Get Schooled - Helping Kids in Uganda Succeed

We apologize for not posting this yesterday, but we were in a more remote area and our wifi router wouldn’t grab a signal.

Today’s 65-kilometre ride was for Naginda Sylvia and Kirumira Augustine. There are only two days of riding left which is hard for me to fathom.

Rain. wind. crocodiles. sun. cats. equator. dirt. traffic. interview. roadkill. spiders. kids. bedbugs. fishermen. That’s the gist of today.

We enjoyed our last interaction with Dennis at breakfast and left around 8:30 to make the meeting with Luke, the reporter, at noon. We rode the main highway between Masaka and Kampala so traffic was steady, but still felt safer than riding on the North Shore at home. Today the road was lined with fishermen, selling both fresh and dried tilapia, for miles. We rode right into a rainstorm and the rain was mixed with sand, snot, spray and a few tears on my face and bikegloves as we fought a headwind. It was a miserable moment. Suck it up! I couldn’t draft behind John because the kick up of gravel and spray into my face was just too much. But we crested the hill, saw the sign for the equator and my energy was renewed.

We met with Luke as planned after he startled us from behind, riding a motorcycle and filming us. We then sat down with a Coke and he told us a little bit about his business. He’s part of an organization that owns three newspapers and two broadcasting stations, but he’s thinking of retiring from that business in a couple of years to start a vocational school instead. We answered some very general questions about how things have gone so far and what we thought of Uganda. He took some notes but then took out his old video camera and proceeded to ask us exactly the same questions but with the camera right in our faces. It was very strange and made me really uncomfortable and forget a lot of what I wanted to say. He took some more video of us riding, but the camera was swinging all over the place as he balanced himself of the back of a boda so I’m not sure how it will turn out. We took some photos at the equator which had an awesome marker that I was happy to not miss this time. So that was the first line we crossed today.

The second line we crossed today was the one that goes over our comfort zone. We booked a room at the Buwama Crocodile Farm, being lead to believe it was a reptile refuge and somewhat of a tourist attraction. What it is in actuality is a place where old crocodiles come to die and baby crocs are sold to locals for food and to South Koreans to make handbags and shoes. Romeo and Juliet, the 60-year-old pair, have been bred to keep the business running. And Benjamin, an 80-year-old man-eating croc from the Nile has been brought here to live out the last of his possible 20 years. Apparently, he’s known for eating 60 people.

After lunch (which I’m so thankful we had before getting here!!!) we rode about twelve kilometres out of the way to get here and it’s been the first place that made me want to get back on the bike and ride further. Their focus is obviously more on the crocodile harvesting and less on accommodations. Based on the price, we thought we knew what we were getting because it was higher than some other places we’ve stayed so we thought it would be decent. There is no electricity, no running water, spiders, a disheveled ‘restaurant’ with spiderwebs everywhere, an actual bulb-less lamp on the floor of the bathroom for the light, and the worst part – bedbugs. Oh, and the floor actually moves from all the tiny ants crawling around. I showed Naomi (the worker) the bedbugs and she laughed, saying, “Oh, those aren’t bedbugs. Those are just insects crawling around.” Yeah. IN THE BED! It was too late to find anything else (without being sure anything else even existed that we could pedal to before dark) so we are pulling out the tent tonight and pitching it in the room itself. It’s gonna be a long night. To be honest, this is actually kinda what we expected to have to do for the entire trip so now we are 100% more grateful that it wasn’t like this from the start. I would’ve faked an injury to avoid living like this and my standards have never been five-star hotels. But hey, I told too many people that I wanted to “embrace all that Uganda had to offer.” I guess that would have to include bedbugs and ants and no running water. I’m just thankful I have an option to not embrace them literally, as John has been lugging our tent around this entire country still unused. I asked John if he would have carried the tent this entire time knowing that we would only need it for this night. He laughed and without hesitation said, “Absolutely!”

The setting outside is quite beautiful though. It’s right on Lake Victoria so there is a nice breeze and there are hundreds of birds feeding in the grass and making their different calls. There are cows grazing, fishermen out on a little peninsula, and laughing children sliding down a hill on banana leaves. That’s the thing I have learned about this place. For as hard as it is, there is stunning beauty all around if you just open your eyes. But John did just say, “I kinda just want this day to go away.” It’s only 4 pm.

