Kampala Old Taxi Park (Matatu Park), originally uploaded by Kattaka.

Friday
After arriving into town early in the morning by bus my first task was to find my way to Dominik's office. This required me navigating my way through down town Kampala (which I noticed was very clean and less busy/more spacious than Nairobi). There were lots of vendors selling bibles and rosaries on the side of the road. Interesting. Made it to the taxi park (pictured above). In Uganda they really like to screw you up by calling a matatu a 'taxi' and if you want to take a taxi then it is called a 'special'. The taxi parks are also much more insane than Nairobi because first of all the taxis don't list where they are going on the side of them. There are no numbered routes. You just have hundreds of similar looking vehicles and you have to figure out which one will take you to the right place. The payment system also seems a little more flexible – which means the mazungu (that's what they call foreigners here too) usually pays more than the locals. I have to say this was the one thing about Uganda/Kampala that really frustrated me. But the city itself is gorgeous – it is situated on 7 hills and is lush and green. Finally arriving at Dominik's office I dropped off my bag and we went for Eritrean food in a nearby stall (made from an old billboard). Then we went to check out the Baha'i temple (one of only 8 in the world). At dinner we met up with Rebecca and enjoyed some Ugandan food including matoke (a type of bananas that is unripe and mashed) with g-nut sauce (ground nuts), pumpkin stew, chicken, chipatis, and Ugandan beer (Nile Special). Good stuff. I head to Rebecca's to spend the night and get a good sleep for Saturday's adventure.

Saturday
We were picked up at 7:30 and head 2 hours east into Jinja – the source of the mighty Nile where we would spend the day white water rafting! There were only 5 of us in the boat (plus the 2 guides) and we set off after a brief intro – most of what we needed to know they showed us on the water. Then we set off to hit the first of 12 rapids! Jinja is supposed to be one of the best places in the world to go rafting – there are 4 level 5 rapids (6 being the highest) but it is nice and deep so you don't have to worry about rocks as much as many other places in the world. We cleared the first few rapids fine but on the first level 5 rapid (Total Gunga) we flipped and it was crazy – I was under water for about 15 seconds and when I came up I was under the boat – then I was sucked under again and came up and the guides were there to help me up on the boat. It was scary but fun. We hit a bunch more rapids that morning and also just jumped in and floated up the Nile in our life jackets for about 2km as well. It was amazing because there were birds diving into the water to go fishing within just metres of us. Just after lunch we managed to get through two more level 5 rapids uneventfully (other than almost flipping on both of them) and on a level four the guides asked us if we wanted to flip on purpose on the next one – so we did. It was a bit more fun to flip when you expect it but still scary. We got to the end of the day trip and there was one more class five rapid that was optional – aptly named 'THE BAD PLACE!' They told us that it was pretty much guaranteed that you will flip. The 2 other girls who were with us took the safety boat and so it was just me and the 2 guys and one guide. Never mind the fact that I was nervous but adding to my tension was the fact that I really had to go to the bathroom! I just wanted to get it over with! There was a large crowd of villagers at this point whose prime entertainment was to watch all the idiots go over the rapids and fall in. We swooped down into the rapid and as a huge wave hit us we tipped completely sideways and just when I was about to let go of the rope to let myself fall in we tipped back the right way – we made it!! But our guide's paddle didn't – he was screaming for us to pass him one of our paddles as we drift into another rapid (that we weren't supposed to hit) – too late – we hit it and once again tipped – this time I was sure we were all going in – I saw one guy fall in and as the boat once again landed flat in the water I panicked – initially thinking that I was the only one left in the boat! But the other two appeared and we paddled to the side – picking up our lost passenger along the way. WHAT A RUSH! That was so much fun. Some beer and food later we head home to collapse. I want to go again!

Sunday
Rebecca and I went to a craft market and met Dominik for lunch before I left on my bus ride. I don't want to get into it but it was such a terrible ride. What was supposed to be a 12 hour ride turned into over 16 hours of hell! Our bus broke down TWICE – once just past the border and then again in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere! I was so happy to get home at 4:30am and collapse into bed. Still recovering...