September Trip to Bushasha – The Journey

On September 15 we left Seattle for a three-week trip to Bushasha to work on preparations for Twegashe School. In the next series of posts, we’ll recount some of the highlights of that trip and describe the considerable progress we made in preparing the way ahead (literally as well as figuratively!) for construction of the school.

Arrival in Entebbe, Uganda

Our first “day” in Africa was very short, since the flight into Entebbe from Amsterdam doesn’t arrive until about 10pm. The flights out leave at night, too—sad that we never get to see Africa as we’re flying over.

We were a bit apprehensive about our entry into Uganda, since Bill (our volunteer builder) had been denied a multiple-entry visa when he applied online. By the time he was informed of the denial, it was too late to apply again for a single entry visa. He decided to try just getting the visa when he arrived at the border, even though we had been told they were phasing out this “visa-on-arrival” option. Uganda has changed their visa system, so it’s no longer possible to send off your passport to the Uganda Embassy in DC and get an actual visa. Now the whole system is online, and all you get is a letter stating that you have been pre-approved. With the pre-approval letter you still need to go through final approval at the border—a system designed to always maintain a bit of suspense for the traveler!

As it turned out, Bill’s “on arrival” visa queue at the Uganda Immigration counter was much shorter than the e-visa queue that the rest of us were obliged to enter. (The “phasing out” message must be getting through!) He sailed right through, and had to wait for us for quite a while on the other side.

We spent a comfortable night at the Green Valley Guest House in Entebbe, where we’ve stayed several times before. We had arranged for our rented Land Cruiser to be dropped off there the following morning, but after bringing the car they realized that they hadn’t included the fire extinguisher and the emergency reflective road triangles that are a must for vehicles traveling on Ugandan and Tanzanian highways. So we began our journey to Bukoba heading the wrong way, up to Kampala to the car rental office to pick up these items. Already behind schedule—might as well start getting used that right away. “Expect the unexpected” is a good motto to operate under here in order to avoid excess frustration.

At this point, our team was temporarily two members short. Our project manager, Mike Tully, wouldn’t arrive until the following week. Michael (our board president) had to leave us for a few days and take a side trip to Arusha on an errand to secure a national ID. This ID is a new requirement for Tanzanian citizens conducting any sort of business within Tanzania.

Driving to Bukoba

The six-hour drive from Kampala to Bukoba was uneventful, except that we had some difficulty at the border shaking off help from the “agent” who greeted us at the first gate and did his best to make his services in navigating the border crossing appear indispensable. Turns out these “agents” are not government employees—they offer their assistance in hopes of being paid by the traveler. With no locals riding in our vehicle, we were especially vulnerable. When we reached the final gate, this fellow asked for a rather large sum of money in payment for his assistance. We decided to check back with the government employees inside to see if such payment was legitimate. They said it was not. They suggested we could pay a small sum as a “Thank you” if we wished, but the amount he had asked for was unreasonable. The agent was not happy with the sum we offered as a “Thank you”, and we left him looking very dejected. It’s a constant struggle against the misconception that if you’re from the US or Europe, you must have plenty of money to spare. Of course, for many local people (presumably including these “agents”) life is a constant struggle just to get by. Perhaps they’re not so much to blame for trying to take advantage of a few unsuspecting tourists.

We arrived in Bukoba town close to 6:00 pm, too late for any shopping, or even to purchase the local telephone SIM card we would need to communicate with anyone in Tanzania. Fortunately, we had planned in advance to meet Geraz Henerico (our man-on-the-ground whose help has been vital as we work to launch this project) at his home just outside Bukoba. After a brief visit with Geraz and his family we set off on the hour-long drive to Bushasha.

Good News!

Along with a very warm welcome from family and friends in the village, we were greeted with good news regarding the school project. The village meeting which was needed to finalize the land transfer in the eyes of the District government had finally occurred—on the very same day that we arrived in Tanzania—with all the officials present who needed to be there. This meeting had been repeatedly scheduled and then postponed because some official or other was not able to attend, to the point that we had begun wondering if it would ever take place. So the fact that it had was definitely something to celebrate!