hey guys!
just a quick update on my last couple of days...
i met up with a few people from the lodge on saturday and we went to the craft market and then went to open house, which is a restaurant/bar owned by a friend of paul and tariq for a drink. they wanted to go somewhere nice for food so i took them to mediteranneo, where i had prawns and squid, but could hardly eat any of it, which was deastating! they felt a little bit underdressed for the occaision, and it was all a bit awrkward because they had come straight from the market (where it was raining hard) to open house and then mediteraneo without getting changed or having a shower or anything, which wasn't great. the girls looked ok, most of us were wearing dresses and pretty flip flops, which is fine for that sort of pleace, but one of the boys in particular has long hair, was wearing a vest and walking boots and carrying a big rucksack, looking just like a backpacking hippy. the staff at the restaurant didnt seem to care very much though, and we spent a fair bit of money there so i think they were happy
after mediteraneo we made our way to backpackers, where they are staying along with all of pauls volunteers, so we had arranged to meet paul and tariq there. backpackers is actually really nice for a hostel and i ended up staying the night because paul was taking his volunteers out to iguanas and i was knackred from the night before's antics so it was easier to stay at backpackers with the people i know from the lodge.
it was nice to meet some of pauls volunteers though they didnt speak to us much in the evening, but started to branch out from their group by morning. breakfast the next morning at backpackers was really good, i had pancakes!! the food and drink there is cheap but generally very nice, and the atmosphere is good.
once we finished breakfast we went back to the craft market as people had started to close up their stalls when it began to rain and so there were still a few things that people wanted to get. i have bought so many things in that market, i literally have no idea how i will get them home, so tomorrow is going to be a bit of a mission when i'm packing up!!
last night was pauls volunteers final night in uganda so he had organised for them to do a kuroga at open house, wich means that they cook their own curries outside. because there were so many of them they split into teams and made it into a competition to see who could make the best curry. it was nice being there and the volunteers where much friendlier to me yesterday!! i was talking to one girl and it turns out that she is really good frinds with Molly, who i was sharing a room with at the lodge! so bizzare..
we left open house pretty late and the boys then decided that they wanted to go to a casino (again!), so off we headed to simba. i've never been to a casino before so it was interesting to say the least, and the poeple who we were with go to them all the time and dont seem to think too much about the money they are spending. ron bought a load of chips and then just handed them over to me and Krisha, saying 'go and play'. we didnt need telling twice but i ahd very little idea how most of it works, but i could manage roulette so that's what we played for most of the time we were there. we had a load of 1000 shillling chips, which are only worth about 25p, but the little circles of plastic are so far removed from actual money tat its easy to throw them away. there were some crazy characters at the casino, and there was one guy at the roulettle table we were at who was playing with black chips, worth 100,000 shillings each, which is about £25. he had a massive stack of them and was just chucking them on the table like it was nothing.
i won a couple of times which was nice, but really i found the whole thing a bit pointless, especially as wehn we decided we wanted to go, instead of cashing in his chips, ron played untill he lost them all, cursing every time he won because now he 'had' to stay longer.
we got back early thismorning and haven't really gt any plans for the day, but i think we might be going to the cinema tonight. tomorrow is my last day and i am going to go for dinner at the sushi restaurant again with Krisha and Hannah.
see you all soon! love, Lucy xxx
Showing posts with label clubbing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clubbing. Show all posts
Monday, 29 August 2011
Don't you know who i am?!
i wrote this post on saturday, but was unable to post it, so here it is today :)
Hey all.
As it was Friday night last night, we went out and met up with some friends. We met everyone at a Japanese restaurant where we had completely amazing food. Every time you order something they bring you this little bowl of salad which was so nice, I have no idea what was in it, but some shredded crunchy stuff and then doused in a really nice gingery dressing.
When me, paul and tariq arrived we were bit early so we ordered some tempura prawns to keep us going, (naturally, they came with the salad beforehand) which were absolutely divine, and then people started arriving so there was a bit of a time delay, but eventually we ordered food. There are a lot of male expats in kampala but very few women, so in a group of about 20 men there were only 3 of us girls. Thankfully they were really lovely and I had met one of them before, so we stuck together.
We ordered a baby maha roll which was prawn and some sort of vegetable inside, and then nori and rice around the outside, with a slice of avocado on top. That came recommended to us and was absolutely amazing. I have never really had sushi before, and I was a little bit wary of trying it but it was very nice and at this restaurant they fly all of the fish in fresh that morning, and you really could tell it was fresh. We were the last little group to get our food and so by the time we got our baby maha most people had finished eating! It did have the advantage that we could go around stealing nibbles of everyone elses though, so I got to try a lot of things! The boys had some amazing teriyaki beef from the hot food menu which we couldn’t get enough of, and we were very pleased because we had ordered the teriyaki beef sushi roll, which was yet to materialise. When it got to about half 10 we got a bit more vocal about the fact we were STARVING etc as the owner was sat only one seat down the bar from us, and he gave his chef a bollocking, as they had clearly forgotten our order. They brought a chicken roll rather than beef, but we couldn’t be bothered to argue and it was very nice anyway.
I also got to try sake last night which I have never had before, and was oddly served warm. Not like red wine warm, but it had actually been heated up. I thought that was odd and that I wouldn’t really like it but the temperature definitely added something to it and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would (though I didn’t go back for another cup!). When we were finally through with the sushi the boys all decided they wanted to go to the casino as there was a cash poker game happening and they all have money to burn and wanted to get in on the action. Me, Hannah and Krisha just looked at eachother like please, no! And decided to make our own way to a bar, rather than going to the casino. It turned out to be a good move and a few of the boys came to their senses and came with us to the Irish pub that is so popular with expats in Kampala. There were lots of people there who I recognised, including a south African guy called Rob who I have been on a couple of nights out with, and tieese, the Brazilian girl I shared a hotel room with when we went to Rukinjiri. Hannah and Krisha who used to live here introduced me to lots of other people as well, and it was nice to be socialising a bit independently of paul, as I don’t want to get in his way and it can be awkward for me when I don’t know people and I don’t get introduced.
