There is absolutely no need for any theme parks in East Africa when you have plenty of bumpy and potholed, twisting and turning roads. Just over a week ago I set off with 3 friends on the very bumpy road to Kigali to see fellow abolo obruni, Alex. We packed the car with goodies for the trip, but he dairy milk was not such a great idea in the heat, so we ended up with a mushy mess of molten chocolate. We set off on the Friday and after an hour or so we passd through the equator. The equator experience consists of a sign by the road and a faded painted white line and a few people selling a bit of tourist tat, but it was a great photo opportunity all the same. On the Friday night we stayed in a place called Masaka, where we all had muzungu moments of anger when the club sandwiches we ordered took well over an hour and mine turned out to be a fired egg butty. After that we swore to eat only local food whilst on the raod, and this proved to be very successful the next day when we stopped off at a roadside cafe and were served delicious plates of avacado salad, vegetable curry and a few other local dishes.
We arrived in Kigali just as it was starting to go dark, then went out for dinner, then to a party where we were able to drink as much banana beer as we could drink (which was actually about half a cup - it's a bit of an acquired taste). Then on the Sunday we went off to the genocide memorial museum which was impressive but horrible and moving at the same time. In one room they just have family photos of all the people who were lost and it makes you realise the extent of it all.
The city of Kigali is so amazingly clean. You can walk down real pavements and smooth roads without having to worry about falling down potholes and dodging speeding matatus and boda bodas (minibuses and motorbike taxis for those of you not familiar with the local lingo. They also make you wear helmets on the bodas, even if they are all pretty big, and they don't let you double up either. Apparently, once a month there is a community service day where you have to go out cleaning all the rubbish off the streets. Also, even the roads oput of the city are really smooth tarmac. Incredible!
On the Monday we took a very nice bus up to Lake Kivu. We passed through stunning scenery and the sites of the mountains and the smell of the trees really reminded me of Colombia. I guess it makes sense as it's at asimilar altitude and there's also lits of volcanic activity round there. We stayed in some little cabins right next to the lake and spent the afternoon sampling the local beer, then the amarula, then very foolishly, the Ugandan Warargi (like a cheap gin, but pretty strong stuff). Afternoon turned into evening, and eveing turned into night and needless to say, the following day was a little bit painful. This was sorted out with a quick dip in the lake, followed by an afternoon of pampering ourselves with pedicures and massages and yummy food at the nice hotel in the town. It's a hard life I lead you understand!
The next day we ventured further afield, into the Democratic Republic of Congo no less. And before anybody asks, I can officially confirm that there is no Um Bongo there at all. But there is a whole town that has been recently smothered in lava from a recent erruption, leaving the roads very black and uneven. There is also lots of evidence of the war that is going on outside of the city, with UN troops (lots of hotties from Uraguay) all over the place and loads of emergency NGOs and so forth. It was quite strange walking round there, but I don't know whether it was the knowledge of what is happenng in the rest of the country or whether it was the atmosphere created from the sultry and humid weather that day and the lava covered streets that gave that illusion. After walking though the streets all day we went to a beautiful estaurant right by the lake, which was a real haven and a total contrast from the rest of the city. Oh I almost forgot to mention the special treatment we recieved from customs. We were immediately invited into the office and the cheesy customs officer greeted us with such platitude as 'how lucky they were that 3 such beautiful women were visiing the Congo that day' blar, blar blar. Anyway, the best of it was that we acually got a proper A4 sized certificate to say that we have been to the Congo. Brilliant! Getting out of the country was also a bit of an adventure as we had been relaxing at the restuarant so much that we didn't realise it was half an hour before the border shut. So we sped through the streets of Goma, yelling 'vite vite, nous avons 10 minutes' at the motorbike drivers, while they were yelling to slow down becasue they had muzungus! We made it by the skin of our teeth and Kelly even had time to do a bit of bargaining to buy a mask before we passed through the border. And I have to add that I never thought I would utter the words 'thank god I'm back in Rwanda' in my entire life!
That's pretty much it (or at least my time is about to run out anyway).

