Jinja Rafting Retreat

Welcome to the 2016 Fenix Team Retreat - white water rafting down the Nile.

The guy you see mid-plunge is our Director of Sales. This was my boat, but I fell out the back and am being tossed around underwater somewhere in this picture. And here's a great one of our CEO (left) with our lead software developer (center) and our operational finance manager (right) just prior to going over a waterfall. 

Have I mentioned I love my company? It's amazing to find a place where you get to spend every day working on the problems that keep you up at night, literally waking up at 5am because you're so excited to get to the office. But on top of that, THIS is our company culture?! How did I get so lucky!

Backing up a bit, everyone on the leadership team was invited out to our Sales Director's house in Jinja this week to have a combined retreat and 2016 goals planning session. We all hopped in cars to take the 2 hour drive out to the source of the Nile, taking an hour stop for rolexes along the way. A rolex is a chapati (like naan) with fried egg, onion and sometimes tomatoes and avocado in a wrap. 

Roadside chapatis for a rolex

We drove right to the rafting site, got our gear on, and headed out to the water which, contrary to some rumors spreading throughout our group, has no hippo or crocodile populations near Jinja. We were given three options. There was a safe boat that would not flip no matter what, making it a great choice for some of the people in the group who couldn't swim. There was the normal boat that would do its best not to flip, but could make no guarantees. And then there was the "let's have a crazy ride boat" that was guaranteed to flip. Go big, or go home! I had no regrets. That boat was awesome! There's nothing like being hurtled towards what looks like a 10 foot high rapid by a raging current as your guy is screaming, "GET DOWN!" I swallowed more water than I cared to that day, but had a blast down every rapid. Here's a video of one of the runs we did. It's called "The Bad Place."

Afterwards, we all took matatus over to Chris's house, passing fields of pineapples and mango trees along the way. 

Did anyone else not realize pineapples grow on bushes?

Most of the families in the area live in small mud houses, usually with a blanket over the entryway, but sometimes with glass windows and a door. You tend to see more cows and livestock in this area, which tells you the people here are better off. 

And then there's Chris's House. It's extravagant, but so beautiful. Over here, there's no such thing as a mortgage unless you work for the government and are buying government land. So custom building your house is actually preferred. You get what you want and no lump sum payment required. So that's what Chris has done.

The front door to the house

Chris's Backyard

His house has a thatched roof, porches galore with big plush outdoor couches and a cushioned porch swing on the top balcony that overlooks the Nile. There is an infinity pool, miniature rock wall for his kids, 2 horses, giant grilling area, and an amazing backyard with an even more incredible view.

Croquet with an amazing view of the Nile

Chillin' poolside

One of the rapids we rafted that you can see from Chris's backyard

 A house like this is not easy feat though. There's a lot of maintenance that goes into it and getting the basics takes a bit more work. To get water, for example, there is a giant pipe that you have to pass down the cliff to the Nile. You pump up as much water as you need and then it goes through a filtering system to be used for the pool and other water needs. The thatched roof needs to be completely replaced each year. And Chris has to regularly bring dog food and other feed back from Kampala, where he lives during the week for work. Of course, he does provide a lot of jobs to people in town who help him keep things in line. It's a life of luxury when he's there, but it also takes a lot of work.

We, on the other hand, were allowed to lounge all day. We played croquet and frisbeener in the backyard and swam in the pool before sitting down to a barbecue of grilled chicken, steak, and various fresh salads. But the most surreal part of the day came when I was headed to Lyndsay's house across the river to sleep. There were four of us sat sitting in a little dinghy with no light other than a cell phone as we motored across the dark Nile, listening to crickets chirping and watching the stars shine above us. Never thought I'd say I've been on the Nile in the middle of the night, but here's to a life of finding ourselves in wonderfully unexpected situations!

Who's a cute widdle fluffly dog?!

My current pastime: watching Ugandans watch expats babytalk their dogs like children at the table next to me. This culture gap is as wide as their gaping mouths.

Wheat and Wickets

Two games I am a giant fan of: croquet and Settlers. Settlers could only be more perfect if I could trim a nice croquet lawn right in the middle of my inevitable pasture of sheep. Year of plenty indeed.