The boys came and met us in bubbles after a bit, and it materialised that paul had lost a little bit of money (though he didn’t say how much, and I expect our definitions of ‘a little bit of money’ are very different!!) but Tariq had won 400,000 shillings, which is about £100. When we got bored of bubbles we moved on to a club called iguanas which is popular with young visitors on projects like mine, because it’s cheap and has something of an African vibe to it, unlike some of the other places I have been to in Kampala.
We didn’t stay in iguanas particularly long as pauls friend Ron needed to get to Cayenne to meet a friend. I like cayenne as it’s a bit more civilised than iguanas though is less exciting, so we all trooped off. We got there and had a few drinks and it was fairly uneventful, but it was fun. The girls had bought a joint from a boda boda driver and ron seems to have quite a lot of power at cayenne so we went and sat in a corner to smoke it. It was funny because there was absolutely no weed in the thing, it was basically just a rollup. The security man got all suspicious and came over so we put it out and then we were laughing and we were like mate, smell it, theres nothing in it! Although he didn’t look too convinced, he was clearly a little bit fearful of upsetting ron, so he took it away and brought us a whole packet of cigarettes to replace it. They didn’t interest us in the slightest, but it was funny seeing his reaction.
By the time we were talking baout leaving cayenne it was nearly 5AM and I was absolutely knackered. I wanted to go home but paul and tariq insisted on us going to this place called club pa lui where they went the other night and paul upset someone by mooning them. Thankfully we got there and the bouncer said that they weren’t letting anyone else in because it was too late, so we all trooped off home. Ron and Krisha came with us which was nice, and me and krisha were planning to meet up today anyway, and we will probably see Hannah later as well. I’m not entirely sure what we’re going to be doing but they seem to know good places to go from living here so I’m sure they’ll have some ideas.
I cant believe how long this post is! Over 1000 words just describing one night, sorry if it’s not that interesting for you to read...
Love, Lucy xxx
Hey all.
As it was Friday night last night, we went out and met up with some friends. We met everyone at a Japanese restaurant where we had completely amazing food. Every time you order something they bring you this little bowl of salad which was so nice, I have no idea what was in it, but some shredded crunchy stuff and then doused in a really nice gingery dressing.
When me, paul and tariq arrived we were bit early so we ordered some tempura prawns to keep us going, (naturally, they came with the salad beforehand) which were absolutely divine, and then people started arriving so there was a bit of a time delay, but eventually we ordered food. There are a lot of male expats in kampala but very few women, so in a group of about 20 men there were only 3 of us girls. Thankfully they were really lovely and I had met one of them before, so we stuck together.
We ordered a baby maha roll which was prawn and some sort of vegetable inside, and then nori and rice around the outside, with a slice of avocado on top. That came recommended to us and was absolutely amazing. I have never really had sushi before, and I was a little bit wary of trying it but it was very nice and at this restaurant they fly all of the fish in fresh that morning, and you really could tell it was fresh. We were the last little group to get our food and so by the time we got our baby maha most people had finished eating! It did have the advantage that we could go around stealing nibbles of everyone elses though, so I got to try a lot of things! The boys had some amazing teriyaki beef from the hot food menu which we couldn’t get enough of, and we were very pleased because we had ordered the teriyaki beef sushi roll, which was yet to materialise. When it got to about half 10 we got a bit more vocal about the fact we were STARVING etc as the owner was sat only one seat down the bar from us, and he gave his chef a bollocking, as they had clearly forgotten our order. They brought a chicken roll rather than beef, but we couldn’t be bothered to argue and it was very nice anyway.
I also got to try sake last night which I have never had before, and was oddly served warm. Not like red wine warm, but it had actually been heated up. I thought that was odd and that I wouldn’t really like it but the temperature definitely added something to it and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would (though I didn’t go back for another cup!). When we were finally through with the sushi the boys all decided they wanted to go to the casino as there was a cash poker game happening and they all have money to burn and wanted to get in on the action. Me, Hannah and Krisha just looked at eachother like please, no! And decided to make our own way to a bar, rather than going to the casino. It turned out to be a good move and a few of the boys came to their senses and came with us to the Irish pub that is so popular with expats in Kampala. There were lots of people there who I recognised, including a south African guy called Rob who I have been on a couple of nights out with, and tieese, the Brazilian girl I shared a hotel room with when we went to Rukinjiri. Hannah and Krisha who used to live here introduced me to lots of other people as well, and it was nice to be socialising a bit independently of paul, as I don’t want to get in his way and it can be awkward for me when I don’t know people and I don’t get introduced.
The boys came and met us in bubbles after a bit, and it materialised that paul had lost a little bit of money (though he didn’t say how much, and I expect our definitions of ‘a little bit of money’ are very different!!) but Tariq had won 400,000 shillings, which is about £100. When we got bored of bubbles we moved on to a club called iguanas which is popular with young visitors on projects like mine, because it’s cheap and has something of an African vibe to it, unlike some of the other places I have been to in Kampala.
We didn’t stay in iguanas particularly long as pauls friend Ron needed to get to Cayenne to meet a friend. I like cayenne as it’s a bit more civilised than iguanas though is less exciting, so we all trooped off. We got there and had a few drinks and it was fairly uneventful, but it was fun. The girls had bought a joint from a boda boda driver and ron seems to have quite a lot of power at cayenne so we went and sat in a corner to smoke it. It was funny because there was absolutely no weed in the thing, it was basically just a rollup. The security man got all suspicious and came over so we put it out and then we were laughing and we were like mate, smell it, theres nothing in it! Although he didn’t look too convinced, he was clearly a little bit fearful of upsetting ron, so he took it away and brought us a whole packet of cigarettes to replace it. They didn’t interest us in the slightest, but it was funny seeing his reaction.
