Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Off to Kenya
We're leaving for Kenya for a 3 day safari tomorrow afternoon. We're going on four game drives--one Friday, two Saturday, and one Sunday. Plus, we get to see the Wildebeest Migration. At this time every year thousands of wildebeest migrate from the southern Serengeti of Tanzania to Masai Mara, which is on the border between Kenya and Tanzania. Our safari is on the Kenyan side of Masai Mara, so we should be able to see some wildebeest, in addition to the big five--elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions, and rhinos. Fingers crossed that we see them all! And some babies...
Rafting Pictures
Here are a few of the best pictures from rafting. There are many more posted on facebook. I also brought a waterproof disposable camera, so I'll have some more of the floating-on-the-water variety when I get home.
Sights along the Nile
It was really interesting to witness life along the Nile. There were mud huts speckled along the hills through which the river winds. There was even one on this very remote island in the middle of the river. All along the bank we saw men and women washing clothes and shoes, often sitting there naked. Small mesh tents were hanging from the trees to catch Tsetse flies. I obviously couldn't see what was beyond the hills, but it still seems incredible to me that people live in such seemingly remote places. I thought I grew up in the middle of nowhere because I had to drive 15 minutes to get to the grocery store, but that was nothing. At least I didn't have to walk for 2 days over a mountain to get there.
As for the Nile itself, it was amazing. We were able to swim at some parts; the water was so warm! At others, we weren't allowed to get out because there were crocodiles in the water. We didn't actually see any while we were rafting, but we saw them when we were driving over the river on the way back to Jinja town. There were also some huge birds standing on rocks with their wings spread to dry them in the sun.
As for the Nile itself, it was amazing. We were able to swim at some parts; the water was so warm! At others, we weren't allowed to get out because there were crocodiles in the water. We didn't actually see any while we were rafting, but we saw them when we were driving over the river on the way back to Jinja town. There were also some huge birds standing on rocks with their wings spread to dry them in the sun.
Conquering the Nile
So, this weekend was awesome! We made it to Jinja in record time on the bus on Friday. The Elgon Flyer redeemed it's title as the most luxurious coach in Uganda. Once we got to Jinja, we headed straight for the Source Cafe. It was kind of a let-down. First of all, it turns out that it's connected to some faith based organization or something. The missionary guy who runs the place is a bit strange, talking incessantly and whatnot. And the menu was extremely limitedt--here wasn't a single vegetarian item on it. I can't believe they didn't have Virgin Mary French Toast. I settled for a chocolate milkshake, which was delicious but not entirely satisfying. Also, the craft shop attached to the place is way over priced. They're more worried about making money for Jesus than selling goods at fair prices.
We then moved on to some of the same craft places we had visited before As I am my mother's daughter, I bought a few more things--but I definitely got some good deals. Then we headed to 2 Friends for dinner. 2 Friends is apparently one of the nicer hotels in Jinja--it was out of our price range so I can't comment on the rooms, but the restaurant was pretty good.
After dinner we headed off to Adrift Lodge. Included in the price of the rafting trip is one free night at lodge. I kind of felt like I was back at camp/sleeping in a tree house. There were four bunks, each consisting of four beds, made out of huge tree trunks. The beds had about three feet of space between them, so it made for a slightly cramped and claustrophobic sleep. Some beds had tiny little bed nets, while others went without. My bed had a net, but it also had a hole the size of my fist so I'm not sure how effective it was. Also, the sheets were super musty and of questionable cleanliness. Needless to say, my allergies did not fare well. I woke up wheezing and unable to breathe. Nothing like the fresh air of the Nile to clear that up though!
We got up bright and early in the morning--mostly no one slept that well--had some breakfast, loaded on the sunscreen (that was mostly me), and headed off to our boats. Between the 12 of us, we split into two boats--a wild boat and a mild boat (though the mild boat actually had the wildest ride). I was in the wild boat with 7 UBC students and our guide, who was also Canadian. We went over class 3, 4, and 5 rapids. It was SO much fun! We had a delicious lunch of sandwiches and fruit. It was so nice to eat whole vegetables rather than ones that had been chopped up and made into a sauce. We applied more sunscreen, and set off for the second half of the day. We went over a 16 foot waterfall, though it didn't really seem that high. I was a bit scared at that point, but it al turned out well.
