The Pearl of Africa

Our crazy adventures in Uganda and Kenya.

Author

JD Wonnacott
September 15, 2025

Our trip to Africa actually started in London. Let me explain.

We were supposed to fly from London to Qatar (a few days in Doha) and then on to Uganda. We tried checking in for our Qatar flight the night before only to discover the airspace in Doha had been closed due to the Iranian missile strikes on the US base there—thanks for the heads up, Bry.

So, we had to pivot.

Spent a couple of hours on the phone with airlines and hotels and trying to get new plans in place. Mony worked miracles and got us instead on a flight out of Gatwick to Entebbe, Uganda the next morning. The whole experience was wild, and Air Uganda is pretty nice.

Uganda

Welcome to Entebbe

Our hotel in Entebbe.

Fortunately, we could check in a few days early to our hotel in Entebbe. Our kids were surprised to see the layers of razor wire on the walls of the hotel, and the guard (not pictured) carrying a machine gun. Awesome.

A pano from the rooftop restaurant overlooking Entebbe and Lake Victoria. Love me a good pano.

Before we met up with our humanitarian group—because we arrived in Uganda a few days early—we did some exploring, including a boat ride to Ngamba Island…or Chimp Island, as we called it.

The island is a chimpanzee preserve, where chimps are protected and, with the exception of a little space on one edge of the island for staff, etc., have the whole island to themselves.

The kids loved tossing fruit across the fence during feeding time.

Measures have been taken to ensure chimps on the island are unable to reproduce, but in the words of Jeff Goldblum, “nature finds a way.” Occasionally, an infant chimp is also brought to the reserve. A few of the chimps there will adopt and take care of them.

Our humanitarian group

Thanks to our friend back home, Jill, we found Family Humanitarian. It was founded, in part, by Tyler DeLange. Tyler, and his wife, Sarah, are about as amazing as you can get. (They joined us and led our expedition.) Tyler has created an wonderful organization and Sarah is a project planning master and total CLASS ACT—she even brought glow sticks and glasses for all the kids on the trip so we could celebrate the 4th of July while in Kenya. Like I said, class acts. I could go on and on. They’re just incredible people. (If you’re ever looking to do a humanitarian trip, contact Family Humanitarian. Stellar. Just, stellar.)

Our group included about 30 people, from different parts of the US, all of whom were some of the finest people you’ll ever meet. Monica said it best, “a trip like this attracts a certain kind of people.” And though we’re not nearly as amazing as the folks we worked with on this adventure, we’re incredibly blessed to call them all friends. Even as I’m typing this, I’m blown away at how lucky we were to meet and become friends with them all.

Love you guys!

Welcome to Mbale

After a long bus ride to Mbale (Uganda), we got started with the humanitarian work for several days. We ventured out to some different villages for a variety of efforts.

Water filters

This was the day we brought water buckets and filters to a village and showed folks how to filter and maintain clean water. It was a great chance for our kids to see how people live in another part of the world. Eye-opening to say the least.

Teaching our group.

Afterwards, we played some games. Tug-of-rope was a winner. Also, the women from this village were strong. Like, really strong.

Goat day!

One of my favorite activities was the day we gave out goats. Goats provide income—people can sell future goats—and some income sustainability. It’s about $50 dollars to sponsor a goat, and it can change lives. You should see the excitement on goat day. It’s palpable.

Goat truck!

Our friend, Thom, had gotten a jillion people to sponsor goats. Thom is an incredible guy. He had sponsors name the goats and then created name tags for each. It made it so much more personal when he sent a picture of each person’s goat to the sponsor. And, some of the names were epic. Gazer Butter Beam. What a gem.

Goats were only given to the women—they run the show here—but this guy was helping get some goats home. It’s hard to see, but he has two goats tied around his waist. Like a goat belt. Then, he had three more people get on the back of his bike.

School days!

We spent a couple of days at a school building desks and laying bricks. When we arrived, all the kids dutifully lined up and sang us several welcome songs they had memorized, in English.

The days at the school were some of our most memorable.

“…everything is gonna be fine.”

In between service projects, the kids in our group played games and led fun activities. It was incredible to see the different talents of each of our children as they engaged with the school kids.

The desk building scene.

One of the nicer school classrooms. Very different from what our kids know back home.

Here’s Kindy helping build a brick foundation. Everyone was amazed at her work ethic. She worked as hard as all the adults. Uncle D would be so proud of her new skills.

Water bore hole openings

One of the most rewarding parts of the Africa trip was driving out to the villages to help them open a new bore hole. (Bore hole = well pump.)

Clean water for the first time.

In many villages, access to water involves walking long distances to dirty water sources. A little stream here or there, that kind of thing. Kids are often the ones who do the walking, and, sadly, sometimes the girls are “defiled” in the process by bad guys who “lie in wait and take advantage.”

