Day 5: Murchison Falls

Gulu is a pretty rough area to stay in. Not only is it fairly undeveloped (the nicest hotel in the city is about equivalent to a cheap hotel in the states), but there is NOTHING to do. The people of the town have no real use for “tourist” attractions, although there are local bars and hang-outs, but Muzungus would stand out there. SO, Sandy opted to take us to a near-by game park for a few days between our camp and teacher training. There we could take in some of the wildlife, rest up in relative luxury, and regroup for the weekend ahead.

So, early Monday morning, we left Gulu for Murchison Falls, a safari park on the Nile River. Before we embarked, we stopped in Gulu to get some cash at the bank. Kristoff and I stayed in the van with Bosco while Sandy and Kimmie went inside. From across the street, a ragged boy saw me and yelled, “Muzungu!” Within moments, he was at my window, reaching his dirty fingers into my comfy little world. “Muzungu?” he asked helplessly. Bosco pulled ahead into a gas station, and I took that as my cue to roll my window up. The boy approached the other side of the vehicle where Bosco was able to talk to him. I looked at Kristoff -- who had already spent 6 weeks in Uganda -- and asked what to do. He said that the boy sees white people as a type of “savior” -- when they are around, they give away good things. If we gave the kid money, we’d be feeding into that and crippling him from earning things on his own. So, we don’t give money to beggars.

On the way, we passed through several IDP camps -- Internally Displaced Person. Baboons in the middle of the road are a common sight in Uganda, so when we drove upon a crouching shadow in the middle of the highway, I figured it was a baboon, like we’d seen all along. However, as we neared the figure, the baboon turned into a boy. He was skinny, dressed in rags, and glaring at our van. My heart shuddered and then burst to see such a sight. However, our driver didn’t slow down or move over. At first, I thought he was heartless and cruel; and I glanced back at Sandy whose eyes were the size of golf balls. She asked the question I was thinking, “What was that about?” Bosco answered, “Who knows? Maybe he was angry? Maybe he was mad (crazy)?” This most definitely wasn’t the most harrowing sight he’d ever seen, but it will be forever emblazoned on my mind. Once again, I realized the vast dichotomy between myself and the culture around me. First the beggar boy in Gulu and now the crazy boy on the road.

Once we got into the game park, we were greeted by wildlife EVERYWHERE. Within minutes, we saw water-buffalo, kobe, gazelles, antelope, warthogs, and giraffes! We even saw a family of elephants in a nearby valley! The “big daddy” elephant was running off another bull, so we got to see the standoff and the runoff! It was pretty cool! Then, once we neared the lodge, we came upon an elephant coming out of the woods, and apparently we startled the bee-jee-zus out of him because he slid on his heels, stopped for a moment, turned around, came back toward us, and went on his way. We were able to get some pretty good shots with him less than 30 feet away, too!

The lodge was really cool! When we pulled up to the front door, a doorman greeted us with cool scented towels and cold fruit juice. The decor was like something out of the 1800s -- dark woods on the floor, old world furniture. The lodge seemed to be made out of all local materials. Our room had a fantastic view of the Nile, and I woke up every morning thinking, “I can’t BELIEVE I’m looking at the NILE RIVER!!”

Every lunch and dinner was a four-course meal with soup, salad, main course, and dessert. We NEVER walked away hungry! In fact, by the end of our stay we didn’t FEEL like eating! Of course, the weather was quite hot and we didn’t have air conditioning in our rooms, but cold showers were readily available, soo...?