Sipi Falls

Very quick post. Stayed at Sipi Falls for last 2 nights. View from where we stayed was beautful, and you could see the falls. There was a rainbow across them as we arrived. Gorgeous. Abseiled down by the biggest waterfall yesterday afternoon, was amazing but I was more terrified than when we did the bungy jump! Great view though. :) Got absolutely DRENCHED at the bottom! Got some good group photos, thanks to Moses, our guide for the day.

Afterwards most of the group did the hike to the opther waterfalls but I took the opportunity to go to the nearest pharmacy (an hour's round trip on a boda) to get some stuff for my cough which I've had for over a week now, and is getting really irritating. My experience of a Ugandan village doctor... hmm.. No idea what I have, but have some tablets which I think are antibiotics, and some cough medicine. Fingers crossed this works!

In Mbale this afternoon. Roasting hot day. Always seems to be hot on our travel days and rains every other day! Bus leaves at 5pm for Kenya! =D Jo, Annabelle, Kate and I are off to Nakuru and the others are going to Niavasha (sp?). Weird to be leaving Uganda but we'll be coming back for flights and mabe stopping in Jinja again. Gotta go, internet has been so slow I've had about 4 min to do this! Having an amazing time though. :)

Jinja

Parental Warning: I AM STILL ALIVE; DON'T PANIC!

The last few days have just been so amazing! On Thursday, after getting back to Lwannunda from Lake Bunyoni and spending our last night in the school, we packed everything up so we could go and see the kids playing on the playground. Some of the lids had been left off the food from breakfast though, and what seemed like the entire bee/wasp nest in our room emerged and swarmed around our breakfast leftovers. Donning a mosquito net, Alex became our superhero Beeman and ran with the food away from our rooms, haha. It was sad to see the empty rooms as we packed up; Lwannunda had been our home for a month and, as excited as we all were for travelling, we were all a bit reluctant to leave.

Once everything was packed, we headed up to Kitengeesa to see the kids play on the playground. This was probably the most rewarding day ever. There were so many kids on it, all so happy and shouting "thank you" at us all the time. I have so many pictures 'cause it was such a lovely afternoon. I've never seen so many peoploe fit on one slide! I have a video of them all croding on and then running in a continuous cycle back up the steps and down again. It was just beautiful to watch. :) Little bit emotional actually! They all loved the glider. Tom said the idea was that the bigger kids could use it 'cause the smaller ones wouldn't be able to reach, so evveryone would be able to have a go on something. However, kids in Africa aren'tdefeated easily, and there were often three small kids clinging on together, giggling. They also had plenty of new ways to use money bars, shuffling along the bar at the top and hanging upside down, trying to get around each other in the middle, or doing somersaults. The see-saw was packed, and there were two kids to each swing. When we got our cameras out they kept getting in groups to pose, or raising their arms and cheering for us as they went down the slide. The followed the rush and swarm of kids trying to catch a glimpse of the camera screen, and laughing hysterically when they see themselves. Brilliant day. :)

We went back to Lwannunda to get a matatu up to Jinja, and said goodbye to Emma and his mum. Got some lovely photos again, and it would be really nice if we could send them. When we played 'Good, Bad, Funny' on Friday night, Jon's bad was saying goodbye to Emma! Aww. :( We didn't really say bye to Tom, Carla and Ken, as they were supposed to be meeting us in Jinja on Friday night after selling their truck and buying a new one. However, the new truck broke down within a few minutes so they couldn't make it. Ken came up yesterday to take Markus to Kampala and put him on the right bus to Entebbe, which was very nice of him. We all met for a drink in the afternoon and said goodbye to Markus. :( Goodbye Mr Sarcastic (we all got awards before we left. I was 'Little Miss Cheery' and Mathias - in joke warning - was Mr 23, hahaha!).

On Friday, however, we had an absolutely awesome day! Honestly think it's the best day of my life so far, and I don't think that's an exaggeration! We arrived at the Nile High Resort late on Thursday night and met Adam, who Tom had met in an internet cafe in Masaka and he joined us at Cafe Frikadellen. He was in Jinja at the same time so we met him there. Since the kitchen closed at 9, he'd ordered a load of food for us, which nwas very much appreciated when we arrived, tired, hungry, and bussed out after our second long bus journey within 24 hours (Bunyoni). That night we stayed in a dorm room, our priciest yet at $10 each, but it was so nice! I had a scorching hot shower that night, which was a good job because the water didn't work the next time I wanted a shower. When we arrived that night, we were looking for the loos and asked a man where they were. He pinted and said "They're not the best though". I was thinking that they surely must be compared with what we;d left behind in Lwannunda, and that if they really were that bad then we were all quite happy to just go outside by now! When we walkied in we were in shock! They were, if ever toilets can be, absolutely beautiful! All we could see wrong was that there were no lights in the cubicles or showers, but we hadn't had that before anyway. I did a little happy dance and couldn't stop smiling. It felt very good to go touristy for a couple of nights (the second night was free with the rafting).

