White Water Rafting on the River Nile - Jinja, Uganda - Day 2

Our second day in Jinja, Uganda started early as we had to pack up and get on the bus to headquarters before heading out for the day's adventure - rafting on the river Nile.  They fed us lots of coffee and a solid breakfast of eggs on chapati and fresh fruit while fitting us for life jackets and helmets.  They gave us a brief safety talk to make sure we all got fitted properly, but the full "how do you raft" talk wasn't done until we were right on the river!

You could almost feel everyone's slight nervousness as we got off the buses, took off our shoes, put on sunscreen and headed down to the put-in point.  After a brief overview of how to get back in the boat when (that's right WHEN) it flips, we split ourselves between two rafts, and got introduced to our guides.  Our guide quickly became our best friend, even though he flipped us on purpose to practice within minutes of getting into the raft.  Nathan was absolutely hilarious, amazingly ripped, and settled any nerves before we took on our first rapid.  Our first rapid was a Class 5 waterfall.  Going over that waterfall, we paddled as hard as we could, and we made it through like champions!  The adrenaline was definitely high after that one!

On our second rapid, a Class 4, we actually flipped, and somehow I ended up 20 yards away from the raft and had to get picked up by one of the kayakers (see video at the end of the blog for an example from my friend Nicole who was on the other raft).

Between the rapids, we floated at a relaxed pace and told stupid jokes with our guide.  One of the supplies rafts brought us a snack mid-trip: we each ate almost half a pineapple! It may have been the best pineapple I'd ever had, a combination of being really hungry and it being so perfectly fresh and ripe!

Some of the later rapids blend together a bit, but a Class 6 was too dangerous to raft over as amateurs, so we walked around it and only rafted the last quarter of it.  My raft went through really easily, so our guide waited until all the rafts had gone through, and we went through again. He aimed us perfectly through it so that the entire left side of the raft ended up in the water, and those of us on the right hung on tight while we were up in the air and managed to pull some of the people back in right away.  The others got picked up downstream within a few minutes.

The last two rapids of the day are some of the biggest ones, and by that time I wasn't interested in flipping anymore - much to the disappointment of my fellow rafters, so I jumped over to the safety raft that goes through the rapid but is guaranteed not to flip, and I got to watch all of the other rafts come through the rapids with varying levels of success (I filmed the final rapid in the video below).

We ended the day in true adventure-travel fashion - with beer and a hearty meal waiting for us at the end of the trip.

All in all, rafting Class 4 and 5 rapids is something I never thought I would do, and I'm so glad I got to do it with such a great group of people!

The company we went with took lots of pictures, and I hope to post them as soon as I get my hands on the CD that we bought!

Or watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fUQLDFY60Q&feature=youtu.be

Jinja, Uganda - Day 1

So I've been having such a good time in Nairobi that I have completely dropped the ball on updating my blog.  My apologies!  I'm going to try to catch up as much as possible this week, and get close to current!

I left off a few weeks ago with my trip to Uganda.  I went there with 9 other people from Nairobi - a mix of Accenture people and friends of friends, departing directly from work on Friday and leaving laptops with co-workers who stayed behind.  Flying out of the Nairobi airport was much easier than arriving, and even with a delay, we managed to enjoy ourselves in the gate area plenty - and got to know each other a little, since many people were meeting for the first time.

We arrived in Entebbe, Uganda late and took a bus to our 'hotel' for the night called Red Chili Hideaway an hour away in Kampala, the capital of Uganda.  It was set up with cabins and space for campers as well, but for about $6 you can't complain!  While a few from our group sampled the local bar scene, I collapsed into bed and slept amazingly well.  The bonus in the morning was a hot shower and freshly made breakfast!

From Kampala, we were picked up by the rafting company, Nile River Explorers, for the next hour trip to Jinja, Uganda, where all of the rafting trips are run from. The scenery from the bus was amazing - tons of little shops painted with bright colors of advertisements for Coca-Cola and cell phone companies, and a school every 5 minutes - with the smell of roasted corn wafting inside. Many of the buildings were built with a taller false front, reminding me off the architecture of the Old West made out of bricks instead of wood.

At the NRE headquarters, we dropped off our bags, and went on a bike ride through the countryside, organized by our guy, Nash, who was described as 'too much hair, not enough height'.  We rode for about an hour on main roads with huge hills, giving us some amazing views of the tea farms, then turned off into some of the farmland, seeing some of the small villages that are hidden within the trees, made up of tiny brick and mud houses and even a small mosque.

Many of the children at the farms would see us coming and call out after us - "mzungu" (white people) - and to fill many a cliche, some were playing with old bike tires, running after them down the road.  The farms were full of a wide variety of animals - everything from chickens to goats, as well as plants...we saw eggplants, sweet potatoes, mango trees, and even coffee trees (which had the sweetest smell!).  The most hilarious moment was while we were stopped, waiting for one of our group who had gotten himself lost, and a child of 4 came up and tried to sell us cigarettes.