Camping trip and Eid

It's the end of yet another long and eventful week here in Kampala. We had a public holiday on Tuesday, for the Muslim holiday of Id to celebrate the end of Ramadan, so we took ourselves off to Entebbe on the shores of Lake Victoria for the day. I had my first matatu (crammed minibus) ride and was quite impressed - you got loads of space compared to the trotros in Ghana and the windscreen was pretty much in tact too! So we arrived at the beach (by the lake shore) at about 11 in the morning and pretty much had it to ourselves. We were wondering why nobody else had come on such a lovely day. Any temptations to take a little dip in the lake were quickly dispersed though as we spotted the snails that are a sign of bilharzia in the lake (they carry the disease which gives you a very nasty skin rash and all sorts of other yucky problems I imagine), but we were quite happy to have some food and beers on a sunny day. The next thing we know is that we are approached by a midget with a camera, who wanted to take our photos. OK we said and paid our 3000 Shillings each - thinking it was a nice little memento of the day. So that was all fine, until later on this Muslim girl came up and told us that she had paid 1500 Shillings - so later on we had a little debate with the little man and truly put him to shame, and informed him that no more muzungus would be shopping with him in the future (since he is pretty easy to spot ha ha). We did not, however, get a refund, but later we wondered whether the cheap price was a special offer for Id and therefore only open to Muslims!! Anyway, as the day progressed, the beach got busier and busier and turned into a huge party. There were people there from Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda - and they did not have the same worries about catching bilharzia as they ran into the lake dancing away.
On Thursday and Friday we went on the overnight camping trip to Mabira Forest. In the meeting the head assured us that it was just like a North American campsite with showers, flushing toilets and the like. So when we arrived and saw literally just a space to pitch tents and latrine loos we were not very impressed. Basically we had to do everything on the trip too - from planning and taking all the activities, to buying and cooking the food. So we had arranged to go shopping on Wednesday afternoon after school, when we were told that we had to wait for the bursar to bring the money into school. Then when we went into the school office, we were informed that another person in the office had quit and that we had to sort the money out - which was a mixture of cash stapled together, all mixed up for the different year group trips and that we had to sort it out. Now I realise that I am not a qualified accountant, but I don't think it would be unfair to say that this is not how it should be done ... surely! So by the time the cash had been counted the shops had closed. So we were told that we would go ahead anyway and somebody would do the shopping in the morning and bring it up to the campsite later on and we would take a packed lunch from school. Fine we thought ... except that the packed lunch was not ready when we were leaving school at 8.30 in the morning, so that would come up with the shopping at around noon ... except that noon turned into about 2pm, by which time we have on our hands about 30 children, who were pretty much starving, but high on e numbers from all the crisps and sweets their parents sent them as snacks. In the afternoon we set off for a nature walk through the forest, which was lovely, but I have a few little princesses in my class who are afraid of a speck of dust, let alone mud, who literally tiptoed through and tried their best to cling on to me for dear life every time they saw so much as an ant!! Anyway, the rest of the day went fine and when the kids went to bed we finished off the day with a bottle of wine - drunk ever so delicately out of the cups the kids normally use to wash paintbrushes in coz the head forgot to pack anything to drink out of! I had a barney with a TA when I discovered that one of the water bottles was actually filled with kerosene for the lamps and it had been left out next to the water bottles - as you can imagine, I flipped my lid and said that maybe sometime in the future I may wish to teach in the UK again, and that if children had swigged back a bottle of kerosene it may not go down too well on the old CV - so he continued to argue that it should not be in the car because Jerry cans with petrol are now illegal in cars in Uganda - and I drummed the point that kids drinking lighter fuel would lead to a far stronger punishment - and then he bitched at me for the rest of the day, until he slipped on the walk in his bloody plimsolls and then complained about a sprained ankle! In the middle of the night there was a huge tropical storm, with very heavy rain and lightning. I can not say that I behaved in the most responsible way, as when I heard that the head was dealing with the screaming kids with leaky tents, I turned over and went back to sleep. I was thinking that if I heard Sibyl's voice I would get up and help, while she was in her tent thinking if she heard my voice she would also do the same. Needless to say, we have been somewhat slagged off for this, and I do not imagine that I will be first on the list to be chosen to take the kids to France on the ski trip in February!
Last night we went to the farewell party for our principal who is leaving (resigned ??? who knows there are so many stories). Was good to say goodbye and all the teaching assistants were having a good old dance, but I have to say that his dancing was just like watching the scene in The Office where David Brent does his little dance performance, so we made an early exit before the evil drink could let our mouths work before our brains!