Rhino Tour / Tony is a Stud / Examinations

Part 1 – Rhino Sanctuary

We left early Saturday morning for the three hour trek to wherever it was that we went. Many people have since asked me where the Rhino Sanctuary was and I regretfully have to tell them that I have absolutely no idea and I still have no idea three days later. Wherever I was I had a blast and is was a great get-away. The ride was pretty cool as well because we once again got a peek at the Nile River and we passed through a mile or so stretch of “highway” where baboons were lining both sides of the road. Also, as I mentioned in my last post, despite Bill and I being the smallest guys on the trip, we had BY FAR the most room in the mutatu. We stopped a few times on the way along the side of the road which was about as sketchy as you could get. Dozens of locals would run up to the van and try to sell us food, water, or sodas. Shockingly for those of you that know me, I did not buy anything and did not spend a single shilling throughout the entire journey (well, until I got to the resort of course.)

The resort was run by a South African family and they were wonderful. I don’t really remember much else about them or else I would elaborate. But, they were VERY hospitable, and extremely friendly.

After getting settled into our rooms (which I had the unfortunate duty of having to share a room with Kevin) we had a highly anticipated lunch that consisted of spaghetti with meat sauce and something else that I can’t remember right now. It was delicious though and it is always enjoyable when you are eating something that you can actually recognize. We then had a little bit of free time to relax before we went to hang with the rhinos. Most of us just sat around and chatted for a while until we left.

We piled back into our mutatu’s and heading into the bush. Our vans stopped in the middle of nowhere and we followed some guy down some path (hardly a path, but it was a little more worn than the rest of the area.) The trek itself was pretty cool and a bit terrifying, but my favorite part was taking some of the long, hard grass and putting it on the neck of the person in front of me in order to make them think that there was a bug crawling on their necks. Their reactions were priceless.

We finally came to three rhinos just hanging out in the middle of the bush. There was absolutely no protection of any kind between us and the beasts. I was not too worried because I figured that if they did decide to charge us I could run faster than at least three of the girls that I was with and would have been all set. There were three guards with us who were holding ak-47’s just in case something did go terribly wrong. However, I have a funny feeling that they would have been used on us before they would ever shoot one of the beloved, endangered rhinos. Either way, we all took about 25 pictures each of the same three rhinos doing the same thing, and I am sure the pictures will be terribly boring. However, there is one semi decent one of me standing in front of a rhino, but it kind of just looks like a big grey rock. Oh well, at least I know what it is and how close I got to a wild 5000 pound beast. My buddy just told me that we got some sort of fact sheet about the rhinos, but I am not sure I ever got one or what I did with it. Therefore I will simply take his word that they were 5000 pounds. If that sounds unrealistic or ridiculous don’t blame me, blame Matt.

After sitting in the bush staring at three rhinos for about an hour, we began our trek back to the resort area. Everyone was talking in an Australian voice a la’ the late great Steve Irwin, A.K.A. The Crocodile Hunter. Well, I am not sure about EVERYONE, but I was for quite some time. Our mutatu ride back to the resort was about as bumpy as you can get, and I cannot think of one enjoyable second throughout the twenty or so minutes.

Upon returning home we split up into a few groups and kind of did our own thing before dinner. A bunch of us played an awesome card game that the guys from last year invented and we kind of tweaked a little. We played for a couple of hours and I was in the lead for most of the game. There was one hand left, and Big John earned enough points in the last hand to beat me by one point. Of course he was the one keeping score, so I am convinced he cheated.

This was just setting up the rest of the night, which was about 10 more straight hours of poker, and a little bit of dinner in between. Lance, Bill, Michael, Matt, Big John, Mandie, Justine, John and I were the high rollers. We were playing for hours on end and I am pretty sure I ended up winning about 1,000,000 shillings (which all went towards what I am pretty sure is the highest beverage tab of all time at this rhino resort if you know what I mean.) Also, to my friends back in the States, we also had many round of “up the river, down the river” mixed in between rounds. NOT a good idea in Uganda. It is simply MUCH more difficult with the liquid in Africa.

Anyway, after a very long night, I woke up to Bill barging into the room. I had to explain to him that barging into your friends room in Uganda while sleeping, is a lot different than barging into your friends room in the States. I just about had a stroke because I thought that we were being attacked. Luckily, I got a glimpse of Kevin jump up with a look of sheer terror on his face, which made me laugh hysterically, and all my fears were forgotten. All this was overshadowed however, when I realized that half of my body was outside of the mosquito net, and the net was only covering from my knees down. I don’t know how it happened, but I am pretty sure I will end up getting malaria now.

After realizing how little money I spent on this weekend get-away, I managed to find the Rhino Sanctuary gift shop and bought BY FAR the most expensive item in the store. It is a ridiculously awesome soccer jersey that says Uganda on it. I am not a huge soccer guy, but the shirt was really cool, and most importantly I got a lot of compliments about how good I looked in it, so it was all worth it.

The ride home was much better than the way there because we all talked and played games and nobody was mad at me for having the best seat in the van. I actually had a pretty crappy seat, but I did not want to cause any waves and request my lounge seat again. I also managed to take a few pictures of the Nile River, which is apparently highly illegal where we were. I f I got caught all they would have done is taken my camera, so it was worth the risk, even though I am probably the worst photographer of all time and the pictures are probably horrible anyway.

After getting home Sunday afternoon, we were all really in the gambling mood so Kevin, Bill and I rummaged through the market searching for anything to use as poker chips. We found 50 washers (I think they are some sort of tool, but I am no handy-man, so really I don’t know what they are), a big bag of red beans, and a big bag of green beans. We played poker and Sharon ended up winning, which rots because she just learned how to play.