Friday morning came and I was literally shaking as I waited to bungy! I went second, after Alex, and it was incredible! It's only 44m high, but that was definitely high enough! We all chose to nip into the Nile too. I screamed my lungs out as I dived, but more because of the adrenaline that fear, I think. I only dipped into the Nile up to my elbows, but Mike and Markus went in beyond the waist! I would definitely do it again. I can't describe how amazing it was! When I watched the others, it looked a bit painful though. Markus, along with a lot of the others, looked like they were about to dive, and then kind of fell instead, which meant they went down feet first and only flipped upside down when the bungy tugged. Sami looked like she just stepped off, and afterwards was like 'I was just thinking "I'm the wrong way up!"' It was amazing though. :)

Then it was off to go white water rafting! It was all grade 4 and 5 rafting, and I hadn't realised that rade 6 meant 'unraftable' and even qualified instructors don't raft them. We walked around a grade 6, and it looked absolutely terrifying. Not that our grade fives weren't! Even though it was amazing, I experienced for the first time thinking that I might actually drown! Of course we all had life jackets on, but on the final rapid, the 'Nile Special' (also a local beer name), we capsized, as promised, and I let go of the boat rope. The wave that flipped us keeps going continuously, and I got stuck in it. My life jacket brought me to the top, but I could'nt get my head up until I'd been swept round in the wave about 6 times. And my life jacket was too big anyway so shifted up to my face - thank god for boobs, haha! I was going backwards in the current, and kept getting massive waves over my head, so tried to get out to the side. Sami and I were then stuck in another current, pulling us towards the bushes. I've always thought I was quite a strong swimmer, but trying to swim back into the middle on the kayakers' instructions was knackering! Sami was dying for a wee and was ttrying to undo her shorts when the kayaks came over, haha. All ended well, because I'd wanted to have a ride on the rescue kayak, haha. You hold onto the back and kick. It really was an amazing day though, and our instructor, Roberto, was great. The other EAPers had a rate crazy guy, haha, who kept splashing us and tugging us out of our boat by hooking his paddle onto our life jackets. And then his boat kind of invaded us, with Mike grabbing me and (I think) Sami and pulling us into the water. It was all good fun though. :)

We were all so tired when we got back that we said we'd eat, have a drink and go to bed. What actually happened, however, is that Adam told us about the 'Kayak Challenge'. There's a kayak upside down on the roof of the bar, and the challenge is to swing up into it and take a shot. A few of the guys did it and then I somehow hauled myself up. Mathias had got a vile Ugandan gin shot, and I did dribble some of it before I got the technique of putting it in my mouth and then swinging kind of upright to swallow. It's not easy though, as Harri and Markus proved when they effectively shotted it through their eyes, accidentally. That was not pretty, not pretty at all. When they'd recovered, we ended up going to the casino and listening to some live African music, then heading to a club. Ugandans seem to like their glow in the dark!

Annabelle hadn't come out, so brought us breakfast menus the next morning before they stopped serving, bless her. Again, very grateful! We left the resort to come to the centre of Jinja. The journey was the only time I've felt really unsafe on the back of a motorbike! I didn't feel like I had much balance at all with my big backpack on, and kept losing my foothold at first, swinging dangerously. I closed my eyes when we went over some of the speed bumps. I was so relieved to arrive a the Belle View Hotel. We didn't stay there, however, as it was 46,000 for a room for two. Yes, that's only about six quid each, but we stayed at the Fair Way Guesthouse instead, for 25,000 for a room of three, in my case. So about one pound fifty each. It showed. Very grim indeed. The boys found a cockroach in their room, and Annabelle had one in her bed in the night. The whole place stank of old piss, and our toilet didn't eve have a flusher. It's now blocked. I had a cold shower, but there seemed to be nowhere to empty the bucket in which the water had collected underneath. We had no loo roll, and we all slept in our sleeping bags with our own pillows last night (my egyptair pillow - very handy!). We had low standars, but I don't think we'll go quite that low again. Needless to say, we did not eat in the Fair Way Restaurant! It was only for one night, and we're leaving for Sipi Falls in an hour or so, staying in a place recommended by Tom and Carla.

