I'm getting used to having a layer of brown dust on my skin. Every day that water, wet wipes and cotton balls that come off my skin are a red/brown colour. It's actually impossible to stay clean here.
There's talk of a brief trip to Rwanda next weekend. This would involve a night bus there on Friday, spending Saturday there, night bus on Saturday then straight to the airport on Sunday to get my flight home. I'll have to look at the timings and see if it's feasible. I had been considering going to Entebbe and flying to the chimp island, but at this stage I think I would just feel guilty about spending that kind of money on a leisure activity.
Last night it rained heavily. I could only lie awake thinking of the people we had met in the slums scrambling to save what little food they have.
We had quite a loose invitation from Ronald to come to church with him today. Being an atheist I avoided the question, but I kind of wish I had taken him up on it. Seeing a gospel church in action, where people celebrate rather than mourn their faith, would be quite an experience.
As I've been spending more time here I've been noticing more. I love that when you want to build a house in Uganda you literally do this from the Earth. You add water, form the resulting mud into a brick shape, stack in a tall pire with 2 tunnels running through and set fires inside them to set the bricks.
I'm also starting to pick up a little Luganda. Though my dialogue is limited to "hello, how are you?", "I'm fine", "thank you" and "that's ok", the reactions from Ugandans when any of us say these is priceless. Many burst out laughing, no doubt at our pronunciation. Some are surprise and ask where we learned this, others offer to give us lessons (not so subtle).
Taking full advantage of our second day off, we headed to Entebbe to the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, which is a kind of animal orphanage.There were monkeys, hyenas, rhinos, warthogs and various other African animals. There were signs to a giraffe, but the giraffe itself didn't seem to actually exist. The centre backs on to Lake Victoria, so were were able to sit by the lake and have lunch. It's amazing to see it stretch our as far as the eye can see. Apparently if you venture far enough out it's possible to not be able to see land in any direction. If you do this without navigation equipment, who knows which country you might end up int! You can't really swim in the lake due to crocodiles and diseases, but it was pretty to look at.
In the taxi on the way home a torrential downpour started. So quickly the dirt tracks turned into fast running rivers of mud. The taxi ceiling started dripping on me and as we went through a puddle my feet got wet. This caused me to look down and notice what looked like car part at sitting at my feet.This taxi conducted had crowded a particularly large amount of people into it making it feel even more unsafe.
Something that's really starter to stand out to me is the lack of gun safety. There are men with rifles everywhere in the city. Not only the police, but also private guards outside of every bank and money exchange. They seem so careless with their weapons it makes me nervous. I saw one today with his chin resting on the end of the barrel and another with his gun across his lap pointing out into traffic. I really do hate guns and this lax attitude towards them make it worse.
Seen/Happened Today:
There's talk of a brief trip to Rwanda next weekend. This would involve a night bus there on Friday, spending Saturday there, night bus on Saturday then straight to the airport on Sunday to get my flight home. I'll have to look at the timings and see if it's feasible. I had been considering going to Entebbe and flying to the chimp island, but at this stage I think I would just feel guilty about spending that kind of money on a leisure activity.
Last night it rained heavily. I could only lie awake thinking of the people we had met in the slums scrambling to save what little food they have.
We had quite a loose invitation from Ronald to come to church with him today. Being an atheist I avoided the question, but I kind of wish I had taken him up on it. Seeing a gospel church in action, where people celebrate rather than mourn their faith, would be quite an experience.
As I've been spending more time here I've been noticing more. I love that when you want to build a house in Uganda you literally do this from the Earth. You add water, form the resulting mud into a brick shape, stack in a tall pire with 2 tunnels running through and set fires inside them to set the bricks.
I'm also starting to pick up a little Luganda. Though my dialogue is limited to "hello, how are you?", "I'm fine", "thank you" and "that's ok", the reactions from Ugandans when any of us say these is priceless. Many burst out laughing, no doubt at our pronunciation. Some are surprise and ask where we learned this, others offer to give us lessons (not so subtle).
Taking full advantage of our second day off, we headed to Entebbe to the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, which is a kind of animal orphanage.There were monkeys, hyenas, rhinos, warthogs and various other African animals. There were signs to a giraffe, but the giraffe itself didn't seem to actually exist. The centre backs on to Lake Victoria, so were were able to sit by the lake and have lunch. It's amazing to see it stretch our as far as the eye can see. Apparently if you venture far enough out it's possible to not be able to see land in any direction. If you do this without navigation equipment, who knows which country you might end up int! You can't really swim in the lake due to crocodiles and diseases, but it was pretty to look at.
In the taxi on the way home a torrential downpour started. So quickly the dirt tracks turned into fast running rivers of mud. The taxi ceiling started dripping on me and as we went through a puddle my feet got wet. This caused me to look down and notice what looked like car part at sitting at my feet.This taxi conducted had crowded a particularly large amount of people into it making it feel even more unsafe.
Something that's really starter to stand out to me is the lack of gun safety. There are men with rifles everywhere in the city. Not only the police, but also private guards outside of every bank and money exchange. They seem so careless with their weapons it makes me nervous. I saw one today with his chin resting on the end of the barrel and another with his gun across his lap pointing out into traffic. I really do hate guns and this lax attitude towards them make it worse.
Seen/Happened Today:
- An ad for Nile Special: For Special People
- Super Thankyou Store
- Saw traffic lights today. First time since being here. They seem to have a "cross at your peril" setting where all the lights are on at the same time.
- A taxi with "God Help Me" printed across the wind shield. Quite apt.
- An open air blood drive, in the middle of an extremely busy roundabout in the city.
- Not for sale signs on loads of properties. Not sure what this is about.
- A shop with "cake and coffee" painted on the front of it. We went in and asked for cake, to be told that they only do fish...
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