http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Uganda/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Uganda en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:45:17 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:45:17 UTC For those of you who have been wanting updates on Roshi here's living proof that she is here with us and doing well. The equator is certainly not her first choice of locations but...httpwww.youtube.comwatchvjnnifnBjgVAPretty soon I'll get some pics of our trip to Zanzibar up here. http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-350835.html So i'm sitting in an internet cafe and little drummer boy is playing. this to say the least is very weird. a man also tried to sell me carrots not 2 minutes ago. have i mentioned that i love ugandaI'm going to humor myself and pretend that i have fans out there in blogdom ha. ha. and say that i'm sorry that i haven't written in a while. its just that nothing particularly noteworthy has happe http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/blog-349061.html Even though we have so much to be thankful for it just does not feel like Thanksgiving this year. For one thing since it is a US holiday as opposed to an international holiday Ugandans donrsquot celebrate it. Second we feel much more alone than during any other Thanksgiving I can remember. For us Thanksgiving was always a time to gorge ourselves multiple times during the day as we had t http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Northern-Region/blog-349035.html It has been another varied and hectic two weeks since I last wrote so this may turn out to be an epic blog again. Apologies to those who donrsquot have time to read but those who do...enjoySo by the end of the last blog we were due to be heading into the forest to do some more surveys this we eventually managed after being delayed by a massive downpour of rain and we were able to get some good http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Western-Region/Hoima/blog-348040.html Yesterday after the mess with moving and the tiredness and sadness and all that we took a day off and went to Entebbe. Entebbe is the small former capital 30 km south of Kampala where the airport is situated. It seems to be a welloff place with many hotels and close proximity to Lake Victoria.We went to the Botanical Garden that is situated on the shore of the lake. We had a very relaxing day t http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Entebbe/blog-347794.html So I havenrsquot written in a while. Life has been a mess. I donrsquot want to retell it all here because it will just make me sad and angry again. But I need to tell you that we donrsquot live in our wonderful house in Bukoto Street anymore. On Thursday afternoon after a day that was already bad we received a phone call that told us that we had to move out immediately. After many angry http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-347784.html Whether due to language barriers or cultural differences the randomness of some conversations with Fort Portalhellip ites Fort Portalans is always perplexing but often times downright amusing. I had just spent the evening at Farrah and Emeraldrsquos house all three of us crowded around a small laptop trying to hold our breaths straining to hear the pirated DVD through the computer spea http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Western-Region/Fort-Portal/blog-346269.html Hey guysSi don't really have all that much to say for this particular blog ha i'm sure it'll end up being 20 pages... but my mom was freaking out and worrying cause i hadn't written a blog. so heres a blog momma. please calm down. you have enough to stress about at work. if i die someone will inform you double quick i promise. ok enough of the thinly veiled sarcasm.So last weekend a group o http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Eastern-Region/blog-346184.html I just have a few minutes left on my internet time so I'll be brief. I just want to thank all of you who have commented in general and especially on my last post. Since then I have been able to talk to Kristoffer and his mum and have also received emails from friends and family. Thank you I feel better now but will probably be more relieved when K is home at least. http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-345806.html Kristoffer and I had decided to try and talk to eachother over MSN today at two. I was really looking forward to it because we haven't really had the time to talk before. When we got to the internet cafe and I opened my inbox however there was an email from K's mother saying that K was in a bike accident yesterday evening and is in the hospital awaiting an operation. His mum said it isn't too b http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-345291.html So we went to Mubende. Itrsquos a very small town like most towns here this is still a farmerrsquos country and the difference from Kampala the bustling neverquiet everexpanding capital is immediate. To our surprise we actually found Mubende in our guide book in which you can count to three different hostels five ldquorestaurantsrdquo and four sights listed. The fact that the http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-345279.html Well we've been back in Uganda for about a month now and it seems like it is time to finally get this here blog started. Many of you know the course we've taken to get here because we have visited you along the way. For our own recollection though I decided to put up a little Reader's Digest version of the last four months. The main theme for these wanderings was visiting family and friend http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-344946.html ldquoAll things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His good purpose.rdquo Romans 828 ALL THINGS Even the things that seem a bit hard for us to understand. I am taking great comfort in this verse as we head to Gulu unsure where we will be sleeping tonight I am writing this as Carl dodges chickens bicycles cows motorcycles with large loads of http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Northern-Region/blog-344332.html HollaWhat a week it has been If I were to write everything this might just be a novel so this time around Irsquom just going to do the highlights. After I last wrote to you in Mbale I went and got totally gypped on the price of a guitar but I got a guitar. Ask I walked through the streets of Mbale with said guitar trying to find a matatu I got a lot of shouts of ldquoMzungu Play me some http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Eastern-Region/blog-343225.html Orihota How are youNdiho kurungi I am fineIbara ryange ndi Hannah My name is HannahNkuruga Bungereza I come from EnglandThe 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 ef http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Western-Region/Hoima/blog-342935.html I realized that I have