So yesterday afternoon, after saying goodbye to Markus, we went for a walk down to Jinja sailing club, which we discovered actually doesn't exis any more. Annabelle, Jo, Mathias and I got a boat ride in the evening to the Source of the Nile, the start of 6,400km of river! It's where Lake Victoria becomes the Nile, where the current starts. It's basically a sign and some water, but it's one of those touristy things I can say I did. :) Plus a boat ride at almost sunset was a lovely time of day to go.

We met the others to go to Moti Mahal Indian restaurant, again on Tom and Carla's recommendation. I think they were going to come with us if they'd been in Jinja. It was amazing food! My eyes were definitely biggers than my belly, since I ordered a chicken korma with rice, chips AND a garlic and cheese naan! Even Jon said it was a good effort! Mathias and Harri were pretty pleased I left quite a lot of curry though. I actually felt drunk from food at the end of it, but still managed the free ice cream they brought out afterwards! We all tipped, as it was such a good meal, and then went to meet Ken for a drink and to say goodbye. We're all going to miss Ken a lot. :( I'm glad he could come up to Jinja. We'll hopeffully say bye to Tom and Carla if we stop by in Jinja on our way back to Entebbe in September, as their next orject is about half an hour from here, I think.

So yeah, quite a long post but had the best few days! Looking forward to Sipi, and I also don't think we're heading to Zanzibar any more. We don't want to be racing just to get down there. We might go to Lamu, which is apparently what Zanzibar used to be like before it became really touristy, is a lot closer, and way cheaper.

Lake Bunyoni

What a brilliant few days! On Saturday night we had our last proper night in Masaka, and last night with Brad and Ellie, so headed to Ambiance. Managed to fit me, Mike and Mathias all on the back of a boda to get there, and when we did, my dress decided to rip. At first it was just a small rip in the front and a tiny hole at the back, which my cardigan covered. However, they somehow grew pretty quickly, so Carla rescued me by tying up the front one on the dance floor. The back one had grown a bit too so I tied my cardigan round my waist. Good job too, as the next time I checked I was pretty much exposing half a bum cheek! Thank god for long cardigans!

The following morning we got a bus from Masaka to Kabale, where we stayed before going to Lake Bunyoni. We got cars from outside the beloved Banana Chick cafe, although this is itself was quite eventful. Markus and I shared the front passenger seat whilst 4 more people got in the back. The man we assumed was the driver (since he was sitting in the driver' seat) then moved over to let the driver in. For a moment I thought one was going to do the gears and one steer! Not gonna lie, my thigh was not a massive fan of second gear!

When we got to the bus station, I was so relieved that Tom had followed us down there as we didn't know where to start! The bus we were getting was already packed to bursting point, and chickens were still being pushed on. Nasa (the driver Tom and Carla usually use) managed to sort us out a matatu (minibus) instead, since there were 11 of us. However, we soon discovered that this space was to be short lived as we picked up passengers along the way, including a couple with a baby, a man with a giant suitcase, and a man with a box of chicks. Instead of 3 people, the front row had six people squashed in!

It was raining as we arrived in Kabale 4 hour later. The journey was supposed to take 6 hours but we absolutely flew down the hills when the driver took the matatu out of gear, and we were going at 120km/hr for most of the journey, bearing in mind the 'highway' doesn't come close toour UK motorways! We spent the night in the Edirisa hostel, which was lovely, cheap and cheerful. We ate in the restaurant there, 'The Nest', snuggled onto sofas, and ate the most amazing meal we'd had in a long time. We ordered so much food, but it was great. I had the best cream of mushroom soup I have ever eaten in my life! For that, garlic bread, coconut curry with chicken, and a drink, it cost me about three quid, and it was three quid very well spent. It was a bit cold up there, but when I was told a hot chocolate would take two and a half hours I gave in!

The next morning we set off for Lake Bunyoni to do our 3 day canoe hike. The first day was quite relaxed, with a couple of hours' canoeing at most. We stopped a few times and saw 'Punishment Island', where women who got pregnant before marriage were sent to die! This ony stopped happening about 50 years ago. The women who were rescued were usually rescued by poor men who couldn't afford to pay a girl's family a dowry, so by rescuing her would just marry her without having to pay. Bit harsh on the women though, since apparently they couldn't prove who the fathers were, and anyway "It's just their manhood!" As if! On one of the islands was a school, which used to be a leprosy clinic. There were signs all over the place saying things like 'Virginity is health' and 'Pornography is a hidden evil'.