We then ended the night at Katharina’s bar to watch the Brazil vs. US soccer game. The entire place was rooting for the US, but unfortunately they lost it at the end. I, however, was already in bed because I was deathly ill. Don’t worry mom, I am much better now, and I might be exaggerating about how sick I was, but I didn’t feel too great.

Part 2 – Tony is a Stud

I have mentioned a few times that I will be working with a few student teachers while I am in Gulu, and Tony is one of them. As the girls, Tony and I were walking home from school Tuesday three Boda Boda’s came and very selflessly I allowed the girls to have them and I offered to catch the next Boda Boda that drove by.

Unfortunately they did not protest and left me in the middle of the road, miles from home, and dirty and hungry. Thankfully Tony lives only a short walk from school and asked me if I would like to see where he lives. I had been curious as to what things looked like inside of the “homes” here, so I accepted. It was actually hilarious because after I said yes, he said “Just for about 2 minutes or so.” He obviously did not mean that he did not want me to stay long, but that is the way it sounds to an American. When I walked in to his home he quickly pointed out some pictures on the wall to the right. He said “you know who that is right” and I said “Oh my God, that is Doris.” Doris is also a student teacher at my school and I had just met her the day before and about an hour before we left school I told the girls that I think she is one of the prettiest girls I have ever seen in my life. OK, I said one of the hottest girls I have ever seen, but I am trying to be polite. The girls all agreed that she is beautiful.

It turns out that Tony and Doris are very close and even though I am heart-broken that Doris is not available, I could not be any prouder of my very best Ugandan friend.

Part 3 – Examinations

Today was a big day. I mentioned before that Sir Samuel Baker is having mid-term examinations all this week and today was the History exam for the class that I teach with Tony. He was actually the proctor in the next room, and I had our class all by myself. I was absolutely astonished at how well the kids behaved. They are in S2, which is basically like 9th grade, although some of them are MUCH older. There were 57 kids in the class and they all squeeze into a room half the size of my classroom in the States. Once I passed out the test, there was LITERALLY not one sound coming from the room. Tony kept calling me outside to talk, and I was hesitant to leave the kids alone during an exam. He told me not to worry, but no matter how much he said it I kept looking back into the room expecting to see someone cheating or fooling around, or even things fly across the room. There was none of this. The kids kept working as if I was still there. I was so proud of them. Even when they were finished with the exam they sat absolute silent. They had no “silent reading book” they had no notebook to doodle in. Out of 57 boys, not one of them asked to go to the bathroom or get a drink. They simply sat in absolute silence until I dismissed them. Then, they were asked to place their exams on my desk before they left. In the States, this would result in the biggest mess you can imagine. There would be tests all over the place, a complete mess of a pile, that I would be forced to sort through and organize. I thought that this is for sure what would happen when 57 boys were cramped up taking a test, and told they could leave. However, they simply walked up to the desk and place the exams meticulously in a neat pile and filed out of the room. It was awesome and really says something about their culture. On the way out one of the boys asked me if we could talk sometime. I said of course, I am here for three and a half more weeks. He said, I would like to talk and ask you questions about you and where you live. When are you free? We set up a time for next week, and before he left the room he came back and said to me, “excuse me sir, just you have to promise one thing.” I said “of course, what?” and he said promise me you just won’t forget.” I told him that of course I would remember, and he left the room. There is so much respect here, and the kids are so welcoming . It is an amazing feeling to be so respected and I cannot wait to be in the classroom much more next week and get to know these kids much better.

Miscellaneous
• Group 3 has arrived safe and sound, they are cool and a bunch even came out with us in Tuesday night to celebrate.

• Biggest Trivia Night of all time Thursday night at Bambu (Only time that everyone from all three groups can attend) AND none of us have school on Friday because we all have to present at the conference. It should be very interesting.

• The eleven of us have been getting pretty sick of the dinners at our hotel so we all ventured to Boma restaurant Tuesday night and had the best steak in Uganda. However, after dinner is when the excitement went down. Kate and Annie Boda Boda’d home, and the other 9 of us should have followed, but didn’t. We got completely lost and ended up walking through a village. These villages have probably never even had one mzungu walk through their homes, let alone 9 mzungu’s with headlights on their heads. It was pretty scary, but we all survived and have an adventure to remember forever. I am sure that others can more accurately recite how we got lost, or what led us to walk home, but I just know that it was an adventure that I hope to never experiment again.

• In a couple of days I will post a list of everyone’s blog, that way you can read them and get their perceptions of how this experience is going. Come Saturday we will be half way through, and it is amazing to think of what we have experienced so far, and we still have so much more to see and learn. Most of them are probably much deeper and thought provoking than mine is, so if you want light reading you better stick with mine.

• Finally, the high school kids from schools for schools also made it here safely and they will be leaving this weekend. John actually has two of his students here and he is really excited about being able to witness them experience Gulu first hand. Hopefully they return to the States and continue to represent Invisible Children as model students and model citizens.

That is all for tonight. The power is off and I am not sure of how much battery is left in the laptop. Plus, I need to catch some zzzzzz’s and rest up for tomorrow. I have to go to school to plan with Tony, then grade a few of the exams, then somehow come up with something to present to 100 plus people on Friday morning, then FORCE myself to head to Bambu for trivia night. After all, I don’t want to be anti-social.

Thanks for reading.
-Ryan