After Blaise and I returned to Uganda from South Sudan, we had a solid week and a half for Blaise to explore Kampala; however, I had been itching to also explore the Equator. Kerrie kindly offered to go with us (read: drive us) to the Equator one Sunday after church. We were pretty excited…I mean, when you’re from Indiana, you just don’t see the Equator very often (read: I had never been to the Equator).
When I woke up that Sunday, I felt terrible. I was nauseous, could barely eat breakfast, and had to use the bathroom several times. But I wanted to see the Equator, darn it! So, I decided to suck it up and go. After sweating through the church service, it was off toward a village called Masaka. It was something like 70 km away, but the road was mostly tarmac and we were able to drive swiftly at 80 kmh for a lot of it. The scenery was beautiful (why I didn’t take pictures, I’ll never know) and so incredibly lush. On sections of the road, you could see gorgeous acacia trees and forest undergrowth so exotic that I felt as if I was in Avatar.
We only had one minor incident on our drive. We were buzzing along through this little marketplace on the side of the road, following the flow of traffic, when suddenly a traffic policeman steps out in front of us with his radar gun pointed right at us. He’s waving us off the side of the road. Crap. We’re being pulled over. Kerrie handled it famously, however, by humbly admitting her mistake, apologizing profusely, and thank the officer for giving us the stern warning, “DO NOT DO IT AGAIN.” Phew!
At the Equator, we ate at a little restaurant…I can’t remember the name, except that it had something to do with AIDS. Strange, I know, but all of the proceeds from the restaurant were going towards a children’s orphanage and treatment center. Lunch for a good cause!
Then it was over to The Line…
