Tanzania Part III: Lushoto / Moshi / Arusha

On December 16th after another two quiet days in Dar, we took a bus to Lushoto on Usambara mountains with Tatjana. We arrived in the evening time after a 9-hour bus ride and stayed at the Whitehouse Hostel – a nice place and family business (10 000 TZS – about 5€ – per night per person, breakfast included) run by an incredibly organized guy called Augustino! Definitely worth a stay, Augustino is very helpful and has a great personality, we felt rarely comparably welcomed at any other place we stayed before! Also I got in touch with Bakari in advance who was ready to be our guide during our stay in Lushoto. He is truly a great guy who knows everything about plants & organizes great hiking trips.

The next day (17/12) we did a 17km hike trip with Bakari to the rain forest, Irente Restaurant where we were offered a delicious lunch – one of the best during our travels – and an absolutely stunning view point on more than 1500m altitude!

The next day (18/12) Tatjana had to take a bus back home to attend uni the next week. We caught a dalladalla-bus to Soni where we visited the Soni Falls for 2000TSZ (equals about 1€) entrance fee per person. Unfortunately on top of the falls people tend to throw their waste in which comes down the waterfall afterwards. You can see plastic bottles, clothing and human waste and the water itself is not very clean either.

On Monday (19/12) we planned on taking a bus from Lushoto to Arusha (distance of 310km) but got off in Moshi as the bus ride was the worst we’ve ever had and after an already 6-hour ride without any space, being stuffed in like chicken – we arrived in Moshi and decided to stay at a beautiful place called Karibu Hostel with swimming pool run by Maria & Sam who are working within an NGO called Born To Learn established by Maria which is supporting different local initiatives. Moshi is a beautiful small town, very laid back and perfect for having a relaxed time before heading to Arusha! If you’re lucky, you can see the snowy top of Kilimanjaro from Moshi when it’s not too cloudy – and in Moshi we were also told a very appropriate saying “In Tanzania we don’t climb Kilimanjaro, we drink it” – that’s what we actually did indeed!

The only incident which really bothered me in Moshi took place at Pamoja Café: first some guys invited us to sit with them – what a nice gesture we thought – then while sitting together at one table, this one guy would explain how important respect towards women is as women give birth to all men and at the same time wouldn’t stop talking about his dick or mentioning several times if he could swop his girlfriend with Brian’s or how beautiful and delicious I am – in front of my boyfriend who was sitting right in front of me. This was by far the rudest incident happening to me in Tanzania. Yes, you get harassed several times on a daily basis. Yes, you also get harassed in other countries. Yes, also in Germany. Yes, it’s not everybody participating in the harassment. No, by stating this I’m not blaming a whole nation. But still I’m asking myself WHY. Hearing from my friends who are studying in Dar, they would get it each and every day – even on the campus – no matter their skin colour or origin! A survey states that more than 90% of women in Tanzania experienced sexual harassment. Read it again. Think about it. Raise awareness!

After two very relaxing days wandering around town we took a minibus to Arusha on December 21st which took only about 2hours.

In Arusha we stayed at  Nyumbani Hostel a place which lives up to it’s name – a home away from home.

Arusha is more a starting point to go on different safaris and therefore a not very interesting place to spend your time. That is why we took a bus back to Nairobi already the next day, on December 22nd. We were told if you take a bus from Lushoto or Moshi or Arusha, make sure you take one coming from Dar which are the most comfortable ones but can also be heavily delayed. This is what we experienced catching the last bus of our journey: instead of departing around 4pm, we left Arusha only at 7pm.

The busride was relaxing but when we came to the Kenyan side of the border, the ‘usual Kenyan struggle’ started – from askaris (engl. soldier) wanting money for the immigration form, to the guy working for the bus company whose main interest was to get us through the immigration office as fast as possible and still wanting us to ‘give him a zawadi (engl. gift)’ for his kind services (which actually slowed down everything as we ended up the last in line) to the officer at the visa office granting us only one month-visa instead of the common three for tourists. “What are you doing in Kenya AGAIN? We don’t know what you are doing. Therefore you will report to the immigration office in Nairobi again after one month!” – without any sign of politeness or respect.

Karibuni Kenya! Welcome back to Kenya!

Tanzania Part II: Dar es Salaam / Stone Town / Changuu Island / Nungwi

In the evening time of December 1st 2016 we arrived in Dar after a 9-hour bus ride, ready to finally catch up with Tatjana again who is currently doing a semester abroad at the University of Dar. Tatjana lives in a nice area called Kijitonyama Block 44.

The first evening we ate at a Ethiopian Restaurant – we had Injera, a sourdough-risen flatbread with a unique, slightly spongy texture with salad, various sauces, meat and potatoes:

On Friday (02/12) we went to explore the surroundings such as Makumbusho, the Mwenge Second Hand Market (soko ya nguo za mitumba), had a coffee on the terrace of an hotel nearby and went to an awesome concert at Paparazzi (Slipway-outside shopping centre) called “The Beat” with Mzungu Kichaa, Wakazi and Ashimba!

