As I stepped into the vast blue water that is the Lake Victoria, I couldn't help but shudder. Was it due to the fact that Lake Victoria is the biggest Lake in the Mother Africa? I couldn't really tell. I felt so small in comparison to it. One thing was for sure though; I wasn't going to sit on any man's shoulders so I could be carried over to a boat. “You coming lady?”, the same big masculine guy that had carried my friends over to the boat asked me. For a moment, I looked at him defiantly, daring him to come any closer. My heart beat faster as he continued to advance towards me. He must have mistaken my hesitation for a yes.” Carry me in your arms,” I blurted out.” Suit yourself,” he said as he picked me up as if I weighed ten pounds instead of one hundred and twenty. Experience is the best teacher, I was to find out. I could have just been as smart as my friends and sat on his shoulders. At least I would have been too high up for the water to get to me. Thus began the trip to the Island of Kalangala. As the boat began its journey, I was still a bit shaken from the experience of being carried aboard and so I shared it with my friend, Tahiri. A lot of good that did me as Tahiri immediately burst out laughing! Apparently, she'd had a more traumatic experience being carried aboard. They were almost at the boat when the person carrying her got greedy and told her she would either have to pay him more money than previously agreed or get dropped in the lake. The things people do for money! As traumatic as that had been for her, I felt a lot better about my situation. At least he didn't tell me he would drop me in the Lake.
Looking out at the beautiful lake, I reflected on the purpose of my trip to Kalangala. My friends and I were members of the Baha'i Faith, a religion that has unity as its focal point. One thing that really attracted me to this particular religion was one of it's teachings that religion should be the cause of unity, if it is the cause of unhappiness and suffering in the world, it is better to be without it. Thus, we all felt that the teachings of this religion was too precious to be kept to ourselves and so we were going on a teaching trip to this particular island to share with the people there about faith and religion in general.' We are all one big family regardless of what race, religion or class we are,' says the teachings of the Baha'i Faith. With this belief in our hearts, we were willing to endure almost anything to achieve our end. I had never really been on a boat before. Prior to this, I had only taken short scenic trips in some little boats. I certainly had never seen this much water in one place. It was so vast. Such deep blue I had never seen, it took my breath away. Gazing at it, I had the conviction deep in my heart that there exists a higher power than us, mere mortals. I looked around at my other friends in an attempt to read in there eyes what they were feeling. In contrast to me, they all looked so at home, like they had an intimate connection to the Lake Victoria that I had no way of accessing. At least until darkness started enveloping and tiny drops of rain started falling; then, I saw something akin to nervousness in their postures. Aha! so I wasn't so alone after all. We were all frightened little people inside. “Tahiri, what's going to happen now”, I addressed the only person who I felt could help us out. “Don't worry. We'll be there in just a minute”. “We'll be there before you know it!” shouted one of the men who was helping row the boat. He sounded so confident that I found myself relaxing; at least for a while. Three hours into the journey, I came to understand the saying of the last straw that broke the camel's back. I had reached that point. I felt sea sick and tired. What's more, it was now so dark that I could hardly see any of my companions. A flash of white teeth as we talked reassured me of their presence.
Thankfully, as I contemplated falling down dead on the floor of the boat, we got to the island. All of us were so exhausted that we didn't mind walking in the water to get to the shores of the great lake. Well, think again, we were informed by our devoted boatmen that we had to let the headman of the island know that we were around for a few days and what the purpose of our visit was. This was a very small island and any person passing through however short the visit had to first report to the headman.' It's a matter of National Security,” one of our boatmen informed us. 'Paranoia's more like it' I thought to myself. All my feelings of gratitude for him turned to resentment. At that precise moment, I would have happily killed to get a hot shower and a soft bed. There went all my noble religious aspirations! I wasn't even very concerned about the food. The others seemed to reflect my feelings except for Tahiri. She was forever the responsible one. “Why don't we all find a hotel and get some food and I will go by myself in search of this village Headman while you all rest,” Tahiri suggested with eyes full of compassion and understanding. I wanted to get down on my knees and kiss her feet. How could anyone be so selfless? The island of Kalangala's idea of a hotel was very interesting. It was more like a hut than anything else. I could actually touch from one wall to another when I stretched my arms. Well, when you go to Rome, you have to do what the Romans do, or so the saying goes. We decided to make do. Since we were three girls and four boys, we decided the girls would take one room and the boys the other. For the girls, two of us would sleep on the one available bed and one would sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor. There was only one problem with that. There were crawling insects all over the floor. At least if you slept on the bed you had some consolation that they would have to climb up to reach you. Hopefully, they would give up halfway on their journey! In all fairness, we all decided we would take turns sleeping on the floor. I tried to imagine how the boys would manage to sleep in their small hut with only a small bed and one sleeping bag. I couldn't imagine two of them in one sleeping bag! Well, they would just have to figure it out.