not commented on the wonderful fact that Obama won the US elections. We don't ready any newspapers here but on Wednesday morning it was impossible to avoid this fact. Everyone was talking about Obama on the radio on the cover of the newspapers in the street... He is incredibly popular here. In Monica's office there is a big poster of him and we have even seen street vendo http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-342873.html Hi all in Uganda now just went and saw the new Samuel L Jackson film its not good not knowin reviews for films as it was a load of pants. Not recommended. So I will carry on were I left off last time we left Stone town and got a minibus up to the North to stay at a beach resort called Nungwi was a really nice place even though the double rooms had 3 double beds in them a little random. Actuall http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-342243.html Hi there again Thanks for all the comments and messages It's greatly appreciated and I hope you'll let me know how you are doing not just reading about my adventure... Also remember that it is totally ok to comment in another language than English.Since internet here is painfully slow I've written the post below on my own computer yesterday and is publishing it here now. I'm afraid that uploadi http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-342210.html Dear friends and familyLisa and I are finally in Kampala Uganda I feel like I have so much to write and I know I can't tell it all at once. I'll give you my first impressions though. The first night was very hard on me. It started with a stomach ache and ended three hours later with me throwing up everything in my stomach. I finally got to sleep again at five in the morning so you can imagine h http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-341879.html Hello All...From the title of this Blog you can tell we are currently in Gorilla country and I am struggling with words to describe how AMAZING this part of Africa is It is totally wild and I am overwhelmed everyday by the diverse landscape amazing wildlife and beautiful people.Our overland tour with African Trails is fantastic. Currently there are only 5 of us Dan myself our driver Henry w http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Western-Region/Kisoro/blog-341854.html So i find myself back in Mbale again sooner than expected after returning from Kampala. Turns out that the power has been out ALL WEEK in bukedea town so we've come into mbale afton and i to try to get a little bit of work done. On a second note happy halloween they definitely don't celebrate halloween in uganda and everytime i try to explain what is it people look at me like i'm loopy. so http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Eastern-Region/blog-340203.html We found a great home to move into to. We visited the home a number of times and met with the landlord to discuss things that needed to be fixed. We were praying hard that God would open the door to us getting the home if it is the one He wanted us to have and that He would close the door if it was not the right one. So just yesterday on the last visit to the home the landlord called and repo http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Northern-Region/blog-339681.html I can't believe how long it is since I've done a blog but I think it's quite common ... at first so much is new and exciting and then day to day life takes over. Anyway I have lots of lovely pictures of Uganda for your delight and delictation as I took a week off to go on a big safari trip to the West with John Paul.On a five day trip we covered many miles and very many potholes and stayed in http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-339671.html So here i am in Kampala the big city me and afton came down for the weekend to do a bit of shopping looking around and work for Apoolo.The week has been mostly work work work and now play while i'm in the big city. a note on the name of this blog i was telling the boys that we were going into the city this weekend and ibrahim said to me oh well what time are you poppin' to the seeray at http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Central-Region/Kampala/blog-338869.html In Hoima everyone is given a lsquopetty namersquo 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 thishellipEmpako yawe what is your petty nameAkiiki petty name meaning leaderTa Akiiki how are you AkiikiKandi eya we how about you http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Western-Region/Hoima/blog-338323.html I realize I have been posting but not really actually on anything I have been doing here in Uganda. So I'm going to be lazy and do thisI go to Jinja on the spur after spending the morning marching in the Ugandan Independence Day Parade for the President at the local airstrip with Sam who I had met about thirty minutes ago having breakfast at the hostel. Sam is 26 from Manchester and teaches ma http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Eastern-Region/Jinja/blog-336916.html We sit in a bus from Kampala bound for Masindi in North Uganda but this bus is not moving. Oh no quite the opposite the bus is actually stuck in deep mud on some dirt road in the middle of nowhere and it has been stuck for about an hour. A flash storm sends sheets of rain our way as Uganda does during its wet season. The aisles are filled with produce boxes and people and the floor of the http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Northern-Region/blog-336533.html We had typed a blog entry for last week but were unable to load it due to no internet connection. So the following is a recap of the past 2 weeks. Monday night almost 2 weeks ago we had some friends over and while Emma Grace were outside running around and playing with their friends Emma tripped and hit her chin on the ground. We thought she would need stitches for sure. However our frie http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Northern-Region/blog-336458.html So another week has gone by in Bukedea with lots to tell again Irsquom really settling in and feeling at home here which is totally great. Having Afton around has definitely helped not in the least cause I have someone to talk my face off to all the time But we get along really splendidly which is great and we have a lot of fun. Afton didnrsquot have a bike for a long while there so we we http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Eastern-Region/blog-336080.html Finishing off a wonderful weekend I traveled up north with my roommates to the Semuliki National Park. Now Amanda and Janis are two of the best and prettiest housemates one could ever hope to find in the FP greater area if not the whole of Africa. I say this because itrsquos true but more to the point I say this because they bribe me with amazing dinners and even better deserts. They have http://www.travelblog.org//Africa/Uganda/Western-Region/Bundibugyo/blog-334680.html