Opening a bore hole is a joyous occasion. Not only does the village get clean water, but it’s also so much safer for the women and young girls. When we’d arrive, the village would meet us. So much excitement, singing. And when those first drops of water come from the well, it’s better than Christmas morning.

You pump by pulling up and down on the lever—you can just see a tiny part of it on the back of the pump.

Some of the money/fees we pay to go on the trip go toward funding a bore hole. And, families, like the Knights, sponsored a bore hole themselves. Its a few thousand dollars to get a new bore hole open, and it truly changes lives…and generations.

The team from AdvancedMD donated this one—some of our group work there; part of their humanitarian efforts. Pretty cool.

A little fun in between

Rafting the Nile

We rafted the Nile in a section of the river where they don’t have crocodiles or hippos—or so they say.

They have some serious rapids here, including class 4’s and 5’s. (They have bigger ones but they don’t let people down those anymore after a Dutch tourist didn’t make it.)

Mony and Bean in a raft with a few other friends from our group.

This is the end of one of the class 5’s. They lost a few people out of the boat—they pulled them back in—but their boat didn’t fully flip. I think all the other boats fully flipped at some point.

I was very chivalrous, because I’m wonderful, and took the littles + ChuckDub on the family float. We hit some class 2’s, but it was mostly like this…a little more relaxing.

Rappelling down a waterfall

We hiked one afternoon to an amazing waterfall to go rappelling. Incredible views of Uganda.

This is the top. The river is behind Tyler in the white hat. You can see some of the ropes on the ground in front of the gentleman with the cream shirt.

And this is the drop. I can’t remember how many meters they said it was, but I’m pretty sure it’s at least a few miles. (At least, it feels that way as you go over the top.) Mony, Lil G, and I went down at the same time. G was, understandably, freaking out and ended up kinda sitting on my lap the whole way down.

Bean joined a few of her friends here. Brave. Very brave.
The guys here at the bottom use a stick to pull you away from the waterfall and onto the rocks. By the time you reach the bottom, everything is wet.

Welcome to Kenya…and the safari

We jumped on a prop plane and left for the bush, landing on a dirt strip in the middle of grassland beauty, and no buildings as far as the eye could see.

The AC broke on the plane, so it was 90+ degrees in the cabin. Luckily, it was only a 40 min flight. Still, we almost all melted. When the door opened and we walked out, it felt like heaven.

These decked-out Land Cruisers were our transportation through the park. I’ve decided we need one of these at home…and a sweet climbing tree.

Zebra pano!

I think Ryan took this one. I thought it was such a cool photo. Props! Hope you don’t mind me posting it.

This was at the Masai village. The men came out and showed us how high they could jump. Brayden, from our group, joined ‘em. The higher you can jump, the more attractive you are. Which just makes sense. High jumpers have hot wives. Naturally.

The women came out and welcomed us with a song.

This is how the Masai make fire. Here they are teaching Kindy how to do it. You’ll notice all the dung in the village. It’s a huge part of life here. Used to make the houses, etc. They bring all their cattle into the village at night, so there’s always a healthy supply of dung. Also, it behooves you to watch where you step. Just sayin.

One of the cute little kids from the village.

These are the huts, all made of straw and dung. Chris was rubbing his hand across the face of one of the walls, admiring the craftsmanship, when he asked what they were made of. Dung. They’re made of dung. Fortunately, he had hand sanitizer.

These are the cabins we stayed in while there at the Masai Mara. The camp is fenced and patrolled by guards to keep us safe. Still, animals get in. One night we were “encouraged” to stay in our tents after dark because there had been a hyena sighting in camp. Also, monkeys abound.

Funny story 1

Mony, Lil G, and Bean were sharing a cabin. Cabins are stone on one side and canvas on the others. The balcony has a zipper so you can go out and sit.

One night, Mony was sound asleep when she felt something crawling on her bed. It slowly made it’s way up from her feet, onto her torso, then two little paws on her neck. She shot up in bed and whatever it was ran off—too dark to see. She got no sleep after that. Weird. But, the next night, they made sure the zipper was tight and also barricaded the entrances with bags, just in case.

Funny story 2

In the very wee hours one morning, a monkey war took place on the roof of our cabin. Roofs are made from metal and covered in bamboo. When the monkey war started, we thought it was an earthquake. When we realized it was from the roof, we peaked out the window and saw one of the camp guards running over to shoo the monkeys to a new battlefield.

To Nairobi

Random traffic checks.

The Kenya temple. Grounds are beautiful.

In Kenya, we got word of some major family health problems at home and grabbed the next flight out of Nairobi. After 36 hours, and two connections, we landed back in Utah. We ended up spending the rest of July back home before heading back out on the adventure in early August.

Now this is what they call a red eye.

More of the August adventure is forthcoming. Stay tuned…