I don't have time to do this trip justice but i will do my best to give you a little flavour!
I left home ridiculously early friday morning, arrived in Uganda about 8.30am which shows you how early, though the flight is only 45 minutes. The whole experience, airports, visas, being picked up by an unknown driver was so unscary compared to when i came to Kenya! It was funny, the contrast between then and how relaxed i felt about it now!
So i arrived, found the driver with my name and went off with him for the hour and half drive through Entebbe where the airport is, through Kampala and out the other side. Entebbe is right by the lake and from the plane you could see the vast flat greyness that is Lake Victoria stretching out into the distance boardered by the luscious green of Uganda.
I love first impressions and Ugandas was interesting. Very very much like Kenya,or the Kenya i have seen anyway. Just replace all the cows standing around with donkeys, change the odd word in the advertisements which just like here are painting brightly over all the buildings, swap the trucks piled with bananas with trucks piled with tea and take away most of the palm trees and greeness and voila... you have Kenya. Same shacks and tin rooves and piled high bikes and bright pink Zain buildings and muddy potholes and vegetable stalls and chaos! Though actually Kampala is less developed and smaller than Nairobi as well.
Finally we arrived where Becca lives and she appeared! 'BECCA!!' *hug* 'Your hair has grown!' and it has.. it's really long.
You can imagine the talking and the catching up, it was strangely not at all strange to see her, in fact it wasn't even strange that it wasn't strange it was all completely normal like i'd just seen her last week not 2 and a half months ago!
After a bit of a catch up we took the taxi-bus as they are called here, (matatus in Kenya, sort of minibuses that are the public transport. Deliciously cheap, mostly crammed too full, will stop anywhere anytime...) into Kampala and went to 'Garden City' the nicest shopping mall in all of Uganda probably. Had some food, used the internet, spent forever in the super market looking at lunch boxes! Generally just talked a lot! Went home and talked some more!
Saturday morning at 11am saw us just having finished breakfast having a chat with Mo, one of the other girls who lives with Becca, who suddenly says hey lets go to Jinja. This wasn't at all what we had planned, Jinja being a town about 2 hours away by Lake Victoria at the source of the Nile. However it was an opportunity not to be missed so within 5 minutes we'd reversed our ideas and went of to Jinja. It was just 2 quid for the taxibus there, and in fact we got a bigger bus back that was only 1 pound!!
On the way me and mo were crammed into the back 3 seats with a lady and her two 10 or 11 aged girls. The girls were sweet, they kept talking about us and their mum would translate! They thought we were beautiful and wanted to look like us and wanted us to take a photo of them!
We got to Jinja and found some tiny 'restaurant' as they like to call them where 1 pound paid for us to have a soda and chapati each and used the rather unpleasant loo outside, though i have seen worse! Then we found ourselves bodabodas, sort of taxi motorbikes, and rode down to a tiny village by the lake where some guy took us on his (slightly leaky) boat over the source of the nile! He took us across to a little fishing village and showed us round which was pretty cool. The kids all came and followed us round, i guess it's not too often they see 3 mzungo girls. It was cool to be in a genuine place and see them and their fish and things! The guy also got me a piece of Jack Fruit from someone because i'd never had any. It wasn't the best thing ever i have to say. Once back we went down the river a little way and found a restaurant and had dinner sitting by the nile watching the sun go down!
The bus back to Kamapala was funny. Me and Becca were in the back and Mo was on a sort of fold down seat in the isle in front of us. A little while into the journey she turns round and says 'what is that noise? Sounds like a dog...' a while later, 'I think it's someones ringtone...' It wasn't until some people got off and she moved back to sit with us that we noticed this chicken that had been sitting right under her feet the whole time! I don't know if it sounds that hilarious but we were crying with laughter and getting some funny looks from everyone else on the bus! Everytime the chicken sqwarked after that we were set off again. Turned out actually there were 3 of them, when he got of he just picked em up by their feet and carried them off like they were a plastic bag!
Sunday we went to a massive church service, it was.... interesting. They did some awesome singing and dancing but we were slightly dubious of some of the preaching! Several people from the school where becca has been working took us there and then out to lunch afterwards. Me and becca left early though and went home and had a 2 hour nap!! Once again we managed to talk all evening! Helped along by beans on toast provided by me and mini eggs from Becca!!
On Monday we went to Entebbe. Entebbe is another town about and hour away from Kampala where the airport is. We persuaded a hotel to keep my bag for me and went down to a Wildlife Sanctuary. After having been on safari it seemed pretty tame but it was fun anyway. The highlight was probably lunch, fish and chips African style. The plate arrives with literally a whole deep fried fish, head tail brains and all!! It was tasty though... And we went and paddled in Lake Victoria and some guy offered to take photos of us for us and took hundreds from every possible angle it was pretty funny!
And then came the sad moment we had to part and i zoomed off to the airport on a boda boda, enjoying the last of the heat and sun and beauty of Uganda! Entebbe airport... it's even more enthralling that Nairobi's. There are about 5 shops and an overpriced cafe and not even anywhere to get lost in to pass the time! But i survived and got home and wished i could go back again!
I feel like i've put loads in at the beginning and then rushed it all at the end, i always seem to do that sorry! Its because i run out of time!
