Sunday to Sunday

SUNDAY

Last full day of the handshake and we are all working feverishly to get everything done before out 4PM showcase with the local organizations we have been working for during the last month. Lucy and I have created a powerpoint that we are going to show to the group tonight discussing everything we have done in the last month as well as recommendations for the future.

After we did that we finished with our last minute touchups of our section of the website, updating photos to go along with the articles we have already posted.
At 4pm we had our showcase with JGI, CSWCT, and UWEC showing our work we created for them over the last month. This was the first time I had seen the majority of the videos and the games that were created and they were truly amazing. I was a bit embarrassed by showing Anthropology team’s work (which was a powerpoint) because of course it didn’t work properly. We made it on a PC and were promised we would be able to use a pc at the presentation but of course there was only a mac set up when we got there. I won’t go into it but talking about research after you watch these amazing games and videos. it makes your stuff not as cool as everyone else’s. That being said I had a lot of people coming up to me after the showcase telling me how interesting it was so maybe they were just being nice but it’s all good.

We then went back and relaxed all looking a bit lost not knowing what to do now and not being given orders by the leaders anymore. A large group of us just sat around a big table and started drinking some beer and chatting. Cook team didn’t have to cook and instead Chinese food was brought in for us which was a nice surprise for the group. After dinner we watched the rest of the videos and games that was made for Kibale Forest organizations and ended the showcase with a slideshow of pictures of the volunteers throughout the trip which made many people start to bawl, however I was one of the tearless people even though I really did enjoy the month.

The rest of the night was just hanging out, drinking, and an impromptu dance session.

Monday

We awoke up around 8 and were treated to pancakes by the last cook group of the month. After breakfast we had the big task of cleaning the truck from top to bottom, inside and out. This took many hours and a lot of hard work as the truck was just full of dirt (and actually a rat). We had to clean every seat, everything in the lockers under the seats, all the kitchen boxes (and the supplies within), etc.
Around 1 we went down to UWEC café to have lunch. My lunch came first! (Except they forgot half of it and that half never appeared). During lunch, Peace came down to say good-bye to us which was very nice. She is such an amazing person and she was quite choked up about the whole thing. She gave everyone gifts of beads as that is a big tradition in Uganda and called us all family and told us we all have a home here in Uganda if we ever get lost.

After lunch we all packed up our bags and the ones heading to Jinja put them back on the truck while the few that were staying back to catch their flights home the next day just relaxed. We all hung out for about an hour laying on each others beds just joking around and sharing funny stories of the month. It was really nice as we haven’t been able to relax during this trip much because we so much work we had to be working on all the time so this was the first time we could just hang out as friends and not colleagues.

Around 5:30 we were told the truck was leaving and we had to say our good-byes to Bethan, Sophia, Jessica, Kate, and Ben. It was surprisingly hard especially when Jess broke down in tears when we hugged. I really wish they could stay on with us for another couple of days but it didn’t work out.

We said goodbye and drove off (knocking a branch into the truck that was full of spiders so we had to brush off of us for the entire trip to Kampala). When we got to Kampala we dropped of Lucy so she could go to her hostel where she would be picked up in the morning to go gorilla trekking. While we dropped off Lucy we stopped at the grocery store to buy some snacks for dinner since it was getting late and we still had a 3 hour drive to Jinja.

We arrived late in Jinja at this great hostel right at the source of the Nile only to find out our booking was for their sister hostel in the city. So we stayed around there for about an hour having a drink at the bar and saying good-bye to the leaders who were staying there for the night and then heading down to S. Africa on the truck early the next morning. As I wasn’t very close with any of the leaders except maybe Jonathan this good-bye wasn’t too hard.

The taxi ride with 9 of us and all our bags (and instruments people have bought along the way) was extremely interesting. It took forever to load the taxi as we had so much stuff and people had to sit on eachothers laps or stand with their head sticking out of the moonroof so we could all fit. The car broke down a few times on the way there and for the majority of it the driver was for some reason driving in 1st gear with the back windshield wipers on even though it wasn’t even close to raining. It was all quite surreal and would have been extremely scary if we weren’t all in it together.

