Can I really say 'Merry Christmas'?

Zanzibar baby! Bloody hell it is hot! I think it is actually hotter than Dar Es Salaam, and that was ridiculous! Anyway, I am here and it has been pretty cool. I mean it has the whitest beaches I have ever seen and it looks a little like paradise! Plus when I go swimming I won't get Bilharzia, always a plus! In all honesty though, I don't have a lot of interesting tales to tell! Hmm, I suppose the best place to start is arrival?

Well, the boat journey was...standard. I mean it wasn't the niceset, but we did pay as little as we could, but that does not excuse the poo in the toilet for the entire journey meaning I had to hold my wee in like there was no tomorrow! When we eventually arrived in Zanzibar we nabbed a taxi (after a stamp on the passport and a yellow fever book check) and got to the flamingo guest house, our home for the next week! Although it had no drawers and was a little cosy (4 of us in one room, each with a single bed) we made it homely! Of course Rachel unpacked her bag immediately and her clothes were everywhere for the next week and I made a huge mess in the corner with my clothes, therefore it was just like my bedroom at home! After unpacking almost everything, we set out on the search of food which was much needed! Once we had enjoyed a delightful meal we headed to a far-too-fancy bar where I had a lovely glass of wine and eyed up the cocktails, although they were all a little too far out of my price range!

The following day Holly went out by herself while Rachel, Jen and I gradually made it to a beach where we lounged about. We also managed to get some henna which is always fun, scared of needles and permanence, get a henna! Rachel and Jen went for quite cultural ones on their feet and hands whereas I got my Chezza on and got a cute little side-of-the-hander! For dinner, we decided, 'hey, we are on holiday, let's go mental!' So we put make-up on (I know right?!) and headed out...I had an Indian, one cocktail and then we all went home knackered! I reckon that male-up threw me! I am telling you, we are crazy cats!

Sadly I haven't been feeling the greatest and even spent a whole day in bed, or sleeping on the bathroom floor, with a terrible sickness bug! Thankfully Rachel took care of me all day and nursed me back to an almost health! The men that own the guesthouse also took great care of me worried that I was seriously ill and insisted I ate bread at least! I didn't eat the bread but I took it graciously for the others!

After a day of head in the toilet and sleeping we went to the East where we found a five star resort which had just opened! It was luxurious and some how we managed to get two whole days there for nothing. Rachel thinks I manage to get everything for free, but I did have to pay  for my water! One great thing about the place just having opened, it wasn't quite finished so there was no public toilet meaning we got to use one of the rooms...for free! (Usually you would have to spend $250 a night to use a room and we got a whole day for free!) The place was amazing and as we played in the loveheart shaped pool we all caught more sun and slept on beautiful white sun beds!

Christmas eve, not your usual Christmas eve I must admit. I mean who could possibly feel like they were about to celebrate Christmas when they are lying on a white sandy beach on Zanzibar? This was the day we went to the North, supposedly party town...I don't think so! We relaxed on the beach all day then headed out for tea. I held us up a little because I was on the phone but hey, we got out! We enjoyed a lovely dinner and even had some free entertainment, although it was a little odd. There were some dancers and I swear some of it was a little...erotic! Not going to lie, I felt uncomfortable! Although the weirdest thing was a man started dancing with a giant snake! I amn't joking when I say giant, the thing was bloody HUGE!!! And he wanted me to get a photo with it...I decided at that moment I really needed a wee! The evening was alright. We all wanted to dance but there was no where to dance! So we trudged back and headed to bed.

Then it was a big MERRY CHRISTMAS! Holly and I had done one another stockings which was cool, but nothing compared to being with my family back in rainy Scotland. I think I may have spend the majority of Christmas just crying. It was a very hard day and when mum got upset on the phone I knew at that moment I wanted to be home. I didn't care about the white sandy beaches and the beautiful blue ocean, I didn't want to be on Zanzibar anymore. Somehow I managed the day though because here I am, still on Zanzibar. Still not feeling great but still alive and in East Africa! I shall be heading to Kenya in the next few days where I am hoping to spend New Year, but until then I hope you have had a very Merry Christmas and you all have a great new year. Have a drink for me everyone!

All my love, a travelling Uganda Girl. X

Woaah, it is hot!

I oly have 5 minutes left on the internet, but I have to tell you all I a boiling! Dar Es Salaam, possibly the hottest city yet! It is very built up and an actual city too which is incredible! Although has resulted in me buying jeans, tops and earings...uho! They are all nice though! I have also been swimming in the sea, so hot and salty and beautiful! I was in heaven, although felt a little bit aware of how little clothing I had on...it is surprising how much it shocks you when you are used to being covered fro head to toe! 

The most important thing though is...I SAW BREAKING DAWN PART 2!! This may not mean a lot to many of you, but it cheered my right up and I felt so happy having seen it. It was fantastic and almost brought me to tears...but I was brave. Anyway, internet is up! Must dash! Lots of love

Welcome to the Land of Piss

Well, Tanzania is not all it's cracked up to be! It costs a fortune and every street corner there is the foul smell of pee! On the bright side I have spend way too much money...not really a bright side is it? I swear I am panicking! Nobody warned me that Tanzania would swallow my money as if there was no tomorrow! I guess I should have been prepared since Uganda is tremendously cheap and I am now having to pay for a place to stay every night, anyone got any friends I can bunk with?

Anyway, other than quickly running out of money I have done some things since being here. Mwanza was a little bit of a let down. I mean there was a great 5 star hotel which I visited once for some cake, I mean of course I also visited a cheap place for cake! Other than that there was just a market which we went to each day. We didn't manage to visit a woman who runs a charity there because it rained a lot and sadly Rachel got quite ill so was in bed for a day. Over all, Mwanza...good for cake!

We are now in Arusha and with many 'Hakuna Matatas' (I miss you Rachy!) and 'Sister, you give me money' we are now staying in a lovely little place which offers us private bathrooms and a cold shower. That was after we stayed in a mini prison for a night though! Arusha has not been the best either I must say. Although we did visit the 'Cultural Heritage' which was AMAZING! If you don't believe me, google it, and if it isn't on google then you will just have to believe me! It has art from all across Africa and things that are thousands of years old! It was fascinating! Sadly we couldn't take picture, but I did get a sneaky few in of the outside, cheeky! After the amazing visit I managed to hitch us a ride to a shopping area which was just like Tesco, only without the magazine, and then another free lift back to the hotel. It was all done by a man being white (and Spanish) and kind, and then the cutest little girl (besides you Ellen!) coming for a cuddle! Her family were so amazed they decided we couldn't walk back in the rain and dropped us at the door of our hotel, Hakuna Matata!

Today Holly isn't feeling too great, she's got a cold in Africa! So she has gone back to the hotel to bed, Rachel, Jen and I on the other hand have gone to a clothes market and a crafts market. I managed to stop myself from spending loads and only bought a pair of primark leggings (never forgotten!) and a cute little bracelet, Rachel on the other hand didn't get off so lightly! She has filled her bag and is also carrying a few extra things, although now we are all panicking about our spendings!

Anyway, off to see Kilminjaro soon in Moshi and then to Dar Es Salaam and then Zanzibar, all to spend too much money, then cry about it! I am sure I will be able to get internet and keep you all updated, fingers crossed I won't be in such a bad financial state by then and will have limited my spendings!

All my love, a travelling Ugandan girl!

Hello Tanzania!!

Well it took 15 people in a 5 seater car, but I managed to get out of Uganda and into the wonderful Tanzania before I got into trouble for going over my 3 month visa. We then hopped into a matatu (always a fun experience) and got to Bukoba where we spent 3 nights. It really was quite lovely. We visited a museum of wildlife photography (that was dull, but I went with it) where I bought a bag and was given some scrap material to sew on my blanket. We also got rejected from a  super cool church about 3 times, I decided I was going to throw a strop if I went back again and they said no. And finally chilled on a beach! It was lovely. PLUS Rachel and I went and got a pedicure and manicure, therefore I am now showing off some nice green toe nails and finger nails with little flowers and feet on them. B-e-a-utiful!

