After breakfast, we got ready to head to Masaka, at the other end of the Masaka-Mbarara Road (we are currently in between the two cities). This meant going out to the main road, and waiting on the side for a taxi. Something like five taxis stopped to inquire about where we were going before we got one. Most of the taxis were going straight to Kampala, and didn't want to let us out in Masaka. Finally, a taxi stopped and said okay to us going to Masaka. There were five of us, and after we got in, the taxi had 20 adults, 3 kids, a large sheath of banana leaves, and the driver.
For part of the ride, five of us were in one row meant to hold three, with Pauravi sitting on Becca's lap. It did eventually empty out though, with only 4 people in a row. These taxis are meant to hold 14. The road to Masaka is riddled with potholes, and there really is not two lanes, because cars will always go to the other side if their respective side has too many. Going up hills and around blind turns, drivers honk their horns to let the cars going the other way know that they should move out of the middle of the road.
Halfway to Masaka there is a police checkpoint. The police are checking to see whether the taxis are really carrying 14 people. A little before this point, 3 people got out, hopped on a moped and met up with us again after the police checkpoint. Apparently the driver and "conductor" (the guy collecting the money and negotiating fares) don't count though, because we had 16 people and 2 kids still. But we passed the police with no problem, and met back up with the others who had ridden past on a moped. They got back in and we continued on our journey.
Once we got to Masaka, we first headed to the bank to exchange a bit more money. We had wanted to stop by a clinic in Masaka and see what kind of equipment they had, but when we enquired, they said we had to ask the clinic director. She didn't let us see anything, or even have any information about the manufacturer's because according to John, she thought we were trying to set up a rival clinic. Engeye refers a lot of their patients to this clinic though when they cannot treat them or they need more advanced care, so it was a bit weird, but we had to go with it. We had to go to a different bank afterwards also for John to take care of some money business for the Engeye Scholars.
The next order of business was lunch. This was exciting because it was really the first time we would have something other that matooke, poshe, beans or peanut sauce. A lot of the options on the menu though, were quite similar. We all ended up getting curry and rice. It was good, though different than Indian curry. Pauravi had vegetable curry though and it was basically cabbage, carrots, oil, salt and pepper. The chicken curry was good though, definitely a difference from the normal routine. Even with drinks, the most expensive meal was less than $3.
After lunch, we went to scout out available resources and supplies. We wanted to see what would be available in Masaka and find out prices. To find out the price of gravel and sand, we visited the nearest construction and asked a construction worker. Apparently you get directly from where it is dug and crushed, so that was too far. We also went the hardware store "district" of Masaka, and searched around for PVC piping, rainwater tanks and other goodies. Next we checked out the prices of generators and solar panels.
Our final order of business in Masaka was to go to the supermarket and the fruit market. We got banana bread, strawberry cake, and various types of crackers and things. The cakes/breads are good, though very different than what you might get in the US. They are not sweet, and taste more like the fruit than anything else. While we were in the supermarket, the grid cut out, so all the power went off. This is apparently a very common problem, and sometimes it will be out for a whole day. The fruit market was like a market anywhere, but we passed through the butcher district, shoe district and other areas with only certain types of shops to get there. We ended up buying almost 30 passion fruits (very delicious), papaya (2 huge ones) and 12 clementines (the outsides are dark green). We only spent 6000 shillings, which is about 3 dollars.
We headed the back to the clinic and headed out to collect our third set of water samples. It will be interesting to see the results because the second round had some huge variations from the first. An interesting finding also is that the pH of a lot of the boreholes has decreased from around 6.2 or 6.4 to 5.5 or 5.6. We've noted that it hasn't rained in the past couple of days, and think maybe this is related, but we aren't sure. Any ideas?
We thought about watching a movie, but the darkness seems to make us all more tired, even though it is only 9:30 pm, so that idea got scratched.
Sula bulungi.
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