Been away from the internet for quite a long while now despite not having been stuck in the village. I've just finished my 2week holiday, mid-placement top up training and had a great weekend and am now ready to head back to the village and try to get looooaaadds of work done within the next few months. I've had the best time over the last few weeks..so much has happened that I won't be able to sum it all up here in one post but highlights have included :
- Dad & Cian coming out for a brilliant 10 day break!! They arrived in Entebbe & I picked them up in true Ugandan fashion, 3 of us on the back of the same bike. Both were in flying form and we headed to the Botanical Gardens & Wildlife Centre along with some of the other volunteers - Joyce, Christy, Herbert and Edgar. Megan's sisters were around too so we all met up and I got Sharon & Allen and a few other up to the backpackers for a meal so they could meet my family. Everyone was reaaally excited to meet Liamo - they'd heard so much - and of course, Da's chat didn't disappoint! We had a really great night.
The next day we headed out to Bwindi to start our Gorilla Trek! It was incredible!! I'll stick some photos up but there's no real way of describing it, just soo cool it's unreal!! An added extra was the fact that our guide, James, had been a coach at the special olympics in Ireland - he wore his Ireland T-Shirt for us - and had met Westlife & Arnold Schwarzenegger and also like to burst into random bouts of Irish dancing every now and then. For those of you volunteering out here it looked like a version of Joel's erection impression mixed with mental footwork. Needless to say, James was a legend! After Gorilla trekking we visit pygmys and had an aul dance with the little people. A little like Darby O'Gill except in real life...no seriously, it was quite sad to see how they're treated and outcast by society at large. They live in probably the worst poverty I've seen. The guide we went with had been working with them for a long time and was forming a group to support them financially and lobby for rights for pygmy communities - they were kicked out of the forest when tourism & logging started and are now total outcasts.
The day after Gorillas we got back to Jinja & had a great meal for Megan's birthday - Happy Birthday again! Cian couldn't join us but we'd already pre-ordered steaks so we picked a lucky random drunk from the bar nxt door to come and eat the steak. His name was Steve, from Dublin. He was hilariiiiiiouuuss!! We'd great chats & dad, despite having done a huge gorilla trek, travelled from Europe and been lugged around on bikes in the blazing heat stayed up with the youth drinking until about 4am.
We'd 2 or 3 hours sleep and then I woke the lads up to come and visit Nawanyago. We packed in visits to my school, my neighbours, George Kinosa the farmer (who both Dad & Cian agreed lived up to his legendary status), bought a chicken for my neighbour, visited Igumyamoyo farmer's group, ate at Herbert's house, sang tunes with some of the kids I'm doing the music project with and greeted the entire trading centre!! AAAAaaaalll done with a crew of about 30 very needy, cute, energetic, playful, crying 4-6 years olds!! It was a little wearing but again, we had the best day and headed back to Jinja that night suitably tired ready for bed in our awesome hotel & ready to fly to Tanzania the next day!!
- Tanzania involved a 4 day safari which was absolutely mindblowingly great, and, to put it in the words of the great Gap Yah poms, I chundered everywhere on the plains of the serengeti - have that nature! 40 degree fever and cold sweats, great craic! But we saw cheetahs, leopards, lions, giraffes, wildbeast, zebras....you name it, we dsaw millions of them!! We also met up with Nico who's working out there and his family were visiting too so we had an awesome trip. On the last night we were back at Maama Makari's house where Cian volunteered a few years ago in Arusha - we were well looked after!!
- Back in Entebbe I went to chill at a pool with Megan, her sisters, Emily and none other than Colonel Gadafi...yes, the mental Libyan. He turned up (or at least him or his brother) turned up at a hotel they own, so I made sure he watched me dive from the massive diving board. He was proud of me, I saw it in his beady eyes. He actually looked like a film star...a mental one, but a film star nonetheless..!!
We then had a few nights out, crazy ugandan club style. Fantastic! I was dancing away and out of nowhere this huuuuuuuuge woman starts trying to grind me.I was pretty wasted so i kept dancing at which stage she turns and goes ' I am veerrry fat..but verrryy flexible' HAHAHA Epic! Only in Uganda!
After our big night & a gig by Radio & Weasel (two big names in uganda) we went biking in the Mabira forest...it was more like Mountaineering in a tropical rain forest covered in safari ants (which reaaally bite hard) with a mountain bike on my back!! Probably the best thing I've done in Uganda so far..although I don't know if Emily and Megs would agree given the state of their hangovers that day!! I got a weird infected ankle after it all what with the wading through mud, sticks, rivers and whatever the feck lives in that forest!!
We also saw Bebe Cool & Chameleon, two of Uganda's hottest superstars...the gig started with a gorgeous woman dancing and singing as the warm up act. Out of nowhere a little midget ran on stage and starts properly going at it, dancing his heart out, clinging to her thighs, caressing her knees and all sorts! It was so surreal!! He'd be hired by the band to dance for the entire gig!!
Bebe Cool, who was recently shot in both legs by police, came out to rock Jinja in his wheelchair. It was soooo ghetto!! Brilliant!! Chameleon was bad either, he was in red suit pants, a red tux, white shirt & a dickee bow! Grand shtuff!!!
Since all of that I've had 4 days of training most of which I spent in bed recovering from the TZ fever. It was great to see everyone again and get back into the mood of SPW work before heading back to the village & starting work again. We also took the ugandans out which was hilarious. It was like being twelve again. In the club they were all soooo gone they were just falling about the dance floor taking half the crowd with them...great times!! I went back for a day and then I requested permission to get back to Jinja to send off an American friend of mine - Lansing....
... for the occassion, I cut myself a mullet!! Played a charity crazy golf with the mullet and then went for beers with Lansing. Last night up at backpackers, where it all began, we set up a table with decorations and had waaaaaaay toooooo much fun drinking & chatting all night. Great craic!! I'm really sad to see him leave but with the 4 cheesy valentine's day cards we gave him at random intervals I'm sure he'll be safe & sounds back in the States. Hopefully I'll see him in Vegas at some stage...'The Hangover' style!!! Take it easy Mr Lancelot, it's been a pleasure having you around and I know you'll be sorely missed...or you'll miss those sores...?! what...?! WHO ARE YOU>?!!
Rightio, well I'm off back to the village...ooooooooooohhhh I almost forgot..I went to a reggae night & met Kaz, my flatmate from Leeds...well, his Ugandan counterpart!! We got into a Uganda music video too, which i'll post once it's out!!
AAAAnnnnd I also met a girl who babysat me in Wezembeek-Oppem when I was about 4 years old!! She lives in Congo now but grew up a few doors down from us at home!! Mental.......oooooooooh, aaaannndd please please check out my Dutch friend's project (Kees & Arthur - two great guys ) - School in a Can. I think you can google it. THey're setting up school made from Cargo containers and they are absolutely incredible at what they do! Best of luck lads,!!Right, that really is it...i need to get back to my posho & beans, pit latrine, newly born baby rats on my floor and bucket showering...aaahh the joys of village life!! Take care!! Tschuuuusss!!!!
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