Today we are reminded that suffering together builds a bond. And cycling can bring you to special places physically and emotionally… even if the bugs come along with.

Today’s dusty but beautiful 75-kilometre ride was for Nanyonga Edith and Nanziri Viola. We have five kids left to ride for and then all fifty-four will have been represented. I hope you have had a chance to check out many of their stories on our website.

We were so happy to wake up to relatively clear skies this morning. We had our last breakfast on our island rest stop, said goodbye to James and starting riding around 8. We stopped at a store/bank to get some money and there was no one around inside. A few other teenagers gathered inside the store as well that sold radios, TVs and other electronics. We waited for about ten minutes, and while we were confused, everyone else just patiently waited when a guy finally rolled up on a motorcycle. It was his store, but who knows where he was or why he opened shop before he could be there. What we were really struck by though was that no one was looking to steal anything. They just all waited for the owner to return.

The actual riding has gotten easier over time, although I can tell that the repetitive nature of pedalling is breaking down my body slightly. I’m looking forward to mixing things up by hiking and paddle-boarding when we get home. The bike though, has become a wonderful tool to bring us to the next lovely soul, heartbreaking story and unique daily experiences.

We pushed hard to get to the ferry, but thought we had just missed it. We had been passed by the oncoming cars that had just come across the lake and still had about a half an hour of riding to go to the landing site. Well, our timing was perfect. We rolled up, brought in our passports to register on the manifest and the horn sounded for loading. On the ferry we noticed a teenage boy who slowly edged closer and closer to us as we stood next to our bikes on the deck. Finally, he must have mustered the courage or his curiosity just got the best of him so he started talking to John. We chatted with him for the length of the journey. Emmanuel, a high school student, had to go back to Kalangala town on the island to get his school fees before he was allowed to return to school on the mainland. His mom and dad are fishermen and he has to wait until they catch enough fish to sell to make his school fees. He says it takes a long time sometimes, but he was excited to return to school now after a month of work with his father. He was very happy to be getting back in time to complete his final exams and see his friends. He was very interested in hearing about Canada, especially the climate. He got my email address before we parted company, us on our bikes and he crammed into the back of an overloaded car.

We are back in Masaka, but staying somewhere different this time as our last place was in a pretty sketchy part of town and above a pretty popular bar. We rolled in with the familiar relief that comes with seeing the name of the hotel we’ve been looking for and I went in to register. The room they showed me looked just fine, but at the time I failed to notice that they were still building an additional floor on top and all of the construction that was going on in the building. They were literally working on every single room around us for hours, hammering, sawing, sweeping dirt off the roof that fell onto my clothes I had hung out to dry. It was a loud operation with lots of commotion as they were trying to get a huge water tank lifted up three stories to the roof. There were multiple men on the roof with ropes that cascaded down to the tank that they attached to a stick that they put inside. There were a couple of guys on the middle floor with long skinny logs that they used to push the tank away from the building so that it could get pulled up and over the rooftop’s three-foot lip of cement. Keep in mind that as they hung over the roof, there were no safety harnesses or precautions. The boss was yelling directions from the ground as the men lifted and struggled and yelled at each other while the housekeepers all laughed at them and joked from the ground. Everyone cheered when they pulled it up and over the lip, the ending to what was, no doubt, a long work day. Although it was loud and a little annoying, I was impressed with their problem solving skills and ingenuity. Plus, meeting Dennis has made it worth it.

I could see immediately that Dennis had grabbed John’s heart when I saw his face after I came out from registering. John usually uses the time that I’m getting the nigh’s room to strike up conversations with the workers who are curious about us and come to check out our bikes. I could hear it in his voice that he thought this boy was special. Dennis is an 18-year-old who is in his last year of secondary school, studying hotel management. He works and studies intermittently because he is sometimes forced to take long breaks in his studies to make money for school fees, sometimes as long as a year. He feels guilty about depending solely on his mom’s hard work for school fees so he does what he can, when he can, to help. He makes only $26 a month for working eleven-hour days and he is very good at his job from what we saw. He cried when he spoke of his mom who has trouble making money enough for him and his siblings to attend school. His father left them and “doesn’t care about them” but he says he still loves him because he is still his father and he wouldn’t be here without him. Dennis is bright, animated, hilarious, hard-working, and loves to talk. He was so authentic and vulnerable that we were deeply touched by him. He was shy when he told us about a new girlfriend and tried to hide his tears when he spoke of his parents. He couldn’t believe how old we were and acted out what a regular 50-year-old lady in Uganda looks like – bent over and hobbling with one hand on her back. He said John looked 35. You can see why we liked him so much. He said, laying his hand on his heart, “My troubles are African troubles, but I have hope and I am so happy.” He had a soccer game this evening. He plays as a striker and promised to score a goal for both of us and then proceeded to show us the victory dance he will use when he scores.

