Catch Up Time - Kampala to Nyanza (Jul/Aug 09)

Sunday 9th August 2009

Hello from Rwanda Nyanza (Nee-anne-zar), as I have to keep reminding myself how to pronounce it as i get shouted at by Claire.

How is England? Heard there’s lots of rain around, something I really haven’t experienced yet on my travels, except for minor spots in Kampala a couple of times (yet it refreshed my stroll having a sprinkling of rain to cool me from my hot flushes).

Sorry I haven’t been in contact much; but seriously unless u have been to Africa and experienced how ridiculously slow the internet is then u just wouldn’t understand how frustrating it is! The possibility of it actually working or whether there is electricity on the day u decide to venture across the baron bush, (arriving a sweaty mess, which doesn’t really matter as showering seems to be kind of non existent here in Rwanda), the internet is against me for sure.

Claire and I are on a water shortage today. At the moment I feel my access to the world I left behind in England is similar to our water situation. My phone continuously sends me msgs from my mum except all msgs are ones I have already received and they just keep arriving on my phone every 10mins it seems, so it’s a fake contact I feel; and my attempt to ring Matej today failed as the computer battery dyed and electricity was not on my side either. At least Claire and I have rationed our Jericho bottle and we have a specific stash aside for regular cups of weak sugary African tea.

I feel I need to catch everyone up with my East African adventure so far, as I have ventured across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania including Zanzibar and now Rwanda, just Burundi left.. not this time though.

 

Uganda Antics (19^th June – 24^th July)

I arrived in Kampala via night bus (14hrs) from Nairobi on 19^th June, (which today looking back seems ages ago). I was welcomed into the Mindra’s household and the next 5 weeks became Rachel and mines hardest friendship test…of course we both passed with flying colours, love you Mrs. Kataroogoo J

4^th July - Dowry Day was my first Ugandan experience, hearing how much my friend was worth in tribal culture was interesting to say the least: 4 cows (1 exotic, 2 local, 1 bull) with 4 ropes, 12 She goats, 3 He goats, 100 arrows with 1 quiver and 1 bow, 10 bundles of firewood with 1 stand and a lamp to place on the stand, 15 hoes, a present for her mother and father at a set price and additionally 2 goats for her mother and maternal uncle. All was presented in cash value to the family on a 1m sq of white cloth to follow Madi culture. The traditions of the bride not being seen to strain herself or talk to the grooms tribe was also weird to see, especially as I know how much Rachel just wanted to sit and gossip with Herby and drink Smirnoff Black. So restrained.

 

8^th July - Entebbe day trip was a great day out with my new acquainted friend Yvonne. Entebbe is a small town situated by lake Victoria and also home to the large airport. This was the first time I had seen what seemed like the sea in ages, (except it wasn’t the sea, merely a massive lake bordering all countries I’m visiting in my east African travels). Being by the water felt so nice, then again I always feel so relaxed by the sea/ the lake in this case! While in Entebbe we visited the Education Centre as I was feeling cheated on my travels having not yet seen an African animal, other than large horned cows, goats, yellow mutt dogs, and big badass Kalololi ugly birds. The zoo soon changed theses feelings and I was especially keen to see the Ugandan Crested crane and Shoebill stork, as well as adorable playful chimps and the red tailed monkey that I was randomly told by an African child that they eats humans! Hmmmmm.

   

Boda bodas we’re the highlight of this trip with Yvonne and I having hysterics over the lack of a foot rest for us to both put our feet up on while in motion, which led to flinging our legs out as if we were a child on a trike going down a hill. Another sight to mention was Yvonne carnivorously eating a fried tilapia fish for lunch, eyes, gills, tail the lot...you go girl!!

11^th July – Rachel and Herbert’s wedding was a great memorable day. It was long, but full of interesting displays of Ugandan tradition. Firstly Claire, Sam and I wore Gomesi’s, which to Joe Blog is a pointy-shouldered long dress with a sash. We actually later decided it was less embarrassing to be dancing in the wedding in a dress that is the same style as everyone else than if we were dancing in the wedding in our own clothes. Yes dancing in the wedding is what we did, except we are talking very slow booty wiggling in front of many people we do not know and aligned in a long formatted formal queue parading ourselves through the wedding marquee and then kneeing down on mats in front of the grooms tribe, to receive a round of applause and then off we wiggle back out of sight. Rachel looked gorgeous in an array of different outfits with my favourite being a bright sunshine orange and gold gomesi. Herbert was being sheepish during the ceremony but came out of his shell later in the evening after a few Club beers.

