Blogs from Western Region, Uganda, Africa - page 30

As the more geographically aware amongst you will have realised, in our quest to get to Hong Kong we have thus far only succeeded in travelling in roughly the opposite direction! Therefore, one month into our trip it seemed like high time we started heading back through Uganda and hence in the right direction. After an enjoyable, but not particularly relaxing Christmas we went in search of some serious R&R and succeeded in finding a couple of excellent spots for putting our feet up and doing not much at all. First stop was Lake Bunyonyi, located some 80km to the east of Kisoro. Here we found an excellent place to stay on an island on the lake, which was reached by a complementary dugout canoe transfer from the mainland, the only catch being that we needed ... read more

Day 262- DRIVE DAY (28/12/08) Our time was up at Lake Buoyoni, time to pack up tents and get back on the truck. We stopped again at Kabale opting for a coffee in place of being harassed throughout town. Back on the truck we filled the time napping, reading and talking amongst ourselves before arriving at our first bush camp (no toilets, no showers, no running water... just a place to put up the tent!), where we’d previously stopped for lunch with the sponsored local family. After a game of Yahtzee the kids had soon arrived to watch the Musungu's. Opting for something more fun we attempted to teach them how to throw a Frisbee, despite their unorthodox methods they still managed to make it fly! With Mama and her daughters cooking dinner it became a ... read more

Whether due to language barriers or cultural differences the randomness of some conversations with Fort Portal… (ites? Fort Portalans?) is always perplexing, but often times downright amusing. I had just spent the evening at Farrah and Emerald’s house; all three of us crowded around a small laptop trying to hold our breaths - straining to hear the pirated DVD through the computer speakers. Recently, this has become our favored pastime, especially when the power is out. After a few episodes of the Office Emerald concedes she doesn’t understand British humor and we decide to call it a night, a fitting end to the slow weekend. Em suggests I stay but my semi-comfy bed and frozen snickers bar in the freezer at home persuade me to decline my hostess’s offer. Lately, frozen snicker bars have become my ... read more

Orihota? - How are you? Ndiho kurungi - I am fine Ibara ryange ndi Hannah - My name is Hannah Nkuruga Bungereza - I come from England The day after I last wrote, we (Paul and I) went to church in the village parish which is next to one of the schools that we teach in. We thought it would be nice to show our support and that we wanted to be part of the community. They seemed to really appreciate the effort and were very excited to have visitors. We were even asked to address the parish and tell everyone who we were, why we were there etc. They were very welcoming and after the service we were invited to the reverends house to join them for lunch. Back to work the next day we ... read more

In Hoima everyone is given a ‘petty name’ which has a meaning and it is meant to be more affectionate if you address someone by their pet name - I have been given Amooti, meaning flower. The procedural greeting involving a petty name goes like this… Empako yawe? (what is your petty name?) Akiiki (petty name meaning leader) Ta Akiiki? (how are you Akiiki?) Kandi eya we? (how about your petty name?) Amooti (petty name meaning flower) Ndiho Amooti (I’m ok Amooti) Soooo….what have I been doing since my last blog? I spent the a couple of days following my last entry in head office in Entebbe finishing off my report for the stakeholders meeting, planning the educational program we will be using in Hoima and collecting together the resources I will need such as pictures, ... read more