I cried a little when he left. Let me tell you his, education is the number one thing these kids desire and the number one thing their parents work so hard to provide. I am so encouraged to confirm our purpose here and with our project. Paying for a child to attend school, who has no other means to achieve that dream despite the tireless work and sacrifice of the entire family (if they even have one), is a sacred act. I am convinced. There is no better gift.

It wasn’t raining when we woke up and stayed sunny all day. We are hoping for the same tomorrow when we leave to head back to Masaka. We ride about 38 kilometers, then take a ferry and then ride another 38 kms back to Masaka.

If it’s raining, it’s raining; there’s not much we can do about it and that’s why we brought rain jackets. We would just really like to avoid the mud as it wrecks the bikes, our clothes and my mood.

We went for a little ride today, got some money, water and soggy cookies and then explored a bit. I spent some time this afternoon talking with James, the waiter and bar tender here. He is super helpful and always goes the extra mile. I was asking about his wife who, he said, was born on this island and has never left. I asked him more about this because we have not met a single man in Uganda (except in smaller villages sometimes) who actually lives with his wife and children and I wondered if that was as common as it appeared. He told me that it’s very common because people have to go where the jobs are that pay the most. Yes, there might be a small restaurant in the small town where his wife lives, but the pay would not be enough for school fees for his two children. So, just like all the others we have had contact with, he lives here on the property of the hotel. He goes for three months at a time between visits and only gets to stay (without pay, mind you) for ten to twelve days before he has to return to work. Can you imagine that? He knows his children need his influence and he regrets deeply that he cannot see them grow and change. It made me very sad to hear how hard that is on the family, but he’s committed to caring for his family in the best way he can. We have seen this same situation in EVERY accommodation in which we’ve stayed.

Flavia, the 28-year-old housekeeper who has worked here for two years, shared the same story. Her boyfriend and family live on the mainland and she only sees them every three months or so. She says people do not travel to the island from the Entebbe side very often. One reason she said is that people are afraid to cross the water. It takes about three and a half hours to get here on a ferry from Entebbe and Lake Victoria is ranked as the deadliest body of water of its kind on the planet because of the number of deaths recorded each year (a mixture of lethal weather, poor communication and lack of resources are the three biggest cause of the high fatalities). The main reason that people don’t come over though is that the island has a reputation for having an abnormally high rate of HIV/AIDS and so when people move here, she says their loved ones “feel abandoned” and so then the families “abandon them and write them off.” They assume they will have other sexual partners over here and contract AIDS as a result. I’m sure that might come as a result of only seeing your partner four times a year, but James and Flavia say that assumption is wrong and has not been their experience. I left the conversation feeling both sad and helpless.

And now, for the last of your questions:

Question: What is the first thing you want to do when you get home?

Answer: We are really looking forward to spendig a day with Hannah at the Coast before driving back to Nelson and seeing Dylan. After that, we really want to eat some popcorn and sit on the deck in total anonymity and walk the streets without anyone noticing us.

Question: Have you seen any snakes?

Answer: Thankfully, only small dead ones on the road!

Question: Are there any Christian churches/ people in the villages that you might go and say hi to?

Answer: Every Sunday has been a cycling day so far so we have not taken the opportunity to do this. Truthfully though, I’m not sure that we would as it would be quite a distraction for the congregation and too overwhelming for these two introverts. We get enough attention as it is. We are going to attend church with Pastor Vincent next Sunday as the ride will be completed and we want to say a word of thanks to them for their prayers and support.

Question: With it being a tribal country – would it be right to assume that in the rural areas Christianity is rare or non-existent?

