Murchison Falls

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All is good here, we spent last week planning for our trip up to Murchison Falls National Park and got up at 3am on Friday to leave (naturally I hadn't packed and had decided to go out the night before which made for a fun morning!). Us 4 volunteers, me, Micheala, Rachael and Adam went along with Benji and his friend Ema who drove. Took us 7 hours to get up there, including 3 on unsurfaced roads which wasn't much fun, and too many loo trips in the bush!! As soon as we arrived we headed off on a game drive, as soon as we left the camp site we saw baboons and hippos as we on the ferry crossing the nile - we had hired a 4x4 people carrier type car for the weekend and it had a roof rack which we all sat on which gave us a great view across the park. Throughout the whole weekend we saw elephants, giraffe, unfortunately no lions, but we did see hyeanas, buffalo and loads of different types of antelope.

The first night was a bit dramatic, mine and Micheala's tent wasn't very stable and was pitched next to a family of warthogs, who were loud and unpleasant! An hour after we'd gone to bed a storm started which was incredibly loud. 10 or so minutes later water started leaking into out tent and me and Micheala decided to start packing up out stuff, by the time we'd done that we were soaked through and our pitch had become a river, the others were in a similar situation so all 6 of us ran to the car with everything, I ran back to close up the tent to find it wasn't even there and had moved and the cover come off!! 10 minutes battleing with it in the rain trying to put rocks on it to hold it down and I was completely soaked through. All 6 of us ended up sleeping in the car which was really unpleasant and meant we only had about an hours sleep that night!!

Saturdays game drive was great, driving along side the beautiful lake Albert with hippos in it and the DR. Congo on the other side which made us feel very brave to be there! In the afternon we drove down to Murchison falls which were fantastic! Although it was really really hot, even the 2 Ugandans we were with didn't know what to do with themselves! Also driving through the bush we all got stung by various insects and spent most of the drive swatting insects and spraying deet on ourselves. Me, Micheala and Emmanuelle (the Ugandan guy who came with us) spent the 2nd night in the car, our tent had a huge amount of water in it the next morning and we didn't fancy sleeping in it. Unfortunately as there wasn't a storm there was loads of bugs around and I have quite a lot of bites but I think I would be covered in them if it wasn't for the impregnated sleeping bag liner that Aunty Di gave me!

On the 2nd night me, Micheala, Benj and Ema went out of the camp in search of food and found a very African bar. Was an interesting experience and throughout the whole time here I haven't felt as out of place as I did there!! They weren't that impressed by having tourists at their bar, they didn't want us to sit in the bar so we sat outside with the warthogs and ate very African food with out hands which was a good experience.

Got up again at 4 to drive home, it took us 10 hours but we were all so tierd that we even slept during the 4 hours on unsurfaced roads! We got back and have spent the last day trying to get the red dust off everything! The cleaner normally washes our clothes on Fridays, but didn't whilst we were away as she's incredibly lazy, so I returned to no clothes except my smart teaching clothes!! So I had to wash something to sleep in and wear today even though I was so tierd I could've cried!

Got a busy week ahead, fitting everything in before I leave for Kampala early next week. Quite sad about leaving although ready for Singapore. Work at the orphanage has been great although I would've liked to have done more teaching. So many of the kids are being adopted at the momment, including the new girl who was abandoned with all the medical problems, which is great news. Although annoyingly someone else has taken over managing her treatment since I'm leaving and Benji is busy, and they started again with consulations, test etc which meant that all the work and money we've put in has gone to waste which I've found incredibly frustrating. That coupled with the fact that I do not agree with the orphans being adopted by American families and taken out of Uganda means I don't feel too sad to leave the orphange although I will miss the kids. It is frustrating that the Americans out here feel that the way to solve Uganda's problems with kids is to have them all adopted and taken out of the country, where the time and money that goes into adopting one child would be better spent to try and help more of the kids.

Going to miss living with Benji and Santos, their Ugandan ways are a constant source of entertainment to me, as my English ways are to them. The most exciting thing will be socialising with people who give you a straight answer, Ugandan's for some reason are unable to give you a straight answer most of the time and prefer to be as vague as possible.

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Comments

[Uncle J]

Warthogs
Delighted to read your vastly entertaining blogs and chuffed you're having such an amazing time. Can't understand why sleeping next to loud and unpleasant warthogs was such an ordeal after all those times you've had to share a house with us Allens!