I Eat Indian Food Twice And Am Attacked By Shoe Ladies

August 26th-27th: Wednesday-Thursday

Jinja is one cool town. Located at the edge of Lake Victoria it boasts the source of the Nile and Nile beer. I think its sort of a center for commerce and trading. A much bigger town than Mbale but smaller than Entebbe. Here in eastern Uganda all the towns seem to get smaller and smaller the farther you go north.

Jim and I got up really early to drive into Jinja and get an early start so we could spend every available minute shopping. Before we entered Jinja the road makes the transformation from single lane highway to a shiny new two lane highway. Wow. Pretty fancy. Jinja is divided in two by the river; I think it’s the Nile, or at least the source river for the Nile, whatever. We are staying at the Kingfisher for the night and boy is it nice. I mean. No dirt floors. Very, very clean. A pool. Everything is repaired and looks nice. I feel a bit out of place actually. I mean in America this would be a middle of the road kind of joint but to me it seems kinda like a palace or something. The Kingfisher Safaris Resort overlooks Lake Victoria (ooh fun fact: Lake Victoria is the second biggest fresh water lake second only to Lake Superior, guess that’s why it’s superior. Please pardon the bad joke.) And is about a ten minute drive from the center of town.

Jimbo and I spent the morning in the Jinja market which is like all the markets you see in movies and stuff. Booths piled high with everything from fish heads, mangos, cloths, shoes, and pretty much everything else. We spent the morning haggling for cloths which was actually pretty fun if you overlook my encounter with the shoe ladies. I bought some jeans, a few shorts, and a shirt for Tanz. All I needed were some shoes since all the shoes I own I am either saving for kili or are more dirt than cloths and rubber and are holier than the Virgin Mary which if your protestant isn’t saying much but they do have more holes than a pound of Swiss cheese and their odor resembles month old cheese left in the sun.

So I needed shoes. Jim and I found the shoes section of the illustrious Jinja Market. A dark shadowy looking corridor between towering piles of shoes. We entered and immediately felt the lurking of evil. Dark figures (I’m not trying to be racist but it was kinda dark and even a Swede would have looked dark) hovered in the shadows watching, waiting. I glanced at some shoes on sail. The owner of the booth pounce moving as swiftly as a drink down an Irishman’s throat (ok that was racist). Scary shoe lady: “you like these?” she says holding a sparkling clean white soccer shoe. Incidentally the only shoes for sale are black dress shoes generally of the ugly Latino style and bright white soccer shoes. Either way you lose. Either color is going to show all the dirt and grim that you step in that day. It’s a catch twenty-two. “You want to buy? You want to try on?” Me: “uh…” Scary shoe lady: “try them on” she cackles as she yanks of my shoes and forces me to try on a sneaker at least four sizes too big using a plastic bag as a sock and making me stand on a piece of cardboard so as not to dirty the bottom of the shoe. The other shoe ladies sensing prey swept in and forced me to try on more shoes than I can count all the wrong sizes and kinds. Jim and I broke our way free gasping for breath and fled into the underwear section. I rally my final reserves as courage turn towards the shoe section. It’s not enough. I rally my final reserves of stupidity and once again enter the abysmal corridor of death.

I try to ignore the shoe ladies who like sharks sensing blood in the water tail me. They can sense fear. They try to drag me of to their own booths and shoe me shoes that neither fit me nor want. The air is full of their war cries “you take these!” “Try these on!” “What size are you?” “Are you going to buy?” A truly harrowing experience. Finally I bought a pair of very white and cheap shoes (I’m not kidding they weigh about two ounces each and the shoe laces feel like those packing peanuts and if I pull on them I think they’ll just snap) from the man at the end of the aisle.

The rest of the day after a very yummy lunch at an incredibly America-like coffee shop and restaurant called Flavors Jim and I wondered around the more touristy part of Jinja and bought Christmas gifts for his family. Ooh, I also had a strawberry milkshake at Flavors which was cold and made from real ice cream. Which is surprising because usually “milkshakes” in Uganda is warm flavored milk, or at least I’m told.

That evening we swam in the very clean pool at the Kingfisher and ate dinner at a restaurant called Two Friends. Very nice food. Really nice bathroom. You could flush the toilet paper! The next morning we woke early and watched the sun rise over Lake Victoria. Beyond words. Then we took a boat ride to see the source of the Nile and see the local wildlife. In case your wondering how we saw the source of the Nile our guide stopped the boat at about the point wear the river leaves Lake Victoria and said “here it is”. I guess there used to be falls and stuff before they built the damn downriver. Must have been a little more exciting back then.

We picked Jenny up from the Tricaricos and then headed up to Mbale for lunch. More Indian food. Yeah. The best Indian food I have ever had. Some pumpkin thing and then this amazing yellow dal with dumplings and yellow rice. Wow. That night after we got back to Karamoja we ate at the Eldeens house. Good trip.