Week 6 - Personal blog



Lake Victoria


It was absolutely horrible writing Week 6 at the top of this blog; it feels like there is no way my time in Uganda could be half over, and each week here is getting better and better. Last Monday night we went out to celebrate Lawrence’s birthday, and on Tuesday we spent the day at the beach in Entebbe with Brenda, Ritah and Sue to celebrate International Women’s Day. This was the first time we had seen Lake Victoria, and it was a brilliant day of sunbathing, swimming, playing with local children and bribing fishermen to take us out in their canoes (which had more holes than wood, resulting in Rachel and I having to swim back to shore so the boat didn’t sink!). Women’s day is such a brilliant celebration; everyone gets a day off and women do no housework and cooking, but instead are spoiled by their husbands or fathers. I personally think this should be a much bigger holiday in Ireland, and will be promoting it next year!


Five girls and two fishermen in a very dodgy canoe!

With numerous warnings about cholera, typhoid and bilharzia, Rachel and I have been very careful to drink only bottled or boiled water and not swimming with open wounds. Unfortunately, our diligence was completely undone by going white water rafting on Saturday and swallowing half of the River Nile. After school on Friday we headed off to Jinja, a city about two hours from Kampala, with five UN workers; two Irish, two Belgian and an Italian.

Me and Rachel with Nathan

Heading down to the Nile on Saturday morning, we were given a raft whose guide was called Nathan. Unbelievably, Nathan was also my guide when I went white water rafting in Canada last summer! Back then we had had a long conversation about me going to study in Uganda, and he had informed me that his sister still lived there and I should look her up. I’d forgotten about him completely until he introduced himself and said that he normally lived in Canada but had moved back to Uganda in January because he missed his family. Even more crazily, Nathan doesn’t normally work for Nile River Explorers but had just decided that morning that he fancied going rafting. What the flip are the chances of that happening?!  

When I was rafting in Canada I loved every minute and don’t remember feeling scared going through the rapids at all. However, the Grade 5 rapids on the Nile are a LOT bigger than the Grade 4 ones I had experienced before, and Nathan endeavoured to flip our raft as much as possible. The first time we flipped I had a momentary lapse of judgement and had what Rachel described as a “Look! No hands!” moment. In all the excitement I forgot to hold on and ended up being washed downstream and had to be rescued by a kayak. Oops! In approximately 25km of the Nile we only managed to stay upright for three rapids, but the whole day was incredible. We had lunch floating in the rafts between rapids, and finished our trip with a huge barbeque on the banks of the river. I am definitely getting used to the Ugandan-sized meals, and Rachel regularly points out that I am getting an ‘African ass.’ Thanks honey. Love you too.

Returning to our hostel absolutely exhausted and covered in bruises (which we proudly showed off to everyone), we spent the evening chilling out at the bar and meeting other travellers and local Ugandans. There haven’t been any Irish people at the Backpackers for the previous three months but this weekend had a complete influx with 11 of us! Around 1am a large crowd of guests and staff headed to Sombrero’s, a club in Jinja town. In spite of some strange Ugandan music and remixes, we had a brilliant night dancing and finally got in at 4:30am. We crept into our dorm so quietly that no one heard us, and we were woken the next morning by our friends panicking that we hadn’t come home and had been abducted!

 In the afternoon the others headed back to Kampala while Rachel and I went on a horseback trek. Despite having been here for six weeks, I still have moments where I have to pinch myself to believe I’m actually in Africa. This was one of those moments; walking (and even some cantering!) beside the River Nile, hearing monkeys chatter and seeing them swing from tree to tree; hens and chicks running across the road while goats roam beside you; passing fields of sugar cane, banana trees, pineapples, rice paddies, jack fruits and avocado trees; dozens upon dozens of children running after us shouting ‘’Hi mzungo!” for all they are worth; mothers cooking on fires outside mud huts with thatched roofs. ‘This Is Africa’ (TIA) is an expression that many people use here laughingly to describe the disorganisation, the lack of service or other problems or hassles encountered in daily life. But in everything I saw yesterday I wanted to exclaim “No. This is Africa.”  As scary as it is that my time in Uganda is half over, I feel so incredibly fortunate to be having this experience and I cannot wait to see what is in store for the second half!

By the River Nile

After getting home pretty late last night, Rachel and I dragged ourselves out of bed for an 8am class. .Arriving at the School of Education, we found the doors padlocked and campus deserted; having been in Jinja, we missed yesterday’s announcement that today would be a public holiday (yes, they really are as spontaneous as that). To make ourselves feel better we decided to pay a visit to the spa at Emin Pasha, the most luxurious hotel in Kampala. After a gruelling weekend of adventure we definitely needed some pampering, right? Although we tried to draw up a budget last week, it appears our willpower and self-control aren’t the strongest...... having said that, we floated out of the spa with blissful smiles on our faces, and we definitely need to be relaxed before the Irish ambassador’s party, Brenda’s 21^st and the St Patrick’s Day ball this week! If only every Monday was like this J

Love Suzi xo