Jinja Town

On Saturday, we journeyed into Jinja Town, which is the city center/main street of the city of Jinja. Maureen and Shakeem (a former Lakeview student who now studies at another Holy Cross college called St. Edward’s in TX) were kind enough to show us around town and their favorite spots to go. Brother George was also kind enough to pick us up and take us to town. On the way there, we drove through PCJ, which is where all Holy Cross Seminarians do three years of philosophy studies.

We were dropped off at the main marketplace. It is a government-owned and operated market. It was a three-story warehouse-like building selling produce, clothes, and basically anything else you would need. It had toilet parts, cleaning supplies… everything. We were told since it was a Saturday, it wasn’t as crowded as it would generally be, which was probably good for all of us because we got to look around at things in a less stressful environment.

We walked down the street, and there were all kinds of vendors set up along the street. There were technology stores, clothing stores, and food stores. When you come to the end of the main street, things turn a little more touristy. We were told it is sometimes nicknamed “Muzungu Street.” We looked around in a few souvenir shops, and there were some really cool things. We had decided to just kind of get an understanding of what there was to buy, and then we would come back at a later date to actually purchase things. We learned that Uganda’s symbol is the Crowned Crane. It is usually shown with one foot forward to show that Uganda is always progressing forward. There were many wooden statues of it and paintings too. I remembered when I was looking at one painting of the cranes that I have actually seen this bird before at the Boise Zoo, which was a cool connection to make. We also stopped at some art stores, and the paintings were just incredible. Many depicted wildlife - the lion apparently being the most popular. There were several Christian paintings, paintings of people with actual fabric as their clothing, but my favorite were the ones depicting boda-bodas lined up on the street and the taxis driving down the red dirt road, women walking down the street carrying large items on their head, and the concrete houses with crinkled sheet metal roofs with babies playing with goats while their mothers watch from the front step of the house – the ones that showed the real daily life and what I witness every time I walk to school. Then the shops ended, and a line of cafes began.

We stopped at a grocery store where I bought the red plum jam we had the first day. There were many other Ugandan snacks and teas (along with every thing else you would find in a grocery store.) There were several lunch options to choose from, some serving traditional Ugandan meals, others serving more traditional European or American meals. We ate lunch at The Deli, which is owned by people from Switzerland. I really wanted something with cheese, so I was going to order the chicken, mozzarella, and pesto melt, but they were out of pesto, so I got my second option which was a turkey BLT. It was so delicious and nice to have a little taste of home. Then we proceeded to another cafe named Sikia. (Here is a link about the cafe and its history!) This is owned and operated by deaf people, so it was really cool to learn some Ugandan sign language to order. Shakeem recommended the ice cream here, so I got orange and chocolate ice cream. It was some of the best ice cream I’ve had. The orange was not sherbet - they were both very creamy ice cream, and I enjoyed the ice cream a lot.

(just in case it is not visible - there should be an arrow for you to click through multiple pictures for the next few paragraphs :))

After we had all finished eating, we walked around town a little more. We visited the Jinja Library (which I think is now abandoned). Then we went into another catholic church. And then we walked to this place called the Hangout. It was a really nice park area that had some food places, picnic tables, and a playground. We learned that many expats (I learned that this is short for expatriate, which just means a person who lives outside their native country) come to this place to just hang out. We waited here for Br. George to come to pick us up. We took the opportunity to take some pictures. We also tried Novida, which is a Ugandan pineapple soda. It was very good, but I could definitely taste how sugary it was. It was a nice time just to sit and peacefully relax outside.

On our way back home, Br. George took us back through PCJ because the monkeys were back. I expected to maybe see a few in the trees as we drove by, but we stopped and got out, and there were probably twenty or thirty monkeys running around. We got to take pictures with them and even watch them play. We got within several feet of several different monkeys. There were tons of babies. They would play on the roof. It was weird to think that these were wild monkeys just living their lives - not in a zoo put on display for us to see. They were just living their normal life in the wild. They also seemed very curious about us too. It was definitely one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

We stopped at the sports tournament that had been going on since Friday morning and watched the boys’ volleyball team play their semi-final match. Unfortunately, they lost, but it was really fun to watch them play.

When we got home, Bruce (the street dog who lives in our house area) had had her puppies!! So that was so exciting - we had been waiting for her to have them. They are not very puppy-like yet, but hopefully, we get to see them when they are active puppies. For dinner, we had beef and noodles.

I loved going out and seeing more of the city and seeing what Jinja has to offer, and I hope to go back soon. We were all very happy to do something touristy, and we definitely fulfilled that goal.