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My nightmare night out (19/03/2010)
It was a Friday, and after teaching and packing I was on my way, on my own, to Kampala. Molkie had gone earlier to again work at the surgery and Boz wasn't going so I caught a taxi into the city. I hung around on the internet and went to the post office, until Sophie and Molkie, who'd finished their work at the surgery, called from the New City Annex Hotel and I headed down. We chilled out as others arrived, getting ready to hit the town. We played music, got ready and drank a bit and were generally having a good time. We went to Ranchers for a late dinner and at about 11.30 headed to Iguana, the club we usually go to if we go out. It started off really fun, even though I was a bit bloated from Waraji (Ugandan spirit) and beer. I was holding onto some of Vic's money as well as my own. I checked my wallet pocket just out of habit and it was there so I continued dancing. 5 minutes later Vic asked for some of her money. I put my hand in my pocket and the wallet was gone. I felt furious at myself and whoever pickpocketed me. I was upset and felt stupid. I went outside and rang dad who rang me back. As well as the money, my bank card and project trust ID card was also in the wallet. He immediately cancelled the card and told me that I had to call the next day so that they could issue a new one. After talking to my dad then chatting to Shaun, I agreed to go back inside. I tried to forget about it for the time being and have fun, but I couldn't. Even though the thief was probably long gone, I kept looking around for anyone who looked suspicious and kept checking people's faces incase I recognised them to be people who had been dancing near us. We left at about 2.30/3 and went straight to bed.
21/03/2010
After sorting out my bank stuff the previous day and watching England narrowly lose to France in the rugby, I was delighted to be going to Rosie's house-sitting house. It was amazing! In one of the fanciest areas in Kampala. It had a HUGE garden, with a swimming pool, a proper kitchen and good food, a TV. It had it all. We chilled in the pool and made dinner, then watched how to lose a guy in 10 days (which was on TV) while eating. We then played hide and seek before settling down to watch Candy. It was like a proper sleepover back home! We chilled playing guitar and drinking tea in the kitched before finally going to bed.
23/03/2010
We went to school as per usual. I got a map of the world that I found in the staffroom and stuck it on the P6 wass, deciding that if they weren't going to give me a P6 textbook, I'd at least teach them something. So I taught them about the world they live in (I followed through later in the week by finding a my first atlas book and going through it all with them, which they seemed to really enjoy). It was good fun, but of course, having stuck it up using my blu-tac, I was then asked to stick a number of other posters around the school. When Molkie and I had finished teaching we decided that even though we hadn't yet painted the rooms, we needed to get our clothes out of our bags and into some sort of storage unit, because until then we'd always feel like it was just a holiday. We boda'd into Lugazi and bought food for dinner, then discovered a lovely little cafe that we've been to 3 times now. We're on first name terms with the workers already. After this, we bought two 4 level storage units, similar to the 3 level shelves I bought for our kitchen equipment. We got them for 16,000/= each and the man at the shop hailed some bodas. It was an interesting ride back, with the tomatoes for dinner tucked under my arm and the big storage unit sitting on my lap on this motorcycle, but we got back in one piece. We got all our clothes out of our bags and into the shelves, which felt great. My bag is now under my bed, where I hope it will stay until we leave. We made spaghetti for dinner and I had a shave afterwards before heading to bed.
I've been a bit lax on the journal front but the last few days haven't been that interesting so I'm gonna just leave it at that. A few notes about how I'm finding living here. I actually really enjoy cooking for myself. It's so rewarding lighting up the charcoal stove (we get the charcoal in the stove, tie up a plastic bag in a number of knots then light the bag with matches and let the hot plastic drip into the charcoals, which eventually light and after fanning get nice and hot) and spending ages reducing tomatoes cos we don't have tinned. Teaching is quite boring sometimes but I really enjoyed teaching P6 about the world this week even though I'm sure most of it went straight over their heads. It's a pain having to set everything up from scratch, from buying beds and storage to painting the rooms, but I can't imagine it any other way, and it's quite rewarding knowing that the hard work we put in this year will help future volunteers.
A few things I miss:
- Food. I'm missing it, but not as much as I used to seeing as, like I said, I enjoy cooking.
- Footy. Every time I'm on the internet I check Collingwood's website or the AFL website. I wish I could witness how we go this year, but I'll have to get by with highlight youtube videos when we're in Kampala.
- Friends. Obviously.
- Family. Of course. CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU TO VISIT MUM! Even though it's a while away.
- World news. I don't know what's been happening in the world since I got here except for a few odd news broadcasts and I didn't think I'd miss it but I hate being out of the loop.
There are other things I miss, but the important thing is I'm having the time of my life out here.
xx Ben
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