(The picture is at a project in Bubaare, Kabale. One of the volunteers had their kids perform a nativity, so we all went to see it.)

Goodness me, it's been a while. I want to say that I've been too busy to blog...but in reality, the internet's so slow that when I actually get a chanve to come online, I spend all my time on Facebook doing this, that and the other. So, sorry. I'll try and do a little better from now on, eh?

Okay, so right now it's about half eleven at night, and I'm at Backpackers hostel in Kampala, hogging all the free internet to try and sort out my pictures and now to write this. I'm being attacked left, right and centre by mosquitoes, and I'm itching furiously at the bites they managed to give me last night. I'm trying to work out how to go about writing about what's been happening since a lot has happened since October. I'll give it a go though, but don't expect it to be very...fluent.

Right, so exams began on the 14th of November, and ended on the 17th. I ended up only having to invigilate one exam, and then I only had to mark another two. Marking's a little tedious, but it's more upsetting than anything else when you see mistakes being made that shouldn't have been made, especially since you spent many a class going over that very question. It wasn't all bad though, and I got through the marking relatively quickly. The invigilating was boring and I'd really like to never have to do it again.

Exams ended on the 17th, and then the next day, my partner and I were visited by our Desk Officer from Project Trust. It was...odd having someone from the UK around, and it was strange being able to talk about something other than Uganda. It was a really good day - the kids performed songs and dances for him that they had been practicing for the Parents' Day the following week.

After that, it was just a matter of watching the kids parcticing for Parents' Day and getting things sorted out for the holidays. Myself and the rest of the volunteers had two months worth of traveling to look forward to, and we'd been talking about where to go when, and sorting accomodation for Christmas and New Year at various places, so I was getting a tiny bit excited.

On the 26th of November, we (we being everyone minus four, because two of them live in Kabale, and the other two had gone down a few days earlier) began our first major travel to Kabale, which is right down south in Uganda. We were on that bus for nine hours, with only one real opportunity to go to the loo, and they almost left without me.
We arrived in the late afternoon. I was knackered and went to bed once I'd eaten.
The next day, we all split off into smaller groups, and hitched lifts to the Rwanda/Uganda border. Once through the border, we hitched again to the capital on an AIDS Awareness promotion busm which made for an interesting journery to say the least. We planned to only spend a day or two in Rwanda, and we ended up going to the Genocide Museum in Kigali, before some of us went back to Uganda. Some of us stayed in Rwanda for a little longer, and joined us back in Kabale a few days later.

On the 3rd of December, we all headed to Lake Bunyonyi, and I spent a week chilling out on Byoona Island. The place was beautiful, and the food was amazing. Just thinking about it makes me hungry. I'm blaming the food there for the belly I now have!

After Bunyonyi, we spent a few nights here and there around Entebbe, Kampala, Mubende and Mpigi. In Entebbe, we stayed two nights IN the zoo, in two bandas with giraffes, ostriches and zebras in the field right next to us. In Mpigi, we visited another project about an hour from the town, called Gombe. They dye their chickens pink there so that the birds of prey won't eat them. In Mubende, we visited yet another project. It's been really nice, seeing where the other volunteers are living and working. The eighteen of us are coming to stay at my project on the 2nd of January, and my host is really quite excited about it.

On the 22nd of December, we all got on a boat in Entebbe, and sailed for three hours before arriving on Banda Island. Banda is a tiny little island full of spiders, ants and some amazing birdlife. It's owned by a slightly strange German man named Alex, who always seemed to have spiders hanging from the peak of his cap, or caterpillars crawling about his beard. We ate our meals at a twenty foot table in a Swahili-style castle with bats flying about our heads, and on Christmas day we ate and drank by candle-light because there hadn't been enough sun to charge the solar batteries.
This Christmas has been one of the best I've ever had, I reckon. Swimming in the lake and generally chilling out in between meals and games of cards made for a realy lovely day. The lack of sun that day was certainly made up for on Boxing Day...I don't think I've ever been so burnt in my life. I went in the lake in my pyjamas, too, so I have some interesting tan lines.

That's about all up to now. We're hanging about in Kampala for a few days because we're meeting with our country reps tomorrow for a meal, and then we're going out in town to see this year off in style, and welcome the new year with thumping headaches.

I'll try not to leave it so long to my next blog...but I can't make any promises. This next month looks like it's going to be pretty busy.

Hope you all had a good Christmas, and I hope you have a go New Year!