In early November we started thinking about our soon-to-expire tourist visas. We decided the best way to get them renewed would be by leaving the country and returning with new 3-month tourist visas. That left us with a decision to make… where were we going to go? We ended up deciding that Tororo, Uganda made the most sense. There’s a Benedictine monastery there that used to host BVC volunteers and it’s right on the Kenyan border. After getting our Ugandan tourist visas and buying bus tickets to Malaba, Kenya, we were ready to go.
Arrival:
I was in charge of booking the bus tickets to the Kenya border-town of Malaba. After booking, the website allowed me to pick out seats for the three of us. I saw that the entire back third of the bus was still open, so I took a chance and put one of us in each row. Hopefully we’d each get a row to ourselves. On the morning of November 26th, we arrived at the bus station and boarded. The gamble paid off! The whole back of the bus was ours. As we pulled out of the bus station we hit the first pothole of the thousands we would be going over during the 12-hour bus ride. All three of us got thrown into the ceiling. So that’s why the back of the bus is empty… it’s going to be a long bus ride.
Twelve hours and one bathroom stop later and we were at the Ugandan border. After getting our visas stamped, we were met by Lucy. She works at the eye hospital run by the Ugandan monastery and was driving us there. As we entered the monastery, I got a text from Father Gabe. Logan, our boss, spent his own BVC year in Tororo and had given me Father Gabe’s number so I could organize the trip. The text said that he was waiting for us in the cafeteria with supper and some Niles, the name brand beer of Uganda. This was great news, as we hadn’t eaten more than a couple of snacks on the bus. As we walked into the cafeteria we were met with a “JOHNNIES!!!” from Father Gabe. This ended up being his standard way of greeting us for the week. We would respond in kind with a “FATHER GABE!!”. After supper, we got to our rooms and went straight to bed.
Time in Tororo:
Tororo Rock and Sipi Falls were the two big adventures of our week in Uganda. After a night out in Tororo with some recent high school grads we got up early to hike Tororo Rock. The monks who had volunteered to go with weren’t ready to go until early afternoon so we ended up hanging around the monastery and getting Rolexes. Rolexes are made by rolling up an omelet into a homemade tortilla called a chapati. We probably ate 10 each during our time in Tororo. Once the monks were ready, we walked to the base of Tororo Rock and started our hike to the top. It was a steep climb, with sections that had ladders built into the rock to help you reach the top. I was a little bit out of my comfort zone on the ladders, but the monks convinced me that they were sturdy. Once we got to the top we spent about an hour soaking in the view of Tororo before coming back down and returning to the monastery.
The next day, Father Gabe got permission to drive the Land Cruiser to Sipi Falls. It was about two hours away and we passed through many Ugandan villages on the journey there. About 30 minutes out, we entered the mountains that Sipi Falls was located in. The views were stunning. We hiked to the bottom of the main waterfall before climbing up to where the waterfall actually started. Halfway through the hike we met someone selling wild passion fruit. For about $2 I got a bag of the best fruit I’ve ever had in my life. After the hike, our guide had some fun with our camera (see the newest pictures in the photo gallery)!
For our last full day in Tororo, we kept it close to home. Father Gabe bought a pot of fermented millet that we mixed with hot water. This created a delicious drink that he called “hot beer”. To supplement our hot beer, he had brought a couple cold Niles for each of us. This proved to be a dangerous combination and almost kept us from going to evening prayer with the monks on our last night. Luckily, the Johnnies pulled through. After an early morning motorcycle ride to the border, we were on our way back home.
Big thanks to Father Gabe, Sister Maria, Father Sergei, Chef Mike, and the Rolex Man for making the trip what it was. I had thought a year in Kenya might allow me to “check off” East Africa on my list of places to travel to. I’ve since realized that the list of places is only getting bigger.
I’ll be back.
Thanks for reading!