Don't shoot!

Wednesday we decided to go into Jinja, which is the town which hosts the headwaters of the Nile. It’s a pretty popular tourist destination since it offers some of the best white water rafting in the world and so it’s pretty common to see mzungus around. Nicole and I wanted to familiarize ourselves with the place, find places to shop and eat and how to get around, before our volunteers arrived. Plus, we thought it would be fun to get some pictures by the Nile. Little did we know what a bad, and come to find out, illegal idea this was! We caught boda bodas down to the bridge that crosses the water. Now the bridge is in fact quite heavily guarded, which should have been a clue to be careful, but in any event we set out walking across the bridge, looking over the rail, and taking pictures of each other and the river. Before we knew what was happening, one of the armed guards made his way over to where we standing and began beckoning us to where he was standing. He didn’t seem to speak any English and shortly another guard arrived and began to speak to us in somewhat broken, but nevertheless authoritative English. He was saying something about no pictures and to give him our cameras, but the next thing out of his mouth is what really threw us for a loop. “You are under arrest now.” WHAT?!? We were so confused. Literally dumbfounded. We just kept saying, sorry, sorry, we will put our cameras away as we began to unzip our bags. No, said the man with the rifle by his side, “You are under arrest now, come with me.” Crap, ok country director, think fast. “We are so sorry, we did not know your laws, we would never intentionally break your laws. We are here to serve your people, we live in Lugazi…we…we…We know the mayor! We are friends of Mayor Ozuma!” We are in fact, friends with the mayor. Nevermind we just met him that morning. He told us “You are welcome,” about a million times, so I think that means we’re tight. Either way, this was enough for the guard with the gun to “unarrest” us and let us keep our cameras, and NOT pay him a bribe and run away and jump in a taxi to cross. Note to all our volunteers. Don’t be scared to pull the mayor card. Phew.

We spent the rest of the afternoon bumming around and looking at souvenirs. There is some pretty cool stuff. I want it all, especially these little stuffed Noah’s Ark with little stuffed animals and a black Noah. What am I, five years old? But they’re cute and I will be bringing one home. Any requests? J

 Needless to say, this photo is now all the more valuable. And memorable. Just sayin.