Karamoja Drive

By 10:30 Gabriel and I left Lweza Guest House with the van driver and a van packed inside and out with medical supplies and gifts. We set on our way to Karamoja – a drive that could take between 8 and 12 hours. The rest of the team will fly in the next day. We traveled through many larger (using the term very loosely) cities - Jinja, Mbale, Iganga, Soroti, and almost to Moroto – and even more small villages not named on any map.

The drive as far as Soroti took six hours and it was there that we stopped for lunch – boiled chicken and chips. The boys found a bush before coming into Soroti and I was treated to an actual bathroom at the restaurant. Four stalls, doors open, men facing the wall in all but one. The fourth stall was mine and was very likely a duplicate to the others. Stepping in was not for the faint of heart. A grated drain hole was the extent of this facility along with tiled walls smeared with dirt (and who knows what else) – something akin to a very nasty shower stall. Suddenly I find that my inhibitions about using a bush are in decline.

Soroti is where the pavement ended and the dusty red dirt road began. During the next four hours we encountered maybe a dozen cars and hundreds of school children walking home for the night, many will walk between two and three miles to school and another two or three returning from school each day. The roads, while not as bad as Kyamagemule, were rough in spots. At one point a box of bottled water exploded open sending bottles out onto the road. The man who witnessed the show told Gabriel that there had been so much rain here the crops were all flooded and so there was no food for this entire region.

The Karamojong Plains View post showed the wide, flat landscape from the top of the mountain in Kapchorwa. Actually driving through those plains was amazing. With only a little imagination I could easily see every episode of Wild Kingdom taking place before my eyes…without the animals. I’m not sure why but there aren’t many wild animals in this area. When asked I was told they just don’t live here.

A brief rain storm came through and because the expanse of view from these plains I could watch that storm move in preparation for dumping more water into this basin. The area is most assuredly lush and green and the standing water could easily be seen – I even asked if rice was growing there. Yet the dust and hard dirt seemed to contradict that any water came at all.

Karamoja is said to be the location of King Solomon’s mines. I have no doubt that I will find treasure here.