City Mouse

As Carol commented on a recent post, I just hit the one month mark on my time here. I didn't intend for it to work out this way, but I guess you could say I celebrated the occasion with a trip to Kampala, Uganda. I traveled with Lauren, my fellow ORI intern, and Elisa, who works for a public health organization here in Kigali and who's also a fellow Columbia grad.

Thursday was a holiday here (May Day/International Labor Day/way too socialist of a holiday for the US) so we started the 8-hour bus ride as early as we could. In a word, the bus ride was rough. Including the time we spent at the border, the trip took about 9.5 hours. It was crowded, incredibly bumpy, and made all sorts of random stops. At each stop there were always people trying to sell goods through the bus windows. The TV on the bus had a steady stream of entertainment, though. We started with the movie Tremors, which might have been fine, but it was dubbed into Luganda, and there was one man voicing every character. At least we still got to see some classic Kevin Bacon hair. After the movie they showed a variety of local soap operas, including an episode called "Stolen Bible 2." I was hoping the subtitle would be "Gideon's Revenge"...

By the time we arrived in Kampala and made it to our hostel, we were desperate to get some food. Compared to Kigali, Kampala is very much an international city, and we'd been told ahead of time to take advantage of the opportunity to have some good food while there. We took a cab to a Chinese restaurant and had a solid meal full of familiar tastes. Our post-dinner plan was to try to catch some live local music, but when we got to Club Obligato we found out they were hosting a special concert, which carried a hefty cover charge. We were in a pretty desolate, industrial area, but I had spotted a tiny bar on the road to the club, so we walked a ways and ended up at Paradise Club. We hung around, drank some beer, and played pool while the locals laughed at us. Definitely a good time.

After getting some rest and enjoying some coffee at the hostel, we were off to explore Kampala. I took a liking to the city right away, and I think that was mostly because of its size. Beyond the fact that big cities have always fascinated me, while the three of us still received plenty of stares and mzungu calls, it seemed like we were a little more anonymous in Kampala than we are when we walk around here in Kigali. The city was lively and chaotic, and while poverty seemed just as prevalent as it is in Kigali, it felt like there was a broader base of economic activity holding the city up. Our first stop in town was as a ticket vendor to see if there were any more tickets for the Akon concert. There weren't, but apparently he ended up canceling the show anyway. Someone forgot to tell him that you can't make it to Texas for a show the day after you perform in Uganda.

A walk through one of the city's parks was next. One of the first things I noticed, and lamented, about Kigali is that there aren't any parks available for people to sit and enjoy the country's beautiful weather. Kampala doesn't have as many as some of my other favorite big cities but I was happy to find at least one. We spent the rest of Friday walking through the city, having a cup of Ugandan coffee, wading our way through the market and taxi park, and being American. By evening we’d come across another park, called Centenary Park, where there were a number of outdoor restaurants. We had a couple drinks and let the afternoon cool into evening, then headed over to a bar called Kasalina’s to give our previously-stymied live music goals another try. We found a fun band playing local music and a tourist-free crowd, which was surprising given how close the bar was to a couple of major hotels.

We rose early the next morning to embark on the part of the trip that I'd been most excited about: white-water rafting on the Nile. The rafting company picked us up at the hostel and we made our way out to Jinja, a town situated right at the source of the Nile. I only have one photo of us so far, but I should get the rest from the company soon. Here's something I found on Google that should give you a pretty good idea of what it was like. I'd always been told that rafting was something I needed to try, and the experience at Jinja definitely didn't disappoint. Just being out on the river was an experience in itself. The sky was a pure blue, and the horizon seemed to extend for miles. The banks of the river were lush, and there were families and children washing clothes and minding cattle along the way. Occasionally we had to paddle around fishermen who were at work in their dug-out canoes. Hitting the rapids was a huge rush. Our guide kept us from flipping, which was actually a bit disappointing, but we still charged hard at all four different class 5 rapids, some with Hemingway-esque names like The Cuban, The Bad Place, and my favorite, The Other Place. The sun was hot, and the paddling was hard work, but we were treated to lunch on a small island halfway through the day, and there was cold beer waiting for us at the end. I'm definitely hooked.

We finished the weekend with a day trip to Entebbe, the former capital of Uganda. Entebbe is located right next to Lake Victoria, and we chose to spend the whole afternoon at the botanical gardens there. We saw monkeys, enjoyed a lunch of fresh tilapia, did some people watching, and plenty of walking. It was the perfect way to end a rewarding trip.

After another 8 hour overnight bus ride, we were back in Kigali by mid-morning today.

I'll be sure to add an update when there are more rafting pictures and when I've had a chance to add photos that the girls took.