Lopez Motel Kampala

... night was the birthday party of Camilla, the girl that was my predecessor at my current position. Not only was I on fire on the dance floor for the first time on African soil, but also had the chance to get to know a couple of people working in development corporations from different nationalities and with the most differing educational backgrounds. The night ended with a delicious savanna dry sider at THE expat place of Kampala, Bubbles, which is just a five minutes walk away ...

... After getting our Kenyan exit stamps we strolled up to the Ugandan border post and handed over our passports and $50 visa fee. About an hour later a customs official came out waving Rachel and my passports demanding to know why we handed over $50. Well it turns out that for some reason there is no charge for Irish passport holders entering Uganda but all the other nationalities in our group had to pay $50. I think the customs official might have thought we were trying to bribe him ...

... or the Grade 5 - "The Washing Machine", we chose "50/50" for chance of flipping etc. Got through safely the raft before us flipped and they floated off downstream. The extreme boat was next and the guide's description of "The Washing Machine" was spot on. Basically people will fall out of the raft like popcorn and they are encouraged to throw away their paddles and to not hold on to the raft, plus take a big breath as you may be under for 15secs or more. Their ...

... you see a lot more than if you were to fly. This has been my most extensive trip through the countryside with a 3rd world country and you see a lot more of the culture than just the big cities which I like. As we drive our big orange truck around the country, we get a lot of stares. It’s a combination of many things. Like the fact that it has 22 white people inside including two white guys driving the truck, most of the ...

Three of our group members head out early to do a full-day extreme river rafting adventure on the Nile River at Jinja. You can see a photo essay on this exciting adventure if you do a search of the New York Times Travel Section articles in the last six months.

Our first stop today is at Ssezibwa Falls for a fun hike at the base and over the top of the falls. Then we do a hike through the rainforest at another break in our journey. Our ...

... mzungu speaks better Luganda than Teacher David.' David is a Langi from the North. I take that as a good sign. So, David came to me to challenge me: after my 7 months we will meet for a Lugganda competition. I swear, I will win that one!!!

Today, Josephine, Birgitte, Sam (BiA volunteer) and I are in BiA's office. They had a meeting about Eden School. It was very interesting to be able to participate. However, the highlight was ...

... black finger nails, she scratched at them, and seemed almost disappointed with they didn't move. She didn't let that stop her, she quickly found hair up close to my elbow and with two finger nails together, she pressed the hair and follicle out of my arm and then sucked it off. We traded back and forth, grooming our arms and hair. She took her finger and wiped the sweat droplets that had formed on my forehead off of my face; so gentle and nurturing - both of us. For the duration of the ...

... shattered but ready for out connecting flight to Entebbe. Following a short catnap and quick battery re-charge with the help of starburst sweets we boarded our short 8.30am flight to Entebbe finally touching down in Uganda at 9.30am. On arrival in Uganda we were met by masked and gloved WHO workers (for swine flu health screening), border control and many silly questions. The latter nearly caused Dave (who hadn't had a cigarette for 16 ...

... have a chance to sit down with Ugandan teachers. We have so many of the same concerns--grading papers fairly, worrying about how to get the kids to care about our subject matter, being good role models...so interesting. I should stop to point out here that Ugandan teachers have at least 80 students in most of their classes. Yes, you read that correctly--80. Some have 120-140. No joke. I nearly fainted. Oh, and they tell you this with the ease of telling you the time if ...

... windows by the end of the week. Crazy Ugandan scaffolding has been erected - tree trunks, rope and planks! It seems dangerous but I've seen the same thing on five storey buildings in town and here it is only four or five feet above the ground. The foundations are going to take us most of the time we are here but we decided that to push it on a bit we'd buy in some trucks of rock rather than be away from site the whole time trying to gather it. It means we can actually be ...