Coming Full Circle

After a somewhat long journey back down the Kenyan coast, and then from the eastern seafront to western border, we've arrived back in Uganda. It involved three bus rides, the shortest of which was over eight hours, and the latter two, which were overnighters that we did back to back. So, it was quite a relief when we finally arrived back into the smog-filled, noisy, and considerably less than organized streets of Kampala. Haha, home isn't always the nicest or cleanest place, but it's still home; and I guess that's kind of the way I feel about Kampala, and Uganda as a whole, in comparison to the other countries we've visited over the past few weeks.

The return back to Uganda also completes our loop through all of the East African countries. It’s hard to believe that it’s already coming to an end, and yet, it’ll be nice to stop and stay in one place for awhile (which won’t actually happen until I get back to Canada in a couple of weeks). I’ll expand on that in a later post but first, a rundown of the last two weeks of our travels, basically since we left the Lamu Archipelago.

Looking back, they have probably been less eventful than some of the previous others, with fewer highlight-reel-worthy stories to tell. And I guess there are a few reasons or explanations that come to mind. One is that Lamu marked the final new destination on our trip, all travel thereafter brought us closer to our final, and also beginning point, Uganda, as well as, for the most part, covered road that we`d already travelled. Next, one of the things that I`ve been able to avoid is shopping for souvenirs. And I think that is also one of the reasons that we`ve had such a good time thus far, and have had so much time to do other things like partaking in incredible and, sometimes, crazy adventures. But unfortunately, one of the stipulations to not doing much shopping during the majority of the trip was that we would do it all at the end. Well, the last two weeks have been, well, the last two weeks, and thus, the time for shopping had inevitably arrived. So, somewhat reluctantly (for me anyway), we trudged through the countless craft stalls, almost all of which sold nearly exactly the same items and featured shopkeepers using exactly the same selling points. Haha, now it wasn`t all that painful, regardless of how I make it sound, I`m sure it would actually be quite enjoyable for some of you, maybe even highlight worthy you might say.

Also, while traveling can be, and has been, wonderfully rewarding, it also can take a lot out of you. This is especially true in Africa, where public transport varies wildly between less than luxurious to `unbelievable that it still runs.` And, over the past number of weeks, as the miles traveled piled up, I think we’ve slowly been worn down a bit too.

So, we didn’t really do a whole lot, other than shopping and sitting on buses, between Lamu and Kampala. But we did spend a good few days once we reached Kampala, just seeing the sights and meeting new people, including a couple of crazy Israeli’s (that’s just what they call themselves), and even a couple we’d already met before. So Kampala has two popular places that caters to travellers, particularly budget travellers. We`d decided to check out the Red Chili, a friendly, European owned and operated place that attracts a lot of younger travellers as well as aid workers on holiday. And as soon as we stepped in the door, who did we see sitting in the corner, but the two girls from Canada who had been working in Ethiopia and who we`d met during one of the more memorable nights in Lamu. And that was the start of yet another memorable night, this time, in Kampala. Among the new cast of people we met on the night are a couple of guys from South Africa, here to set up the infrastructure for a new cell phone network; a girl from Victoria, BC, just travelling all over Africa; members from the reggae band that were on stage that night; the in house DJ; Robert, a national rugby player who graciously gave us all a lift back to Red Chili at the end of the night; and, Yotham and Yael, two Israelis who are midway through a long tour through pretty much all of the African non-muslim countries (Muslim countries are not recommended for Israeli citizens for obvious political reasons). We ended up spending the next day chilling with the two Israelis who, among other things, are hilarious both when telling their impressive collection of outrageous jokes, and pretty much just in their normal interactions with others. If it were not for their accents, we would have guessed them to be Americans by their blunt, and borderline rude (but hilarious) manners. For the record, while I know that obviously this is a stereotype does not fit all Americans, it happens to have rung true with the majority of the Americans we`ve met in our travels.

Continuing on, we spent a couple of days back at Canada House, which might as well be my home now, just to do a little packing but otherwise, a lot of nothing in particular. And then, it was back to Kampala, and the final adventure of the trip, white water rafting on the Nile river. Advertised as among the most intense rafting locales anywhere, and confirmed by many who have gone to be one of the most intense activity they’d ever done, we were expectedly pumped in anticipation for a crazy ride. Well, on the first big rapids, we lost our guide, as well as the one girl in the boat who hadn’t wanted to flip (ironic). But other than that, the Nile River wasn’t quite as wild as I’d expected it to be. I’d even say that the white water available in Alberta is comparable to the Nile. So, for all you adrenaline seekers, you don’t have to venture all the way to Africa to get your taste of intense water rafting, it’s pretty much right in our own backyards as well! Overall, It was a great day despite me not getting scared for my life (as others had described it); as always, we met some new people, some travelling, others volunteering, most doing a mix of the two. So, a little excitement, mixed with new friends, and it reads pretty much like the trip as a whole, suiting way to wrap it up I guess.


So, and sorry that this is long, and getting longer by the minute, and also very not concise... I realize that I haven`t updated in awhile and I have a computer right now while I`m at Canada House so I`m trying to string some words together in a somewhat coherent manner.

I went back to camp yesterday to visit the crew one last time and to see the progress that they`ve made on the current project. When we finished working back in February, the crew was still working on the protecting the source, where the water for the project originates. Now, just over two months later, they`ve protected the source, built the sedimentation tank, laid the pipe from the source all the way to the place where the reservoir will be, and are about to begin constructing five big reservoir tanks. It`s pretty impressive considering that the reservoirs are about ten kilometres downstream from the source! And it seems like the whole project is ahead of schedule and Tim even expects it to be completed by July, which is fantastic because it means that the Bwesumbu project that me and Mike designed may begin as soon as later this summer! Anyway, it was great news for me to hear, especially as it was as we left camp for the final time. Talk about leaving on a positive note! So yea, it was kind of my second good bye because we`d all said our good byes back in February when we officially stopped working. But nevertheless, it was still tough to say good bye again, even tougher I guess, because this time, I know that I wouldn`t be back, at least in the near future. But I have a lot of the faith in our Ugandan crew, I think they work really hard, and they`re so welcoming and friendly to whoever happens to show up from Canada. So, while it`s tough to go, I know that we can only stay a certain amount of time in order to allow for another team to come and continue the work. And, I`m eager for them to meet the crew, to see this beautiful country, and just to experience all the awesome things that I have during my time here.

I`ll be taking the morning bus back to Kampala tomorrow and heading straight to the orphanage, where I`ll have just five more days with the kids that I`ve grown to love before I fly out of Uganda on Wednesday. So I don`t know when I`ll be able to update again, I expect to be tied up with the kids as much as I can be; so maybe the next entry will be from a different country, or even a different continent! But yes, just in case, farewell from Uganda!