JINJA & more pictures

More pictures can now bee seen at www.picasaweb.google.com/matthew.j.mont@gmail.com

My visit back to Mukono went well, I surprised Jacob and picked him up after school and we went to a local garden restaurant to have a soda. Conversation was small because he does not know much English but he told me about all the new words he has learnt since I left, they just finished a transportation section in school and he now knows words like car, plane, truck, boat, and bicycle.

The kids at the orphan school absolutely love the new desks, when they saw me coming they ran towards me yelling, Uncle Matthew, Uncle Matthew, thank you, thank you. Unfortunately we have created a war between the kids as they battle each day to sit on the new desks. The teacher informed me that each day she has to divide the kids up and tell them they need to share turns on the new desks, and they all take turns every day. The teacher also informed me that there is one stubborn boy that insists he will not move away from the desk, claiming the seat as his and his alone, oddly enough his name is Asman – pronounced Ass-man, I kid you not.

*Jinja for the weekend

*Boda Boda accident number two!

On the way to the lodge Tyler and I jumped on a boda boda in attempts to get to the lodge before the rain came and we got soaked. About halfway to the lodge the rain came down, we were soaked in seconds and wondering about the safety of riding as pairs on a motorcycle while in the rain, especially since it was on a mud road. Twice the driver hit a puddle and swerved and almost wiped out…we both knew at that point that we weren’t getting to our destination without a good tumble. With much anticipation it finally happened we hit a bump, puddle and slid out of control crashing in the ditch, it hurt a little bit, I got a small scratch on my leg from the muffler but we got up laughing our heads off standing in the pouring rain. WE gave each other a huge hug and helped the driver up with his bike and got back on the bike. We did arrive intact but soaking wet.
Jijna is a two hour ride east of Kampala and is one of the main tourist attractions in Uganda. We left mid day Friday to have a weekend of camping and relaxing. Rafting was no walk in the park, it was a 30 km cruise down the Nile River, most of the 12 major rapids they took you through were class 5 (6 being the highest) Several of the rapids had 6 foot drops before entering a myriad of colossal waves pounding in multiple directions, grim and glorious all in one pool and if you managed to get through all that you had to be wearing of the croc’s at the end of the rapids. If you are interested at all in seeing some of the rapids you could probably go to youtube and watch videos of the rafting trips this company does they are called Nile River Explorers + search grade 5 rapids. We stayed at a beautiful lodge on top of a hill overlooking the Nile, I have pictures that I will upload onto my flicker account of the view. The whole deal and accommodations for the trip were pretty good, if you go rafting they give you one nights stay for free, free transportation too and from Kampala and free food during the day that you raft. After rafting we had a great free BBQ and free beer.

We woke up around 7:30 to get ready for our day of rafting, by 10 we were in the water and getting instructions on what to do. The first few rapids that we went through were grade 3. Although grade 3 they still seemed pretty hairy. Then we got to one called 50/50 you could probably guess that the probability of flipping was 50/50 hence the name. We didn’t flip, our guide was very experienced and was able to direct us on how to raft through it without going overboard. We kept bugging him to make us flip over as we were eager to take a ride down the river in our life jackets, but as I should have remembered be careful what you wish for. The next rapid which was a class 5 called Silverback was the huge, we were paddling through calm water for about a kilometer before reaching it and could hear its roar from far away. As soon as we peaked at the crest of the rapid I knew were weren’t going to make it through this one without falling out. Within seconds I had no idea where I was, which way to swim and if I would ever breath again. From what I saw last several huge waves flipped the raft over and knocked everyone out. I felt like I was under water for ten minutes when really it was more like 10 seconds, when I finally reached the surface rather than gasping for air I found myself laughing hysterically, I had just experienced the most intense rush of my life and loved every second of it. I heard my guide who was about a good 20 feet away in the boat all yelling at us, “ok, ok, get back in the boat” he said, “there are crocodiles around here”, that’s when I stopped laughing and swam towards the boat. Throughout our trip on the river we saw a bunch of different species, Crocodiles, Monkeys and Bald Eagles were among the most notable. During the flat spots of the river everyone got to get out of the raft and float down the Nile, besides sucking back large amounts of water in the rapids this was one of my favorite experiences of the trip. The current was swift in a few spots and dragged us along, in several spots there were whirl pools that would spin you in circles and attempt to pull you under, most of them were not strong enough too but it was fun to float in them. The crocodiles stayed on the shore mostly and our guide was always on the watch. We went through a few more class 4 and 5’s until we hit this huge rapid called Chop Suey, a class 5 monster. Our guide claims Silverback was bigger but Chop Suey had a 6 foot drop and waves over 6 feet high all smashing around each other like a mammoth washing machine. You could probably guess that within seconds of entering this thing we had flipped over. The raft flipped over on my and I was stuck under it for a while but was able to breath for a few seconds in the air whole underneath the raft a wave then swept the raft away, the last thing I saw was another wave that sent me pretty far under. I have never felt so helpless before, swimming o flailing your arms wouldn’t do much at all in this situation, I just waited to resurface somewhere. It was really funny to finally get back to the surface everyone was very far from each other, Tyler and I got to the raft first and tried to help the guide flip it back over. As I was approaching the raft I heard the guide yell, ok ready to flip the raft, I replied no, no, no as I knew I was on the wrong side and that he would flip it over on top of me…too late, he did and I went back under to suck back some more of the tasty Nile. We got to have lunch on the raft which consisted of fresh pineapple and glucose cookies, it was actually really good, I probably would’ve eaten anything at that point as I was so tired from swimming and paddling for 15 km. The afternoon saw us paddling a lot over still water, it was great to actually have a chance to admire the scenery around us and look for animals, the last part of the day saw us through 4 class 5 rapids none of which we were flipped on.

Back at the lodge we were greeted by the staff and a huge BBQ and free beer we were all pretty tired from the day, it was a good 6 hours and 30 km on the river.

Sunday was relaxing we took our time packing up to head home and went for a hike to Bujigali falls a class 3 rapid that we went on the day before. We then headed into Jinja to catch a bus home but stopped off at a beautiful restaurant on the Nile for a bite to eat. While eating lunch we noticed a family of monkeys in the trees across from us, it was entertaining to watch them swing around, they seem like very playful creatures always ready to put on a show.

We made our way back to Kampala Sunday night, I felt like a zombie, completely exhausted from the weekend adventures.
I am having a lot of trouble adding people to the email list, the connection here seems to be getting slower and slower and super finicky. Please pass this along to those whom want it.

Lots of Love,

Matt