The caricatures of us drawn by Kelsey: Chanel with a milkshake, Jessica with beads, Jack with a Whole Foods bag and carrot, Marjani with beans and chapati, Me with passion fruit juice, Stephanie with a pineapple, Pelin with a turkey leg (just because she's from Turkey), Meredith with a #1 Runner sign, Avery with California and Texas, and Kelsey in a wedding dress holding wedding bells
Group photo after Elizabeth and Esther braided our hair. From top left: Jessica, Avery, Pelin, Meredith, Me; Bottom left: Marjani, Stephanie, Elizabeth, Chanel, Esther, Kelsey, Martha
Elizabeth and Esther braiding Kelsey and Meredith's hair
Issues/Injuries of the weekend:
1. Boda driver fight
2. Avery smacked in the face by a boda driver (by mistake but still)
3. Stephanie tripped over a hammer and got bruised
4. Kelsey smacked in the face by a banana thrown at the truck
5. All getting separated and thinking we'd never meet up again since we forgot to set a meeting place and time and have only 1 phone for the group- thankfully we found each other quickly and didn't make that mistake again
6. Everyone getting injuries from the Nile rafting- mostly bruises but some cuts as well
7. Stomach issues the night after rafting
8. Transportation strike so we had to scramble to figure out how to get back to Mbale
9. Once we were on the bus, rocks were thrown at it
Now I'll explain:
Yesterday (Monday) morning, our plan was to wake up, get on the 8:30 bus back into town (we were staying at a gorgeous campsite near Bujagali Falls with Explorers Backpackers, but it was a bumpy ride away from town, so they had a shuttle in to their office in town). Anyway so the plan was once we were in town, some of us would go shopping, others would go see another view of the Nile (yeah, Jinja is right at the source of the Nile, part of the appeal). We were then going to meet around 10:30, get on a matatoo and wait for it to fill (which shouldn't take so long since we were starting with 8 of us) and head to Mbale.
Here's what actually happened: We woke up Monday morning, after half of us had stomach issues through the night and were not feeling 100%. We were all slightly beaten up, too. (To add a nice part, Meredith had tried a great chapati stand just outside the campsite the night before, which was basically the same as a crepe place only with chapatis, so we all had awesome sweet crepes at night-- I got nutella, honey, fried banana-- and then again for breakfast-- I got rolex but he added curry powder to the eggs which was heavenly. He deserved the sign that said #1 chapati). Anyway we almost missed the bus, but made it. We took bodas from town into the shopping area, and Meredith found out from her boda driver that there was a transportation strike, so matatoos (like sheruts in Israel... kind of big shared taxis?) and buses weren't running... and there went our plans. (When we finally got on the bus, the woman next to me, Brenda, explained that the strike was because the government has recently raised taxes on petrol)
Our group was also split at this point, so we had no way to tell our friends about the problem, we just had to wait for them to show up. In the meantime I spoke with the boda driver I'd taken, and asked how we might get back to Mbale, so he gave me the phone number of a private taxi who might drive us.
Anyway, we had a nice time shopping (they had all gone shopping on Saturday and while I walked around, I didn't buy anything since I don't shop on Shabbat). The other girls showed up pretty quickly, saying it was a nice view but they just took pictures and left. Then the planning began. We couldn't decide if we could trust the taxi driver that a random boda driver had told us about, so we called Saleh, Becca, Marjani, and Jack to help troubleshoot. They told us we should try the taxi driver, but then it was all this mess with calling them, the driver, and having the driver talk to Becca. We had to negotiate prices. Thankfully Pelin took charge of all the calls, which was incredibly nice and helpful.
In the meantime, with it all taking so long, we all kept going back to shop for more... oops. It ended up working out, though, as I was in a shop buying paintings, when a girl started talking to the shopkeeper, Esther.
