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Helllllooooo from Africa!!
I have officially survived my second full day in this beautiful country with only a slight burn on my shoulders (apparently if you sweat as much as I have it, the sunscreen doesn't stay on very well). We have done a heck of a lot these past two days so I am only going to mention some of my highlights from each day and fingers crossed upload some photos (internet is incredibly touchy today).
Our first day here was a lot of errands like getting said internet, our phones, and exchanging our American money into Shillings. Everything went really smooth just incredibly slow. We have been warned and told several times that this is just "African time". I thought initially it would bother me a lot but honestly I have not cared at all about it. I do get tired of standing in the same spot for a long period of time so I have been wandering around and that is working for me. We ended up grabbing lunch in the Victoria Mall in Entebbe. I had the BEST Indian food. My gawd! I want it again already. We had a chance
after to walk through the Botanical Gardens here and see the Velvet monkeys! The plants were so beautiful there and it just showed how lush this country is. It was also cool seeing so many plants that I have back home in my living room growing wild and also giant. Seeing the velvet monkeys was so amazing. We ended up getting a chance to feed them and two monkeys fed from my hand! The first one just took the big chunks of crackers out of my hand and left to go find more (greedy bugger) and then a small one came and tried to clean up the leftover bits. Its hands were so leathery and tiny. It started to get annoyed at the amount of crackers between my fingers so it grabbed my hand and started licking me! For some reason I thought their tongues would be like a cat (no idea why I came to this conclusion) but it was it was totally human like. A tiny human like tongue. Super exciting but also kind of creepy haha. We also came across a market when we started walking home and I bought my first pair of super drop crouch
pants. They are sooooo comfy and I love them already. I want to buy all the pants.
Day two highlights were going to the Wildlife Education Centre. I paid the extra money and did the behind the scenes tour which was sooooo worth it. For this tour you get to see the animals up close and even feed some! The first animal we came to African Rock Python and we got to touch and have draped around our necks. The feeling was super gross and sent a shiver down my spine but super glad I did it and did not chicken out! The next animals we saw were the chimps. We found out most of them were rescues with only one being born in captivity. I also found out why chimps do not like water-their bones are so dense they just sink. We got to see them use sticks like tools to get bananas out of the water which was so cool. We also saw some interesting displays of ummmm....interest in more food. The males kept clapping at us, standing in a body builder like stance with their penis' just dangling about. It certainly got a lot
of laughs and a lot of photographic evidence to show our lovely friends and family haha. In with the chimps we also saw a hermaphrodite chimp which was pretty neat. Sadly it has to be separated out due to this interesting state of biological affairs. It has suffered a lot of beatings because of it. The next animals we saw were the giraffes which were soooo cool! We go to feed them out of our hand several times. A few times when standing and one while sitting. In all of the photos I am making the stupidest faces so no one will see those. I was just so excited I could not contain it. Then we got to do the giraffe kiss. This is were you stick a banana in your mouth and the giraffe just sucks it out! It was crazy! A face that big and tall coming at you is scary and super intimidating. Oh! Before we went to the giraffes we also went to go pick up food for the animals and we saw monkeys every where. We discovered that velvet monkeys are like stray cats back home. They get into everything and are just everywhere! I
decided I needed to stop taking pictures of them because of this or I am going to have a billion of them. They are just so cute though! The next animals we saw were the leopard (named Vinnie), lions, and hyenas through their cage. Near these animals we saw the White Rhino and go to pet him! Their skin is so rough and dusty. We saw them getting aggressive over food which was kind of scary. They are just so large and strong. The next animal we go to see we got to go into their cage! It was the most scary and intimidating bird I have ever been near with the silliest of names -sushi. The animal was a Shoebill. Go look one up. It looks like a prehistoric death bird and it is probably around 4 feet tall. We got to here its really weird call and were taught to bow when it makes that sound. The bird was really friendly and walking up to us lots but it was just so scary looking we all go intimidated and bowed like our lives depended on it! The last part of our tour included Charlie the elephant! We got to pet him, see him demolish a pumpkin, and steal carrots out of our hands. The nose of an elephant is so weird to see in action. He was picking up pumpkin scraps with such precision I was amazed. We also learnt that Charlie loves his caretaker and kept following him instead of staying with us. I guess when you give him his favorite food (pumpkins) you earn a special spot in his heart.
Sorry this is just a long one but we have done so much! I am already loving this country and can't wait to see more of it and begin our time in Mbarara!
Sending love from Africa!
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