Looking at a map, the drive to Lake Mburo National Park doesn't look that long. Given the distance it should take about an hour and a half. Not so. The drive is more like three hours given the condition of the roads and the fact that the last fifteen to twenty miles are on a dirt road.
Sr. Elizabeth and her cousin, Fr. Aloysius, were our generous guides. Sr. Elizabeth had offered Fr. Aloysius' services again. He graciously accepted. This really is very kind of him. He teaches at the seminary all week and now he's driving from Kisube--about two hours each way--to cart a couple of tourists around.
I wanted to go to the park to see wildlife. Bry'Chell didn't want to go to the park, she wanted to go to the Sports Day at St. Mary's, her school. However, the trip to the park was planned weeks ago and the Sports Day just came to our attention two days before its arrival. Poor kid, she had to go see zebras, hippos and monkeys instead of hanging out with the kids she sees five days a week already.
First, we stopped by the Croc Farm--a place that doubles as a recreational site and a crocodile farm. It's close by and fascinating. The place raises 4,000 crocodiles. They're bred for their meat (tastes like chicken--honest, that's what the guide said) and their skin.
The picture shows Bry'Chell holding a small crocodile with Sr. Elizabeth looking on. It took a while to convince Bry'Chell to hold it. Notice, I am taking the picture, not holding a crocodile.
They have pens for everything from little bitty ones to the giants--Benjamin, Osama, and Melon. I'll try to load pictures, but as usual, that is going to be tedious. Allen, our guide, prodded Benjamin and Osama into opening their jaws for us--I was really glad they couldn't come over that concrete wall.
This brought up the conversation about how Idi Amin used to throw his enemies to the crocodiles. The place had at one time been something of a resort for him and his cronies. They used the crocodiles the way the Romans used the lions. Enough said.
Of course, for our guides this brought back memories of the past in Uganda. While Amin didn't appear to create too many nightmares for Elizabeth and Aloysius, his successors did. After Amin there were a series of presidents. Some were weak, some cruel, some both.
Aloysius was a young teenage boy home for holiday from the high school seminary visiting his family in the north in 1983 when the government soldiers attacked his village. Usually they could hear the shooting in the distance and head for the forest to hide.
This morning the soldiers surrounded the village and came in shooting. The soldiers shot his mom four times, shot his eleven year old sister and other family members and then came for him. The soldier had his rifle pointed right at Aloysius--close range--eye to eye--but when he pulled the trigger nothing happened. The soldier was out of bullets. He replaced the ammunition magazine and tried again--again nothing happened. That magazine was also empty. He called to another soldier, but that soldier was also out of ammo.
Aloysius' mother called to him to run. He stumbled up and began to run toward the forest. By now the soldier found some bullets and started shooting, but he missed. Aloysius made it to the woods. The soldiers didn't follow because they were afraid of a possible ambush. He hid until the soldiers left and then came back to the village.
Aloysius went to his mother and wanted to carry her to get medical care. His mother said that if he tried, the soldiers would catch up and kill them both. Besides, she wasn't going to survive. He should take his eleven year old sister and leave. She told him that at least he knew where she was so after the soldiers were really gone he could come back and bury her body. He tore his shirt to provide tourniquets to try to stop his mother's wounds from bleeding and left.
Aloysius carried his little sister who had been shot through the upper leg. She couldn't walk. She was heavy since he wasn't that much older or bigger than she was. She was bleeding heavily. Once they had some distance from the village, he used banana fiber to staunch the bleeding.
They walked for some distance and ran into some other soldiers. They also were government soldiers, but a different group. They quizzed Aloysius about who attacked them. Aloysius knew that if he gave the wrong answer they would kill him. He carefully answered that, no the soldiers who attacked their village were not the same force as these soldiers. They were dressed in the same uniform but they had different accents--it was the rebels who attacked them. This was not the case, but the government soldiers would kill any witnesses to their violence, so he if he wanted to live he'd better give the right answer. He did.
The soldiers directed him to another village. Aloysius put his sister down outside the village and went to check for help. In this village he found more signs of mayhem. He went in a house to find people dead and dying. Some had escaped, they came and told him to leave the village because the soldiers would be back. It wasn't safe. If they needed to rest, they should hide in the banana fields.
They did need to rest. They went to a banana field. Aloysius found some sacks which he filled with banana leaves to put under his sister. He covered her with more banana leaves--I guess for both warmth and camouflage. He left, promising to come back with some help.
Aloysius left and made it to a town. Here there were more government soldiers. Once again, they were quizzing him and were going to kill him when one of the soldiers noticed the logo on his shirt. He was wearing his school uniform shirt from the seminary. The soldier was from Kampala and knew the nearby seminary at Kisube. The shirt saved his life.
He found some people to help him get his sister to the hospital. They went back got his sister and laid her on a bicycle. Several people supported her using the bicycle as a cart and took her to Rubaga Hospital in Kampala. This was many miles away and they had to go slowly since his sister was in such great pain.
The hospital sent an ambulance back for his mother. She made to the hospital alive but died a few days later. His sister also died five days later.
Aloysius eventually found his surviving family members and made his way back to the seminary.
Elizabeth added her own story. I'll write about that later. I can only write so much at one time. It gets a bit intense. Don't worry, Sr. Elizabeth's story has a happier ending.
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