Trips to Jinja and Masaka

I have now been Uganda for just about a week and it has been pretty hectic so far. I feel like it has been hard to get into a routine. We have taken a couple trips around Uganda already.

This past Saturday, we took a project trip to Jinja. Jinja is a town about two hours away from Kampala. There are three construction sites for which eMi will be doing the construction management. We visited all three sites as well as the staff member who lives there full time. Steve (the eMi staff member) actually lives right on the Nile River. Eating lunch right along the Nile was a pretty neat experience.

Then, this past Monday, we took the three hour trek to Masaka. There is an orphanage and school there that houses more than 100 children. The school building is in major disrepair so there is an architect from California (unaffiliated with eMi) that has partnered with the local ministry to build a new school building. They enlisted us to survey the site so that they could get started on the design. Two little boys followed us around all day long and watched us do the survey. My guess is that they don’t see muzungus (white people) very often.

There are several things that make traveling very interesting. First, there are intersections that have potholes that would absolutely destroy axels if taken at anything more than a few mph. Also, many roads will have speed bumps every couple hundred feet. As a result, travel is very stop-and-go along very dusty roads. Car sickness is almost inevitable on these kinds of trip, which isn't fun.

The past couple of days, however, things have settled down. I have been in the office all day Tuesday and Wednesday. This has really helped my ankle a lot. It has really been feeling well the past couple days. And thanks to lots and lots of water drinking, I am much more hydrated so I haven't had bloody nose in several days now. I am starting to feel more and more comfortable here. I am getting to know the area and that has helped a lot. I am also glad to get in a little bit of a routine… although we leave in less than two weeks for our project trip. More on that soon…



The Nile River in Jinja. Lake Victoria (the source of the Nile) is just over the dam in the distance


Outside Amazing Grace Christian Assembly, the local church we attended last Sunday


The survey team at the equator on the way to Masaka