However now we are MWANZA! No easy task I can tell you! Well, it was we just made a mistake when buying tickets to get here. We travelled over the lake by boat, which would have been lovely had we not all been a bit merry in the afternoon and then had an over night boat meaning we could see nada when we looked out the window. Another thing which was only a lot annoying was that we were constantly being blasted by the horn of the boat, sleeping proved difficult for me last night!

Anyway, we are here now and have so many exciting plans, but I think I might just keep it under wraps for now, mainly because we have no clue of the plans ourselves yet, so that you can all stay sitting on the edge of your seat until the next installment! I must tell you though, I have just typed this up on one of the oldest computers I think I have ever seen! Plus the keyboard has arabic all over it! As well as that, I have become so skilled on a boda (pika pika in Tanzania) that I even managed a phone call with Greg, which wasn't the greatest since I was focusing on finding somewhere to get my nails done, sorry!

Speak soon, with love from a Ugandan girl in Tanzania (CRAZY!)

WOAH...I've done nothing...30/11/2012

You must all think that life in Uganda is exciting all the time and that we are always incredibly busy and living the high life from my previous blogs, but the past two weeks, I have been bored! With the children sitting their exams and English not being one of them I didn't really have any reason to be in school! Although I still went in occasionally for some lunch, I am still a bad cook, I haven't become a master chef because I am on a different continent! In fact if I have cooked anything, it has been a pasta pack that mum sent, I had to do the 10 minute walk for milk so it was only when I was really hungry! 

Other than doing my 10 minute walk for milk and occasionally trotting (not literally!) down the road to get a free dinner from Justine, I have basically done nothing! Although I did complete season 6 of Sex and the City (SATC) and get half way through season 4, clearly a productive fortnight! Although disaster struck when the electricity went off AND my kindle refused to work! I swear I am a little heart broken. I can still read my books but if I can't go back a page (which happens with me a lot because I don't always understand things and have to read it twice) or open ANYTHING, someone pleeeaase help me!! It is a disaster and there must be someone who knows someone who knows the guy that made the Kindle! Or maybe the man that made the kindle is reading this, not that I think he is, but if you are Mr Kindle, HELP ME! 

Okay now that my begging is done, I do apologise, I did have one exciting thing to tell you all...I went to an Introduction ceremony, all say 'ooh' now as it is less exciting when you are actually at it! It was exciting getting into our traditional dress which is designed to make you sweat, stink and roast alive. And it was exciting when we were given a free soda, but other than that...I was bored! I saw folk come in and dance and had to kneel to a bunch of old birds and then the bride forgot how to smile but that was about it. Although at one point the speaker did seem to think it would be great to get the mzungu's (US) up for show and tell, he even made me say something...I was unprepared and went for a classic "Thank you all for being so welcoming." While thinking in my head "Why the hell have I been in a plastic chair for the past 3 hours with no wine and in ugly shoes?!" But I didn't really think it was appropriate. I was also hugged by a black man which shocked me, I thought public affection scared them? Anyway, everyone cheered when the hug took place, woohoo, he hugged a white bird...tehe!

That was pretty much the ceremony, then home to bed for a long sleep and another dull day! However, I did get a few shocks this week. One was horrible and even brought me to tears! I went out for a walk and saw a young girl, about 2 years old, butt naked running out of a house (can you call huts houses?) screaming with red lines along her back. I was shocked but refused to think she had been beaten, that was until a woman followed the poor girl outside shouting in Luganda holding a stick as if to go and hit the girl again. I can only pressume the girl had killed the woman's father as that is the only reason I can think that she might have been beaten so badly, it was truly horrific! 

However the second thing is amazing! My host, and Ugandan daddy, Moses is seriously superman. I know people say this kind of thing all the time, but I am serious! He left a life of wealth behind to live in almost poverty so that he could start a school for those who are below the poverty line (Children Sure House, where I work), built homes for over 20 families, started campaigns to protect women against domestic violence and is currently teaching the communtiy all about how they can save the enviroment! All in 18 years, and he doesn't even have enough money to get power in his house?! I swear, he is super man. I was so impressed I have decided to try and start a link between two primary schools in Scotland, try and raise awareness about Moses so that he gets the credit he deserves (and hopefully some donatioins) and I have also taken it upon myself to sell some craft that is made by a group of women who are HIV positive or struggling against domestic abuse to help them have a more hopeful future.

So really, although I haven't done much, I have been busy, you follow? Don't worry, neither do I! Travelling starts on Sunday though, eep! Tanzania, Zanzibar and Kenya better watch out, there is a Cleeton about to hit you like a storm! I cannot wait to tell you all about my adventures when ever I find an internet cafe and someone who is willing to let me use their computer, sadly the laptop is not getting to come on the travels! 

Until then my friends, all my best wishes and hopefully some sunshine from 

A Uganda girl, Ssanya! X

15th November - The Sesse Islands, drunk off two beers!

The Sesse Adventure! Oh and what an adventure it was, starting at 5 in the morning! Which by the way is 2 in the morning in Britain…an unpleasant time to be woken to go out and get a taxi! But Holly, Rachel, Jen, Nathan, Freddie and I did it none-the-less and travelled from Kiwangala to the Sesse Islands. However we did miss the 8 o’clock boat by 5 minutes so had to hang around for 3 hours for the next boat at a place where there was pretty much…nothing! Seriously, all there was was 2 ladies with some fires who were serving food which birds and flies were also enjoying, but that’s Ugandan life isn’t it? So I had two plates, one from each lady, didn’t want them to think I had favourites!

Eventually we got the boat to the Sesse Islands which was lovely. I amn’t overly fussed about being on a boat though so in all honesty it could have been spectacular but I was tired and wanted to get in my bikini by the lake! When we reached the other side we still had an hour car journey to get to the place we were staying, the Hornbill Camp, which was fabulous! It is a little place which has shacks to sleep in, which are painted pretty cool and some even have a loo inside, although watch out for the creepy bugs that are in there, I amn’t ashamed to admit they gave me the heebie jeebies! Other than the creepy little bugs though, the place is fantastic. We arrived, got into our swim-wear and headed into the water with a nice warm beer (the guy didn’t have a fridge and the cooler was broken). Apparently when you are drinking about once a month or in our case once every two months, you can get pretty tipsy very easily off of only 2 Nile beers. We were in the fit of giggles in the water and had a right good laugh about the diseases we could get, we do take these things seriously sometimes…

Soon it became too much for me so I had a nap, which lasted approximately 4 hours, standard nap in Uganda. In this time Nathan, Freddie, Rachel and Holly had managed to get a boat and go out on the lake and Hamish had arrived, as well as that Rachel found it hilarious to put all of our empty beer bottles round me and take a photo, I don’t think PT are going to be overly impressed when they see that, I swear I only had 2!

The night was fantastic just chilling by a camp fire sharing stories about our projects and the gossip that is going down! Damn right there is gossip here, a goat escaped the other day and then we didn’t get it until the morning, it was crazy! Sadly we were all knackered so only managed to stay up until 10 before finally deciding to hit the hay and get a good nights sleep. I was of course up at 6am as always for my ritual morning pee and just decided to stay up so wandered down to the beach and chilled there until everyone else joined me, then it was breakfast time!

After we had eaten and then gone for a walk to buy more food, we all chilled out on the beach soaking up some more rays trying to catch a tan, but sadly we couldn’t stay there forever so we set off for our boat ride home, squished, of course, into a taxi, however thankfully this taxi seated more people so unlike the ride there I wasn’t lying across everyone.

When we reached Masaka Jen, Rach and Nathan decided to come back and stay at ‘shack a la Kiwangala’ for an extra night which was really nice! We all bought dinner in town when we arrived (goat sticks, chipatti’s and milk) and then sauntered home to our paraffin lamp and cosy home. Sadly we discovered we had been broken into again but nothing had been taken, I really think they are just trying to scare us, no matter what though I am not feeling to great about it!