When we arrived at the correct hostel we split into two groups to fit into two different dorm rooms which were already occupied. The dorm I got put into had three naked guys passed out on top of their beds with one guy in his tighty whities just staring at us as we walked in. Quite bizarre. By this point though we didn’t care as we were all exhausted and we all quickly fell asleep.

Tuesday

This morning I slept in until 9am which was amazing. I woke up took a shower and made it in time to say good-bye to the five people that were going rafting on the Nile. The rapids are grade 5 and very dangerous so I had to stay back as my neck would not handle the ride. Gemma, Katie, Nic M. and I stayed back while, Eileen, Fiona, Nic S., Conor, and David went rafting.

This morning we all relaxed and had a lazy breakfast and waited until noon to catch the bus back over to the original hostel on the Nile as we got our place booked there for the night. It seemed like a much nicer place so excited we are going over there soon.

Unfortunately the last few days in Africa have been extremely busy and lack of internet or wall outlets so the following writing is written while I was in the Dubai airport trying to remember the last few days in Africa.

We took a large truck/bus over to the backpackers hostel overlooking the nile. It was really amazing to finally see the view as the night before when we were there it was pitch dark so we had no idea what an amazing view we were standing next to all night long.

During the day while we waited for the guys to get back from their day of rafting we really didn’t do much at all. We pretty much just hung out on the patio enjoying the view and tasting their yummy smoothies they offered at the bar. It wasn’t until the night for the real fun to begin.

After the others got back from rafting we pretty much went straight into a hard night of drinking as for some it was the last night there so we wanted to have a bit of a celebration. Many hours later and who knows how many drinks later (much thanks to the random drinking games we came up with to play) we all went to bed.
Fortunately, I remember to have my camera out for the night so I got some great candid shots of everyone just relaxing and having fun together for one last time (for some).

Everyone petered off to bed at different times but luckily we all managed to not be to hung over the next morning and all got up at decent times to enjoy our next day.

Wednesday

The morning was pretty relaxed as we were recuperating from the night before and many were quite sore from the rafting trip. Fiona had to catch a taxi back to the airport (about a 2-3 hour drive) at around 2 so we all said our good-byes to her and then David, Conor, Nic S., Nic M., Eileen, and I decided to walk down to some fishing boats ( more like wooden canoes with holes so you had to pour out the water at the bottom of the boat a few times during the trip) so we could just go out on the nile (especially for the ones who didn’t go rafting). What a great experience! We had two locals go out on the boat with us (besides the driver) and the explained all the rapids we went by and the local area and then we stopped to boat in a little cove area and it started to down pour! So we decided that there wasn’t a better time to jump into the river and go for a little swim. The Nic’s stayed on the boat as they were leaving to go back to Kampala that night and didn’t want to be wet for the ride, but David, Conor, Eileen and I jumped right in. The water was nice and warm and clean. There is nothing better than swimming in the rain. We did that for awhile and then jumped back in the boat and relaxed there for a bit. We could move the boat for a bit because they were getting ready to do some blasting down the river a bit where they are building a new dam so not get caught up in it all the driver decided to stay tucked away until we heard the blasting stop. After the blasting we went around the river a bit more getting out once more to hike over some rocks to see some really nice rapids.

After about 2 hours on the water we went back to the land paid our guides and made the long hike up an extremely muddy road back to our camp. By the time we got there the people with sandals on were covered in mud and the ones with boots on (me) had about 2 inches of mud stuck to the outside of my shoes. I’m actually wearing the same pants as I did that day and they are still covered in mud but I never had a chance to get them washed before I left and even though they are all muddy they are the cleanest pair of pants I have left.

At around 6 pm, the two Nicola’s caught the free shuttle bus back into Kampala and then we were only down to six, David, Conor, Eileen, Gemma, Katie, and I. That night David made plans to have dinner at a local restaurant where our guide on the boat that day was also the cook at the restaurant. When I say restaurant it is just 4 picnic tables in wooden hut down the street but it was the local restaurant. Everyone went except Katie as she wasn’t feeling the best.