By the time we were talking baout leaving cayenne it was nearly 5AM and I was absolutely knackered. I wanted to go home but paul and tariq insisted on us going to this place called club pa lui where they went the other night and paul upset someone by mooning them. Thankfully we got there and the bouncer said that they weren’t letting anyone else in because it was too late, so we all trooped off home. Ron and Krisha came with us which was nice, and me and krisha were planning to meet up today anyway, and we will probably see Hannah later as well. I’m not entirely sure what we’re going to be doing but they seem to know good places to go from living here so I’m sure they’ll have some ideas.
I cant believe how long this post is! Over 1000 words just describing one night, sorry if it’s not that interesting for you to read...
Love, Lucy xxx
Friday, 26 August 2011
People and power cuts...
hey all, its been a while!
i left the lodge on wednesday with sofia, and paul drove us and two of his own volunteers to his flat. unfortunately we arrived in kampala a bit late, so sophia coudnt join us for dinner as planned, and had to go straight to the airport pretty much when we arrived at pauls flat.pauls two volunteers, florie and lydia were really nice, and we all went out for dinner at mediteraneo. i had been looking forward to lasagne there for so long! it was really good, and as always seems to happen when you go anywhere with paul and tariq, we ended up as a huge party of people at the restaurant. they had begun laying a table for 6, (us and one fried of paul and tariq) while we sat in the bar, but it quickly had to be changed to a table for 12, and as we walked to it we saw tieese (brazilian girl i shared a hotel room with at georges wedding) and a friend of hers, so they joined us, and then a few minutes later some more people arrived, so we ended up being a table of about 15! i think the girls were a bit intimidated and wwhen paul suggested that we go out after the meal, they looked pretty horrified, so the 3 of us went back to the flat and basically went to bed. i kept waking up in the night and wondering if they were back yet, but they didnt get home til 7am! it was than tht i was quite reived that i hadn't gone out. yesterday the girls wanted to go to the craft market so paul drove us there (his volunteers aren't allowed to use boda bodas, too unsafe) and we shopped for nearly 3 hours, which was great but exhausting. after that we met paul at his friend ron (who i have met before)'s restaurant, which was really nice, i think we all ended up eating chicken tikka roti/wraps. they had to get to the airport so we said goodbye to lydia and florie at the restaurant and they went off to entebbe in a taxi. we went back to the flat and just basically chilled out until the evening, (well, i was chillin', but paul was sleeping as he had only had about 2 hours sleep that morning.)
at about 8 oclock we were debating what to do, as we had been invited to a pub quiz at the irish pub, and i would have liked to have gone, but paul and tariq were knackred from the previous night, so they decided to stay in, and get food from the hot food counter at the supermarket (they dont cook). then the power went out, and they got annoyed because they had wanted to watch a film, and now they couldnt. the debated for ages whether we shoud go out now, to a restaurant, as otherwise we would ahve to sit and eat in the dark. eventually it was decided that we should go and buy food and bring it back and eat in the dark, but thwere was some debate about whether to take the bike or the car. eventually the car was decied on and it was a bloody good job because as we were waiting for our pizzas (at the first place we went) it started pissing down. the ridiculous thing about this story is that once we decided we were staying in i put my onepiece on as it was cold in the flat. then while we were in the car on the way to the supermarket paul decided we should go to cayenne to get pizzas and then go tot he supermarket. cayenne is a club that i ahve been to before and lots of pauls friends and acquaintences hang out there, and they are poeple i have met and will be seeing again. we had to wait for the pizzas at a table with me in my pink onepiece looking like an absolute twat thinking oh god i hope nobody recognises me. you get frisked going into most places here and the woman who was searching me openly laughed at me as i went in. oh god. then we went off to the supermarket in the pissing rain and it took AGES because there was traffic and the most torrential rain i have ever seen and we eventually got back to the flat 2 hours after we left.
the pizza was cold and they dont have an oven so we had to reheat it in a frying pan, which was interesting but actually worked quite well. after that there was nothing to do and it was actually quite late so we went to bed.
this morning paul got up and went to work and me and tariq slept in (though tariq sleeps in every day). when i got up i started cooking breakfast (i had bacon for the first time in 8 weeks!!)and tariq got up and as soon as he saw the kitchen and the aftermath of last night he rang his maid like 'hi, i knw its friday (she is muslim) but could you please come in and clean the kitchen?' i looked at it and it wasnt really messy at all, there was just some washing up to be done and the worktops needed wiping. she said she could come at 2.30 but that would mean the we couldnt go out as planned, so i offered to do it. it literally took 5 minutes and now its sorted, so later we will go to mediteraneo (its basically their fave place and it had free wifi) for coffee and stuff and to use the internet and we dont have to wait for hajat or disturb her holy day.
later today some of the people from the lodge should be getting to kampala so i hope to meet up with them for dinner, and then as its friday we will definitely be going out and it will be busy in town and stuff so that should be fun, and paul and tariq know good places to go and people who can get you in for free so we will probably hang out with them.
at the weekend lauren and kathy from the lodge and me are going to go horse riding just outside kampala. i'm not entirely sure what is involved because lauren is organising it but the general gist that i got is that you go all day and its in the hills and stuff and its not expensive, so that should be fun. it'll be interesting to see how much of my riding skill i have retained!
i cant wait to come back to blighty next week, even though i'm having a great time here. i'm missing home and my family and my bed and food (although food isnt a problem in kampala)a lot and it will just be lovely to be home.
see you soon!!
