19 Oct 2011: Visit to Mother Theresa Home for the Destitute
Nisha and Aparna took us to visit the Mother Theresa Home in the morning. The home was tucked away in some village area in the outskirt of Kampala town. It took us some searching before we found it. Nisha sent there some supplies to support the home. Sister Angela turned out to be of Indian origin and from Ranchi in Jharkhand! We shared about our experience at the Tribal School Project in Jharkhand.
Robyn, Nisha, Aparna and Jin
Robyn, Alvin and Jin at Mother Theresa Home
21 - 23 Oct 2011: Rafting in Jinja, Uganda
After over a week's stay in Kampala and completion of our mini-seva at Home Of Joy, it was time to move on. We booked with Nile River Explorer that kindly arranged for its shuttle bus to come pick us up in front of Rubaga Cathedral at 6.30am. We were taken first to its Backpacker Campsite in Jinja, and then transferred to the Nile Explorer Campsite at Bujagali Falls. The latter is a beautiful place overlooking the White Nile, said to be the source of the 6700km Nile that starts its journey from Lake Victoria.
We stayed in a spacious safari tent that looked out to the gushing Nile, which left Robyn a Harry Potter scar for life...
22 Oct - our paddlers were a Swiss couple and an Italian couple for the 30km rafting journey.
After some practices, we shot for the rapids - only Robyn (green) and Jin were visible.
This was our first grade 5 known as Overtime.
And we survived the grade 5!
At Bugogo grade 4, we confronted a huge wave...
...and flipped big time into the gushing river.
Our 3rd rapid was to be the fiercest of all - a ferocious grade 5 called The Bad Place. The rumbling waves were engulfing us from all sides!
It was here that Robyn sustained a deep cut to her forehead by a loose paddle in the water when we capsized in a most dramatic flip.
Fighting hard to hang on...
No chance against the power of Nature!
Alvin (R) gasping for air... somewhere in the water, Robyn was hammered on her forehead by a paddle.
Robyn was picked up by a guide on kayak but got back to the raft with a bloody bump on her forehead...
We were at the half way mark (15km) which was also the lunch point. After downing some fresh pineapple slices, we left the rafting party with guide Hassan to wait for a pick-up. It was an hour before we got to a clinic and another 2 hours before an orthopedic surgeon, Dr Sam, arrived to clean up Robyn's wound. He patiently persuaded Robyn to have 2 stitches to expedite the healing of her wound.
Robyn was brave throughout the entire episode and she vows to return to shooting the rapids in the future! Now, she'll be the female version of Harry Potter and she'll always remember Uganda. And it was 6 days after she turned 13...
23 Oct 2011: Acrylic Painting with Artist Fatia
Despite the injury, Robyn was game to learn acrylic painting from artist Fatia Namugaya and created her first canvas painting masterpiece at Bujagali Falls.
Fatia showing Robyn how to overlap and blend the various colours to produce desired effects.
After the painting lesson and before we left for Jinja town, we enjoyed a chapatti lunch.
We decided to stay a few days at The Backpackers in Jinja for Robyn to rest before moving on to Sipi Falls.