Read about my travels in December in my last blog.
X-mas + New Years - Being faced with the thought of spending Christmas away from home and family is quite daunting. For me, and most people, Christmas has always been very family orientated and involved a lot of presents, snow and food - so all of us Ugandan volunteers banded together to have a good (and probably quite unfestive) time on the Sese isles of Lake Victoria. Golden sands, gorgeous head and beautiful, blue, bilharzia-infected lake waters. What more could I want from Christmas? On Christmas day I got up bright and early from my tent at Hornbill camp and all of us sat around our mini Christmas tree and placed our presents (crudely wrapped in banana leaves) under it. For secret Santa I got a pair of bright second-hand swim-shorts from Owino market, a t-shirt from Finn, chocolates, shaving cream and a 'Turriff and the surrounding area' photo calendar from my thoughtful parents. Early that morning the German owner of the camp slaughtered his pig and throughout the day it was slowly spit-roasted for a x-mas treat (not such a treat for the pig). The rest of the day was spent playing games - like 'dress-up relay' - sunbathing and having a weed fight in the lake (ironically the entire PT volunteer set for Uganda now has bilharzia, a potentially fatal disease gained from a parasite found in freshwater weeds. It's easily curable though, so no panicking Mum). In the evening we had delicious crunch pork (sorry pig), rice, matooke and spaghetti (especially festive) and some of the girls surprised us with hand-made crackers complete with newspaper hats, sweets and un-funny jokes. After the excitement of Christmas abroad we all got back to busy Kampala for New Years Eve. Ready with 15p sackets (bagged gin or vodka) we unfortunately reached 2011 in a long queue for the 'Club Silk Street Jam' but once finally in the club we had an amazing time - a street had been cordoned off and there was a massive stage and Uganda's top R+B artists. Of course, being mzungu, we were given VIP access and invited to dance on stage - with embarrassing consequences.
Kenya 2 - On the 6th of January I headed back into Kenya to see the parts me and my friends had missed - namely Nairobi and Mombasa. Having head quite a lot about 'Nairobbery' (as it's a.k.a) our overnight bus pulled up in the back-streets of the city worryingly early at 4am and so we had to wait on board til sunlight appeared and the ominous figures encircling our bus disappeared. My time spent in Nairobi (a city comparable to any in Europe) was memorable - staying in a youth hostel, hanging out in central park, shopping on Kenyatta avenue and meeting lots of interesting people; a couple of world travellers and an 86-year old American man staying in a dorm bed while volunteering with local families (it's never too late!). One day was spent climbing the 350ft Kenyatta Conference center for panoramic views across the city and then visiting a shopping center to make SPAM sandwiches for lunch (we were on a tight budget). After a week exploring the city (and not seeing any criminal activity whatsoever - is it wrong to be disappointed?) we boarded our bus to Mombasa. The humid air hit me like a wall when disembarking from the coach and my clothes became wet with sweat straight away. We quickly got into my first tuk-tuk and headed to backpackers - a hostel that had more similarities to a building trashed by a teenage house-party than a hotel. The next day I got my first sight of the sea for over four months and we spent a good few hours soaking up the sea and sunrays - a big mistake as it turned out as my glowing white body wasn't used to Sunlight factor-onemillion and I got myself a nice pair huge blisters covering the entirety of my shoulders. After a few days we said goodbye to Mombasa, snuck a few notes into the hand of the drunk South African backpackers-owner KO'd on a sofa and caught a bus to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Zanzibar - After deciding not to board a Zanzibar bound Mombasa cargo ship, perhaps due to its proximity to Somalia (and pirates), we got a nice speedy ferry from Dar to the island off the east coast of the African continent. If the beaches at Mombasa were nice, they weren't anything on Zanzibar where the sand is like flour and a band of 30°C turquoise water stretched out from the shore. Being there was like paradise and to make it even better it was so affordable - I stayed in a comfy $10 a night room and the entire 1600km travelled from Kampala cost only £90 return. I'd decided if I was making the long trip I was going to make it worth my while and so signed up with a couple of friends to do diving off marine-conservation site 'Mnemba Atoll'. We spent a few hours training in the murky waters and then headed out to Mnemba for two dives in crystal clear surrounded by sealife. On the way to the isle dolphins followed the boat and at the very end of the second dive I was very lucky and swam alongside a sea turtle, moving only inches from its face. The food on Zanzibar was the best I've eaten so far on my trip - enormous burgers, stone-baked pizzas and endless numbers of seafood: giant crab claws, shark, octopus and barracuda. One day all the volunteers swam out to a boat held offshore and we dived off the prow and just hung out chatting. Later in our week we spent a few days in stone town - a huge criss-cross of tiny streets between beautiful arabic-influenced buildings, churches, souvenir and book-shops - sampling spiced coffee and glasses of sugar cane juice.
I really made the most of my time and money in East Africa by visiting as many countries as I could and experiencing as much as possible. And although travelling is a really big part of my year and a huge cultural adventure I really came out here to teach and make a small difference to a rural Ugandan community and so I head back to project in Lwakhakha today. At the moment I'm feeling quite nervous about how my project is going to turn out but also quite excited to get back to teaching (and spending a lot less money!). This year Finn and I have plans to do more in the community, work at a local hospital or even with a local social worker giving school talks on AIDs. Hopefully it'll all fit back into place once again.
Signing off,
Benny