The mild boat had a much different experience. There was a large rock at the top of the waterfall that several boats got stock on. Naturally, one of these was the mild boat. I heard this story after the fact, of course, but apparently their guide, a local guy who had grown up on the river, was yelling at the boat, and Nrupa in particular, that they didn't paddle correctly, which caused them to get stuck. After several minutes of bouncing and attempting to get the boat unstuck, the guide (Tutu, though now renamed Totem Pole) jumped out of the boat and supermanned it over the waterfall. The boat slid of the rock and over the waterfall. For about an hour after this event, our boat didn't know what had happened. All we saw were pissed off faces and silence between the guide and everyone in the boat. After a powwow a bit later, the mild boat switched guides and had an enjoyable remainder of the ride.
Saturday night we headed back to Jinja town and attempted to find a hotel. We had emailed the hotel we stayed at two weeks ago earlier asking for the same rooms, but apparently there was some confusion. The manager on duty told us that we were actually charged incorrectly last time. Now, our two rooms with two full size beds for four people would cost 50,000/= more shillings. Apparently they decided that a double bed is really only made for one person and that the two extra people staying in the room would each cost an additional 25,000/=. After much arguing, we went to a different hotel, which turned out to be much better. It was slightly cheaper, had much nicer bathrooms and really good food. After showering and taking a quick dinner, we all promptly passed out.
The next morning, we took some breakfast and went back into town to finish our shopping. I managed to get all of my gifts and then some, plus a really good milkshake! We caught a taxi back home. Ramtin sat with a live chicken. I had someone ask me if I wanted to make babies with him. All in all a pretty standard taxi ride back to Mbale.
We then moved on to some of the same craft places we had visited before As I am my mother's daughter, I bought a few more things--but I definitely got some good deals. Then we headed to 2 Friends for dinner. 2 Friends is apparently one of the nicer hotels in Jinja--it was out of our price range so I can't comment on the rooms, but the restaurant was pretty good.
After dinner we headed off to Adrift Lodge. Included in the price of the rafting trip is one free night at lodge. I kind of felt like I was back at camp/sleeping in a tree house. There were four bunks, each consisting of four beds, made out of huge tree trunks. The beds had about three feet of space between them, so it made for a slightly cramped and claustrophobic sleep. Some beds had tiny little bed nets, while others went without. My bed had a net, but it also had a hole the size of my fist so I'm not sure how effective it was. Also, the sheets were super musty and of questionable cleanliness. Needless to say, my allergies did not fare well. I woke up wheezing and unable to breathe. Nothing like the fresh air of the Nile to clear that up though!
We got up bright and early in the morning--mostly no one slept that well--had some breakfast, loaded on the sunscreen (that was mostly me), and headed off to our boats. Between the 12 of us, we split into two boats--a wild boat and a mild boat (though the mild boat actually had the wildest ride). I was in the wild boat with 7 UBC students and our guide, who was also Canadian. We went over class 3, 4, and 5 rapids. It was SO much fun! We had a delicious lunch of sandwiches and fruit. It was so nice to eat whole vegetables rather than ones that had been chopped up and made into a sauce. We applied more sunscreen, and set off for the second half of the day. We went over a 16 foot waterfall, though it didn't really seem that high. I was a bit scared at that point, but it al turned out well.
The mild boat had a much different experience. There was a large rock at the top of the waterfall that several boats got stock on. Naturally, one of these was the mild boat. I heard this story after the fact, of course, but apparently their guide, a local guy who had grown up on the river, was yelling at the boat, and Nrupa in particular, that they didn't paddle correctly, which caused them to get stuck. After several minutes of bouncing and attempting to get the boat unstuck, the guide (Tutu, though now renamed Totem Pole) jumped out of the boat and supermanned it over the waterfall. The boat slid of the rock and over the waterfall. For about an hour after this event, our boat didn't know what had happened. All we saw were pissed off faces and silence between the guide and everyone in the boat. After a powwow a bit later, the mild boat switched guides and had an enjoyable remainder of the ride.
