Spam & Spam on safari

This weekend me and the Norwegian girls have been on a safari to Murchinson falls national park in northwestern Uganda -and it was GREAT! We were picked up at our hostel early Friday morning by Tony, our guide that we met when we were in Fort Portal. The drive to the national park took about 5 hours and when we got there we first went to see the Murchinson waterfall. It was very nice and refreshing to see some splashing water after we've been sitting in a hot car on dusty roads half the day. After the waterfall we went to Red Chilli, which was the camp where we'd stay for the weekend. It was so quiet and nice there and nighttime there were soooo many stars to look at. It was also then, in the evening when I was looking at all the stars, that I realised that I'm still in the northern hemisphere...Embarrasing...Someone hasn't checked the map properly before she left Finland...I thought all the time that I was on the other side of the equator...Anyway, the camp was very nice. It had wild warthogs running around there and you could either stay in a tent or a house. To my surprise we got to stay in a house (I didn't really know what we were going to do and see, I just went along on the trip). The house was nicer than Akamwesi -our home in Kampala. Nice beds with mosquito nets, couches both inside and outside on the porch and CANDLES. That comes very handy when the electricity is turned off at midnight. That evening we were all in a good mood, we had a couple of beers and I even went out hippo-spotting at night before I went to bed. But I didn't see any :o(

The next day we had to get up eeeaaaarly in the morning while it was still dark. Urk!After a quick breakfast, we had to rush to the ferry that would take us over to the other side of the Nile, which is dividing the national park into two parts. It almost felt like home when we rushed to the ferry :o) I liked it how they drove the ferry. It was very small and when it was about to pull up on the other riverbank it didn't slow down, instead it just drove a bit faster until it hit the shore and slided up on land. I wonder if it would work to do the same with the Bergo-ferry...? After this the safari began and we saw lots of baboons, elephants, different kinds of antilopes, giraffes, the national bird of Uganda (I don't remember the name of it...) and other birds, but NO lions. We drove around for maybe 1h just trying to find the lions, but they were very good at hiding. Eventually, we gave up and drove back to the camp to have lunch.

In the afternoon we went out on the Nile river with a boat to look at hippos and crocodiles. We saw lots of hippos and some crocodiles. I like hippos and giraffes, they're cute! To me it would have been ok if the boattrip had lasted only 1h, that's how much time you need to see hippos. After that it feels like you've seen them all...But, the boattrip didn't last 1h, it lasted 3,5 h and it was sunny and hot and we run out of water. It was B-O-R-I-N-G. Our guide was with us and I had to ask him if he goes out on the boat every time he's there with some people (I thought it would be crazy if he did) and he said NO! He never does the boattrip because it's too long and too hot. He must have really liked us, since he came out on the boat with us. When the boattrip was finally over we went back to the camp, slightly dehydrated, tired and laughing hysterically at everything and nothing. That evening we were a little bit more quiet than the night before and we all went early to bed.

Sunday morning we didn't do anything special. We just got up and went back to Kampala -home sweet home, with all the cars, noise and dust. I really enjoyed the whole trip, although we didn't get to see any lions. To me it didn't matter, whatever I saw was new to me and it was all very beautiful. If only the trip could have lasted a little bit longer.

Yesterday I had to go back to school. Now I feel that we're starting to get a bit more busy, I don't like it. It's been good so far, it has felt as if I've been on a long holiday. Today I'm happy, because it's a public holiday again :oD It's the end of ramadan and all the muslims are celebrating it and therefor everyone else also get to have a day off. YES! I thought it was a bit funny though, because still yesterday evening no one knew whether the public holiday would be today or on Wednesday. I couldn't understand why it would be so impossible to find out, but then someone explained to me that it's the moon that decides. If they could see the moon in Mecca yesterday, then today would be the end of ramadan and if not, then it would be on Wednesday. Well, today is a public holiday, so I guess someone saw the moon in Mecca yesterday.

Bowling at Alleygator

Yesterday morning I woke up to a HEAVY rainfall. It was very noisy and with lots of thunder and flashes. It was impossible to go back to sleep, but I thought it was very nice to just lie in bed and listen to the rain.
Yesterday I also decided that it was going to be a cleaning day - I didn't realise that my room was THAT dirty until I started to clean it...Except for my bathroom that looked more like a sandbox (you get very dirty feet here). At around ten o'clock in the morning they were meant to fumigate the hostel in an attempt to kill mosquitoes and other bugs. Bugs aren't really a problem here (I've only seen some skinny, small spiders in my room and very little mosquitoes), I think they only want to make sure that bugs won't become a problem. They were only going to spray the ground floor and -lucky me- the first floor, where I stay. I waited all day at home, but the bug-killers followed African time and didn't come until three o'clock in the afternoon. That was funny to look at!And they did indeed kill all the bugs and almost me as well. When I went into my room again after they had sprayed it, I couldn't breath and I got a runny nose and started to cough. I opened all my windows but still, I wonder how much poison I've been breathing this night...