We spent the whole lazy Saturday (03/12) at Slipway, having a look around at the shops and a delicious lunch on the seaside, enjoying the sun. In the evening we had dinner at O’Donovan’s Reggae Bar, a very laid-back spot with good food.

@The Beat Concert

@Slipway

On Sunday (04/12) we took the Mwendo Kasi (Express Bus) to catch a ferry to Kipepeo Beach (Butterfly Beach) which is located on a peninsula.

When we were just about to land, a police officer told us to come upstairs to see the captain – what a nice surprise, we thought, he wants to greet us personally? – way off the mark! – this guy wanted to charge us 50.000 TZS (equals about 20€) per picture we took of the skyline! We were perfectly aware that it is not allowed to take pictures of government facilities, but of the skyline? After an heavy discussion, we ended up paying 20.000 TZS and got the hell out of there! What a disappointment! And I thought Kenya is corrupt, though I never experienced a similar situation in Kenya yet (til we got to the Kenyan border but this is a different story you will find in a following blogpost).

Kipepeo beach was truly beautiful, we enjoyed a dip in the ocean and some cold beers before we went back to Kijitonyama – without taking any pictures on the ferry.

On Monday (05/12) we went into town to buy our ferry tickets to Stone Town for Tuesday. What a hustle! When you think you can pay for the ticket in TZS you are wrong – it’s 35$ for non-residents and if you want to pay in national currency you end up paying almost 10$ more. That’s when we decided to find a bank to get out $ – but what we found out checking at each and every bank in Dar town – in the whole of Tanzania there is NO bank where you can get dollars! Therefore you are forced to change money – and end up losing money again! 2 hours later and having saved only saved about 4$, we went back to the ticket office and finally purchased our ferry tickets.

On Tuesday (06/12) we took a ferry to Stone Town at 12:30 and arrived two hours later. Coming back to Unguja after 4 years was an amazing feeling for me. Stone Town is truly beautiful. We stayed for four nights at Stone Town Community Hostel which is a nice place even though it is a bit tricky to find in the beginning (15$/per night per person in a double room, breakfast included). In the late afternoon we wandered around town and visited my former hostfamily – a successful surprise! They invited us to Mubina’s birthday party on Friday.

keep the Stone Town clean!

famous Jaws Corner – best coffee in town

famous architecture

view from the Old Dispensary

lazuli café

In the evening we went to the night markets which starts daily at 7pm at Forodhani Garden and had a Zanzibari Pizza – the safest and most delicious dish on the market! There we met Firdaus and Chamau. Firdaus is a 12-year old girl who simply came over asking us if we could have a conversation in English as she’d like to improve on her English skills. We met her almost every night during our stay! Chamau was born in Stone Town but his German skills were astonishing – he could even rap in German which was very impressive! We planned on going to Prison Island (Changuu Island) with him! Having met those two we felt welcomed straight away and even happier to finally be in Stone Town!

Firdaus, 12y old, incredible girl!

the Zanzibari Pizza – Crew

The best cook introduced himself as “Strong Coffee”

On Wednesday (07/12) we explored the city and did some Christmas shopping for our family and friends back home – Stone Town is the perfect spot to find beautiful artworks even though the prices were raised heavily during the past 4 years. We had dinner again at the night market where we met Firdaus again and got to know Fahad who is a Dubai-based photographer working for several NGOs.

Back at the Hostel we met Joseph and Pat from the States as well as Abby from Dar. Together with Joseph and Abby we went to a Reggae Party at Ngome Kongwe (Old Fort) which unfortunately was a bit lame due to only few people. There we met Fahad again and decided to go to TATU (pub-bar-restaurant) instead where we got absolutely wasted. Afterwards we went to the Reggae Party again and got home around 4am. A great night out! I can’t tell you much about the next day because we had such a bad hangover that we didn’t get up too much even though we had planned the boat trip to Changuu Island with Chamau which we then moved to Friday.

On Friday (09/12) we took a boat to Changuu Island (Changuu is actually a fish commonly seen in the seas around) at 2pm. The island was used as a prison (therefore also named Prison Island) for rebellious slaves in 1860s and also functioned as a coral mine. Afterwards it became a quarantine station for yellow fever cases. Nowadays, the island became a government-owned tourist resort and houses a collection of endangered Aldabra giant tortoises (the oldest is 192 years old) which were originally a gift from the British governor of the Seychelles.

former harbour side of Changuu Island

Inside former prison chamber

a peacock sitting up the trees

arrival on Changuu Island

boat ride to Changuu Island

Changuu Island

a dip in the ocean

huge turtoise standing up

beach in Stone Town

surrounded by old beauties

Coming back from the island, we bought a birthday present for my host sister Mubina and joined the birthday party at their house – it was a beautiful celebration with all of the family members:

On Saturday (10/12) we took a dalladalla (public bus) up to Nungwi, in the North of Unguja.

