt i Kibungo. Ag an am bhí an RPF ag scuabadh rompu agus dar le John ní mórán smacht a bhí acu ar a gcuid saighdiúirí. Dúirt sé gur mó rud a chonaic sé agus ar chuala sé faoi a chuirfeadh alltacht ort.

Ansin lá amháin tháinig saighdiúirí chuig an dílleachtlann agus fuair siad amach go raibh níos mó dílleachtaithe Hutu ná Tutsi aige san áit. D’ionsaigh siad go fíochmhar é, chaill sé a chuid fiacla tosaigh ar fad, thuas agus thíos (tá cinn nua aige anois buíochas do Rialtas na Breataine, dúirt sé) agus chaith siad isteach i bpríosún é. B’éigean dó $25,000 a íoc sula scaoilfí amach é. Mar sin, id féidir a rá nach bhfuil dearcadh ró-iontach ag John i leith Kagame is a chuid. Bhraith mé an-aisteach ag éisteacht leis ag caint faoi na heachtraí a bhí aige, go háirithe ag cuardach trí na coirp is mar sin. Is gnách dom a bheith sáite in aon chomhrá mar seo, ag cur ceisteanna agus ag argóint (bheadh dearcadh cuíosach difriúil agamsa faoi Kagame, mar shampla). Ach measaim gurb é seo an chéad uair ar labhair mé go pearsanta le duine a bhí i lár ruda mar seo faoi na rudaí a tharla (ar ndóigh bhí go leor de mo chairde Rwandacha mar an gcéanna ach níor labhair éinne liom faoi fós). Bhraith mé … bhuel, easnamhach nó uireasach ar bhealach éigin, ag snámh in uiscí a bhí i bhfad ró-dhoimhin dom. Rud amháin léamh faoi i leabhair, rud eile suí os comhair fir agus é ag rá leat mar ar tharraing sé páistí beo as carn coirpeanna ceithre lá tar éis na sléachta…..

ALFRED: TUNE IN FOR THE FINAL INSTALMENT- THE JOURNEY BACK, ELSPETH, THE RWANDAN WAY OF DUBBING VIDEOS, WEEKEND IN KIGALI, DREAMS AND REAL LIFE AND THE BORDER BETWEEN THEM, AND MUCH MUCH MORE (actually, I need to light a fire under him: things are still happening NOW while he is still writing about THEN. It’s all piling up. And we still haven’t got to the Chelsea-Liverpool second leg – what a night that was, certainly not one that Andy Crow will forget in a hurry!!!)