As we did our final bit of canoeing for the day, to the place we'd camp that night, the clouds began to darken and the wind picked up. Paddling over waves and into the storm with thunder and lightning overhead, we made it to shore without getting wet. When we got there, a man plonked a roll of about 5 or 6 mattresses on my head and pointed for me to go up the hill. I have no idea how I made it, but I felt like hell when I got to the top, about to drop them all. For some reason we then decided to walk to the very top of the hill, where it then started to chuck it down! Very soggy indeed. We had a campfire that night, in the drizzle and beneath flashes of lightning, but wit delicious goat meat, mmmm. To sleep, we packed 5 in a tent for a big spoon, wrapped up in loads of blankets and were lovely and toasty all night.

On the second day, we all got up ready to hike. Tom and Carla had given us the impression that this was a very easy hike, and we'd been lulled into a false sense of security by the previous day's canoeing. It was an amazing hike, but by no mean easy! We canoed to where we would hike, and then set off to climb Kalembe Hill, 2487m above sea level. Me met the Pygmys along the way, but it was just really weird and felt like we were watching performing monkeys. The views from Kalembe, however, were stunning, and at one point we were only 1km from Rwanda and could have walked right in as there is no border control for 20km. So we could see Uganda, Rwanda, and a hill which apparently borders the Congo. We had Mars bars and Snickers half way up, which was the best surprise ever as we were already all so shattered! When we finally reached the peak, we had an amazing lunch there, with cheese for the first time in a month! And nutella, pringles, bananas etc. Ham in a tin just made my week! I swear I get far too excited over food!

The rest of the walk had stunning views, but we were followed for ages by kids shouting "Give me a bottle!" and "Give me money!" which actually started to feel quite threatening after a while, when we felt a bit surrounded, like they were waiting for the right opportunity. We were so, so tired when we reached the canoes, and had to paddle fast to avoid getting caught in another storm. We were lucky (apparently because we ate so many bananas) that it didn't rain until we reached the shore, but we did have wet tent issues. A slightly colder night's sleep, but thankfully a dry one after mopping up the floors with spare mattresses. That night we had even more amazing food, and to my disbelief we actually had really nice matoki! Must just be the food at Lwannunda that's not that nice, as this was amazing.

The third day saw the final few hours of canoeing, which got a bit competitive at the end. We ended up at the Birdnest for lunch, which has absolutely stunning views over Lake Bunyoni. After all making full use of western toilets, we faced the most amazing food yet. It was an incredible buffet of fish, chicken, chips, rice, salad, proper veg., etc: amazing. When we'd all recovered a bit we went for a swim in the lake, since the pool like a pond and wasn't free, pus we can say we swam in the second deepest lake in Africa (900m). :) I was about to dive in, when Mathias grabbed me round the waist and picked me up. I thought he was going to throw me in, but he actually just jumped in, still holding me, which was quite painful and my rib's a bit sore. The water was really cold and took my breath away, but I did feel a bit cleaner. Cannot wait for a shower in Jinja tonight!

Last night was our last night at the school. :( It's sad to leave as it felt so homely after a month, but I'm really excited for travelling! We arrived back in Masaka at about half 8 last night, but didn't leave for another 2 hours as Carla had a bit of a jigga-thon. They're little parasites that get in your toes, and Mathias had 9 in one toe! Jon and Kate also had one, and Annabelle discovered one this morning. Mathias had tried to remove them himself with a pen knife at Bunyoni, and I'm amazed there's anything left of his toe now!

Off to Jinja tonight. Absolutely bricking it about bungee jumping in the morning, but rate excited for white water rafting on the Nile afterwards! Travelling from Jinja, generally just really excited, although it will be sad to see Mike, Mathias and Markus leave to fly home.

Good luck with results today Claire. :)

The Open Day

Yesterday we had the open day for the playground, even though it won't actually be finished until Thursday (if it stops raining enough today so that we can get the final coat of paint on). It was a lovely few hours, and the kids sang loads of songs and danced for us. There were a lot of welcome songs, and thanks, and they got us all up to dance which was quite amusing! I think I will have "We are happy, happy happy happy, happy happy happy, happy to see you" in my head for a long while yet... Millie and Tom's son (about one year old I think) kept getting up to attempt shaking his hips with the girls, haha! At the end, they presented us with baskets and baskets of fruit, and loads of sugar cane, and a lovely framed certificate of appreciation. We're never gonna eat all the fruit, and keep leaving it out in the hope that the kids at Lwannunda school will take some of the 40 odd avocados, but it was such a nice gesture. :) It had been a big rush to get there though, since it was due to start at 11am, and at about ten to we finished painting, jumped in the truck and rushed back to get changed. We had the open day yesterday because it's their last day of term, but Carla invited them all back to play on the playground on Thursday, when we'll be back from Lake Bunyoni and everything will be dried and finished! :) Can't wait to see them playing on it!