The history of Tanzania started with the union of Tanganyika (mainland) and Zanzibar (island) 1964. Formerly called Zanzibar Island, the main Island is now called Unguja, together with Pemba Island it merges to Zanzibar which is also more commonly (and wrongly) used by tourists.

In Nungwi we stayed at Paradise Lodge, a beautiful place located directly at the ocean, where we spent two nights. On Sunday we had fun doing stand up paddling as well as a boat trip to snorkle and capture the sunset from the boat.

In Nungwi we also met Hayri and Anna (working for Volunteer Universal)  with whom we stayed for another two nights in Stone Town before going back to Dar on December 14th. From Dar we took a bus to Lushoto which is a distance of 350km and took us about 9hours. Next blogpost on Lushoto is following shortly!

Tanzania Part I: Mwanza / Dodoma

Sunday morning (27/11) at 4am we took a ‘Trinity’ bus from Kigali to Kahama, which is an approximate distance of 450km and a 12hour drive. After a stopover of half an hour in Kahama, we took another bus to Mwanza which took another 5hours. We finally arrived at 9pm in the evening after 17h bus ride in total.

A befriended taxi-driver picked us up and brought us to Fety & Juma’s home (a couple we found through couchsurfing.com), located near Nyegezi Corner, a few kilometres outside town. They own a big house surrounded by several animals: dogs, chicken, goose, goat and colourful geckos. Also another family lives on the yard who takes care of the animals.

When we arrived, Fety had already prepared a nice snack consisting of fried cassava which was delicious! After eating and taking a shower we went to bed. The next morning (28/11) we washed our clothing and went into town by dalldalla (like matatu in Kenya). Our stay with Fety and Juma was very relaxing – even for cooking during power cut (which we have been very used to by then) we found a solution:

As Tanzania’s 2nd biggest town, located directly on Lake Victoria in the South, Mwanza is famous for its rock formations in and around the lake. Their impressive geomorphological phenomenon is unique to this region for millions of years.

Find some further reading on its geology and rock formations here

Off shore in the lake the so called Bismarck-rock can be found, named after the most famous German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck served his Kaiser between 1860-90 at a time when the Berlin Conference (also known as the Congo Conference) took place 1884-85. In the aftermath of the Conference, Africa was divided into colonial possessions which created boundaries amongst its peoples and still effects post-independent Africa by leading to tribalism and ethnic clashes.

In order to escape the crowded streets, you can go to Gold Crest Hotel to enjoy a 360-degree view, a delicious coffee and a swim in the pool!

Also the main market in town (market halls) are a nice place to visit to get fresh foods!

We stayed in Mwanza til the 30th of November when we took a 7am bus to Dodoma where we arrived in the evening time. Dodoma is Tanzania’s national capital whereas Dar es Salaam is its commercial capital. We only had a stopover in Dodoma to catch another bus to Dar the next morning. Through couchsurfing.com we got to stay with Ana, Lu and their beautiful baby daughter. They are both very friendly and we had a nice dinner at their house – when we were about to start eating Lu asked us the ‘Hitler-question’: “Do you know Hitler? Do you like him? What do you think of him?” in the same manner as if he was asking us how we like the weather and I can tell you – especially after long bus rides and being exhausted from it -it’s not the most amusing thing to explain why Hitler was actually not a ‘brilliant, smart, organized guy who boosted the economy’ but rather and in the first place a racist bastard of a dictator who started the holocaust and thereby caused the death of an estimated 6 to 11 Million people.

The next morning we took a ABC-Bus from Dodoma to Dar which took about 9hours.

 

Rwanda Part II: Kibuye / Lake Kivu

On Thursday (24/11) we took a bus from Kigali to Kibuye which is about a 3h bus ride and 130km distance. It lies on the border of DRC and Rwanda.

We stayed at House Saint Jean which is a beautiful place directly on Lake Kivu and shared a room with Adam for 21000 RWF (8€ per person) including breakfast.

On arrival day it rained heavily so we stayed in. To get an impression of the weather on that day:

The following day we were woken up by sunshine and bird noises, had breakfast and went to Kibuye Parish, a Genocide memorial church where a massive massacre took place on April 17 1994: 21 000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed within two days. 

View on Lake Kivu from top of the church tower

A short excerpt about the happening from the article, find the link below:

The man in the pulpit in Kibuye, Father Boniface Senyenzi, was also Hutu, but he had thrown in his lot with the terrified families under his care and promised he would share their fate.

Father Senyenzi was disturbed by the ever more threatening tone of the notes that arrived from Dr Kayishema, mayor of Kibuye, including one that warned the Hutu priest to save himself and abandon the Tutsis.

