The Breakdown

Our Toyota Hilux “double cab” is a workhorse. It goes through everything we throw at it and keeps on giving. Unfortunately, this week it decided to take a little instead.

We’re just thankful that it broke down where it did – in a nice cushy parking lot close to a coffee shop. The alternative place could have been anywhere but probably would have been somewhere along 300kms of highway between Kampala and Kibaale, as we were just about to return home when the breakdown happened.

We’re also thankful we had the chance to chat it up with such a cool old mechanic while waiting for the repairs to be finished. He’s an old car nut and takes pride in his work. The double cab is happy with a new clutch now thanks to Hamid - if you ever break down in Kampala, go to TAP Garage. And sit in the Mitsubishi Minica, ‘cause it’s awesome :)

From Breakdown

An old 1962 Mitsubishi Minica. Hamid bought this from Japan for 800 bucks

From Breakdown

Power via this 359cc two stroke oil-injected air-cooled two cylinder with a whopping top speed of 80kmh

From Breakdown

Not meant for large Canadians

From Breakdown

Waiting for the repairs on the double cab to be finished

From Breakdown

Repairs complete and just getting it washed now. It lives to fight another day

Parliament

So on our way out of town our truck, a Toyota Hilux, had the clutch blow up. That was my thought anyway, but it turned out that parts of the flywheel let go and had their way with the release bearing that the clutch works together with, which ended up disintegrating the bearing and sending tiny bits all over the bellhousing. Carnage at low speed (thankfully) ground us to a halt in a mall parking lot in Kampala, and after getting the truck towed to a mechanic Jamie and I were left to find something to do.

We’d heard that the Parliament buildings offered free tours so we decided to check them out. The police at the front gate had not heard of anything but checked us for explosives anyway and let us pass to the main security checkpoint. The main security checkpoint had not heard of any tours but checked us instead for firearms and advised me to not wear a hat, and sent us over to reception. Reception had not heard of any tours available, but said we could try and find out more by talking to some police on the other side of the building and told us to walk around… so, free in Ugandan Parliament, we made the best of the situation and walked around aimlessly, giving ourselves a free unguided tour.

It was a bit strange to be walking around Parliament as a tourist with no purpose but no one seemed to mind (we sure didn’t have anything dangerous on us by this point.) We found the other police point and they told us that they had no idea about tours, but we should leave all of our bags with them and go walk upstairs through a door for some reason. We said, “ok”, and left our bags and walked through a door. The door opened and we were welcomed by a booming voice coming through speakers just over our heads saying “The Aye’s have it”, and we realized we had walked into an active session of Parliament, at that moment passing a new Bill into law and making amendments on the fly. Something to do with information technology and how it would affect Uganda. Very cool stuff actually.

When we’d had enough we just got up and left. Very similar to the Canadian system as it turns out, from what we could tell. The amount of transparency geared into the Parliamentary process was really good to see with an open gallery for the public (and misguided tourists like us) and recorded and televised sessions. No pictures of the inside so these will have to do.

From Parliament

Inside the gates of Parliament

From Parliament

The Ugandan flag

From Parliament

Jamie does not have any explosives on her

From Parliament

And Sean does not have any weapons on him

Crafts and Friends

Friends of Jamie's, Frank and Amber Devine (originally from Medicine Hat, now residing in Vancouver), have been serving here in Uganda since January and are now headed back home. We made sure to catch up with them before they left and had some great times together exploring some more of the city and swapping stories and experiences. It is such an encouragement to get together with like-minded people and talk about things that matter, and just as good to get together with people who are from the same area as you and just talk about nothing at all and have a good laugh. Frank and Amber were great for both those things and we feel completely recharged after hearing of so many similar happenings from their work in Mbale. God is doing great work through so many great people… it’s cool we get to be a part of it all.

Unfortunately, their last day in Mbale was a very trying time for the two of them – on the trip down to meet us they had most all of their important papers and travel documents lifted. So some of our time was spent scurrying around to the Canadian Consulate or having meetings with various important people trying to salvage what was possible of their last days in the country. They should have an update on their site of how things ended up working out, but we’re just glad we were able to help in any way we could during a tough one.

From Crafts and Friends

We hit the craft market and saw this freaky doll thing

From Crafts and Friends

Killing time at the market

From Crafts and Friends

The market

From Crafts and Friends

Taking a break at Cafe Pap

From Crafts and Friends

Uganda Motocross

Jamie came back with a newspaper clipping from the paper in Kampala one day. The clipping was small with a picture of a dirt bike flying in the air saying that the East African Motocross Championships were going to be coming to Uganda on March 22nd. She said I should go. I didn’t argue. Motorsports in Uganda? I was more excited than I could describe.

A good portion of my later life has had me breathing noxious fumes from some sort of engine and me covering my ears (or not) from the sounds of motorsport. I’ve loved being surrounded by fumes and smoke, flame and fuel, metal and oil, the sights and smells and sounds of machinery being torn apart in the pursuit of victory by masked-men - fighting for the right to declare themselves and their machine the best of the day. I can’t quite get it across, but for me, the smells and sounds give me actual physical joy.

So I made the journey from Kibaale to Kampala to check it out and had some great times that day. I arrived just in time to see the first open-class race (the big bikes) lining up at the starting gate, having just read the current season’s big battle for first between Arthur Blick of Uganda and Assaf Natan of Israel. Fantastic racing all day long and Uganda got things right – I paid 5,000 shillings (~$2.50) for an entry fee to watch and got to see a whole day of racing, received a free bottle of mountain dew, and was also given this huge sausage-thing on a stick. So I left full and happy. What a fantastic day.

From Uganda Motocross

The start of the first Open Class race

From Uganda Motocross

Assaf Natan ripping by

From Uganda Motocross

Assaf Natan again - always put on a show for the crowd over this tabletop

From Uganda Motocross

Holeshot in the 65/85cc class

From Uganda Motocross

MX2 (125cc)

From Uganda Motocross

Arthur Blick and Assaf Natan battling for the lead in MX1

From Uganda Motocross

Arthur Blick ended up winning the main event

From Uganda Motocross

The crowd was unreal and a hoot to watch the event with. Everyone was just loving what was going on and the roar was fantastic in the big moments

From Uganda Motocross

An NSR250 which has been defiled

From Uganda Motocross

One of the world's fastest production bikes, the Yamaha R1, bumping and weaving its way out from the track at the end of the day on a windy village dirt-road. I couldn't stop laughing - my truck was getting absolutely pummelled and here comes this supersport bike trying to pass me

Great day!

More Snakes

More snakes in Kibaale.

That makes four for us so far – one green mamba, one cobra, one two-headed snake (yeah, no joke), and now this one.

Thank God for big sticks and good friends willing to help with the bashing.

From More Snakes

Elkanah, wielder of the stick of death