Some First Impressions of Jinja

No doubt my impressions of Jinja as a city are helped by the fact that i'm splurging on lodging here, and staying out of town in a very nice place in the countryside.  Supposedly, the lodging at this joint is "safari tent."  Which might be true, as I've never been on a safari before, but that would mean that safari tents have metal roofs and concrete walls.

Nevertheless, the place really is fantastic, with many genuine safari-like treats, including monkeys running across the metal tent roof, geckos (Do they have geckos here?  Remind me to ask Carl.  Thing could have been a Komodo dragon for all I know) and toads trying to get into my "tent", mosquito coils, solar hot water heating (that appears to actually reliably produce hot water, blessed be!) and an outstanding view out over the Nile river.

So, remember when I said, "trying to get in" a couple of lines ago?  Strike that.  The toad's in.

Also, there is a great restaurant here at which I ate pan fried Nile Perch.  Nile Perch: It's better at the Nile.  Also, like all other fish, it's better fried.  Except Salmon, which is really not that great fried, though I never would have suspected until I tried it once with Zane.

Anyways, Jinja is awesome.  All the good parts of Kampala with out the crap.  Think I might have seen two prostitutes today.  That is a significant decline from Kampala, where the prostitute density is about 900/hectare.

There is also a good café in town, which is a prerequisite for me to consider a place a "great town".  Had a waffle for lunch.  Waffles tend to help my outlook.  In addition, Jinja hosts the Aaswad restaurant (snicker snicker).

Jinja also still has much of its colonial architecture.  Not to glorify the colonial period or anything, but the low, well-ventilated structures the locals were building here in the '20s are a lot better suited to the climate than the steel and glass monstrosities that people everywhere in the developing world seem to think mean "prosperity."  Well, not to pick on the developing world, either, because I can't think of any reason I would want to live or work in a glass-faced building if I could avoid it, including in Denver.  Or Juneau.  Of course, I'm not a lawyer, so I couldn't work in that building in Juneau anyways.

There goes that toad.  He seems to be exploring.

Here's a hint, guys.  Glass windows that you can't open make your building warm.  That's fine if you've got air conditioning, or if you're in the Arctic.  If not, maybe drop that idea.  And you know what?  If you're building a glass-faced building in the Arctic and your name doesn't have like nine consonants in a row, you might want to rethink your glass high-rise anyways.  

The one annoying thing about this place?  Aid workers in the restaurant talking about which compound in Kampala they would like to live in.  Aaswads.

I once did an interview in a municipal building down in the jungle in Peru.  Had a translucent, corrugated roof, and the same un-openable glass windows on all sides.  I don't know why the government employees didn't strike.  I suppose that it's a good thing that it was otherwise concrete, because that would make it relatively difficult for a municipal forestry official to light on fire.  I started sweating so profusely, I was afraid I was suddenly running a fever.  But nope.  It was just 120 in there, at 99% humidity.

Okay, time to sign off.  And it looks like the toad wants to go out anyways.