After the 'ceremony' finished, we played the school at netball and football, which was interesting... we'd all been quite terrified of this netball match, since none of us could even really remember how to play! By some miracle we actually won, but then we did have to remind ourselves that we were playing against primary school kids. Thankfully it was quite a short game! We didn't do so well at football, and by the end of the day Tom had a broken toe, and Brad a dislocated toe.

That evening we went into Masaka for the awesome buffet bbq at Cafe Frikadellen. The bbq was amazing, however getting there was not quite so successful. Kate and I got on a boda boda together (motorbike), but we broke down at the bottom of a big hill. We helped him push it to the top, to much local amusement. I suppose 2 white girls in dresses pushing a motorbike up a hill isn't something they see a lot. Anyway, once at the top he filled up with petrol, only to break down again at the next hill. We got off and he drove off, so we got another boda, not realising he was waiting at the top of the hill for us, looking quite angry. Our new boda driver at least knew where Frikadellen was, unlike the others, but wanted to stop at the market on the way. We'd been trying to preserve our dignity in dresses, in a place where showing thigh is something we'd been trying not to do. However, as we got off the bike at the market, we faced even more laughter (we were laughed at at the petrol station, as we realised local women in skirts and dresses sit sideways on bodas, but we were too scared to try that) as we're pretty sure Kate flashed a lot of the market! Oops...

We all stuffed ourselves with meat at the bbq (minus the veggies and Brad who went for street food), and then headed to the Vienna Guest House for a drink before returning to Lwannunda on the truck, which now has a painted bar around the bar. It seemed like a great idea at the time, until 16 of us (we had visitors that day) had to sit on the back with bags, unable to touch the sides! Usually we'd sit on the bar, but we ended up having about 5 people standing and grabbing each other, and the rest of us crouching/kind of lying in the back as we bumped our way back from Kitengeesa. Haha.

The rest of the week has basically been painting. On Thursday I got up at half 6 to go for a run with Sami, however it became apparent rather quickly that I hadn't ran since May. Oops. Also got quite lost. Haven't been for a run since, but Sami seems to have got quite into it. Thursday was generally quite an 'interesting' day. As well as the truck bar painting, I also managed to get quite covered. Sami and I got a bit too into painting and painted our faces, only to be reminded that it can take about a week to come off... Luckily, baby wipes and lots of scrubbing meant we didn't have to use kerosene! I wasn't so keen on using a highly flammable liquid to wash my face, if I'm honest! I still don't understand quite how I got my hands so blue though. Oops!

Tom and Carla were told at lunch time that they'd need to have moved out by the morning as people were coming to knock the building down! So Brad, Ellie, Tom and Carla were going to move into our rooms, however they're now staying in the room behind, as the woman who never stops singing is apparently on holiday. Didn't stop Tom breaking out a song early this morning just to annoy us though!

We also had the goat discussion on Thursday, deciding against slaughtering a goat. Mattias was so keen to do it, but we had our doubts about how successful it was going to be; it would be awful if he killed it wrong! Also since we're staying in Masaka tonight and going to Lake Bunyoni tomorrow, we'd have wasted quite a lot of it.

I picked up my tailored dress and trousers today. Apparently they take a different measurement in Uganda, because Claire's trousers are a lot shorter than mine, but I'm hoping they'll fit as three quarters! If not they kind of fit me, haha. Fingers crossed Claire!

Ssese Island and Playground Painting

We spent the weekend on the picturesque Ssese Island, with white sand beaches and perfect sunsets. We spent the night in a tent, so of course I packed my sleeping bag, as I wasn't expecting a proper bed! I also love the irony that all week we don't have electricity, yet we had a light in the tent! Like most places though, this was only for a few hours in the evening. It's so dark without though, as there is no light from anywhere else, and I had a bit of a half asleep panic! I woke up in the middle of the night, and it was so dark it looked the same whether I had my eyes open or closed. For some reason, in my half asleep state, I thought I was outside and everyone had left, so started shouting, "Does anyone have a torch? Harri?! Harri!" I've no idea why I picked on Harri! Jo, in her sleep (she doesn't remember doing this), sat up and shone a torch at me, but then I decided I didn't need one. I swear doxy is sending us all crackers; we've all had such crazy dreams!

On Saturday evening, we had a lovely boat trip and watched the sunset out on Lake Victoria. As there were about 12 of us and only 4 paddles, we ended up just using the motor, but not after being laughed off the beach for our inability to get moving. I'm currently trying to load some pictures onto facebook, and will try to get some on here if I can work out how. The sunsets on both nights were absolutely gorgeous, and Kate painted one of my photos of a man paddling a longboat through the sunset, with the water orange from the sun. It's such a beautiful place.

