After a long journey we finally arrived in Entebbe, Uganda in the early hours of Monday so after getting our entry visas and collecting our baggage we went to a backpackers for the first night. The next day we made the 40 minute journey to our representative Ian's house in a suburb of Kampala. The girls stayed in a guest house just across the road whilst the boys stayed in Ian's house. Over the next two days we got to know Ian and a Ugandan that works with Ian and shares the house with him called Eugene (who is like a second representative), got shown around Kampala and had our first taxi/matatu ride which was interesting. We decided halfway through our trip to Kampala that it was organised chaos, however by the end, we decided it was simply chaos!! We also got called mzungu (white person) for the first time and while coming from young children it is quite cute, it can be quite annoying coming from teenagers/adults who just want you to buy something…

After those first couple of days in Kampala we headed out to our individual projects. A man named Peter (who works for Bringing Hope) came to kampala to take us to Kaihura for the first time. We a got a coach as it was a 4 hour trip. It was a pretty uneventful journey apart from a woman who decided to take a very unhappy chicken with her which was making a lot of noise until it was put under her seat. Our house is lovely; it is quite large, is painted light blue and even has a porch. Our next door neighbour Eilis is really kind and will help us with any problems we have and generally look out for us.

Everyone in our village is so friendly and welcoming which is really nice and we only really get mzungu from the kids here. I'm teaching P4 English and science which is definitely challenging however I'm getting on with it and hope it will get easier soon. All the teachers at my school are lovely my head teacher Emmanuel is always happy to help as is Joselyne the deputy head and P2 teacher. Emmanuel even said the other day that while I was here he would be like my father so if there was anything I would normally ask my father I could ask him instead, which was really sweet.

I've had posho, rice and beans several times for lunch which is ok as the posho just kind of tastes of the beans which are quite nice. Everyone is really religious here and regularly invite me to church with them however it can go on for 4 hours and will be in Rutooro (the local language), so we are going to go to church with Eilis as she goes to one in English. Once I have learnt the language properly I will go to church with some of the teachers at my school. We are getting Rutooro lessons from Vincent, one of the teachers at St Mary's who is really good friends with Eilis and is so lovely. So I know a few basic words and have picked others from teachers at my school who teach me a few words here and there. It is a really hard language but I am determined to learn it as everyone speaks it unless they are speaking specifically to you and it would be really cool to come back and be able to speak another language (even if it is only spoken in this relatively small part of Uganda).

There aren't as many mosquitos as you'd imagine here although I have still managed to get bitten a few times (they especially love my legs…), however there are plenty of other bugs that have decided to make our house their home. The other morning we woke up to find around a hundred bugs, mainly cockroaches and (we think) flying ants, in our house. The problem with cockroaches is that if you sweep them/ squish them etc. their eggs are spread all over your house and then you'll keep getting more and more. So it was rather difficult to get rid of all the cockroaches. We doomed the ones in our hall and then picked them up in a tissue which took a while but they were only baby ones. Most of the other bugs were in our bathroom which was flooded, so they pretty much all drowned. Haha!! (Our shower drain is blocked and if you leave the toilet water on to long it also leaks, but it's all just fresh water, so nothing disgusting). We have also had a persistent frog, Harry the Hairy caterpillar and Niall the rat (we're going to borrow Eilis' rat trap).

We live in the St Mary's school compound which means there are constantly kids around as some board at the school. We also have 3 cows that wonder around outside our house and the school and several chickens that have occasionally tried to walk into our house…. There is a security guard that wonders around at night which is good, although probably not necessary.

Transport is, ummm, interesting…. We got our bags and ourselves up to our house from Kaihura (about a ten minute walk) by boda boda, which isn't that bad out in the country, however I don't think I'd get one in Kampala etc. as it is way too busy. We have been to Fort Portal a few times now which is actually a lovely city (nicer than Kampala) and our transport is usually a taxi/matatu which are normally completely packed. The other day we had 13 people and a baby in a 8 seater car. 4 people in the front of the car, 4 people in the middle section us four in the back and one man in the boot. We got pulled over by the traffic police and after the driver said hello, how are you etc. to the policeman, we were on our way again. We also pretty much always see baboons at a certain point on the side of the road on our way to Fort portal which is really cool.

Anyway, I better go. Sorry it has turned into a novel….

Long distance hugs xxxxxx