At the Source

Not so much to say today - probably because I've actually been blogging this week quite regularly, but I wanted to mention a few things before I get off the interwebs for the next four days or so. I will be heading to an AIESEC conference here in Uganda, which will be held in the Hotel Spacious Kyengera. I don't know how it will actually be, but doesn't the venue sound exciting?

Before I could take off of work and go on my AIESEC way, I had to go to Jinja town. Earlier this week, I sat down with Phoebe and we thought about Iganga, and we asked ourselves, what do these women really need? They need latrines. That's how we got into that whole discussion on poop in the first place. Well, I was sitting there thinking to myself I have no idea how to build a latrine, nor would I know how to teach others how to build one. Then I remembered that when I googled Iganga, after I first heard I'd be moving there, one of the first things that came up was this girl's blog about working on a health project there. She had mentioned the name of an organization they had partnered with to teach trainings on latrine building amongst other things, so I mentioned this to Phoebe. Her eyes got wide and she asked me to look up the name of the organization. After a few minutes scanning through the blog, I found JIDDECO. She searched for their website, and read a little about the Jinja Diocese Development something something Organization. She picked up the phone, called the number, and after about a minute hung up the phone to say we had a meeting scheduled for 11 am two days later in Jinja. I couldn't believe how fast we went from just talking about latrines to having a meeting set up with a potential partner organization, with the minor detail that it is about two hours away from our Kampala office. And that ladies and gentlemen is how I ended up spending the entire day in the car just for one meeting.

Another intern has arrived from Boulder, and she will be joining me out in Iganga - though Karen is here until September. Though she is not working on the health project, she decided to accompany us to Jinja just for kicks. The road to Jinja is well paved and there is even a yellow line down the center! Granted, nobody notices the dividing line, nor do they follow the passing rules, but it is comforting to know that the asphalt isn't just going to cut out randomly. Phoebe wanted breakfast, so all of a sudden we pulled over by the side of the road to where some stands were selling skewers of various meets, roasted bananas, and soda. Phoebe rolled down her window about 3 inches, and Karen followed suit. Without any other cue, 10 or 15 skewer bearing men started sprinting over to the car and proceeded to jam skewers in the widow, try to stick cans of soda in Karen's lap and stuff bananas (whole and still flaming hot off the grill) in Phoebe's face. Even after saying we only wanted some bananas from one man in particular, the others continued to literally shove each other out of the way. Phoebe pulled out her wallet, and then all of a sudden they started running away - except for the one who Phoebe bought the bananas from. We had not suddenly become repulsive, we just got overshadowed by the massive bus that had just pulled up with far more passengers to please. I watched out the back window as the same men in blue smocks stood on their toes to pass skewers of chicken thighs and Orange Fanta bottles into the hands of paying customers on their way probably to Nairobi. It really brought a whole new meaning to fast food and door-to-door service - terrifying and wonderful all at the same time.

The meeting itself went pretty well, except the part where Phoebe was trying to explain our health program to the two Catholic program directors and a "Sist-ah" (yes, a nun came in about 5 minutes into the meeting) and Phoebe started the list of topics we cover with "Family planning." We both tried very hard not to crack up at her little goof, but they were actually very cool about it, and actually brought up the topic themselves. The Catholic church here has seemed to recognize that the population growth is just crippling the nation, and that encouraging huge families is not productive (pardon the pun) for anyone. While their methods may differ from ours, it was nice to have middle ground where we both saw that families that have 10 kids just don't have enough support for the kids, and it is better to have fewer and give them all that is possible.

Now the second largest city in Uganda, Jinja boasts a different attraction, which the other new intern and I were more keen to see than the office of this organization. I crossed the Nile today, and no, I didn't jet up to Egypt, but rather just crossed a bridge in Jinja. Lake Victoria (the largest inland lake in all of Africa) flows out into the headwaters of the Nile. They refer to it as "the Source of the Nile," not like you would ever forget this as EVERYTHING has "the Source of the Nile" tacked on to its name there. One of the big breweries is located there and produces a cleverly named beer "Nile."

Didn't see any crocodiles today, but I hope to see one when we go rafting down it in a few weeks...just as long as it is not too close.

On the way back from the meeting we decided to stop at the Nile park area, which is actually called "the Source of the Nile," but after realizing that the park entrance fee was 10,000 shillings, we turned around and decided to just see it up close when we go rafting. There was a man standing at the gate, and when Phoebe turned the car around he started running and shouting after us in Lugandan, "Bring back my tourists! Where are you taking my tourists?!?!" It was all fairly amusing.

Afterwards we were all starving and Phoebe said let's eat at this gas station called Igor as we drew close to the simple pump station. We walked into the inside snack area, and to mine and the other intern's surprise there was a full fledged restaurant. I had a delicious Chicken Tika Masala with chapati (they were out of nan) for about $5, and then we hit the road, and headed off into the sunset. Well actually it was just really bright and hot on the way back, and Phoebe insisted that we close the windows, which were actually letting in relatively cool air, because the wheezing and whistling AC was actually "working" for once. Karen and I sat in the back seat dying of heat, while the front had a small trickle of cool air.  

Ewww! I just went to the kitchen to get a cup of water and when I opened the fridge door a huge cockroach scurried out and I had to lift myself up on the counter to get out of the way. This really discourages me from staying hydrated, the cockroaches should know better. Plus, I would have sprayed the massive roach if I could have located the canister. Note to self:  don't go into the kitchen at night, or leave the safety of the bug net.