Week 2 : Uganda

Sunset in Jinja

We have had an amazing second week in Uganda!

Highlights:

Meeting and working with the staff and students at DOORS Mission School

We lucked out with having a school right behind the place we are staying that has welcomed us with open arms. The staff and students are incredibly kind. The school has brought street children in and given them an education. These students are currently working well below grade level, but it’s amazing to see how motivated they are to learn. We get to work with students individually and in small groups, and have enjoyed teaching cursive writing (me) and math (Will) to students aged 9-23.

Getting to know our neighbours

We are living in a duplex-style house, and the people next door are living here long term. Roxane and Francois are from Belgium, and have been so great about giving us advice to make our stay here even better. We also joined them for a night of dinner and live music at a place called Fuego’s, just outside of the city center.

Enjoying hanging out with Roxane and Francois

Spending a long weekend in Jinja

We were picked up in Kampala on Friday, and spent nearly three hours travelling to Jinja, Uganda’s adventure capital! We spent a full day on the Nile with Nalubale rafting company, combating rapids (grades 3-5) with names like ‘Kula shaker’, ‘vengeance’, ‘the bad place’, ‘hair of the dog’, and the ‘Nile special’. There was one grade 6 rapid that we walked around and watched kayakers tumble through instead. We managed to stay in the boat until the very last rapid, where we were quickly flung from the boat. Our goal of ‘not getting any Nile water up our noses or in our mouths’ disappeared within the first 15 minutes on the water. I came away with many bruises and we both had spotty sunburns on our legs, but it was SO much fun! To see photos from this adventure, click here: Rafting Photos. We stayed in a dorm room at Nile River Camp for three nights, and had a chance to meet a lot of great people. We’ve met far more people living and working here from abroad than fellow travellers, and we’ve loved hearing their stories about their work in Africa. We also took our first ride on a boda boda to explore the town of Jina, since it was MUCH safer to ride them in Jinja than in Kampala. The camp had awesome food, breathtaking views, a rope swing over the Nile, and a band of red tailed monkeys that were very entertaining to watch! When we drove back to Kampala on Monday, we ran into a ‘jam’ on the highway, which was likely caused by an accident. Our driver took us on a series of back roads to get around the jam, and we were shocked by the trucks that were driving these dirt roads along with us. It was slow going for awhile, but we got out ok and managed to get back to Kampala before dark.

morning on the Nile

Source of the Nile

Swinging out into the Nile

These red-tailed monkeys served as the loudest alarm clock we've ever had

Walking through villages around Jinja

Trucks 'passing' each other on the back roads

Eating chapatis

These flat, unleavened breads (very similar to a crepe or tortilla) are quickly becoming our favourite food. We have now had them a variety of ways- plain, rolled with egg, tomato and onion inside (referred to as a ‘rolex’ here), and even rolled up with banana and nutella inside!

Shopping and bartering at the local market stalls

When we talk to locals, they are so entertained by the prices other locals tell us to pay for their products and services. We call it the muzungu (white person) price. It’s hard to barter when all of the prices are so low, but we have succeeded a few times.

Sitting inside reading, drinking coffee, listening to the birds sing and the afternoon rain pour down

Enough said.

Fun Facts:

1. There is a mystery insect (I’ve been told it could be a black ant) that likes to bite me and leave red swollen marks that last a week or so.

2. The people of Uganda learn so much about Canadian geography that we’ve had multiple conversations about cities within each province and various bodies of water

3. More news on cell phones: people here move money between phones by loading phone with money (similar to e-transfers but without needing a bank) and easily order take away food from a website called Jumia. Many people have multiple SIM cards in their phone so that they can connect to people using the same network, and some have multiple phones for the same purpose.

4. There are gas stations everywhere, and many of them have a sign advertising gas, diesel and kerosene

5. Advertisements are plastered everywhere. They are even painted on buildings that have nothing to do with the product being advertised. The most common advertisements we’ve seen so far have been Airtell and MTN (cell phone providers), Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and good old Sadolin (paint).

6. We have seen many people digging trenches, and have been told that most of the people doing this work are prisoners. Apparently the prison system is very different from ours, and most of the people who are digging have been accused of something silly and are waiting to be proven innocent.

Digging trenches in Jinja

7. Milk is sold in a little square bag and sits on the shelf unrefrigerated

8. There is an ice cream truck that comes by our place often, and it plays “my heart will go on’ by Celine Dion. Although we have ran out looking for it numerous times, we have not yet been successful in tracking it down

9. Children in both parts of the world enjoy playing with found objects (here its tires, sticks, empty bottles, dirt and puddles), are curious (here its touching us, waving at us, and whacking Will’s legs with a tiny, snotty hand), cry, are interested in learning other people’s names, and enjoy talking about how they lost their first teeth!

Enjoying meeting children in Ggaba

10. There is a bag check and security screening at every mall and every big store. This makes shopping in town with our backpacks oodles of fun!

Most impressive boda boda loads we’ve seen so far: 4 mattresses folded in half, 25 feet of rebar folded in half, a game board the size of a kitchen table

Favourite sounds: birds singing, our housekeeper Esther singing

Least favourite sounds: sirens, honking horns

Favourite smell: chapatis cooking

Least favourite smell: burning garbage

Burning garbage all over the place

Unexpected kindness: one of the Nalubale rafting company staff members drove us all the way from Jinja to Kampala, a hectic 2.5 hour drive, without charging us extra!

Enjoying the Nile