The final note came on the morning of April 17. The father read it and then addressed his final congregation which, sensing doom, had declared that he would rather die in the church than move to the stadium: “These are your last hours. Prepare yourselves to be received by God. Prepare your hearts to be received in heaven.”

This article was written ten years after the horrible massacre.

Walking away from the morial we met Jackson who offered us a boattrip on Lake Kivu for 12000 RWF/1h (13€), including a hike up Napoleon Island (shaped like Napoleon’s hat). The only inhabitants on Napoleon Island are numerous bats. 

Our tour guide Jackson wearing a People Make Maendeleo gym sac 🙂

On top of Napoleon Island with our travel mate Adam

Afterwards we passed by a small island and the only monkey living on it who visited us on the boat.

After the 3hour trip we went back to the hostel and spent the night having dinner with a few other backpackers. The next morning we took a bus back to Kigali where we would spent the night and take an early bus at 4am to Kahama in northwestern Tanzania in order to reach Mwanza after an approximate 15h busride.

Rwanda Part I: Kigali

On Monday (21/11) we arrived at 3pm in Kigali, often mentioned as ‘Africa’s cleanest city’ which is in fact a true statement – infrastructure and cleanliness of the city centre as well as surrounding areas are astonishing.

The country’s 2008 ban on non-biodegradable plastic is often mentioned as a cause. Another is that on the last Saturday of every month, people across the country commit time to projects aimed at improving the country’s public spaces, in a mandatory practice called Umuganda—loosely translated as “coming together to achieve a common purpose”. Source

Due to this policy, people deemed “undesirable”—street vendors, prostitutes, petty criminals, beggars and street people— are being detained in Gikondo Transit Center, situated in a residential suburb of Kigali, with the intention of keeping the streets of Kigali tidy.

We first stayed at the Colour Club & Spa for one night and changed location the next day to Discover Rwanda Hostel which is slightly more expensive but for several reasons the better choice!

On Wednesday (23/11) we went with Adam, whom we had met in Kabale, to the Genocide Memorial Centre. Even if you’ve informed yourself about the Genocide or watched the movie ‘Hotel Rwanda‘ (which was actually shot in South Africa and not in Rwanda) , believe me, it’s different to be at the actual places – Hotel des Mille Colliness, Mass Graves, perforated buildings, the Belgian Peacekeepers Memorial – where it happened 22 years ago.

Genocide [latin origin: génos – people/race ; cide – act of killing] is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group. The term was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin.

For those of you who want to get detailed background information on Rwandan history, follow those link 1 / link 2.

Also there was just a newspaper article published in German, mainly about the involvement of Catholic Church in the genocide – the conscious instrumentalisation of ethnicity and its tremendous effects on Rwandan society.

At the actual Genocide Memorial we didn’t take any pictures but recommend a visit to everyone staying in Kigali! The Rwandans have done a huge effort to create this place and exhibition, also not only about the Rwandan Genocide but several other Genocides in the world (Holocaust, Bosnia, Armenia, Cambodia, German South-West Africa: Herero in Namibia…the list seems endless). 

Afterwards we went to the Kimironko Market which is a bit hectic but offers a beautiful variety of East African fabrics as well as all kinds of comparably cheap touristy things (among those very nice purses and baskets), foods and second-hand clothings.

Then we visited Hotel des Mille Collines: The luxury hotel was owned by the Belgian airline Sabena in 1994. At the time of the genocide, the hotel’s European managers were evacuated, and control of the Mille Collines was given to Paul Rusesabagina. As the situation in Kigali reached its boiling point, Paul allowed fleeing Tutsis and moderate Hutus to take refuge in the hotel, bribing the Interahamwe (literally ‘those who attack together’ used for the Hutu paramilitary organization) with money and alcohol in exchange for food and water. Paul, his family and a few lucky survivors were eventually evacuated in a UN convoy as the Interahamwe seized the hotel. Source

Aside from an estimated 1 Million Tutsi and so-called moderate Hutu, ten blue helmets, part of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), were ambushed, kidnapped and tortured to death a day after the genocide began late on 6 April 1994, shortly after Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down over – paradoxically – the presidential palace. 

Not only Habyarimana of Rwanda but also Burundi’s president Cyprian Ntayamira were among 10 people on the aircraft which some reports say was brought down by rocket fire. The two presidents were returning from a meeting of east and central African leaders in Tanzania at which they discussed ways to end the ethnic violence in Burundi and Rwanda. It is widely assumed that radical Hutu assassinated the presidents in order to hasten the process of the Genocide. Nowadays you can still visit the wreckage of the plane.

The 10 peacekeepers were protecting Rwanda’s prime minister at the time, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, a moderate Hutu. She was assassinated the same day by one of the presidential guards as well as her husband and children.

The following pictures were taken at the Memorial – the camp is completely perforated, inside the camp there is an exhibition and last notes and drawings from their family members. 

