Jinja

Parental Warning: I AM STILL ALIVE; DON'T PANIC!

The last few days have just been so amazing! On Thursday, after getting back to Lwannunda from Lake Bunyoni and spending our last night in the school, we packed everything up so we could go and see the kids playing on the playground. Some of the lids had been left off the food from breakfast though, and what seemed like the entire bee/wasp nest in our room emerged and swarmed around our breakfast leftovers. Donning a mosquito net, Alex became our superhero Beeman and ran with the food away from our rooms, haha. It was sad to see the empty rooms as we packed up; Lwannunda had been our home for a month and, as excited as we all were for travelling, we were all a bit reluctant to leave.

Once everything was packed, we headed up to Kitengeesa to see the kids play on the playground. This was probably the most rewarding day ever. There were so many kids on it, all so happy and shouting "thank you" at us all the time. I have so many pictures 'cause it was such a lovely afternoon. I've never seen so many peoploe fit on one slide! I have a video of them all croding on and then running in a continuous cycle back up the steps and down again. It was just beautiful to watch. :) Little bit emotional actually! They all loved the glider. Tom said the idea was that the bigger kids could use it 'cause the smaller ones wouldn't be able to reach, so evveryone would be able to have a go on something. However, kids in Africa aren'tdefeated easily, and there were often three small kids clinging on together, giggling. They also had plenty of new ways to use money bars, shuffling along the bar at the top and hanging upside down, trying to get around each other in the middle, or doing somersaults. The see-saw was packed, and there were two kids to each swing. When we got our cameras out they kept getting in groups to pose, or raising their arms and cheering for us as they went down the slide. The followed the rush and swarm of kids trying to catch a glimpse of the camera screen, and laughing hysterically when they see themselves. Brilliant day. :)

We went back to Lwannunda to get a matatu up to Jinja, and said goodbye to Emma and his mum. Got some lovely photos again, and it would be really nice if we could send them. When we played 'Good, Bad, Funny' on Friday night, Jon's bad was saying goodbye to Emma! Aww. :( We didn't really say bye to Tom, Carla and Ken, as they were supposed to be meeting us in Jinja on Friday night after selling their truck and buying a new one. However, the new truck broke down within a few minutes so they couldn't make it. Ken came up yesterday to take Markus to Kampala and put him on the right bus to Entebbe, which was very nice of him. We all met for a drink in the afternoon and said goodbye to Markus. :( Goodbye Mr Sarcastic (we all got awards before we left. I was 'Little Miss Cheery' and Mathias - in joke warning - was Mr 23, hahaha!).

On Friday, however, we had an absolutely awesome day! Honestly think it's the best day of my life so far, and I don't think that's an exaggeration! We arrived at the Nile High Resort late on Thursday night and met Adam, who Tom had met in an internet cafe in Masaka and he joined us at Cafe Frikadellen. He was in Jinja at the same time so we met him there. Since the kitchen closed at 9, he'd ordered a load of food for us, which nwas very much appreciated when we arrived, tired, hungry, and bussed out after our second long bus journey within 24 hours (Bunyoni). That night we stayed in a dorm room, our priciest yet at $10 each, but it was so nice! I had a scorching hot shower that night, which was a good job because the water didn't work the next time I wanted a shower. When we arrived that night, we were looking for the loos and asked a man where they were. He pinted and said "They're not the best though". I was thinking that they surely must be compared with what we;d left behind in Lwannunda, and that if they really were that bad then we were all quite happy to just go outside by now! When we walkied in we were in shock! They were, if ever toilets can be, absolutely beautiful! All we could see wrong was that there were no lights in the cubicles or showers, but we hadn't had that before anyway. I did a little happy dance and couldn't stop smiling. It felt very good to go touristy for a couple of nights (the second night was free with the rafting).

Friday morning came and I was literally shaking as I waited to bungy! I went second, after Alex, and it was incredible! It's only 44m high, but that was definitely high enough! We all chose to nip into the Nile too. I screamed my lungs out as I dived, but more because of the adrenaline that fear, I think. I only dipped into the Nile up to my elbows, but Mike and Markus went in beyond the waist! I would definitely do it again. I can't describe how amazing it was! When I watched the others, it looked a bit painful though. Markus, along with a lot of the others, looked like they were about to dive, and then kind of fell instead, which meant they went down feet first and only flipped upside down when the bungy tugged. Sami looked like she just stepped off, and afterwards was like 'I was just thinking "I'm the wrong way up!"' It was amazing though. :)

