There's Nothing Like a Field Trip

It's Thursday which means FIELD TRIP day! I really do love taking one or two classes a day and then going on cultural field trips at least one day a week. This is the life! I went to bed earlier last night after watching a movie with the girls. Breakfast at seven was a rushed affair, and we were loaded onto the bus at 7:45 and ready to go! I sat next to Susan on the bus, my lovely "travel buddy" and friend. We picked up Dr. Mpaji on the way to our first stop.

We went to the Catholic and Anglican shrines for the Christian martyrs that were burned by the King. When the King's pages began converting to Christianity, they told him that their real King was in heaven and that they would not work on Sundays so that they could pray to God instead. The King took this as a great offense and eventually decided to kill them. These poor men were tied to a tree and tortured, but they refused to give in and denounce their beliefs. One of the Christian's had an uncle in a position of power who offered to hide him, but the man refused and said that he would die with his Christian brothers and go to Heaven. after being tortured, the men were wrapped in bundles of sticks and laid feet first in the fire to burn slowly and painfully from the feet up. They died singing songs of praise to God. Hearing these stories make me proud of the bravery of these young men. I also can't help but wonder if I would have had the courage to be tortured and burned alive for my faith. I like to think that I would, but hopefully I will never have to do find out. At the Catholic shrine we all went in and knelt at the alter that sits on the place where the fire had been built. Ryan said a prayer and we all bowed in respect to the place and God who was with us there. At the gift shop I bought myself a wide and floppy hat that was hand made out of some type of grass.I liked the way it looked, but I feel a bit ridiculous with such a large thing on my head. It served me well for the rest of the day as we hiked around in the blazing hot sun.

We drove for an hour to a special waterfall. On the way we drove on this really tiny and dusty road passed little huts in the middle of nowhere. Little children would see our bus and run towards us waving - so adorable. At the waterfall we all had to go to the bathroom. There was an outhouse that smelled absolutely terrible. Inside there was a tile floor with one tile missing to reveal a hole below. I am starting to used to the good old "squat-and-aim". I had no problem, but a few people refused to use it. We hiked to this really pretty waterfall. It was smaller than I had expected, but still very pretty. The water there is said to have healing powers and people come to get blessings as well. Some genious in our group told the tour guide that we wanted to take the rock climbing route, so we scrambled up rocks to get to the top of the waterfall. I was sure that my clumsiness was going to get me killed. The top was really pretty as well and we saw a little hut that someone had made by putting fabric over a crevice in the rocks. We hiked to a tea plantation that was really pretty, and then to a cave. The cave has a snake living in it tat people think is sacred, so they bring it offerings of eggs to eat. hoping to get a blessing from it. We got back and relaxed before getting back on the bus.

I was starting to doze off on the bus when all of a sudden our bus swerved to the side of the road. What happened can only be explained as the Ugandan version of a rest stop. All of a sudden a group of 10-20 people surrounded us and started reaching in our windows holding water bottles and food to sell us. Some guys carried sticks with cooked meat wrapped around them. The meat actually looked really good but I wasn't about to buy it. Susan had the window seat and she was so startled by the man who opened her window and shoved water at us that she yelled at him. haha! I laughed for a long time after we got back on the road because I didn't expect those words to come out of her sweet southern mouth! :) Driving anywhere here is terrifying! The bus driver would pass cars and then continue driving on the wrong side of the road until he had to move over again. We have seen only one stop sign in our whole time here. I slept on the rest of the ride home.

Now I am back at the guest house. It is super hot and it was nice to change to shorts and out of my hiking boots. Today was a very dusty day. I just blew my nose and out came mud! Ohhh Africa..