My first time outside of Kampala. We took a “taxi” (translation: minibus) from the Old Taxi Park in central Kampala.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Mbale was because of the community of Abayudaya, the Jews of Uganda. For the past hundred years, about 2,000 Ugandans have been practicing Judaism in the hills outside of Mbale. There are around 7 congregations, the largest being the Nabugoye. They worships at Moses Synagogue with Rabbi Gershom, a powerful presence in the community. Though we were discouraged from taking photos, I snapped a couple.

We rolled up on bodas and had no idea what we would find. After being warmly greeted, we were told that we were an hour and a half early for the Saturday morning service!

We joined a handful of other guests and celebrated Shabbat with a service in English, Hebrew, and Luganda.

From Mbale it’s about an hour trip to Sipi, a tiny town with huge waterfalls. We stayed at the Crow’s Nest, a hostel set up by Peace Corps volunteers that has stunning views of the falls and surrounding valleys.

Quite the process……………ending in the best cup of coffee I’ve ever tasted.

The next day we went on a hike to see the falls. The landscape was insanely beautiful: mostly farmland dotted with small groups of dwellings with banana-thatched roofs. The hike was awesome:

3 stunning waterfalls

2 cool caves

2 precarious ladders

1 super-friendly bird

1,932,759,274,592,745,927 photo opportunities

P.s. I’m calling this the Sipi Pedicure.