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I'm not entirely sure where I was up to with the last blog and I can't really look back and see because the internet is SHOCKING tonight and I can't do a lot with it. Therefore, I'll just write as much as possible and hope that I've covered most of what has been done! So, a few weekends or so ago, Sophie and I had the Fort Portal girls to come and stay with us. What was supposed to have been 3 of them had actually turned to 4 since they have now been joined by Carolien. On the Saturday morning of their arrival, Sophie and I went into Mubende to meet and greet them. 2 of the Senior 3 students, Damien and Aggrey decided to come along with us. On the taxi into town Aggrey told me to get off just before we reached the town. I thought this was slightly odd but did so anyway. We got off the matatu and found that we were at Aggrey's dad's posho factory. So bizzare. (Just need to mention at the time of writing this I've just sat and watched a cockroach eat a fairly large bit of paper. did you know cockroaches ate paper???) Anyway, at the posho factory we met Aggrey's dad. Nice man. Aggrey then went off to get a car to drive us about in the town with. It did start to occur to me that we were 'hanging out' with our students. Such a strange morning. Anyway, pretty soon our fellow volunteers had arrived in our neck of the woods so we told them to stay at our favourite Indian supermarket where we would meet them. Aggrey then drove us all up to the Saturday Market where we all had a fairly quick skeg at the items up for grabs. I bought my first African t-shirt, I didn't know how much I should be paying and whether they were ripping me off but it was such an incredibly hideous top that I didn't really mind how much I paid for it. The rest of the weekend included showing the girls our school and laaaarvely home and eating hideous amounts of food. On the Sunday we then dragged the girls to school for Sunday mass which was some kind of special do, because it lasted around 3 or 4 hours.. Soon after the girls departed and once again Soph and I were left alone in each others company. The following weekend was the 5 week mark, and therefore KAMPALA induction date! Each and every one of the Uganda volunteers were to meet up at MAF Guest House to see how we were all getting on. Liam, Sam, Sophie and myself all decided to go on the Thursday night so that we got a much longer weekend in the Capital. Plus we were able to get the good bedrooms at the guest house and didn't have to worry about fighting for them on the Friday. Getting to where we were sleeping was less than fun, even Paul was unable to find it. Eventually, after catching my very first boda boda ride we managed to arrive at MAF. On the Thursday night we all decided to go for some food at 'Coffee at last' - weird name, but good food. We had a pizza each and a chocolate brownie between us. We then went back to the guest house where Sam created some quite entertaining music videos to Eminem and Tinie Tempah whilst Sophie and Liam sat and acted out baby stories. Not quite sure what kind of an effect Uganda is having on us all but our nights are becoming more and more bizarre? The following day, the four of us went off into Kampala to Garden City whilst the rest began to arrive at MAF. I can't actually put into words the experience we all had at Cafe Javas. We spent a good few hours during and after eating our burgers fighting back tears of joy at how amazing the food was. And the desert... arrr can't even begin to explain. Once everyone had arrived, we met the famous Doctor Stockley for the first time. He went through the 7 rules with us in detail which were something along the lines of: Use common sense, get Bilharzia... it's not a big deal, transport will kill you and make sure you don't get AIDS. Plus many many more inspirational tips. After our interesting but traumatising conversation with Doc Stock we then decided we would give Kampala clubbing a whirl. We decided to meet up with Paul who told us to go to Iguana. I have never stayed in one place for the whole night on a night out before, nor have I danced the whole night and found myself still dancing at 5am. Clubbing in Kampala was a very good experience, we were all slightly worse for wear by the morning but it was clear sings of a good night surely? On the Saturday we spent the day at the American club swimming and eating and on the night we all decided to stay in. We spent Sunday deciding on the things we would be doing over the next couple of weeks as well as thinking of a time we can discuss the holidays. Before departing from one another we decided we would have to go back to Cafe Javas and show everyone what all the fuss was about. The weekend after induction, Sophie and I decided to pay the Mianzi (not sure how to spell that) volunteers. We left on the Saturday and were home by the Sunday however we still managed to get quite an experience from their project. Quite differently to ourselves, Beth and Jessie have only one room which is their whole accomodation. They use a long drop and share a bathroom with the locals (one which they say they haven't seen any of the locals actually using). We spent most of our time there cooking soup. It was very nice to be eating vegetables once again after a week of eating sweet potato and irish potato and posho. The weekend which has just passed was spent in Kyenjojo with the whole of the group once again (minus Beth P and Fern). Again Soph and I decided to go on the Thursday night to make more of a weekend of it. We arrived at around 7 oclock and the girls had already prepared a meal for us. We had a nice chilled night on the Thursday and went to bed at a reasonable time. On the Friday Soph and I visited their schools. We first of all went to St Mary's where Carolien and Elspeth are working and met a few of the teachers there. One of them I have forgotten the names of, but I remember him because he has a really big love for adjectives. ("It is so fantastic, so amazing, so sweet, so lovely that you have come to visit!") We then took a brief tour of Pheobe's school, and then made our way to Rhona's school where we had our posho and beans for lunch. On the Friday night the others all began to arrive apart from Bex and Abby and Richie and Will (and a another girl they have met at their projects) who were arriving the following day. On the Friday night we all decided to have a few drinks and after 2 bottles of gin... I woke up in the morning. On the Saturday we all went to 'Mountains of the Moon' hotel in Fort Portal to get some lunch and go for a swim. I had beef fagitas which were absolutely amazing and it pains me to write about them because I feel like I can still taste them now... Although it was a slightly cloudy day and it rained we still had a lovely afternoon swimming and sitting by the pool. On the Saturday night I decided to take up kitchen duties while everyone else got merry because lets face it, I didn't want any alcohol. Ever again. Beth C and I prepared a lovely tomato and noodle soup with strips of chapatis for everyone. I have to say it was a great success. On the Sunday, I was very smug with a clear head whilst everyone else was nursing hangovers. We were all departing by about 2 oclock and on our way back to our projects. This weekend we will be paying Beth and Jessie another visit and joined by the majority of the other volunteers where we will be having a halloween party. The weekend after we have something planned but I won't say incase the person reads this and I ruin everything. You will be sure to find out in my next blog, so goodbye for now!
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Sam Harris are you planning on suprising me next weekend meg! what are you like!
Meg surprising you?? xx