A weekend in Jinja

---

For my last weekend as a volunteer, I decided to take a trip to Jinja, which is about an hour and a half east of my village. Jinja is the second largest city in Uganda (after Kampala) and the only city in the country that's had the benefit of urban planning.

The city's close proximity to the Nile river has attracted industries like metal and paper processing. Jinja is also home to the largest sugar manufacturing plant in east Africa and my all-time favourite Ugandan company, Nile Breweries. Yum.

Most tourists visit Jinja for the white water rafting. It's supposed to be the best in the world. I briefly considered it, but the thought of being thrown from a boat in grade 5 rapids in a developing country kind of put me off. (Hearing about one of the previous VOLSET volunteer's post-rafting head wound and concussion sealed the decision.)

Instead, I decided to check out the "Amani Baby Cottage." The orphanage was started by an Texan and her Ugandan husband. She had been volunteering with other orphanages in the city and became extremely frustrated with how the donor funds were being spent. The "cottage" is a sprawling multi-level house on a huge property which currently provides for 55 babies, all between the ages of 1 month and 5 years. (That's a lot of diapers!)

Unlucky babies who aren't adopted by age 5 are transferred to another institution but from the sounds of it, of the kids that survive, many of them do find homes. There are some kids at the orphanage who are HIV+, unfortunately a few of these children won't live to see their fifth birthday.

Within the orphanage, babies are split into age groups- newborns, crawlers, walkers, toddlers and pre-school aged children. The facility is amazing. The kids have books and toys to play with, clean clothes (and even a closet of "dress up" clothes for them to wear on special occasions!) Each baby has their own crib, which is incredible after seeing some orphanages where the kids sleep three to a bed.

There are Ugandan cooks, housekeepers, and every age group has two Ugandan "mommies" to watch the babies. There are also so many Muzungu volunteers that I lost count- every room has two or three girls playing with kids. It is truly the best managed orphanage I have ever seen and I could have stayed there playing with the kids for a long time.

Upon entering each room, I was met with at least 4-5 babies who would crawl or walk up to me with their hands outstretched, wanting to be picked up and hugged.

It was easy to spot the children who had just arrived- half of the babies looked healthy and the other half had bloated bellies and skin conditions. (It was so sad to play with the sick babies knowing that they must have had such a hard childhood. I can't imagine what their fate would be if the orphanage didn't exist.)

The other highlight of Jinja was the food! After three and a half weeks of rice, matooke (cooked bananas), posho (maize flour with water), cabbage and beans at every meal, I was craving some variety. For three days I stuffed myself with meat, vegetables and desserts.

The couple who ran the orphanage also owned the guesthouse I stayed in. It had hot running water and a sit-down toilet and these felt like the biggest luxuries on earth. I think Serge, the owner of the guesthouse, thought I was weird because whenever he asked me if everything was alright I would rave about the toilet for 10 minutes. I don't think they get a lot of clients from the villages!

---

Photos

The walkers
These little guys were so curious about everything!

Laundry
Taking care of 55 babies involves just a *bit* of laundry.

Guesthouse
Where I ate breakfast and drank a few delicious Nile beers. (not at the same time)

The pool!
Extreme luxury!

Comments

[Mandy and Rob]

Cyprus
Greetings from Cyprus, enjoyed the blog, Regards http://anewlifeincyprus.blogspot.com