Wednesday, July 4th

It was the last full day in Africa — Wednesday, July 4th. It was weird to wake up and not hear talk to fireworks on the 4th. It’s just another normal day here in Africa. We drove back down to Lake Bunyonyi and met with the same tour guide as yesterday. Thank goodness we had a different mission today. We were taking a motor boat to one of the islands. I’m glad it wasn’t canoes again because we would never get there! On the boat, the guide explained that there were over 250 species of birds on the lake. It is the deepest lake in Uganda measuring about 900 meters deep at the deepest point. It is also a crater lake made from a volcanic explosion. It’s also the safest lake to swim in, in Africa. There are twenty-nine islands in the lake. While many of them are strictly for agricultural, food crops (not cash crops), there were some tribes living on an island. The guide pointed to the smallest island in the center of the lake and said that was a place for girls to go if they were pregnant before marriage. If this happened, the girls were supposed to starve to death. Some did escape because they were good swimmers. There is still a woman still living in the village who is about eighty years old and tells stories of this happening to her and how she survived. This punishment is no longer practiced here anymore though. The guide then pointed to the largest island and stated hah it was for old people to go who had leprosy so they wouldn’t infect others. A doctor came to the island and opened a hospital to treat those who were infected. Since those who have leprosy are now treated and not isolated on the island, they turned the hospital there into a primary school. It’s still open today. By this time, we had finally reached our destination. We were at Pigme Island! Visiting this island was supposed to be a cultural experience for us students. The Pigme tribe is known for being short. They have no chromosomal disorders that make them short — just generations of short people reproducing. We were told that the Pigme people used to live deep in the forests and would plant crops and hunt for food so they were self-sustained. The government came in and ordered them to move closer to civilization so that was how they came to occupy this island. Since they live at the top of the island, they have very little land to grow crops on and it’s very difficult for them to hunt for food now. They rely solely on tourists and donations to live since there is no economic activity here. When we pulled up to the dock, there were many Pigme children waiting to walk us to the top so we could see how they live. They offered us walking sticks and held our hands. I had a young girl named Frank who was eleven years old help me up. I was so thankful for her! The altitude on the lake was about 6,400 feet and then we had to hike up the side of the island another 400 feet. We are not used to this high elevation let alone hiking in it, so it was quite a sight to see. At the top, we saw the school and where some of the people live. This could possibly be the most impoverished area that I have ever seen. Most of the people had on clothes with holes in them and almost nothing for them properly. Kids were walking around with mismatched shoes that were entirely too small or too big. It was humbling to see. We are so blessed, so we blessed the Pigme people. They took up donations after doing cultural dances. The music was played on a water jug with a stick. Another way they accepted money was by selling handmade crafts. The crafts were made of wood with designs burnt into them, banana leaves or hollowed-it, dried gourds. We also visited the school where children sang and danced with us. We weren’t on top of the island for too long before we had to go back down the steep hillside to get on the boat again. Frank came to help me again, and saved me many times from rolling straight down the hill. I gave her permission to laugh at me if I fell because Muzungu are not good at hiking. One girl from SIUE even slid most of the way down the hill on her butt so she wouldn’t slip and fall. I’m still not sure if it was harder going up or coming down! In retrospect, it was a great experience to see the Pigme people and how they live but I felt so badly that they rely only on tourist donations to live that it was kind of uncomfortable being there and asked for money. We gawked and took pictures while they danced for us in exchange for money. We were asked for money while they danced, to buy the crafts, at the school and for the children who helped us down the hill. I didn’t mind donating in the least but I felt bad that they had to live like that. I’m sure the people who live there don’t like being a tourist attraction and relying only on donations to live. It must be stressful to wonder when someone will come to visit so you can buy food for your family. Anyway, once we got on the boat, we went around one more tourist island before heading back to our starting point. We were shown a course that is like Go Ape back in the United States and we were shown zip lines from one island to another. If only our travel insurance would have covered us doing this course! It would have been so fun. We were supposed to hit the road to drive to Entebbe where the airport is, but no one could wait to have lunch. We went back to the lodge and they prepared us sandwiches and fries before we started the eight-hour ride to the city. On the way, we stopped for street chicken. Basically, it’s chicken on a stick. The road was busy with lots of vendors so as soon as we pulled the van over, the vendors swarmed the van. We had learned from the last experience that you should only open one window when getting street food for a van full of people. If you open all the windows, you get chicken and drinks coming in every which direction. We were pros now! We got our chicken and on our way, we went. We ended up back at the hotel in Entebbe late that night. We were so late that we missed dinner, so we all ended up just heading to bed.