Final Stop in Uganda: Kabale / Lake Bunyonyi

On Saturday (19/11) we took a Baby Coaches bus from Kampala to Kabale, in the South of Uganda.

The bus was 25.000UGX each plus additional 10.000UGX to store our backpacks, the total amount equals about 16€

Currency Overview: 1€ = 113KES (Kenya) = 3773UGX (Uganda) = 864RWF (Rwanda) =2312 TZS (Tanzania) – 21/11/2016

As the bus was not full yet we had to wait for about 2hours til we left Kampala. On the bus ride we got to taste rolex which is a chapati with rolled eggs filled with cabbage – we were introduced to it by the saying ‘in Uganda we don’t wear rolex, we eat it!’.

In advance I had talked to a guy (pretending to be working for both places) who told us to stay at Lake Bunyonyi Rock Resort instead of Engagi Guesthouse in town. 

The guesthouse in town is 15$ a night whereas the Resort is 25$ for double room. We thought, as we would only stay for two nights, staying directly at the Lake would be special. So we arrived in Kabale around 11pm and were picked up by the driver of the resort, not knowing how much he would charge us for the 15km ahead as I didn’t receive a reply on it from the one who organized it… Arriving at the resort he would ask us to pay a chosen amount by us but at the same time said it should be about 20$(!!). We told him that this is not in our budget and that we are used to other prices, therefore we gave him 10$ instead. 

The resort is one of the last ones at the Lake with not much around which we should realize once seeing the prices for food without being able to get food anywhere close by. That’s when we decided to only stay one night with breakfast for 45$ (!!). It would have been much nicer to be informed about the conditions in advance also as the one I organized our stay with was not at the resort himself to discuss the issue again. In addition to this we received a meal consisting of rice and one piece of chicken when we arrived and were charged 44000UGX (13€) for it. So we ended up spending 60$ for one night – at least including a beautiful canoeing tour for only 10000UGX on Lake Bunyonyi for about 3hours. 

No question that the location was perfect but considering the circumstances it wasn’t really what we expected in the first place. Once we switched location and stayed at Engagi Guesthouse in Kabale town I received a text with a free night offer at the resort to make it up to us, very fair but too late unfortunately.

Our stay at Engagi Guesthouse was ok but as a nightclub is just next door and was playing til early morning we didn’t get much sleep and the food wasn’t that nice either but the staff members were utterly friendly! When we wanted to pay our bill the guesthouse manager also realized we have been given a fake 5000UGX note. So much for our experience in Kabale: incredibly beautiful places but not much of a fortune budget/accomodation wise!

On Monday (21/11) we took a cross-country taxi for 15000UGX each to Kigali.

Next post about Kigali following shortly!

Uganda Part III: Jinja

On Monday (14/11) we took a matatu from Kampala to Jinja which is a distance of 84km and 1.5h busride East.

We didn’t book a place to stay in advance but were told to go to Dallas Guesthouse which is only 40.000 Ugandan Shillings (UGX) per night (equals about 10€) for a self-contained double room. At first we couldn’t find the place but through asking among bodaboda drivers we were brought there on Lubogo Rd, close to the Main Rd. When we entered the Guesthouse it already appeared to us that the staff members wouldn’t be interested in leaving a good impression..the following two days it didn’t get any better but as we were on the run all day anyway, we thought two nights won’t be too bad. Mistake! The matrice was broken, the shower hardly worked, we had dogs barking all night from all sides. The first morning one of the staff members wanted us to leave the room to clean, as we kindly let her know (again as we announced on arrival) that there is no need to as we stay one more night, she would simply roll her eyes and walk away. So much for that!

Jinja is famous as the historic source of the Nile and it’s beautiful old buildings from the 1920s-1940s!

On arrival day we walked around til we got to the entrance of the ‘Source of the Nile’ where Lake Victoria turns into Victoria Nile – it costs 10.000 UGX for non-residents, 5000UGX for residents, 2000UGX for citizens and 1000UGX for citizen students. As it was getting dark already and we wouldn’t want to pay that much, we walked back to the Guesthouse, got changed and took a bodaboda to a restaurant called The Keep where we had dinner: a very beautifully decorated restaurant with very friendly waitresses and amazing local crafts, mainly made of Ugandan/East African textiles (Kitenge), displayed to purchase – this is where I found Christmas presents for my dad and some friends 🙂  

Then we went opposite the street to have a beer (Nile Special – the best!) at the Cozy pub and captured the Super Moon – the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit – which was last seen 1948 and will be only seen again 2034.

The next day (15/11) we had breakfast at The Keep and walked around in the city, visiting beautiful art markets, getting to know several artists and bought our favourite piece – the green elephant!

Then we had a coffee at the famous Source Cafe. 