After the boat ride and tea, we had one of the weirdest nights out I have ever had, and that's including broken generators on Cat Ba Island and the infamous Beach Club etc., haha! The night began at Mirembe Resort, where we were staying. We were all having a few drinks and all was well until I joined Carla, Tom and Brad in their variation of a drinking game, which they had named 'Mattias', after the Frenchman of the group. Trying to saythe right part of 'Six Mattias hopped across the pond', at the right time became far more hilarious with each round, and by the time we left, I'm ashamed to admit that smirnoff ice had done it. Yes, smirnoff ice. I blame the doxy and altitude. Honest.

We got the matatu driver who was with us for the weekend to drop us off at Habitat, apparently 1km down the beach. It has to have much further than 1km! As we walked into what felt like a barn, there were rows and rows of people sitting down, watching a half-naked woman dance onstage. It was just men watching; there were loads of women too. Henry, the bartender from our resort, had also joined us, as had Ken, Abe and Godfrey. He just announced "bar closed!" and left with us, haha! He assured us that later on in the evening, people would move the chairs and dance. We weren't convinced, but he was right and, sure enough, out came a teeny tiny disco ball. By the end of the night, Sami and I had accidentally weed in the middle of the club (we thought it was a discreet corner outside but it turns out it wasn't actually that discreet!), Jon had run away from a hooker called Happy, and Alex had apparently told a girl he was 17. Weird times.

The following day, we woke up to rain. Eventually it turned to drizzle, and I went for a little jog down the beach. On my way back, I saw a monkey and got literally a few paces away from it! I was so gutted I didn't have my camera (Kate was using it to paint from), but I got talking to a French Canadian woman, who was with a group playing volleyball. She invited me to play, probably assuming I at least knew how to. They were all really good, and I blatantly made my team lose! I was terrified of serving, but that was the only time I seemed to be able to clear the net! I was terrible, haha! So they taught me the rules and how to hit it, and we did a few practice shots. Eventually I got a shot over the net, woo! Haha, funny times.

We went for the 6pm ferry back to the mainland, but it turned out there hadn't been a ferry all day. After waiting around for a few hours, including 40 minutes at the meat stick stand because he kept sevring Ugandans who had just pushed in, we finally got on, but Tom had to stay another night because we were only allowed one vehicle on due to the backlog. I felt like a refugee, crammed on a ferry in the dark! There were so many bugs though, and as we left, behind huge lorry, the floor was covered in layer upon layer of flies! Urgh! It felt like we were wading through them!

After a great weekend, it was back to work once Tom got back on Monday. To our absolute horror there was still some sanding to be done! It's so mundane and feels like you're getting nowhere, but we're onto painting now! =D Just finished the bogey-coloured stage this morning, after staying until nearly 7pm last night. We're putting the zinc coat on this evening, as it had to dry for 6 hours. Then we will be painting in the mornings until Saturday, I think.

So pleased to have an opportunity to come to Masaka today and stock up on some bisuits, as the cooks really don't seem to have grasped the idea that we now have 3 extra people with us. Or that we'd scrapped posho from the menu. Yesterday's lunch: posho and pumpkin. We have all agreed that we perhaps need to cut down our daily nutella intake though, as it's really not lasting very long and is expensive!

Getting really exciting for travelling now, although I can't imagine losing 3 members of the group. The vague plan is to head down the Kenyan coast after we leave Jinga (our trip at the end of the project), down to Dar es Salaam and to Zanzibar, and then bus it back to Entebbe for the 8th August, stopping in Moshi on the way back, at the base of Kilimanjaro! I think we are also going to look into how easy it would be for us to stopin Cairo for a few hours on the way back, since we have 8 hours. We'll have to see though.

Hope John is having a great birthday! :)

Week Two

Well it's been another week of hard work! But last weekend we had a lovely chill out at Sand Beach, Lake Nabugabo. I'm not sure about the sand beach, but it was a lovely place to relax and soak up the sun. I did manage to burn my bum cheeks though... oops! I didn't swim in the lake as I was too into my book and it looked cold, but most Sami got a leech on her toe so I don't feel like I missed out too much! Before Nabugabo, we went for a swim at the Tropical Inn Hotel, but it chucked it down so we had to run inside to eat, Jo and I wrapped in towels. It was Mattias' ideas to play some kind of game where the guys lifted the girls onto their shoulders and we tried to wrestle each other off... Didn't last long, and I got a war wound courtesy of Sami's nails meeting my face! We're off to Sesse Island this weekend, which is meant to be stunning. :)

