Lake Bunyonyi

Coming from the heat of Kampala, our arrival at Lake Bunyonyi was wonderful -- it was a cold that reminded me of a Canadian autumn, a drop of probably about twenty degrees from one place to the other. It was so good to be in the country again, to breathe in the cold, fresh air. The camp we were staying at was right on the lakeshore, looking out over the rolling hills dotted with farms and huts. Lake Bunyonyi is Uganda's deepest lake at about 6,500 feet, and boasts more than thirty islands. The landscape around the lake is gorgeous; it's very hilly and green, and the calm of the lake is broken only by the passage of the traditional canoes used for transport in the area, and the occasional motorboat taking a tourist group on a ride. We stayed in a cute little permanent tent, set on a platform on stilts built into the hillside. It turned out that the manager of the camp was Kenyan, and he took an immediate liking to us. The rest of the staff were extremely friendly as well. We also met another Canadian, who was traveling around Africa with her Tanzanian boyfriend, working as a masseuse. It was definitely interesting and lively company.

The first day, we tried our hand at canoeing. I was confident that we would have an easy time of it, since I canoe back in Canada, but it was not so. The canoes used in that region are little dugout canoes, the kind that are carved by locals from trees, and are very shallow and deep. Something in their design makes them turn in circles constantly, so at the beginning we were frustrated by always spinning 'round no matter what we did! The locals, gliding past in their own boats and making it look so easy, tried to ask us where we were going and give us some help, but it was pretty much hopeless. We soon enlisted the help of a boy who happened to be paddling by, who quickly docked his own canoe and took charge of ours. The boy was called Moses and said he was fifteen, though he was really quite small. He also had no shoes, and was only wearing a t-shirt, despite the cold. Moses guided us through the lake's many islands and took us to one that had a small hotel on it, where we had lunch. From the island, we could see another tiny island, isolated from the others and bearing only a single tree. This lonely place was called Punishment Island, where unmarried pregnant women used to be dumped. There, they might be rescued by someone who wanted to marry them. But if you were "ugly or unlucky", as one local man put it, you would simply be left there to die. Many drowned as they attempted to swim back to shore. On our way back from lunch, we gave a ride to one of the employees of the hotel -- who stood inside the canoe the entire way, and even paddled while standing! That takes skill.

After spending two nights at Bunyonyi, we decided to extend our stay for one night, partially because the camp got CNN, and we wanted to watch the inauguration. A small group of people, mostly Kenyans and Americans, but some Ugandans and others as well, gathered together in the evening to watch the historic moment. People everywhere in East Africa are riding high on this whole course of events. Though some are still hoping that Obama will somehow show special attention to this region because of his heritage, it's acknowledged that even without material or economic benefits, the fact that he made it to his current position as president of the US at all gives so much hope and inspiration, which are incredibly valuable as well. I think that a positive outlook is even more important than money in most cases. If you have resources but don't think you can make a difference, you won't even try and whatever you have will be wasted. But if you have nothing, and still have faith in yourself and your abilities, you'll fight hard to achieve something. And that's the beautiful thing about Obama's story. All the young people I've spoken to here have been electrified by his victory -- if he can achieve something that big, why can't they?