23rd of January, 2018.
First of all I get lost. I have no idea how. This time I just keep walking, straight, so how the hell I end up going completely left? I have no idea. Maybe Google Maps in Uganda is so dumb as in Mauritania.
I figure that out when I walk into a hotel to ask for information. There, not just the nice waitress try to help me but also a white man who was working in his computer. After he tells me about the road I am looking for, he also advises me to not camping on the ‘Park’ I had seen in Google Maps. He said my chances of security would be better if I try the Cathedral of that District, Budanga, so it is where I head up.
Unfortunately the street is a hill. Which means for me it is a hell. I sit under a tree and eat my apple and my sliced carrot.
Before reach the Cathedral, I pass through a kind of Catholic University which also is a library. What catches my attention it is the big grass space.
Talking with the guard, a nice young man, he walk with me until the manager. In opposite of him, she does not look at all to want to help me. Of course you can presume the answer for my question if I could make camping around.
Walking back the guard say something really sweet: “I feel sorry that it not depends on me let you stay or not”.
Keep climbing the hill, I pass throw a hospital before the church. Taking rest in front of the church, an old simple lady walked into my direction, pointed to my tattoos and tells me god does not like that. She is not rude, by the opposite, she says that in a kind way. Still, since the Catholic University refused to help me, that was the second sign for me that I should not ask to stay on the Cathedral.
I try the Hospital. The supervisor lead me to a kind of Human Resources, where a nice local old lady it is. I explain my situation to her and unfortunately while she is thinking in how to help me another old lady approach. I do not know from where she is but her accent sounds a little British. And then she starts to be my nightmare.
She sounds like a connected person. The kind of person who are always into the news. She also knows about hitchhiking and backpackers. Now I do not know if based in her past experience or in the news. The things is, for the whole time I am in there, explaining about my trip and my plans, she is a completely jerk and mean person. Not rude, like yelling and point her finger on me like Henry, but mean, saying cruel things without even care or maybe even realizing that anymore.
Something like “When she get a big rape than she will stop”, answering the other nice local lady, Mary, when she asked me if it was not unsafe to travel like that. Or saying that the travel without money and asking for help it is nothing but “Being a burden to the other people”. And while she is saying all those terrible things, she would keep doing what ever else, like typing a message or looking for a phone number, as that was a super regular way to talk with people. At least maybe for her.
I just do not get it. How someone who suppose to help people, help those ones who need, can be so mean? It is not just like the UN guy, being a jerk, it is be mean. Saying mean stuff without even care about how the other person could receive. It is not about saying the truth or something like that because is not a fact the I will be raped or even that if happen I will stop and also is not a fact the I am a burden for the others: I ask for help, I do not obligate anyone to help me, they do if they want. And if they do not want, worst person I have ever met old lady: they simply do not. So next time somebody ask for your help, simply say it ‘no’. Do not be a mean human being, hurting other people’s feeling just because you think you have to help them, better, because as a Christian (she was wearing this big silver cross around her neck) you should help them.
Mary was truly trying to help me. She was thinking in call her superiors and ask them if I could make camping around. I did not let her. I said I would find my way. Of course the other lady could not let me leave without do something: what would looks like if a Christian let somebody without help. So she call a boda boda, the term in Uganda for moto taxi (which is the main way of transport here, by the way), and ask him to drive me to the Backpackers Hostel.
Before I leave, Mary try give me five thousands Xelins. Of course I refuse but the mean lady had to do some last mean acting and take the money from her hands and forced back to her while she was saying something. I do not understand or remember what was it but for sure it was something mean.
Should I had said something? Tell her everything I was thinking about her attitude? Or it would be also a mean thing to do? Maybe not if I had said because she was hurting me like she was. I do not know. The only thing I did it was when saying goodbye to Mary, I thankful her for her kindness and help but when I was saying goodbye to the mean lady I just said thank you for you help.
Riding the boda boda with the backpack is really awful because it keeps pushing you back all the time. And of course there is the thing I would not hold the man from his waist as I used to do with Diego back in Brazil, so I felt really unsafe on it.
At the Hostel, I explain my situation to the receptionist and she decide to go and talk with the manager. She come back with a negative answer. Nothing? They could do nothing to help me? That is so bad.
Going back to the road, I just could not find any houses with big gardens where I could also ask for make camping. And also, after all the unhelpful people I have been meeting, I could not get optimistic that I would find some help. So I stopped in the Police Station and explained everything again. There is two ladies there responsible for the “Child and Family Assistance”: Agnes and Emilie. They are nice. The place it is something around 12 m² and they let stay the night there.
Now I just need to find some food. I am starving. Emilie try to give me ten thousand Xelins to buy some food. I make a deal with her: I would ask for food, if nobody give me anything I would buy, otherwise I would give her the money back.
I get an apple, an orange, a sliced bread, a small cake, and from the restaurant I have been before to ask for help (buy the way the guy was still in there) I get some good quantity of rice and beans from the nice waitress. My bag was full of food and I came back very happy to be able to give Emilie’s money back.
Unfortunately she is not in there and since I would have to live early in the morning, I wrote a note with my results from the night and my email address plus the money and left with one of the other Policeman over there.
After eating, I wash it up, put just the first part of my tent because of the mosquitoes and the ants and try to sleep. The station it is just beside a busy road so at the beginning it is complicated, but not more than my day and also after the overnight at the air plane I slept quite quickly.