I recognized the voice a bit and looked up. We both stared at each other for a few seconds, recognizing one another but unable to place the faces. Finally I realized that she was Courtney, one of the Peace Corps workers who often stays at the Casa on weekends, and she recognized me as well. She told me she was just about to head back to Mbale on an Elgon Flyer bus, which we had thought weren't running. She knew one of the Elgon Flyer workers, and called him to ask if there were 8 more spots. When he said yes I went back and told the group, where the taxi driver had just arrived. The bus was significantly cheaper (well I guess not in American money...) so we decided to go for it. Thank goodness for Courtney. We took bodas out to the main road to wait for the bus, and other bodas told us about the strike (as if we hadn't known) and that they'd drive us, which was ridiculous. There's no way we would have boda-ed back. If anything we would have stayed an extra night, or Becca would've driven to pick us up (oh, it's a 2 to 2 1/2 hour ride from Jinja to Mbale).
Anyway, the bus finally arrived, and we noticed there were some windows missing. They also did NOT have 8 seats, as they'd told us they would, but they said they'd reduce the price for us if we sat on laps... Before we even got on, though, a guy started taking pieces of the broken window above the door and dropping them out of the bus. It made sense so they wouldn't be ON the bus, but we had to move out of the line of fire. When we got on the bus (Avery sitting on Chanel and Stephanie sitting on me and Pelin sitting on the steps, also most of us sitting on bits of glass) we realized that people have been throwing rocks at the bus, hence the broken windows and glass everywhere. There were also some rocks inside the bus, making the point even more. That's when we learned that people were mad at the buses for running, since they thought they should be striking too, since strikes don't work so well if people aren't united.
The window that is shattered by glass, but stayed together
A window that was totally broken by glass. When the guy got up from his seat we saw there was a pile of glass he'd been sitting on.
Towards the beginning of our ride, there were a few more rocks thrown at the bus. I'm not sure I have ever felt so unsafe. At the same time, though, it was comforting how united everyone ON the bus was. If you heard a noise, everyone covered their heads and ducked together, leaning toward the middle of the bus, away from the windows. People would pull others toward them to keep them away from windows, and shared different items to try to cover everyone's heads. Brenda, next to me, told me whenever we were getting close to a more populated area, and told me to duck down.
Brenda protecting herself
Chanel and Avery, a bit worried
As we got further from Jinja, though, we started feeling safer and didn't have to duck anymore. Brenda was incredibly nervous, though, saying she was just praying, and especially praying that the driver would be safe, as we needed him to be safe for driving. She kept her head by the window covered with a sweater, trying to protect her face. A woman a few rows in front of us got some glass in her arm when one of the rocks was thrown. It was pretty intense, and we were glad to pass all of that.
At one point, Brenda also told me that a truck that had just pulled in front of us was one of the kind that catches fire. To put this in context, there was recently a truck that fell in Kampala, full of oil. People gathered around, trying to collect the oil, but then it caught fire and blew up, killing I believe 29 and leaving 29 more injured and in the hospital. This apparently is not as uncommon as one might hope, despite warnings that they keep putting out, telling people to stay away from accidents that are that flammable. It was really sad to learn about, and a bit scary to hear that the truck in front of us was one of those.
Once we were through the bad part, it was still a bit nerve wracking as you had no clue if it might happen again, but I started being able to enjoy the ride and see the beautiful country out the window and the interesting people. I also finally managed to calm enough for a nap. Oh, and some people got off, allowing everyone from our party to have their own seats. It was quite the adventure and we made it back to Mbale safely, with everyone at the casa glad to see us and glad we made it back, having all heard that we were stuck in Jinja. Needless to say, we didn't make it to Namatala, as we would've been an hour late and we were all exhausted. Apparently the ladies made fun of us for not being there. I bet they'll give us a bit of hard time for it today.
Ok, so now I'll go through the rest of the weekend, which is why we loved our trip.
