Nile? Yes please.

Another month, another off.

It all started with a gathering of the interns from all the different projects at Canada House in Mbarara. Lucky for us, Graeme bought some grasshoppers in town. He had sampled some previously and loved them so much he wanted to learn how to prepare them – so we all got in on the action. We enclose the recipe below:

1) pull legs off grasshoppers

twist and break wings off – careful not to remove head

3) repeat steps 1 and 2 until you have the desired number of hoppers

4) feed mistakes to dog

5) place grasshoppers in frying pan with a very small amount of water – don’t add any oil

6) salt to taste

7) fry over high heat until ready – approx. 6 mintues

8) enjoy!

It was quite entertaining to watch everyone’s reactions to the preparation…and the eating. The flavour was surprisingly not bad, sort of like a potato chip but with a strange, yet distinctive aftertaste.

The bus

Upon arrival to the bus park, we were accosted on all sides by people wanting us to board their bus. With only a few people coming to blows, we managed to board a bus that was leaving shortly and that had a reasonable price. Buses are tricky things – there aren’t exactly any schedules, mostly they just sit around until every seat is filled. We were crammed into the very back of the bus, thankful to all have seats. Apart from a window pane landing in emily’s lap, it was a fairly uneventful ride. When driving through towns, the bus would occasionally stop at which point skewers of goat were offered at all the windows, along with drinks, pre-peeled bananas, yoghurt, g-nuts, chapattis and yep, more grasshoppers. Graeme bought more grasshoppers (this time already cooked), the rest of us went for goat on a stick – yum. Tasty. Four hours later we arrived in Kampala, much faster than we would have by car..as the buses here travel at break neck speed. Pleasantly surprised by our arrival time, we checked into the Adonai Guesthouse and then went into town on boda bodas.

Bodas are a great way to get around town; very convenient, very cheap, and although the weaving around cars can be scary at times, you never get caught in traffic. We made a visit to the craft market before returning to the Adonai for dinner. We shared a boda on the way home…it unfortunately broke down, but was quickly repaired ready to carry us behind many trucks with black exhaust and dirt kicking up all over the place. The result:

Jinja

The next morning we were on the bus bright and early headed to Jinja for a day of rafting. We stopped to pick up another rafter, who ended up being a Samaritan’s Purse intern from last year who was in Africa with Kyla. Small world.

Before our day of rafting began, John and Ryan bungee jumped. It looked pretty awesome –they made contact with the Nile.

After getting a brief introduction we split up into groups and met our guides. For ourselves (Katie, Laura, Graeme, Joel, 2 Israelis and us) Jeffrey was our man. It appeared Jeffrey was trained in Australia, as he was a Ugandan with an Aussie accent who used expressions like, “Wicked”, “Yo bro”, “Back on the job”, “Cool eh”.

We piled into our raft and had some brief introduction to paddling and tipping, and then we were into the rapids. We started out easy, but we soon encountered our first class 5. GONGSHOW. Graeme got some good air, and eventually everyone was chucked out of the capsized raft. Bry got the worst of it – being sucked under for an uncomfortable amount of time, during which her knee, ankle and wrist all encountered rocks, while her helmet came off. Good times! She was quite relieved to find breath at last and head intact as she was rescued by a kayaker.

Eventually our entire group was reunited in our raft, where we gave a ‘paddle high five’ “SWEET”! More rapids followed. it was awesome. Nothing can really compare to being shot into a wall of water. WICKED!

Lunch was on ‘lunch island’ and was delicious. It was also a rest for Bryony’s beat up body which was starting to swell – no worries mate. After lunch, it was ‘back on the job ’ under a clouded sky. The afternoon’s rapids were further apart, but Jeffrey kept us occupied and quite entertained with “the game”, which basically
consisted of splashing the other rafts. Most entertaining for us was the raft of burly American soldiers. They were quite put out that they could not a) splash us or b) catch us. Most frustrating for them, seeing as we were ‘mostly Canadians and mostly girls’, a point that we most maliciously reminded them of after each paddle high five.

Rapid highlights? Purposely going over a 3 metre high waterfall – and being the only raft in succeeding to do so. The other rafts attempted, but missed the waterfall and had to settle for some weak rapids – sorry John.

Ps. the Americans weren’t so happy. Our last set of rapids involved a portage on a very muddy and slippery trail…that set many of us, including em, sliding on our asses. Why the portage? Class 6 rapids. Wow. It was sad to run our final set, but it was a solid class 5 which succeeded in overturning our raft once again, Joel got quite the ride.

The bus was there to pick us up – along with tasty cold Nile beers for all. The bus ride was eventful as we passed through a circumcision “party”/parade. ouch, that would hurt.

Fast forward. During dinner we were approached by some reporters, wanting us to be “the new face of African CNN”. How could we pass up this offer? We were confused about why we should be the new face of an African network…seeing as we are not a) African or b) even appear African, but really we could not pass up the opportunity to dance at our first African club. Graeme, Ryan, Tanessa, Paul and us piled into a station wagon – shortly after Graeme had placed a piece of cactus in his breast pocket. See David – breast pockets do come in handy. When we first arrived, the club was not so hoppin’, but it soon picked up. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was a nice club, nicer than some we’d been to in Canada. Fun times.

Other highlights from the off?

• the woman who wouldn’t give John a muffin, despite them being the only food on display at the restaurant in Jinja.
• the boda boda driver who tried to charge em extra after a) getting lost and b) skidding out and burning em’s leg
• Ryan drawing Joel’s attention to the fact that Celine Dion was on the radio…and Joel’s flat response of, “I am so excited”
• waiting two hours for the bus to leave Kampala, after being assured that it would leave in 30 minutes
• our first medical experience in Uganda – getting em’s burn checked out

We’ve bored you long enough. It feels good to be back on our island. As for rafting? We’d do it again.