Jinja – the source of the Nile

Our time in Kampala had come to an end, for now. The hustling, bustling capital of Uganda is a great place to be, however, after a few days you do get a desire for somewhere more serene. Our destination of choice was the town of Jinja at the source of the River Nile. Kendra lives in Jinja and had offered us a place to stay. We jumped at the chance to head somewhere new.

We hopped on the Pineapple Express, a comfortable and punctual bus service that operates from Entebbe, Kampala and Jinja, and were on our way. Claire and I were joined in the minibus by the driver Ele and his friend Andrew, who was heading back to his home in Jinja after a few weeks away. Andrew had us all in stitches when telling us about the perils of dating here in Uganda.

“I don’t know what it is like in the UK,” he began, “but here if I take a girl on a date I have to pay for everything. I end up spending loads of money. In fact, the amount of money I can spend on a date, to impress the lady, is usually enough to feed me for a week. Or two!” I told him that Claire and I usually split the bill.

He continued: “This one girl. I was seeing her for a little bit. And then one day she just asked me to give her 100,000 shillings. In Uganda, fathers always love their daughters, so I was thinking, why doesn’t she just ask her father? I don’t have that sort of money. Every time I saw her after that she looked uglier and uglier!” Turns out it didn’t last after that but Andrew seems pretty happy to be without a girlfriend. He told us that on a night out he’s happy to have one dance with a pretty girl then go home.

The bus trip to Jinja was entertaining to say the least. Not only did we have Andrew filling us in on dating in Uganda, but we also passed through some wonderful countryside past large fields of sugar cane, sloping meadows and a giant forest where the temperature dropped significantly. After an hour and a half, we were in Jinja.

We arrived at the gates of what we thought was Kendra’s compound – our driver seemed to know where she lived. Unsure as to whether or not we were at the right place we were about to give her a call. There was no need as we were then greeted with a huge roar of barking from the other side of the gate. This was Kendra’s place alright.

Kendra Hallaway is originally from Minnesota in the USA and she has been fantastic to Claire and I over the past week or so. She moved to Uganda seven years ago and has been involved in a number of projects helping women get work, making jewellery, beads, bags and clothing. She currently looks after stray dogs, getting them vaccinated against rabies and castrated before putting them up for adoption. She also helps send dogs back to the USA in a programme affiliated with the US military. Her lovely home, in a peaceful part of Jinja, is currently hosting around 20 dogs, a cat, a kitten, two goats, and Kendra herself. She also has a couple of members of staff who help with the dogs and there are a couple of ladies who come over to make bags to sell during the daytime.

Me and Max at Kendra’s

Claire drying a puppy off after his bubble bath.

We arrived at Kendra’s around 6pm and met her good friend Gerald, who we’d end up hanging out with quite a bit in the coming week or so. A local, Gerald was great fun, interesting to talk to and he had a better grasp on British history than Claire and myself put together. He also had a wicked taste in music offering us plenty of suggestions for artists to look up when we got home. Just moments after arriving in Jinja, our bags were dumped in our room and Kendra was telling us that we were going to get on a bodah bodah for the first time for a trip into town for dinner. She called her best guy, David, and he brought two of his mates along. Claire was on the back of one motorbike, I was on another and Kendra and Gerald shared the third.

As a convoy we rode off into town stopping at a roadside barbecue where Kendra ordered some grilled chicken for the four of us; a local supermarket where we grabbed some drinks; the humongous Central Market where we picked up some salad and veg from the huge selection of colourful fruits and vegetables available; another market to fetch some freshly made chappathis and then back to grab the now cooked chicken on our way home. All-in-all the trip took about 15 minutes but was a brilliant way to get a flash tour of Jinja as we nipped around town.

Jinja is a wonderful little town with plenty to do. It lacks the mayhem and size of Kampala, but is in no means boring. The main street, called Main Street, is stocked full of cafes and bars and there are plenty of outdoor activities centres where you can do a whole host of things from horseback riding to bungee jumping.

The River Nile.

On the Sunday, Claire and I ended up watching the Manchester United v Liverpool game in a local pub called Spot 6. The beer was cheap and there was a buzzing atmosphere – it seems the locals are as passionate about the Premier League as back home. The centre of the pub had a bunch of plastic garden chairs laid out in a cinema-style arrangement all pointing at the screen. Not one seat was empty. Claire and I were chatting to a local man called Jospeh who invited me to play football later in the week. He also rang us up the next day inviting us to a family barbecue at his mother’s place – we had to sadly decline as we had already made plans. This is just one example of how friendly people are over here. If I met someone at the King and Queen in Brighton whilst watching the football and then called them up the next day to invite them to my mum’s for a barbecue, I’d probably get labelled a madman.

Monday rolled around and Claire and I were off on a guided bike tour of Jinja and the surrounding area. What began as a leisurely ride through some local farmland, with our guide Brian showing us the huge array of fruit and vegetables being grown, soon turned into an uphill endurance challenge in the blistering heat. The first half of our trip was a gentle breezy venture through greenery, waving at the hundreds of children who kept shouting “Muzungu” as we passed. Come the half-way point the sun was shining down and the roads were getting steeper. The view from the top of the hill, looking out over the region was epic and made the gruelling ride worthwhile. By the time we got back to town we had ridden 32km and seen pretty much everything that Jinja and its surrounding area had to offer.

Brian, Claire and Me at the highest point around… Exhausted.