    

 

The evening didn’t stop after the 10-hour ceremony (well it actually didn’t start until after 1pm, but we were informed to be there for 10.30am as it was supposed to start then, but you see African timing is at least 1.5 hours off International time, so we should of known to arrive after 12pm). Our evening celebrations continued with the groom and his boys in the watering hole called Bubbles O’Leary’s….my favourite bar by far in Kampala. Claire described it as a piece of the west placed in Kampala and filled with all the muzungus in the vicinity. I got extremely excited when I saw that they had Bulmer’s cider on draft except it was all out, so I switched my attention to the buy 2 Jaeger bombs and get 2 half price sign and decided on 4 Jaeger bombs to start my evening off.

14^th – 16^th July – Ssese Island. The three of us trekked down to the ferry in Entebbe and set sail on the 3.5 hour boat ‘cruise’ across lake Victoria to the collection of islands known to Ugandans as Ssese islands. We docked at Kalagangala and found our rest camp called Hornbill. The paradise island amazed us with its sunsets and white sand and tempting water. So many people were swimming and the sign saying these waters are free from bilharizia (a parasite disease that involves snail parasites seeping through your skin and living inside your bowel) was enough for Sam and I to take the plunge. It was so hot; the lake was a great refreshment after 20mins of scorcho sunbathing. The evenings were eventful with two memories standing out. One involving a gecko loosing grip on the ceiling and falling into a guy’s plate of mashed matooki (banana) and beef stew. Seeing him wriggle off his plate and the mans face after we all said bon appetite. Later that night our encounter with bats has left Claire scared. As she awoke to realize her top bunk was right next to their nest. I was none the wiser to the intruders. I only woke up to something flying into my head, apparently I sat up in bed picked up my torch and said what just hit my head and then fell back asleep.

   

19^th - 20^th July – Rafting the Nile in Jinga, East Africa. Well Claire has The Phoid known to people outside our Bibianas Inn cottage as Typhoid Fever. So she was left to rest while Sam and I ventured off to experience the best thrill so far. The rapids were indescribable, or known to others as absolutely bloody massive! We were first unsure how wet you actually got, well we got fully drenched, as we flipped a couple of times and well Sam and I were the crazy ones steering our raft up front! Juma was our guide an outgoing local Jinga guy so witty and with a ripped body ay Sam ha! At calmer  flowing water we were told to refrain from falling/ swimming in the water as crocodiles could be around, thanks Juma for that heads up! In Jinga we also visited the Source of the Nile where John Speke set foot and established were the mighty river started its journey up Africa, and also a memorial site for Gandhi. Sam and I also experienced a long boda boda ride and mastered the art of eating a donut while traveling dual person along a dusty bumpy road at 65kph.

 

21^st – 23^rd July – Red Chili’s Murchison Falls Safari. Now we’re talking! Large African mammals! The most amazing thing was seeing thousands of hippos floating in the Nile river. Such a wide river in places yet very shallow, as hippos don’t ‘hang out’ past their depth, and well the thought of a hippo doggy paddling did send us into giggles at one point. On day one we took a hike in the deadly heat and with Miss Typhoid in our group this became a slight concern. We were very happy to get some water spray from the falls to cool us off. Murchison falls is mighty in size, with very fast flowing water. On day two our morning game drive took us from the southern side of the river, (which was mostly forest), to the more open plains with shrubs on the north side of the river. Our first sighting was elephants closely followed by giraffe, water buffalo, warthogs, and many many deer and antelope, which I am still unsure of their names, seeing as we had no guide and our driver spoke minimal English.  

 

The boat cruise down the river was really relaxing ending at the waterfall and returning back to camp while the sun was setting. We saw many crocodiles, and we did get stuck in the bank right next to a 6m long sleeping croc, which even slightly scared the guide on our boat, who frantically pushed us away from the bank using a long stick.

   

On the drive back to Kampala on day three we stopped south of Masindi at Ziwa Rhino sanctuary, home to the only 7 wild rhinos in Uganda. There are three types of rhinos in the world, two found in Africa, (both the Southern white and the Eastern black), and the Northern white, which only exists in captivity with only around 12 left worldwide. The rhinos we trekked in the park were Southern white rhinos and we were informed that on the 24^th June there was a rhino born named Obama, who will be the first rhino calf born in Uganda for 28 years. The rhinos were very docile and all the did while we watched was sleep and sigh.