Answer: Our experience has been that no matter how remote we are or how small the village is, the people will do what it takes to get to church even if it costs them money to ride a motorcycle taxi, or walk long distances. We know the tribal traditions exist, and some are quite dark, but we have not experienced anything related to the witchcraft that we know exists or other unfamiliar traditions. The three main churches represented here: Catholic, Muslim and Christian. We have seen a pretty equal representation of each.

Question: Would you do this trip again and if so, what would you do differently, if anything?

Answer: I would probably not do this exact trip again, but only because I would like to see and experience new things and places. I don’t know if I would feel the desire to bike in Africa again necessarily, although it would be kinda cool to bring other people over and experience things from a fresh perspective. Would we do anything differently? Knowing what we know now, we would not drag a tent and sleeping mats for seven weeks considering the cheap accommodations that are so plentiful and the now-obvious safety issues with camping. We would have carried more jerky and less oatmeal knowing that breakfast is always included with a hotel stay and trusted meat protein is hard to come by. I do, however, want to encourage anyone who rides a bike or loves people and adventure to come to Uganda and experience the same generous hospitality, beautiful people, amazing landscapes, safety and affordability that we have found here. We are thrilled with our choice to come here to bike tour and will never forget our time here.

Question: You wrote that you get comments from men along the way – and some of them very inappropriate. Is that representing the view of women in general in Uganda, or is it more because you are white that you get those comments?

Answer: I think it’s a little of both. I certainly stand out as a woman riding a bike because after seeing thousands of men riding, we have only seen a handful of women on bicycles. The comments like “I love you, baby” and “Marry me now” are, in my view, either a joke or things they have seen on TV and videos. They watch a crazy amount of Bollywood TV and the themes are always about relationships from a male-dominated perspective. I don’t want to make a blanket judgment on the culture here because we know and have met many amazing men here who love and value their wives, daughters and mothers. But we have seen many interactions between men and women and it is a very male-dominated culture. We knew this before because of the other work I’ve done here with Martial Arts for Justice with victims of gender-based violence. But even the example of the woman on the ferry with the two restless children is what we have seen time and time again. So, again, the simple answer is that I think it’s both their attitude towards women and my white skin and what they think that represents.

Question: What are your Top 5 experiences from your trip?

Answer: This is a tough one to answer, especially because there have been so many good things. Of course, seeing animals in the wild and raging waterfalls is something I will never forget. But the first moment I reached the Nile and saw the magnitude of its size and power, I was humbled to tears. It felt like a very significant moment for some reason and I was so happy to be sharing the experience with John.

My heart is warmed and my spirits soar every time I get a high-five from a stranger on the road. I would say the encouragement from the people has been a huge highlight that I was not expecting.

A scene I cannot get out of my mind was the four little siblings that silently watched me from a distance with their arms all wrapped around each other as it symbolized to me not only the poverty that was obvious, but the resilience, hope and comfort that comes from relying on others.

The significance of the young man who paced me up a relentless hill on a difficult day was a highlight for me. He didn’t leave me and seemed almost protective as we pedalled together in silence.

And finally, meeting the Get Schooled students that we had the honour to meet before the trip and anticipating the final celebration with them is what this whole thing is about. I’m humbled to meet them as they are the real heroes in this story and should inspire all of us to never give up hope.

Question: Do you notice any difference in how outgoing and friendly little boys are compared to little girls? Does it seem that the girls have been encouraged to be more shy and reserved or are they just as curious and gregarious as the little boys?

Answer: We haven’t really noticed a big difference in this but the boys have been more likely to chase or run alongside us for longer periods of times. The girls are just as likely to ask for money, scream in excitement, wave, smile, and call out, “muzungu!” from hidden places along the roadside.

Question: How can we support your efforts?

Answer: First of all, let me say this was an actual question and not added by me. I’m so thankful that people are still asking this question. I have been overwhelmed with the support we have received already and we have had people ask how they can continue supporting the Get Schooled children. One man has even committed to sponsoring a child until he or she graduates. I’m so humbled by this level of commitment. So, for those of who want to continue your support, you absolutely can. To provide more than just one year of education for these children would be beyond my expectations and into the realm of miraculous. If you want to continue to support Get Schooled and give these children a real chance to rise above poverty, please let us know and we can get that set up for you. I will continue to do whatever it takes to maintain oversight of any level of support that is given.