Holiday with friends

Sorry my posts have been delayed lately. I had some friends in the country over the past month & have enjoyed spending time with them. Here are some highlights:

The hippest new (read: only) coffee shop in Gulu, Uganda – the Kope Café. Opened by folks working with Invisible Children to raise money for a program to provide fun activities like dance and music to children in need. The place is beautiful, all the walls are muraled as you can see here. They took the verses from Ecclesiastes (some may quote instead from the famous Beatles tune as well) a time for … and a time for … and made banners along the whole wall. The kids chose pictures to depict each season mentioned – it is a powerful display! Plus the coffee is great and the people are really kind. Tif & I spent a few afternoons here sipping lattes and wondering if we were really still in Africa…

Ah, my good friend Brandi – only had a few precious days with her, but it was so wonderful! Glad we got to share a room & catch up from under our tents!

We spent Thanksgiving with some American & Ugandan friends while in Kampala. Here is Patrick, Tif, me, Julie, Alyssa, & Emma. Patrick, Julie & Emma all work with Come, Let’s Dance. It was so fun to celebrate Thanksgiving and enjoy a fabulous spread of American-ish dishes! Julie & Shane did an amazing job of making us feel like we were truly in the states and with family. This picture was taken a few days later off of Lake Victoria in Jinja. This is the source of the Nile River.

Some of Ghandi’s ashes were spread at the source of the Nile here, so there is a shrine. I don’t really think it fits with who Ghandi was or what he stood for – think it looks more like a shrine to the marble-tile god. If I were in charge, there would be many flowers, maybe a fountain, and a place to sit & ponder or meditate on peace and non-violence. But alas, they didn’t ask me my opinion before throwing a ton of money into this piece of work…

Another view of the source

Jared & I were thrilled to find a great coffee place in Jinja – yay for foam!!!



Tif, Alyssa, & I spent a few days hanging out in Jinja after the others left. What a relaxing few days we had. Here we are at Bujagali falls just about 6 km down from the source of the Nile. We could have rafted the Nile, but decided to not risk life & limb on that adventure. We settled for a very peaceful sunset canoe ride at the source instead – we were quite content with that option! These ladies brought me so much joy! I miss them so much already!