Tanzania Escapade (25^th July – 1^st August)

Claire and I left Sam on the 24^th July and took the mighty night bus to Nairobi, well my memory has to be getting rode into by a taxi bike with a person on the back, while I was just casually walking across the border after nightfall. Claire may just remember this as after this episode she went into the land of sleeping tablet and left me on corrupt policeman/ bag watch hehe.

We flew to Zanzibar and experienced a very traumatic flying experience, putting mile high to another level. Seedy Italians (our guess) decided to put on a show for the few passengers on board…hmmm Kenya Airlines you need to prep flight attendants on how to deal with these situations!! It made the handing out of sanitising wipes very amusing!

Stone Town is such a wonderful place, definitely somewhere I want to return and just stay in amazing accommodation and soak up the Indian ocean fully, while sipping cocktails by the pool and venturing out on expensive trips to the nearby islands. The Serena looked nice J

Eleanor was very welcoming and we went out to Freddy Mercury’s bar in the evening and tried the local beers called Kilimanjaro (the weaker 4.2%) and Safari (the hardcore 6%). Still no sign of cider. On day two we went by pickup to the sea and set sail on a traditional dhow. We imagined Eleanor’s business (Safari Blue) to be a honeymoon boat trip, but we experienced a very wet and wild nightmare. Only joking but the sea was very stormy and Claire and I just were in hysterics at how wet we got. During the day we got to snorkel on the reef, which was cool, and also sample a brilliant selection of seafood including fresh whole lobster, and a mix of squid, tuna and octopus. Pudding consisted of a great selection of every fruit available in Tanzania including my favourite, which looks like a lychee yet it is a distant sister of a lychee but the name has slipped my mind. Also Jackfruit, which I have seen growing all over Uganda, and it tastes like fried banana fritters.

  

Today we also experience Lady Diana ALERT WARNING !!!!! This is NOT sun lotion! This is a big fat lie. Claire and I thought we were so smart putting 40spf all over our body, yet we didn’t realise someone could be so mean to produce a fake sun cream!

After Stone Town we ventured north to the far tip of Zanzibar called Nungwi and met Claire’s friend Elizabeth and her brother George. Nungwi was described in the Lonely Planet as the place to party, yet I felt it was quite quiet. Cholo’s was the bar we went after dark and one night consisted of bring your own SOCO and a man eating the head off a live crab, and he was English and from York who enjoyed pheasant shooting with his terriers in his spare time! Weirdo. Also lets give a shout out to Emma and her friends who continued to keep us all wake at 6am with their loud voices.

   

We spent a whole day chilling on the sea front in Livingstone’s a great bar/ restaurant I recommend for food and free wireless. We left Zanzibar via night ferry and arrived Dar es Salam after 6 hours and a Swahili drama about Beatrice and James. Once at Dar we ventured to the Lonely Planets best pastry shop, (which was found to be shut down), and then Scandinavian Express bus station. The bus through Tanzania mainland was long and we arrived Moshi 9 hours later. The Indo-Italian restaurant opposite our hotel was amazing though! Our antics in Moshi were limited involving trips between hospitals in search of my friend and stopping for cake or cups of tea at various cafes/ coffee shops. Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) is a big hospital at the base of Kilimanjaro and offers great opportunities for volunteer in medicine like internships and work experience (noted to myself), The mountain is so high sitting at over 1900m, it sits above the clouds, wish I had time to climb it and add to my African mountain climbs, another time, as Moshi is definitely a place I want to return to.

 

Nyanza, South Rwanda (1^st – 15^th August).

We arrived via plane and stayed in Kigali, central Rwanda for one night. After collecting supplies from the only supermarket in the whole country (Nackumat) we took the bus south to Claire’s home in Nyanza. We arrived by moto to a surge of boys calling ‘Clairey’ and then pointing at her then me and looking confused at there being two Clairey’s.

They have now all learnt my name and yesterday I was welcomed home by ‘Gina Gina, Hello, I’m fine’.  Claire’s porch is the boys playground and now with the new member of Claire’s family a yellow mutt dog called Nacho, they venture round more frequently in hope of seeing the baby imga (dog in Kinyarwanda).

On Friday we went to a Rwandan concert, which started at like 7.30pm and ended at 3am and then we went on to the local and only club called MeloTwist, which was great fun, plenty of dancing was performed. School starts today (Monday 10^th August) and after our bucket showers we will venture in to the bustling town (not) to see the school children. We also plan to visit the Kings palace, which Claire has already described to me as a hut, cant wait J

I have changed my email address so please email me with your news and plenty of gossip at gina.stanton@live.com   xxxxx