Just a Boy's Blog: Alex In Africa

Today we are going to travel about 3 hours to the Parra Safari Lodge. We woke up and had breakfast with the nuns as usual and then we waiting outside for Geoffrey to pick us up. As we were out there, one of the ground keepers was doing some plant maintenance and a chameleon jumped out of the plant. Here's that little guy!

We took a small adventure around the compound again, and we found this beautiful tree.

As we started our journey Geoffrey took the familiar path to get to our destination but we soon discovered that the center of Gulu was doing roadwork on a small section of the road without giving notice so we had to turn around and find another route. Luckily Geoffrey knew his way around and it wasn't much of a hassle, with the exception of lost time. Time is an interesting thing in Africa, as they use it very loosely. In America, 9:30am means 9:30am, and unless you're early you're considered late. In Africa, 9:30am could mean 9:15am or even 9:45am, it just depends on when you feel like it. Adjusting to this mindset is no easy task. As we traveled, I can count approximately 5 times when we didn't see somebody walking on the road. Everyone here walks, some people drive poda poda, and very few people actually have cars or trucks. Driving is a very risky thing, but not in the sense of safety. During the Ugandan rainy season it rains heavily for approximately 1 hour almost every day. So depending on when you're traveling, you could have drove miles only to discover that the road is flooded. Very few roads here in Northern Uganda are paved, so the red mud becomes a very sticky clay. As you drive, it is very common for the children to get excited to wave, smile, and yell hello to you. The towns are overgrown with large blades of grass and other weeds, and the building are all very run down. If a building is lucky enough to have been painted, they are more often than not very chipped and faded. Some of the larger buildings have giant walls surrounding them, and on top of the walls can be razor blades, broken glass, and coiled barbed wire to keep intruders out.

Most of the roads are done by Chinese workers, and they all live in a compound with their equipment, like the one pictured below.

Everyone here lives in some sort of hut, some circular and some square. Occasionally as we would drive, we would see a beautifully built building, like the Catholic Church pictured here.

You would know when a water well would be coming up on the road because you would see people, mostly children, carrying their yellow water cans. Some wells have more than 20 people lined up waiting to be used. I find the livestock here very interesting. Some are tied up, but most just roam free. Pictured here is an open field with some cows grazing.