Blogs from Jinja, Eastern Region, Uganda, Africa - page 5

Andrew and Yasmine asked me if I wanted to come to Jinja with them for the day, so having nothing else to do, i said yes! We got Bodas (motorbike taxi thing) down to the bus station, where we got a minibus taxi into Jinja! The thing with the minibus's are that they only leave when they are full! and its very cramped! Again like with the drive to Murchison the scenery soon changed from the city suburbs/slums into lush green countryside! As we neared Jinja the scenery became even greener as the Nile supplied large amounts of water to the local farms! Again the journey was littered with the small villages and towns, and markets selling the usual array of local food, fruit and veg! the freshly cooked food smelled amazing! but im still reluctant ... read more

On a Friday afternoon, we flew from Kigali to Entebbe, Uganda where the six of us piled into a small minivan taxi. We began the 45 mile journey to Jinja around 6 pm. At around 11 pm (with another 20 miles to go), we pulled into a hotel for dinner. Everyone ordered French fries to minimize wait time except for one of our friends who ordered the assorted cheese platter. She assumed this meant that it would include multiple types of cheese, but instead she received ubiquitous gouda with stale bread since they were out of crackers. Alex claimed to make a delicious sandwich by adding fake, neon red ketchup. Eventually we made it to our hotel after midnight. Saturday morning we met at the rafting company’s headquarters where we saw horrifying video of what was ... read more

My feet are killing me! Apparently they are not as resilient as the locals. I was invited to play football with some of the boys from the village. Playing football here means barefoot on a pitch that is a mixture of dry grass, dirt and stones. So in other words murder for my feet. But it was a lot of fun. We started off playing “piggy in the middle” until many more came and we started playing a match. The goal was a brick that you needed to knock over in order to score. Nobody took the time to learn my name, or even speak English so I could understand. The only thing I could understand was “Mzungu” which means “white man” (person), and it was often followed by a collective laugh. But don’t think I ... read more

I just turned 25! I don’t feel any different, I haven’t really changed. However I will never forget how I turned 25, because I didn’t celebrate the way I’m used to with cake, dinner with the family and maybe a night out with my friends. I turned 25 in Africa; more specifically I turned 25 on the Nile. The celebration started early in the morning, the day before. We had booked a full day of White Water Rafting. The build up was nerve-racking, and hit its climax when we had to sign the “…the company is not responsible for any incidents or deaths…” paper. We got onto the raft around 10am right underneath the Jinja dam. The water there is really calm and it gave our guide Bret (from South Africa brooo) the chance to give ... read more

We were really excited about going to our first African wedding. We were invited through Julius, as his friend and colleague Emmanuel was the one getting married. First of all we have to say that being invited to a wedding after meeting someone only once was quite strange, but very nice. Emmanuel got married to a lady called Anna who is originally from Kenya. So it was a Ugandan-Kenyan wedding with many guests and lively colours. We arrived after the ceremony in the church and went directly to the reception, which was outside under some big “party tents”. The area was very nicely decorated in white and green, and the scenery really came to life when all the women came with their dresses that were of all colours that one can imagine. We sat and waited ... read more