Blogs from Uganda, Africa - page 137

As the plane began descending, I was looking out the window at the quaint houses and I noticed the road…and this very thought occurred to me: “Oh my gosh, they really do drive on the other side of the road!” Not that I didn’t believe it, but it became clear to me that I really was about to land in England! The landing was smooth and soon I was off the plane and heading toward customs. Since I had nothing to declare and I was only there for a short time (what they refer to as “transit”) my customs experience went smoothly; I had a nice chat w/the customs guy and I was through the door…I WAS IN LONDON!!! The first order of business was to call home, so I made my way to a phone. ... read more

Hi Everyone! I am all packed up and ready to go. I leave Powell River at 6:00am tomorrow morning and then fly out of Vancouver at 5:45pm. London is experiencing some intense fog...let's hope I get there on time! I will update through my journey. Tasha... read more

Tuesday morning was completely wasted in Jinja trying to change money. I didn't want to change US dollars because I'm getting really low, but the ATM we were first sent to didn't accept visa & the next two wouldn't give me any cash, so I was forced to change Kenyan Shillings back at the Forex. To make the walk around town more annoying, I’d neglected to put a t-shirt on under my jumper & started stewing in my own juices come noon. Returned to camp cashed up, changed, had lunch & went quadbiking for a couple of hours in the afternoon with Becky, Rachael & Dianne. We started off on the practice circuit to familiarize ourselves with the machine for a half hour, then headed out to the surrounding area. We roared through local villages, waved ... read more

Early Tuesday morning I met the group for my seventy one day tour going from Nairobi, Kenya to Cape Town, South Africa. Had a late start as some people needed to do banking in order to change travellers cheques into US dollars for kitty payment. Once on the road, our first stop was a visit to Sheldricks Elephant orphanage. The organization is on a large area of land & they rehabilitate orphaned elephants & rhinos before releasing them into the wild. Their costs are funded through donors & you can sponsor your own elephant for around US$50- per year. The little ellies were fun to watch as the keepers fed them & they played soccer together & frolicked in the mud. Made a short stop overlooking the Rift Valley, which goes for thousands of kilometres. Onto ... read more

My quest to get the kids drinking water without any sweetener added is well underway and I even managed to coax one of the boys into going a whole week without sweety water. As a reward for his efforts I took him into Kampala for chicken and chips, which of course is a huge deal. Joseph, the boy who I took is such a sweet kid who explained to me that when he grows up he wants to help the numerous homeless people lining the streets of Kampala. As an initial gesture he asked me if he could save his fries for one of the people on the street. Being the sinic that I am now, I expected the person receiving the food to be ungrateful, but to my surprise the lady actually thanked Joseph for ... read more