In the evening, me, Jenny, Maria and Marte (all from Norway) went to a shopping mall nearby to go bowling. That was so much fun! But I was really bad at it...They played music really loud there and later on the place turned into a discotheque with people dancing. You could also sing karaoke there if you wanted to and I saw one guy who was extremely bad at singing (it was even worse than when a drunk Finnish man tries to sing...) but also one who did a great show and got all the people up dancing to him although he wasn't very good at singing.
An African guy came and sat down with us and started to talk to Jenny. He was quite dodgy, so we quickly did a runner when he went to go and talk to a friend. We ran out of the bowling hall, down the stairs to the car park where an old man asked us if we wanted a taxi. We said yes, bargained about the price and got in the car. He was the crappiest driver I've ever seen, it took him about five minutes to just get the car out of the spot where he had parked it, he couldn't change gear properly and he also had troubles with using the handbrake. Eventually, we did get back home to Wandegeya where we went for another beer at a pub close to home. On our way home from the pub we met a man who was walking around with a white doll. He wanted to talk to us and started to follow us when we just kept on walking, not being to interested in talking to a man that walks around with a doll two o'clock at night on an empty street...We were happy to get home and see our lovely, smiling guards opening the gate for us. A happy ending on a good night out, despite all the weird people and the bad taxi driver that we met.

Blue water, no fish but frustration

Another weekend is already over, the time goes very fast here. On Saturday we (me and all the other european girls that live at the hostel, although not all of us went) were invited for a little party home to a Swedish and a Norwegian girl, that also are studying at Makerere. They live in i a suburb faaaar out of the city, where I've never been before. It was a little adventure only to get there. It was very nice to come home-home to someone and not sit in a room at a hostel. I was very impressed by the fact that they had a couch, a tv and a FRIDGE. I would like to have a fridge, that would make life a little bit easier...It was a fun evening although we didn't do anything special. We just sat and talked, drank a bit of wine (which is very expensive here, it costs even more than at home in Finland) and then afterwards we went out to a nightclub. It was the first time I went to a nightclub here in Kampala, so far I've only been to bars around in Wandegeya where I live. But on Saturday I actually felt like going out, so I did. Nightclubs here look just the same as at home, they might even be a bit more fancy. To my surprise, no one was stearing at you or trying to grab you and drag you here and there. It's like that when you're out at a bar in Wandegeya, then there's always someone who wants to talk to you or have your phone number and bla bla bla.

On Sunday me and some of the Norwegian girls went to Entebbe to go out fishing on Lake Victoria. I was very tired from the night out, so I almost didn't go with them. But I'm glad I did! It was a very nice day out of the city. I refused to do any fishing, I just wanted to be in a boat and see some water. One of our friends, Hamid, is from Entebbe and he had been very nice and arranged everything for us. So all we had to do was to follow him and get in and out of the taxi and the boat. When we got to Entebbe we first went with the boat to a small island to get some worms. Some of us jumped in the muddy water with the man who drove the boat to dig around in the mud to find the worms. That was fun to watch :o) After that we went a bit further out on the lake to fish. We spent some hours out on the lake, but no one caught any fish. HA! We saw some local boys who also were fishing close to us and they caught some fish, but the fish was very small. The boys kept it, I have no idea what the planned to do with it.
Back in Kampala I was very proud. I had been out on a boat the whole day -in Uganda- and I had managed to NOT get sunburnt :o)

So, the weekend was good. Yesterday was less good. I had a shitty day and when everything feels wrong, then also small things (that normally wouldn't get to you) started to upset me. By the end of the day all I wanted to do was to sit down and cry. I get very frustrated by how things work here sometimes, specially at school. I've been here for one month now and still there's very little I know what to do, when, where and how at the university. When I try to find out, it takes aaaages, because no one knows anything and people at the universiy keeps on passing me on to someone else. Some days all I do is to walk around at Makerere, waiting for to meet someone only to hear that I have to go and talk to someone else. And then it starts all over again, I walk, wait and leave...walk, wait and leave...

But, today is a new day with new possibilities! :o) Who knows, maybe I will manage to find out a couple of things today...?

Fort Portal

This weekend me and five of the Norwegian girls decided to go to Fort Portal, a town in the west of Uganda. I think it lies about 50 km from the border to Congo. The bus ride there took about 4,5h on roads that were surprisingly good, except for bits here and there that were very bumpy. I liked sitting in the bus and just look out through the window. Uganda is a beautiful country, it's very hilly, green and lush. And I saw big fields where they grow tea. 

