Back from Kenya

I finally got back to Jinja at about one in the morning after being on a bus for almost twelve hours. My return trip from Mombasa was rather uneventful, at least in the way of bad occurrences.
After making my last blog post, I headed toward the southern end of town in search of the ferry that would take me towards the southern beaches and my hotel. I am a firm believer that you should take public transport whenever possible; it allows you to really experience the culture. I noticed a gentleman standing next to one of the minibuses calling out “ferry ferry ferry!”, so I figured that was my ride. After about a five minute ride I was dropped at the entrance to the ferry terminal, along with about four hundred Kenyans, I crowded onto a car ferry and crossed the bay (see photo above). Finding a bus that was heading south to the beach was relatively easy, the gentleman in the seat next to introduced himself and helped me find where I was supposed to get off. Overall it cost me a little less than 500 shillings to make it from the train to the beach, if I would’ve taken a private taxi (which is what most westerners do) it would have been almost 2500 shillings.
Twiga lodge was an absolutely stunning location, right on the Indian Ocean with white sandy beaches as far as the eye could see. I had the opportunity to go snorkeling in a shallow pool; it was like swimming in one of the tanks at the shed aquarium in Chicago. I woke up early the next morning to go down to the beach and watch the sunrise over the horizon, I took the photo above at it’s peak beauty. At breakfast I had an interesting visitor; a monkey came along and sat next to my table, watched me eat for about twenty minutes before finally moving on.
It was hard to leave such a beautiful spot, but I knew that there were things that I wanted to see in Mombasa before I left. I went for a long walk through the old portion of the city; finally arriving at the largest tourist attraction, Fort Jesus. I took about an hour and half to walk around and through the entire structure, this strategic location has changed hands at least nine times in the last few centuries, the historian in me really enjoyed it.
After an enjoyable afternoon, I made my way back to the train and climbed aboard for the return trip. That evening in the dining car, I had the pleasure of sitting with a newlywed Kenyan couple from Nairobi. The gentleman was an IT man for a computer company and the lady was a stewardess for Kenya Airways. As it turns out, her uncle lives in Milwaukee, never ceases to amaze me how small the world can seem. Before going to sleep in my cabin I took the time to take a few photos of my wonderful accommodation.
The next morning I had breakfast with two recent law school graduates from Washington State, the two of them were on a celebratory vacation. At one point, as I ate my eggs and toast, I looked out the window after the locomotive let out a particularly long whistle blow. It was then that I saw five giraffes running away from the train tracks, among those were one or two gazelles that got caught up in the fray. For most of the morning after breakfast I was glued to the windows taking photos of the landscape and the train itself.
Once I got into the city it was already late morning, I walked to the bus station and got a ticket for the next bus back to Uganda a couple of hours later. To pass the time I went out for one last meal and climbed up a hill to take a photo of the city center.
Looking at my passport this morning, the once empty pages have become an indiscernible mess of stamps and visa stickers, there’s only one stamp left to get.

Mombasa

After an interesting ride to Nairobi (one that involved me being detained for an hour), I got to take an incredible overnight trainride across Kenya. I just arrived in Mombasa and my task for the day is to make my way south to a lodge on the Indian ocean.

Off to Kenya

It feels like I just got back to Jinja...probably because I just did. In a few hours I'll head to the same bus station that I started my Rwandan excursion from, except this time I'm headed in the opposite direction. My journey this evening will take me west into Kenya, I hope to reach Nairobi around lunchtime tomorrow. From Nairobi I'm planning on taking a train down to Mombasa to see the Indian Ocean, after a night there I'll simply do the reverse. Here we go again

