For many men like Paul, working on a boat as a guide is a source of income and just the first step of his dreams to own his own business in tourism. He works with drivers to show tourists around on different water sources, like the Nile and Bujagali Falls, as well as on-land at a variety of popular tourists spots.
By: Lindsay Rosenfeld
I stood at the water’s edge, alone, and thinking. There were the rushing waves… the violent swirl of current, remnants of the passing storm… and me. Flooded shoes and soggy pants. The Nile’s pace was rapid, consistent, secure in its cadenced drumming. It was Sunday- a few minutes before five. Following Bobby’s suggestion, Hannah and I were visiting the source of the Nile, the point where Lake Victoria transforms into the Nile River. We’d carefully planned the day, accounting for the distance from Main Street to the source and back (about a ten-minute boda boda ride each way), the entry fee of 10,000 SH, the thirty-minute boat ride to and from the massive rock that signifies John Hanning Speke’s discovery, and the necessary lollygagging and loitering. Impeccably planned per usual… HA!
It started to drizzle as the boda boda crossed from Main Street to Naranbhai. By the time we paid our entrance fees ten minutes later, it was raining. As we stepped off the boda boda, pouring. Unable to find any semblance of a house or shelter, we huddled under the one-foot overhang of an abandoned (and locked!) bathroom near the entrance. After thirty minutes of being properly drowned and lacking any type of raingear, we laughed our way down the gravel path to Paul.
Paul was born in Jinja eighteen years ago. During the mornings, school… late afternoon and evening, guide extraordinaire. He welcomed us with a what-in-the-world-happened-to-you look— wide eyes and a cocky smile—and quickly adopted us as his new friends, taking us to Gandhi’s head and across the Nile in a rented boat. At first I was a bit suspicious of his abundant kindness and speedy talking but we soon realized that Paul is just one of those nice, overly eager kind of guys. He’d only been working at the source of the Nile for a few weeks and shrugged indifferently when asked if he enjoyed it. He prefers Bujagali Falls. Most of the younger guys have fathers or brothers or uncles or cousins who own a boat, he said – one of the wooden ones with “Water is Life” or “God is Good” painted on the side. Ours was just green, almost turquoise when the light was just right.
We swapped stories, little snippets of information about our lives and loves. Paul wants to own his own business. Tourism. He’s working on a name and a website and a business plan. Maybe in a few years, he wondered aloud. I hope for him, wish that he succeeds.
“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” Muriel Rukeyser
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