Jinja Brought the Adventure!

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I spent the weekend in Jinja which is the source of the Nile and the adventure capital. Hope and Irene joined me for the weekend, which was a blast. We started in Kampala where we met with a great fashion designer: Josephine Nakafeero who has Jose House of Creations. She has created a successful small business and plans to speak to our women this month to share her story with them. Before we hit the road I had my first frozen yogurt since I got here and it was great!



Jinja is only about 1.5 hours away from Kampala, however it is hard to describe how bad the traffic is. It is the busiest road in the country because it is the access point to the surrounding countries: Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. There can be a 20 min long stand stills when a truck breaks down, or wants to turn and has to wait for traffic to clear. It is a single lane each direction, but frequently motorist will make it into 3 lanes as they drive all over to try to get around the trucks. It took us about 4 hours to get there, so we turned on the music, and watched the madness outside the car. The first night we stayed in some cute cottages along the Nile. On Saturday we decided to be adventurous and go quad biking! We drove along the Nile, through sugar cane fields and through some villages. It seemed fitting that it was raining most of the time so we had puddles and mud to play in. We had a great time and only had one small accident when Hope ran into a tree, but no people, goats, or chickens were harmed.



The nightlife is still rebounding for Jinja just like the rest of the country. We had some great Indian food and checked out a few clubs to listen to some local music. But, Irene would have been a much better DJ.



We switched hotels on Saturday and stayed at a small house on a lovely compound of gardens. One Sunday we started the day with a boat ride on Lake Victoria to the source of the Nile. When you get to end of Lake Victoria and the start of the Nile you can see the water change and start flowing the 6650 km all the way to Egypt.



We then started on our way back so we could stop at the largest remaining rain forest in Uganda: Mabira Forest. It was about a 20 min drive through sugar cane fields to get to the forest. If I wasn’t following directions on my phone and signs along the way I would have been certain we were going the wrong way. The forest is home to many endangered species such as the Uganda Mangabey monkey which is only found in Uganda. The forest has been protected since 1932. But, in 2007 the Sugar Corporation of Uganda (jointly owned by the government) announced plans to clear one-third of the of the forest for sugarcane plantations. The President and his cabinet supported this plan. But, the deforestation plan was disputed by locals and environmental activists. Hundreds of endangered species would lose their home and it would have a negative impact on the local water supply. But, the government saw the potential for $12B shillings for the treasury. The Kabaka (King) of Buganda sided with the people and offered alternative land for sugarcane production. We enjoyed the forest walk and finished it off with me (Irene and Hope said no way!) ziplining.

Along the way back we stopped at the side of the road where dozens of people surrounded our car to sell us food for our journey. We settled on Muchomo (beef or goat on a stick), a whole chicken on a stick, and Gonja (roasted plantains). It was the fastest food we have every had and the cheapest. The chicken was perfect I wish I had bought more!

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