Love, Lucy xx
i left the lodge on wednesday with sofia, and paul drove us and two of his own volunteers to his flat. unfortunately we arrived in kampala a bit late, so sophia coudnt join us for dinner as planned, and had to go straight to the airport pretty much when we arrived at pauls flat.pauls two volunteers, florie and lydia were really nice, and we all went out for dinner at mediteraneo. i had been looking forward to lasagne there for so long! it was really good, and as always seems to happen when you go anywhere with paul and tariq, we ended up as a huge party of people at the restaurant. they had begun laying a table for 6, (us and one fried of paul and tariq) while we sat in the bar, but it quickly had to be changed to a table for 12, and as we walked to it we saw tieese (brazilian girl i shared a hotel room with at georges wedding) and a friend of hers, so they joined us, and then a few minutes later some more people arrived, so we ended up being a table of about 15! i think the girls were a bit intimidated and wwhen paul suggested that we go out after the meal, they looked pretty horrified, so the 3 of us went back to the flat and basically went to bed. i kept waking up in the night and wondering if they were back yet, but they didnt get home til 7am! it was than tht i was quite reived that i hadn't gone out. yesterday the girls wanted to go to the craft market so paul drove us there (his volunteers aren't allowed to use boda bodas, too unsafe) and we shopped for nearly 3 hours, which was great but exhausting. after that we met paul at his friend ron (who i have met before)'s restaurant, which was really nice, i think we all ended up eating chicken tikka roti/wraps. they had to get to the airport so we said goodbye to lydia and florie at the restaurant and they went off to entebbe in a taxi. we went back to the flat and just basically chilled out until the evening, (well, i was chillin', but paul was sleeping as he had only had about 2 hours sleep that morning.)
at about 8 oclock we were debating what to do, as we had been invited to a pub quiz at the irish pub, and i would have liked to have gone, but paul and tariq were knackred from the previous night, so they decided to stay in, and get food from the hot food counter at the supermarket (they dont cook). then the power went out, and they got annoyed because they had wanted to watch a film, and now they couldnt. the debated for ages whether we shoud go out now, to a restaurant, as otherwise we would ahve to sit and eat in the dark. eventually it was decided that we should go and buy food and bring it back and eat in the dark, but thwere was some debate about whether to take the bike or the car. eventually the car was decied on and it was a bloody good job because as we were waiting for our pizzas (at the first place we went) it started pissing down. the ridiculous thing about this story is that once we decided we were staying in i put my onepiece on as it was cold in the flat. then while we were in the car on the way to the supermarket paul decided we should go to cayenne to get pizzas and then go tot he supermarket. cayenne is a club that i ahve been to before and lots of pauls friends and acquaintences hang out there, and they are poeple i have met and will be seeing again. we had to wait for the pizzas at a table with me in my pink onepiece looking like an absolute twat thinking oh god i hope nobody recognises me. you get frisked going into most places here and the woman who was searching me openly laughed at me as i went in. oh god. then we went off to the supermarket in the pissing rain and it took AGES because there was traffic and the most torrential rain i have ever seen and we eventually got back to the flat 2 hours after we left.
the pizza was cold and they dont have an oven so we had to reheat it in a frying pan, which was interesting but actually worked quite well. after that there was nothing to do and it was actually quite late so we went to bed.
this morning paul got up and went to work and me and tariq slept in (though tariq sleeps in every day). when i got up i started cooking breakfast (i had bacon for the first time in 8 weeks!!)and tariq got up and as soon as he saw the kitchen and the aftermath of last night he rang his maid like 'hi, i knw its friday (she is muslim) but could you please come in and clean the kitchen?' i looked at it and it wasnt really messy at all, there was just some washing up to be done and the worktops needed wiping. she said she could come at 2.30 but that would mean the we couldnt go out as planned, so i offered to do it. it literally took 5 minutes and now its sorted, so later we will go to mediteraneo (its basically their fave place and it had free wifi) for coffee and stuff and to use the internet and we dont have to wait for hajat or disturb her holy day.
later today some of the people from the lodge should be getting to kampala so i hope to meet up with them for dinner, and then as its friday we will definitely be going out and it will be busy in town and stuff so that should be fun, and paul and tariq know good places to go and people who can get you in for free so we will probably hang out with them.
at the weekend lauren and kathy from the lodge and me are going to go horse riding just outside kampala. i'm not entirely sure what is involved because lauren is organising it but the general gist that i got is that you go all day and its in the hills and stuff and its not expensive, so that should be fun. it'll be interesting to see how much of my riding skill i have retained!
i cant wait to come back to blighty next week, even though i'm having a great time here. i'm missing home and my family and my bed and food (although food isnt a problem in kampala)a lot and it will just be lovely to be home.
see you soon!!
Love, Lucy xx
Monday, 22 August 2011
Sickness and summer camp...
hey all! sorry i haven't posted in a few days, but we've had no power!
on saturday i got quite ill quite suddenly and couldn't leave the lodge because i couldnt stop being sick. it was a wholly unpleasant experience and even prompted a tearful 'i want to go home!' phonecall. i had pretty much recovered by yesterday and so tried to come into town as i still have university accomodation issues i need to sort out online, but thewre was no power in the whole of the south of the country and the internet cafe was closed so we couldnt even bribe them to put the generator on.
all of the other shops in town were closed so we literally came in and then came home again. marass forgot to come yesterday as well, so i didnt get my chappati lesson, though to be honest my stomach was still feeling a little delicate.
i dont have a huge amount else to say, i missed out on sals on friday because i had started to feel unwell by that point, and ive spent the last 2 days recovering. tomorrow is my last day at the lodge before i got back to kampala, which will be really sad but i am definitely looking forwards to a hot shower and a meal at mediteraneo (amazing italian restaurant in kampala)!
see you all soon! love, Lucy xxx
on saturday i got quite ill quite suddenly and couldn't leave the lodge because i couldnt stop being sick. it was a wholly unpleasant experience and even prompted a tearful 'i want to go home!' phonecall. i had pretty much recovered by yesterday and so tried to come into town as i still have university accomodation issues i need to sort out online, but thewre was no power in the whole of the south of the country and the internet cafe was closed so we couldnt even bribe them to put the generator on.
all of the other shops in town were closed so we literally came in and then came home again. marass forgot to come yesterday as well, so i didnt get my chappati lesson, though to be honest my stomach was still feeling a little delicate.
i dont have a huge amount else to say, i missed out on sals on friday because i had started to feel unwell by that point, and ive spent the last 2 days recovering. tomorrow is my last day at the lodge before i got back to kampala, which will be really sad but i am definitely looking forwards to a hot shower and a meal at mediteraneo (amazing italian restaurant in kampala)!