After dinner Conor, Gemma, Eileen and I decided to go over to the locals bar (again this was an even smaller hut with just one picnic table like thing). That is when the night got a little crazy. Conor being the white guy who brought with him three white girls became quite the popular man. The locals quickly asked Conor which girl he was with so they could see who they could try and get with. Conor not thinking said he wasn’t with any of them so the girls were quickly pounced on. Lucky me, I got a very drunk guy proposing marriage to me and kept trying to get me to leave with him back to his hut. I, OF COURSE, turned that down and quickly pulled Conor aside and told him to step in. Soon after I grabbed Conor and told my new “friend” that it was time for Conor and I to go to bed. We left there and just went back to the bar at the hostel. We all just relaxed and talked for a few more hours only dealing with random travelers who were either drunk or on something every once in awhile. The place was really nice there but I don’t think I could handle staying there for long as every night people (employees and travelers) would just get wasted and high. It would get so boring after awhile, let alone extremely dangerous.

Thursday

The last day there I slept in quite late compared to everyone else. Luckily I wasn’t hungover just really enjoying my sleep. Katie, Gemma, Eileen, and I were catching the shuttle back to Kampala that night and David and Conor were going to catch the overnight but the Kenya so we all just spent our day packing and relaxing together on the patio with the Nile as our view.

Around 5pm we said our good-byes to Conor and David and headed back to Kampala.
Our hostel in Kampala was absolutely dreadful. The people were so rude and nothing like all the other Ugandans we had met on our trip and the facilities were crap (except for the exceptionally hot and powerful showers). When we arrived Nicola M. and Lucy were already there at the bar eating dinner. We caught up with them but we were all exhausted so we didn’t do much. We all went to bed early at around 10 or 11. We said our good-byes to Nicola M. last night though as her flight out was very early this morning unlike the rest of us who flew out at 4 this afternoon.

Friday

This morning after packing and showering Lucy, Gemma, Katie, and I said good-bye to the last handshaker, Eileen. She is staying in Uganda for one more day. We said good-bye to her and then we caught our taxi to the airport. It took us about 2 hours to get there thanks to traffic and being pulled over by the police only to discover our driver had forgotten his license and he had to talk his way out of the situation.

The people at the airport were also extremely rude so by the time we got on the plane we were all ready to leave Uganda. We all absolutely loved our trip but our last day there was very stressful with some very rude people. Oh well, it just made us excited to travel home instead of depressed for leaving.

Saturday

We arrived in Dubai at around midnight and just walked around in a daze for a little bit. We stopped at Paul’s café and had a coffee/water and played dead for a few hours. About 3 hours before our flight left we moved over to our gate and laid down. Unfortunatly all the seats had armrests but luckily I was small enough to wrap myself around the outside of the armrest so I could still lay down and fall asleep for a little bit. I got about 2 hours of sleep before I had to wake up and load the plane.

The plane ride to London was uneventful, luckily I was in and out of sleep for the majority of the trip. When I landed in London, Lucy and Katie’s boyfriends were there to meet them so we met them as well and then said our good-byes leaving just Gemma and I at the airport. We went and had a coffee/hot chocolate and talked for a little bit before gemma decided to catch a bus home and I caught the bus to Gatwick airport. When I arrived at Gatwick I then caught the hotel shuttle to Holiday Inn where I checked in.

After checking in I took a bit of a walk down the road to find a gas station to buy some cheap food (avoiding the crazy prices at the hotel) for dinner. After I arrived back at the hotel I got online and caught up with a few people online. I then took a very nice long hot bath which was wonderful but then I became quite ill after so that was not as fun.

Because of this I decided to just got bed around 8:30 and I gladly woke up 12 hours later.

Sunday

Today I showered, got the hotel shuttle to the airport, ate lunch by myself at some restaurant, and then labeled all my pictures from Uganda by proper names. At 3 the plane departed Heathrow and I am now on the plane back to the states. So excited to see everyone and share my amazing stories from Africa!