Day 7 - Jinja

My apologies for being late posting this blog.  Too busy with work and fun to keep up!

Hard to believe a week has gone by already but, on the other hand, feels in some ways that I’ve been here a month.  I hear it did rain at BKU today, but we were gone and didn’t see any.

We set alarms and are up early for our trip to Jinja.  The drive takes us through Kampala then for another 2+ hours, so a very long trek in congested traffic.  My admiration for Kevin, our driver, has increased a couple of notches!

typical roadside shops

attendants pump gas at every station

roadside banana vendor

Victoria's secret

We pass through tea plantations, sugar cane fields, and a forest preserve.  Some of the areas are very beautiful.  Everywhere are children in school uniforms, and most wave back with a big smile if I catch their eye.

tea fields

Kevin is a very patient and safety-conscious driver, but we are pulled over by roadside police and he gets a five minute lecture about reckless driving and risking accidents.  Pauline told us yesterday that her vehicle was pulled over three times on the Kampala-Jinja highway and that the police are just wanting to charge drivers to line their own pockets.   It all is rather strange.

We reach the Nile River - can hardly believe we are here.   That town sits on the Nile River near its’ source.  We cross the large bridge beside the hydroelectric installation then drive to the spot designated as “Source of the Nile”.  This area had been a longstanding goal for explorers in the 1880’s.  The little park area with monuments is actually a short distance downstream from the actual spot where the Nile leaves Lake Victoria, and tourists can hire boats to take them to the actual source.

hydroelectric station on the banks of the Nile

school on the banks of the Nile

Sue looks over tourist wares

I did buy an artwork from this gent's offerings

Muslim schoolchildren climb the steps up

boats offer to take us upstream to the actual junction with Lake Victoria

schoolkids load on a tour boat

Kevin heads us off north in search of a waterfalls downstream from the Nile source.  We travel about 15 km but the road becomes terribly narrow  and rough.  We decide to head back when locals in a village advise that the falls is still another 20 km ahead.  On the way back we stop at a magnificent resort and conference centre which charges USD $200 or more for rooms.  We fill up on a terrific buffet of mainly local dishes.

roadside homes

lobby of the resort

enjoying the lunch buffet

beautiful view of the Nile

Alicia takes up tree hugging

Kevin & Jeffrey play on the phone

Jinja town

Supermarket in Jinja

the chapel at Amizima

Last year Sue and I were in a Costco, and I was wondering down the book aisle casually looking things over when I spied the photo of a young woman with a couple of beautiful children reminiscent of the kids I had fallen in love with at BKU.  I read the back cover and was stunned to see it’s the autobiography of a teenage American girl who went to Uganda to teach for a couple of months in a small village, became hopelessly hooked on the country and its’ people, ended up adopting a couple of girls and renting a house that became refuge for troubled people of the village.  “Kisses from Katie” goes on to describe how she returned to the USA to fulfill her promise to her parents to complete college, but couldn’t last and now heads a ministry that supports 650 children sponsored by US contacts, as well as teaching farming techniques to parents of the local community.

Alicia & Jeffrey outside the chapel

One of our purposes today is to visit Katie’s mission near Jinja, outside the village of Bukaya.  After a couple of wrong turns, we arrive at Amizima, the missionary project started by Katie’s efforts.  Brad is a very pleasant young man who shows us around the compound.  His wife is the mission nurse, and there are several people packing bags of food.  Amizima’s model is to keep the sponsored children living with their family, extended families, or guardians, supported by payment of school tuition and bolstered by a weekly package of food sent home with the child.  The organization has now hired a dozen Ugandan social workers who visit the schools and the homes to help troubleshoot any problems that arise.

Brad is the farm manager.  He has studied agricultural techniques suitable for the Ugandan subsistence farmer and practices “Growing God’s Way”.  His techniques improve the size and health of the maize and bean plants, and the yield per acre is boosted to almost triple that achieved by traditional farming methods.  He encourages the village farmers to attend a three day workshop that he holds to teach them these techniques and demonstrate the results.  The farm operation has only been in existence three years, but he is already getting uptake in the village on his methods.  Victoria is very interested in this science, and she exchanges contact information with Brad.  He suggests she could send a couple of the Bright Kids who are interested in agriculture to a college in Uganda that teaches his methodology.

maize crops Grown God's Way

Friday night traffic is building as we head home, and there are many long stops along the road to Kampala.  Kevin takes a route skirting the downtown area, but even these smaller roads are extremely busy and boda bodas rush into every square foot of empty space on the very crowded streets.

boda bodas

workers heading home

Friday nights on the outskirts of Kampala are very busy