18th December- 29th December

Mubende-Kampala-Entebbe-Ssese Islands-Entebbe

After our relaxing few days we headed to Kampala for our next stage of travelling. On the 18th we ended up going to the 'This is Uganda Festival'. It had a proper festival vibe and was on a rugby pitch just outside the city centre. We saw Ugandan acts and ended up dancing away on stage which was really fun.On the 19th of December all 18 of us went for a lovely group meal at an Indian in Kampala, which was very nice. On the 20th I tried some butterscotch yoghurt which was nice and then we decided to attend a nativity play in the evening. We didn't really know what to expect and we rocked up at Watoto Church to find a huge building; we were slightly late. We didn't really know what to expect and we rocked up at Watoto Church to find a huge building; we were slightly late. We didn't really know what to expect and we rocked up at Watoto Church to find a huge building; we were slightly late and as we entered we got a huge shock. The place was huge and there was American guy on stage singing Silent Night. We got ushered upstairs to the next level and got perfect seats to view the stage, we had just sat down when a 200 strong choir in beautiful blue and gold entered the stage. Then the nativity began -it was amazing! The costumes were stunning, the dancing was brilliant and there were solos from some amazing singers. It was a nativity African style and it was the best production I have ever seen and it was free! On the 21st we headed to Entebbe Backpackers to be closer to our next destination. Entebbe Backpackers is really nice and has sofas and DSTV, we spent the rest of the day sat in front of the TV, watching the likes of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire', 'The Weakest Link' and an episode of 'Jonathan Creek' which was really good to us lot, who hadn't seen TV properly in a good 3 and a half months! During that night there was the worst thunder I have ever heard in my life, it sounded like we were being bombed (not so reassuring when your lying in a tent) rain, very heavy rain followed and in the morning we all woke up positively soggy. After attempting to dry ourselves and possessions we headed to the ferry port to get our ferry to the Ssese Islands.The 'ferry' was more like Noah's Ark to be quite honest, just a big wooden boat with a bench up each side, one down the middle and then an array of cargo at each end ranging from live chickens to a large cake. We met some lovely but rather crazy Ugandans on Noah's Ark, named Cockroach, Stalker and Edith; they gave me chewing gum and tobleroneJ Lake Victoria, which we were sailing across was huge, it looked like the sea. Three hours later we arrived on the Ssese Islands and then walked a 5 minute walk to the Hornbill campsite where we would be spending Christmas. The Hornbill Campsite was an interesting place, definitely looked like it had seen its day, but the beach was beautiful and the authentic wrecked boat was rather nice. The owner of the campsite was an interesting (and rather annoying) middle aged German called DIkka; he also owned a huge black great Dane called Shaka Zulu with a bald patch , that wandered around the campsite. Over the 22nd. 23rd and 24th we enjoyed swimming in the lake, playing catch the mango, throwing seaweed at each other; we also ate copious amounts of good food at the daily buffet. On the 24thDikka's pig woke us up with its squealing as it was being slaughtered for our supper. Every night we also enjoyed sitting around a cosy campfire and chatting away. Nothing much entertaing happened, Ashley dropped her phone down the long drop, oh and I snapped the hammock with some help from Gregg who insisted on trying to make me do a 360 in the hammock (which let's face it, was never going to happen). We also made paper chains and somehow ended up spending hours blowing bottle to the tune of 'Jingle Bells'.

Christmas morning we awoke to a lot of rain and it continued to drizzle until lunch; luckily we had morning entertainment planned…The morning entertainment was in the form of Secret Santa, the rule of which was you had to get something for 5000shillings (£1.50) from Owino Market. Under our little silver tree there were lots of presents wrapped in environmentally friendly wrapping paper-leaves. The secret presents were hilarious, there were several T-shirts including a lovely bright pink Winnie the Pooh one, the size of a tent for Naomi. I bought Molly a lovely little drum made from wood and animal hide, Rosie got some awesome 70's dungarees, Mikey some metallic, brightly patterned and very tight running shorts. There was also a bag of soda, a bunch of tobacco and some pipes. Naomi and I also did Christmas stockings for each other which we opened in front of everybody; Naomi's gifts included an afro comb, a tub of slime (lizard and spider inclusive), some glow in the dark make your own glasses, a drum pencil thing with shells on it, a chocolate bar and a really nice black top. Naomi's included: chocolate, chewing gum, safi (mango drink), crisps, a very pink purse, earrings and a much needed foot scrub (to be shared). After breakfast of pancakes and honey; Sarah, Molly and I decided to make some Christmas Crackers, which was quite a difficult task with limited resources. We sat in a tent with toilet roll tubes, advert pages out of a magazine, large leaves, scissors,first aid tape, chewing gum and mini percy pigs. By the end we had made 16 amazing little crackers, with party hat, percy pig, chewing gum and a joke! Personally my favourite joke was 'Whats short and stumpy and jumps around like a starfish'…'Naomi' (Molly thought of that joke). After lunch we decided to have a clothes race on the beach as the sum came out. We split into four teams and had to run along the beach putting leggings, woolly socks, boxers, bikini, neck scarf and woolly jumper on, as fast as we could. Our previously deserted stretch of beach all of a sudden became crowded with what seemed like the entire Chinese and Indian population of Uganda, who stood spectating our crazy antics and even filmed us! We then went into the lake and made a very impressive human pyramid; due to me being heavier than most of the boys I insisted being on a base, which I later slightly regretted after it collapsed multiple times. It was a very surreal Christmas on the beach and although it was amazing it was definitely not the usual Christmas. All day people kept getting phone calls form their family. On Boxing Day we made the journey on Noah's Ark back to the mainland. When we got to Entebbe Backpackers we all just relaxed again, watched back to back episodes of My Family for hours and then last year's Christmas Special of Outnumbered which was really lovely to watch together like a little family. On the 27th it was Mikeys Birthday, so we decided to go to The Entebbe Wildlife Education Centre, as he loves nature. I really enjoyed the Zoo, once again we walked around like a giant family; we were really close to the animals and the Zoo was quite quiet. I don't think I appreciated animals at all the Zoos I had been to before which was quite strange; I found the hyenas, crocodiles and chimps really amazing. The chimps especially were really funny; they started begging and bore such strong similarities to grumpy old men. There were also some roaming camels on the beach which was nice. That night before we went out, the bottle blowers performed 'Happy Birthday' which was pretty impressive. We then all went out for a Chinese, which was quite expensive but so, so yummy! Rosie and Justine also made a quiz, which had different sections including one about partners; Naomi and ours was 'what is the height difference in cm betweenNaomi and Becky'-the answer of which is 21cm! The next day most people headedback to their projects including Naomi and I.

Thats all for now x