Wow we are finally here! Sat in a random internet cafe with dodgey connection but its all good haha. All the team met in the airport fine, there are 9 of us all together, one American, one Australian, one Greek, one from Tanzania and another from Congo all currently based in England and now in Uganda together! Its such a great mix of people, everyone has really interesting backgrounds and cultures and we are all getting on really wellThe flight was a bit of a mission! We had to wait 6 hours for our change over plane in Dubai so we all just sat, got to know each other and ate a lot with no sleep lol. By the time we got to Uganda we are all knakered! When we flew in it was an awesome sight.. we flew over a huge lake we were so low it looked as though we were going to land in the lake! There was loads of rubble everywhere with old aeroplanes and run down buildings. The airport was pretty simple looking.. what was mad was we were greeted by dudes with masks on and letters informing about swine flu which we had to confirm we didnt have IMMEDIATELY! They even had a little booth to check people for it!
We sorted all our money out and got a ugandan sim card.. my number is: +256771830706 and it is pretty cheap rates :D The two ladies who run Hope for Children, Immaculate and Joyce, both met us at the airport and they are so lovely! so welcoming! We jumped in the people mobile and drove abouit half hour to our crib which is soo cute.. its right on the edge of the slums in the village Namuwongo.. you can see the slums from our window. The hotel is pretty basic.. I just managed to get hot water this morning after waiting ages for it to heat up and even that was a trickle haha its a jump in jump out joby.. bet you all cant wait to smell me when i get back haha... lush!
Last night was really random coz we were all sooooo tired and really hungry and the staff at the guest house took literally HOURS to cook food..mean we ordered food at 5ish and didnt eat til 9.30!! Im going to have to adjust to this laid back life style lol its quite nice not to be so tied down by the clock though.. although not when your hungry and just wanna go to bed haha
Im sharing a room with a gal called Yazmin... she is so lovely! You guys would all love her! Shes so bubbly and really easy to chat with and has a real passion for Africa - weve had so many great conversations already! We slept pretty well... under our mosi nets listening to the loud hussle and bussle of the streets.. they have upbeat music on outside constantly its quite uplifting! I went to bed with a smile :D .... and then I woke up half way through the night to here wolfs.wild dogs howling lol it was quite scary to be woken up in a random place by mad wolves lol but both Yaz and I were too tired to say anything.. we just confirmed the randomness with eachother in the morning haha
For breakfast I just had fruit.. i know im not supposed to eat it but omg the pineapple here is gorgeous!... and then I asked the guy for some water and he thought I said samosas so i ended up having meat samosas for brekky lol we all had a giggle
We then went to the Hope for Children office which is really basic. We had a quick briefing and then checked out St Barnabus school which we will be working at. OH MY GOSH THE KIDS ARE SOOOOO CUTE! A lot of the children who go there are sponsored by Hope. They all stood up when we walked into their class and said Welcome Vistors and then sang us some amazingly cute songs in English clappin and shakin their bootay with true African rhythm it was so touching i had to contain my emotion. Ive fallen in love with those kids already. I will start working there properly on Monday and cant waaaaaait!
We then had a nose around Kampala, the Capital, which was a lot more built up. The traffic here is crazy everyones driving like madmen and they have these bike taxi things called Boda Boda which look pretty unsafe but blatantly have to be tried out before we leave haha!
Generally the streets are very dusty, there is rubbish every where and all the shops are basically shacks but everyone is sooo friendly and they all shout out 'Muzumgu' to us.. which means white people... but in a nonoffensive way apparantly haha its like we are famous or something its very surreal. The team is getting closer by the minute and we are all looking forward to going into the slums tomorrow and meeting the families and children who we will be helping these next coming weeks
Lots of love to everyone back home x feel free to txt or call my ugandan number xlooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooveeeeexx
We sorted all our money out and got a ugandan sim card.. my number is: +256771830706 and it is pretty cheap rates :D The two ladies who run Hope for Children, Immaculate and Joyce, both met us at the airport and they are so lovely! so welcoming! We jumped in the people mobile and drove abouit half hour to our crib which is soo cute.. its right on the edge of the slums in the village Namuwongo.. you can see the slums from our window. The hotel is pretty basic.. I just managed to get hot water this morning after waiting ages for it to heat up and even that was a trickle haha its a jump in jump out joby.. bet you all cant wait to smell me when i get back haha... lush!
Last night was really random coz we were all sooooo tired and really hungry and the staff at the guest house took literally HOURS to cook food..mean we ordered food at 5ish and didnt eat til 9.30!! Im going to have to adjust to this laid back life style lol its quite nice not to be so tied down by the clock though.. although not when your hungry and just wanna go to bed haha
Im sharing a room with a gal called Yazmin... she is so lovely! You guys would all love her! Shes so bubbly and really easy to chat with and has a real passion for Africa - weve had so many great conversations already! We slept pretty well... under our mosi nets listening to the loud hussle and bussle of the streets.. they have upbeat music on outside constantly its quite uplifting! I went to bed with a smile :D .... and then I woke up half way through the night to here wolfs.wild dogs howling lol it was quite scary to be woken up in a random place by mad wolves lol but both Yaz and I were too tired to say anything.. we just confirmed the randomness with eachother in the morning haha
For breakfast I just had fruit.. i know im not supposed to eat it but omg the pineapple here is gorgeous!... and then I asked the guy for some water and he thought I said samosas so i ended up having meat samosas for brekky lol we all had a giggle
We then went to the Hope for Children office which is really basic. We had a quick briefing and then checked out St Barnabus school which we will be working at. OH MY GOSH THE KIDS ARE SOOOOO CUTE! A lot of the children who go there are sponsored by Hope. They all stood up when we walked into their class and said Welcome Vistors and then sang us some amazingly cute songs in English clappin and shakin their bootay with true African rhythm it was so touching i had to contain my emotion. Ive fallen in love with those kids already. I will start working there properly on Monday and cant waaaaaait!
We then had a nose around Kampala, the Capital, which was a lot more built up. The traffic here is crazy everyones driving like madmen and they have these bike taxi things called Boda Boda which look pretty unsafe but blatantly have to be tried out before we leave haha!
Generally the streets are very dusty, there is rubbish every where and all the shops are basically shacks but everyone is sooo friendly and they all shout out 'Muzumgu' to us.. which means white people... but in a nonoffensive way apparantly haha its like we are famous or something its very surreal. The team is getting closer by the minute and we are all looking forward to going into the slums tomorrow and meeting the families and children who we will be helping these next coming weeks
Lots of love to everyone back home x feel free to txt or call my ugandan number xlooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooveeeeexx
Tiarna
ReplyDeleteGlad you've settled in quickly. Don't forget to take photographs whilst you're there. Unjoy!
Unc Andy
Yup photos are on the go but wont be able to show you til i get back as the internet is far too slow to upload x Thanks for the support x love ya x
ReplyDelete