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Tuesday-Day 1
So I finally arrived in Entebbe after two relatively pleasant plane journeys, two reasonably good films, three takes off and three landings (we had to stop in Addis Adebba as well), one gin and tonic and a variety of bizarre plane food. The heat hit me as soon as I stepped off the plane; not a rain cloud in sight. After a slight kerfuffle at immigration ("You stay here for too long!!") and a huge sigh of relief as my bags came into sight on the conveyor belt, I was ready to start my long anticipated stay in Uganda. Livy and I finally met up with Charles and Cathy, teachers from Wanyange Girls' School and their friend who was driving us. Charles sat in the front, while Cathy, Livy and I squished in the pack. The journey was pretty uneventful, although rather uncomfortable; Cathy asked questions about our visit to Uganda and pointed out all the different towns and districts along the route from Entebbe to Jinja. When we arrived in Jinja, Cathy took us to the Mayfair Cafe and bought us a traditional English dinner-Fish and Chips- Uganda style, which turned out to be a whole fish deep fried. Let's just say it tasted a whole lot better than it looked. The banks were all shut by the time we arrived in Jinja, so Cathy kindly bought dinner. Arriving at the guest house seemed surreal after the mammoth journey from Manchester; Annette the friendly housekeeper showed us to our room on the ground floor. Thankfully the room didn't have bunk beds and although basic was very clean and welcoming. By this point we were shattered and rather sweaty, but we decided to unpack as best we could so as not to have a lot to do in the morning. Livy and I are the first of the gap year students to arrive, so we have a few days to settle in before the other "gappers arrive". Annette showed us around the guest house, before sternly warning us that no "Ugandan friends" are ever allowed in our rooms due to problems in the past. The cost of the guest house is 18,000Ush a night, which is about £6. Cathy wished us good night, gave us her phone number and told us to call her if we had any problems, before arranging to meet her at 9.30 the next morning. After a mammoth unpacking session, Livy and I showered and then soon fell sound asleep. Sleeping under mosquito nets is actually strangely soothing and the beds are relatively very comfy. Although Livy has decided my mattress is thicker than hers.
Wednesday - Day 2
The alarm woke us at 8.00 after a very restful night's sleep, despite my very annoying cough. After showering and having a little debate about to wear, (I opted for a long skirt and a t-shirt) Livy and I ventured to breakfast, which is included in our nightly room rate. We were slightly disappointed as it consisted of hot water, tea bags and some uht milk, some dubious looking bread and a varying selection of very old looking spreads. Not quite the fresh fruit and juices we'd been promised, but once we sat down we were provided with some fresh pineapple, which unfortunately was so sweet it made me gag. Needless to say I didn't end up eating much at breakfast. Cathy came to pick us up in the school van, with a driver and her absolutely adorable son. She told us that we'd be going to Wanyange Girls' School to meet the Headmistress, Proscovia. Obviously Livy and I were very excited at the prospect at meeting the lady who we'd been emailing for so many months and who'd helped orchestrate our whole visit.The trip to Wanyange was pretty hair-raising, up a very steep and uneven hill. Once we got there, our reception was very welcoming. The girls are still on holiday but some teachers and maintenance staff were there and were all very pleased to see us! Meeting Proscovia was truly wonderful; she is a remarkable woman who greeted us with such joy and enthusiasm. Proscovia asked us about which lessons we'd like to teach and how many days we'd like to teach for. At the moment we decided on working at the school Wednesday to Friday taking two sets of students teaching them 6 lessons of English each (Livy is doing half English, half music).A lesson is 40 minutes, but they have double and even triple periods! Proscovia is also very keen on us taking some sport lessons as well (joy) and said that I would be able to get involved in drama. We met the director of studies, a very friendly man, and the head of English, a friendly woman, and we were good to go. I think both Livy and I were shocked at how organised Proscovia was in organising for us to teach at the school. Jemima has to be thanked for putting in place this incredible link between Withington and Wanyange. After our meeting Proscovia invited us to her house on the school grounds to treat us to some freshly squeezed orange juice. She was, like Cathy, very concerned about my worsening cough and decided some vitamin C would do me good. Proscovia's house had beautiful views onto Lake Victoria and was nicely furnished even with a few things to remind us of home, like hobnobs and a pictures of Mrs Pickering, whom she loves!
