Blogs from Eastern Region, Uganda, Africa - page 7

After the 5 days of doing very little, I decided to take a trip out to Jinja for a few days away from Kampala. Another early start, and I was the only person on the free shuttle bus between Kampala and Jinja! I read for a bit then went to sleep for the rest of the journey. The bus reached Nile River Explorers Backpackers in Jinja Town at about 9 45, and I had some breakfast, before getting a Boda out too Nile River Explorers Campsite out at Bujagali Falls, set on the top of the Hill, overlooking the falls! After putting my bags into the dorm, I cam out to the bar, where the balcony overlooks the river, very impressive view. I took a Boda back down into Jinja to get some things (much needed ... read more

Despite most people advising that there was little threat of trouble over the elections we thought we’d be on the safe side (and take advantage of the public holiday) to go with Madame Betty, one of the Directors of UYWEFA, to their family home near Mbale. Several embassies (though not Britain’s which was reassuringly relaxed) had issued warnings and told people to make escape plans ours was to get out to Kenya if anything went disastrously wrong and wait there. There had been few signs of any problems during the campaigns but the security forces sudden less-than-discreet presence in the couple of weeks before made it seem best to get out of Kampala, which is where the general consensus said any trouble would be. We made the four hour journey in a Matatu, a minibus ... 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

My first bit of travelling around Uganda was to Bujagali Falls and a chance to finally see what all the fuss about it being a beautiful country is about. Thus far, I had only really seen Kampala and the places where Lauren and I live, Nansana and Kazo respectively. The journey from Kampala told us a lot about the differences between the two places. It took us nearly three hours, half of which was spent in traffic coming out of Kampala which has grown much faster than its road and transport infrastructure can handle. When we arrived in Jinja I immediately was struck by the space. Though it is supposedly Uganda’s second city, it is around one twentieth of the size of Kampala and in the couple of hours we were there the difference seemed immense. ... read more