Having obtained my visa, completed the medical card and done all the admin I was so nervous about, I reached the baggage section to stand there for about half an hour, watching the same bags go round and around, noticing that the men had stopped loading bags on but still hoping that maybe I'd forgotten what my bag looked like or it was hiding. But alas that was not to be the case and so I eventually logged it as missing and in the typical african way was told it might arrive tomorrow!

Despite having constantly feared when going on holiday that I wouldn't receive my bag I remained surprisingly calm! I made my way out to arrivals and found Benji (our rep guy) and three other girls, all friends from Southern Ireland and we made it to the car...minus my bag and all my clothes...crammed ourselves into the back of a hot and stuffy car and were then approached by a police guard who advised that there was too many of us in the back. But in true africa style, a few words were said and then it didn't really matter and we were off.

The journey should have taken about three hours but proceeded to take a lot longer when we hit the capital city, Kampala, and knocked a man over! There seems to be no real way of driving over here, no real way to cross the road...just look, run and pray...and evidently no law! When we hit the man we hit him pretty hard as he cracked the windscreen and the sound was quite loud. Our driver looked like he was ready to keep on driving but Benji told him to stop as already there were people shouting at us in the car and coming up on motorbikes. Having stopped, we locked the doors and the car then became instantly surrounded by people shouting - we were later told they were debating on whether to kill us or just burn the car - whether this is true though I'm still not sure...a number of you know how gullable I am!

At the time it seemed to go on for a while and we didn't really know what was happening but the police eventually came and we were told to get out the car, that we were safe and that another car would come and get us in a bit. Our driver then proceeded to drive the injured man to the hospital, who seemed ok, and we waited for a car. Benji paid for the police to stay with us...if you have money here you're pretty sorted it would appear!

We were then driven to a backpackers place where we stayed for a few hours until we could get a car to pick us up. This arrived about 3 hours later. When we arrived at the house, having collected pizza, we arrived to a candle lit house given that the power had gone...

Could our arrival day have been any worse?!

written by  Laura_Smith on June 6, 2009 from Jinja, Uganda
from the travel blog: Laura's little summer break
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First night out

We woke up and met the rest of the house. There's ten of us in total...7 girls and 3 blokes, but most of them are leaving in a couple of weeks just leaving me and Dylan until the next group come a week or so later.

Having met everyone we all decided to hit the nearby hotel which has a really lush pool.

Getting there was interesting...everyone pretty much rides on "boda bodas" (I have no idea if I've even spelt that correctly! Basically these are little motorbikes which are cheap and actually quite safe and most definitely the best public transport I have ever been on! Although slightly anxious when I got on given the huge pot-holes in the road and the special way most people seek to drive over here, it was so much fun. The only trick is to get off on the left side of the bike otherwise you acquire an attractive burn mark from the exhaust...something I was careful to avoid!

When we got to the hotel it was lush! All the sunbeds had cushioned covers and were huge...the waiters were always on hand...and the pool was gorgeous! Thank god that I am always so nervy about losing my bag because I had packed a bikini so didn't look completely out of place! The day consisted of plenty of sunbathing, chilling out i the pool, getting to know everyone and supping cocktails in the pool bar sat under the trees and on the stools in the pool...

Does it sound to anyone else that I'm not exactly roughing it yet?!

We stayed here pretty much all day, then headed to a nearby bar which quite a few packpackers seem to stay at. It was stunning and is above the nile which is so powerful and big! I also saw the bunji jump...which I am definitely doing!

We headed home for dinner, getting cooked for from Sunday night until Friday morning, including lunch. Dinner conistsed of spaghetti and tomato sauce, which wasn't too bad, then headed out to a bar in town called Flavours.

The drinks are so amazingly cheap...2000dsh for a shot of vodka, which works out at about $1, which is about 70p! Needless to say, a good night was had by all!

written by  Laura_Smith on June 7, 2009 from Jinja, Uganda
from the travel blog: Laura's little summer break
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This morning we went to the orphangae to see the children and be introduced to the owners. It's really lovely, the children are all well cared for and just adorable! Benji then showed us around Jinja, pointing us to essential palces...i.e. intenet cafes, good places to eat, good shops etc.