We left bright and early Saturday morning. We were aiming for the 8:30 bus, and got there at 8 as they'd told us, and they quickly shoved us onto an almost full bus and left. Being that African time is NEVER early, we must've been on the 7:30 bus, but it worked. It was a very hot and crowded ride. There were sounds of the seats creaking every time we hit a bump (which was at least twice a second), and people chatting quietly. This one guy even started selling pharmaceutical products on the bus- from pain relief pills to deworming pills to cough drops (or cold drops as they called them). I was surprised with how many sales he made.
We got dropped in Jinja, but the bus is the one to Kampala, so they leave you on the main road. Then it was time to get bodas... It's supposed to be easy, and there were a lot around, but we never anticipated the next bit. More than enough bodas showed up. I got on one with Pelin, and it pulled forward a bit. Everyone else got on, but then the drivers got mad. Avery and Stephanie got on a boda, but then all the drivers said he wasn't with them, so they should switch. They tried to pop his tires and take the keys out, so Avery and Stephanie got off and switched to another. Their original driver got mad, and grabbed hold of their new driver's jacket, trying to pull him off. Jessica go off her boda to try and help Avery and Stephanie and make the drivers stop, or at least get them off. Just as Avery and Stephanie got off the boda, it fell over. They hopped on a new one and we all told our drivers to just go quickly, since they'd all stayed around watching and yelling.
Thankfully that was the end of that and we got to the office in town to check in. They let us leave our bags in the office, and the next adventure began.
This time, we didn't like the price the drivers gave us, but we also weren't sure exactly where the center of town was or how long it would take to get there, so we finally decided we should take bodas. Unfortunately, we were one short, so four people went ahead, but Chanel and Stephanie waited with me and Meredith. We finally hopped on a boda and told him to follow them, but he quickly lost them. Being that we didn't know town and we didn't have phones, we had no clue where they might have gone. All we knew was main street, but no idea which direction. I thought I'd caught a glimpse of Chanel and Stephanie going one way, so after a little while going the other, we finally had our driver turn around, and kept our eyes peeled. We found those two, and were relieved to be together (our driver wanted extra money for helping us find them, but since he lost them to begin with we said no way). We kept walking and thankfully found the other four pretty quickly. We ended up just outside a cute souvenir shop, and people bought A LOT, but we were sure we'd find others, so everyone tried not to buy TOO much.
Now we all needed money (though it was Shabbat, so not me), but everyone else had trouble with all the banks we found. We ended up finding a Barclays which worked, but then weren't sure where the market was with all the souvenirs that we'd been hearing about. We ended up in the wrong market... it was more of a local market with household items, clothes (mostly used I think). It was cool to walk through, despite it not being what we were looking for, but people kept touching us (not just grazing by, deliberately touching) which was not much appreciated, so it was nice to get out. We found an American supermarket, which had some exciting foods, though we realized it was a bit more pricey (even the Nutella was more expensive than the one we buy in the non American grocery stores). Fortunately, we also met an American woman there, who told us where the shops we were searching for were. Turns out the one we found was at the end of the row of them, we just had to walk down a little ways, but we'd walked the wrong direction.
We found a nice place for lunch, with delicious food. Amazing Chinese pasta dish, great fried rice, a different kind of beans, good regular noodles with cheese... it was nice.
The shops were fun, lots to look at, and lots of haggling going on. Mostly the same things in most shops, just a matter of looking for the least expensive, and there were some things a bit nicer or a bit different. The artwork was also beautiful (though Avery, as an artist, was not impressed, especially since we quickly realized a lot (though not all) of it was made from stencils that everyone shared).
We weren't sure when we needed to get back to shuttle up to the campsite, so we finally decided it'd be a good time, and since we were 8 they just put us all in a car and drove us up. It was a stickshift, and I was seated in the middle of the front.... basically on the stick. Jessica was in the middle of the middle row, but there was no actual seat there, so she was on the floor. Crowded as usual.
It ended up being well worth it. The campsite had dorms, where we were staying (one for just us, with 6 of us, and Pelin and Chanel went into another with strangers), pretty nice bathrooms, and a restaurant/bar overlooking the Nile. You could also walk down to the Nile, and on the way there were showers with a view. Sadly I didn't shower there, but it was awesome. We also realized once we got all the way down that the view was better from the top. Whoops.