Then it was off to go white water rafting! It was all grade 4 and 5 rafting, and I hadn't realised that rade 6 meant 'unraftable' and even qualified instructors don't raft them. We walked around a grade 6, and it looked absolutely terrifying. Not that our grade fives weren't! Even though it was amazing, I experienced for the first time thinking that I might actually drown! Of course we all had life jackets on, but on the final rapid, the 'Nile Special' (also a local beer name), we capsized, as promised, and I let go of the boat rope. The wave that flipped us keeps going continuously, and I got stuck in it. My life jacket brought me to the top, but I could'nt get my head up until I'd been swept round in the wave about 6 times. And my life jacket was too big anyway so shifted up to my face - thank god for boobs, haha! I was going backwards in the current, and kept getting massive waves over my head, so tried to get out to the side. Sami and I were then stuck in another current, pulling us towards the bushes. I've always thought I was quite a strong swimmer, but trying to swim back into the middle on the kayakers' instructions was knackering! Sami was dying for a wee and was ttrying to undo her shorts when the kayaks came over, haha. All ended well, because I'd wanted to have a ride on the rescue kayak, haha. You hold onto the back and kick. It really was an amazing day though, and our instructor, Roberto, was great. The other EAPers had a rate crazy guy, haha, who kept splashing us and tugging us out of our boat by hooking his paddle onto our life jackets. And then his boat kind of invaded us, with Mike grabbing me and (I think) Sami and pulling us into the water. It was all good fun though. :)

We were all so tired when we got back that we said we'd eat, have a drink and go to bed. What actually happened, however, is that Adam told us about the 'Kayak Challenge'. There's a kayak upside down on the roof of the bar, and the challenge is to swing up into it and take a shot. A few of the guys did it and then I somehow hauled myself up. Mathias had got a vile Ugandan gin shot, and I did dribble some of it before I got the technique of putting it in my mouth and then swinging kind of upright to swallow. It's not easy though, as Harri and Markus proved when they effectively shotted it through their eyes, accidentally. That was not pretty, not pretty at all. When they'd recovered, we ended up going to the casino and listening to some live African music, then heading to a club. Ugandans seem to like their glow in the dark!

Annabelle hadn't come out, so brought us breakfast menus the next morning before they stopped serving, bless her. Again, very grateful! We left the resort to come to the centre of Jinja. The journey was the only time I've felt really unsafe on the back of a motorbike! I didn't feel like I had much balance at all with my big backpack on, and kept losing my foothold at first, swinging dangerously. I closed my eyes when we went over some of the speed bumps. I was so relieved to arrive a the Belle View Hotel. We didn't stay there, however, as it was 46,000 for a room for two. Yes, that's only about six quid each, but we stayed at the Fair Way Guesthouse instead, for 25,000 for a room of three, in my case. So about one pound fifty each. It showed. Very grim indeed. The boys found a cockroach in their room, and Annabelle had one in her bed in the night. The whole place stank of old piss, and our toilet didn't eve have a flusher. It's now blocked. I had a cold shower, but there seemed to be nowhere to empty the bucket in which the water had collected underneath. We had no loo roll, and we all slept in our sleeping bags with our own pillows last night (my egyptair pillow - very handy!). We had low standars, but I don't think we'll go quite that low again. Needless to say, we did not eat in the Fair Way Restaurant! It was only for one night, and we're leaving for Sipi Falls in an hour or so, staying in a place recommended by Tom and Carla.

So yesterday afternoon, after saying goodbye to Markus, we went for a walk down to Jinja sailing club, which we discovered actually doesn't exis any more. Annabelle, Jo, Mathias and I got a boat ride in the evening to the Source of the Nile, the start of 6,400km of river! It's where Lake Victoria becomes the Nile, where the current starts. It's basically a sign and some water, but it's one of those touristy things I can say I did. :) Plus a boat ride at almost sunset was a lovely time of day to go.

We met the others to go to Moti Mahal Indian restaurant, again on Tom and Carla's recommendation. I think they were going to come with us if they'd been in Jinja. It was amazing food! My eyes were definitely biggers than my belly, since I ordered a chicken korma with rice, chips AND a garlic and cheese naan! Even Jon said it was a good effort! Mathias and Harri were pretty pleased I left quite a lot of curry though. I actually felt drunk from food at the end of it, but still managed the free ice cream they brought out afterwards! We all tipped, as it was such a good meal, and then went to meet Ken for a drink and to say goodbye. We're all going to miss Ken a lot. :( I'm glad he could come up to Jinja. We'll hopeffully say bye to Tom and Carla if we stop by in Jinja on our way back to Entebbe in September, as their next orject is about half an hour from here, I think.

So yeah, quite a long post but had the best few days! Looking forward to Sipi, and I also don't think we're heading to Zanzibar any more. We don't want to be racing just to get down there. We might go to Lamu, which is apparently what Zanzibar used to be like before it became really touristy, is a lot closer, and way cheaper.