I successfully “survived drowning” in River Nile-By Edward

I successfully “survive drowning” in River Nile-By Eddie

On Thursday last week, I was invited by a group of friends to spend a night at the world waters Lodge. (www.wildwaterslodge.com) The lodge is located on an island on River Nile about 25 kilometers outside of Jinja town. It costs an arm and leg to stay on this island; cost per night is $340(shs.1, 241,000/=). There is even a heli-pad (for helicopter landing) on the island, a strong sign that well resourced people come here a lot.
With my current state of financial affairs, the temptation to ask these guys to just give me the money or let me stay at a nearby cheap campsite was strong, but I eventually overcame it. Sometimes in moments when we are low on resources, it’s easy to think that we don’t deserve certain privileges.
I spent the night in one of their hats, which is right next to the falls, so all night I could hear the strong sounds of the falls.

Here are my observations about the wild waters Lodge and how i survived “drowning”.

First the customer care was superb, the lodge is owned by white South Africans, part of the Adrift Company, but all the staff at the lodge are Ugandans. Since the beginning of this year, I had not come across any Ugandan with good customer care skills as these ones. Ugandan business owners may have to get in touch with the person who trained these guys to treasure a customer. Very few Ugandans practice good customer care skills.

Food and drinks are included in the cost. You can eat or drink anything while at the lodge. For dinner, they served us a 3 course meal, It had been almost 15 years since I last had one. The eats are very delicious and tasty- it’s hard to resist them. However, one thing I have observed over the years in almost all expensive environments is high amounts of junk food on their menus. It’s sweet and tasty but adds little value to our bodies. Many Ugandans ignorantly associate eating junk food with being modern and stylish, but it comes with health complications. In any case, it’s the major cause of non-communicable diseases (cancer, diabetes, etc) No wonder most of the expensive clinics in Jinja and Kampala are frequented by the so-called rich people, why? They are the biggest consumers of Junk food.

Two, the lodge is located on a “wild and bushy island”, but that notwithstanding, these foreign owners transformed it into a modern lodging place that attracts people from all over the world. It’s amazing how foreigners can come here; add value to a remote bushy island, then starting charging heavily. They saw potential value in a bushy isolated forest island that we the locals could not see. Why? Probably due to lack of exposure, that’s why it’s important that we travel to places in Uganda and outside of Uganda for exposure and learning purposes. I have come across some people who think life only happens in urban areas, it’s a false belief in my opinion. There is life in places all over Uganda.

The following day, still my friends asked me to go with them for white water rafting with Adrift, a company just like the lodge owned by white south Africans. A very challenging but exciting activity. I fell off the boat two times, good enough the safety kayaks where nearby to “rescue” me. The owners of this rafting company take safety of its customers seriously without any excuses, because if something bad happened, that would be the end of their business.

Blessings – Edward