Enya’s experience with the police made me think… Why do I behave like that really?
1. Because I feel Ugandan. When you are just a visitor, you tend to keep your head down and let locals do their things the local way. This is my country and I want it to be a great country.
2. Because I am tired of Ugandans being abused by the powerful. Our people’s greatest strength, resilience, can also be a weakness. For example, you can squeeze as many Ugandans as you wish into a vehicle and charge them the full price. Their safety and comfort are of no significance. Unless they are some spoilt people from the city, they will adjust without a complaint. They are used to having no rights and no voice.
3. Because I am a stubborn man and get even more difficult when my children get inconvenienced.
I should really share with you the most outrageous thing I have ever done in that regard…
If you want to travel from Kampala to the Gorilla Highlands region by bus, it takes you about 7 hours through a collection of landscapes any country would desire. From the little green hills of the easy-going Baganda you proceed into the grazing fields of the cattle-keeping Banyankole before entering the mountains of the hard-working Bakiga.
Bigger towns follow each other in, roughly, one-hour intervals. Lyatonde is about half way, Mbarara is the biggest urban area, and Ntungamo the last place of significance before your car begins the steep ascent towards Kabale.
It was around Christmas and I completely do not remember how and why I ended up in Mbarara with my two kiddos. Could have been the tricky holiday period when everybody wants to leave the city and buses become scarce, or perhaps my love for Fillet of Four Seasons at Mbarara’s Agip Motel?
Anyways, I dreaded the rest. Because of the liars.
There are scores of vehicles travelling in the Kabale direction, and all will swear they are not terminating their journey in Ntungamo. Definitely not! The conductors will tell you that while looking into your eyes while knowing very well they are going to sleep in Ntungamo…
I had my children and a lot of luggage. I needed to make sure we would travel the last couple of hours in one go. So I asked. And they promised. Repeatedly. And then told us to go out in Ntungamo, in the middle of the night…
Too bad I didn’t want to leave the bus. They tried everything. They offered to bribe me. They got the boss on the phone. Nothing worked. At the end they needed to do what I wanted them to do: drive the bus to the police headquarters.
I still recall my offspring sleeping on a bench in that office, my poor little ones, as I fought for … whatever I was fighting for. I had just had enough. It had happened to me too many times. And the police guys knew very well what problem I was talking about. They kinda liked what I did, or at least enjoyed the entertainment.
The bus driver eventually spent his night in jail as we were taken to a cheap hotel by a police pickup. Next morning I hired a car, for quite some money, and we made to to Lake Bunyonyi.
You know what I regret about the episode? That I never followed through! I had a great case. Not only were they deceiving customers (most of whom left the vehicle quietly when told so), they used a school bus for passenger service. I visited Ntungamo one more time to get more info on how to take the bus owner to court but then I got too busy.
That was the time when I was still running three locations around Uganda and was involved in too many projects. I’ve successfully changed that by now, to be allowed to focus my energy on the Gorilla Highlands initiative.
… And to have enough time to go after those who deserve it. 😉
text: Miha Logar; featured image of hard work on the Mbarara-Kabale road by Blasio Byekwaso