Lakeside Laura in Bustling Bukoba

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Hello!

I am having a few days' relaxation in Bukoba, on Lake Victoria in North Tanzania, and thought I would share some of my recent adventures with you.

Two weeks ago, the day finally arrived when I had to leave Milingano and all the friends I have made there, and of course the children. It was an emotional moment, especially after several days of goodbye parties, singing, dancing and festivities. Even the four of us prepared a little goodbye song that we sang to the entire school and teaching staff, and I also conducted my school choir in a performance of their own, as well as getting the whole assembly singing a simple round that I had taught to the children over the weeks I was there.

I think all of us felt that, although it hadn't always been an easy ride, we had finally become a part of the community, and I felt sad that I would never again hear little voices calling out of the houses as I walked past, "Teacher Laula!". Despite the initial teething problems at the school, I became quite attached to some of my little pupils in the end and will always be able to conjure up the image of some of those adorable faces.

On our last day in the village, we were treated to one of the most gorgeous mornings of all, with bright sunshine beaming over the top of the mountain into the village square, illuminating the red dusty roads and giving all the houses a beautiful warm glow. We played with the children outside and prepared to say our goodbyes as we waited for the van to come and whisk us back to Tanga. As the waiting continued, African-style, I found myself sitting outside the house opposite ours, with the family there, helping the mother with her knitting (she had been a member of my knitting circle), chatting to her sons and holding her sweet little baby, Irene (who incidentally was wearing a stripey little hat I had knitted for her).

My three months of volunteering have been amazing, varied and illuminating and I feel very happy that I chose to do it, and that it went so well. The time I spent in Milingano will be tucked away in my memory as one of the most special, heart-warming and unforgettable things I have done, and its unique atmosphere will I hope stay strong in my memory for a long time. I know that as well as giving a tiny little bit of inspiration to the children there, I have also taken away so much that is positive for myself, and realised that I CAN do some of the most unexpected and unlikely things, and make a good stab at them!

The prospect of meeting Rachel immediately after the end of the project was something to look forward to hugely, and sure enough, there she was waiting for me in Dar es Salaam and ready to give me a much-missed sisterly hug! We had some blissful days on Zanzibar together, spending some of the time exploring characterful Stone Town and socialising with her buddies from the choir she had been touring with for the previous week, and the rest of the time relaxing on the East coast by ourselves. The beach here was completely idyllic and we had a great time thoroughly chilling out, as well as doing some incredible snorkelling. I also enjoyed my first glass of white wine for quite some time, and we even had a double-date night out with a waiter and our trusty taxi driver, and beat them at pool!

When Rachel went home, I continued to Nairobi to meet Yvonne and continue our travels from there. The first stop was Jinja in Uganda where we survived some adventure sports - horse-riding, quad biking and white-water rafting on the River Nile. The first two of these went without incident and were great fun. The last one was (for me) pretty scary, this being one of the prime locations on the planet for hardcore rafting. Obviously, my teenage experiences of bobbing down the rapids of the River Wye with my dad in a small rubber dinghy stood me in very good stead... But as soon as our guide Charlie capsized the boat, trapped us underneath it and made us find our way out as part of the training, I knew this was a serious business and found it a little hard to relax. The grade 5 rapids WERE fun and exhilarating, and I'm really glad I did it, BUT it was man versus nature, and for me, the fear was always present that I would be thrown into the water and tumbled around mercilessly... However, Charlie knew exactly what he was doing, and even his occasional shouts of "Paddle harder! We are going to die!" (it was a joke..) actually did make me laugh more than panic!

From there we moved on to Kampala, Uganda's capital, where we were delighted to be able to hook up with Polly on her overlanding trip and compare notes on our post-Milingano experiences. Then we travelled to Bukoba which is a small, untouristy Tanzanian town with a lovely lakeside setting, where we are sleeping in a basic banda with straw on the floor - it proved surprisingly warm and strong when buffeted by a big rainstorm last night. We are stopping here until Monday when we get the overnight ferry across the lake to Mwanza. We are looking forward to the ferry as we have been squished on to a lot of buses recently, which have been variable in their comfort... the overnight one to Jinja was unbelievably bumpy, and whilst we tried to snooze at the back of the bus we would suddenly be violently awoken by a bone-disintegrating bang as the bus jumped over yet another rock in the road and slammed back down so that the very air in our lungs was shaken to within an inch of its life and we had no control over our bodily movements whatsoever. If I hadn't had a belt on, I would certainly have landed on Yvonne or even further afield. The bus to Nairobi had been much better, although they did show a film about a family getting eaten by lions whilst on safari. What a thing to show people who are travelling to Kenya! My moodiest moment was sitting on a bus waiting to leave Kampala, when we had to wait an unexplained hour to leave the bus station, meanwhile melting in the greenhouse heat... and then when the driver eventually appeared he was able to drive forward exactly one metre before stopping for another 20 minutes, since buses were hemming us in and we couldn't move. Things can be so slow and so chaotic here and perhaps it is because I have been here for 3.5 months that I sometimes fail to find the humour in it! Maybe it is a good thing that my flight home is less than 2 weeks away :-)

Well, it's another long entry (especially the part about buses - sorry about that), so well done and thank you for getting this far, and photos will be on their way soon!

Bye bye for now xxx

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