Six Days in Jinja and Bujagali!

      I landed into the Entebbe International Airport about an hour behind schedule on the 25th. Paul was there waiting to pick me up :) He helped me pack my things into the taxi and we were on our way! There is no road that connects Entebbe to Jinja so we had to go all the way through Kampala which was a giant unorganized hectic traffic jam. But, Paul had a pineapple in the car and sliced it up for us as we drove.

     The first thing I noticed about Uganda was how green everything is! It looks much different than Tanzania and is full of trees, farms and shrubs. As we road through Kampala the traffic "was not bad" but it took us nearly an hour just to make it through the city. They have a very crazy way of driving here an I am extremely surprised I haven't seen an accident yet. There are motor vehicles of every size that constantly spew out gallons of black exhaust (there are no smog tests here), followed by small motorcycles called "bota-botas". Botas are the fastest (but not the safest) way to get around town. Behind the drive you will see 2 goats and a person, 3 large bags of cement with a woman holding a child, or even 3 more men for a total of 4 on the bota. It is absolutely insane to watch these guys zip through traffic. Then you also have a mix of bicycles carrying obscene amount of things as well as well as the common and random men women and children who are walking. Driving does not look fun.

     Wednesday (25) was spent walking around Jinja and getting to know the area. The patters of the fabric here about absolutely stunning!! I cannot wait to get a few outfits made by the tailors in Ndejje. Jinja is the second largest "city" (it is considered a town) in Uganda and is known as the adrenaline capital of East Africa. I also noticed the lack of infrastructure throughout the town. Only the main roads are paved, there is trash everywhere, there is burning trash piles everywhere, and no trash cans!

     Thursday (26) we took a bota to Bujagali and I was able to go kayaking with Paul for a little bit. Bujagali is were Nile River Explorers (NRE) and Zen Tubing (Paul's company) operates from. It is a beautiful small village full of other "muzungus" (foreigner) and many volunteer opportunities.

     Friday (27) I helped Paul move into his new house in Bujagali. He is living with Mama Flo...she is a wonderful independent single mother of three. She has her own little business where she sells things that her and other women have made (jewelry, purses, etc) and also rents out rooms in her house. Paul is paying 70.000 ugs (Ugandan shillings) a week and that includes breakfast and dinner. 70.000ugs ends up being about $28 USD a week. Pretty cheap!! Cheaper than my place in Ndejje. Staying with Mama Flo is a woman about my age named Chichillia (not sure on spelling) from Italy. She is volunteering with S.O.F.T Power Education which is a group of different schools that were build with profits from NRE.

Innocent and his brother (they live at Mama Flos)

Innocent in Paul's kayak gear

    Over the weekend there were many overland trucks that came to NRE and I was able to go rafting and tubing with Paul. The Victorian Nile River (I thought it was the White Nile) is crazy different than California white water!! There are HUGE features and HUGE waves and HUGE eddy lines. It was so much fun. I actually enjoyed swimming; it was warm and deep! Alex (one of the guides) even let me guide a couple of rapids - - it was tons of fun.

       I met a couple of school girls on a walk home to Mama Flo's and made a play date to help them with their homework that night. They stopped over to pick me up and brought me avocado, mango, and maize. It was only able to spend a brief about of time with them, but it was great and gave me even more to look forward to :)

Paul and I when I went tubing

    I got a cell phone and called my director Jacques Bwira to set up when and where I would be picked up to begin my project with him in Ndejje. I am in Kampala (the capital city) now waiting for Jacques to pick me up. I have been studying French nearly everyday preparing for my project. I decided that I also want to implement an Environmental Education class into HoPE Primary School so I have been working on the class outline for that. I brought my French 1&2 textbook and I will use that as my outline for teaching basic French to the refugee students. As for the English classes, I think I will just have to see where everyone is at in their proficiency and literacy levels. I read a book about a student who came to Uganda to teach for a month and he had the students write an essay to start. He corrected the essays and taught his English lessons based off of the mistakes made in the papers. That sounded like a great way to start and I think I will base my lessons off of that.

    I am looking forward to getting to Ndejje and meeting everyone in the community. Jacques should be here in 4 hours, but Africa time tells me he will be here in about 5 1/2 :) I don't know when I will have access to the internet next...But I do know that I feel mentally and physically prepared for the greatest experience of my life.