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...