Boda Boda!!

Jack Fruit

This week I have been based at AIM’s central regional office, just outside of Kampala City. I am here for Orientation and have had a really great week of making new friends and learning new things. It has been a week full of adventure, challenges and has shown us a taste of the new culture we are entering. I have been so excited about being here and it has been such a long process to make it this far I was itching to start and have enjoyed every moment of learning a little about Africa and how AIM work through the central region.

On Monday we spent the morning being briefed, discussing dangers and differences of this culture compared to Western cultures and what we needed to know was acceptable behaviour in the areas we are going to.

We briefly discussed the impact that witchcraft and sorcery has on Ugandans and how deeply embedded it is in their traditions. Witchcraft has a huge impact on people’s lives here for a number of reasons and deeply underlies thoughts, beliefs and traditions much like materialism and wealth underlie a lot of western culture.

“Witchcraft is interrelated with superstition, which is also a practice founded on unreasoning beliefs in magic. It is also irrational fear of what is unknown or mysterious. At the same time it is associated with sorcery which also deals with cannibalism and child sacrifice”

The chat we had about witchcraft impacted me as the area in which I will be going to work; Jinja is where the Source of the Nile lays at Lake Victoria. We were informed that water symbolizes darkness within withchraft and sorcery so the people I meet and come across will most probably have deep rooted beliefs in this area.

We met with two wonderful and Inspirational woman on Wednesday, one of these called Faith who is from Kenya but works with a charity in Uganda. She was telling us a little more about witchcraft beliefs and how it affects families that she works with. She said that it is common for parents in Uganda to pierce their baby’s ears and that they do not do it for fashion but out of fear of loosing a child to a kidnapper who may take them to present the child as a human sacrifice. If a child has pierced ears they are then seen as impure. This was a shocking reality to hear and something that must be a terrifying reality to parents in rural areas where this occurs.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8444047.stm

On Tuesday I met with an inspiring nurse who has worked out here for years. She was briefing me on my role and what things I will and will not be allowed to do. I am here on a work permit but not as a registered nurse in Uganda so there will be some restrictions on what I can and cannot do like not giving IV drugs. However, from what I was told I will still be busy and face many challenges in the role ahead as I learn how to test for and treat multiple cases of malaria and administer drug prescriptions for those with HIV. I’m excited about getting started in my role. There has been a lot of thought, discussions and ‘wonderings’ on what I will actually be doing over the months so I’m excited to get stuck in to the tasks ahead.

She briefed me on the increasing occurrence of HIV in Uganda. HIV is often been referred to as ‘Slim’ here over the years because sufferers became like skeletons and loose lots of weight.  At one stage Uganda was a leading country in the management and control of this disease but as people have ‘got used’ to it in their society and education and attitude has lapsed so there has been an increase in the rise of Ugandan’s being seen with it.

As part of our chat I also learnt about the following (both what I may treat others with and may suffer from myself!!);

• ·      Jardia worms – an intestinal parasite caught from contaminated food and water leaves the sufferer very unwell and sick.
• ·      Mango fly – a worm that gets under your skin. Caused when a mango fly lays eggs on clothes that are out to dry. Will get under the skin if clothes are not dried/ironed properly.
• ·      Jiggers – a flea that burrows under the skin mainly the feet

Some of these are very yucky to think about so I will definitely be following advice given about always wearing shoes and washing my hands when eating!

Entebbe Road

On Tuesday afternoon we had a really practical and hands on lesson about using public transport - learning how to ride a boda boda!! This was fun and does feel a little scary at times. Crash helmets are not included! The Boda-Boda will be our main mode of public transport now we are here so getting used to them was a very important lesson.

  Wikipedia explains the Boda Boda as;

  “a Motorcycle in which the passenger sits   

  behind the driver as you would if you were a  

  second person on a motorbike. The  

  boda-boda taxis are part of the African  

  bicycle culture; they started in the 1960s and  

  1970s and are still spreading from their  

  origin on the Kenyan-Ugandan border to  

  other regions. The name originated from a need to transport people across the "no-mans-land" between the border posts without the paperwork involved with using motor vehicles crossing the international border. The bicycle owners would shout out boda-boda (border-to-border) to potential customers “.

Boda boda riding is a very new experience and our first trip out as a group is one that I will always remember! We ‘doubled up’ to take a ride down to Entebbe Road. When I arrived two of the other girls were already there and were surrounded by Boda Boda drivers. The longer we waited there (we were to wait for the AIM coordinator who was to take us to the taxis) the more drivers that surrounded us and herded us in next to a ditch so we couldn’t escape! They were ‘fighting’ over who was going to drive us to the next place. At one point one of the guys took the key out of his ‘friends’ motorbike and threw it across the ditch and into the grass!!

As we drove around the smaller towns and villages on the boda’s adults and children were all calling out “Muzungu” which Ugandans shout out when they see a white person. It created quite a stir as 4 boda’s of muzungu’s sped through their homes. Whilst we were out and about we went to visit other AIM placements. One was Dwelling Places which an AIM nurse is based long term and works within a team to take in street kids, restore their lives and reintegrate them back into families or adoptive homes, the other Reformed Theological College where an AIM worker has been in place setting up a coding system in their college library and teaching how to code and log the books. 

 On Wednesday we had a day   

 out in the city. We visited 

 Kampala town which gave us 

 the chance to use public  

 transport again – Boda Boda’s  

 and the standard white taxi van.   

  We spent the day looking around the city, visiting parliament buildings, wandering around the streets, visiting a craft market and lunching in a shopping mall called Garden City! On the way home we had to figure out the taxi  rank which was just a massive car park of white vans heading to different destinations (and all facing different directions) outside Kampala. Fortunately, our guide knew exactly which area the taxi left from and got us on the right one!

I have been starting to pay for things out of my expenses budget and It’s taking me a while to get used to Ugandan currency. Money is in Ugandan shillings and following my first ATM withdrawal I had 400,000 shillings in my wallet – I felt rich!  This is about £90 in GBP. Hopefully, it wont take too long for me to grips with it all.

So, today is Thursday and I am preparing to go to GSF tomorrow. My internet time is probably going to be much reduced once I’ve travelled there and while I settle in, spend time meeting and leaning the names of hundreds of kids and getting comfy in my new surroundings.

Love you all and thank you for the multitude of messages, cards, emails and Facebook messages you have sent they have been a real blessing and encouragemet to me over this first week.

I’d appreciate prayer as I travel to GSF and settle into my new home. I have been told to expect some sort of culture shock when I settle into life in a rural area.

Please also pray that I would continue to develop a heart of love for this culture and the children that I will be working with. This first week has been just a taster of what is to come and it has really got me excited about the year ahead.

Psalm 89:1  "I will sing of the LORD's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations."