Yes, I am behind! But I have put some pictures up from our trip to Uganda over Thanksgiving weekend! Wait wait, there is actually no Thanksgiving here so it was really just like any day (I had Mr. Noodles for lunch!). Except for the feast we made on Thanksgiving Day with Matt, Nena, and Zach. I don't remember everything we had, but the two things I do remember are that there was no meat and that butter was the primary ingredient for all of the dishes. It was delicious!
Well onto the trip to Uganda...
We went to Uganda in November so Lucy could take the GRE in Kampala (the closest city to Kigali that offers the test) before her graduate school applications were due soon after the new year. I didn't see the inside of the testing center when we visited the day before her test, but given the 8 flights of crumbling stairs, iron-gated entryways, and abundant use of spray paint to identify the offices, things were not looking good.
Lucy had been very disciplined in her studying and was well prepared for the test. Despite 2 power outages and 3 server reboots (with the clock ticking in the meantime), she did not get flustered and did quite well on the test. I think she could write an essay for her application just on her testing experience.
We had planned to go to Uganda anyway since other than visiting the mountain gorillas and going on safari, the most common "must do" activity in East Africa is going white water rafting on the Nile. Matt and Nena came on the trip as well so they could raft and see Kampala while they were here. After arriving in Entebbe at 2am (thanks RwandAir!), the hour taxi ride to Kampala, and a disastrous hotel experience, Nena, Matt, Lucy, and I woke up very early on Saturday 11/28 to move to the Hotel Ruch. While it was quite expensive (compared to our other lodging experiences in Africa), it was was much much nicer then the other hotel and has an excellent location in the city center. Nena, Matt, and I left Lucy around 7am (so she could rest and prepare for her test on Monday) to meet our rafting outfitter Adrift for our 2 hour ride to Jinja where Lake Victoria pours out to form the Nile.
We were on the one-day trip and had an unbelievable time. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, but having just received them last week with the DVD, I am very eager to go again (and tricking Lucy into thinking it is a good idea). All in all, the whole experience felt very safe even though it was impossible to not get dumped in the water on virtually every rapid and experience a brief moment of a total loss of control.
We proceeded to pass out on the bus ride back to Kampala where we met Lucy at a thai restaurant for supper. It was certainly no Jasmine in New York, but it has inspired us to attempt to make pad thai (approx.) at home with rice noodles I bring back from Kenya. We haven't hit it spot on yet but will continue to try.
As for the rest of the weekend, we enjoyed shopping at the Garden City Mall, visiting the Kasubi Tombs (UNESCO World Heritage Site - Home of the largest thatched-roof hut in the world...CAN YOU IMAGINE!), and eating at an excellent pizza restaurant.
Matt, Nena, and I returned on Sunday night while Lucy returned Monday after taking her test. Lucy and I would very much like to return to Uganda to go rafting again and see a number of other sites including Kampala's Baha'i House of Worship, the only Baha'i Temple in Africa.
In conclusion, please see picture of me with my moto driver in Kampala and check out the map with relevant sites:
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