Monday we said goodbye to our guests and started our week of teaching. Sadly though, this week I have felt awful! So unbelievably homesick, sleepy and I have had a constant headache. I think it might be just because of my stupid dreams but I have cried so much, to the extent where even at school Justine (Mum) asked me what was wrong and I just burst into tears! Don’t worry though, she wrapped me in her arms like any mother and cuddled me until I had stopped, I am so lucky to have her it is unreal! After my last class Greg also called and we were on the phone for a good hour or so which really helped me out. I swear my dreams can be about him which upsets me because he tends to be a bad guy in the dream, then on the phone he sorts everything out, it’s quite impressive!

So now I am sitting at my desk in front of the window which faces outside Carrie Bradshaw style thinking that I should maybe go into school. I am supposed to have computing but since the power has been out for so long I haven’t been teaching it, however we do now have power again so maybe I should be teaching them...ah well their exams are next week so the English revision is probably more beneficial! Oh did I mention WE HAVE POWER AGAIN!!!!!

Lots of love from a Ugandan Girl

9th November, chillaxing!

This week has been totally relaxing which is great! We are still accepting dinner from Justine every night instead of cooking for ourselves, it sure makes life easier as well as a lot more fun seen as we get to spend every night playing with the kids. They are so sweet and such great fun to be with. Kaka (I have been spelling her name wrong, oops!) has improved in her English loads since we have been here and even read me a book the other day! Granted it was one of those picture books with about 7 words on each page, but it is her second language, she is only 7 and she is managing to hold conversations with me, I am impressed and very embarrassed of how little I know. It is shaming that just because I speak the most common language I have never bothered to learn another! The other issue is, as much as I try to learn Lugandan I grow bored and the people here laugh at me when I speak any language other than English so I wonder why bother? No I really should make more effort!

Nothing really exciting has happened this week. Justine was away on Wednesday and Thursday and I honestly missed her a lot! Like, seriously! It seems so silly but she is now like my mum or my big sister on whom I depend and always want to be able to speak to. She is just so good at helping me when I am down and also told me that when she went to Britain she missed home so will always be there for me. I feel as if we have a really strong bond which I love! Moses was a little strange one night but I reckon that was because he is one of the busiest men in the world! I swear he is always rushing off to somewhere, today for example he is going to Kampala (3 hours away) to take some work for a man who lives in America then he will drive back tonight and probably have some sort of meeting to attend! I swear the man does not know what “chill out” means, worse than Dad!

There was something really exciting that happened this week, I genuinely cried with happiness when I heard the news and almost jumped onto Justine’s lap when we I went to tell her…MY DAD IS COMING!!!!!! I am so so so so so so excited!! He is going to come at the start of March so I have plenty of time to lose the weight I’ve gained (podgy tummy, sad face!) and to start collecting ideas for what we can do! In all honesty we probably won’t do much as it is a week but I am still overly excited about him coming! EEPP!!!!!!

Today we have Nathan, Freddie, Jen and Rachel all coming to stay. It is going to be a damn full house! But it will also be so much fun. We will probably just rolex it up tonight, not that I am that keen on them now, so I’ll probably have a load of chipatti’s, and then just chill back at the house with everyone. We might even venture along to our ‘town’ and see what the pubs are like, you never know where the night will take PT vols! However tomorrow we are going to be up early and off to the Sesse Islands for a night which will be spectacular! I cannot wait to see the islands and just spend a night by a camp fire, oh it’ll be great!

Saturday 3rd November...2 MONTHS!!

I wasn’t joking around when I said a day in Uganda just can’t be relaxing! On Thursday we decided to head out to Lugazi to go and stay with our friends Phoebe and Sigrid which was so exciting! Initially we had planned to go on the Friday but Moses decided to give us the day off to make travelling easier, what a legend! Actually love Momo as I have formally nicknamed him (without him knowing!) and I am pretty certain he would love it! Maybe I should have a career in nicknaming folk, gotta consider every option in life! 

Anyhoo, so we headed off on our journey to Lugazi which was no way easy! First we left Kiwangala at 7am (!!!) and then were stuck in Masaka for about 5 hours waiting on the post bus to arrive. Never fear though we used our time wisely by eating and getting our mail. I love love love getting mail from people! I had letters from mum, dad, Ellen, my grandparents and Jodie, I couldn’t have been happier! Although Jodie’s letter was 10 pages long so I was sitting for some time reading the whole thing, laughing and wanting to cry at how much I missed her, and damn do I miss that girl. To add to it she also sent me chocolate!! Ahhh!! Chocolate!! I am keeping it safe until the time arises that it is needed desperately! Eventually the bus arrived though and we hopped on and had a great journey to Kampala, I sat with a guy who has travelled every where! He was craaaazy cool guy!

After a 3 hour bus journey beside a lady with the biggest bum I have ever seen in my puff (she took up half my seat as well as all of hers, how rude!) we got to Kampala. Challenge 1…complete! Challenge 2 was to find the bus park, easy. Challenge 3, get to Lugazi…not so easy! Especially when our damn taxi breaks down!! After that we waited about half an hour on another taxi that would eventually take us and we were over charged, ach life! However when we did arrive it was great! I was so happy to see the girls and so excited to be spending the weekend with them! They are like our family here who live just that little bit away…up north, ha!

After a delicious dinner, not so great sleep and a stumble to the taxi the following day we went to…

JINJA!! Eeeep I LOVE JINJA!! It was amazing. There are white folk everywhere, shocking stuff, and amazing little craft places! I swear I am going to come back and need to buy a mansion just to fit all of the artwork I want! Slight issue, maybe have to renovate the house when I get home! Once we had eaten we decided to go and get ourselves somewhere to stay so we headed to backpackers, of course! Once we had dropped our bags off we went off on a walk down to the Nile where we had a Nile beer, what else? It was great, and although we couldn’t see the sun set, we watched the go down! It was magical!

However the following day, we swam in the Nile!!!! Can you actually believe that I swam in the Nile, and really near the source! However I definitely should have gone to the gym a lot before I came because swimming against a current is HARD! I swear I thought I was gonna just give up and give in to drowning, but obviously I didn’t. It was really hard though! I was also petrified, I mean I thought there were crocodiles in the Nile, so I was freaking out that something might snap at my toe at any second! I got out pretty quick but I did get in so I am sticking to that!

After our swim we then walked to backpackers and Sigrid, Phoebe and I had a ‘shower with a view’ which was spectacular! Granted bloody freezing, but it was beautiful having a shower and just looking up the Nile as I washed my hair, so great! We then went back to the girls place and then travelled home, which was lovely too. We had to get our passports from Ian and Eugine so we sat in an amazing little café where we read Vainty Fair and drank coffee, always a high class gal! If anyone if struggling about what to send me, MAGAZINES!!! I am missing the gossip, after all I don’t get called a gossip for nothing!!

This week has been really good! We were broken into and our kitchen key was stolen along with a tampon, African’s our strange, so we are having to eat down at Justine’s every night, I swear it is heavenly, if we never get in the kitchen again I don’t think I would really mind! Therefore we have pretty much just been spending every night with Justine, Moses and the kids! Just loving life loads!

Also we had the two girls we met when we first arrived, Danny and Julie, over to stay the past two nights which was just fantastic! They are such amazing girls and it is so nice getting to see them again before they leave for America and Denmark! Hopefully we will keep in contact, at least I really want to! Now chilling in Masaka eating a toastie and drinking a smoothie, but must go as Holly will want on! Don’t want to hog the laptop!

Love to everyone from a Ugandan Girl!

