A Big Happy New Year to all

Happy New Year to one and all.

This post is coming atleast a week late. The excuse being the same old of working too much.

Ok it may be old but I had been under tremendous workload especially for a small organisation like ours. Forgot to tell, ours is a very small organisation comprising of 2 Indian and 3 Ugandans or make that 4, one being in Rwanda.

More on the organisation in a later post.

This was my second Xmas in Uganda. Ugandans, you may be a bit surprised to know, have one of the highest per capita consumption of alcohol. In a recent research, it was ranked the first on their list of priorities. Airtime following next and then education, food, lodging etc. So from this, we can estimate how much alcohol plays a part in their life. So Xmas would have been a boom time for the breweries. Uganda may at some point of time, form apart of a case study for MBA students (may be I will take it up, when I go for that delayed MBA degree) on the Marketing and sales of alcohol. There are actually many things on which you can write a case study here in Uganda. But, again there too I m in the process of making a detailed list, so that will also have to wait for a later post.

Nevertheless, last Xmas had been pretty uneventful for me, I slept it off at home. So, this one I made up my mind not to waste the holidays in slumber and went off to visit some place here.

On Xmas day, we headed off to Jinja. Jinja, by topograpical sense is a bit on the warmer side than Kampala (dont know the reason, may be because Kampala is surrounded by hills & Jinja is a plateau, thats my inference, nevertheless it was hot). It was a quite trip but a nostalgic one for me, because it was my first trip outside Kampala on vacation or siteseeing and also because it was the first time I was visiting a genuine virgin water source/waterfalls. Bujagali Falls is just beautiful. White water rafting, swimming, bungi jumping, you ask for it in water sports and you get it there. But then I didnt venture out into one, because I dont quite know swimming and I have a hydrophobia of sorts. Some pics of the trip have been captured from amature cam phone. I will upload the same asap. The same day, we visited another charismatic place. It was the Source of Nile (ya, the great Nile river originates from Uganda). Dont know how true that is, but then it should be true because no one has yet refuted the claims or put forth any counter claims. This place is actually strange. Its in Lake Victoria, from one end, you could see Entebbe, which is about 160 kms. from Jinja & at the other end you are in Jinja & for reaching both places you have to pass through Kampala.

Truely said, Uganda is one hell of a beauty, may be thats why Gujaratis came and settled here hundreds of years back. Atleast it has a better climate than Ahmedabad. I should say that everyone should atleast once try to visit Uganda.

The Boxing Day trip should be for the next post. It was more eventful with full of more twists and turns. But till then keep posting those comments (actually I have received just one comment, but thats not a deterent to keep me from writing :-))