On Great Friends and Good Fun

On Monday, June 8^th a wonderful thing happened to me. One of my closest friends from Swarthmore, Garth, showed up at the Clinton Foundation office in Kampala. My first friend to travel all the way to Uganda solely to visit me, Garth reminded me all over again what fantastic friends I have, and how exceedingly lucky I am.

The following day, the two of us took the bus to Jinja to raft the source of the Nile. Now, if any of you missed the Times article a few weeks ago describing this experience, here it is: http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/travel/24uganda.html?8dpc. Needless to say, rafting was great fun, and the day wrapped up splendidly with a spread of beef skewers—my pescatarianism has become significantly more lax since moving to Uganda (I can hear many male friends rejoicing from here)— and Nile Special beer. Wednesday I worked a full day, followed by a Khana feast (see the below blog entry), which Garth absolutely loved, deeming it the best Indian food he’s had outside of Asia.

Thursday morning the two of us left early for three full days of safari. We drove north to Murchinson National Falls/Park, where we went chimpanzee tracking, game driving, and Nile boating. We saw incredible wildlife—elephants, giraffes, hippos, buffalo, crocs, a lion, baboons, warthogs, a plethora of different deer type species, etc.—and gorgeous scenery. Highlights of the trip included the boat ride down the Nile and the Red Chili Rest Camp, a very comfortable budget accommodation facility that we shared with a group of close to 30 missionaries from the States. The nature of our company of course led to some interesting conversations between Garth and me, and between the two of us and a subsection of the young, college-age group. On the return to Kampala, the two of us dined at the Masindi Hotel, the oldest hotel in Uganda, where Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn spent significant time while filming The African Queen and Ernest Hemingway also resided for a while. It was very posh indeed.

After a few more good meals (Khana take II), a Ugandan music and dance concert, and a day spent relaxing at the Kabira pool while I worked, Garth departed this past Tuesday.

I realize that this blog entry is not as descriptive as some of my earlier posts, and that's largely because these are creatures and sites that one needs to see for themselves. Describing them is relatively futile. Since transporting everyone over isn't realistic, I've done the next best thing: finally uploaded pictures! Colby, I am sincerely sorry that it's taken me so long. There is a very simple reason for the delay: internet in Uganda is not fast enough to quickly upload large files (i.e. photographs). So, I needed to wait until I was somewhere outside of Uganda (and sub-Saharan east African in general) in order to upload. More on that in my next blog, but in the meantime, enjoy the photos from the safari, and from my earliest days in Uganda!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39613627@N04/sets/