24th October

Wowee, have I been busy! My school week has been of course very boring and not really made much sense. Well apart from the short stories I have had them read and the questions they have to answer, no wonder teachers gave us past papers all the time in English, it is really hard to teach! Another thing I have noticed, a lot (!) is that my senior 1 class is a lot better at almost everything than the senior 2 class. Honestly I taught speech to the senior 2’s and they looked so confused, then I gave the exact same lesson to the senior 1’s and they got it…straight away! What the hell is that all about?

Thursday was a very chilled day, although my senior 2 class only had 3 pupils because everyone else skipped it, how rude! As bad as that is that a lot of my pupils didn’t come to class, the ones that did now 100% understand speech. They are on it like a car bonnet! Friday however is a whole other story! Man oh man what a day.

To start off, I was not in the best of moods. In fact I was horrible to be around. I was even snappy with the damn baby! But never the less we got up and painted the kitchen as planned, if I never actually make a life plan I shall be a painter and decorator, I have decided it is one of the calmest jobs to have! Until your wall paper starts falling down I suppose…But our kitchen received its first coat of sky blue and bright yellow, b-e-a-utiful! Sadly it didn’t change my mood though so I was still on top form of moody-teenager. After painting we decided to go to the school because lunch was in 2 hours and we could easily kill it talking to the other teachers and playing with the kids, so off we set ready to chill. And chill we did, Holly had Dan on her knee who quickly fell asleep and I had Elinah to play with, while Justine, Emma and Joseph all argued about whether or not going to see the King was a good idea. That’s right, the King came to town! But, I got bored waiting because the man thought he was royalty or something and turned up 4 hours late! Holly waited for about 3 and a half hours watching the celebration and missed him by about 30 minutes, I am pretty sure she was raging when she found out! Friday night I apologised to Holly about my mood and told her I just couldn’t explain it, but thinking about it we aren’t going to be happy all the time, we are going to have horrible days where we just want to be alone, and that day was Friday but because we live in one anothers pockets it is pretty tricky!

Oh boy, oh boy was Saturday good! We did the second coat of the kitchen, which now looks fabulous, and then…WENT SWIMMING!!! Who said Uganda was hard? We packed our bags and set off. Then we met Justine and asked if she wanted to join us (trying to get a free ride!) but she was busy so instead we just took Caca (7) and Caleb (5). We had an excellent day together! We were at the pool for hours where we tried to teach the kids to swim but they were scared of the water, enjoyed an ice cold beer each while the kids had coke, and even had some chips, what could be better? I feel a bit like a tour guide right now but if you ever go to Masaka because you think it would be a nice holiday destination, stay at the Tropic Inn Hotel! It is fantastic, and it has toilets!

After our busy day we eventually got home about 6ish with two tired children and dropped them home before heading to the market. We bought ourselves lots of yummy vegetables and some greasy rice balls for dinner then headed home to make tea! Oh and it was delicious! Always good when you got some greasy food? Don’t worry Mum, we got lots of vegetables at the market and made some delicious veg to go along with the rest of our meal! Then I had to wait up until 10PM, far too late for me, because Greg was calling! But I am very glad I did stay up because we had an excellent conversation in him making fun of me and being generally funny. I love phone calls with home! They always make me feel on top of the world!

Sunday was not too great a day for Holly. After church she left and was not in the best mood for the day. I stayed because there was a wedding meeting which I thought would be cool to attend and it was raining so I didn’t want to walk home. However they started an auction and at one point kept pointing at me. During this time Moses was determined to win the auction so I asked Herbert (I like to call him Herbie when he can’t hear me) what it was about and his reply was “They are buying for you.” I freaked out! I was so scared that this other woman was going to win the auction and take me away, but thankfully Moses won, then I was handed some nuts. Strange, I know! It turns out they were auctioning for some nuts and Moses wanted to buy them for me but the woman didn’t want me to have them, if only Herbie had said that, right?!

After the episode I decided home was a good plan, so collected the stuff that was charging and went to back to the house where Holly and I made some lunch which was very yummy! Boiled cabbage with rice and tomatoes, Tasty, tasty! However after lunch Holly was in a bad mood (it was her turn to be moody-teenager) and burst into tears. However she said she wanted to be on her own so I left her. I finished the washing up, wrote my diary and headed down to see Justine who I was supposed to be having a game of Ludo with, but of course no plan ever goes accordingly here. So instead I was asked to go along to a dress fitting for a wedding, which again didn’t happen, and then Justine, Elinah and I watched the football match (which the village won) before heading off the watch netball (which I persuaded Justine to join in with although Moses might not have been too pleased to hear his wife and mother of four was playing.) Ah well though, she had fun! As did I, enjoying the children asking “Is that your baby?” about Elinah who is clearly black, stupid kids, and watching the women getting really into the game, was good fun. Although it made me miss Michelle an awful lot. Justine is very like Michelle and often treats me like a daughter or a little sister, making jokes with me and sorting my hair etc. it is very hard!

Sunday night didn’t disappoint either. Although Elinah did poop on my nice, pretty, pink skirt! Never fear Justine was near, and she is going to wash the skirt for me. Justine gave me a pair of jeans to put on but they weren’t too comfy so I headed back to change into my own jeans and see if Holly was maybe in a better mood and would like to join us. Thankfully she had slept and chilled out a lot so came down where we had dinner, tea and milk! It was so nice, kinda felt like I have my family here now and that I am in fact home.

Monday it was then repeated with us spending the evening down at Moses and Justine’s and having food and tea again. It was genuinely one of the nicest things! I really do like their company and feel a lot better when I am around all of the children, even if it does make me think a lot of Jamie and Ellen. But Justine and Moses really do take care of us and make me feel like a million dolla’s! I even have a running joke with Justine about all of her clothes, she has loads, I mean I think I have competition! That would be if I actually had my wardrobe here because I have hardly anything it feels like!

So as you can see life has been just as busy again, a day in Africa can’t actually be relaxed! Speak soon!

Thursday 18th October

What a week of rollercoaster emotions! I haven’t been able to control the tears at all! On Monday as the electricity is STILL out I couldn’t teach computers again and the S3’s didn’t want my help with their revising so I headed up to our staff room to chill until someone would speak to me. Thankfully I didn’t even get to the staff room as I went and spoke to Emma who asked me to teach his Primary 2 class! It was so much fun! I was teaching them all about their rights as a child and made hand actions for every right, I swear Project have it so wrong making me teach secondary!

After my Primary 2 class I went back to the staff room where I found Justine. She was in a bad mood because she was tired but smiled and told me she was fine, then shouted at Dan who came and cuddled into me before falling asleep. It seems to be a common thing for Dan to fall asleep on me these days! The rest of the day went as planned, me teaching, the kids looking bored, me being bored, the kids getting confused, me getting confused, it is very hard being a teacher without any qualification y’know. I mean at least real teachers have 4 years of Uni to teach them how to control a class and what to teach them and even how to make it interesting! I haven’t got a Scooby what to do, in fact I sometimes don’t even know if what I am teaching them is right!

Anyhoo, after the teaching day was over I headed home to get ready for my trip up to some secondary school; by get ready I mean I tied my hair up again and sat chatting to Holly! Then James turned up with what looked like a pretty old looking boda boda to take us up to the school. I can assure you even if the boda had been brand new I would not have enjoyed that ride! The roads were all bumpy and broken from the rain and because they are just dust roads, and the hills were flipping huge, in fact we had to go over a tiny, and I mean TINY, bit of mud that was surrounded by two big drops as the men were digging the road up! Eventually we arrived at the school after a 45 minute death ride where we were given coke and biscuits and spent the majority of the time taking the mick out of James, the bloke I was telling you all about before! Monday night was actually really good fun and I had a good laugh. It was even continued when I got home and Greg called, however our calls lasted about 10 minutes in total because his new phone eats up his credit, sad times!

