Walking

I really enjoy my walk to and from school. It takes about 20 minutes, and half of the walk is on campus, which is nice. On the way to school, I mostly walk downhill until I get to campus, then there is a hill to walk up. On the way home, most of the walk is easy until the last 8 minutes, where it is mostly uphill. I take a little footpath that winds through peoples’ gardens and along their houses.

Depending on the time I leave for school, there will be little kids outside one of the houses that always yell “Hi mzungu! Bye mzungu!” So I wave at them, then walk/shuffle down a really steep hill, which I have already slipped down once. At least it wasn’t on a rainy, muddy day. I pass a house where two other USP students live, am on a main road for about half a minute, and then I reach the UCU gate. Outside the gate there are usually about six boda-bodas sitting there, which I was really nervous about because the drivers are known to make obnoxious comments, but none of them have ever talked to me, which I am thankful for.

The walk home is beautiful. There is a spot really close to my house that is my favorite. There is a red brick wall, and past that you can see Lake Victoria with mountains behind it, and houses and villages in front of it. There was one evening that it was foggy, and it looked amazing. Sometimes the sunset adds a bit of color to the sky, and it just enhances the scene.

This morning though the walk was an experience. I had to leave the house by 7 for my class at 7:30, and it was kind of raining as I was getting ready. I put on my clear emergency rain poncho (because it was the only protection from the rain I had), and headed out the door. My little brothers saw me and started laughing at me, and then I passed some kids going to school, and they giggled also. Apparently an umbrella will be more socially acceptable. I made it most of the way to school, but as I neared the house where the two guys live, the clouds just let loose. Luckily one of the guys was on the porch, along with his mom and sister, so I ran there for some shelter. The mom invited me in and gave me breakfast as we waited for the rain to die down, and then we left for class, and got there about half an hour late. There is a lot of red mud everywhere today.

We leave for Jinja this afternoon, and will be there until Sunday night, which will hopefully provide some time for much-needed relaxation and refreshment before we begin another week of class.

Thanks for reading! Have a blessed day!