I was invited to go with Geoffrey Auma, a Kenyan discipler of pastors, to a village 17 kilometers outside of Soroti town. Here’s how the day went.
7:10 - Arrive at pastor George’s house/hut, meet Geoffrey, and have breakfast. Breakfast is g-nut paste (natural peanut butter) on white bread, with African tea (mostly boiled milk with tea flakes added- very tasty!)
7:45 - walk to main road, hop onto boda-boda’s (bike taxis), and head into town where we are to take public transport to Katine.
8:45 – Still waiting at taxi stand for a vehicle to take us to our destination. Behind me there is a chipati cook (oil-fried pita/tortillas) shoe-cleaner, and many men sitting around talking. We decide to relocate to the road from which we will leave to try to catch a taxi there.
10:15 – Having spent the last hour and a half of waiting and waving at cars and trucks, still no transport. I am getting frustrated and quite impatient, but reminding myself where I am… We then decide to head back to the taxi stand.
10:30 – We finally hop into a matatu (taxi) which is headed to where we are going, but because the 14 passenger vehicle is not full we have to roam (driving down the streets trying to solicit more passengers via the driver and conductor yelling the destination to people standing on the road). We soon discover that this taxi isn’t going anywhere soon, and return to the taxi stand, hoping to catch a bus this time.
11:15 – We finally get on a bus that will head our way. Again, we roam; while waiting near the local park, teenaged venders enter into the bus to try to sell sodas, samosas, and many other items. Also, a young man dressed in shirt and tie, starts preaching in Swahili from the front. After a while here we finally head out. Time being 11:45.
12:20 – We arrive near our location and the three men with me locate the place, but being in the village there aren’t any signs or other identifying postings. We go to meet our hosts. We hoped to immediately head to the center and begin teaching but they insist on lunch first. Hungry and left with no other option, we agree but remind them that we want to make the most of what remains of the day.
1:20 – Lunch is served, and a good one it is- cooked chicken and pork, chipatis, rice, and cabbage. It really hits the spot but combined with the heat makes us really tired. Afterwards, we finally head to the center, (a mud-bricked building, with a steel-sheeted roof, with wooden benches for seats and a blackboard at the front) and Geoffrey begins to teach.
5:00 - After two hours of excellent teaching, we exit the center and prepare to leave. I am taken back to the main road on a motorcycle. We now try to flag down a vehicle to take us back to Soroti. We hope for a matatu but will settle for anything with four wheels.
5:45 – We finally get a vehicle to stop for us – a soda-bottle transport truck. It has walls on the sides and bars on the top, filled with cases of bottles. Already, there are 4 guys up top- we join them. There are quick to offer us one of the many sodas, and they open the bottles using the side of a crate. The ride is windy but the scenery amazing. Tonnes of palm trees, village huts, children dressed in bright colors and cattle grazing.
6:30 - We are dropped off in town, and take a boda-boda back home.
7:00 – At home and glad to be so.
¬Josiah
