Thursday 5 November 2009

a taste of Uganda...



We bid farewell to Uncle Jonathan and Cousin Lucy at the weekend after they spent 10 days experiencing the delights of Uganda. Hopefully they would say these included more than rain and transport issues, but those did figure quite prominently during their stay! We went on the road to visit Lake Mburo National Park again and were diverted off into some fields after a lorry overturned on the road. Then on the way to Jinja, we were navigating a roundabout in Jasper when a wheel fell off- luckily we weren’t going too fast! These incidents aside we packed in a lot of fun, including a rafting trip down the Nile, a visit to the ancient kings’ tombs and some game drives. We also camped in Mabira Forest- our first ‘proper’ camping experience, which was made all the more real by some very raucous monkeys and hyraxes near our tent and a 3 hour downpour at dawn! That was when we realised our tent was not quite as watertight as advertised! Likewise our house, as when we returned home to Kampala, the rain had lashed in horizontally leaving all Jonathan and Lucy's belongings floating in their bedroom.
Lucy kindly brought out a case full of her own story books so we took them to the Railway School, where they were very gratefully received and Lucy read them a couple of her favourite stories. When we walked into the classroom, we were greeted by 100+ excited, cheering kids- it felt a bit like we’d won We Are The Champions. I guess it was quite an eye-opener for Lucy, but it was especially poignant as her school has just been twinned with a school in Northern Uganda so she’ll be able to give the London schoolchildren an idea of what the schools here are like.

1 comment:

  1. wow - sounds wonderful. I'm so glad you all had such a good time. Soggy houses in rainy season sounds familiar - I'm fine at the moment as the monsoon is over but it will turn back into a water feature next year.
    xx

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