A Letter From Home

 I asked my brother to be a guest blogger and write about his time in Uganda:

For Michelle, and all the things she does.

Dearest sister,

Written below are the accounts of the adventure I shall here after refer to as “The Epic Awesomeness that was the African Adventure of An Era.”

To begin, it was a long flight.  Spent the night in Toronto, but hung out with a small group of amazing people, and stayed awake talking into the wee hours of the morning…. Only to be greeted by the longest leg of my journey the next morning.  I took Ethiopian Airlines, which was actually really nice, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I met an interesting Canadian on the plane who was flying down to meet his Ethiopian wife… now that’s a long distance relationship.

When I finally got to Africa, it was much cooler than I expected, it was night, but only in the mid-60’s.  I still had to catch another flight to actually get to Uganda.  Of course, I was very jet-lagged when I got there, but it was a very small airport, and my sister found me without any issues.  We went to a stone-fire pizza place, which I wouldn’t expect such delicious food in a Continent we think of as so poor and ‘3rd world’.  Anyways, we walked around for a bit, and went to a craft market, where I traded a pad lock for a wooden giraffe and learned that I can’t bargain worth garbage, but I got much better later ;)  We had a day before our flight to Tanzania so we went over to Jinja to hang out at the Nile River, and poke the source of it.  The towns and villages were exciting to finally drive through.  I read a few papers on some of the water management issues they’ve been having, so it was nice to see what you’re actually reading about.  The villages there grow without any civil planning, and you can see how they get out of control.  This place was packed – people, cars, bikes, boda bodas everywhere.  Luckily my sister knew her way around.  We walked through a good portion of Jinja, made friends with a local dog, and bought some amazing crafts.  Took a boat to the source of the Nile, stayed in a hostel with one of the worst thunderstorms I’ve ever been through, and ate delicious rolexes (a fried egg wrapped in chapati bread).  The storm was so bad my sister and I moved the bottom bunks of the room we were staying in because we thought a tree could come crashing through.  Turns out it was just Jack Fruit hitting our roof…(They’re big, and delicious.)

I lost my phone because I kept it in checked in luggage like an idiot, I blame it on jet lag.  Well, we went to Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam, and took an 11 hour bus to Arusha.  They played A Danny Trejo movie 3 times.  I wasn’t surprised by the television on the bus as much as I was surprised that they liked Danny Trejo.

Arusha is fun.  So are Safaris through the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.  I saw lions.  And elephants.  And Rhinos.  (we also touched a rhino in the zoo, and saw monkeys in Uganda).  And Pride Rock – with lions on top.  Broke down for 5 hours, played Frisbee with some children.  Broke down for 3 hours, got picked up by some fun Swedes and a Tanzanian who might have some info for a Mt. Kilimanjaro climb for me when I come back in October.  We met people from all over, it was an unbelievable experience.  Ask me for pictures, I’ll convince you to visit Africa. 

My sis and I wore our Santa hat’s when we weren’t sweating our faces off, which the other tourists got a kick out of.  It definitely made for a memorable Christmas.  Oh, it was also migration time, so we saw more Wildebeests, Zebras, Gazelle, and other migrating things than I knew existed.  It made me happy and gave me a bit of hope for the world.  These areas seemed very well protected and it seemed the right steps are being taken to keep these areas pristine for many years to come.

We met some Canadians just before the Safari that we ended up hanging out with for about a week and a half or so, both through the Safari and on Zanzibar (turned out we booked the same hotel for Christmas Eve and Christmas, which is strange because there are a lot of selections on the island).  They’re also from Toronto, so I hope to see them in the not-too-distant future again.  Plus they could play Euchre.

We went from Arusha to Zanzibar, where I flew co-pilot because they didn’t have room for me to sit in the passenger area.  A bit less strict than the states.  Our Christmas was spent on the beach, with a sea food buffet, a small, secluded private beach, awesome dogs that we re-named, an amazing staff that joined us in volleyball, soccer and cards, a dolphin swim, followed by a reef snorkeling adventure, and a trip to Crab Island.  When I think of Paradise (besides Whitefish Point), this was the place I think of.  It reminded me of a mix between ‘The Beach’ and the Boy Meets World honeymoon episodes.