see you all soon! love, Lucy xxx
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Hospitals and HIV testing
hey all. i've had a fairly uneventful couple of days, but i'll fill you in on the details anyway.
yesterday i was ten minutes in to teaching a class (which was going very well, by the way!)when a child was shoved at me with the declaration 'he is sick. take to hospital.'
i was somewhat taken aback and also pretty pissed off with this development, but i took him anyway - what choice did i have?they were convinced he had malaria, and he did have a skin complaint which looked a bit like scabies on his wrists.
when we got to the hospital it seemed unlikely that he had malaria but the drugs were prescribed for him anyway. he had a blood test which was negative (though not very high tech. they put the blood on a slide and look for 'bugs' under a microscope.)when i got him back to school i tried to persuade his teacher who is a bit of a dragon to let him take it easy for the rest of the day, but she wasn't having any of it. one of the teachers took all of the tablets from him and said she was taking him home. whether or not the drugs made it home with him is another matter.
that evening me and one of the other girls from the lodge, rachel, went out for dinner to sky blue, which was really nice. i had a rolex and chips, which was waaay better than what was on offer at the lodge.
today i went over to school for break, where i noticed that brian, who has been absent for several days, had conjunctivitis symptoms again. since he had it less than a month ago and still hasn't managed to shake it off, i was worried, so i walked through the mountains back to his house to ask the mother if the drops had been helping. she told me that she'd been putting them in religeously but it wasn't making a difference. i tentatively enquired if they would allow me to get him tested for HIV, and the parents agreed to this. i took him back down the mountain and we headed off to hospital. i have had a child tested for HIV before and it was no issue, i asked and they did it. well not today. dr moses wouldn't budge. he wanted to the parents o be there, despite the fact they had agreed to the test but declined to accompany us. it was very frustrating,. but he did at least provide some alternative treatment which will hopefully be more effective.
i have to take him home later and ask one of the parents to accompany me to the hospital, so he can have the test, though both parents refuse to be tested themselves.
tonight is sophia's birthday, so we are going out to a concert by some ugandan pop sensation, which should be a laugh, i'll repot back in a couple of days!
love, Lucy xxx
yesterday i was ten minutes in to teaching a class (which was going very well, by the way!)when a child was shoved at me with the declaration 'he is sick. take to hospital.'
i was somewhat taken aback and also pretty pissed off with this development, but i took him anyway - what choice did i have?they were convinced he had malaria, and he did have a skin complaint which looked a bit like scabies on his wrists.
when we got to the hospital it seemed unlikely that he had malaria but the drugs were prescribed for him anyway. he had a blood test which was negative (though not very high tech. they put the blood on a slide and look for 'bugs' under a microscope.)when i got him back to school i tried to persuade his teacher who is a bit of a dragon to let him take it easy for the rest of the day, but she wasn't having any of it. one of the teachers took all of the tablets from him and said she was taking him home. whether or not the drugs made it home with him is another matter.
that evening me and one of the other girls from the lodge, rachel, went out for dinner to sky blue, which was really nice. i had a rolex and chips, which was waaay better than what was on offer at the lodge.
today i went over to school for break, where i noticed that brian, who has been absent for several days, had conjunctivitis symptoms again. since he had it less than a month ago and still hasn't managed to shake it off, i was worried, so i walked through the mountains back to his house to ask the mother if the drops had been helping. she told me that she'd been putting them in religeously but it wasn't making a difference. i tentatively enquired if they would allow me to get him tested for HIV, and the parents agreed to this. i took him back down the mountain and we headed off to hospital. i have had a child tested for HIV before and it was no issue, i asked and they did it. well not today. dr moses wouldn't budge. he wanted to the parents o be there, despite the fact they had agreed to the test but declined to accompany us. it was very frustrating,. but he did at least provide some alternative treatment which will hopefully be more effective.
i have to take him home later and ask one of the parents to accompany me to the hospital, so he can have the test, though both parents refuse to be tested themselves.
tonight is sophia's birthday, so we are going out to a concert by some ugandan pop sensation, which should be a laugh, i'll repot back in a couple of days!
love, Lucy xxx
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Drinking and dowries...
Hey guys! It’s been such a good couple of days, I think this is going to be a long one. As already mentioned in my last post, we did white water rafting and had a night out the previous day.
On Friday when I got back to pauls and I decided to stay, it was pretty apparent that we would be going out (it was a Friday night, after all, and I was missing a night at Sals.) we first headed out to mediteraneo, the Italian restaurant where I met up with paul for lunch on Wednesday. There we met up with a couple of friends of paul and tarik, including a Serbian guy called George. We had a few drinks and some of us had dinner (I had fresh ravioli, DIVINE), and I found out that George was getting engaged the following day, so he had to travel to rukingiri where the girls family lives. He invited me along for the ride, so I decided to go.
After mediteraneo we moved on to a shisha bar called casa blanca which was a real hole, but we sat outside and after much waiting and arguing they produced a pipe for us, which was enjoyable. George used to be a barman (in a very classy bar, I imagine) and makes amazing cocktails. He has an amazing command over people, and eveyr place we went he would just nip behind the bar and mix up something amazing, so even in this crappy bar we had great drinks.
After the shisha George decided that he needed to go home and rest, but we stayed on in town and went back to the same irish pub we went to on Wednesday, but it was packed so we didn’t stay long, before moving on to a place called cayenne, which pauls friend ron got us into for free. Apparently there are a lot of rich Indians around in kampala and they don’t pay to get in anywhere. Cayenne was really nice and I actually bumped into one of the girls who was rafting on the same day as me and we had travelled on the same bus to jinja. We had some great cocktails there as well, despite the fact that George had left!
