Flying High

This is not necessarily an adoption post, so feel free to skip it, but I thought some of you might like to hear about our funny and adventurous trip back and forth to Mbale. We decided to go the cheap route, so we took a charter bus called the “Elgon Flyer”. This bus goes back and forth from Kampala to Mbale many times a day. This is also the bus that Aunt Trudy usually takes. You can read more about one of her more memorable trips here. All 13 of us (Busbys, Howards, Anne, and John Mary) headed to the bus station early Friday morning. We were told to get there early to ensure you get a seat. The way it works is you pay per seat, not per person. If you want to stack people on top of each other that’s fine. So we didn’t buy tickets for the little ones and it cost about $5 per seat. Before we boarded we bought a couple of cokes to drink to help wake us up. We had to down them because they like you to turn in the glass bottles before you leave, so I chugged mine. Then we boarded the bus. Thankfully, the bus was not super full for the trip. We hurried to get on first and scoped out the back seats. We thought these would be best for us. The very back seat went across the whole bus, so Cody could sit in the middle and stretch out his legs and the kids could have some space. Before we left the conductor came back and told us we may want to move up because it is very bumpy in the back. We told him we were just fine. Ha!!! Little did we know what “a little bumpy” meant. Before we even got out of Kampala, as I was barely standing up trying to adjust Mercy , we hit our first “bump” and we bounced VERY high in to the air and we all screamed. Seriously, I do not want to know what all of the other people on the bus thought of us. We decided it was almost like a roller coaster, but a lot cheaper! For the rest of the 4 hour trip Cody would try to scope out the bumps or potholes for us since he had a clear view through the front windshield and we would all brace ourselves.


The bumps did not help the fact that I had to go to the bathroom very bad. Remember that Coke that I downed before we left?! (Warning: bathroom story involved next!) So finally after about 3 hours the driver stopped for a “short call”. This means a very quick bathroom break…in the bushes by the side of the road. Seriously! The guys go to one side and the ladies to the other. I had to go so bad, I did not care. Me, Laney and Jemma hurried over to the girl side. I squatted and looked up to see a rancher walking by with all of his cattle. I thought about waving, but I’m sure the mzungu squatting in the bushes already caused enough attention. Jemma (age 3) stripped down all the way naked and then could not go. I looked up and saw the bus slowly start to move. I yelled at the girls to hurry up because they were leaving us. We ran to catch up and jumped on just in time. As soon as we sat down, Laney said, “I never got to go!” Poor girl! And everyone got a good laugh at us running after the bus.

Also, along the way we made several short stops. Anytime the bus stops, vendors run to try to sell things through the windows. They have meat on a stick, roasted corn, water, cokes, and all sorts of things. I saw these banana-looking things. I asked John Mary what it was and he told me it was roasted bananas and that they were very good and very sweet. I decided to be adventurous and bought about 50 cents worth, which was approx. 6 bananas. I divided them up among everyone and we tried them out. Here’s the problem…. They were not sweet. John Mary if you are reading this… I love you, but the bananas were gross . None of us liked them (even Mercy spit hers out!), so we decided to throw them out the window. Unfortunately, when Autum threw hers out the window she hit a boda driver in the head… oops!

On the way back from Mbale on Monday there were a lot of people trying to get on the bus. Monday is the busiest day for the buses because everyone is heading back to work or school in Kampala. Cody decided he would make sure our luggage got put underneath the bus and suggested that I get on as quickly as possible and help John Mary save seats for everyone. Sounded like a great plan, but Ugandans do not know how to make a nice orderly line. The bus pulled up, I got in line and then the shoving and pushing started. It did not matter that I had a baby in my arms… it was every man for himself. Even men dressed in very nice business suits shoved me out of the way. I started shoving back and then ran into a lady holding a live chicken. Oh my! Thankfully, a beautiful young woman saw my plight and shoved her arm in front of people so I could get on without Mercy getting hurt. John Mary and I threw bags down on some seats all together then we had to nearly fight people to keep them saved until the others got on. By the way, we sat in the middle of the bus on the way back. We decided to let someone else have the adventure of the back seat bumps. Another interesting sight… some men brought a gigantic TV box on and put it in a seat next to another man. The man tried to tell them it could not be there. They paid him $5 and he decided it was ok. Ha! It was an adventurous ride! It took an extra hour to get back to Kampala because of traffic and several more stops and we were all very grateful to get off of that bus and to get home. We will always remember our trip on the Elgon Flyer.