Time out in Kampala

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Back in Kampala for 2 nights, leaving tomorrow back to Jinja, John very kindly let me say at his again which is much nicer than the hostel that I was going be at whilst the Aussie girls went to the airport. They've left now so it's just me, and the 2 Ugandan guys, Benji and Santos living in the house (if you can call it a house!) I think in 2 weeks some more people are coming out which will be good.

Since the weekend we've painted the girls dorm at Terra's orphange in Iganga which was good, some of the local kids came out to watch and I made the mistake of giving 2 of them paint brushes - after that there was more paint on the floor and them than the wall but they thought it was great!

Tony, the orphan has had his operation and it all went well - unfortunatley that was my beer money for the next few decades but it was more than worth it to see him looking happy after the surgery. You wouldn't believe it but Benji gave one of the nurses his camera so she could take some photos whilst he was in hospital and she took photos of the surgery!!! So he's back at the orphanage and has a new love of fanta, he's already starting to feel better and it will be a challenge to keep him quiet over the next few das. A lot of the kids are getting adopted at the momment by American families which is good, although it's devistating looking the ones that are a little older and therefore less likely to be adopted, they're futures are so uncertain and there's nothing we can really do to help them in the long run. We had a new girl this week who was abandoned, and although she speaks a lot of one of the local langauges lusoga, she'll chat with the mamas but won't tell anyone her name when asked, so she's currantly taking up a lot of time as she is also in need of a lot of medical care.

The drive to Kampala yesterday was entertaining, usually only takes an hour or 2 and it took nearly 4. We were on the outskirts of Kampala when the traffic just stopped and became a mass of cars and 1000 different horns, so we took a side road through the edge of essentially a slum and ended up following a famous Ugandan boyband/rap group who had caused all the chaos, 4 extremely cocky Ugandan's dressed very well in an convertible BMW waving and lounging around. Once we'd realised that they were the cause of the madness it was too late to not follow them and literally thousands and thousands of people emerged from there houses and were running down the road - I have never seen anything like it, our car was swamped. Everyone was shouting, and trying to get at the guys in the car. Then seeing a car of white people was equally as entertaining for the crowd and the boyband people also seemed pretty shocked.

We then ended up driving around Kampala, well sitting in traffic and I'd forgotton how different Kampala is to Jinja, Jinja's about 20 years behind!! But what you can't get over here in the evening is the number of people who are walking around - seeing as there's no public transport the roads are full of people, everywhere.

Just got in now from going to a speech by Jane Goodall, she was quiet inspirational and it was nice to be given a 'save the environment' speech without being bored to death. It was hosted by the service summit which has been held at the school that Lesley teaches at, they've got some Tanzanian girls staying here who are attending the summit who are like the expat kids here (a bit wild).

Tried really hard to upload some photos but my lack of computer ability meant I couldn't. I even have a very boring video of the traffic in Kampala but it's so crazy that you wouldn't believe it!! Either way the pictures are on facebook if your that cool and if not this link might work, but might not!!! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=60750&l=03cfb&id=663287498 They're mainly of the weekend we had at Sipi falls and a few of when I arrived in Kampala.

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