Today was truly extraordinary in so many ways. A minibus collected us as 6am to take us to the nearby Murchison Falls National Park. The journey took a couple of hours, not so much because of the distance, but because most of the roads here are not paved. Instead they are dust, so when it rains it turns very quickly into mud and cars can get stuck. There are also many potholes, as well as numerous police checks along the way (these don’t seem very effective as the traffic police seem to walk round the car looking at the people inside and then wave us on our way). The scenery was spectacular, one of the things that has struck me is that there are two main colours that dominate here. The deep greens of all the different vegetation, that grow so quickly in this equatorial climate and the deep red of the soil, which seems to get everywhere! The park was so much bigger than I could have expected, it went for miles and miles and you couldn’t see the boundary line at all. I was very lucky to see Ugandan buck, warthogs, giraffes, buffalo, crocodiles hippos and many elephants. One elephant was in the road and didn’t seem bothered by us whatsoever, it was with its baby and it was lovely to see it so close.
The Ugandan bucks run very fast and they seem to move in all sorts of directions (rather like moths do – where they seem to be flying one way and then a split second later have made a U-turn). We also were told about a lame lion that was close. The driver decided he would go off road to see if we could find it (apparently this isn’t really allowed) and instantly the minibus got stuck. The tyres spun round and round throwing up mounds of red dust, but to no avail. All the men got out to help push, but there was a high sense of tension as many of us were aware the lion could approach from any angle at any minute! As it was, we freed the minibus and we didn’t see the lion, but it was quite stressful for a good few minutes! The drive back to Gulu was a long and bumpy one and we were all very tired, we stopped off for some food in an ‘interesting’ roadside restaurant. We were mobbed by people selling dried fish (huge slabs of fish covered in salt and dried, carried in large piles on women’s heads), which apparently you rinse and boil to cook. There were also men selling wooden carvings of various animals that we had seen in the park. Many of the teachers ate something called Matok, which is where a special variety of banana is cooked and mashed up. I tried some and like most of the food here it was quite heavy and not very tasty, but it definitely did the job of filling us up.
We arrived back at the hotel about 6 and what ensued in the next 2 hours was one of the most terrifying things I have ever experienced. I was in my room when I heard a few gunshots fired. My room looks out onto one of the main roads and people started screaming and crying and running down the road. I went out onto my balcony and could see a cloud of smoke coming from one of the buildings up the road. I initially thought a bomb had gone off. There was absolute chaos. There was no power, although I was lucky in that my hotel had a generator, so my lights were working. Many more gunshots followed for the next 2 hours. Some of them sounded like they were right outside my window, I could hear people running and screaming and I was unclear what was going on. As my whole room faces the main road and is a wall of windows, I gathered my mobile and went and sat in the dark on the floor of the bathroom. The project manager from African Revival called and explained that there was a demonstration about the lack of jobs and the high price of fuel for people and that the army were trying to disperse the crowds with tear gas and bullets (apparently they were firing into the air, although this did not make me feel better). There had been demonstrations in Kampala over the last few days and many people were on a Walk to Work protest over rising fuel prices. It had been particularly bad in Kampala today and one of the politicians had been wounded, which sparked the uprisings in many key cities across Uganda, Gulu obviously being one of them. One of teh politicians opposing the givernment decided to visit Gulu and this was what had encouraged protestors out onto the streets. I phoned home to the UK and thankfully more information was found on the internet. It was however completely terrifying to hear so many gunshots (so loud and so near), as well as smelling the tear gas seeping through the windows into my room. Around 8/8.30 the chaos seemed to die down and although the shots could still be heard they were much further away. I was absolutely exhausted from a long day and through being so scared, but I didn’t sleep easily, as any loud noise woke me and prompted me to think that the army were back. I don’t know if this is something that happens regularly here, but it is something I definitely do not want to experience again.
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