Blogs from Eastern Region, Uganda, Africa

Okay so we made it. Qatar were are a great airline but the 17.5 hour flight Auckland to Doha was just a bit too much (for me especially). Just a tiny bit of drama when I got sick 10 hours in -used up many a sick bag and held up the queue in the loo several times. As a result the airline staff requested a check up by the medics on arrival. by that time my stomach was empty and all other vitals were fine such as heart rate, temperature etc. However what wasn't aware of was that there was a note on my transfer flight and we got to the boarding gate and they held us up not convinced I was okay to fly. They called the medical centre who cleared me..Phew.. Must say the ... read more

Woke up lazily; as I wasn’t sleeping that deeply unfortunately, and got up had a quick rinse and went for breakfast. The coffee was decent, breakfast yummy and Sahara and I sat there (all the other girls had gone white water rafting already) and were just ‘in the moment’, where so many of us long to be. Looked at our watches to see that it was already 9:05 (we were to meet the kayakers at 9) and went “Meh, African time” and finished our coffee overlooking the scenery of the Nile river before sauntering over to the starting point. We met Abraham our guide, Sahara was going Stand Up Paddle Boarding (SUP) and I was kayaking as each of us loved those 2 sports, and we could work together speed wise. Got down to the dock, ... read more

Today was Safari day. It started out great. We got up early and had breakfast. Chapatti with eggs (similar to a breakfast burrito. Chapatti reminds me of thick Swedish pancake. It's basically a wheat and water mixture that is fried with some spices. We headed out for the park straight after breakfast around 6:30... Best time to see the Animals. At the entrance we met our guide. His name is Savior. Who knows if that is his real name or just his English version. In my past experiences of traveling many of the people I have met change their birth name to something that is easier for Westerners to pronounce and remember especially when they are involved with a job frequently used by foreigners. Savior was hilarious and he reminded me of Nelson Mandela. He spoke ... read more

Julius took the group to his village today. He has wanted to introduce us the entire time we have been here but seeing as everyone was so sick we haven't been able to all make it out. His village is fairly close to the hospital so we left from there and walked a couple of miles. We passed this old airstrip. Julius said that in the 70s and 80s there were a group of American doctors who came over and helped start the hospital Freda Carr. They use to land there and bring supplies. They would also work on and off in Uganda during the year. In the 80s however, there was some kind of civil unrest or civil war or something and so they stopped coming and the medical supplies stopped coming as well. Now ... read more

Our last full weekend in Africa. This morning we all woke up and relaxed. A group of us played cards this morning. We are a little addicted. I taught everyone how to play hearts and so the other night we had all nine of us playing with two decks. It was a ton of fun and hilarious. It's so funny to see how competitive some people get. Basically we have a ton of super competitive people playing the game. It's hilarious to watch people jest each other all game. We've all gotten really close so everyone seems to argue over cards like brother and sister.... Especially Kristi and Andrew. After a long game of hearts, I went into Kumi by myself. I went to explore, buy some things at the super market, use the internet and ... read more