How to plan a service trip

Being in a place is very different from reading about it. 

I know it’s obvious, but despite that, I am finding that it is also true. 

We spent Tuesday working on contacting people and confirming our itinerary.  Why, you might ask, did we not plan it all in Connecticut? Well, the people we needed to talk to are all in Uganda, and we really could not find them without networking face to face in Uganda with people who know the place well.  And furthermore, we needed to call them on the phone.  We needed to be here.

   At the same time, we were trying to pin down the details of a short excursion to one of the several wildlife areas in Uganda.  Having looked into tours from the US, the cost was absurdly high, and we were counseled to just wait and figure it out in Uganda.  You have to be here.

 Finally, we were working on a lead from Connecticut in Kisoro, far Southwest on the border of Rwanda and Congo.  From Connecticut, Uganda looks manageable—it’s about the size of one of those square-ish states out west like Oregon or Colorado.  Or a few hundred times the size of Rhode Island. Could a person drive halfway across Oregon in a day?  I just drove from Nashville to Hartford (800+ miles) in one long (miserable) day.  It seemed that we could work in Kampala for a few days, go into the nature park for three days, then south to Kisoro in the Southwest corner to visit a Young Women’s collective and day care, and then stop at the Gorilla sanctuary at Bwindi . Yes.  I was proud of that plan.  It seems like we could totally do it.

   Well in Uganda, you can’t.  When I mentioned my plan to take us to Queen Elizabeth Park, then down to Kisoro and Bwindi, “because they are all so close”, a seasoned ex-pat teacher snorted at me.  “They’re not close at all—just get a good map and see”. 

   Now of course I have looked at lots of maps—Queen Elizabeth is on the Western border, just South—even connecting—is Bwindi impenetrable forest, and then Kisoro, maybe 20 miles Southwest.   “Ah,” she said, “but did you see the roads?”.  The roads are more like the ends of the spokes on a wheel, where the hub was hours away.   Kampala to Kisoro takes 12 hours by bus.  Close in one way, but there are some significant things on the way. Also, you can’t drive at night, because the truckers just park in the middle of the road.  Oh, and the roads look like the surface of Mars, with a recommended speed just between 20 mph and stop.

  Being in a place and seeing it cannot be substituted for reading about it and looking at maps.  You have to be here.