Saturday night we headed back to Jinja town and attempted to find a hotel. We had emailed the hotel we stayed at two weeks ago earlier asking for the same rooms, but apparently there was some confusion. The manager on duty told us that we were actually charged incorrectly last time. Now, our two rooms with two full size beds for four people would cost 50,000/= more shillings. Apparently they decided that a double bed is really only made for one person and that the two extra people staying in the room would each cost an additional 25,000/=. After much arguing, we went to a different hotel, which turned out to be much better. It was slightly cheaper, had much nicer bathrooms and really good food. After showering and taking a quick dinner, we all promptly passed out.
The next morning, we took some breakfast and went back into town to finish our shopping. I managed to get all of my gifts and then some, plus a really good milkshake! We caught a taxi back home. Ramtin sat with a live chicken. I had someone ask me if I wanted to make babies with him. All in all a pretty standard taxi ride back to Mbale.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Source of the Nile
We're off to Jinja this weekend to go white water rafting on the Nile! I'm so excited! I shall return Sunday with an amazing post about our adventures.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
U-S-A!
I never thought I would be cheering that! To all you lame-os who don't know, the US somehow managed to take first place in their group in the World Cup and will be moving on to the next round. My best guess is they won't get much beyond that, but it's farther than anyone expected them to get so that's good!
As for more relevant issues, everything is pretty much the same at work, though today was a really good day. We walked in the door planning on spending the day in the library working on our project, and ended up sitting in on a bunch of counseling sessions. Today was a special day--the third Wednesday of every month is PMTCT day, so all the women come with their babies and/or pregnancies and get counseled on how to avoid passing HIV on to their child, what family planning is, etc. Very interesting. Nrupa and I were really focused on the involvement of men in this day. I sat in on a group counseling session with 3 couples, 2 men who came as representatives of their wives, and 1 woman whom I think just sat down in a random chair and ended up in the session. One of the couples was an older man with only two teeth left in his whole mouth and a woman who looked to be about 20-30 years his junior. She was holding their child who was definitely less than 1 year old. Madoyi, the counselor, made sure I noticed the gender gap. Nevertheless, this man was the first to speak up when I asked (via Madoyi) why the men decided to come and if they thought that the information they were receiving was important.
After work, we played volleyball. It started as 4 muzungus. Well, 3 muzungus and our friend Alan who might as well be muzungu, and then turned into a full game of 5 on 5. It was so much fun, even though I suck at volleyball and all the Ugandans who joined us were really good (naturally). The ball, however, was extremely heavy and inflated too full, so now my forearms are covered in bruises. Oh well, it was worth it.
The evening ended with a transparent lizard crawling on my as I was finishing brushing my teeth, so now I'm trying to avoid going back to my room even though I'm really tired.
Also, the Safari is officially planned!!! Kenya here I come!
As for more relevant issues, everything is pretty much the same at work, though today was a really good day. We walked in the door planning on spending the day in the library working on our project, and ended up sitting in on a bunch of counseling sessions. Today was a special day--the third Wednesday of every month is PMTCT day, so all the women come with their babies and/or pregnancies and get counseled on how to avoid passing HIV on to their child, what family planning is, etc. Very interesting. Nrupa and I were really focused on the involvement of men in this day. I sat in on a group counseling session with 3 couples, 2 men who came as representatives of their wives, and 1 woman whom I think just sat down in a random chair and ended up in the session. One of the couples was an older man with only two teeth left in his whole mouth and a woman who looked to be about 20-30 years his junior. She was holding their child who was definitely less than 1 year old. Madoyi, the counselor, made sure I noticed the gender gap. Nevertheless, this man was the first to speak up when I asked (via Madoyi) why the men decided to come and if they thought that the information they were receiving was important.
After work, we played volleyball. It started as 4 muzungus. Well, 3 muzungus and our friend Alan who might as well be muzungu, and then turned into a full game of 5 on 5. It was so much fun, even though I suck at volleyball and all the Ugandans who joined us were really good (naturally). The ball, however, was extremely heavy and inflated too full, so now my forearms are covered in bruises. Oh well, it was worth it.
The evening ended with a transparent lizard crawling on my as I was finishing brushing my teeth, so now I'm trying to avoid going back to my room even though I'm really tired.
