I also thought i was going to have to say goodbye to people like kabito when we were leaving kaihura. Luckily though he has a visitation day at his school at the start of july so we will save goodbyes untill then, its fair to say i am dreading this...
After Kaihura we ventured down to the south of Uganda to a place called Kabale. It took us about 12 hours on a taxi to get there, driving through queen elizabeth national park we saw buffalos bathing in the mud beside the main road! Usually people see elephants crossing the road but unfortunatly we werent so lucky. We made our way to a small village that 2 other volunteers stay. It is much much more colder in kabale than anywhere else in Uganda. I was freezing my butt off most of the time! I found myself not even being able to walk and talk at the same time as my teeth got sensitive to the cold air! (managed to find some sensodyne in a supermarket though woohoo!) im not sure how im going to cope with scotland if im not coping with the cold in Uganda! The south of Uganda is also the most beautiful part of Uganda in my opinion. With so many rolling terraced hills, green foliage everywhere and beautiful lakes it was breathtaking!
While we were down in Kabale we visited the famous lake Bunyonyi. We got a boda from Kabale town to the lake. The boda ride was one of the most beautiful rides ive ever been on, going up such steep mountains and having the most amazing view of the place. When we got to the lake we went to a lodge/hotel on the bay of the lake. There we went to the jetty that set off into the lake and went swimming. Although it was seriously cold i couldnt face going in! you would have never thought i went swimming in the sea in scotland! we also decided to go gorilla trekking while we were down in the south!! At the time we were there it was low season so everything was half price, we thought if we were going to do it it was now or never!
We organised it with a company who were so helpful and all travel, accomodation, food, and gorilla trekking was included. The night before gorilla trekking we stayed at 2 volunteers place. They work at a special needs school where i was given a sign name (rubbing your fingers on your chin)
The next day we headed to Kabale town to set off gorilla trekking! It took us around 3 hours to get from Kabale town to the place we were going to be staying. The road was the worst road ive ever been on, so many pot holes, we were being chucked around in the car! It was also very windy and reminded me of the scenic route from achiltibuie to lochinver! We arrived at the lodge at around 7pm we were pretty nackered from travelling and had an early start in the morning so went straight to bed.
On the 21st of May was gorilla trekking day! We woke up at 6 and had breakfast before setting off in the car to the UWA office to check passports, go over the trek etc. When we got there we met our trekking team, shaba was our leader and we had 2 guys with guns incase the gorillas got vicious and a porter called james who carried one of our bags and helped us on the tricky parts of the trek (he was a life saver!) After having a quick brief on the family of gorillas we were going to track we headed of in the car. Within 5 minutes we were out and ready to start our trek. We were also given sticks to help us which was very very helpful! To get to the gorillas it took us about 2 hours trekking down a seriously steep valley. At some points shaba had to get out his machete and hack down the foilage so we could get through it. We crossed rivers, climbed up rocks and everything else! However it didnt seem like long until we had arrived at the gorillas. 10 meters away we dropped off our bags and headed towards the gorillas. Within seconds i could hear grunting literally cm's away from me. My heart was beating so fast it was unreal! then suddenly i could see 2 gorillas grooming one another from fleas. They were literally a couple of meters away from us! They were not bothered in the slightest by us however. The guys did say not to make eye contact with them, not going to lie sometimes i did catch their eye! haha Then a baby gorilla came out of nowhere and was so playful, rolling around grunting (the guys grunted back which is a way of communicating with them) then suddenly it grabbed my legs to play! His grip was not vicious at all and was merely wanting to play but still my legs were like jelly! Then when i was crouched down he came right up to me grabbed my arms and my legs again and started to roll around the floor beside me! It was unreal! Then if that wasnt enough suddenly out of nowhere i Humungous silver back gorilla came out of the trees and strode right past us. If i had bent my knees they would have touched him! I could not beleive it, he was so big and dominant looking you could tell he was the boss of the group. We were only allowed to be there for 1 hour so we spent most of them time ogling at how human like they are. The silver back would be checking out his nails, relaxing in the shrubbery it was so interesting! It was such an experience knowing that there was literally no boundaries between us and the gorillas. We were able to get so close to them it was fantastic! defintily one of the best things ive done in Uganda! Then once the hour was over (which didnt seem like long) we trekked back up the valley. This was a killer as we were literally climbing up a vertical valley! I dont know how they do it everyday but at the top we were all nackered! It felt like it wasnt going to end! We were releived we didnt have to do that steep walk on the way there as well! Once we got to the top we got a car back to the UWA office and there we were presented with our gorilla trekking ceritifcates which will definitly be getting framed on the wall!
After gorilla trekking we stayed the night in Kabale town for one night. The next morning we had to wake up ridiculously early to get the post bus back to kampala then a taxi to our village. The bus took about 8 hours, it was such an odd feeling being on a bus after not being on one in 8 months! I was getting flash backs of the bus from inverness to edinburgh! haha
That evening we had finally made it to our village. It was so exciting being back as it felt like we hadnt seen everyone is so long! Driving past myanzi on the boda we saw everyone and got waves off everyone and "kuli kyo!" (spelling is wrong my bad) We also stopped in myanzi to get a good old ronald rolex which was by far the best one weve had so far! out of all of the rolex's in uganda ronalds is the winner!
