Breakdown

My biggest fear when riding the buses in Uganda is that it will break down in the middle of nowhere and that I will be stranded. This is not an altogether unfounded fear, given the extreme speed with which they travel, the low level of maintenance, and the horrible condition of most roads. However, my newly realized fear is that I will be driving in a newly purchased car that will break down in the middle of nowhere.

So let me rewind. I was relieved that Steffi’s trip to Gulu in her 2-day old new used car would coincide with me returning to Gulu for this upcoming conference, as I have been logging much too much bus time between Gulu, Kampala and Kigali. We set off at 11am on Sunday morning with Quaker Peace’s (Steffi’s organization) driver/mechanic to Gulu. After 200 kilometers, there was a pool of suffocating smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe and the back of the car was covered in oil. We were drowning the poor people walking along the road and many tried to alert us to the problem. We made it to the next little town and some mechanics worked on it for a while, supposedly fixing it enough to get us to Gulu. Steffi and I began freaking out when one of the mechanics, without permission, decided to go for a “testride”. We were all standing by the car, thinking the mechanic was just pulling it out of the workstation, but then he began to drive out of the gas station. Steffi and I looked at each other with alarm and we both began to panic as the mechanic was soon out of view. Between the two of us, the car had a couple of laptops, digital cameras, cash, and other valuables. I started off down the road to try to get a glimpse where the guy had gone (imagine the scenarios running through my head). He eventually turned around and was completely nonplussed that the two of us were upset that he had just driven off.

So we set off again in our supposedly fixed car and after 15 minutes we are again in a cloud of burning smoke with people freaking out at us on the road. We pull over in “officially in the middle of nowhere” and I experience flashbacks to the tiny village in Rwanda where a downed tree stranded us…Now to make a long story short: Steffi and I hitch a ride to the next town, Karuma, and these guys offer to pull the car to Karuma with their car for a fee. It is getting late, we are freaking out a bit, and finally relent to the offer. We decide to get the car to Karuma, leave it there for the night, and get Steffi’s colleague to come pick us up. We go all the way back to the car and the guys pull out the most flimsy ropes you can imagine. You must be kidding us, how can we tow a car with those! And sure enough the ropes snapped. The guys ran off to buy ropes from a nearby trading center. We push the car to the top of a hill (with the enthusiasm and help of boys who happened to be on the road), attach the ropes, and with care, get the car to Karuma. Our biggest problem is the setting sun. It is incredibly dangerous to be driving on the roads at night, not to mention stranded on the road at night. In Gulu district, the security situation is of even greater concern, as one has to be concerned about LRA rebel activity (and they did attack along the road just a few weeks ago). In addition, roadblocks go up outside of Gulu at 7pm at night, so we were running against that clock as well. David, Steffi’s colleague and our friend, arrived right at 6 to get us – giving us exactly one hour to ensure we make it to Gulu before the roadblock. We cross the Nile and start cruising back to Gulu as the sun sets and the UPDF soldiers en masse are patrolling the road. To fast forward again, we of course make it back, but the fate of the car is still unknown. Makes me want to just stay put.