We got the school van back down the hair-raising hill and got slightly covered in dust in the process. Cathy took us to the Bank so we could exchange some dollars. Earlier that morning Annette had given Cathy the invoices of our stay at the guest house; we asked Cathy how much they were for so we could find out how much money we needed to change-to our shock and ultimately delight Cathy informed us that Proscovia and Wanyange were going to pay for our accommodation. Once we'd gotten over the initial feeling of guilt at the School paying for us, Cathy explained that it was just ridiculous to ask us as students to pay so much money and Wanyange were happy to do so. This has obviously saved us a lot of money and has left us with limitless opportunities as to what we can do in the school holidays. After we went to the supermarket and stocked up on a few necessities, such as toilet paper and a little bath mat for our room. We told Cathy we would like to get a mirror for our room, but she kindly offered to lend us one of her spares for our time in Jinja.After shopping we got our first boda boda (taxi motorbike) to Cathy's house to get our trusty mirror and to meet the rest of Cathy's family, who were just as lovely as she is. Cathy asked us what kind of food we would like for lunch and due to the overbearing heat we decided on sandwiches (we haven't really ventured onto local food yet). Indulge turned out to be a lovely very western cafe that serves gorgeous juices and loads of sandwiches it even has free wifi! My lunch turned out to be a disaster as hummus here is apparently peanut butter, but you live and learn. After lunch Cathy dropped us back at the guest house and again told us to call her if we had any problems. I read on the patio for a bit while Livy called home.Livy and I decided to go back to the cafe where we had lunch to take advantage of the free wifi. We set up Livy's blog and I managed to use Skype to speak to my Mum and ping worked on my phone so I could contact Rick for free. People who have Skype we definitely need to work out a way where we all meet up online and have a big catch up! We then decided we'd like to chill by the Nile so with the help of our waitress we got boda bodas to the adrift campsite, home of the Nile High bungee jump and the river rafting. We got a bottle of beer (a new experience for me) and sat and watched the sunset over the Nile which truly was breathtaking. After the sun went down, Julius-the friendly raft guide, called boda bodas for us and we headed back to the guesthouse. After a quick change and freshen up we decided to go to 2 friends for pizzas. At night we decided it was better to both go on one boda boda as although squished, it is arguably a lot safer. Our meal was very tasty and there was only a slight trauma of Livy getting the wrong wine, much to her dismay. The day ended on a high and we were both exhausted from the day's activities. It felt weird to think that we'd only been in Jinja for one full day; we seemed to have settled in quickly.
- comments
Robin do i need to know exactly what a "boda boda " is and more importantly how safe it is !!!!! keep having fun love mum xxx
dad lib. fantastic blog, it really brings it to life, i feel like i am there, i hope you can keep this up. please look out for crocs
Rick Good read! Keep it coming! Needs more pictures!!!!! xx
Georgia This sounds absolutely awesome lib! Makes up for the past few months waitressing, definately beats uni any day. Keep having fun, stay safe xx
Niamh Sounds really cool!! Love the classic Livyisms such as the mattress and the wine, trust her to be like that about her order.. she isnt in selfridges anymore!!! Also I appreciate the "Ugandan friends" comments.. ha ha ha Its so nice of them to pay for your accommodation! Love you! send my love to Princess Olivia XX P.S Im expecting a really interesting present when you return by the way xxx
Caz i'm so impressed you've set this up! all sounds really good, glad you've both settled in, keep posting! lots of love to you both xxx
Lever Sounds brilliant! We got more snow today so was very jealous to read about your very hot weather with no clouds in sight! The hummus comment, and Livy's wine comment, hilllarious. Love you both, stay safe and make sure you keep speaking to your mum Bibs!! x