Alone, to Mombasa.

by Faith Akiror (Uganda)

A leap into the unknown Uganda

I had always dreamed of traveling alone, even to the village, but my parents would say, "you are too young" or "what if you get into an accident." When I turned eighteen, the age where you are an adult in Uganda, I was told the same thing whenever I requested my parents to allow me travel alone. After many rejected requests, I realized that I wouldn't be able to travel anywhere alone but with family. At university, Makerere University Business School, my Kenyan friends told me time and time again about the Mombasa Marine Park with a variety of marine species including crabs, star fish, stone fish, sea urchins, corals, turtles, sea grasses, birds like crab plovers, octopus, jellyfish, sea cucumber, angelfish, green parrot fish, butterfly fish, zebra fish, lion fish, damsel fish, larger marine life like sharks, green sea turtles and dolphins. Being the lover of Nature that I am, I decided to start saving for this trip to Mombasa Marine park that I would one day do on my own. On Monday, 3 December 2018, after my final year examinations, I decided to do what I had been told I couldn't do, travel alone. I woke up at 8 a.m., parked for the four days of travel and one day tour trip, prepared my identity card and passport then booked the 6 p.m. bus for Kampala to Mombasa. As I waited for the time, I would be leaving for Mombasa from my hostel room, I thought about telling my parents but when I remembered what they usually said, I decided to keep it a secret. At 5:30 p.m. I went to Total petrol station along Kampala Jinja Road where I was told to wait since I could not make it to the bus park in the city center. Having never traveled alone even to a place five kilometers away from home, I was nervous as I waited for the bus. I was picked by 6:30 p.m. and my long awaited trip alone started. I love sitting near the window when traveling, so I can see everything go behind as the car moves, and I was lucky I got the seat next to the window when I got into the bus and a lady who said she was on a business trip sat next to me. She was not much of a talker to my disappointment since I enjoyed the noise we make when traveling with my parents and in about two hours, I was fast asleep. My neighbor woke me up when we reached the Uganda-Kenya boarder where we had to get out and get into a line to get through immigration. While on the line, I realized a had no yellow fever card and if you did not have one, you had to either buy or you got back. I began to sweat because I could not imagine my trip ending after spending my money on the ticket as everyone else was being cleared. The bus conduct noticed my state and came to me. I told him I did not have the yellow fever card, and he told me not to worry because he had a solution. He said I could pay one of the officers who were monitoring the line one thousand five hundred Kenyan shillings, and they would help me get through immigration. Despite having not planned to spend this way, I gave a one Onyango the money and when it was my turn to be cleared, he talked to the immigration officer, and they let me through. From there, we stopped in Nairobi for one hour the next day at 6 a.m., and we continued to Mombasa where we arrived at 6 a.m. on 15 December. In Mombasa where everything was new to me, I used Google maps to where I had breakfast and rested as I waited for the Marine Park to open. At 8 a.m. I got into a taxi and headed to the park. When I reached at the park, everything was exactly as my friends had described to me, the fish in different colors, the dolphins, the sharks. I even dived in the ocean, something I had never done before.