Did I mention there were monkeys??? (I think vervet). They were running all in the trees (and on the roof of our dorm at night) and were so cute!! There were also beautiful birds, including the African Fish Eagle, which looks almost like a Bald Eagle. There was also a cook bird that was black but halfway through the wing to the tip was red, which was awesome when it flew above.
An African Fish Eagle
Sunset
The Nile River. But really
For dinner we ate at the restaurant, which was surprisingly reasonably priced. I got a greek salad that actually had lettuce and GOOD feta cheese! Win. Everyone was happy with what they got, from cheese burgers to B.A.L.T.s. We then sat around a while longer playing card games. We tried to play bananagrams but they kept falling through the middle of the table so we nixed that plan. It was nice just sitting around all playing cards together. It was the perfect relaxing evening.
We went to bed early, exhausted and knowing we had a long day ahead of us. Sunday morning we got ready quickly (I finally paid, since the place had been totally understanding about my not using money or signing anything on Shabbat when we checked in). We hopped on the bus into town, and got coffee and tea at the office in town. Again we had to wait around a while, until the bus from Kampala got in. Then we were off (with rolex and fruit on the go). When we got to the start of the rafting trip, we had to decide how to split up. The rafts could only take 7 people (plus the guide), and there are 8 of us. Chanel, Jessica, and Meredith decided they wanted a bit of a more intense trip, so we told them to go find another boat. We ended up adding in two high school girls, Nike and Laura, who wanted a more intense trip. The two of them sat in front, with Avery and Stephanie behind them, me and Pelin next, then Kelsey with the instructor, Hassan, in the back. I forgot to mention, when we originally thought of going rafting, we'd wanted to sign up for Grade 3, family style, after hearing Rebecca's horror story of going extreme and getting a black eye from a rock. When we got in, however, the guy convinced us to sign up for Grade 5, saying it was safe (no, he didn't lie, it was just kinda scary).
Anyway we told Hassan we weren't interested in flipping so much, though Nike and Laura tried to convince him we should. Unlike the rafting I did in Australia, here they say not to wear shoes. When we asked them at the end, they said it was because the rubber had more of a tendency to get stuck in the boat, and wouldn't allow you to fall out, but sometimes it's better to fall out than get stuck and break a leg. They also said never to tuck your feet under the air balloons inside the raft, which I think we used in Australia. It was interesting learning the differences. He made us flip right when we got in, in order to teach us what to do if we were in a rapid. We learned how to pull people back into the boat, how to breathe under the boat if it was flipped on top of you, and how to get out when he flipped it back upright. So much for not getting in the water in Uganda... To all those doctors reading this, we know about all the parasites, and took worm pills right when we got home. (Fun fact about that, prescriptions don't exist here. You just go into the pharmacy and get the medicine you need, often for pretty cheap. We've been told which are better or worse, so we know what to get and what to avoid, but I think it's worked).
So the trip itself was 8 rapids, with calm parts between. We weren't anticipating how much paddling we'd need to do to get to the next rapid, after the 7th, Hassan had the trip leader come into our boat. He claimed it was just because he wanted to sit with a bunch girls, but we're pretty sure Hassan was tired of essentially doing all the work.
Before each rapid, Hassan told us what we would have to do in case we flipped. Some areas were deep, and we were supposed to try to swim back to the boat. If you couldn't, a kayak or another boat would save you. If it was a kayak, you lay underneath and held on with your face above the front of the kayak. Other times, it was rocky, so you had to lay on your back going feet first so you could see where you were going and not get beaten up.
