the impossible blog

this blog was written on monday june 1st, a day and a half after the adventure took place. i attempted to upload this entry 3 times that week but due to shotty internet access i had no luck. finally it has worked today and i get to share this story with you. i hope you enjoy it! :)

original blog entry title = "fun" on the coaster

i think it is about time i share something a little more light-hearted..

lacey and i decided to take ourselves on a short adventure. we chose to take a day trip to kampala this past saturday to do some light shopping. we left the house at approximately 6:30am and headed into town to catch the coaster which was expected to leave at 7:30am. the coaster is a 29 passenger "bus" that drives direct between various cities in uganda. we reached the taxi park (one square block where all the boda-bodas (motorbikes), taxis, mutatus, and coasters congregate) at around 6:55am and were the first passengers aboard the coaster. we had choice seats near the front, right behind the driver and started to get very excited to be embarking on this adventure together. by the time 7:30am came along there were maybe 5 other passengers on board. unlike in canada, buses in uganda wait until they've reached their maximum capacity before taking off. the coaster wasn't full until 8:20am so we finally left for kampala at 8:30am.

once the coaster was full, lacey and i developed a greater appreciation for our seats because we had actual seats! the isle became seats as the coaster fills up. there are these little fold down seats with no cushions and 1/2 a back rest which accommodate the late arrival passengers. i was so thankful we had gotten on early even if we did have to wait for 1.5 hours before leaving because my seat had a cushion and it was a bumpy ride.

lacey had the wonderful opportunity to sit next to a chicken which was seated on top of a women's lap. thankfully it was a quiet little chicken and fell asleep for the first hour of the ride. like the chicken next to lacey, i also fell asleep. it was a relaxing nap until i was woken up by a loud squawk! the chicken, who by this point had woken up was aroused by lacey's snack; she had brought out crackers and this chicken clearly wanted in on the goods. though i didn't see so myself, the chicken settled down but continued to lightly peck lacey's arm for the remainder of the 2.5 hour drive to kampala. perhaps it hoped her shirt tasted like cracker dust?

upon our arrival at the kampala taxi park, we were stuck in a mutatu traffic jam. honestly there were nearly 100 vans bumper to bumper for 2 blocks before the entrance to the park. we tried to stick it out and wait until we were in the park but gave up after 20 minutes of waiting. so we got directions to our next destination and headed on out!

we spent the afternoon in kampala and were back at the coaster by 4:45pm to head back home to masaka. the taxi park was, once again, backed up down the block. our taxi driver couldn't get us to the coaster by car so he hired a young man to walk us there for 1000 shillings (approximately 75 cents). the taxi park in kampala makes the one in masaka look like a vast wasteland. there were mutatus and coasters absolutely everywhere! honestly, there were hundreds of them parked tightly together and were surrounded by just as many people walking on foot. he lead us through the chaos right to the coaster destined for masaka.

we stepped on board and there were only four seats left.. all of which were down the middle of the isle except one right up front with half the leg room as normal seats. unfortunately they all had no cushions and half sized back rests. lacey snagged the front one and I waited for the crummy isle seat right next to the door… an attempt to save myself from being stuck in the middle with no way out!

the ride was better than expected other then the 40 minutes spent driving in the dark. driving in the dark is a scary experience. people keep their high beams on to notify other drivers where they are, but this just temporary blinds others on the road making it even more likely to crash. i thought we were going to crash about 5 times. after the first two close calls I had to look away, it was simply too frightening to look at the oncoming traffic. Fortunately we did not crash, and I live to tell this coaster story. phew!