After this amazing experience, we went to a hostel on the East Side.  I was wrong to think that this trip couldn’t get any better.  The Peace Corps Volunteers are all amazing.  I met so many amazing, friendly people that I only occasionally felt that I was ‘the outsider.’ We made many trecks around the very touristy beach, and attended a full moon party and New Year’s right on the beach – complete with a bon fire, decent music, a bar, and a random cluster of people from all over the planet, with one very, important thing in common:  We were on Zanzibar, for every reason you could be.

I had some amazing experiences that would be very difficult to understand without actually being there.  Michelle and I split up for a bit due to varying interests.  I got up as early as possible to join a small group of PCV in Stone Town, while she stayed behind to hang with her closer friends in the area.  This worked out great for both of us, the PCV I hung with turned out to have a lot of the same interests as I, so it was easy to agree what we wanted to do.  We hired a guide, who I believe is the ‘Sultan of Stone Town’ and knew all the local connections and set the next couple of days up for us…. For cheap.  We went on a spice tour, and visited an old Slave cave, that we bribed our guide to let us crawl through, visited Prison Island and the Giant Tortoises, and did some snorkeling.  We also ate some delicious street seafood – Seafood will never taste the same again.

At one point I bought a chess board to be beaten by one of Michelle’s friends every game.  Well worth the 50,000 TZS.  I listened to amazing music, including Gangnum Style while driving down the road between stone town and Paje.  The ONLY part I didn’t like about the island (which was a very minor inconvenience) is that the showers are salty.  Not as bad as the ocean, but I never really felt clean.  Something that would go away after a few weeks, but I couldn’t get used to it during our way-too-short duration on the Island.  On the plus side, if I ever lose my job, I did get an invitation to work at the hostel I stayed in, which I must say is pretty tempting.

Well, after our lovely week or so on the island, we went back to Uganda, and eventually went back to Michelle’s village.  She’ll complain about the lack of variety of food all day (as will every other PCV), but I didn’t stay long enough for this to affect me (and they reminded me every chance they got!).  Everything was new to me, and I don’t think I tried anything I didn’t like.  From my perspective, everything was also dirt cheap, and very plentiful.  Instead of lack of food and resources, the large issue seems to be a lack of understanding.  From what I’ve been told, the education system is poor (I even talked with a Ugandan college equivalent Professor for a bit, who confirmed this), teachers are paid garbage, school is a second thought to other things.  It’s a shame, the very limited travel time I had there I saw a lot of resources that could be exploited for the good of the Countries.  There is a very deep mindset of ‘This is how we do things because this is how it’s always been done.’ 

Michelle’s house is small, without grid power or running water, but manageable.  It’s OK for 1 person, but was cramped with me there.  Her cat, Elend Venture-Cat, is a cat that gives its species some credibility.  It loves me.  My favorite cat in the world, but I can only think of 3 other cats that I didn’t despise.  But this was by far my favorite.  I hand washed my clothes by hand for the first time ever, which was awesome to do, and I didn’t die from the soap.  She cooked for me, which my sister is a hell of a cook, and it was awesome.  I watched Game of Thrones, in a house without electricity.  My life is amazing.

AfterthatIwentbackhome.

So, I could elaborate on everything above, but you get the gist.  People like to ask what my favorite country or trip has been, but I can’t give a good answer to that.  Every country I’ve been to has an argument to be my favorite, and it’s unfair to the rest.  If I had a chance to change something on this trip, I wouldn’t, it went perfect (yes, even my phone getting stolen will help me in the future, and it could’ve been a lot worse.  OK, maybe I would change Michelle’s friends not getting robbed, but not anything that happened to me).  My sister seems to be having an amazing time, and she’s smart, she knows how to handle herself.  She’s also a great travel partner, and we tend to have a lot of the same style.  I know in the future I can travel with her anywhere I go, although she needs to learn to trust me a bit more sometimes ;)

In conclusion, I Love my sister, I’m glad I got this amazing opportunity to visit her, thanks for letting me invite myself.  I had a blast, I hope you did too, and I’ll probably be back in Arusha come October, and visit my sister in Uganda if it’s in the stars.

Love, Mike


He must have been getting used to tasteless Uganda food because he went a little overboard with the 'hell of a cook' tidbit since it was only tacos with homemade tortillas and fresh lettuce from my garden, but I appreciate the smart comment and how I can handle myself. This coming from my big brother means a lot to me. And I will always remember him saying 'I am proud of you' when he saw how I was living.

I will be posting pictures on the Blog once they are sent to me from my brother along with chopsticks hopefully! (But the chopsticks are only for me)

I had a great time with my brother and hope to spend more time showing him Uganda on his next possible visit :)