Police Checks and Roaming Chicken…

Have you ever seen monkeys just casually hanging out in trees while driving on the road????

I have and let me tell ya, it’s as incredible as you could imagine. Picture yourself driving down the road on a Sunday afternoon, you pass a national park. You don’t think twice about it, it’s just like any other zoo. You have your Ipod on, headphones in, preparing to fall asleep until you pull up to your driveway. Then someone screams “Monkeys!!!” and the van jolts to a halt. You franticly look out the window to get a glance. Unable to see them at first and feeling left behind as everyone else “Oooos and Ahhhhs”. Then after about 20 seconds of cranking your neck in different directions, you see 5 baboons sitting together on the side of the road in a construction site. Not alarmed at all, almost as if they are looking at you like you are the spectacle. Who needs a safari when the world I’m surrounded by is about as natural as natural gets. I just get a sense of purity here, like things have looked the same for years.

The roads here are filled with speed bumps, I guess to make up for their lack of traffic lights (I have only seen then in the capital city).  They also have police checks every so often. There is one on our way from Kaihura (the village) to Fort Portal (city we come to on the weekends). It’s pretty much a sign that reads “Police Check” and has 4 officers standing on either side of the road with their big guns hanging off one shoulder. We have never previously been stopped for more than 1 minute. Today however, we had a huge van full including Hong who had to “lap-up” in the front. The police officer looked in the window and said “No, this is excess! Excess! Madam, Madam this is excess!” Our driver slipped him some money in his hand (he accepted), but he continued to say “Where is the Madam? Madam this is excess!” Our driver said something else and drove off even though the officer was still talking and had his hand in the window. You better believe we were all astounded and immediately broke out into praise for our driver talking about how much of a tough guy he is! We later found out the “Madam” he was talking about is Faith, the founder of our NGO Bringing Hope to the Family. We have discovered that she is pretty much known everywhere around here. And well respected too!

Serving food to the workers at the farm

Our feast

Fast forwarding, on Tuesday we had an interesting unexpected day. 5 of us at the school only worked for 2 hours and went to the NGOs farm. Only this time we got to drive so it only took us about 25 minutes to get there instead of an hour and a half walk. We spent the day there at the farm with the boys in school there. They were really excited to have visitors; because they are so far out I don’t think many people go out there frequently. We played cards, volleyball, and Frisbee, then ate a delicious freshly cooked meal. It was literally fresh; they went and got Irish potatoes, bananas, fruit, and a cow from the farm. Language was a bit of a barrier, but sports always seems to bring people together. We even got a chance to hold a chicken! It’s safe to say I was acting like a chicken; this isn’t exactly something I’m used to!

Our day at the farm!

Until Next Time,
*Nicole