Tuesday was a bit of a dull day. The only exciting thing that really happened was we made chippati’s ourselves. They weren’t that great, but with some practice I reckon we will have perfected them! In fact yesterday we nearly did, but I will get to that! Yesterday was quite a nice day! We had two goats in the garden all day to try and trim the grass a bit, which was only a little successful! We also had an average day at school however I had double free between break and lunch where I spent the first hour playing with Elinah and Dan while talking to Justine and then second hour having a shower (pouring cold water from a bottle over myself, great shower!). It was really quite a pleasant afternoon! Then at lunch time Justine gave us our Ugandan names! My name is Ssanyu, which means happiness and joy, and Holly is called Namirembe, which means peace! How cool is that? We have Uganda names now, we are practically locals! Wednesday night we also came close to perfecting the chippati’s before heading out for some milk, I am really missing milk! So with our milk, which we changed into hot chocolate, we settled for the evening to watch Shrek 2! However as it neared 8pm we realised our night was drawing close to an end and we needed our beauty sleep so have the rest of the film for tonight!

Today has been a strange day. It is the only way I can explain it I swear! I didn’t have the greatest sleep last night which probably didn’t help, but I also had a horrible HORRIBLE nightmare! It was so bad that I woke up crying in hysterics! I was petrified and I am now waiting patiently for my big brother to call me to assure me everything is alright! I can’t actually describe the dream without crying again so I am afraid you will just have to take my word for it! So after Holly had managed to calm me down I decided I would go out and clean the dishes and make us porridge, even if it was half 6, a tad early I would say. Once I had made the porridge and some tea I went back in where we sat on Holly’s bed eating our breakfast and chatting, and then the greatest thing happened…Justine brought us more milk, that’s right ladies and gents, I had a milky cup of tea! I swear milk is like gold to me right now, and chocolate is like diamonds! So there we were drinking our milk and chatting, it was great! We haven’t been doing it as much as we used to so I am glad we did it today!

However slight issue arose when I realised it was quarter to 8, I was still in my jammies and school started in 15 minutes. I quickly rushed about brushing my hair with my toothbrush and brushing my teeth with my hairbrush, I swear I need to get more organised! Running out the door while still trying to get my foot in my shoe I managed to get to class only 5 minutes late today. It was cool though, no one was to know, even me because I forgot my watch! Disaster! It meant I had no clue how long my lesson was going to last or how quickly the kids were doing the exercises, only a slight problem I suppose, but a bit of a pain too. So I had a really exciting lesson of teaching the kids how to write informal letters and then getting them to do the exercise of writing 3 different types. I am enjoying doing English quite a bit I have decided, because you can just set them a task and get them to keep practicing it, fantastic! It also meant I could plan my S2 lesson for this afternoon because I knew I wouldn’t do it in my free (which is supposed to be computing but there is still no electricity, I am slowly fading away with boredom! Even my kindle is dying!)

So now I am chilling in Greg’s big baggy top because I am boiling, Africa isn’t so cool, and tired, but I shall soon head to school for lunch and then teach my delightful Senior 2’s how the difference between direct and indirect speech. By the way, what is the difference?

Sunday 14th October

Thursday was a standard day of teaching and sleeping, but Friday is another story! So, the celebrations for independence came to our little village, not only that but our little playground (which is actually a football pitch) but never the less with people from all over the Masaka district, how exciting?! Well it wasn’t. Okay, it was quite cool watching the dancers and seeing a few folk march, but once you’d seen one lot you’d basically seen everyone so I made my excuses and went and sat with Justine who had sat somewhere else because she wasn’t dressed up enough. I chilled with Elinah and Dan while Justine fed me chapatti’s and then suggested we go for lunch, I told you she was cool!

Holly had been feeling pretty homesick since we had come home so had gone home and then decided to have an early bed to try catch up on the sleep we had missed while I went out to sort my timetable. However I did nothing of the sort as I ended up going into a woman’s house where she charged my phone for free and I sat talking to Emma (an older man who teaches at the school with us and is like our Grandad for the year!) It was such a lovely and unexpected evening. We discussed our families and how I miss mine like crazy and really wish mum and dad could come out and see me for a bit and how he missed his family as he only sees them once a month because they live in Masaka. It was nice getting to share thoughts with him and for him to say he would be my family for a year and that he was glad I was staying, he made me realise why I was here again. Even writing about it makes me want to smile and cry at the same time!

Saturday was another exciting day! After planning to have a chilled out weekend we ended up really busy! On Saturday we went to Masaka with Justine, Moses and the kids where we spent the entire day. The kids went swimming and we got told we can go swimming with them next week or the week after and then we went to a ladies house where we were fed and we even watched some of Harry Potter! Then at night we went to a concert that Justine really wanted to go to which was a great laugh seen as we had no clue what they were saying or singing! It was a lovely night, although really long and we didn’t get in until 2 which was knackering! When I got into the car, I felt as if I had gotten into my own car with my family as Dan (2 years old, finally found out his age!) cuddled into me and kept me cosy. After getting super cosy from my cuddles with Dan I quickly fell asleep which made Moses and Justine laugh, as you would imagine it made me feel right at home seen as I am the butt of most jokes!

So today we have just relaxed and done, well, nothing! I have sorted my curriculum for English and made a plan of what I need to teach them. I have also decided on each of the books I am going to use for the year and sang my heart out to myself while Holly went on a run! This morning was a bit rocky though as I missed home a lot and really wanted to speak to mum and dad and have them here, but I will maybe see them in the new year and if not I will see them when I return. Oh and that will be about the 19^th August, so you can all start making plans to get to London airport and making the best welcome home sign for my arrival back at the airport now! Let’s make mine the best and show everyone what we can do!

After thinking about the excitement of coming home and seeing all of my family and getting cuddles from my beautiful babies I felt really emotional so decided to take myself out on a walk. I was totally prepared for a long walk which I would cry on and laugh and just be left to my own thoughts, but sadly the lady at the drug shop was not up for that and invited me in for a chat. It was lovely of the woman but I just wanted to walk and be with myself, instead she gave me juice, biscuits, showed me all of her nieces art work and then told me I was too young to be away from my family and that I was just a baby while I just sat there with a stupid paper mache dear thing on my knee. I wanted to kill her…with the damn dear! I was so upset and just wanted to run away screaming, so when I got back to the house I started moaning and crying to Holly who just laughed at me since I had been so happy about the woman before.

Other than that tonight has been really good. I have been on the phone to my gorgeous girls (Rach and Jods) before a horrid potato stew (sorry Holly, she’s the chef!) Now I am sitting on the Princess Bed which is basically our sofa/dumping ground while Holly is on the phone to her parents. I am glad she is on the phone to her parents though, because I am always on the phone to someone from home at least once a week or more! I hope she doesn’t mind, because there is no way I am going to stop or I will explode which would not be pretty! I am also happy because I am getting to watch Sex and the City which Holly doesn’t like so much, so happy happy days! However my laptop is about to die, so I shall bid you farewell, until my next adventure! 

The Kampala weekend...at the start of October!

What a weekend we had in Kampala! First of all getting to Kampala nearly killed us! We took a horrible matatu from Masaka to Kampala which we have discovered is one of the most dangerous journeys to take…uho! And then when we eventually got to Kampala half of the town was blocked off due to the parade. Of course we had to go for a meeting with our big bags on the weekend of the independence celebrations, didn’t we?! Anyway once we eventually got into Kampala we had to get from the taxi park to meet Phoebe and Sigrid so I am sorry to say it Project but we grabbed a boda and headed into the centre of town. For those who aren’t caught up in the Ugandan lingo, a boda’s are motorbikes which are driven everywhere, aren’t too cheap, are pretty damn dangerous (seen as you don’t wear a helmet or leathers and you can ride with up to 3 people on with you, and that’s not including the driver!) but are super fun!

Once we eventually got to the centre we met Phoebe and Sigrid, where we had…Chinese! It was so good! I think food is one thing that is making me miss home more than I probably need to, sorry guys. After food we went to a lovely little craft market, where I bought myself a super cute little bag for everyday use, as well as some day trips I reckon! Eventually we managed to drag ourselves away from the market and we headed to Ian’s where we turned up an hour late due to our misunderstanding on yet another matatu, no worries though, we’re on Africa time now.

