I'm usually not a big fan of expressions a la 'you haven't lived when you haven't done this or you haven't done that...'. 'You haven't lived if you haven't hurtled yourself down a mountain at breakneck speed, killing a few innocent passersby on the way'. 'You haven't lived if haven't gone hitchhiking around the planet and almost killed by some Congolese soldiers high on heroin'. And you think: 'I lived plenty, thank you very much, just last week I engaged all of my Facebook-friends in a gigantic vampire battle!'. But, guys, I have to admit, YOU HAVEN'T LIVED IF YOU HAVEN'T [View Full Entry]

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yes mom and dad, i went to Uganda this weekend. =) and i'm now back in kenya safe and sound! but seriously, this weekend was probably one of the coolest things i've ever done. i went white water rafting on the Nile! i can't even begin to describe how amazing it was. first of all, we were in Jinja, Uganda and it was soo beautiful! ...huge hills, so much green, trees and flowers! we went through this company called the nile river explorers and there were quite a few people going rafting on saturday and also lots of kayakers . we [View Full Entry]

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Back in April, I made my first trip to Jinja (east of Kampala) to see the source of the Nile River. I went with my students on a geography field trip and had so much fun! Of course, the source of the Nile is Lake Victoria- which is unusual since a lake is normally not considered the source of a river. The source is normally the major river that feeds into the lake. But for Lake Victoria, there is no major river that feeds into it. So the lake itself is considered the source. We took a 2 hour bus [View Full Entry]

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On the way back through Uganda we stopped again in Kampala and stayed at the same campsite as before. It was my turn for cook group again, and the dinner was a great success! I feel like I am growing up so much! In Kampala, the group went out to an Irish Pub that didn't even have Guinness on tap! It was a lot of fun. We danced and I drank Sapphire Tonics with ice which was very lucky treat. The next day, everyone went into town. I on the other hand watched my first rugby game on TV and sat [View Full Entry]

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Leaving the gorillas behind, we exit Rwanda and re-trace our route back through Uganda to Jinja, an adventure capital at the source of the great River Nile. Having seen the gorillas, we were now able to eat meat (we’d avoided eating anything remotely dodgy beforehand, as those with the slightest sign of illness aren’t allowed to trek), so we happily tucked into goat and chicken at the chaotic roadside markets. We spend a few days at Jinja, mountain biking and rafting the Nile - a great experience which practically the whole truck took part in. I came back to the truck [View Full Entry]

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It’s mid-afternoon, I’ve finished work and had a lazy late lunch overlooking the Nile, and now I’m settling in outside my banda for the afternoon in the shade to do some writing/reading/thinking dozing. I’m starting to settle into a nice African pace of life now, and getting to know the area a little better. Sunday began with a guided walk around the village, led by Muganda and Oko, two 17-year-old local guys who are earning a little extra cash to see them through secondary school. They introduced us to their families and to some of the locals and showed us the [View Full Entry]

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I’m trying to avoid sounding like a stuck record, banging on about contrasts, but have I experienced some over the past 24 hours!! Joburg to Entebbe, Uganda’s airport, is only a four-hour flight north, so I was glad of the check-in time at the start to process some of my experiences and prepare for the next stage of the adventure. And by huge, astonishing coincidence, I bumped into Carolyn, a friend from Hampstead Quaker Meeting, queuing for the flight! She was on her way to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with two African colleagues and is working for Peace [View Full Entry]

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Wow, I can’t believe it has taken me this long to post the blog about the one of greatest experiences here in Africa. It has been about three weeks now since 12 other group members and I traveled to Uganda to go whitewater rafting down the Nile River. We left for our adventure on a Thursday night. Going by bus over night from Nairobi to Jinja in Uganda. The trip was about 10 hours long with a border crossing at about 3am. The bus stopped on the Kenyan side of the border and we were able to walk from one immigration [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Banana Village We had no appointments to make on Wednesday morning and so after checking out of Banana Village and a very leisurely breakfast we set off down the Entebbe road towards Kampala. The Ugandan people were all very busy going about their daily lives, which provided some great scenery on our journey. The people are sop enterprising, it seems all of them are trying to make a living in any way possible, each with his or her own businesses, boda-boda or day to day job! Infant Oral Mutilation We met with a dentist in Kampala who had supplied three [View Full Entry]

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We crossed the border this past weekend to Uganda and rafted the Nile River from where it is released from Lake Victoria. It was a day long trip of white water rafting complete with four class 5 rapids, one class 6 rapid (unraftable), crocodiles, backpackers, and everyone getting dumped from the raft. The Nile has some of the best rafting in the world not just because of the extreme drop in elevation after it leaves Lake Victoria, but also because there is so much water, that there is minimal risks of getting mashed against a rock when you do fall out, [View Full Entry]

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