We eventually went home and slept for a couple of hours before getting up at six to set off for rukinjiri. We travelled up in a car that George had just bought but it was pretty much falling apart. We stopped on the way for samosas which were really nice and we finally arrived at the hotel at about 2 o’clock. After showering and getting changed we had to drive to the village that is home to the bride, Helens family. The engagement thing was really interesting, there were a lot of very strict rules we had to follow. When we came into the house we had to walk in a straight, single file line. We were taken into a room where we were given this absolutely vile drink made form ground millet. I only managed on sip and I heaved 3 times before I could even swallow it. Most of the others managed most of a glass, but I have no idea how they did it. George managed a glass and a half. I was really worried about appearing rude by not drinking it, but I figured it would have been ruder to throw up everywhere than to leave it in the glass. After the drink we had to walk in a line again to this makeshift marquee that had been set up, and we had to sit facing all of the family and village elders but we weren’t allowed to greet them, we had to wait for them to come to us, which they didn’t.
One of the elders made a speech and we listened, but it didn’t make a lot of sense. The general gist was (I think) that they were happy we were there, despite the fact they didn’t look the slightest bit happy. Then we went off to a separate room where they fed us for 2 hours. They had this really nice chicken which was cooked wrapped in banana leaves, and there was a parcel for each of us. Georges parcel contained a whole chicken that he wasn’t allowed to share!
After the food we went back and we all had to speak and say who we were. Then they asked us why we were there and I was dreading having to answer that but there was an adjudicator type of person and he answered for us. Then all of the daughters of the family came out and they had to give a flower to the man they wanted to marry. It all seemed a bit odd because they clearly already knew who was getting engaged to who, but thats the way it was. After that basically they had to negociate about the dowry price, even though we had brought loda of stuff with us, they require a lot from the man. He had been told to buy 20kg of sugar, 10kg of salt, lots of waragi, bread, butter, biscuits, soap, and bottled water. On top of that they asked for 10 ankole cows, with the biggest horns, but to show his gratitude he offered 12. That would cost about 12million shillings, which is about £3000. After that it got a lot more relaxed and we basically danced and partied. They wanted us to stay there which I think would have been fun but George was a bit snobby about it and was like ‘I don’t want to sleep on the fucking floor, it’s like Auschwitz in there’ even though they had mattresses and stuff, I think it looked fine, but we went back to the hotel, where the Serbians (along with paul and tarik) drank for hours. Me and the Brazilian girl I shared a room with went to be quite early as we were so knackered form the night before!
This morning I came back to ruhanga, which was on their way home so they dropped me off, which was nice. Now that I’m back it feels a little weird but it’s nice that I feel I’ve come home, and I’ve surprised myself with how pleased I was to be back!
love, lucy xx
On Friday when I got back to pauls and I decided to stay, it was pretty apparent that we would be going out (it was a Friday night, after all, and I was missing a night at Sals.) we first headed out to mediteraneo, the Italian restaurant where I met up with paul for lunch on Wednesday. There we met up with a couple of friends of paul and tarik, including a Serbian guy called George. We had a few drinks and some of us had dinner (I had fresh ravioli, DIVINE), and I found out that George was getting engaged the following day, so he had to travel to rukingiri where the girls family lives. He invited me along for the ride, so I decided to go.
After mediteraneo we moved on to a shisha bar called casa blanca which was a real hole, but we sat outside and after much waiting and arguing they produced a pipe for us, which was enjoyable. George used to be a barman (in a very classy bar, I imagine) and makes amazing cocktails. He has an amazing command over people, and eveyr place we went he would just nip behind the bar and mix up something amazing, so even in this crappy bar we had great drinks.
After the shisha George decided that he needed to go home and rest, but we stayed on in town and went back to the same irish pub we went to on Wednesday, but it was packed so we didn’t stay long, before moving on to a place called cayenne, which pauls friend ron got us into for free. Apparently there are a lot of rich Indians around in kampala and they don’t pay to get in anywhere. Cayenne was really nice and I actually bumped into one of the girls who was rafting on the same day as me and we had travelled on the same bus to jinja. We had some great cocktails there as well, despite the fact that George had left!
We eventually went home and slept for a couple of hours before getting up at six to set off for rukinjiri. We travelled up in a car that George had just bought but it was pretty much falling apart. We stopped on the way for samosas which were really nice and we finally arrived at the hotel at about 2 o’clock. After showering and getting changed we had to drive to the village that is home to the bride, Helens family. The engagement thing was really interesting, there were a lot of very strict rules we had to follow. When we came into the house we had to walk in a straight, single file line. We were taken into a room where we were given this absolutely vile drink made form ground millet. I only managed on sip and I heaved 3 times before I could even swallow it. Most of the others managed most of a glass, but I have no idea how they did it. George managed a glass and a half. I was really worried about appearing rude by not drinking it, but I figured it would have been ruder to throw up everywhere than to leave it in the glass. After the drink we had to walk in a line again to this makeshift marquee that had been set up, and we had to sit facing all of the family and village elders but we weren’t allowed to greet them, we had to wait for them to come to us, which they didn’t.
One of the elders made a speech and we listened, but it didn’t make a lot of sense. The general gist was (I think) that they were happy we were there, despite the fact they didn’t look the slightest bit happy. Then we went off to a separate room where they fed us for 2 hours. They had this really nice chicken which was cooked wrapped in banana leaves, and there was a parcel for each of us. Georges parcel contained a whole chicken that he wasn’t allowed to share!
After the food we went back and we all had to speak and say who we were. Then they asked us why we were there and I was dreading having to answer that but there was an adjudicator type of person and he answered for us. Then all of the daughters of the family came out and they had to give a flower to the man they wanted to marry. It all seemed a bit odd because they clearly already knew who was getting engaged to who, but thats the way it was. After that basically they had to negociate about the dowry price, even though we had brought loda of stuff with us, they require a lot from the man. He had been told to buy 20kg of sugar, 10kg of salt, lots of waragi, bread, butter, biscuits, soap, and bottled water. On top of that they asked for 10 ankole cows, with the biggest horns, but to show his gratitude he offered 12. That would cost about 12million shillings, which is about £3000. After that it got a lot more relaxed and we basically danced and partied. They wanted us to stay there which I think would have been fun but George was a bit snobby about it and was like ‘I don’t want to sleep on the fucking floor, it’s like Auschwitz in there’ even though they had mattresses and stuff, I think it looked fine, but we went back to the hotel, where the Serbians (along with paul and tarik) drank for hours. Me and the Brazilian girl I shared a room with went to be quite early as we were so knackered form the night before!