On the food front, we're eliminating posho and matoki from our weekly meals! =D Posho is just maize flour and water, and although filling (and Ken LOVES it), it tastes of nothing, and is a massive effort to eat.Matoki is equally tasteless, but with the added disappointment of looking like mashed potato so you get all excited at first. The other night, though, Juliet (the cook) made up for it all with mashed potato and fish! =D Best meal so far, made even better by mashed potato again within the week, and lovely potatoes last night. I kid you not, we get very excited about mashed potato! And pilou rice,however you spell it, which always reminds me of our acappella warm up. :)

The playground's really looking good now, with everything apart from the slide and the steps cemented in. This, however, involved over a day of sanding. I'm not gonna lie, I would rather sweat and ache mixing concrete all day than sit sanding a pole. It takes forever, and never feels like you've got everywhere. And although the kids really try to help, there are so many of them and hey barely scratch the metal.It's just one of those irritating, time consuming things that has to be done though, and overall hasn't really taken that long. We got back to concreting on Wednesday, and I had never anticipated anyone loving concreting quite as much as Jo! She loves it, bless her, and it gets us all motivated too. She and Alex were not very well yesterday though, and Jo has been ill all night. :( Hope she feels better for a bit of sleep.

Mixing concrete goes so fast when we're all on it as a group. We make one or two 'pancakes' or 'pies', when we lay the aggregate on top of the sand and concrete that we mix before this stage. And then we pour water on a section of it, and it's time for 'hungry hippos',where we hoe it to the edge of the pancake and then push it back again, to mix it with the water. When it's mixed properly, we shovel in into wheelbarrows and we play the girl card, getting the lads to wheel them to the holes! The most I've managed to wheel is a half full wheelbarrow of aggregate.

The other day when Abe was burning the tyre for the see-saw, he managed to set his crotch alight! He was leaping around as all the kids laughed and pointed. Oh dear. We're all chipping in so that Abe and Godfrey (the welders), and Ken are can come with us to Sesse. :) Sesse Island is on Lake Victoria, and the sunset is meant to be incredible! Fingers crossed it doesn't rain then! Last night I was trying to get a picture of a beautiful sunset from the truck on our way to Masaka, but I was kneeling on two bags, leaning out as Mattias held onto my coat 'cause I was genuinely terrified of falling out as we went over some of the bumps!

I love riding in the truck at night. :) Even though we had a bit of a death ride to the school yesterday morning, I am going to miss it! It feels kind of magical, bumping along the road in the wind beneath a perfectly clear sky; you can see so many stars in every direction. The sky here is just amazing, and that's another thing I really will miss, as well as all the kids.

Talking of the kids, we had a bit of an upsetting experience a few days ago, when we heard children crying from the classroom as they were being hit across the stomach and the back. Hitting children is illegal n Uganda, but still happens. We could see it through the door, and it only stopped because Carla spoke to the teachers; before the playground was built she had asked them not to do it. The sad thing is it won't stop for long though.

Yesterday afternoon half of the group went to do the kids' club, and Jo, Kate, Markus and I were supposed to go along to the women's group meeting. However, Juliet said it was not possible that afternoon, and so we went on a bit of a wander around the village. We went into the library, which is a room with a few cupboards as book cases, and asked if we could have a look around. This ended up as us getting a full tour, with an explanation of their indexing system, which is more general than most libraries (general reading, language, early reading). He explained that there was some research going on in the community hall, and explained about the professor who'd set it up through UN grants. They are hoping to be able to set up a computer room in the future, and use the garden to hire out to people for functions, weddings etc.; he said the aim was to make it sustainable as it was a great thing for their community and they wanted to improve it, turn part of it into a car park, and plant some flowers.

We came to Masaka last night (Thursday) because we are just going to finish cementing next week, otherwise there would be a full set of equipment to play on and Tom thought by the time we got back after the weekend everything would have shifted out of place from kids playing on it before the concrete has set. We stayed in a lovely hotel for about seven quid each. We went to pick our clothes up this morning, but my dress isn't finished. I bought the material and had it made for a tenner, and have bought two more sets of material today to have trousers made. They're really colourful. Everything here is so colourful. :) Must go now as we are about to set off for Sesse! =D Having an amazing time.

Oh yeah, and I had a terrifying toilet experience, when a lizard ran over my foot mid wee! And on that note...

Week One

So, we've reached the end of the first week, and what an amazing week it has been! We have taken the whole day off today because we are way ahead of schedule; this week was set aside for digging, but we have finished digging and completed half of the concreting yesterday! It's been hard work, and Sami, Kate, Tom and I have all had sun stroke/dehydration already. But all's well now, after plenty of sleep and yummy rehydration sachets... hmm...

