Protea Hotel Kampala

... who is 76 years old!)<br><br>If we thought today was a tough day&#8217;s drive we&#8217;re informed tomorrow will be even worse, as we leave at 5:30 and wont get to Lake Bunyuni till 5 or 5:30pm!! At least we will be there for 2 or 3 days although the first day for our Gorilla trek will be another very early start. We hadn&#8217;t realised how much driving there is in the first part of this week and it&#8217;s getting pretty tough with the long days and not doing much else.

... packed up the tents and boarded the truck for the long drive back to Kampala. I reckon that within about 5 minutes everyone on the truck except the driver was asleep! I never used to be able to sleep on buses or planes but since we started this overland tour I reckon I could sleep anywhere. At around lunchtime we stopped at the equator for the obligatory photo shoot and I also bought the t-shirt. That night we went back to the Red Chilli campsite in Kampala and had a very early night, much needed!

... the Aussies had to pay there visa of $60 in USD. As I go around the world, I find more and more evidence that the US dollar is the supreme currency and accepted in places you would never think of. As for the tour leader and not a tour guide thing, they are basically our chauffeurs around the continent. They take us from point A-B in a timely manner, let us know what is going on, what time to be somewhere, reserve whatever is next on the journey, and ...

This is our final blog from Africa, now in Kampala as we are leaving for two weeks in England today. Sorry about the numerous typos and spelling errors in the last blog &#8211; the computer in Zanzibar was prone to going off and there were a number of power outages - I had to type far too quickly. During the last two weeks in Zanzibar, we all went to some reefs off Mnemba Island where Heather completed her 4 day scuba course (Gavin mentioned ...

... dear friend Edda from my days of working at the Baha'i National Center in Chicago. She is from Finland originally, and has been living here for the past three years. We had a lot of catching up to do in a short time together. We have a nightmarishly early start tomorrow, so I am not able to sit up chatting into the night as I would have liked. Internet connections are sure to be spotty from this point onwards, but I&#8217;ll keep posting as I can!

... brick and mud building with open windows. We will be reaching out to the community in a variety of ways throughout the week.<br><br>Upon arrival in the village, we had the most incredible welcome I have ever had in my life. As we drove into the village, the children started screaming and running with the bus all the way to the church. When we arrived at the church, there ...

... dump every thought in my head to her. I found my lake, or perhaps my puddle. I will speak with Sophie and JGI Canada in more detail when I get back, but for now, it sounds like I will be preparing a document, joint with JGI Canada, to take the Ontario Ministry's recent Environmental Education Position document and create a meaningful resource for educators in Ontario. I was thankful for such a big idea to chew on, as we started our drive to Masindi. A drive that was scheduled to take 4 hours.

... Their next phase is to introduce vocational courses and even adult education. They are beginning to build a computer lab (having already paid to bring electricity to the village for the first time) which they hope to use for the next phase and to enthuse local parents about the school a bit. The bricks for the lab are being made by local boys in place of school fees. <br><br> <br><br> I went back to Paul's place after leaving the school and he showed me all ...

... of pocket after buying provisions. It was pretty upsetting to hear because the Ugandan volunteers come from pretty harsh backgrounds and hearing their stories then seeing them getting mucked about is unpleasant. The project itself seems really good though - the director of the school (Sarah Nabatanzi) is like a modern day saint - she is only in her twenties and cares for orphaned children from all around the area providing them with food, shelter and ...