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Published: October 11th 2007
Hello! Have had a really busy but hugely fun week! Can’t remember when I last checked in with you, but will try to update you on what we’ve been up to recently…on Sunday we attended KPC East church, one of the 5 they have around kampala. Kpc east is held at the Mandela international stadium, which is a huge stadium for track and field stuff. Before the service some of the team decided to have a race around the track and unfortunately dave cut his toe really deeply and nearly fainted in the service. I turned around and saw he was looking kinda grey so we took him out and mong did some first aid and gave him sugar, so all was fine in the end. Church was great again, some African songs and some English ones, though I didn’t know them this time round. Amazing singing and dancing, and the message was really interesting, looking at family values so we learned some good stuff. From there we went to buloba watoto village where our team split into groups and were hosted by a family who treated us to a traditional African lunch. Mellita, anne, harry (our other host) and I went to mama edith’s house. She has 8 girls between the ages of 7 and 16ish. They were so hospitable and absolutely spoiled us by cooking about 10 different dishes - we had maitoke (the boiled banana dish), chipates (flat bread), eggplant which is green, yams (not my favourite food!), 2 kinds of rice, beef stew, fried chicken, the bean and peanut sauce and a few other bits and pieces. It was lovely to spend some time with them in the village and hear a bit about life in the village. One of the girls had been in the watoto choir a couple of years ago and come to Australia, so she’d been to our church and had met steve Irwin at Australia zoo! Sunday night was one of my highlights of the trip - we went out to see an evening of African dancing. It had been pouring with rain for a few hours so we weren’t sure if it would go ahead as the show is outdoor, but decided to give it a shot and luckily the rain stopped. We had dinner there - I had goat and chips! Haha. The goat wasn’t too bad but smelt like goat which put me off a bit. The dancing was sooo great! They had a band playing all African instruments, people singing the songs and a troupe of dancers all dressed in traditional costumes. The dancers were amazing, they moved with such speed and rhythm, I could have stayed all night watching. It was a great atmosphere and they even got all the mzungus down to have a dance to an African version of amazing grace! They taught us some African moves and even though we definitely were not naturals it was heaps of fun and gave us a pretty good workout! The entire night there was lightning in the distance which just added to the whole amazing experience - kinda surreal to be there!
Monday we spent the day visiting different orphanages and I have to say I was pretty shocked at what I saw. The first place we went to (which is not run by watoto) was awful, smelt of urine and was old, dirty and rundown. The kids didn’t seem to be receiving the best care, so it was pretty horrible. I came out feeling pretty depressed about it but then there is the question of what the alternative is for these children and that’s even worse to think about. The second place was for slightly older children and was a hundred times better, clean and tidy with happy kids. I was still sad cos looking into the kids dorms, they were so sparse, just a bed and no personal stuff. I guess I realized how amazingly lucky I am to have had such a blessed life. But the kids at this place were really happy and loving, they all wanted to hold our hands as we were given a tour. It was so cute. From there we had to rush off to the dedication of the house we’d built. That was a special time where we got to sing a song to the builders and they sang one for us, then had some speeches and prayers for the future of the children that will live in the house, before shaking all the builders hands and saying goodbye, then having a Ugandan v Mzungu soccer game. That was really cool, usually mzungus get whipped but we managed to draw (admittedly with the help of a few goal scoring Ugandans on our team and about 20 kids helping with goal keeping!). I was spectating due to my thongs flying off whenever I tried to kick the ball! We weren’t allowed to play barefoot in case we cut ourselves. That was fine with me, I was more than happy to watch! That night we were taken out to a beautiful restaurant as a thank you from watoto for coming. They have seriously made us feel so welcome, totally at home and loved here, it has been just amazing. We have ivan, our driver take us everywhere, and bonny and harry who are the best hosts in the world and make everything so much more fun. We’ve had so much fun here and I’m going to be very sad to leave.
Tuesday we left for safari at 4.30am which was not fun at all! I slept most of the way, though it was made kinda hard by the bone-jarring, brain-rattling dirt roads. It was like being on the thunderbolt at dreamworld for 5 hours straight. Now I understand what little david was saying about the poor roads in Uganda! We got to the ferry in time to make the 12pm crossing, if you miss that you have to wait 2 hours, and in the heat with tse-tse flies that would not be fun at all. They are biting flies and poor harry is allergic to them so we were doing our best to keep them out of the bus. Every 2 minutes someone would yell ‘windows!’and we’d all slam shut the windows and proceed to try to kill the flies before they ate us! I got bitten twice but wasn’t allergic so it was just a bit sore.
Safari was awesome! I knew nothing about it beforehand and was just going with the flow. Probably best I knew nothing, cos turns out the park we went to was in north western Uganda, near the borders of sudan and the congo….hmm, not the best place to be! Apparently dfat had a travel warning saying do not travel to the park, so had anything happened I don’t think insurance would have covered us. However, everything was perfectly safe cos they have a ceasefire at the moment, and we had a ball! The place we were staying was like a 5 star resort to our surprise, we were all thinking we were going to be slumming it in little tents or something, so it was awesome. We had great meals and a pool, which was much appreciated cos it’s been so hot. There were huge thunderstorms both afternoons which left the tracks really wet and slippery, and on the first day our bus nearly got bogged and then nearly crashed when we slipped off the path. It was a bit scary! we saw so many cool animals, highlights being a lioness with 3 cubs that we got within 10 metres of, some elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocs, waterbucks, warthogs, monkeys and baboons. We did two safari drives and one river cruise on the nile. It was just the best experience, I loved it! Loved taking pics, and have about a million of the beautiful scenery and clouds on safari, on top of all the animals! We left at 8 this morning and only got home at 7 cos the bus needed it’s fan belt or something fixed or we wouldn’t have made it back…we went to see murchison falls on the way home which was spectacular and nice to get wet cos we were so hot. nearly died of heat exhaustion in the bus, cos we had to keep the windows shut cos of the flies and there was no air at all, it was horrible! once we got out of the park the flies were gone though so we survived to tell the tale. i don't think i've ever sweated so much in my life, it was like a sauna! so was a rather long day and we are all pretty tired now. I need to go to bed as tomorrow is another early morning. Some of the team are going white water rafting on the nile, but me being chicken and not wanting to catch parasites, am going to a babies home to help out for the day with the rest of the team. Saturday we’re off to the equator and some craft markets, then Sunday is church then off to the airport where we begin the marathon trip home. i'm gonna be very sad to leave my new friends and this beautiful country. Dave, mellita, anne and I are coming straight home, while the others are stopping in kl or Singapore. Probably a smart idea cos the rest of us are gonna be zonked! Anyway, I prob won’t check in again so I’ll see most of you at home!
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anthea
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Wow what a trip, i love getting your emails i feel like i am there and it sure makes me want to visit. I remember your pictures from previous times so i can imagine how awesome these would be. Travel safely and let us know when you are back in OZ. Much love Anthea and Bjorn