Kibuye – Kigali – Jinja

The ride through western Rwanda was absolutely beautiful; I’ve included a few photos that I took leaning out the window on the way back from Kibuye yesterday. I forgot that since I was much further south the sun goes down about an hour earlier than it does in Jinja. As a result, my four o’clock bus to Kibuye from the capital did not arrive until after dark and during a rainstorm. Upon my arrival I was informed that the hotel that I was planning on staying at had closed six months ago, luckily my guidebook had a list of other area hotels. I stood under an awning watching the rain, thinking about what to do for about twenty minutes before a kind gentleman came up and introduced himself. My new friend turned out to be a Ugandan born Rwandan Journalist working in the area, he was nice enough to show me to a hotel and get me checked in. After saying goodbye I got accustomed to my room and made a wonderful discovery…THE HOTEL HAD HOT WATER!!!!
Since my last hot shower was on June 8th in Wisconsin, I found this to be quite a treat. After a shower that I guess must’ve lasted about a half hour, I wandered upstairs to have dinner on the hotel’s terrace. No matter where you are in the world, you find that some restaurant will always have some form of spaghetti with tomato sauce (at least I think it was tomato sauce). Before heading to bed I turned on the TV in my room to see what was on, only one channel came in and a soccer game was on (big surprise). The funny thing was that as I watched the channel kept changing, I learned later that all of the TVs in the entire hotel ran off of the same cable box. In other words, the remote is up in the restaurant and whatever is being watched on that TV is what’s on throughout the entire hotel.
The next morning I woke up and walked out onto the balcony attached to my room and was treated to a great view of the bay and Lake Kivu (see above). Over breakfast I was told that if I wanted to reach Kigali before the evening I would have to take the ten o’clock bus. This didn’t leave much time for sightseeing but when I planned this trip I told myself it was more about journeys than destinations.
Next began one of the most interesting parts of the trip thus far, I climbed aboard a small bus bound for Kigali yesterday morning with the intend of having a short ride with another night in Kigali. About a half hour outside of Kigali we caught up with a Kampala coach bus (the company I road to Rwanda with), it appeared that it was heading to Nairobi (via Kampala). After mulling it over for a few minutes it occurred to me that life would be a bit easier if I headed back to Uganda on the same day. Once we reached the city center I jumped out and ran the few blocks from the Sorta tours office to Kampala coach, I bought my ticket and stepped onto the bus as it pulled out of the station, I manage to get a photo of the taxi park just as I was settling into my seat. I was able to clear immigration much faster this time around, though through a misunderstanding I was only given a seven day visa, so essentially the questions of whether or not I was going to Kenya has been answered.
The only disadvantage of taking that bus was that I missed lunch, luckily I had a bunch of wheat biscuits and cliff bars in my bag. Ten hours later I was in Kampala, however I still had to change buses to get back to my house in Jinja. I walked along the row of buses till I found mine and threw my bag in an empty seat; when I got off to find a bathroom I couldn’t help but notice the gentleman welding a lugnut to one of the rims of my bus, I’m not expert but that’s not something I like to see being done to a vehicle I’m about to ride on. The nice thing about Kampala coach is that they give you a bit of food when you stop in a major city, so I got in line by an area that looked like a kitchen (kinda) and got my plate of rice and several pieces of goat’s meat. When I walked over to the eating area the sound of forks hitting plates stopped briefly while I found a spot to sit, the idea that it’s not polite to stare doesn’t apply here.
I was thankful when the bus finally left the station, after a short ninety minutes we crossed the Nile River and I knew that my stop was only about two minutes away. Unfortunately the bus blew right through Jinja and continued moving West, I moved to the front of the bus as quick as I could and tried to explain to the conductor that I need to get off. I was finally able to get them to stop in a town called Bugembe, a place that I’ve worked in but is no short distance from town. It all worked out okay in the end; I signaled a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) from across the street and was at my door about fifteen minutes later.
That’s it for Rwanda, back in Jinja for two days, next stop…Kenya

Kigali

Originally I put up a two sentence update because I was in a hurry, but now that I have time before my bus leaves for Kibuye I'll write some more.