This morning I came back to ruhanga, which was on their way home so they dropped me off, which was nice. Now that I’m back it feels a little weird but it’s nice that I feel I’ve come home, and I’ve surprised myself with how pleased I was to be back!
love, lucy xx
Saturday, 30 July 2011
bunyoni and boozing....
hey all!
its been a good few days since my last post, but this is actually my third day in a row of visits to the internet cafe! yesterday there was a powercut and the day before the connection was down. a few things have happened since wednesday, but in all honesty i cant remember what happened on what day, so i'll just tell you as i remember it. (ie, prepare for a rambly post!)
on thurday (i think) we moved rooms whish was brilliant, because our new room has so much more space, and the beds are higher so we can put our cases underneath them. suzi left on friday so the bed underneath me is now empty, and priya and rachel have gone to lake bunyoni for the weekend, so our room is suddenly very big and very empty! just me, molly and sarah are left, but molly and sarah are going on safari tomorrow, but hopefully i wont be alone because priya and rachel should be back and there are 8 new people arriving on sunday so at least one of them will be in our room. the projects is stuffed full of people, it has a max capacity of 20, but by the middle of next week it will be in the high 40's. original volunteers just keep sending people even though theres no space. in this week alone we have had 18 new people and only 5 have left.
we are all going on a big trip to lake bunyoni next weekend, which should be great fun. it's supposed to be very beautiful and is genuinely bilharzia free so we can swim without worrying!
last night we went out to sal geust house, and (because there were so many of us and i was at the back of the queue) there was no dinner left, so i went on an empty stomach, whihc is never a good plan, but at least it was a cheap night out! it cost me 9000 shillings in total for transport and 3 drinks (which was all i needed!) whihc is about 2.25.
i decided today that i want to go gorilla tracking. i will probably never have the chance again and the permit prices are set to triple in the next year. i'm really very excited about it!
hope you are all well and i will speak to you soon!
ps. if you're having trouble posting comments, make sure the 'keep me signed in' box is NOT ticked when you sign in, and then it should work. its very wierd, but thats how it works.
love, lucy xx
its been a good few days since my last post, but this is actually my third day in a row of visits to the internet cafe! yesterday there was a powercut and the day before the connection was down. a few things have happened since wednesday, but in all honesty i cant remember what happened on what day, so i'll just tell you as i remember it. (ie, prepare for a rambly post!)
on thurday (i think) we moved rooms whish was brilliant, because our new room has so much more space, and the beds are higher so we can put our cases underneath them. suzi left on friday so the bed underneath me is now empty, and priya and rachel have gone to lake bunyoni for the weekend, so our room is suddenly very big and very empty! just me, molly and sarah are left, but molly and sarah are going on safari tomorrow, but hopefully i wont be alone because priya and rachel should be back and there are 8 new people arriving on sunday so at least one of them will be in our room. the projects is stuffed full of people, it has a max capacity of 20, but by the middle of next week it will be in the high 40's. original volunteers just keep sending people even though theres no space. in this week alone we have had 18 new people and only 5 have left.
we are all going on a big trip to lake bunyoni next weekend, which should be great fun. it's supposed to be very beautiful and is genuinely bilharzia free so we can swim without worrying!
last night we went out to sal geust house, and (because there were so many of us and i was at the back of the queue) there was no dinner left, so i went on an empty stomach, whihc is never a good plan, but at least it was a cheap night out! it cost me 9000 shillings in total for transport and 3 drinks (which was all i needed!) whihc is about 2.25.
i decided today that i want to go gorilla tracking. i will probably never have the chance again and the permit prices are set to triple in the next year. i'm really very excited about it!
hope you are all well and i will speak to you soon!
ps. if you're having trouble posting comments, make sure the 'keep me signed in' box is NOT ticked when you sign in, and then it should work. its very wierd, but thats how it works.
love, lucy xx
Monday, 25 July 2011
Haven't I met you before?
hey all! its been a bit of an emotional couple of days, but i'm hoping things will start to turn around.
yesterday it was emilys birthday so we went for an evening out in ntungamo, at a pub called the Kama inn. it was fun but drinking there was somewhat difficult, as here you can't just buy a spirit and mixer, you ahve to buy the bottle of spirits!! this was fine until they started to run out of the things we wanted to drink!
thismorning i was invidulating exams in baby 1, (which is bloody hard, you have to stop the teacher from helping them, and stop the kids from copying eachother)and at break time i noticed this poor child with these horribkle black crusted sores all around his mouth and chin, which were ooznig fluid and just looking totally horrible for him. i wasn't sure what it was, (at first i thought he had black paint or something on his face!) so i took him to jameel, who said it was 'a disease' that his parents had attempted to treat using tradition healing methods and herbs. it was pretty clear to me that the herbs were doing more harm than good. jameel suggested i take him to hospital, so off i went again.
at the hospital i saw the same doctor as last time, but he was much nicer to me this time, and i made sure i didnt go alone. the experience of taking steven to hospital though, was thouroghly distressing. i was told that it had to come off, which i was prepared for, but i wasnt prepared for how they were going to take it off. this huge nurse wrapped a rubber apron around him, soaked some gauze in alcohol, and just started ripping the scabs and crusted herb paste off his face. it was horrendous. he screamed the place down. he was so scared he wet his pants all over nouf's (the volunteer who came with me) lap. he was completely inconsolable, i was crying, he was crying, all the africans were crying laughing at me.
eventually when it was all cleaned up, it did look a lot better, but we had one miserable kid on our hands, who we then had to take for a blood test to check for HIV and malaria. he wasn't a fan of that one either. when we eventually got him back top the lodge though, he seemed much brighter and was eager to play. his mother came to pick him up so i was able to explain to her about his medicines and tell her how important it was not to put herbs on it. she was very grateful and gave me a loaf of bread to say thankyou :)
this afternoon i'm not really doing anything,. just trying to recover and be positive. its so hard to stay positive when there are terrible things happening all around me, and sometimes there's nothing i can do to help.