Ian’s was nice. We got to see all the other volunteers and catch up with each other. Was hilarious hearing about the adventures everyone has had and all of the different things they have had to do, I won’t lie as great as our project is, I am pretty sure we drew the short straw. If people don’t have a toilet, they have a nearby town with a supermarket or some other crazy modern invention Kiwangala is yet to hear of, or other volunteers relatively near. That’s right I am jealous!

After catching up as a group we all made our own way out to either a bar or a place that sells cake. You can imagine where I went, straight to the cake shop and damn was it a good choice! I swear if I had the ability to make cake I think I would be in heaven, it was beautiful! Sigrid and I sat outside so that she could smoke and chatted about our projects and how much we are missing home while she added in many indecent comments that made us both laugh a lot, honestly the Ugandan’s would faint if they heard us!

On Monday it was Greg and I’s anniversary, which I always knew was going to be hard but when I concluded Skype was ridiculously rubbish, I just wanted to be home. I was so upset and couldn’t stop crying for quite a while, however we were on the phone quite a few times for the rest of the day and night which helped lot and soon cheered me up. Monday I also had the pleasure of listening to a talk from a teacher who seemed to be quite a believer in the cane and our doctor who scared the hell out of us. If you ever come to Uganda do not get a talk from Dr Stalkly, you will cry and run away screaming, sadly I am tied to a job and reckon I am becoming pretty hardcore now!

So on the Tuesday we said our cheerio’s to everyone knowing fine well we would see them in an hour or so at Backpackers and then headed off to Kampala. After another crazy boda ride we made it to Backpackers and dropped our stuff off, grabbed a juice, chatted to folk and then headed off to see the good ol’ doc; which turned out to be a complete waste of time and 95,000 shillings! They asked me to poop in a cup (I know right?!) and then stole my blood and charged ME?! Surely they were owe me something!

Annoyed and bored we left the doc after being there for 2 hours and headed to Kampala where we had some scrumtious cocktails while looking up Kampala road at the beautiful view, who said this was hard? Afterwards we wandered along until we found...an Indian! Oh it was great! Sadly I still didn’t feel great so didn’t eat much of mine which infuriated me no end. It wasn’t all bad though, after our meal we went along to Mish Mash, a place which is apparently where all Mzungu’s (white people!) in Uganda hang out. We listened to some live music, had lots to drink and shared many good laughs as half a country group! Mish Mash was great fun, I even found myself talking to a random Scottish guy who is from Corstorphine, what’re the odds?! And some Swedish guy who ended up buying all of us at least one drink, what a guy! Only issue was I forgot his name so had to call him Sweden for the rest of the night and whenever we discussed him which caused many laughs.

After Mish Mash, for some reason, we decided to go to Stake Out, possibly the worst place ever! It was rank and I have no intention of ever returning. I am sure many of the men hope I won’t return too seen as whenever they grabbed me I stabbed them with my nails and scratched down their arms. I also told some of the woman to stop dancing with their butts to get men and have fun and they started ignoring some very pissed-off looking men, it was quite a laugh to watch. I should really start a survival guide to Uganda, because you should never go there…EVER!

Eventually we got home at half 4 in the morning, it was practically a standard Thursday, except on a Tuesday and in Uganda instead of Perth. Tired and bothered we all got into bed however 2 hours later I was awake and wanted to go home. I went out to speak to Rach and Jen who were sitting outside before considering getting dressed and quickly emailing a few folk which was nice. I also had beans on toast for breakfast which was damn amazing!

Holly and I then set out to get her a sleeping bag and after yet another super long and exciting boda ride she managed to get one from a big shopping market which is like Uganda’s answer to Cosco. However Holly remembered she had forgotten her towel at Backpackers so I found myself a café to sit with our bags and drink some juice while she went back to retrieve the towel. I think because we were both really tired and wanted to get home a lot we were very irritable with one another and barely spoke to one another. But never fear, we talked about it and sorted it like mature adults, no blood was drawn!

Sorry!

Okay I am about to overload you with blogs so go fetch a cup of tea and get ready. We still have no power in the house so my blogs are going to be very rare! I know, I know a tragedy, I don't know how you will all cope! Got your cuppas? Here is comes...

Quickie

This is only a quick update to tell you all that I am actually alive! I still have no electricity at home therefore we have been longer without that with it, proud. I will try and get internet soon so that I can update you about the Kampala weekend, which was an adventure, the King coming, not that exciting right? School, the kids, Justine, home sickness and Jinja (that's where we are now!)

Last night we went to the source of the Nile which wasn't overly exciting but still a good laugh. We are visiting Phoebe and Sigrid at their project just now and took a trip up to Jinja which is a great place, in my opinion better than Kampala, however very touristy, never far from a white person! The source was really fun though, we went and had a cold beer while watching the sun set over the river before going into town and having an Indian! So good! Chicken Tikka Masala every time, right? 

Today I'm not sure what the plan is, but I am sure we will find some sort of adventure! We always do. Sigrid seems to think I am going to do some work out with her this morning, but actually I am going to eat a stack of pancakes with bananas and maple syrup, the healthy option since there is banana! Hopefully the sun will appear as it is quite cloudy and we can go swimming in the Nile, Bilharzia here we come! 

Hope everyone is well, everyone here is great! Our hosts are more our family than ever before taking us places, having dinner together and just generally always being together. It has really helped my home sickness as I swear Justine and Moses are just like Michelle and Kieth (sis and her hubby if anyone doesn't know) which although makes me miss them, also makes me feel like I have family here to look after me! Better dash, Holly keeps looking at the computer longingly, although I do like to think it is me she is looking at! 

Watch out!

So I thought after all this time I could maybe let you see my beautiful face again! I must prepare you though it is hard to wash properly out of a bucket so prepare to be scared of what you will see. Uganda is not the easiest place to look funky fresh lemme assure you!

Hello baby Elinah!

Our night of sugar cane!

Dan likes the camera!

Justine fixed the lamps and helped us make tea, what a lovely evening we had! Later Holly and I sat outside writing our journals with out new lamps!

James and Herbert our great buddies!!

Craft market in Kampala

Who said Africa is hard work? Cocktails in Kampala!

Snuggle time at the pub with Rach! James was jealous of his inability to spoon and later took a major huff about the situation! 

6th October...last entry!

I told you I had a lot to catch you up on, don’t think we do nothing here in Uganda, we are crazy busy laughing and having silly adventures, work you ask? Sorry, not sure what you’re talking about! I seriously feel at a loss never having to use my brain, so thankfully now that Josie has left us I am going to be getting to replace Art with English! I shall actually have to think about lessons and even prepare an exam, the excitement is unreal! I shall no longer be moaning about shading or toning or whatever else I can think of!

Remember I told you about all of the bites we had? Well turned out our lovely friends the rats and bats had shared their friends the flees with us who had thought it would be fun to share our mattresses with us, of course they were so wrong and we quickly poisoned the hungry fellas to ensure they don’t try to bother us again, feels good knowing they were poisoned and that they died a horrid painful death after making us so itchy, sore and miserable! Not only have we had some house guests, but the other night when I went for my late night wee I noticed a cockroach chilling on the wall of my drop loo along with a friendly little lizard, I gave the grass my pee that night!

We have also had some great laughs with Moses and Justine! I cannot get over how welcoming they have been and how much they make me feel like I am part of the family! Justine comes over whenever she passes the house just to say hi or pass us the baby for a bit. She even came over the other night for us to chat and she helped us make dinner, and damn it was tasty! She is really practical too as she fixed our paraffin lamps which looked super grubby which gave us some lovely African light! She has been so welcoming and even gave me a slight hug when I said I missed my sister loads, I swear she is trying to be like a big sister to me which is really helping and making me feel a lot happier at times.