Also we went into a music store and met Herbert and Anne, a very kind and helpful couple who provided us with their knowledge about old Ugandan music as I’m still searching for locally produced cassettes. The idea behind the research came up by one of my professors at uni who aims at reviving the cultural heritage of local (East) African music!
So Herbert and Anne told us that most of the songs have been transferred to mp3-format and people would only purchase music on flash stick (usb) or anyway. It seems that vinyl and cassette have been replaced to 100%. Therefore it is also difficult for artists to earn money – if they won’t burn their own songs on CD or make them accessible via online stream, people would simply record their songs through radio and tv, burn them on a large Mixed CD and sell them for their own benefit! There is not a law regulating ‘stolen’ music, rarely people would check the source of the respective CD or music on flash stick their buy.

Luckily Herbert and Anne brought the leftover of cassettes home, therefore we met them on Wednesday again to have a look through them and buy the ones with artist name/tracklist written – they offered to nametag the rest of them and send them to me when I get back to Nairobi in December! 

Finally we also went to see the Source of the Nile, paying 5000UGX entrance fee each by pretending to be students of Mountains of the Moon in Fort Portal, showing my German student ID.

River Nile is well known to be the longest river in the world. Its source starts right from Jinja Uganda, some people may be wondering how the name Nile come about. It’s a famous Greek word simply meaning valley. The river starts from the Northeastern part of Africa. It flows from the surrounding areas close to the equator to the outrageous Safari desert and up to the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The river is about 6696km long and pours its water to over nine countries although it’s more centered to Uganda as well as Egypt. Countries include Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zair and Ethiopia.

This is the monument in memory of John Hanning Speke who was the Victorian explorer who first reached Lake Victoria in 1858, returning to establish it as the Source of the Nile by 1862.

Uganda Part II: Fort Portal

​On Tuesday (08/11) we took a bus to Alex hometown Fort Portal in Western Uganda which is a 300km distance from Kampala and therefore a 5h busride. 

We got on the bus at 1pm and passed by Mubende where we were given a late lunch consisting of plantain, chapati, chicken and fried grasshopper Nsenene through the windows:

In Fort Portal we stayed at the beautiful Ruwenzori View Guest house in a private room (very comfy double bed, mosquito net, towels) with access to shared bathroom (proper toilet and bathroom) and breakfast (pancakes, chocolate sauce, syrup, jam, eggs, bacon, homemade bread, fresh passionfruit juice, tea, coffee). 

The Guest House is owned by a very nice Belgium couple. Also all staff members were very friendly and helpful. In the evening you can join dinner with them, always consisting of several courses (two soups/salad/main dish/dessert). It’s a very nice and relaxing atmosphere and you will always find new people around!

Thereby we met a German couple, Marina and Jochen, who are supporting various sustainable projects in different African countries and who display an incredible collection of pictures they took while travelling on their website! Also we met a Swedish couple, he is a lawyer working in the asylum seeking section and she is a doctor. Also we met several other people from Belgium who were doing a short holiday trip through Uganda.

On Wednesday (09/11) we explored the city and were looking for music shops selling old Ugandan music on cassette which is really a rarity nowadays. We couldn’t find a proper shop but at least one who had one single cassette left by Fiona Mukasa, a Ugandan gospel singer. Also we had a look around Mpanga Market and sat for a while with some locals discussion the U.S. election result and receiving pet names which is a common thing among the Batooro people (Rutooro language) in Fort Portal Region – now we are called ‘Amooti’ (king) and ‘Abooli’ (cutie).

Around 4pm it started to rain for at least 12hours why we stayed back at the Guesthouse, enjoyed dinnertime and went to bed early to get up at 6am on Thursday (10/11) to do a guided (bird) walk through the Tooro Botanical Garden and it’s surroundings by Andrew. The botanical garden was set up in 2001 when most of the eucalyptus trees, planted on the command of the Queen in the 1950s, were mainly cut down (as they absorbed too much water, leaving behind dry ground) to plant traditional medical plants and trees! It is mainly used as an educational ground for local primary and secondary school children to learn about traditional medicine. 

—> Artemisia Annua, ‘Beifußkraut’, tea once a week as malaria prevention, when infected tea daily as treatment – we bought 14 packages for 10.000 UGX, equals 2,60€ to be on the safe side!

Afterwards we met Laura and Juan whom I got to know in Kilifi in September! They’ve been hitchhiking the world for the past almost 7 years together and Juan has been to at least 77 countries since 2005, among those Afghanistan, Irak and Iran, and is currently writing his second book about his experiences. They both work as travel bloggers and would get several offers by airlines etc.with all costs covered to contribute to advert movies and similar things. So instead of earning a salary they would mainly live of it and the earnings of the books already published.

Follow Laura’s blog and Juan’s blog where you can also purchase the books 🙂

So together with them and Mubarak, a friend of their host, we went to see the Crater Lakes and Top of the World View on them and the Rwenzori – Mountains of the Moon.