It was the first real trip outside Kampala and we were all very excited about seeing something new, it didn't matter what we got to see as long as it wasn't Kampala. Fort Portal is a very small and quiet place, which was nice for a change to the busy and noisy Kampala. There wasn't so much to do in Fort Portal, unless you wanted to go to one of the national parks that are close to there. But since we were going to stay there only for one night, we didn't feel that we had time for going to a national park. Instead we spent the Sunday afternoon with just wandering around in the town. As we were walking along a little dirt road we passed a house where a lot of old men were sitting outside. When they saw us they started to waive at us, wanting us to come over. It turned out that they were drinking the homebrewed  beer made out of millet (I still don't really know what it is, some kind of seed they grow here. They also make porridge out of it for breakfast). The beer was served in a big bucket and they drank it with long reed straws. It didn't look very nice...It looked like someone had thrown up in the bucket and the beer was warm (!) and tasted sour. I didn't like it at all, but Margrete, one of the Norwegian girls, thought it was very good...One man started to feed us with some kind of barbecued meat and when I said no thank you and explained that I'm vegetarian he disappeared and came back with some bananas for me. We stayed and talked with them for a little while and then we went back home to our hotel and had dinner.

The next day (this Monday was a public holiday, because a king of one of the Ugandan tribes had died and it was the day for his funeral) we got up fairly early and went to some caves that were not far from Fort Portal. The caves were quite small, but it was still very nice. And there was a small waterfall there as well. On the site for the caves, we started to talk to a man, who was sitting and waiting. It turned out that he's a guide and arranges trips around Uganda. We all liked him very much and it ended with us arranging a trip to a national park with him as a guide. In the end of September we're going. I can't wait, I want to see lions and giraffes! :o)

The last bus back to Kampala left early in the afternoon and there was a lot of people who were getting on it + a real chicken in a plastic bag . People were pushing in a hurry to get on the bus, while I was being polite and let everyone to pass. I won't do that again...I almost missed out on a seat on the bus, but a nice girl saw me and got a seat for me. The trip back to Kampala went very quick, I sat talking the whole time to this girl who had got the seat for me. Coming back to Kampala was nice, all the cars and the noise didn't bother me although I've only been away for one night. To me it felt like coming home and that made me very happy :o)

Another picture taken from my balcony. The house in the front is full of chicken (but they're quiet!) And during the day there's little children playing in the little muddy backyard in front of the house and women washing clothes. The children are very quick with yelling "musungo" and pointing at me as soon as they see me, although you'd think they would be used to me by now...

Maria (to the left), Eva(middle) and Jenny(to the right). We're at a cafe at school one morning feeling all confused, understanding absolutely nothing about what's happening and what we're meant to do. Just getting a coffee with milk was too complicated so we had to be happy with a black coffee instead.

Me on Kampala Road, the main road in city centre. It's busy, dusty and noisy.

They have the biggest and ugliest bird EVER here in Uganda. I don't know what it is, but it's BIG - it must be at least 1 meter tall (are birds tall??) They can't be very aggressive though, because it didn't care about this boy who run to it so he could be in the picture too.

The view from my balcony

School has begun (kind of)

I just come from the university where I've had three hours of lectures tonight and it all went well. All the teachers came and in time, almost. You might find this as an odd thing to mention, but trust me it isn't to me. At least not anymore...The school started last Monday, but so far I've had hardly any lectures at all. The thing is that you never know if the teachers will show up or not. Me and my classmates have spent HOURS waiting for teachers that never show up and if they do show up they might stay only for 30 minutes instead of the 1h/2h it's meant to be...To be all honest I don't really know what's happening and what I'm meant to do. I go to the lectures (except for last week, then I did skip classes the other half of the week because I was getting very annoyed with all the waiting for someone that never shows up. And surprise surprise, as it turned out I didn't miss that much, because very few teachers came to the classes...) and take notes, apart from that I dont know what to do. There are no specific books to read and I have no idea where and how to look for books that might cover some of the courses I'm taking. I find it a bit hard to take it seriously, since there's nothing to read and not even the teachers are coming...

This Monday the electricty went out during a lesson. Nothing strange with that, the electricity is gone pretty much all the time, specially when you need it... As we were sitting there in the dark not being able to even see the person sitting right next to you, I (silly Finnish girl) thought that the teacher would stop talking and say that we can't continue. But he didn't, instead he kept in talking and we all had to get out our mobile phones and use the light from them so we could keep on taking notes. A normal day in Uganda.

I like the area around the university. The whole campus is up on a hill, it's big and very green. There are goats and chickens running around on the campus, but I haven't really figured out to whom these animals belong.Most of the school buildings look quite old and shitty, while some buildings are a bit newer. None of them keep a Finnish standard, though...My class room has an old and well-used black board, some walls are painted white while some aren't painted at all and the window has a big hole in it which someone has partly covered up with a black sheet, that is now also full of holes... I love it! :o)

I'm taking it easy, thinking that it will all be ok in the end. I take it as it comes and I will figure out what to do, when and how. Meanwhile, I bum around during the day and in the evening I go to my lectures and meet my class that is full of lovely people. And after that, I'm stumbling back home in the dark to have a beer with my Norwegian friends :o)