Moses is also hilarious! He came over on the morning we left to go to Masaka and climbed up into our attic to poison our rats which turned out to be bats and started chatting to them shouting “Hello can you hear me?” and “It’s only me, Moses, stop being so loud! Are you scared? You should be!” Now I know it may not sound too funny, but imagine you are standing downstairs and a black man has disappeared into your ceiling and is shouting these things, so damn funny! He has also come to make sure we feel ok and even let us charge our phones during church as they had a generator. Moses the legend and Justine my Ugandan big sister!

We are now in Masaka, however when I finally get round to posting this I will probably be in Kamapala as we are going there to meet up with the other volunteers and meet our doc for the year. I am also planning on taking full advantage of having a tap and washing some clothes while I am there! However while we have been in Masaka we have done anything but be quiet and reserved as we probably should be, not us though! Instead we have ridden a boda boda (a motorbike taxi) up to somewhere which was closed and then we wandered along the road ignoring all the “hey Muzungu” calls and laughing at some things which were probably not that funny. We then ended up dancing and singing our hearts out towards our hotel when a truck went past with a DJ on the roof blasting ‘Where is the Love?’ by Black Eyed Peas. Well I don’t know what came over us, but Holly and I ended up going crazy and dancing like mad. Seriously so much fun.

Anyway I must dash as I have been sitting here for about an hour typing up our adventures for the past week, mum will be happy now as in every call she has mentioned that I need to update my blog, I reckon her old age has kicked in and she has forgotten what no electricity means, and finally I have done it. I hope you are happy Mother because I am now bursting on a pee and going to have to persuade Holly that we should go down for a drink from the bar although it is way past our usual bedtime as it is fast approaching 9pm! Damn I am becoming a real party animal eh? 

6th October...I wasn't lying!

I thought it was time to start another post seen as what I am about to type is super exciting…I have been here for one whole month…and I have survived! Woo! It is incredible to think that I have been away from my family for a whole month now, well it is in fact more than a month but still! It is a bloody long time!

To celebrate our managing to stay for at least one month we had a party! Okay this is a lie, but we did go to a party! We were invited up to the Good Samaratan school to witness the passing over between sixth formers and eat lots of yummy food and dance, which was super good fun! We were also going up because some of our pupils were singing which was cool. Actually it was really cool because after they had performed they were told they had to do something, which I didn’t quite understand but hey, and they performed a song I had taught them in choir! Literally almost cried with pride. Was one of the greatest moments I have had here in Uganda for a song, granted a pretty simple “repeat-after-me” song, that I had taught to be sang by my pupils and the audience enjoyed it! It turned me into a happy puppy and I was that odd Muzungu that stood up and clapped like a seal at the end of the performance!

As well as the great performance we also had some fab dancing. After a meal that would put anything Dad tries to serve up to shame, we went back to the hall where the kids were dancing and we got to join in! It was hilarious and honestly felt great busting a move again! Not quite loft standard with those shape cuttings and VK’s, but our mountain dew and random butt shaking was up to quite a good standard! We were actually asked to get up with our kids and dance for the audience which was hilarious, I followed Sylvia since she can actually dance, don’t panic I didn’t embarrass myself too much! The guys are hilarious when they dance, they do not hold anything back when getting their groove on they just go for it. However Holly and I must have been the best because we were given sweets for doing so well! Apparently it is something that people do here which I seriously think we should introduce back home. Imagine dancing in a club at home and instead of a creep trying to get in your face with his awful dancing he just hands you a sweet?! We’d probably not accept it, y’know “never accept sweets from strangers” but it would be so much nicer.

I have noticed that about Uganda though. Back home I am so suspecting of everyone you forget that not everyone wants to kill you, in fact quite the opposite here! Everyone just wants to marry you or make sure that you eat loads of food, I am telling you Uganda really is so unbelievably friendly. We even found really friendly Americans! We met them up at the party and once we had got talking they gave us food! I am telling you, everyone wants to feed us, I really do think I am going to come home super fat if life continues in this way! But they were lovely and so happy to just chat to us and of course we had our good old buddy James there for them to chat to as well, was such a lovely evening!

Sadly, Josie did not enjoy being fed by strangers, the dusty roads and our beautiful shack as she left Uganda this week. It was a shame to lose one of the three but it is her decision and although I think we will always be of different opinions on leaving I hope she doesn’t live to regret it. I suppose in a way I am jealous of her be able to just give up, but then I remember why I am here and am no longer jealous as I am going to have a fantastic year and although I might fear not having Greg or Rachel or any other friends that might move on when I am away, I will always have my family and Holly when I return home.

As Josie has left us, I have now moved into her bed so that Holly and I are now not only house mates, but roommates. Am I excited? Damn straight I am! If we ever get into an argument I will be able to lunge myself over and make it a proper fight…only issue is the net which could prove the whole thing a little difficult and end with us in hysterics! Don’t panic though Holly and I are yet to come across anything which causes us to argue or fall out which I am hoping we just don’t ever discover! However the only issue with moving beds is that I no longer have the princess bed! How will I ever survive? I think I might just make a crown and put it onto my new bed so that it feels like a princess bed although it is nothing like the real deal, at least if we have any visitors they can stay in the princess bed and feel like a princess for a few nights!

Although Uganda does feel super safe and friendly all the time, I mean only the other day I was asked, “Why are you so beautiful?” clearly this guy was blind as I hadn’t washed my hair in about a week and I am pretty sure I had a mud streak on my face (trying to fit in with the black folk so just going to rub myself in mud to become black!) but it was lovely to hear. However apart from all the laughs we have been having, sadly somebody broke into our kitchen and stole, not the pots, pans, cutlery or even loads of food, but a handful of our nuts which were a gift from the Americans! I was raging! It was so good and some ratty little kid thought that they could have some, I probably would have even given them some if they had asked but they had to be super cool and steal it! Trust me when I find whoever committed such a dangerous crime of stealing food from Madam Jenny, I shall have my evil and painful revenge…cue evil laugh!

Oh well, “no point crying over spilt milkshake” as the lady from Grease would say! We have had some fantastic laughs! Although I have not felt great and slept way more than I could have imagined possible, we have had some hilarious times! On Saturday we had James and Herbert over for a chat and Holly actually played shop with them pretending to sell sunglasses, I think Herbert and I were about to wet ourselves while Holly and James were deadly serious and even bartering with one another! Oh the fun, but honestly you forget how fun the games you played when you were little were! If I have any advice for all you grown ups, play some childish games and enjoy reminiscing your childhood with your friends. I found all of this hilarity too much and had to take a nap but because our mattresses were outside I put two chairs together and curled up like a foetus and fell sound asleep. Bloody uncomfy nap though but I must have been a bit sleepy as I slept like baby Elinah! 

6th October, this is a long one!

Well, well, well, I have so much to tell you all! I have been making notes about all of my adventures and there is a page covered in abbreviations to ensure everything actually fitted…it still didn’t though! I think I shall have to break this blog down into about 3 or 4 entries though otherwise it will just be too much, and I am well aware how much us Brits enjoy a cuppa while reading, and you will definitely need more than one!

I suppose I better explain why I have taken so long to blog! First of all I wasn’t feeling to funky fresh due to the bites and was sleeping an awful lot as well as having to deal with babies being thrust into my arms at every opportunity. And then disaster struck when our power line was cut! That’s right, it was snipped in half!! Apparently our host Moses (who I will talk about a lot more later, he is seriously a legend!) hadn’t paid his electricity bill and the top dog was not pleased so cut us off. But never fear as we handled the situation pretty well! It actually made me realise how pathetic I am without a phone and how much I would normally depend on electricity, but when we were cut off from the power we actually managed well! Of course we are not privileged enough to have electricity to cook from or to have a tv powered in our little shack, but we do have laptops, camera’s, phones, ipods and kindles. As you all know these very much depend on electricity so when the power is down, eventually so are they! But we have coped and I am now reading Anne Frank’s diary, something I have wanted to do for a long time, however I am slightly disappointed in it; bummer!

