Mzungu!!

uganda was absolutely amazing, we stayed in a place called Kagadi in the kibale district in west uganda, spent in total... 3 days in Bundibugyo in the rwenzori mountains, 2 nights in kampala and a night in fort portal which was a bit touristified compared to kagadi. wow i got so much 2 say i dnt kno wer 2 start, altho a lot of it is probly not tht interestin 2 read... ill try to keep it in some kind of coherent or chronological order, but no promises...

the place we stayed at was quite rural, (and famous for its witch craft!) and the locals had never seen white/foreign people, wen we wlkd down the street, the kids would follow us, and shout/chant mzungu (=wyt/foreign person) pointing at us, in fact the kids even askd one of the Ugandan students with us if he cud bring a “mzungu” over so that they cud touch one!

the accommodation was very basic, shared a bunk with my room mate Lydia, I was on the top bunk which was as tall as me and had no guards and no ladders, so jumpin out of bed onto the stone floor first thing every morning really woke u up, well.. until I learnt that climbin down the end of the bed was much easier, and safer! Oh and the crickets are sooo loud! The insects are of all shapes and sizes there, I hate bugs and even up2 the last day id still shriek at them but even I cud appreciate the beauty of some of them and I thought itd be a shame to kill them, like this one insect that looked so much like a leaf, it was unbelievable, u wudnt think it was an insect unless u saw it flyin down, it had the leaf veins across its wings and it even had transparent holes that imitated a decaying leaf!

for work, we actually had some practical, hands-on experience in the workshop, which was a real laff and i discoverd the magic phrase, "oh i'm so tired, wish i had some manly arms here to help me..."

And our night in fort portal was definitely memorable… we went out to eat then we went to play pool after, played for the first tym eva! I played against nicky who had hardly played pool b4 so needless 2 say it was an extremely looonnggg game but I eventually won, so I’m currently undefeated at pool ;-) but that wasn’t the highlight of th evening, u c the pool attendant had nicked off with some of our money, so Brian nicked the white ball and held it ransom till we got our money bak! Wot a good idea I rember thinking, id hav neva thort of that, steal the white ball!

and on our last night in Uganda, I was a bit sleep deprived on account of the all nighter the previous night (to meet 2 deadlines which in itself is a tale to tell), but tht jus made things all the more interesting! first we went 4 an all traditional ugandan...Dominos pizza! then we went to a bar... i watched som guys play pool, they were very good, but then agen am easily impressed bcoz i cnt play the game, couple of my frends tried to convince me 2 try beer sayin that "if u live for 35 years (~optimistic of them aint it!) what's 2 hours of gettin pissed?" am like “yeh it dnt work liek tht mate” but it was cute how they thaught an argument like that wud actually work!, then we partied till 3am, then slept for 4 hours, then went to the craftshop wer the crafts lady sed i was beautiful ... then we flew home
....so my record for bein awake the longest is now...44hours...and that's me, 10hours a nyt zaynab!

Ill stop there, I dnt feel im doin justice the experience, im not much of a writer (as this entry clearly demonstrates) and the stories jus dnt sound as funny or interesting on this, but it was amazing, I made som great frends and had an awesome time, need to start planning my next adventure!