(The monkey with this blog is entirely irrelevant, in fact I have not even seen any monkeys whilst in Uganda.) The most exotic animal I have seen is a huge toad (and it was a big toad-a very big toad!) Anyway enough about toads-at the end of my last blog Naomi and I were just getting ready to head off to Kampala, to spend the weekend at James and Isabels with the other volunteers; who we hadn't seen for 5 weeks!

So firstly we had to get to Kampala, we used our first bit of public transport since we have arrived and it was a very interesting journey... We travelled to Kampala in a taxi (matatu) , they are kind of like smaller more shabby looking mini buses and are supposed to hold a maximum of 14 passengers. (They are also Japanese vehicles and not designed to carry people so all in all they are rather dangerous) Anyway the first one we got in we travelled for about an hour and at one point had a nice comfy fit of 24 people in the little vehicle-it was so full and also unbalanced as we were tilting rather nicely! Then we got to Mityana and were changed into an apparantly 'faster' and 'better' matatu. This 'better' matatu needed pushing in order to get it started, the driver and some other random men so helpfully pushed us onto the main road to get us started at the exact time that a huge truck was heading straight towards us. At the sight of the truck the men pushing the matatu (with us inside it) decided that they did not want to get hit by the truck as it would probably kill them, so they quickly scattered leaving us stranded in the middle of the road, in the direct pathway of the oncoming truck!! Luckily we continued to roll and the truck managed to slow down and avoid hitting us-phew!! After that highly traumatic experience two very little, very old and very very very drunk men, who were also in the matatu when the inicident occured, decided to pipe up about the stupidity of the men and continued to shout abuse at them (in Luganda) for the next hour of the journey! Occasionally we heard 'muzungu' and apparantly they were even more outraged that they had nearly got us killed with white people in the matatu!! Anyway, after they kindly departed the matatu the journey was fairly uneventful...when we arrived in Kampala it was very busy and also really smoggy. We eventually managed to get to Isabels and James' with the help of Paul-otherwise no doubt it would have taken much much longer. We were the last to arrive, at 6:50 and so we quickly erected our tent before it went dark. That night we all sat around, chatting away about our projects and our experiences and eating some damn good brownies, courtesy of James and Isabel.

Saturday we went swimming at the primary school that James and Isabels children attend. The contrast between that school and every other Ugandan school that we had seen was immense. The classrooms were full of colour and resources, the buildings were all properly built and of course there was a swimming pool!! The swimming pool was amazing it was so good to have a swim, in Uganda, with all the other volunteers. That night we met Dr d*** Stockley a white doctor who has lived in Uganda for 30 years and the man who we are to go to when we are sick. He is a very interesting man, highly frank and very funny depending on your sense of humour. He gave us a set of 7 rules that would keep us healthy in Uganda; rule number 1 was 'Akuna Matatu'-no matatu's, and he was very insistent on this. So on Sunday morning all us volunteers walked to the road at the top of James and Isabels and boarded various different matatus. It is impossible for us volunteers not to get in a matatu; if we did not use them then we would a) have to walk b)spend a lot of money or c) use boda bodas. I will take my chance any day in a matatu, rather than take a bodaboda. A boda boda is public transport, in the form of a little motorbike, usually driven by a drunken man with no helmets included! Ugandan traffic is chaotic. It is absolute mayhem! Imagine a drunk person with road rage-they all drive like that. There is no organisation, the rule is if theres a space, fill it. So, I will continue to choose matatus over boda bodas, as they just weave through the traffic trying to avoid getting hit!

After we left James and Isabels, Naomi, I, Molly, Justine, Sarah and Ashley all headed to the old taxi park to catch a matatu to Dr Stockley's surgery to buy Malaria tablets. The old taxi park is quite possibly the noisiest busiest place I have ever been, it is full of people, full of taxi's and full of dust! Anyway we successfully managed to get to the old taxi park and then to the surgery (after a bit of walking). At the surgery I got 300 malaria tablets 30000 ugandan shillings (about 9 quid)-Uganda is so much cheaper! From Mubende to Kampala (3 hour journey) it costs sh8000, which is just over 2 pounds!! Anyway, back to the malaria tablets: I am now on doxycycline, which is probably for the best as on the Saturday night at James and Isabels, I started hitting Naomi in the night because I thought she was an insect trying to bite me-she then said 'Becky what are you doing?!' -I realised my mistake, apologised and immediately fell back to sleep. When Naomi recalled the nights events to me in the morning I had completely forgotten it had happened! So yes, doxycyline is definitley a step in the right direction! Also thinking Naomi was an insect was not completely deranged and irrational, because during that night I got bit several times on my legs and they looked like red paint balling wounds and they have only just gone down and returned to a normal colour now! Some little bug definitley had a good munch on my legs!!

After buying the malaria tablets we headed back along the road to get matatus and go our seperate ways. The other volunteers were ahead of us and Naomi and I were walking behind by ourselves. We saw them walk past a lone man and they were laughing; (before I continue the story, bare in mind we were walking in the posh area of Kampala on a nicely constructed path and there was no one else about-very tranquil for Kampala) so, there we are, walking along innocently and as we pass the lone man, he spits a massive mouthful of water all over me!! I quite literally did not know what to do! So ended up pointing at him and shouting a few unkind words in English (which he probably didn't understand anyway). I was just so shocked!-stupid stupid man-we caught up with the other girls and filled them in on as to why my light grey T shirt had turned a darker shade! Molly was in hysterics and by this point so was I!

After that Naomi and I went back to the old taxi park to meet Paul; whilst we were waiting for Paul I got in a conversation with two Ugandan men..which ended up with the usual 'lets get married' to which I replied no because you are far too short! According to them that was not a valid reason as they both had 'stamina' apparantly-it was hilarious! Then Paul arrived and we went to Owino Market, where I got very excited and bought an excessive amount of Ugandan material, silk scarves and skirts and such like. We then had went and had food- I had 'Fish and chips' and it was a literal whole, fried fish-eyes and all. Then off home we headed.

During the weekend, both Naomi and I genuinley missed our project, we missed the kids at school and all the people that we live with and looked forward to going back home. Hearing other volunteers stories about having to live in a shed and sleep in the same bed and when it rains they get rained on, made us realise even more so, just how great our project at St Zoe is! Thats all for now x