Road Trip to Fort Portal

This past weekend we took a trip to Fort Portal. This is a smaller city in the Western part of the country. It is where the Holy Cross was originally founded in Uganda and therefore holds a lot of significance to the Holy Cross Community here. The purpose of the trip was to attend the First Vows on Sunday, but we also got to visit the national park while we were there!

We left for Fort Portal on Friday morning after breakfast. Fr. Prosper was hoping to make it to our destination by 1 pm, but the drive took longer than expected. We stopped and ate lunch at a hotel. I got a rolex (egg rolled in chapati) and a juice that was a blend of watermelon, pineapple, and mango. It tasted super fresh and was also very pretty. We continued our drive and arrived in Fort Portal around six. We went to the Holy Cross House, where we met Br. John Flood. He used to be the head teacher at Lake View (where a house is now named after him). He is an American but has spent the last fifty years here in Uganda. We continued to the guest house we were staying at. The complex is surrounded by walls (as almost all residences are), but these walls had murals and inspirational quotes on them. From the parking lot, there was also a beautiful view of the Rwenzori Mountains. This is the largest mountain range in Africa at about 16,000 ft. and serves as the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. At this height, many of the mountains are snowcapped, and because of this, they have earned an association with the legendary Mountains of the Moon. The mountains looked much bigger than any mountains I had ever seen. After a little research, we found that the Rwenzoris are taller than any mountain range in the continental U.S. We had planned to visit the hot springs on Friday, but because of our later-than-expected arrival, we just ate dinner (pork and chips - my favorite meal) and went to bed.

Saturday was the day we had planned to go to Queen Elizabeth National Park. (Many of the largest lakes and landmarks are named after the British Royalty.) Fr. Prosper also wanted to go to the hot springs after we went to Queen Elizabeth. We got up around 6 to get ready for breakfast at 6:30, and then we were going to make the hour(ish) drive to the park. We wanted to be at the park around 8 am so that we could do a game drive and see the lions before they went to sleep in the shade for the rest of the day. We were on our way by about 7:30, but about an hour into the drive, we had to pull over and have a mechanic look at the car. The van was overheating, and the coolant needed to be changed. By 10:30, we were on the road again. Unfortunately, the van was still overheating, so we pulled over in Kasese. We ended up switching cars, and a tour guide drove us the rest of the way to the park. We passed the equator on the way! Everything ended up working out really well, though; the guide took us on a newer road where we saw waterbuck, warthogs, and elephants! (including baby elephants!!) We made our way down to the lake for the boat tour at 1 pm. This is actually the best time because most of the animals are down at the lake drinking water. The boat tour was so amazing. It was incredible to see all the animals in real life and so close! We saw multiple herds of elephants, hippos, and water buffalo. We also saw a couple of crocodiles and many birds. There are eleven fishing villages along the lake, and we passed one during our time on the boat. Tilapia is the most common fish that is found in the lake. My favorite was definitely the elephants, and overall it was an amazing experience.

We were supposed to make our way to the hot springs after we made it back from Queen Elizabeth around lunchtime, but due to our car troubles, we got back to Fort Portal around 5:30 and ate our lunch, and by that time, it was too late for another hour drive to the springs. Instead, we decided to head to the Novitiate. (Once a person decides to become a Holy Cross priest, they begin their journey in Jinja at the St. Andre Formation House. They stay here for three years while they study philosophy at PCJ. After these three years, they enter their novitiate year. This fourth year takes the men to The Novitiate in Fort Portal, where they stay for an entire year. During this year, they have no phones, no access to the internet or news, and spend the majority of time in private (and silent) prayer and reflection. At the end of this year [aka Saturday night], their families all come, and on Sunday, they take their first vows as Holy Cross Religious, and then they become seminarians. They do another four years of theology studies in Nairobi and Tanzania, then a pastoral year somewhere in Uganda, and then they become Holy Cross priests) We arrived to a beautiful lakeside property that had palm trees and mountains in the distance - it looked a lot like Hawaii. It is one of the prettiest places we have seen in our time here! We looked through some old photo albums of all the priests we now know when they were doing their novitiate year. We had dinner and chatted with some of the novices - soon-to-be seminarians and brothers. We headed back to our hotel to get some rest for the First Vows the next day.

Sunday was First Vows. There was so much joy in the air as people greeted their family and friends for the first time in a whole year. We got to talk to another Notre Dame student, who has been in Kyrasozi (near Fort Portal), about his experience. Mass started around 10 am. Throughout the mass, each of the eleven men individually said their vows, then all of them received their cassocks, and then they got to exchange their novice cross necklaces for the classic Holy Cross “cross and anchors” necklace that all of the priests and brothers wear. There was lots of dancing and celebrating. After mass, there were quite a few speeches. The whole mass and ceremony lasted five hours. It was pretty long, and all four of us were very hungry by the end, but it was an amazing and joyful event to experience. We were headed back to Jinja that day (an eight-hour drive, and it was already three). We ate a very quick (but delicious) lunch, and we were on the road by 4 pm. It got dark around 7 pm, and it was quite scary driving in the dark because there are not very many other lights besides the car headlights. It is really surprising how dark it is here at night. We were also surprised to see so many people out walking when it was so dark out. We made it back to Jinja around 11 pm, ate dinner, and then got to bed by midnight.

The trip was packed with so many exciting things, and I am so grateful to have experienced all of it. We started our last full week here on Monday and only have ten days left. It is so crazy that there are so few days left here. The time went by incredibly fast. I am just trying to cherish all the time we have left here before we all head back home next Friday!