Around the World in 80 Days

Greetings from Uganda! As we are nearing the end of our stay here in Uganda, we decided to share the stories from some of the places we have traveled within the country. We hope this gives you a better sense of what Uganda is like as well as an insight to daily life across the country!

First up, Kampala. Kampala is the capital city of Uganda, as well as the biggest city in Uganda. To say it is a busy city is a gross understatement. Traffic jams in Kampala are a very typical hourly occurrence. Within Kampala, we ventured to two different craft villages, Ghadafi Mosque, and of course the taxi park. The craft villages are filled with homemade merchandise such as paintings, earrings, masks, statues, bags, pants and more! Ghadafi Mosque is a recent addition to Kampala, and it is the second largest mosque in the sub-Sahara region. We toured the mosque and climbed the 227 stairs to reach the top and overlook the city. The taxi park has become a familiar place for us...when we traveled to cities that were far away, we first had to go to Kampala to catch a taxi or bus to our final destination. We have gotten very good at navigating the hundreds of taxis in the park!

Kampala, Uganda

Next on the list, the town of Jinja. At first we thought Jinja was rather unexciting until we learned that the source of the Nile river is located there. It is also an ideal place to go whitewater rafting! As a surprise, Father John Bosco, our priest at Stella Maris, took us to visit the source of the Nile. We had to take a boat to the edge of Lake Victoria, and waded out to a sign that was anchored in place to indicate where the lake became the river. We also had the opportunity to go whitewater rafting. The class five rapids were huge, and our boat even flipped over once as we went through the rapids. It was a great adventure!

The source of the Nile, Jinja, Uganda

Fishing boats on Lake Victoria  

In Mbale, we undertook a weekend full of hiking and waterfalls. We made an hour-long drive up the mountain there to begin the hike to Sipi Falls. There are three falls which comprise Sipi Falls, and our hiking guide took us to all three of them. It was fun to climb down some rocks to stand under the second one, and quite nerve-wracking to climb down a makeshift wooden ladder to get to the third. It was a challenging hike, but well worth the climb. The next day in Mbale we climbed Wanale Hill. Now, we know the name of it is hill, but this bad boy is actually closer to mountain status. Our hike up and down took about 5 hours, but we got to see Mbale from the top as well as a beautiful waterfall.

Mbale from the top; On Wisconsin!

One of our best weekend trips was to Murchinson Falls National Park for our safari. While we were there, we hiked to the top of the falls, went on two game drives to observe the wildlife, and went on a boat cruise on the Nile to see the base of Murchinson Falls. On the game drive we saw elephants, giraffes, hippos, buffalo, antelope, warthogs, monkeys and many more animals. We were even woken up at 4am to hear a hippo eating the grass two feet away from our tent window. It was an amazing experience!

African Safari!

Fort Portal was a great weekend trip that eased our culture shock. Fort Portal is more developed than the typical African town, and it has many amenities that made it very appealing to us. There were sidewalks (!!!) in town, ice cream was available, and we even found a restaurant with pizza on the menu. When we weren't eating, we found time to drive to one of the many crater lakes and hike around it. When we discovered that the water was free of belharzia [an infection caused by parasites that live in fresh water], we even got the chance to swim in it!

Ssese Islands has been our most recent weekend adventure. We traveled to Entebbe and then took a three and a half hour ferry ride to the 84 islands that make up Ssese Islands. We landed on the biggest island, Bugala, and stayed there for two nights. We really enjoyed the white sand beaches and the gorgeous sunsets each night!

Although we did not get to spend an extended time in each of these cities, we are so blessed to have gotten the chance to experience a taste of the different things Uganda has to offer. Our CARITAS children live in one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen! Unfortunately, many of the people that we know here in Uganda have not had the chance to travel around and see the sights of their country. We were blessed to be able to experience it, and we hope that with the benefit of an education sponsored through CARITAS For Children, our students will have the means to be able to see more of the wonderful place in which they live. We would like to thank CARITAS For Children for giving us the chance to experience and learn as much as possible in this wonderful country.