Given that my bag had finally arrived in the country, Benji and I then got a car to Entebbe...a 6 hour round trip, which turned into 8 given the ridiculous amount of traffic on the road!

When I arrived home, all the food was gone so it wasn't actually too difficult for people to persuade me to go out, especially when my dinner would be bought for me given that Mad have to provide us with food. So went to this car called Two Friends, which is just the coolest and most laid back place ever!

Already I have nestled myself in to the Africa way of life going out with very little make-up and in my tracksuit bottoms and vest. Had such a good evening chilling, drinking and talking to this really interesting guy from Iceland who owns the bar about Uganda and the way of life over here. What a complete contrast to the UK!

Oh. also found out today that the guy we knocked over on Saturday died in hospital.

written by  Laura_Smith on June 8, 2009 from Jinja, Uganda
from the travel blog: Laura's little summer break
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When we went through the gates we werren't too sure what to expect and what we'd be doing but the children didn't make it too difficult for us! As soon as we were in the playground, we were just told to play with them. I ended up making my way over to where the babies were, who can only be described as the most adorable children ever...at present I am not at all broody, but given that I have another 6 weeks of this, there is a slight possibility of it by the time I return, or have even contemplated adopting one!

The orphanage is for children up to the age of 5 years and once they reach that age they then go to another orphange, where it's no longer possible for them to be adopted. How anyone could not want of these children though is unimagineable! They are the most affectionate children I have ever met and so happy and content with the simplest of things.

I was looking after a little 4 month old girl called Meghan, who didn't cry once...well only for her bottle but once given that she was fine - happy and content!

I also helped look after a few of the older children...about 3-4 years. I played with them, sang 'round and round the garden' and 'this little piggy' on countless occasions and lost my sunglasses several times, which the children took a huge liking too! They looked so funny in these massive glasses though! We helped shower and dress them and just simply look after them. Washing up after lunch wasn't even that much of a chore...but mum and dad do not start getting any ideas though...we have a dishwasher and that won't be me when I get home!

When we arrived back to the house for lunch though, we did all change out clothes. The prospect of being weed on being rather high!

This afternoon I have spent a ridiculous amount if time on the internet and stupid money in uganda terms but I don't care! I was intending to go and play football with the street children but I think I'll do that another day!

written by  Laura_Smith on June 9, 2009 from Jinja, Uganda
from the travel blog: Laura's little summer break
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Anyway, the orphanage have been really good and given us quite a few opportunities to go out of the town and attend local schools, villages and even the prison today - but I'll talk about that a bit later. The only thing is that the orphanage is a ministry so there's a lot of singing, clapping and spreading the word of god but that's all good cos they're really lovely poeple and having some sort of belief and faith evidently keeps so many people going and remain positive when they have so little.

Last week I went to two schools, the second I'm returning to this Friday morning and will continue to do so every Friday that I'm in Jinja, which is another five weeks now. There was a significant difference in the schools in both the number of pupils and the facilities. The first school was in a tidy village just up from the main road to Kampala and Entebbe. We didn't spend long there but sat in some sort of assembly on the stage....for those KEHS girls, I finally got to be a guest in an assembly, granted not at KE but you can't get everything!

The second school I went to had this amazing view though of the nile and when I finally remember to bring the connection to my camera to the internet cafe I shall up-load some of my photos.