We ended our bike ride at the campsite we were staying at that night, meeting our bags that had been sent over separately.  We relaxed, got some lunch and enjoyed the view of the Nile until the sunset cruise. The boat ride was a great way to end the day - with food, drinks (I have a new love of Krest soda- bitter lemon flavor- with gin), great music (everything from Paul Simon to Chumbawumba) and the chance to meet some of the other people staying at the camp! The best part was the amazing views (don't take pictures of the dam unless you want to get shot though!) and seeing the local people along the lake that were just as interested in us as we were in them.

At the end of the cruise, about a quarter of the boat decided it was time for a swim, though I decided to be the photographer :)  We all ended the night hanging out on the deck again, and prepping for our rafting expedition the next morning!

"Welcome, Welcome"

I know I've been lax about updating my blog - I promise I'll catch up on the rest of my London stay soon, but in the meantime I wanted to update everyone about my new situation in Nairobi.

Between London and Nairobi, I was able to go to St. Louis and Chicago to visit friends and family and get some of the logistics for my travel ironed out. There was plenty to do, and I really appreciate the friends who let me crash with them while I'm essentially homeless :)

I left Chicago on February amidst a snowstorm, and flew through freezing temperatures in London, so arriving in Nairobi to 80 degree weather was amazing! I got in shortly before 11pm local time, and one of the team's taxi drivers was there waiting for me.  I got to the apartments, unpacked and settled in as best I could with the jetlag.

On Sunday I checked out the gym, had some breakfast, and met up with one of the Accenture folks to walk to the local shopping centers.  There are two nearby, and we went to both the Sarit center and then Westgate mall (completely Westernized), where we both shopped at Nakumatt (the Kenyan Wal-Mart), and I got my phone and internet set up.  It was a little overwhelming because of jetlag, lack of sleep and not having eaten enough, so while I didn't have the most logical shopping cart, I did manage to get the essentials!

Later that night, my roommate Julia and I went out to dinner, and she helped me understand the lay of the land a little more.

On Tuesday, Valentine's Day, Nairobi was crazy!  There were flower stands on all of the corners of the Central Business District, and men were buying flowers for all of their female coworkers (myself included).  It seemed that everyone was out and about, and as the day went on, you could see more and more people being dressed up for their night out.  I went out to dinner with a handful of people from ADP, and the restaurant we went to was all done up for the holiday. All the women were handed roses and a free glass of red wine when we walked in the door, there was red fabric and lights everywhere, and a DJ played love songs throughout the evening.  Quite an excellent way to spend the evening, I must say!

As for work, so far it is going pretty well.  We are getting an introduction to the specific operations of the hospital and the different departments that we will interview more in-depth in the next few weeks.  We will be working closely with the head of their Information, Communications and Technology department, and he is turning his office into a project space for us.  We have also had people from different groups within the hospital walk us through some of the various processes they use - including the process from Admission to Discharge.

The daily business newspaper of Kenya ran a story about the hospital that caused a lot of concern on Wednesday afternoon - it reported that 1000 employees of the hospital were going to be laid off, and gave the reason as the project that we are just beginning.  You can read the article below, but it was quickly dismissed by all of the hospital management as untrue, but not until it had many of the hospital employees and labor leaders reacting.  (A retraction was published on Thursday)

http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate+News/KNH+announces+layoffs+in+plans+to+cut+budget+deficit/-/539550/1327594/-/k6n7ks/-/index.html 

Thursday, we were a part of the official "kickoff" meeting, where the CEO of the hospital and the head of the IT group we are working with signed the contract in front of the press.  It followed all of the formal protocol, which is very important when kicking off a strategic plan.

Saturday - read, watched TV, went to the grocery store, worked out and then went to dinner with another Accenture person to Havana, a Cuban/Mexican place (the fajitas were tempting, and delicious!).  On Sunday, I went with the same coworker to the Elephant orphanage, Giraffe Centre and Karen Blixen house/museum with lunch at the Garden café near the museum.  We got back early in the afternoon, so I spent the rest of the afternoon reading a book by the pool and cooking up a large dinner to feed me through the week.

At the Elephant orphanage, the baby elephants were so cute, almost human!  One ran into the crowd and got a woman all muddy - apparently she had crouched down to take a photo, and the elephant wanted to play!  They all had pretty sad stories about how they were orphaned, but it is really great that there is this group who is able to tend to them until they are ready to get more integrated with a herd.  We also saw some monkeys, which made me really excited.

The giraffe place wasn't as fascinating, but I did get to feed one out of my hand - she was so gentle!  The Karen Blixen museum was cool - while I haven't read or seen Out of Africa, it was cool to see how an expat in the early 1900s would have lived - there was a lot of original furniture and artwork there to really set the stage.  The museum was in a very ritzy part of Nairobi where most of the European expats live in monstrous houses.  They looked more like an American suburb than Africa.  We saw lots of architecture today that just looked out of place.