Fortunately, these games are becoming a weekend (and sometimes weekday) ritual here. My record isn't great (due to intense competition by some players and utter sabotage by others), but it's always fun.

In fact, the lingo creeps its way into conversation frequently. Yesterday at Fenix, someone was telling a story about interviewing a candidate who tried to plot the data for a histogram as a line chart. My friend stopped the candidate, pointed his finger to one of the connecting lines, and asked, "Can you tell me what this point right here means?"

The candidate had no good answer, but Nimesh did. "Building the longest road." Touche.

Climbing Past Gayaza

I'm pretty sure I defied gravity this weekend while mountain climbing. Looking up at a vertical face, I got my first few footholds and climbed up several feet only to realize I didn't have anywhere left to stand. But, through the magic of friction-enhanced climbing shoes and "smearing," I kept putting one foot above the other until I was looking out over a beautiful panorama of rural Uganda from the top of a mountain, surrounded by about 20 curious kids and dogs from a nearby village.

I was climbing with Emmanuel, who speaks with the kind of French accent that inspires imitation, and Luke, who speaks with the kind of British accent that tells you he will probably have at least a thing or two to say about the guy with the French accent. Both are seasoned climbing vets who cringe at the idea of anything besides lead climbing. More at my level were Dan, Nick, and Emily. And then there was Lynn, always the queen of sass (her spirit animal is definitely a cat), constantly reminding us that we were crazy and that she would stick to DJing on the bluetooth speaker Nick brought instead of breaking her neck. Given her general lack of interest in rock climbing, I was pretty nervous when Emmanuel decided to have her belay me on my first run. Nothing like him yelling up to just "lean back ova ze edge" of the mountain and repel, knowing Lynn's propensity for sporadic selfies. But have no fear! After I reminded her about 10 times that my life was literally in her hands, I made it down alive!

One of the easier faces we climbed.
(This is not the smearing one I talked about. Forgot to take a picture of that one!)

Watching Emmanuel and Luke climb was amazing. They could make it up and down the rock face lead climbing faster than I could get halfway up with the top rope (did I try to race... yes. Futile.). But arguably the most amazing (or at least hilarious) part was watching Lynn move up the rock face once we finally convinced her to give it a go. She got to about 4 feet off the ground and declared she was done. Some more coaxing got her about another 10 feet higher, and after about an hour of high-quality emotional support, she had made it just about to the top, but was then refusing to come down. In the end, she did repel (though it was like watching a women lead a man while dancing... Lynn was not going to let that rope tell her what to do). Because a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll leave the rest of the story to this amazing shot of Lynn.

Badass
(though not quite repelling)

Rayns Down in Africa

True to the Toto lyrics, when the rain decides to come down, it sure comes down in Africa. Today, I decided to finally get my SIM card registered at the MTN shop in the mall during lunch and, as I was negotiating the boda price to get back to the office, light rain turned into downpour. I went from dry to dripping in about 0.5 seconds and quickly lost the negotiation when I became more desperate to just get on my way. As a result of the rain though, I can say I have taken my first "eyes-shut" boda ride. It's useless keeping your eyes peeled for pot holes when there are huge drops of water running down your in the face! Nonetheless, it was an awesome ride. To Jimmy Buffett I say, "Yeah, I like getting caught in the rain... especially while on a motorcycle zipping around matatus."

To further prove my point, I took a few photos from the office for your viewing pleasure.

We're agile, not waterfall, contrary to what this might imply

The software team + the deluge

If you've ever tried to take a picture of rain, you know it has to be POURING in order to show anything.
Case and point right here.

Speaking of rain, if you want to know where all the cool kids are shopping in these parts, check out Paple Rayn. It's a sweet clothing store, selling boots, blazers, and everything in between. But wait... it gets cooler. If you order from Kampala, you get same day delivery via boda! AND it's pay on arrival, so you don't owe Paple Rayn anything until you decide to purchase the product in your hands. Yep, I'm going to have to check this out at some point. But first I need to get a place to house these things. Hopefully this will be a post subject soon! An apartment is on the way!

Connecting...

Quote of the day: “The internet is so slow we can’t even load the page to research which new router to buy."

Wizards

Street cleaning or Quidditch?

Nimbus 2000