Then we were back on the boda to our small village! When the boda pulled up at our house zaina, nakiwala, benedee, benita, amina, site, sajay and kassuja all came running to us for big hugs! It was soo lovely seeing them all, i had missed them over the holidays! We had also passed charles and fred our teachers on the boda and they were very happy to see us also. We also saw annette at our house another teacher who gave us a big hug and said we had been missed. We also came back to the brick building of the school which had been painted! It was being painted the uniform colours of white, orange and burgundy. It looked alot better than the grey thats for sure. I also went over to marias to see sara and tallemwa and others, as soon as i saw sara she slipped on her butt in a huge puddle of mud, to try and supress laughter while helping her up was very difficult, man i missed that girl! She also then told me that Deo was sick as when they were putting the windows and doors on the school a spark had hit him in the leg. It then must have gotten infected as now his leg was ginormous! We went to go see him and my god ive never seen a leg so big! He said he was getting injections from myanzi but they werent working. Puss was literally running down his leg, it was pretty gross. Later on that week though he got a boda to mityana (the boda was very late though as he was dropping off a cow in the next village.. only in uganda!) there in mityana he was admitted to a hospital in mityana where he stayed for a week. He is now perfectly better, still hobbling a little, but his leg is now normal size! He said that he cant use his stick anymore because the doctors think he will become dependent on it...
On the 26th of May was our first day of teaching! Its hard to beleive that we are now in our third and final term of teaching. Literally have no idea where the time has gone... This term we are again helping out in baby class and doing p1 drawing and shading. We also still have the roles of secretaries of the school so we are spending alot of this term organising behind the scenes of the school. As there are no other volunteers coming after us we want to try and make the school as sustainable as it can be. At the start of school as the brick building was being painted the p2 and p3 couldnt be in the brick building, so both of the baby classes had to be crammed into one classroom. This meant that there wasnt enough desks for all of the babies. So work had to be done in rounds. One group would do their work on the table, then once they were finnished they would move to the floor and the next group would do their work on the table. It was pretty hectic thats for sure! Baby green class have this term started to practice writing "Today is _____, my name is _______ i am in baby class" so we have been spending time helping them write letters, and try guide them on how to space out their letters etc. I spent alot of time with a kid called Nsamba. He was so determined to finnish writing the sentences and when he finnished he had the proudest smile on his face! It was priceless.
Our baby blue teacher Edith is heavily pregnant at the moment. Literally think shes going to pop any day now! So Jess and I took a couple of her lessons which as always was mental. If your in baby class on your own you walk out of there feeling a little emotionally fragile! haha
Edith has now left finally for maternity leave. We told her that she has to take her baby in as soon as shes given birth so we can help look after him/her! We are very excited for her to come back! The woman who lives up the road from us gave birth to twins, Nakato and Babirye. They are adorable and i held Nakato one afternoon and sent him to sleep with some classic lullabies! He was adorable.
30th May alot of the volunteers decided to go to Kampala to go to the Uganda cranes vs Madagascar match! We all had our Uganda cranes tshirts on and as we walked past people, they would thank us for supporting the cranes. We got bodas from the safari lodge to the stadium. It was crazy! the whole place had such an amazing atmosphere! as we were driving the bodas were honking their horns. Other supporters came past with vuvuzelas and whistles shouting and singing their heads off it was brilliant!
When we pulled up to the stadium, straight away people came running up to us painting our faces and arms! I had just stepped of the boda and i was covered in the uganda flag! Then we walked up to the stadium on route to the stadium we had so many photos of us taken and were even in a tv shot where some guy was presenting the football game! once we were in the stadium we got our seats and waited for the game to begin. People were dancing round in conga lines singing and chanting and then when the cranes ran out onto the pitch there was a huge uproar and everyone was cheering and going crazy for the cranes! It was so much fun! Soon enough the game started and within 10 minutes the cranes had scored a goal! As you can imagine the whole uganda side were jumping up and down and going crazy! it was hillarious! Then throughout the game they would all get so into it, im not really into football back in the uk but i was loving this game! Soon enough it was the end of the game Uganda cranes had won!!! the whole place was ecstatic! everyone was hugging jumping up and down people were running around the crowd beating drums it was brilliant! We left the stadium on such a high! The boda ride back was brilliant as all ugandans were ontop of the world, including us!
After this weekend we came back to the village and deo had told us he and everyone else in the village had seen us on the tv! It also turned out we were on the newspaper the caption being "foreigners, in love with the cranes support their team!"
So that has been May! Its been a fun month full of weird and fun experiences! Now we are into June and time is slipping away from us! less than 2 months now i will be back in the uk freezing my butt off, so for now i will enjoy the sun and make the most of every minute I have left here!
