Operation Bunk Beds

Eric, Jenn, Jigna, Amy and I are on a mission. We need to buy mattresses, sheets, pillows, pillow cases, and bunk beds for eighteen boys. We need to rent a truck that will get carry all of this to the African Child in Need Centre. We are hoping to accomplish this all in one afternoon. We do not know yet Kampala well -this is only our second full day here - but it seems straight forward enough, at first. The logistics, however are difficult. Kampala is crazy - crowded, busy, confusing. Traffic is insane, and stores are sometimes nothing more than small stalls, tucked away inside larger complexes. We don't know the first place to begin our search. Thankfully, we have Lillian.

Lillian is one of the volunteer co-ordinators helping our group while we are in Uganda. She is a friend of Anthony's, a kind woman, about our age. She takes us under her wing, and agrees to be our chaperone on our afternoon adventure.

First we hit the bank - because it's hard to find anyone that takes credit cards in Kampala. We get roughly $2000 worth of Ugandan Shillings (which is an obscene amount of cash for a group of white people to be carrying around) and we proceed to follow Lillian through narrow streets and hidden markets. She brings us to vendors that she buys from regularly, people that she knows, haggling on our behalf the entire time. She is a machine! On top of everything, she's constantly making sure that noone in our little group gets lost in the crowds, noone is a target for thieves, and that we are buying good quality stuff at good prices. With her help we are able to procure eighteen mattresses, sheets sets and pillows in fairly short order. Then, once we hire a truck, we and our new mattresses and bedding are off to find and haggle for the actual beds.

We find the bunk beds eventually, let Lillian work her magic again until we get a good price, and then end up hiring an even bigger truck to load and deliver the bunk beds, bedding, pillows and mattresses. It feels good to hand over the money - the vendor is beside himself. This is probably his biggest single deal in a long time. And, we're not carrying a huge wad of Ugandan Shillings anymore, which is a good feeling also.


Just as we are loading the bunk beds into the truck (or rather, our hired help is doing the loading), a car pulls up beside us. They're white people, which is weird, and upon closer inspection we realize they are our white people. Out step Ian and Stephanie who had arrived to strangely enough, pick up bunk beds for Milton's Street Kids Centre. Talk about a communication snafu! Turns out, they'd misunderstood that we'd be handling this - they thought we'd planned it for later in the week, and they'd wanted to surprise us by getting it done right away. They'd actually negotiated pricing and put on hold the beds that we had just purchased. Thankfully, though, they hadn't handed over any money yet. Talk about serindipity. We team up to get the beds over to the Centre, adding a seventh bunk so that Milton can take in three more kids right away.


We hit another snag when it becomes obvious everything won't fit in one truck. Luckily white people are basically dollar signs to the locals and we don't have to look too hard for a second car. Word is spreading about what we're doing and who the beds and mattresses are for, plus we have Lillian, so noone is really trying too hard to rip us off, even, at this point. We hire a pick up truck to transport the extra bunk bed, the mattresses, and ourselves to our final destination. Jenn gets to ride up front in with the driver, but the rest of us will have to ride in the bed of the truck with the goods.

And what a ride! The beds are tied to the back of the truck with simple twine, and the mattresses are tied on too. There are seven of us (Amy, Myself, Steph, Ian, Jigna, Eric and Lillian) all crammed into the back of the pick up. I am squished into a ridiculously small space in a ridiculously uncomfortable position. As the truck starts to move, we are clutching onto the beds, the sides of the pick up, and each other; hanging on for dear life. The roads are bumpy and uneven and we're being jostled left and right. Our hired driver doesn't even seem to be taking it slow. We are facing backward, so we can't even see the road ahead and what we're about to face. The cargo doesn't seem that secure, and I watch the twine loosen a little with each bump we take. There are times I think the entire truck, beds and all, is going to tip over and crush me underneath. We have to yell at the driver to stop on three separate occasions because Lillian is worried about us: our collective comfort level, and our overall safety. She feels responsible for our group, and this probably isn't how she was envisioning our afternoon together. Even the locals are looking at us as if we are crazy when we head through a tunnel- through which we probably have an inch of clearance, or not even. I hear the bunk beds scrape across the sides of the tunnel, and watch the top most mattress rip a little. Deep breaths. My heart is beating faster than I thought possible. I am terrified, but this is probably the most exhilirating ride I'll take in my life - better than any roller coaster I've ever been on.

Once out of the tunnel, the road evens. We all breathe a little sigh of relief. The scary part seems like it's over. We will make it there in one piece. Things start to look familiar - we are close. Local kids are chasing our pick up as we drive by, waving and shouting things we don't understand. We feel like we are celebrities in a parade. Our harrowing almost half hour ride is coming to an end. We've asked Milton not to let the boys in on our plans, and naturally, we're excited to surprise them when we show up. I'm not sure what the boys think about us coming to visit them. They've clearly had visitors in the past, and I'm sure they expect some hand-outs, but I have no idea what is typical. It still seems like they have next to nothing.


We arrive at African Child in Need and are suddenly surrounded by activity. We can barely even get out of the truck as we are mobbed by the boys from the Centre and random local youth, swarming us from every direction. Everyone is helping to unload the truck, the little ones take the pillows, while the older kids help to lift the heavy stuff. Everywhere, everyone is smiling. Milton meets us by the now empty truck and he has tears in his eyes. He takes turns hugging us, and wow, does my heart feels good.


The boys work fast - thirty minutes later, not only are the shiny new bunk beds set up, but the sheets are fitted, and the pillows are laid out. Each boy has claimed their individual bunk, and we are already taking the after pictures. Magic. One boy actually rubs his eyes, saying "I can't believe it. I can hardly believe it's true." And I can hardly believe it either, to be honest. That I'm here in Uganda, that I'm a part of this, that I have had such an incredible, important, whirlwind of a day. I want this feeling to last forever.