Anyway, without the electricity we have done lots of mad things, like talk! Can you actually believe it? Teenagers without a phone in their hand, talking to one another…to each others faces! Don’t worry I am just as shocked as you, but it is really good! I think the grown-ups might be right in that we really don’t need to have our phones glued to our hands. Not only have we spoken to one another a lot but we have also spoken to our neighbours an awful lot! One neighbour in particular who wants to speak to us nearly every day is James. Not only is he rather chatty but he doesn’t half know how clever and fit he is! He tries to make everything a competition, but never fear I will beat him in the eating competition he has challenged me to…the fool!!

Something which is super cool and you should all appreciate is that in our little shack, in a dusty village that I am pretty sure even Ugandan’s have never heard of, I feel like Carrie Bradshaw! Eep! It is so cool! We have a desk in our house which faces out the window onto the street, which is just like Miss B! It is very exciting and to all of those who should receive letters fairly soon prepare for me to compare myself to my idol an awful lot. Due to this fantastic new realisation I have actually written an awful lot of letters! When I say a lot I mean about 5 in a day…and with the amount I write I swear Advanced higher Drama essays seem like a breeze to the hand now. Good luck to all that are going to receive those letters because I think I was also going a little mad, can you really blame me though?

We had a very scary experience for the first time in our lovely little village one night though. It may sound like nothing, but honestly I think we were all a little close to tears and even the memory makes me shiver…we went to the cinema! Oh it was horrid! It was honestly like we were being taken to get killed. I even whispered to Paul, who had kindly offered to take us to this hell hole, “I’m scared!” and he just laughed…HE LAUGHED!? When we later told Justine and Moses that we had gone to the cinema at night they were shocked and gave us a row…your never really far from your parents are you? The cinema is literally a dirty room with a tv that has a film on with a translator on the entire time speaking really loudly! For all we knew he was making the entire film up or making fun of us, but bleeding nora the guy would not shut up! Not only that, but we were also squished into a room, which would usually have only 20 people in it in Britain due to health regulations, but no we had about 60 people in there, all snuggled up tightly...in roasty toasty Uganda!

Something I have realised while I have been over here is how proud I am of my family. I sat and thought about the achievements they all have and it made me a little teary to think I can now add something of my own to our list of achievements. I also realised that I am pretty sure my Dad is my hero. Yes, I know, I have lost it, I am calling my father my hero, but I swear he really is! Everything he has achieved in his life is amazing and he is now in a job which he loves! I mean he is just back from Chicago watching the Ryder Cup which I am sure any golf fanatic would love, so imagine my Dad’s cheery little face to this situation! I am super proud of him and can’t help think that I am one of the luckiest girls in the world to have such a fabulous and supportive family!

Before it all went dark!

Yesterday, Sunday 23^rd September,  was such a strange but fantastic day! I had woken up not feeling great from whatever these bite things are, plus I hadn’t exactly slept well…or at all! But I got myself up and sat with Holly discussing our dreams. Then I headed out and bought some eggs for Holly and I to have French toast, which was amazing!! I don’t know if I said, but we got ketchup (Heinz no less) and it was the best thing in the world. We shall definitely be eating more of that in the future!

After breakfast we were sitting chatting and chilling before thinking about getting ready for church. It was one of those mornings where we are a little emotional so we all had a hug and a little cry in the kitchen before heading to do some things. After our cry mum called, it was possibly one of the greatest things that could have happened! I was super emotional and missing my mum like mad and then she called, I swear that woman has super powers! So we spoke, and cried, and spoke and probably blubbered a load of nonsense. I asked all about her birthday and what she had done, it must have been an odd one because she didn’t have me or dad, which probably upset me more than it should have. But after talking to mum I sat in the house alone and had a little cry. I wasn’t feeling great, I was shattered and hearing mums voice had made me realise how much I am missing her, but Holly and I have worked out that we only have 10 and a half months to go.

After my over-flow of emotions I wiped my face and ran down to church, I was late for bible study and I am actually getting quite into learning about Christianity. Once there I had a laugh and talked to Herbert a little, he is such a sweet guy and reminds me of Daniel, only black! I have actually had to refrain from just giving Herbert a hug, as that would be insanely inappropriate but I feel like he is just like my ‘baby cuzz’!

At church they always have a big song and dance at the start, literally! It is great fun and everyone, even the old birds, are throwing themselves everywhere. It is an experience I don’t think I will ever forget and one that makes me feel at home, but of course tired old Jenny was upset by this and let out a few tears. A little girl noticed this and handed me her baby then hugged me round the waist, I couldn’t help but smile and think about how lucky I was. One of my students was at the front crying, her Uncle had died and she had already lost her father some months ago. I felt stupid for crying so quickly wiped my eyes and made all of the younger children join in with my ridiculous dancing. While we were sitting listening to Moses giving his sermon, which is very repetitive but quite funny to watch, Justine passed us a note inviting us to Caca’s birthday. We gleefully accepted, however soon realised we had no idea which kid was Caca or how old they were going to be…slight issue!

We got back from church and since I was still knackered I decided a nap was the perfect way to prepare for the party of the mystery child. The nap helped loads and although I was still itchy all over from millions of bites, I was ready to par-tay! We wandered down the road and were immediately invited in to the living room (a first!) where we were served so much food including chicken and beef!!!! It was all too much, so I ate and ate and ate and ate and ate, I think I probably had about 4 helpings! It was fantastic. We then chilled out with the family while other children arrived ready to party. When the party started there was music, popcorn, fizzy juice and some pork (more meat, result!) so of course we were all in out element. We spent the evening dancing, laughing, singing, eating and having a really great time and it was only towards the end that we realised which kids birthday it actually was, although we covered it pretty damn well!

Once we had returned home we had a quick wash and then headed to our own beds, however two hours later at around 11, Holly whispered something to me and ended up in my bed chatting. Then we ended up out on a walk on a hunt for chapatti’s before we discovered the place was closed seen as it was almost midnight. Giggling like drunk teenagers, although we were completely sober, we wandered home and had a laugh about how silly the idea had been. Holly then announced she was going to go through to her own bed and left me.

It was a long night though, because sadly I couldn’t sleep, however I must have dozed off at some point because at 10 to 7 my alarm woke me up to a feeling of queeziness and itching. I had more bites or spots on my body and had lost all my energy, there was no way I could go to school. I stumbled back down from the loo desperate not to throw up and told Holly how I was feeling. She wrapped me up in her blanket as well as my sleeping bag and told me not to worry she would handle my classes, I have been given an angel!

However my day off has been anything but relaxing. I slept for the first two hours until the girls returned home at break to eat, they made me have some rice so that I could take my doxy and then left for school, I lay back in bed with every intention to sleep but then there was a knock at the door. Justine had sent a girl up with Elanah and Dan (4 years old) and asked me to look after them. So I was stuck with the kids. I had Elanah until lunch time and then she had to get home and I still have Dan here, squirming on my bed in his sleep and it fast approaching half past 3. I am so tired and weak that I can’t actually be bothered to take him home and I feel as if I am going to fall back down every time I stand up.

I have called Ian and asked what the bites might be and he said look for bed bugs and if there aren’t any and I don’t get better in a few days I have to go to Kampala to see a doctor in the clinic. I won’t lie I am petrified because I really don’t want to be ill but I just feel awful. I have eaten today but now I feel sick and really don’t want to be here when I feel like this. I want to be in my mum or my dads arms getting cuddles and told everything will be alright, or in Greg’s arms getting a kiss on the head and hearing I love you. I am feeling rubbish and Dan is being so sweet but just reminds me of Jamie and Ellen which makes me sad. He is now just sitting next to me watching me cry saying “Muzungu” so I better go and play a game, or something!

So after a fantastic weekend of meat and games I am now lying on my bed feeling ill and covered in bites, or something that looks like bites, looking after a cute little black kid who can’t speak English and missing home. How I hate Mondays.