Red Dirt Road..

Thursday we were all more than anxious to get our journey started.. The four girls that I room with, our Swahili teacher/Tanzanian friend Nelson and I were all in for the trip of our lives! Even though it is Africa, we made sure we were at the bus station at 3, even though check in time wasn't until 330 and the bus wasn't supposed to leave until 4. We sat impatiently chittering about how excited we were and all the amazing things we were going to do.. Then we started getting antsy.. 4 o clock came, no bus. 430 came, no bus. 5 pm, no bus. Finally 515 the bus rolled around the corner and we all hoped on. Nelson had been smart and booked our tickets far enough in advance that we were all in the front seats, with plenty of leg room. We were in for a long trip. As we sang along to the Shaggy and Sean Paul that were played over the loud speakers the bus ride didn't seem that bad! We caught some quick zee's and before we knew it we were at the Kenyan border. Things went lickety-split, we got our visas, experienced our first of many squat toilets, and were headed for Nairobi. All the way, we followed a long and unpaved red dirt road, that has now turned me and most of my clothes that strange color that won't come out.. and never again will I complain about speed bumps in Canada!

Chilly, but still in good spirits we had another pee break in Nairobi (this squatter was so gross and sketchy it puts my Ecuador bathroom to shame, and that's saying a lot...) around 2 in the morning or so and were off to the Ugandan border.. Not more than three or four hours later and we were at our third or fourth police stop. Side story - the police in Kenya are just an extension of the corrupt government.. They'll do anything for an extra buck or two, including stopping busses and asking for a bribe. They lay down spikes across the road and don't let anyone by until they feel they've payed enough. This one however, was a different story.

A guard hopped on our bus with a huge gun and sat down right in front of us. He directed us down the road, and at this point we had no clue what was going on and we were just excited to get moving. Until we found out we were headed to the police impound lot. They parked our bus and any other poor suckers who happened to be in public transit in the same place and time. We were all waiting to get 'inspected'. Three or four hours in, nap time was exhausted and it was time to find something to do. Kampala Coach (the bus company) sprang for Fanta's, so we grabbed a few and headed for the squat toilets. Back to the bus we headed and were more than pleased to hear that the inspector was on his way. After seven long hours, a man in a white lab coat showed up claiming he was the inspector and took a look at our bus. Didn't open the hood, didn't go inside, just walked around. I'm assuming after this the bus driver payed his dues for whatever the inspector found to be wrong and we were on our way!

We crossed into Uganda around 4 in the afternoon and were almost to our destination, Jinga. Because of the Kenyan delays, we weren't sure if we were going to make it in time to do the bungee jump. We got into Jinga at around 530 and met with the guy who would take us to our hostel. After booking our tickets to Kigali for Sunday, one day later than planned, we were off to start our adventures! We checked into the hostel and were informed that we would have to wait until Sunday to do our bungee. Because we were so exhausted from our extremely long day of travel, we were fine with this.. plus it meant staying an extra day in Uganda!

After a briefing by Nash, the Kenyan who worked at the hostel, we were stoked to dive into our amazingly inexpensive but delicious burgers. Uganda is the cheapest country I've spent time in so far! 2,200 Ugandan Shillings = $1 USD, and a burger and fries was only 6,000 shillings. Water was 500 shillings and 750 mL of beer was 2,000 shillings. We were in heaven. After demolishing way more food than necessary, we clambered into bed. More than excited, and a little nervous, for the rafting we had in store the next day!