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Sitting, waiting, wishing, reflecting.

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We looked back at our mosque photos on the bus this morning and that first day in Kampala feels both a lifetime ago and also strangely like no time at all. Today has been a day of reflections and contemplations about everything that we have done, seen and been part of over the last 11 days. Thinking about what we have loved the most; what we found most difficult; what tested our patience most (the visa line and the many, many national anthems of Nyakatukura seemed to win that vote). The river safaris and the elephants in the garden seemed to win out the best moments vote. For me, it is the real life Geography of the slums and the waterfall visit that win out. The waterfall was stopped at on our way out of the national park. We were able to get right to the top of the mighty Murchison Falls and as the spray rained down upon us and the mist of the falls dominated our views, the majesty of the most powerful waterfall in the world is within touching distance. Our guide, Daniel,talked ...
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Tales from the Nile

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After we enjoyed our amazing evening meal last night, we sat chatting, joking and when we were finally the last people in the restaurant we went to walk to our rooms for bed. Suddenly a strange hushed 'come here' could be heard and as I turned the corner, there was a collection of 6 Dean Close pupils kneeling down behind a wall like they were looking for cover in C.O.D. - thankfully they were not hiding from enemy fire, they were looking at a family of elephants that had wondered into the lodge grounds.  As one elephant was joined by another and then another and then a baby. The group of us grew to 14 as Alastair had now thrown on his shorts to run and join us.  The site of Alstair and Mrs Beecham crawling like they were doing the ground net on an obstacle 0 course will stay in our memory almost as long as the once in a lifetime opportunity of seeing a whole family of elephants about 5-10metres away from you. Then a large rustle could be heard and a huge bull elephant came thr...
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It's a jungle out there

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As we rose for a 6.30am breakfast, we were slightly apprehensive to see that the multi tasking waiter was serving us again today. The difference this time was that there was actually some food ready to be served and unlike the jam lined hawaiian pizzas of last night, this food actually looked tasty. So after a few cups of Ugandan coffee, some super thin Ugandan pancakes and potatoes, we packed up and got ready for another super long drive to the Safari. 7am Kampala traffic is suprisingly navigable and before long we were on the road to Murchison. The first creature that became increasingly visible on this safari drive was the Muzungus. They had been ultra rare over our last few days in the south west but Muzungus were actually visible now. All with a matching grumpy appearance to their faces and curled lip towards any other creature that was even slightly different to their Muzungu variety of the species. They popped up at every restaurant that looked even slightly westernised and t...
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A long drive and a long drop

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The day began with us packing up ready for our drive back to Kampala and the speed and efficiency of packing and moving is now incredibly impressive. We were actually 15 minutes early this morning and this gave us time for a leisurely breakfast of eggs, samosas and sweet, sugary bread before heading over for our postponed football match. We headed to the computer room to blow up the new balls that we had brought with us, ably assisted by Moses and Francis. We thanked them with two Gloucester tops kindly donated before we left Cheltenham. The boys did not know how rare their tops were having been donated by the clubs official stash by matron Lizzie's son in law but they certainly looked good wearing their rare kit. As we walked onto the pitches, basketball and football were already in full flow and we set up some rugby games and Fenella, Genevieve and Katie started a netball game whilst Niamh and Charlie headed over to start a volleyball game. Jess and Tom migrated between games ...
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Time but no watches

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Where do we start on a day like today. After a 7.15am start, we headed past the grumpy armed guards, who now actually say hello to us, and all had breakfast at Caleb's house. None of the Team knew what to expect from breakfast (surely you can't serve Matoke and rice for a 3rd meal in a row). It turns out that this was their favourite meal of our stay at the school as heavily sugared bread, with honey, bananas and also some amazing meat samosas was exactly what everyone wanted to start the day. We were unsure of the plan as we soon realised that a strict Itinerary means very little when translated to Uganda timings. We sat around waiting to find out when suddenly Caleb announced that we were heading off on a school tour. Unfortunately Caleb had not quite calculated that we were touring the school at exactly the time that the pupils were getting washed and dressed. This meant much hastier visits to the dorms than normal. Although despite some deep angled photos to avoid half n...
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Bridges and Prayers

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After the trials and tribulations of the past few weeks, it has never quite seemed inevitable that we would reach Nyakatukura Memorial Secondary school but as I sit typing today's blog, we are all sat within the school grounds, having been welcomed like long lost friends and after 7 years, I suppose that is exactly what we are. We woke at a ridiculous 5am to have a quick breakfast before loading up our other old friend Rosa (our faithful bus/truck that has been put through some real tests over the past few days with the condition of the Ugandan roads after a recent unexpected out of season rainy spell). Then started the long slog down to South West Uganda. Moses battled the early morning traffic expertly and the blur of xeroxed shop after the same old shop along the road again blurred past and within 2 hours Rosa Parked at the equator line. We all hopped out, marvelled at how the water swirls down the drain in a different direction on the North of the line than the South. There ...
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From absolute privilege to absolute poverty

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  Our trip to Dr Ruperalia's school did not materialise but we couldn't grumble as he had been so generous to us after the lateness of our itinerary change. Thankfully we were saved by Mr Poxon. Not directly by Brian himself but recently when h e was running the Birmingham half marathon, he sent out a Just Giving link for a charity called 'Kids Club Kampala'. Intrigued, knowing our links to Uganda, I asked him about it and he sent me the email address of the CEO in the UK. I got in touch with her and did not think much about it until yesterday when it become increasingly clear that our planned day would have to change.  We could have done a day by the pool but that seems a tad normal for this group of intrepid explorers and so I emailed Kids Club Kampala and a trip to their head office was organised. We set off at a rather relaxing 10am (by far the latest departure time in our time away) and set off to yet again fight the Ugandan traffic (we didn't make it back fo...
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