Jinja, Source of the Nile

It's sad to think that this is my last night in Uganda. 
After Kibale, we spent a few days in Lake Nabugabo.  This is one of the smaller lakes in Uganda, and everyone was saying it looked like Canadian cottage country!  Certainly made us all feel at home!  You could see all kinds of stars at night, including Orion’s Belt.  There is so little light pollution that you can even begin to see the stars while the sky is still a deep blue.  Then, we spent a couple nights in Seeta, where the hotel had a pool!!! And now, we are in Jinja.
I have had such a fantastic time in this beautiful country and have met so many warm-hearted and lovely people here.  Everywhere we've stayed, Kibale, Lake Nabugabo, Seeta, and finally Jinja, the locals have been welcoming and generous.  The rainforests are breathtaking, and the valleys of tea plantations are incredible.  The air is warm and sticky as I sit writing this entry in my hotel in Jinja, one of the largest towns in Uganda and the source of the Nile River.  From here, the river flows north all the way through Sudan and into Egypt. 
While I have learned a lot about primates, conservation, and ecotourism over the past couple weeks, what really made my stay in Uganda was the people.  Between the impressive presentation by the Kanyawara Cultural Group at the Kibale Health Clinic, the deeply moving church service our field assistants kindly invited us to, the talents artists and craftspeople I've met, the children smiling and waving at us from their doorways, the braver ones who run out to greet us, the local people who are more than happy to talk to us about their struggles to find work and pay school fees or about the different medicinal plants in the forest or the kinds of vegetables they grow, and the amazing education and health programs that are being put into place around the region, how could I not have fallen in love with this place?
While I could go on and on about the things I've seen and all that I've done, I unfortunately don't have time to go into too much detail now.  I've tried several times to send pictures home over the past few hours and it just doesn't seem to be working :( And now it is really time for me to go upstairs and pack.  We leave at 7:45am tomorrow morning for the Kenyan border.  So tonight I say good-bye to Uganda and its wonderful people, and I hope that one day I will be able to come back.

Natalie and I at the UN in Nairobi

Children outside of the school we visited in Mathare (slum).

Just a sampling of the endless garbage found throughout Kibera.  But also note the friendly smile on the man's face who is holding a baby and looking right at me.

Me holding what was left of out 9 foot sugar cane after we ate some and gave a bunch to some local children.

Photo op at a crater lake on our way to an ecotourism site at Lake Kasenda in the north of Kibale National Park.

Male dancers, part of the Kanyawara Cultural Group, doing a traditional dance at the Kibale Health Clinic.

Everyone dancing together with members of the Kanyawara Cultural Group.

A young boy called Amooti, a local woman who is expecting a baby, and myself together at the end of the presentations by the Kanyawara Cultural Group.  They had an amazing set of songs, in English and Rutooro, dances, drumming, and a short play about HIV/AIDS.  Our group of students prepared a rendition of “Proud Mary” so we could have some to share with them in return.  We weren’t nearly as good as they were, but I don’t think we embarrassed ourselves too badly!

Sunset at Kibale