Back up Crater Hill

Katrina has been trying to incorporate a little more activity into our lives -- and a little less screen time, which work provides plenty of -- and so around 5:30pm she hustled the two of us out of the hospital and, after dropping our stuff at home, we continued down the road to the path for Crater Hill.

We hadn't been up there since the sunrise hike we posted earlier. We still remembered the way and knew just a little bit more Rufumbira so could greet people we passed on the road. We've become pretty good with greetings and "how are you"s but beyond that we're pretty hopeless. Although Katrina did just learn how to say "where does it hurt" and "point to it" -- pretty useful for a doctor-in-training.

The walk up Crater Hill, once you get to the hill itself, is crazy steep and we were both very out of breath when we finally reached the top, but the view is wonderful. The topography of our corner of Uganda really stands out from this height: hills that rise up out of nowhere, like enormous hands had gathered together piles of earth. We see the patchwork of terraced farming and plots of maize, potatoes, and beans; we see the crowd of people still milling around the market; we see Lake Mutanda just around the bend; and of course there are always the volcanoes.

We walked down in the dusky light. We passed young shepherds with their cows and goats (cowherds? goatherds?) coming in for the night and people streaming out of town having walked in for the day's market or work or maybe a hospital visit. We waded through the still teeming market so Katrina could buy a cabbage -- her new favorite vegetable -- and the stares and solicitous cries of "muzungu!" didn't seem that weird or alienating, just part of the town.