At one in the morning on Saturday I climbed onto a bus in Jinja, I could tell it was old and most moving parts on the inside were broken. Thankfully I was really tired and managed to sleep most of the night despite the driver's interesting style of driving. Crossing a border overland is quite an interesting experience; when you fly from country to country there are nice signs and people to tell you what to do, when I crossed on Saturday morning all people did was point. After a few stamps at the Ugandan side, I had a short walk through the interim zone between the two countries; it became apparent to me that Rwanda was very hilly quite different from central Uganda. Three hours later the bus stopped at the outskirts of Kigali, stepping down from the bus it occurred to me that I spoke neither Swahili nor French. The gentleman at the ticket counter was nice enough to point me to the money stand as well as advise my how to get into town. A few minutes later I was zipping through the streets of Kigali seated on the back of a motorcycle taxi; in contrast to Uganda, all moto-taxis have to carry helmets for their passengers.

After wandering around for about a half hour I chose a hotel near the center of the city. I was still really tired from the journey so I only walked around the city for a few hours before spending the rest of the afternoon and evening watching TV in my room. I ended up having dinner with the manager of the hotel on the terrace facing the city, I learned that he was actually a Spanish law student taking some time off, the hotel was actually only opened a week before and is part of a development plan.

I woke up this morning and went to one of Kigali's museums to pass the time. I'm scheduled to leave for Kibuye in about an hour, so I'm brushing up on my middle school level french. The adventure continues...

And we're off!

My bus tonight will take me from Jinja to Kigali in about twelve hours, I should be in Kigali by lunchtime tomorrow. I've included a map of my planned route with this post; from Kigali I'll head to Lake Kivo on Sunday afternoon, I've heard that it's a beautiful place to watch the sunset. After that I'll make my way back to Jinja sometime in the middle of next week.

Departure

Tomorrow I leave for Kigali on an overnight bus, I should reach the capital around lunch time on Saturday.

On a similar note, I thought that I'd make it official that I am returning home earlier than expected. Due to medical school interviews I will be returning to the US on October 5th, about a month before I had intended. While I am sad to cut this journey short, I feel that I really have done some great things in these several months, and I have a feeling there are still a few great experiences yet to come.

Update

I know I haven't been posting much lately, I've been pretty busy with preparations for next week. I'll be leaving for Rwanda on Friday of this week, I decided that I'm going to take a week off to do some traveling. After a few days in Rwanda I'll return to Jinja for a day or two before heading to Kenya at the end of next week. I imagine I'll have quite a few stories to share

Old world Jinja

The first first aid class taught by local instructors was held on Friday afternoon underneath a tree on the east end of Lingira island. I was very proud of how my students performed with their tailored curriculum, i think that in the course of a few months this important knowledge will disseminate throughout the community. It never ceases to amaze me how enthusiastic Ugandans are when learning a new skill; when you give knowledge, people run with it.

I had a nice lazy Sunday today, ran some errands in town and had lunch at a local restaurant (1500 shillings or 75 cents US). On my way home this afternoon I took a detour through a section of Jinja that I had never been in. I noticed that there were quite a few abandoned buildings that were from the pre-independence era (50s-60s). These dirty shells of buildings must have been magnificent when they were new, when you walk past you can't help but wonder what it must have been like to like in Africa over half a century ago. One building was clearly a hotel at one point, the roof looks like a wonderful place to have a party.

Quickie from the Island

I'm back on the islands for two days, tomorrow is the first class taught explicitly by my students. Hope it goes well!!!

I'm doing what?

Today I went to a new clinic on the other side of the river with the intention of helping out the lab technician. When I arrived, my contact greeted me, showed me to the lab, and said "here are your students" as he opened the door. I was then left in the clinic's lab with eight students from the Jinja school of nursing and widwifery.

After several seconds of them all staring at me, I managed to say "do you guys know how to prick fingers?". The resounding no provided me with my first lesson for the day; I ended up working with these students for about five hours straight, demonstrating various clinical tests and talking about the importance of lab safety. Just goes to show, you never know what opportunities may present themselves.