The first rapid (Overtime, Grade 5), we went around a waterfall, and ended up going down backwards. The second, Bubogo, which was a Grade 4, we got caught on the wrong part of a big wave, and flipped over. To give you an indication, when we later watched the video, most flips you saw everyone pop back up immediately, but when we watched our flip, only one person popped back up in the video... We were underwater for a while, Kelsey apparently got stuck under the raft, after being pushed around by the current a while, I popped back up, thankfully with the raft right in front of me and Avery right next to me. We looked at each other and were both coughing, when Nike popped back up by us also. She did NOT look good. She was pale and her eyes were bright red. I'm not sure at what point our guide flipped the raft back over, but the next thing I remember the raft was up against a rock so it would stay still, and I was holding on. The current was incredibly strong so I kept sliding further along the raft back toward the center of the river, since I did not want my arm broken by trying to hold on too long. Avery was just beyond me, and I saw her float away. I was just about ready to give up and let go, too, when Hassan told me to drop my paddle and pulled me into the boat. We continued downstream, missing about half of the people, and picked them up from other boats.
And we're down
We mostly agreed we'd rather do a bit easier from then on, except Nike and Laura who wanted to keep going hardcore. It shocked me and Avery, as Nike looked even worse than we did, and Hassan said he saw how terrified we all looked and would try not to do that again. We sent Nike and Laura to another boat which had space, which we thought would be more their speed, since they wanted crazier and we wanted calmer.
We made it easily over the next Grade 3 (Superhole), which was awesome, then stopped for a snack of pineapple and biscuits (called Glucose) in the middle of the water (they also kept giving us our sunscreen "suncream" to reapply and water to drink).
The fourth rapid was Grade 6, called Itanda Falls, which we can't go over, only kayaks go through there, so we walked around, and then went through the Bad Place at the bottom of the rapid, Grade 5. The second half was Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 4, Grade 5. Somehow on the first of these Grade 4 (Vengeance), our boat started to tip, and everyone except me fell out. The raft was just about vertical, and I was still holding on, when I saw Hassan fall out, and knew I was next.
Then the boat suddenly righted itself, and I was alone, just as another wave was about to hit. I freaked out, not knowing what I was supposed to do alone in the raft, and not knowing where everyone was.
I found Hassan, Kelsey, and Stephanie right next to the raft, Hassan holding Kelsey while she was screaming. He came into the boat and pulled her in as I pulled Stephanie in. I still have no clue how I stayed on and lost everyone. We made it through all the rest (Hair of the Dog, Kulu Shaker, and Nile Special) a lot more easily, though the last one they clearly took us through the easy side to make sure we wouldn't flip, since it was obvious no one wanted to.
Despite the fear of drowning, injuries, and anxiety the whole time, it was a great time. Somehow Stephanie ended up with a bruise on her face and most of the left side of her body, I got bruised up and a really sore ankle, which came from hitting a rock while trying to get back into the raft, Meredith got a pretty nasty cut on her foot, and everyone else was bruised up and sore from all the paddling. We ended in perfect time, as just when we got under the overhang for the BBQ, it started pouring, which would have made it a much scarier rafting trip I think. It was a delicious BBQ, with hummus and butter and curry. I've realized most of the food that I mention sounds pretty normal to anyone reading this, but here those are all luxuries.
The busride back is worth mentioning, as I sat next to one of the guys who was in charge of the high school trip. He was talking to me about religion the whole time, I'm not sure what he assumed, but he kept putting down Orthodox Judaism, until at some point I said I basically practice that way.... He almost went off on Mormons, too, but I stopped him, saying that Chanel who was just in front of him was Mormon (I don't think I've mentioned that before, but she's been teaching us all a lot about it and it's really interesting). Anyway it was a bit much for me and I was glad when we got off the bus.
We discovered the chapati place then, which was great since dinner was around 4:30 so we were all hungry again. Some people got more food at the restaurant, too, and we sat around again. Then we got to watch the video which was fun, and waited around for our photos. It took too long, though, so we just picked them up in the morning since we were all exhausted and wanted to sleep. Overall, I'd say a great trip to Jinja (and hopefully all my souvenir and gift shopping complete, I was pretty good at haggling I must say, though I'm sure I still got ripped off).
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