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Day 4 - Friday
After another good night's sleep Lib and I woke up for breakfast and met everyone at the breakfast table. Annette came in and told us that 3 new gap year students had arrived at 2am from Hampton School in London, she told us that she would wake them up for breakfast and to say hello. Joe, Dom and Ollie came in and introduced themselves and despite the fact that they must have been exhausted they stayed and chatted to us for ages and it was clear that we would all get on really well! Lib and I decided that we wanted to experience the infamous Ugandan Market experience to but in some fresh fruit and veg so we called Cathy to ask for her advice so that we didn't get 'Muzungu prices'. In the end, Cathy said that she would accompany us to the market to show us the ropes! The market was absolutely amazing- it had such a fantastic buzz and sold everything from batteries and bongos to bananas. After buying papaws, passion fruits and an unnamed fruit, which Lib named Sweet Fruit, we went to Cathy's house again and she gave us a basket to put our fruit in and I had my first skin-to-skin contact with a cockroach in the car. When Lib and I returned we decided to head to 'Flavours' for a bite to eat…but their smoothies were not a patch on 'Indulge' so we went there after to make use of the Wi-Fi.
When we returned we met Marianne and Tom who had arrived 2 weeks earlier. They had returned from their project in a village called Lugazey as they do building work in a village every 3 weeks. They seemed absolutely lovely and told us about how they had to eat platefuls of food as that was all the locals had to give and it was insulting to leave any on your plate. Marianne also told me that she had to strip naked with one of the ladies from the village and splash cold water over her to wash! So our shower experience wasn't too bad! Despite the fact that lib and I had promised ourselves we would attempt to cook that evening we convinced ourselves that we had to take the new guys out and show them Jinja, so again cooking was held off! All ten of us went into Jinja on bodabodas and to Flavours where I had lovely vegetable pasta and we met the rather strange Benji. After that we all headed to Spot 6! And bought in a round of beers with the change we got from paying for the meal. After that we moved onto Babez - apparently the place to go for prostitutes in Jinja! Luckily none approached us! We stayed there until about 12.30 and then hopped on a boda home.
The new and final arrivals Jenny and Conner were waiting for us back at the guesthouse as was the fridge which Joe and Lib had beautifully decorated with all our names spelt in fridge magnets (well mine was Livy with a backwards k for the l, but close enough!). Conner and Jenny must have been pretty overwhelmed by 10 slightly drunk, rowdy teenagers invading the house but they seemed really sweet. We then all sat down to watch Mama Mia with everyone and then, finally at bout 3.30am climbed into bed.
Day 5 - Saturday
Miles, Rachel and Sophie had been invited to a local girl's graduation which apparently is a far bigger deal in Uganda than even a wedding! We were told that the truck would pick us up at 4.30 so we decided that we would just chill at the guesthouse during the day and go to the supermarket to pick up some supplies for communal cooking. EVERTHING - milk, meat, beers, wine, pasta, rice, toilet roll, sauces… cost us just 19,000 shillings each - about £6.00! After a drink in Indulge, we all loaded onto bodas, shopping in hand and returned to the guesthouse for some sunbathing in the boiling heat. 4.30 came around very quickly and we all got really dressed up - guys in shirts and ties and girls in dresses- for the graduation extravaganza. We arrived at the gradation half way through mass- which I thought would seem a bit rude but people arrived all thought the evening and there was quite obviously no consensus on arrival time. After mass we were told to mingle and speak to someone we didn't know so I shook hands and exchanged names with many a friendly Ugandan.
Then for the speeches. Oh dear Lord. We had heard about the Ugandan partiality to a good long speech, but what came next was still not expected. Speeches were scheduled from the graduate's teachers, her parents, her guardian graduates, Claire herself and the 'Guest of Honour'. However, we soon realised that "parents" meant the whole family extended 40 times over and she had what seemed like 4 mothers. EVERYONE got a mention and I mean everyone - even Lib and I and the other gap year student had to stand up for applause! (We had never even met Claire), and the family doctor got a thanks for keeping them alive. We eventually had to go out for supplies as we were all parched. However Lib was unsuccessful in her endeavour as when she sat down with her beer, the man behind her tapped her on the back and asked for it. I thought he just wanted a sip but it turned out he felt it was his to keep and she never saw it again. The speeches went on for what seemed like forever but what was in fact 4 hours. Eventually everyone drifted off to get much needed food and left the last speaker -the supposed 'Guest of Honour' to give his speech to a somewhat shrunken crowd. The food was nice and we had our first taste of traditional cooking but the meat was a bit strange looking and as Sophie commented 'It looks like a dead animal' which I pointed out it was!
Then we English took to floor and showed the Africans how it was done! Everyone really came out of their shells and got really got into the African dancing spirit. A little girl called Trisha really took a liking to me and followed every single dance move I did. However I was slightly worried when her mother was nowhere to be found for several hours and seemed to want me to look after Trisha when I tried to give her back. Tom and Marianna showed us some pretty impressive dance moves and I think Joe attempted break dancing but I can't be sure. Our driver tied to get us to go home at midnight but we weren't finished yet and stayed for another hour and afterwards Tom managed to scrounge two lifts into Jinja and the nightclub 'Sombreros'. It was 5,000 shillings (£1.80) to get in and it played a mix of chart and African music. The toilets as in most bars were absolutely rancid but apart from that it was actually really good and we all danced until abut 3am when we decided we would go home for some tea and chat. Sophie and Rachel rescued that cat (Tabby or Greg his name changes daily) which they realised at the graduation had been locked in their room! We all ended up sitting in Lib and my room as it's the biggest and best and chatted for an hour when we finally crashed (Lib fully clothed and make-up intact).
- comments
emma i stayed in jinja i like the way girls celebrate thier graduation, locals told me its hard for agirl child to study down there, u have reminded me of these nightclubs and bars and how these people have plenty of food and vegetables plus fruits at acheap price