Jinja and the nile

We went to a prison today and had to take stuff for the prisoners, such as soap and sugar. Initially I kind of begrudged giving the stuff to them but as far as I'm concerned they're in prison for a crime....but how quickly did my opinion change. When we rode up to the gate...on a mo-ped of course, you get everywhere on mo-peds or bodas - we had to go through this huge gate and once through we had to go down this really long dusty earthy track. On either side of us were fields and Perez - one of the guys from the orphanage - told me that all the prisoners work in the fields. They were all dressed in yellow outfits and armed guards were with each group. It's a mixed prison, in fact the second largest in Uganda, and so we saw both women and men. Some of the women had children with them and there were a few houses where I saw children getting washed. Some women enter the prisoners pregnant and so are allowed to keep the children to nurture them and then they are taken from them. The only way I can describe the prison is like the shawshank redemption. Everyone was in uniform, they were all working and they were all outside in a dusty kind of courtyard. The ironany of it was that the big building where they're housed is in front of one of the most beautiful views over Lake Victoria that I've sen so far.

We had to wait for a guy to give us permission to enter, given that we'd not been before. We told him that we'd bought itmes such as soap, flannels, sugar etc, which he was grateful for as he says that the prisoners don't have much, particularly as the government merely fund the prison with beans and maize. What I didn't like though was that he didn't seem that grateful for the items and proceeded to tell us there wasn't enough for all the priosners and they really need bibles which are about 1500 shillings (about 50p) but there's over 800 prisoners! I did advise him though that we weren't exactly rich and what we'd bought today was all we could afford. I think he reluctantly accepted that!

We were allowed in and before we entered the womens prison to "spread the word of god" we had to deposit our belongings to prevent any prisoners giving us anything. We then saw all the men playing volleyball - again like a scene from the shawshank redemption as you could see all the bard above the yard - presumably the cells - where shorts and towels and soforth were hanging out.

The justice system here is nothing like the UK - "they will never lock a rich man up!" is what I've been told!

The women we met today were all on death row but bizarrely were quite content and at peace with their surroundings and their inevitable fate - the death penalty being a shot to the head. I actually found it so inspiring that they have so much faith and belief to be so positive about life. They sang with us and also sang to us and took out their wears to sell as it would appear that they have to buy their own food and firewood etc given the little money the government expends on prisons. The chaplain there also asked us to introduce ourselves - our names, nationality and then proceeded to ask whether we'd been saved?! I had no idea what this meant but apparently it means whether we've found jesus. To save any confusion or conversation etc I advised that I had been saved and had jesus in my heart?! A fact which could not be further from the truth...the last time I went to church was in brownies and that was only so I could hold the flag - which by the by, I never got to do! I was then asked to give a message from god to the women - my message seemed to go down quite well actually!

Following this visit and a discussion with one of the men from Welcome Home - the orhanage - the contents of which are irrlevent - I have obtained some work experience with a ugandan solicitors. The difference from England being that they act as both solicitors and barristers, so the next few weeks will be so exciting and interesting. I'm attending tomorrow afternoon and will probably attend every afternoon after the orphanage I think to help out and be trained! There's another trainee there too, a ugandan, who speaks very good english, so I'm really looking forward to it. I did explain that I didn't have any work clothes but the gentleman said he'd buy me stuff as his children were now all grown up - whether that will come to any fruitition I'm not sure but clothes are so cheap here anywhere I shall see what happens. So I'll be doing a variety of areas of law and the good thing is that it's all based on our common law given that Uganda was previously undr English rule. So will keep you posted on how that all goes.

Been doing very little else other than the above. Have been sunbathing all weekend as the Nile Resort - it really is a hard life - going out more than I ever did at uni, causing a severe lack of clothes but that's not really bothering me as people don't exactly dress up and it's fantastically cheap, I can easily survive on taking about 10shillings out, which is about $5!

Night out at 2 friends

I actually must confess that I am also learning to appreciate english men - well some of them - at least they know how to keep their hands to themselves unlike many of the men in the clubs here but that's just something you get used to and to be fair the only real women that frequent the clubs are prostitues so it's no wonder they may be a little too hands on!

I think I might go and get a peanut butter cookie now - a fantastic substitution to kitkat chunky peanuts over here! Although dad please feel free to stock up on those whilst I'm away, I can guarantee that they won't go to waste!

written by  Laura_Smith on June 15, 2009 from Jinja, Uganda
from the travel blog: Laura's little summer break
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