Afterwards we had lunch at a place called the Garden when it just started to rain heavily – as you can see this area has a lot of rain which creates a very pleasant climate. When the rain stopped we took a bodaboda back to the Guesthouse.

On Friday (11/11) we took a bus back to Kampala where we’d arrive in the evening. 

On Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed a relaxed time and got to know Alex’s neighbour Naboth and had a delicious dinner consisting of matoke (cooked banana) mash, avocado and chicken soup-yum!

Uganda Part I: Kampala & Entebbe

On Thursday (03/11) we took a night bus from Nairobi to Kampala which is a distance of approximately 660km.

On the way to the actual bus stop of Mash Poa on Accra Rd we got stuck in a bad traffic jam, therefore we had to take a bodaboda with our backpacks on which was quite tricky and my driver even bumped into another bodaboda on the way! Instead of stopping, he straight went on – simply the Kenyan way. So we caught the bus last minute which had already left the station down the hill off River Rd!  

The busride was quite relaxed. We had several stops in between til we reached the Kenyan-Ugandan border around 3am. There are many people trying to get arrivers to change money. Brian was the funniest: he would just be too tired so he would simply take the batch of Ugandan Shillings without realizing that it’s actually not a free welcome gift. Generally everything went on very smoothly and therefore we arrived in Kampala at 8:15am and we couldn’t agree more on what is said about Kampala:

Unlike what Nairobi’s unfortunate reputation does for Kenya, Kampala makes a good introduction to Uganda. 

We met our host Alex in City Centre whom we got in touch with through couchsurfing several months ago and had a nice breakfast in town! Afterwards we went back to his place which is about 10km from City Centre. His house in Bweyogerere is very nice with a big open kitchen area and living room, two rooms and two bathrooms. This is the view outside the gate:

We had a short nap, wandered around the area a bit, did some grocery shopping and got to the Lugogo stadium by bodaboda to watch Alex’s football match at 6pm. In Kampala you generally find a lot more bodabodas as means of public transport especially to get around heavy traffic jam. 

Unfortunately the match had to be cut down timewise as the lights wouldn’t work so at some point it got too dark to continue. Alex team won and he scored one of the three goals! 

After the match there was a huge buffet with delicious salads, meat, chapati and plantain (cooked bananas) to enjoy!

Then we went to a pub nearby called ‘Legends’, met some of Alex’s friends and had a few drinks, dances and awesome music! We went back home around 2am and had a bit of a sleep in on Saturday (05/11). After breakfast we went to town to meet Alex sister Diane and her two lovely kids for lunch! 

Alex brought them home while we were walking around, exploring a bit of Kampala city. We went up hill one where most embassies are located. Kampala was actually built on seven hills and offers a beautiful view on top of the hills:

Later we met Alex again and drove to Miami Beach directly at Lake Victoria, Africa’s biggest lake. Unfortunately we couldn’t get into the beach area as they are doing some renovation work on the sight but took a first shot of the Lake:

On the way back home we grabbed a few beers, cooked some dinner (chicken, veggies and rice) and had a relaxed night home.

Wasuze otya nno? (lit.how was your night?) Good morning! It is a bit cloudy today (06/11). This is the view from Alex veranda:

Uganda has a beautiful variety of more than 50 local languages. Luganda is spoken by the majority among the Baganda people from the Ganda region (Central Province). A very popular current song sung in Lugandan language is Sitya Loss by Eddy Kenzo. It sometimes sounds familiar to me as it seems as if several Swahili words are being inserted although in most cases modified. For example this morning we bought some bananas in a little store nearby and ‘mia nane’ (800) would then be in Luganda ‘lu nana’. 

Most people also wouldn’t reply to greetings such as ‘habari yako?’ (How are you? – singular) or ‘habari zenu?'(How are you?-plural). Even asking a very common question such as ‘Mambo (vipi)?’ (lit.’news’?) would rarely be answered. As I was increasingly bothered by the question ‘why’ I asked some locals for a possible reason.

Uganda’s official languages are Swahili and English. Though Swahili does not gain good reputation as from 1971(-1979) it was mainly used by harsh and brutal military towards Ugandan citizens during the reign of Uganda’s 3rd president Idi Amin Dada. Therefore even nowadays people (unconsciously) refer back to that time and as a result are not showing much appreciation for Swahili. Considering the historical background it is a fact which can be understood!

Amin’s rule was characterized by human rights abuses political repression, ethnic persecution, extrajudicial killings, nepotism, corruption and gross economic mismanagement. The number of people killed as a result of his regime are estimated to range from 100,000 to 500,000 or even more.

This just as a brief information on Uganda’s post-independence history.

Apart from that it’s a new experience for us not to be called ‘mzungu’ all the time, only rarely by a few very young kids. Also kids would usually reply to questions like ‘How are you?’ not like in Kenya where it is mainly used as a rhetorical question. 

