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Published: July 20th 2011
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I had a lovely last weekend in the village. On my last Sunday, I was asked to go into the church so that they could pray for me, which was very kind. Agnes was taking the sermon as Pastor John had to go and speak to another church, but she gave a very passionate sermon and they even got Teacher Samuel to translate it for me. Then there seemed to be some kind of grieving ceremony, where Agnes hugged all the women and everybody was crying and praying and chanting and drumming, and Mary was on the floor sobbing, it was pretty intense. When things seemed to calm down, Agnes said some very lovely things about me and I had to hug her too while they all prayed for me. So it’s nice to know that a whole church in the middle of Uganda has got my back!
The following day was the farewell party, and the children had to help peel and sort mountains of matoke and beans, to be prepared for lunch on wood fires around the playground. Lessons seemed to be half abandoned and the nursery kids were going crazy, especially when I blew up some balloons.
The older kids were pretty excited by this too though! Before we ate, the whole school gathered in the church and the choir group sang us some songs and then put on some grass skirts that they had spent several days making, and did a traditional dance, which was fabulous! It involved some serious booty-shaking, and they made Esther, Hannah (Esther’s friend who was visiting), Sam and I get up and try to shake ours too! It was so embarrassing and pretty funny. After that there were speeches by the headmaster and Pastor John, and then they made us get up and give a speech too. They gave all four of us a certificate, which was so kind, and also a wooden souvenir – mine says ‘Welcome back from Uganda’ and has a flag and a traditional hut on it. We were all really touched.
I left the village the following morning, and I felt really sad to go. It seems brief, especially now, but I have some wonderful memories from my time in Kyamukama. One thing I fell in love with in the village was the moon. When I arrived there was no moon, and I was dazzled
by the darkness and the stars and the fireflies. But as the moon got bigger, it got so bright and I could walk around in the night with no torch. I didn’t even find it creepy walking along the paths through the trees, and I tried in vain to capture the silhouettes of the banana trees on photo. One night I went to Kiwangala with Samuel to watch a concert, and I got back so late that there was nobody about and it was quite magical. I loved the silence and the stillness, and I didn’t even get scared about the mythical ‘nightdancers’! I sat for a while behind the church and looked at the moon and listened to the only sounds to be heard – that of the cicadas, and the dew dripping off the banana trees.
I made a last-minute decision and headed to Lake Bunyonyi, in the southwest of the country, not far from the border with Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. I stayed in Kabale for the night, and then went to a guesthouse call Byoona Amagara, which is on an island on the lake, so I had to get there by dugout
canoe. It was a pretty strange way to get to a hotel, but it was an adventure! The Lake was beautiful and serene, with terraced hills wiggling around the edge. The mornings were shrouded in mist and I would wake up pretty sharpish with an icy shower overlooking the lake! It was pretty chilly as the altitude is 2000m, and I wimped out of swimming which is a shame as the lake is free of hippos, crocodiles and bilharzia, but it was a lovely place to chill out. I met some interesting people, including a Canadian journalist who has been to and lived in many countries in Africa, and I was interested to hear that her favourite was Sierra Leone. She headed to Libya earlier in the year when things started to kick off, and had some fascinating stories. I rented a dugout canoe with a Canadian guy called John, and we ended up going round in circles doing the ‘muzungu corkscrew’!
John also had plans to go to Jinja, so we headed all the way back to Kampala and then on to Jinja to go white water rafting on the River Nile. It was so much fun and
the river was beautiful, and the rapids were terrifying!! Our boat flipped three times out of the eight rapids, and that was enough for me! There is a moment where you don’t know which way is up, can’t breathe and are swallowing Nile water, and think you might actually die, and then you pop up and bob downstream! I was rescued by a safety kayak at one point but managed to stay with the boat the other two times. It was brilliant though, and they let us just swim a few times (apparently ‘the crocodiles here are vegetarian’) which was lovely. The river was so warm and we just drifted with the current until it was time to get back in for the next rapid.
After Jinja it was time to say goodbye to Uganda, and I caught a 12-hour night bus to Nairobi. I stayed with a lovely girl called Liz, who I hadn’t met before but my dad knows her, and she kindly put me up for a few days. I was suddenly in a different world of ex-pats and swanky bars, in an apartment with a swimming pool. I had a lovely few days with Liz
and some people she works with at Accenture. They are working with the Kenyan government, which sounds by turns frustrating, bizarre, challenging but also very interesting. The day I had to catch my flight to Bangkok, we sat in a bar and had lunch and Pimms watching Wimbledon! I even wore a ridiculous hat for the occasion. I felt very sad to leave Africa and definitely hope to visit the village again and explore more of East Africa.
I have spent the last few weeks on the Thai islands, sweating and melting in the sunshine, swimming in the warmest sea I have ever been in and partying by night. I did a diving course on Koh Tao, which was brilliant and I’m hoping to do more diving in Australia and Fiji. I went to Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh, where they filmed The Beach, which was beautiful, and managed to break my ‘waterproof’ camera while snorkelling with some brightly-coloured fish. Last Friday somebody stole my flip flops, and then I trod on glass and had to have five stitches on my heel, so I spent the infamous Full Moon party dancing on one leg until the sun came up. So I’ve just been limping and moping about for several days on Koh Phangan, waiting for my foot to heal while my tan fades, which is pretty rubbish! But I’m heading back to Bangkok tomorrow to meet my cousin, Bec, who arrives on Friday. I’m SO excited about seeing her and I’m sure she will cheer me up while my foot heals!
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