Jinja, Uganda

It is now June 22nd and I have been home from my trip to Africa for about a month.  Kenya seems like such a long time ago now, and I honestly can't believe how fast four months went by. I remember my first week in Kenya we were thrown into our rural homestays and all I kept thinking was 'get me outta here.' Kenya came as such a shock to me but by the middle of the second month I was beginning to feel very comfortable and safe where I was. I noticed once I got home, that I had unfinished business to attend to- this blog. The last month of my trip was undocumented and a complete mystery to my family, but this month was the most fun-filled. This part of the trip I really started making moves on crossing off some agenda items on my bucket list. I was unable to share it with you because Uganda has alot of electrical problems which is actually ironic since I was living right on the Nile- Ugandas main source of hydroelectricity. The power outages, and network malfunctions were daily. The compound I was living in overlooking the Nile would lose power everyday for about 1-4 hours and everything would go dark at 10:00 PM when the bar/living area would close. Anyway, keeping up with this blog and finding access to the internet was costly and a real hassle hence why it seemed like I fell off the face of East Africa for a little while. Right now I am picking up where I left off in the middle of April.
        A quick recap- for the last month of my semester I was allowed to choose and work with any NGO (non-governmental organization) of my liking in East Africa. The first thing everyone always asks me is- how did you choose and where did you know where to look? Well, since St. Lawrence's Kenya Semester Program (KSP) has been around since the 80s, our name and connections are well established. I had reference to dozens and dozens of index cards with a synopsis of different NGOs in East Africa organized by genre: Conservation, AIDS organizations, Orphanages, Wildlife, Education, Culture, Politics, Community, Tourism, etc. I spent my time thumbing through cards and looking up the names of various organizations and enthusiastically settled on an organization located in Jinja, Uganda called Soft Power Education. With them, I worked with the community by running secondary school (US equivalent of high school) workshops, disability lectures, painting schools, and working in the Kybirwa (pronounced Tri-bera) disability outreach clinic. On my time off from work, I was never bored- and how could I with the Nile River as my backyard! When I come home from volunteering I would order lunch from the bar area and read my book for a little bit on one of the hammocks that had a beautiful view of the Nile. After the volunteers would brainstorm what we would do for the evening whether that be going out to one of the bars in the town of Jinja, watching a movie, going out to dinner, or splurging any little amount of cash we had to go jetboating, or quad biking. Other days when I felt like keeping to myself, and if there was power, I'd watch a movie on my laptop or take a boda (motorcycle) to the gym that looked like a resort! So that was my day in a nutshell and I will make sure to get into more detail in my later posts but for now I want you to get a visual of the place I was staying at!

 The compound had a in-ground pool and in the back you can see the bar/lounge area that had a couple couches and two tvs. I am taking this picture from the steps leading up to my dorm room. I shared the room with three other girls one from London, one from Vienna and one from Stockholm.

 This is the view from a sunset boat ride I went on with some of the other touring college students. Jinja is a popular place for tourists to visit and I met a lot of gap-year students from England who were traveling around East Africa. Jinja is definitely the place to stop off in for some white water rafting and touristy stuff like this!

 The view from the compound.

 The entrance to my compound- the Nile River Camp!

 Me on the sunset cruise!

The entrance from the village area to my compound. Behind these gates there are two compound-like areas and a hotel. The Nile River Camp is where I stayed with the other Soft Power volunteers. There was another compound that was a five minute walk up the path called Nile River Explorers that was the home to many kayakers and rafters leading trips on the Nile. Between the two compounds is the Black Lantern- a hotel-like area that had tents to rent, a elegant restaurant, and mini condo houses that overlooked the Nile.

More to come later!