Also, the Safari is officially planned!!! Kenya here I come!
Climbing Guava Trees
I didn't dare do this, but Edrin (or Edwin...we're not quite sure), Tom's 6 year old son did. On Saturday, Tom sent his kids to our house so that we could meet them. We ended up meeting them (aka babysitting) for the next 4 hours. One of the fellows last semester got a package from her friend, but thankfully it didn't arrive until after she had left because it contained lots of amazing things for kids to play with. We got a soccer ball, frisbee, cards, coloring books and crayons. This package was our lifesaver Saturday afternoon. Tom's 4 kids (and neighbor's kid, who came along for the fun), played soccer, colored, and climbed our guava tree and picked fruit which he threw over the fence to the kids waiting on the other side. Since I'm not the biggest lover of kids, this afternoon was a test for me. Let's just say that my maternal instinct is not quite as mature as Nrupa's, a fact that was clearly demonstrated when I likened Tom's youngest child, 9 month old Matthew, to my 125 pound black lab--they both like to chase tennis balls and they both drool more than any other creature I know. No matter how many times we wiped Matthew's mouth, there was always saliva dripping out of it, some of which unfortunately ended up in my hair. I should also mention that this is one of the largest babies I have ever seen. My arm was literally sore from carrying him around. I'm not sure how his 6 year old sister does it.
I know you're not supposed to pick favorites with kids, but they're not mine so it's okay, right. My favorite of Tom's kids is definitely his oldest, Isaac (9). He was the leader of the pack and definitely dressed for the part. He came to play in a nice pair of gray slacks and a fancy Africa themed shirt. He was so interested in my computer that I let him gchat with Aditya a little bit. Aditya promptly asked me to bring Isaac home. If only...
Other than our play date, things have been pretty boring. We're still making some progress on our project, slowly but surely. I also found a potential project for my CE (final project for school). Now I just have to write a proposal and hope it gets approved...
Really what I'm most looking forward to is the traveling we have planned. We're going to Jinja again this weekend to go white water rafting on the Nile!!! (And we're going to eat at the Source, Mom. You can tell your friend). The following weekend we're going to Kenya to go on a Safari, then the weekend after that we're going to stay a night or two with our friends who live in the mountains. We'll finally get to see a really, middle of nowhere village! Other weekend plans include: Shabbat dinner with the Abuadaya (Ugandan Jews), trip to Soroti, a neighboring district, to meet one of our coworker's children, and I pushing for a trip to Rwanda the week before we come home (hopefully passing through Tanzania for a moment on the return trip to Entebbe where we catch our flight home). Nrupa is hesitant about Rwanda because of the cost, but I'm trying to convince her that we should go because we've already spent an obscene amount of money to get here. We might as well make the most of it...
I know you're not supposed to pick favorites with kids, but they're not mine so it's okay, right. My favorite of Tom's kids is definitely his oldest, Isaac (9). He was the leader of the pack and definitely dressed for the part. He came to play in a nice pair of gray slacks and a fancy Africa themed shirt. He was so interested in my computer that I let him gchat with Aditya a little bit. Aditya promptly asked me to bring Isaac home. If only...
Other than our play date, things have been pretty boring. We're still making some progress on our project, slowly but surely. I also found a potential project for my CE (final project for school). Now I just have to write a proposal and hope it gets approved...
Really what I'm most looking forward to is the traveling we have planned. We're going to Jinja again this weekend to go white water rafting on the Nile!!! (And we're going to eat at the Source, Mom. You can tell your friend). The following weekend we're going to Kenya to go on a Safari, then the weekend after that we're going to stay a night or two with our friends who live in the mountains. We'll finally get to see a really, middle of nowhere village! Other weekend plans include: Shabbat dinner with the Abuadaya (Ugandan Jews), trip to Soroti, a neighboring district, to meet one of our coworker's children, and I pushing for a trip to Rwanda the week before we come home (hopefully passing through Tanzania for a moment on the return trip to Entebbe where we catch our flight home). Nrupa is hesitant about Rwanda because of the cost, but I'm trying to convince her that we should go because we've already spent an obscene amount of money to get here. We might as well make the most of it...
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