We arrived at Entebbe airport at 3.30am on Sunday morning, after only just making our connecting flight from Cairo! The clock was wrong on the plane, so we thought we would be landing at 10.15pm, therefore missing our 9.45 connection. By the time we even disembarked the plane it was 9.25, so we ran through the airport. As we were all crowding round the one man checking passports (I say checking, but it was more like checking we HAD a passport, since there was such a rush!), I heard a male voice say my name. Since I was travelling with Jo, Sami and Kate, I thought they must mean another Helen, but turned round anyway to see Jamie (symph. conductor), and learned that the group from Leeds on the Uganda Project were also on our flight!

We spent the first night in Entebbe only a few minutes from the airport, in a lovely guesthouse just down the road from the president's house, which is absolutely beautiful, but we can't take pictures of government buildings. Our room had a four poster bed, en suite (behind a curtain), and even a TV, which we didn't watch. I think that cost about 80,00 shillings per room per night: about twenty quid. (The place we're staying tonight is about 5,000 a night, and still alright, although not quite what you'd get from a 'Holiday Inn' in England.)

The following morning we drove for 3 hours to Lwannunda, the village we are staying in (near the town of Masaka, where we're staying tonight), and stopped off at the equator, just to be touristy. It's basically just a sign that says 'Ugandan Equator'. But I got the cuistomary picture of Belly (Sam's and my travelling devil, for those of you who are thinking 'what the hell?' - no pun intended)!

During the week we are staying in classrooms at the primary school in Lwannunda, St. Joseph's I think. It's quite basic; we have a mattress and a mosquito net on the floor, which is quite sandy; Carla and Tom (who run the charity) sleep in our 'store room'. There are 2 toilets for 'teachers and visitors', and these are just dark cubicles with a hole, but not like the clean, white European kind! One has no door, and the one with a door doesn't stay shut, so you have to get someone to lock itfrom the outside, hold on to it, or just hope no one comes past. If you go in the doorless one at night it's okay 'cause people can see your head torch (I take mine even in the day because it's so dark!), or you just shout when you hear someone coming! I'm not gonna lie, we were all pretty scared of our first poo in a hole! Especially on our very first trip and someone had clearly missed...

The 'showers' are next to the toilets, in dark cubicles, basically like the loos but without a hole, so you just take a bowl of water and a head torch in with you. We're getting used to it now though, but were so excited to find a 'real' toilet and shower (between the whole guest house) at the place we are staying tonight! We have no electricity in Lwannunda, so sit out at night with Matthias' speakers (or Ken's fuzzy radio) and kerosene lanterns.

Food: carbs, carbs, carbs. Eg. potato and beans, rice and beans, pasta and beans... but last night Sami and I went into Kissengeesa (the village we're building in) with Mathhias, Alex, Tom, en and Alex... for beer and PORK! =D It was quite strange putting your hand into a kilogram bag of meat, but it was sooooo nice! We just swarmed on it!

Right, the playground! It's actually going to be an amazing playground, with 3 swing sets, a slide, and a ZIP WIRE! :) I think there are going to be like nets to go up to the zip wire. We've got the swing sets in, and it's amazing to see how much progress we've made in just 4 days. We worked so hard on Monday on our 3ft holes, and were all aching but it felt so good to finish them by Wednesday! We had a lot of help from the kids though, especially yesterday as the teachers were on strike. The kids love digging, and they're so good at it they just put us to shame! They did all laugh when we took our first swings with pick axes on Monday though.

I stayed in bed on Wednesday afternoon, not feeling great, but after a rehydration sachet and aspirin on Thursday morning, I was introduced to concrete mixing, which is hard work because you can't really stop, but it's great how much we've got done! Sami, Kate, Harri and I tought the kids the macarena, hand jive, Saturday Night etc. yesterday, and they sang us a Ugandan song. The boys tried to organise the largest crowd into 2 football teams as we drew a hopscotch in the sand. They were beaten by 7 year olds at football on the first night!

I've probably missed out so much, but I'm having an amazing time, the group is lovely, Tom and Carla are just amazing, and I'm not even going to try to spell the name of the lake we're going to tomorrow! So glad there is still so much time left here in this lovely place with such friendly people (the kids' response to everything if they don't speak English is "I'm fine"). Thought we had a tan but then attempted a wash and saw that we still had vaguely white legs. My feet are filthy though. Not much we can do about that though! Oh, and we constantly hear "Yayyyy Mazungas!!" (Yay white people.)