Generally speaking we feel very comfortable and welcomed! Most Ugandans are very nice and helpful and we learn a lot about their cultural heritage and diversity.
After breakfast we went into town with Alex who kindly showed us the matatu stop to get to Entebbe which is 45km south west from Kampala. 

Due to bad traffic jam it took us about 2hours to get there. We went to sit at a nice Beach Restaurant directly at Lake Victoria and had a late lunch. 

Afterwards we walked around to the City Centre and visited some shops offering all kinds of handmade clothing and crafts. We were very impressed by the variety which we hadn’t seen in Kenya to such an extent! The funniest piece we got was probably a T-Shirt for Brian saying My name is not Mzungu – this will be very useful, especially back in Kenya!

At 7:30pm we took a matatu back to Kampala and Alex picked us up in town. We went back home, had nice conversation together as usual 🙂 Alex is very smart, he is teaching us a lot about Ugandan history and languages as he speaks more than 5 local languages (!). He learned all of them through growing up in a neighbourhood with kids from different ethnical backgrounds! In school he even received lessons taught in local languages which I personally find amazing. This should be implemented to all school to emphasize the importance of cultural and ethnical belonging without giving too much credit to the main ethnic groups only! Swahili might be one version of a neutralizing language used for inter-ethnic communication but obviously this solution had not been successful in Uganda or at least not been accepted by most Ugandans! In the end societies and communities construct their own realities and thereby shape dynamics of language use and communication. It might still be used in business life or interaction with people from Tanzania or Kenya but in Uganda it has not been accepted an integral part of everyday life, not intrinsically belonging to Ugandan culture as such.

On Monday (07/11) we went to explore the City Centre of Kampala. First we went to Karibu Art Gallery, located in Bukoto.

Afterwards we went to Nakasero Market, a local open space market, to buy groceries for dinner. We were kindly shown around by a local thereby we found all we needed very quickly! When we were looking for meat we would end up standing in front of a Muslim butchery where Brian straight ask for pork which they obviously don’t sell 😛 

Then we took a walk passed Old Taxi Park, biggest matatu-bus park in town, some shopping centres, governmental buildings, hotels and independence monument of 1962. 

Kampala’ City Centre is quite clean in comparison to Nairobi’s City Centre and also more wide and more clearly-arranged. Though there are different areas, some are more quiet, others are a lot more busy (like the area around Old Taxi Park, Kisenyi).

New English School Books, Gifts for Soon-To-Be-Graduates & East Africa Trip ahead

On Monday (31/10) we went to Sarit Center where we purchased 25 books: 4xclass4, 4xclass5, 8xclass6, 4xclass7, 4xclass8, 1x teacher’s book class 5. As we also needed a teacher’s book for class 4 which wasn’t available at Sarit Center, we went to Garden City Mall to get the last book! Altogether we purchased new English books for 17.035 KES (about 152€).

As we had received more funds for the books than we asked for, we thought it would be nice to get some ‘motivational’ presents for the 10 pupils (9 boys & 1 girl) of class 8 who have their final examinations this week (KCPE-Kenya Certificate of Primary Education).

——> Tuwajalia mema katika mitihani yenu ya mwisho shule ya msingi / We are wishing you all the best for your final examination ❤

Therefore we bought new pencil cases containing pencils, pencil sharpener, rubber, triangle ruler, ball pens, coloured crayons and an individual good-luck-note! Altogether we spent 6410 KES (about 58€) for it!

Thanks to Friedrike for donating brilliant triangle rulers & coloured crayons as well as coloured chalk and wax crayons for all pupils!

Special thanks to Sigrid , Alena, Krystian, Vincent, Marcel , Erik, Grandma Karin, Kami and Manuel for providing funds and supporting our cause ❤

So this week the final exams (KCPE) take place (results approx. out on Dec. 28th) and on November 10th St. Philip’s will close for school holidays!

As we want to extend People Make Maendeleo 2017 to support several school projects in Kenya we went to visit Starkid School & Rescue Center yesterday (01/11).

The Starkids School and Rescue Centre takes care of children from the Githogoro and Hamara districts of Nairobi Kenya, two of East Africa’s most impoverished and dangerous slums by providing them shelter and education!

Our first campaign will be to distribute reusable sanitary pads as we had funds left from the time when we purchased them for St. Philip’s! Therefore we already went to MCF today and gave order to prepare 40 packages til January 2017. Also we think it would be great to have Augustine and Ann come over to Starkid to give an awareness session and training to teachers like they did at St. Philip’s.

Tomorrow at 5:30pm we will take a night bus to Kampala, on November 17th we will head to Kigali by bus and at the end of this month to Mwanza, Tanzania. From there we take a bus to Dar Es Salaam and end up on Zanzibar (Unguja) – a beautiful island I have been to during my studies at State University of Zanzibar (SUZA) 2012. Afterwards we will come back to Kenya to continue our projects!

We will keep you updated as best as we can (…access internet) ! Tutaonana!