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 kampala. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kampala. Show all posts
Monday, 29 August 2011
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
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
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