sorry to leave it on a miserable note, but there have been good things going on as well, like an epic boda boda race the other day, that have really been making me happy.
love, lucy xx
yesterday it was emilys birthday so we went for an evening out in ntungamo, at a pub called the Kama inn. it was fun but drinking there was somewhat difficult, as here you can't just buy a spirit and mixer, you ahve to buy the bottle of spirits!! this was fine until they started to run out of the things we wanted to drink!
thismorning i was invidulating exams in baby 1, (which is bloody hard, you have to stop the teacher from helping them, and stop the kids from copying eachother)and at break time i noticed this poor child with these horribkle black crusted sores all around his mouth and chin, which were ooznig fluid and just looking totally horrible for him. i wasn't sure what it was, (at first i thought he had black paint or something on his face!) so i took him to jameel, who said it was 'a disease' that his parents had attempted to treat using tradition healing methods and herbs. it was pretty clear to me that the herbs were doing more harm than good. jameel suggested i take him to hospital, so off i went again.
at the hospital i saw the same doctor as last time, but he was much nicer to me this time, and i made sure i didnt go alone. the experience of taking steven to hospital though, was thouroghly distressing. i was told that it had to come off, which i was prepared for, but i wasnt prepared for how they were going to take it off. this huge nurse wrapped a rubber apron around him, soaked some gauze in alcohol, and just started ripping the scabs and crusted herb paste off his face. it was horrendous. he screamed the place down. he was so scared he wet his pants all over nouf's (the volunteer who came with me) lap. he was completely inconsolable, i was crying, he was crying, all the africans were crying laughing at me.
eventually when it was all cleaned up, it did look a lot better, but we had one miserable kid on our hands, who we then had to take for a blood test to check for HIV and malaria. he wasn't a fan of that one either. when we eventually got him back top the lodge though, he seemed much brighter and was eager to play. his mother came to pick him up so i was able to explain to her about his medicines and tell her how important it was not to put herbs on it. she was very grateful and gave me a loaf of bread to say thankyou :)
this afternoon i'm not really doing anything,. just trying to recover and be positive. its so hard to stay positive when there are terrible things happening all around me, and sometimes there's nothing i can do to help.
sorry to leave it on a miserable note, but there have been good things going on as well, like an epic boda boda race the other day, that have really been making me happy.
love, lucy xx
Saturday, 16 July 2011
Classes and Clubbing...
hey all, sorry about the extremely short post yesterday that i just re read and was a bit of a nonsense post really.
yesterday after i took little brian to hospital we came ino town and i bought a few things and used the internet at the internet cafe. i also bought some gin, whihc seems to be the drink of choice around here, and is ludicrously cheap. it comes in sachets, rather than bottles, and each one is 100ml. you can buy a pack of 12 sachets for 5500 shillings, which is less than 1.50 in england! we came back from town on a boda boda, which is basically a motorbike that you can hire as a taxi. i was bricking it but it was actually ok, i'd had to ride one earlier in the day anway to take brian home from hospital. we had races and we came second, and the people who were in the lead broke down and had to be collected by anther one of the drivers!
when we got back the goat was being barbequed african style on sticks which were shoved into a log on the fire.it was really yummy and nice to have some meat! after the goat we had a few drinks and the headed out to the sal geusthouse, which is a local club. it was a good laugh though some of the african mens dance moves were questionable! the africn women were very keen to dance with us because they arent alowed to refuse a man if he wantes to dance with her or even if he wants to tae her off for a quickie, so they like to dance with us because we can get rid of the men, or turn it into a group dancing experience rather than a sexual couples dancing thing. one girl i was talking to was only 14 and she was absolutely terrified that a man would drag her off at any moment. i spent the night pointing at my ring (which i wear on my wedding finger but on the wrong hand) and telling people i was married!! it worked well...
a big group of volunteers went off to rwanda fr a couple of days thismorning, so the lodge is a lot quieter, but we did have 2 new people arrive, who have moved into my room, so i wont be alone as molly and sarah have gone on the rwanda trip.
as tomorrow is sunday and there is no school, i think some of us are going to church with the kids in the morning to see the singing, and then we are all going to 'the beach' which is actually the shore of nikaboko lake, so that should be interesting!!
yesterday after i took little brian to hospital we came ino town and i bought a few things and used the internet at the internet cafe. i also bought some gin, whihc seems to be the drink of choice around here, and is ludicrously cheap. it comes in sachets, rather than bottles, and each one is 100ml. you can buy a pack of 12 sachets for 5500 shillings, which is less than 1.50 in england! we came back from town on a boda boda, which is basically a motorbike that you can hire as a taxi. i was bricking it but it was actually ok, i'd had to ride one earlier in the day anway to take brian home from hospital. we had races and we came second, and the people who were in the lead broke down and had to be collected by anther one of the drivers!
when we got back the goat was being barbequed african style on sticks which were shoved into a log on the fire.it was really yummy and nice to have some meat! after the goat we had a few drinks and the headed out to the sal geusthouse, which is a local club. it was a good laugh though some of the african mens dance moves were questionable! the africn women were very keen to dance with us because they arent alowed to refuse a man if he wantes to dance with her or even if he wants to tae her off for a quickie, so they like to dance with us because we can get rid of the men, or turn it into a group dancing experience rather than a sexual couples dancing thing. one girl i was talking to was only 14 and she was absolutely terrified that a man would drag her off at any moment. i spent the night pointing at my ring (which i wear on my wedding finger but on the wrong hand) and telling people i was married!! it worked well...
a big group of volunteers went off to rwanda fr a couple of days thismorning, so the lodge is a lot quieter, but we did have 2 new people arrive, who have moved into my room, so i wont be alone as molly and sarah have gone on the rwanda trip.
as tomorrow is sunday and there is no school, i think some of us are going to church with the kids in the morning to see the singing, and then we are all going to 'the beach' which is actually the shore of nikaboko lake, so that should be interesting!!
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